The Cotman Letters 1834

Read this last.
My dear Sir,
My dear friend, George Cooke, is, alas! no more. The best of men now he’s in his own hall, where he was the pride of his family and his friends – an inanimate corpse. He died of Brain Fever. My son & myself spent a few hours with him at Barnes last Sunday week. He was then to all appearance perfectly well, indeed, more so than usual, though but recently recovered from a bad, bad cold, caught by going home in the rain from the Conversazione – the very Conversazione your son saw him at, and was introduced to him, but
he died this morning Feb: 27th
I was going down to him when the news of his death reached me, and I shall go early tomorrow.
Yours, my dear Sir,
Respectfully
J. S. Cotman
[upside down] Read this last.