| Description | She has received Eleanor's long expected letter, which took its time arriving. They travelled from Dublin to Liverpool, arriving 1st Dec, travelled to Manchester by railroad at 20 miles an hour, and came to London by coach. Sir John is busy with the executorship of his uncle James's will before coming to fetch Eleanor to live with them at Bedford Place; they are likely to go to Brighton in Janaury for several months, with Miss Herring and invitations to cousins Catherine Franklin and Emily Sellwood; Catherine writes that WiIlingham likes natural history, and she hopes he will go to Rugby School, which John Simpkinson has just left to enter Trinity College, Cambridge; Frank Simpkinson has gone to Portsmouth to join the Sulphur under Captain Beechey, going to the Pacific to survey, with lots of instruments and a sword presented by Mr Gillott, a woollen draper in Fleet Street; Sophy preserves the good looks and improved health brought from Jersey; she gives a detailed account of her itinerary in the western part of Ireland (starting in Dublin, taking in Longford, Sligo (seeing the magnificent observatory at Markee Castle), Ballina, Kallila (near where the French landed in 1798), Galway, Killaloe, Limerick, Tralee, and many places in-between, before returning to Dublin.
Lines to Isabella Cracroft: hopes she has drawing book Jane left behind, with drawings from travels in the East; she has also lost a box of papers, wonders if she has left letter from Dr Arnold of Rugby behind at Isabella's; trunks having been moved into the stable loft, with some linen damaged; she feels more an invalid than when she came to town, when she was rather unusually well; aplogies for Eleanor's return being delayed; Sir John's business with the legacy likely to last until Christmas; her possibly taking up Mr Sander's offer to take charge of the child, and sending Cross with him; Miss Herring will join them in Brighton in January, possibly also Emily Sellwood and Catharine Franklin, but not Sophy whom she would like to invite, but won't because two young ladies were quite enough for her; John Franklin has seen Margaret, sees Captain Back often, and Mr and Mrs Kendall are due from America; love to Isabella's children; reference to de Haviland's book(?); sister tells John Franklin off for not writing; Jane Franklin is busier than her husband because has to fit everything in to periods when she is well; arranging for a governess for Eleanor when she is with them in London |
| Recipient | Eleanor Isabella Franklin |
| Recipient Location | Mrs Cracroft's, New Street, Guernsey |