Robert Hall, Leicester, to Thomas Langdon, Leeds, c. 1820. 

My very dear Friend,

  To hear from you is always a solace to my mind, for I can assure you, among the very few old friends time has spared me, you have long occupied the first place in my heart.  I am very sorry you appear to forbid the hope of seeing you and dear Mrs. Langdon once more under my roof.  You can hardly conceive the pleasure it would afford me and Mrs. Hall; I think if you could, your feeling heart would urge you to make the attempt.  With respect to my visiting Leeds, be assured that next to my seeing you here, that would afford me the greatest pleasure I am capable of.  I feel much desirous of doing it, and much difficulty attending it.  My engagements are already such as seem imperiously to forbid my entertaining them: if however I can possibly snatch a sabbath before winter, I certainly will avail myself of the opportunity of coming once more to Leeds.  I am truly sorry to hear you are still so severely afflicted with the asthma.  I still indulge the hope that a life so useful and beloved will be spared some years.  When I come, pray my dear friend let me have more of your company and of Mrs. Langdon’s in the private domestic circle.  You have generally so much company when I visit you, that I have little or no confidential intercourse with my dearest friends.  I know the cause of this is the difficulty your benevolent heart feels in withholding any sort of gratification from your friends.  But when I come to Leeds, I come to see my dear friends the Langdons. 

Robert Hall

Text: Brief Memoir of the Rev. Thomas Langdon, Baptist Minister, of Leeds . . .  By his Daughter  (London: Baines & Newsome, 1837), 52-53.