A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, xi 



of since this day week, when the girls and I first missed him 

 in our morning walk. Good night, dear Elizabeth, I am 

 very tired, so I wonder why I wrote so much to you. 



Affectionately yours E. A. 



Mrs Josiah Wedgwood to her sister Madame Sismondi. 



[MAEB], March 23, 1820. 



. . . Your Parmesan cheese and the noble basket of figs 

 are arrived safe, and the size and beauty of the cheese has 

 been the wonder of Maer. Mr and Mrs Harding came over 

 to see it, and pronounced it the most beautiful cheese that 

 ever was seen, and I got them the receipt from Jenny 

 [Wedgwood's] letter and they are determined to try it this 

 summer. We were obliged to saw it, and we lived upon the 

 sawdust for some days. A thousand thanks for that and 

 the figs. I hope you will taste them both with us, and see 

 how excellent they are, though you will not have the endear- 

 ing sentiment that gives them such an increased value to 

 us. I have sent a piece to Parkfields, Betley, and London, 

 and I have got one for Mardocks when Kitty [Mackintosh] 

 goes, and I have got such a quantity besides ; it is indeed a 

 magnificent cheese. You ask, my Jess, what the carriage 

 was, and in compliance with your wishes I must tell you 

 that it was somewhere about 3, so that it does not reach 

 the value of it, as you fancied it might, as I believe Parmesan 

 cheese sells at Is. 6d. a pound, and this I believe does not 

 come to Qd. 



Kitty M. has written to desire me to send the horses for 

 her on Saturday. She also encloses us a letter from Mr 

 Leslie 1 to Mackintosh, pressing him exceedingly to offer 

 himself for the vacant chair at Edinburgh, assuring him that 

 for some years it will be worth 1500 per ann., and saying 



1 John Leslie (1766 1832), son of a Scottish carpenter, was at this 

 time Professor of Natural Philosophy at Edinburgh. He was well 

 known to the Wedgwood circle through his friendship with Tom 

 Wedgwood, who had been his fellow-student at Edinburgh, and who 

 had secured to him an annuity of 150 a year to enable him to work 

 at Physical Science. (See Tom Wedgwood the First Photographer.) 



