Dear Paige,  thank you for your expeditious Management of the matters of the arms, which I have word from Mr Lear are enroute Hampden House.

Please deliver enclosed by your hand only to Firth Elder on Lombard-Street. Please observe his reading of it and obtain verbal confirmation that he understands.

Please advance Firth Younger travel-money to Portsmouth; those rumors on some Cavalier to seize the town for Carolus. Remind Firth that he is not to engage in other wasteful behavior, observe tumblers and acrobats, take fencing or dancing lessons, and all suchlike.

Next, please advance yourself travel-money from the Anglia Rediviva account, ride to Bristol, obtain News. And see if there are any Goods to be had cheap. Perhaps also take some copies of Anglia Rediviva and distribute in markets, to whatever pedlars, etc might be journeying to West Country. Write me to Ivinghoe.

Should Mr Halpenny inquire as to my whereabouts, it’s best maybe you plead ignorance, or if you are so moved, enroute Bristol myself to enquire as to the herring-fleet's fortunes.

I beg forgiveness for this affront to your conscience.

Sydney Holyfen, Beacon Manor, Ivinghoe, Buckinghamshire

To: Nathaniel Paige, Apprentice, Halpenny & Holyfen, Merchant-Adventuers, Bishopsgate Street, London