Thanks for Smith's letter of 18 August and medical advice regarding his giddiness and constipation with scybala. Cumberland weather still unaccountably hot; recalls that at this time of his first year in Cumberland there was still snow on the hills and thick ice but this year the harvest is almost complete. Not surprised Smith has found 'Senecio lividus'; recalls collecting seed of it from Oxford walls and has grown it on the walls at Rose Castle along with 'Antirrhinum cymbalaria', 'Hieracium morurm', 'Tussilago odorata', and 'Asarum europaeum'.
Unsure whether the weavers want of work is due to the manufacturers not having sufficient orders or that machinery has been brought into greater use. No indication of political contest heard yet from the new Lord Thanet [Charles Tufton, 10th Earl of Thanet (1770-1832)], who is not so "red-hot" as his late brother [Sackville Tufton, 9th Earl of Thanet (1769-1825)]. Mrs Goodenough persistent complaints compounded by her "unconquerable dislike to taking remedies & using applications".