Arthur Dixon letters

[Note added in pencil by Kitson:
8
]
Norwich Aug[us]t 18, 1834
My Dear John
I have thought much about you, and now that you have told me where to find you, I can have, as much as distance leaves us, the full enjoyment of communication with you. The source of my purest and most real pleasure – will we not be as much as possible together? Through the tedious interval of our separation shall we not often pass the interchange of thought and feeling and remembrance, and in the lively associations of happy days retain in warm and lively strength the affection and loyalty of our Friendship? – Believing that a knowle[d]ge of my happiness will contribute to yours, I can but assure you that the remembrance of your visit will to me shed a brightness into the dark months which we have yet to try, that I liken to nought but the long sparkling wake of a gallant ship on which our attention lingers till it becomes a speck in the horizon, fraught with our hopes, & seeming to preserve a bright path of communication with us. A recollection of past happiness arising out of your friendship and a consciousness of retaining the same source of enjoyment, will warm and brighten many of the cold dark days "before Christmas" and if you be but blessed with