{167}
The following letter was addressed to her friend Miss Bigg, then staying
at Streatham with her sister, the wife of the Reverend Herbert Hill,
uncle of Robert Southey. It appears to have been written three days
before she began her last work, which will be noticed in another chapter;
and shows that she was not at that time aware of the serious nature of
her malady:--
'Chawton, January 24, 1817.
'MY DEAR ALETHEA,--I think it time there should be a little writing
between us, though I believe the epistolary debt is on _your_ side,
and I hope this will find all the Streatham party well, neither
carried away by the flood, nor rheumatic through the damps. Such mild
weather is, you know, delightful to _us_, and though we have a great
many ponds, and a fine running stream through the meadows on the other
side of the road, it is nothing but what beautifies us and does to
talk of. _I_ have certainly gained strength through the winter and am
not far from being well; and I think I understand my own case now so
much better than I did, as to be able by care to keep off any serious
return of illness.
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