Tisn't the value of the Turkey, but it is the association, the return of a period in your history, & life, and a point of time in the events of the powers that were,—which gives me the pleasure I feel in having once more fulfilled my voluntary promise, (by the bye, the most binding of all solemnities,) —the annual Beast, (that is, the Turkey for this present year,) is gone by the Times Coach this Morning, fairly directed to "Mr W Hone, at the Grasshopper in Gracechurch-Street" where I hope it will arrive to morrow in good condition, without that hindrance molestation, trouble, or expense, as on one occasion herertofore, and I moreover hope, it will find you folio 367b and Mrs Hone surrounded by a good number of Men & Women, Children &Grandchildren. Aye! You begin to grow old, old friend! I didn't think of that, till I saw your two words, Grand Children!!!
Present my kind love to your good & excellent wife, congratulate her, & let you & I congratulate each other, & our wives, on that arrangement which is I suppose, part & parcel, as it is called, (in the courts where you once were) of the law, (not of this land, but of that high Court of Nature, by which the longer we live, the better we love each other & the more unbending, & endearing that affection grows which began when all was gay & is cemented by the thousand & one cares of life, in all its varied trials & forms. On Xmas day at four o'clock, I shall fill a bumper to the prosperity of your house folio 368a & home, and all that is good for you.
Do you hear anything of Politics now a days? I am told, but can scarcely believe it, that some men, in either London or Westminster are talking about that Reform, of which you and I and some others used to speak occassionally some years ago, and that there is a distant probability ("a distant age, tells where the fabric stood"2) of some 50 or 60 rotten boroughs having their abominations purged away. And I am told also that certain [one word-torn][?] (I think they call them Tories!) have lately undertaken to prove that they are the cause of alterations in a Certain New Bill—that is, the giving more representatives to large places, and allowing men to be born free, in old Corporations,—Lord save you, tell me if this be true, and if there is any truth in these wild theories.
May you live many a year, & I have a Turkey to send you. Amen.
[Addressed:]
Mr W Hone
(He of the Every Day Book)
at the
Grasshopper
in Gracechurch Street
London