I thank you for the always wakeful remembrance of your annual present. It arrived in taintless preservation the day of my return from Birmingham; whither I had been allured by a generous concert, every professional man performing gratis, in honour of the gallant Duncan’s victory, and for the benefit of the women and children, widowed and orphanized, alas! by the obstinacy of Dutch resistance. Great part of the music was appropriate and good, and the band was numerous and able. Mr Saville’s “Rule Britannia,” chorussed at once by the full orchestra and brilliant audience, produced the most sublimely exhilarating effect, and was encored. As he had other songs, which called forth all his noble energies of voice and expression, I feared their effect upon his precarious health might be too trying; happily my fear proved vain.