Received Smith's letter of 15 September. Dr [James] Anderson not only delighted with Hafod's "romantick beauties, but says he never saw any country in its natural state so fertile, or that was capable of such very great improvements with so few obstacles", finds his enthusiasm contagious. Excited by prospect of seeing Smith.
Encloses letter [not extant] from [Johnes' sister, Charlotte] who is "wild to go to India"; all she requires is "the protection of any lady of character who is going out to that country".
Anderson asks to be remembered to Smith. Asks if he has seen Anderson's scheme for a "riding lockwork in canals", printed in his "Agriculture Survey of Aberdeenshire" for the Board. Anderson also working on a "most simple & portable water level" that promises to be of great utility. Afraid he shall soon lose him. He has been industriously employed at Hafod and if he had his whole income would make amends for what have been styled his follies, "some indeed properly enough", but defends his Hafod against that term. Very rainy and windy weather but his woods and cascades in high beauty.
Quotes motto of Harcourt family. Sees no end to the war and fears realisation of note by his friend, [Richard Payne] Knight [(1750-1824), classicist] , that all Europe will be "thrown into a state of Barbarism": peace will ruin the Convention [constitutional assembly in France after the revolution] as the "hordes in arms" have subsisted on plunder so long that they will quickly return to peaceable ways, and at home the "behaviour & insolence of the great towards the lower classes" have led the people to lose all confidence in any man and to believe they are motivated by "avarice or ambition". He would like to retire from public life.