To come to the point -- an 18 guinea Pohlman just such a one as your’s, is at present my first musical wish. You say you cannot find in your heart to part with your own; heaven forbid I should be such a beast as to have the least wish to rob you of it: but your scruple, & the idea of your cheating me, en maitre, is truly pleasant. Thank you for the thought. It made me laugh heartily. I must still, however, put myself so far in your power, as to accept most thankfully your offer of bespeaking one of Pohlman, & using your authority with him that I may have, if possible, as good a one as your’s. Should he chance to have one ready made, so much the better; for the baby is impatient for his rattle. I shall now be pretty well set up with key’d instruments. I have hitherto made shift with a little Andrew Ruckers; but the want of compass is miserable. The tone is very fine in the middle, & has a certain silver crispness (I cannot help my own ideas!) that is not in any other harpsichord that I know of. But the sweetness, the equality & the firm bases of Kirkman’s are far beyond. I have likewise a 2 Unis[on]. Kirkman which was Mrs. T[wining].’s, & has hitherto stood at Colchester. This I shall carry to Fordham, & sell my Ruckers if I can get anything for it. Do you know any body that I could impose upon? It was the very harpsichord that Handel used for some years at Covent Garden: I think my father bought it of Kirkman - Shudi - I don’t know which. << less