Also whether it is expensive to buy—and who found it out—and if likely to do away with oilcake and mangel-wurzel, and such like particulars.
Praise be blest, we are all stout and hearty, except your poor aunt, who died three year ago. Which is all the news at present from,
Dear Bob,
Your loving Uncle,
REUBEN OXENHAM.
(COPY.)
To Mr. Reuben OXENHAM, Grazier, Grasslands, near Lincolnshire.
DEAR UNCLE,
I was agreeably surprised by your breaking silence; for I had made up my mind you was a distrest farmer gone off swan hopping (excuse the joke) to Swan River, or to get settled among the Dutch boars and lions at the Cape of Good Hope. Thank heaven such is not the case; though damped with my dear aunt’s going off. I little thought, poor soul! the why and wherefore my goose three Christmases ago was the last! But we must all be cut off some day or other, which is a religious consolation for the remnants that are left behind.
SWAN-HOPPING.