Monday, July 18th, 1803.

Dear Kate - 

(Horsham) 

                                                                                            Monday, July 18th, 1803

Dear Kate, 

    We have proposed a day at the pond next Wednesday; and, if you will come to-morrow morning, I would be much obliged to you; and, if you could any how bring Tom over to stay  all the night, I would thank you. We are to have a cold dinner over at the pond, and come home to eat a bit of roast chicken and peas at about nine o'clock. Mama depends upon your bringing Tom over to-morrow, and, if you don't, we shall be very much disappointed. Tell bearer not to forget to bring me fairing,  - which is some ginger-bread, sweetmeat, hunting-nuts, and a pocket-book. Now I end. 

                                                                                            I am not

                                                                                                        Your obedient servant, 

                                                                                                                                    P.B. Shelley

This is the first extant letter written by Shelley when he was still not quite eleven years old. The Kate to whom the letter was addressed is believed to be an aunt of his friend and cousin Thomas Medwin (the cited in the letter). Roger Ingpen suggests that the "pond" in the text is Warnham Pond. 

(All letters are from Roger Ingpen's 1909, two volumn edition of The Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley, published by Isaac Pitman & Sons, London)