Tuesday, 5th June, 1848
So you see here [Checkley] I am comfortably established paying our long talked of visit & paying it by myself. I have thought of you very, very often since I was here and fancied how you would have enjoyed yourself or whether you would consider it dull.
You are often talked of & your health is frequently drunk as our traveller in the far West or "as young Lochinvar" indeed the latter is name which you are generally called now. William, as you will suppose, is very kind to me. He is most active in his parish & where that is concerned he does not appear absent & puzzled but when there is some trifling affair on foot, he looks so regularly non-plussed. I can hardly keep my countenance. Then there is his wife forming a perfect contrast, all activity & perfectly wide awake - I should like a trifle more repose in her if I were her husband; for another thing she ought to let him have more of a say in his own house.
I have got on very well indeed with her so far & have had nothing like a breeze & as I am a visitor I may perhaps contrive to escape one - Sareta I like very much, she is a lively, warm hearted & affectionate girl. The weather has been cold & showery a great part of the time since I came, this has unfortunately put an end, or nearly so to our sketching, we take advantage of any fine day & then set out. I think I am improved but not as much as I ought to be after all my lessons - This is very provoking, & sometimes I am almost inclined to give up in despair - but that is only a passing thing, & then I start again.
Do not forget to make some outlines, however bad they will be valuable, your younger cousins here are nice, affectionate children. I wonder where you are now, perhaps at New York, you have improved your route by the change, you would have found the voyage up the Mississippi very tiresome. Should you go to Toronto, look out for Mr Pentland, fancy him settled there, what changeable people they are!
On Wednesday we are to have an excursion to Alton Towers, I do hope the weather will favour us, we were going on Saturday, when every thing was fine & ready to set off, it began to rain & so put an end to it. I leave a little space for Mamma to say how she & dear Sarah are. With my dearest love in which I should be joined by William if he were in
Ever your truly affectionate sister Joanna
I have not yet sent you any commission but I do so now & I am sure you will admire my taste in the selection - it is to bring a pot of the genuine bear's grease - this is not for myself but for Sareta - she has had her hair cut off & she fancies if she could only get possession of a pot of the real article it would greatly facilitate the growth of hair