The Cotman Letters 1834

[Note in pencil:] (To D. T.
but not inscribed)
Aug: 7th 1834.
St. Martins at Palace.
[Note in pencil:] [Norwich.]

My dear Sir,
I shall be very glad to hear from you this week, before I leave Norwich for London. If you can send me but one line of something like consolation – which I require at this moment, for I am very unwell in every sense of the word.
I wrote to you a wretched letter by a parcel to Mr C. Palmer, in which I did not dare to mention my respects to any part of your family – nor dare I now!
I cannot write that which I suffer: the thing is quite impossible. The struggle is too great for me.
I am, my dear Sir,
Yours very truly
J. S. Cotman.

[Notes by Kitson]
[In pencil]
Written in pencil at the top of this letter, in H. J. K’s writing, (?) transcribed from D. T.’s note – quarrelled with – and parted from (?) (soon at least he did) – family.

[In ink]
On 25.5.’37 Ian Robertson (Ashmolean Museum) wrote to me enclosing a copy of the above letter from J. M. Thompson of Magdalen, & adding, “he does not know to whom it was written or any others of the circumstances referred to in it. It forms part of a collection of autograph letters made by his great aunt who was a pupil of Crome”.