Nicholas Gray, Albany, N.Y., to John Patten, Dublin, January 9, 1811. Trinity College MS. 873, I.276. (A note on the back indicates that Madden Papers Gray might have been from Wexford.) Item 276 Albany, January 9th 1811 My dear Mr. Patten, - I would indeed have written to you long since but tho I have as much spirits as most men and somewhat of resolution, I had I will acknowledge not sufficient of either to begin a letter, owing to my forlorn situation. But now that my life has something of a likelihood of being a little better supported I have mustered up so much of the necessary ingredients for compiling an epistle to one I so sincerely love as I do you. I must first tell you that my poor wife children &C &C &C arrived here safe after some narrow chances for their lives, and when they arrived I was galivanting about two hundred miles from New York and knew nothing of their arrival until by chance I happened to come to Town when your dear sister wished me joy of their safe arrival - (Blessed be the Lord I was not master of a Tnepenny bit (I had nearly said a cent) when I met them, and then commenced my struggles. The great and good Mr. Emmet released me out of my difficulties and has been a father to us since and the situation I have now obtained is through his interest. We lived in the city of Hudson about 130 miles from New York for some time on his bounty) for I almost cut my foot off splitting a junk of wood with a damned axe, and was laid up for three months. I separated the great toe of my left foot smack off together with the ball of the foot but as soon as I got the boot off I bound it again together and when it could bleed no more, why it stopt. Then I was three months near lame; then when I recovered we got the existence I now have, I support tolerably my family upon 400 dollars yearly or £90 british, that I earn by walking four miles each day to Town, for I live in the summer house of a friend, not as yet being able to afford to rent one a mile from the City of Albany; there at nine in the morning, home at one dine, and back at two, stay there till five quill driving, and then home; some- times my impudence procures me a ride in a sleigh, behind some old ladies who are bringing merchandize such as Turkeys, or Geese, Eggs or pigs to Market; then when I cannot humbug them with a story of a broken leg or back or some other excuse equally ridiculous, I have to tread the Yankee mud that sticks like wax to me, or slide on my backside down [crossed out] all the way down the hill over the snow which is so highly polished by the sleighs that 'tis ridiculous to think of walking, so I seat myself leisurely down and am in town very soon, my residence is quite elevated, and tho' I have not the best furnished house in the neighbourhood, I unquestionably have the most elevated, for I am more than one thousand yards above the highest steeple in the city of Albany among the larks, sometimes basking in a well aired cloud, othertimes like Gulliver when taken out of the bowl of cream as white as a bishops wig, with snow. To be sure provisions are cheap, or my salary would not reach upon everything 4s/lld per day between seven almost 8 1/2 a day is not bad wages for four miles walking and all day writing: - but there is another unfortunate devil in the office with me and who is not so highly qualified as I am, accordingly receiving 300 dollars per annum, and the [crossed out] he has somewhat of a family of eight or nine children and with a wife, the accompanyment of a Father, and three sisters old maidens to support out of this - counts himself very respectfully provided for. We have none of your heated constitutions here, pampered up with high living, which only generates gout and other chronic diseases. We once complained of receiving ls/lld a day from Government when in Kilmainham, but unfortunate man you