429. To Sara Hutchimon Address: Miss S. Hutchins[on] | Gallo[w Hill] Single sheet. MS. Dove Cottage. Hitherto unpublished. This fragment, consisting of the middle of one page, with part of the address on the opposite side, is the first letter from Coleridge to Sara Hutchinson to survive. There was evidently a large correspondence between them, later destroyed, and an entry in Coleridge's ____________________ 1 Since Coleridge arrived in London on Thursday, 21 Jan. 1802, this letter was probably written the previous Sunday. See Letter 431. -779- notebook gives some idea of the intimate nature of their letters: 'If I have not heard from you very recently, and if the last letter had not happened to be full of explicit love and feeling, then I conjure up shadows into substancesand am miserable.' T. M. Raysor, Coleridge and "Asra, Studies in Philology, July 1929, p. 310. See also Letters 448 and 458. Postmark: 18 January 1802. Stamped: Bridgewater. . . . -- Peach 1 has left Greta Hall, & with him went his china men, & beasts, & unpetticoated Beauties -- & of course, the Bull-dog, that so long had been Hartley's Bedfellow. -- Mr Jackson saw that the poor Boy's eyes were full, & that he could scarce keep his heart down at the departure of the Bull-dog & the good creature could not stand it, but without saying a word walked into town & brought back four fourpenny Images, which now take it by turns to sleep in Hartley's arms. Mrs C. writes me, that she read the 10 commandments to him; but after the second he attended no longer; but was quite lost in thought. -- 'What is the matter, my Dear?['] ---- [']I'se afraid, the Lord will be angry with me.' [']And what for?' 'Because I've got four Images, & I take one to bed with me every night. But what is worshipping Images?['] -- Poor Mrs C. has suffered a great deal from the Rheumatism lately. This Evening the wind chopped round from South East to South...