Letter – Diana Beaumont to John Erasmus Blackett – 26 May 1803

								Portman Square May 26th 1803

Dear Sir

Col. Beaumont desires I will say he will attend to your Letter respecting the Young Man, he says he is much obliged to you & I for saving him some trouble, now he has so much parliamentary Business on his Hands, the House of Commons sat very late on Monday & Tuesday, the latter Day he did not get Home till past 5 o’clock in the Morning & was much fatigued by the heat & crowd, all hope of Peace I think are at an end, a Rich Indiaman is taken, & many lesser Prizes, if Admiral Collingwood passes thro’ London, we hope he will do us the favour of calling in Portman Square, - whatever you think proper should be done respecting Mr Bell, Colonel Beaumont & I shall with pleasure Acquiesce in, we are very happy to find he conducted himself so well to Mr Bowns & Mr Thomas, & gave them every assistance in his power, we have rec’d from Mr Thomas an Abstract of the particulars & estimated annual value of our Estates that have been Survey’d & valued by Mr Bates & Let by Mr Bowns & Mr Thomas, from what we can observe of Mr Thomas Abilities & attention to our concerns, I think we shall have every reason to be satisfied with him, our Estates will be much improved under his Management & something will be made of our Collieries, - we approve of your proposal in regard to the Church at Hexham, & I desired Mr Bowns to inform Mr Thomas when he was at Hexham, to keep an exact account of all Expenses incurr’d by us in repairing the Church, & to have the Old Materials valued & to inform us of the amount of the overplus wch Col. Beaumont wd inform the Archbishop of, & ask leave to lay it out in repairing or improving the Chancel – I am glad you think the price of Lead will keep up for the present – we are to meet all our Council this Eve’g at Chancery Chambers to consider on the propriety of refusing the Bishop’s proposal in regard to an examination of our Books, the Death of Mr Bells Wife prevented the last Meeting taking place, I hope we may soon think of letting Harehope Gill & Pikestone, will not better terms be obtain’d now from the high price of Lead, I will inform you to-morrow of the result of our meeting this Eve’g- I had an Assembly on the 20th Mrs Barrington came, & said if the Bishop ever went to Assemblys, it would have been to mine, she confirmed with me some time I had about 800 during the course of the Eve’g –

Col. Beaumont has written our Congratulations to Mr & Mrs Trevelyan,

I am Dear Sir yours very sincerely

D Beaumont