My dear William

I have just received your nice note & the Hexagon for which very many thanks, but I hope & think I shall not have to use it, as I had intended, which was delicately to hint to one of the greatest mathematicians that he had made a blunder in his geometry, & sure enough there came a letter yesterday wholly altering what he had previously told me, & which makes my Bees cell go all the better.² Also thanks about Stripes.³

I am sorry to hear about M^r Wilson’s absence.— You did not send Spark’s bill, if you cannot find, write to him & tell him it is lost & ask for another copy & send it me.—⁴

You will, I think, hereafter like Campbell’s Lives of Chancellors & it is a capital Book, for you my dear future Lord Chancellor of England to read.—⁵

I will take your letter home for Mamma to read & ask about paper.—⁶

I am glad to hear that you are doing a bit of Botany: I suspect you require a dissecting microscope & some practice in dissection, but all about the structure of ovules, is very difficult. Nevertheless with patience you will surely get on. It is a pleasure just to know most of the British plants, as I find all agree, who do know ever so little.—

I have been playing a good deal at Billiards, & have lately got up to my play & made some splendid strokes!

I have at last got up some strength & taken two good long walks in this charming country.

My dear old fellow | Yours | C. D.