Most Honoured Sir!
Owing to my very many occupations I have not been able to reply any sooner to your most esteemed letter. A thousand thanks to the writer of the sonnet in which he honours me so beautifully with praises which I do not deserve. I am sending you a short list of errors found in the 30 ariettas, a list which can be published later on. It would be better if in future you would send me the first copy of the next collection and, since the postal deliveries to London are now unrestricted and rapid, I should thus be in a position to return the copy to you corrected with the greatest care.
As to the other Scottish ariettas for which you would like me to compose the accompaniments, I cannot agree to undertake this for you at a lower fee than four gold zucchini apiece, a sum which you will not now find so high, seeing that you will no longer have to meet the previous expenses of many kinds. Were it not for a certain very particular regard and affection I feel for the English nation and also for Scottish melody, I would not undertake this task, neither for this fee nor for any other.
Awaiting your favourable reply I have the honour to assure you of the supreme regard with which I am pleased to call myself
your most devoted and grateful servant
Ludwig van Beethoven