Samuel Palmer, Sr., to Samuel Palmer, Jr., with a copy of a letter from Joanna Palmer to Palmer, Sr., dated 1 March [1842?].

My dear Son; I send you a copy of Mrs Palmer’s letter.

                 Mongewell House March 1.

My dear Sir,

         I am indeed much concerned to find your Son still refuses to take you into his house as it would not only have been the most eligible but altogether the cheapest place for your Son as he cannot possibly procure you two rooms & attendance [anywhere?] for less than twenty pounds a year. Your Sons making any conditions with me is quite out of the question as the law will oblige him to maintain you but notwithstanding which I willingly add forty pounds a year upon condition that your Son gives me a written promise to pay you twenty pounds yearly to find you a home. How many men at his age have not only a wife but also a large family depending upon their exertions. His wife from his own acknowledgment works for herself let him look at his cousin William Giles he maintains his whole family & has sacrificed all other pleasures to that end. I am quite ashamed of the difficulties your Son has thrown in the way of providing for you his only parent. I feel with you that it seems hard that you should be the sufferer but as I cannot undertake to supply all your wants I think I am quite right in urging your Son to do his part & I trust he will come to a proper sense of his duty & in the full confidence that he will I have enclosed you ten pounds as an earnest of my future intentions. Yours my dear Sir, Sincerely

                                             Joanna Palmer.

[At this point Samuel Palmer, Sr., adds the following note]

I must ^not^ delay long to acknowledge the receipt of Mrs Palmer’s letter therefore if you wish my letter to contain any thing from you, the sooner the better. My love to ^your^ Mrs Palmer.

        Mrs P’s letter will lead me to a new train of reflections, calculations, cogitations, lucumbrations, &c –

Text:  MS 278-2000, Linnell Archive, Fitzwilliam Musuem, Cambridge. Not in Raymond Lister, Letters. The above letter was written sometime after Nathaniel Palmer's death in March 1840; Mrs. Palmer was now living at Mongewell House, not in London.