"_To Mrs.Sterling,Blackheath_.
"21st September,1818.
"DEAR MAMMA,--I am now at Dover,where I arrived this morning about seven o'clock.When you thought I was going to church,I went down the Kent Road,and walked on till I came to Gravesend,which is upwards of twenty miles from Blackheath;at about seven o'clock in the evening,without having eat anything the whole time.I applied to an inkeeper (_sic_)there,pretending that I had served a haberdasher in London,who left of (_sic_)business,and turned me away.He believed me;and got me a passage in the coach here,for I said that I had an Uncle here,and that my Father and Mother were dead;--when I wandered about the quays for some time,till I met Captain Keys,whom I asked to give me a passage to Boulogne;which he promised to do,and took me home to breakfast with him:but Mrs.Keys questioned me a good deal;when I not being able to make my story good,I was obliged to confess to her that I had run away from you.Captain Keys says that he will keep me at his house till you answer my letter.