As I am frequently changing my Lodgings to Suit my Convenience I Shall now give you new directions for your letters. It is to a permanent Merchant’s house, a namesake and Intimate friend of mine, and the letters will be much more likely to find him than me in which case I shall allways get them. You must direct them exactly thus
Mr. Robert Fulton,
Painter,
To the care of Mr. Henry Fulton,
No. 9 Watling Street,
London.
I beg you’l pay particular attention and have them precisely in the above manner and if they come to London I am sure to get them.…
You must excuse the shortness of this letter as I am under the necessity of writing to my Phila., Virginia, New York, Lancaster and Baltimorien friends, which in the whole makes 50 letters of much the same length as this. Therefore to conclude this I shall (torn place in paper) be very particular and let me know every thing that you possibly can when you write—to write small and close that you may say a great deal in small compass for the ships often put the letters ashore at the first port they make, they come post to London And I have often paid half a guinea for a small package of letters. The better to accomplish this you better buy letter paper as it is thin for we pay according to the weight and not the size so if you can send me a pound of news upon an ounce of paper I shall save allmost a guinea by it.
I have just left myself room to wish all of you every happiness and love and Compliments to Mr. Smith, Polly, Abraham, Bell Peyton and all Friends And believe me to be everything that is dutifull and affectionate in a Son, Brother and Friend,
R. Fulton.
He adds in postscript:
I was happy to hear by your last letter directed to Mr. West that you were down in the Country among our old friends and that they together with my good old Grandmother were in good health.
This letter fairly depicts Fulton’s hopes, longings, and accomplishments during his student days in London. They were days of anxiety and of hard work; for hours he would ponder over the “ways and means” of life, and had it not been for the friendship of kindly acquaintances he might have yielded to despair, or have been tempted to set aside the chosen career. In poetic terms he speaks of “Poverties’ cold wind and freezing rain”; and it is evident that he suffered, as far as his happy nature could permit, the pangs of loneliness and of almost actual hunger. Yet he pressed on with his work, and in time the magical wand of industry wrought a welcome change.