Letter of application received by Banks from G. Cook, 23 February 1801 (Series 63.34) - No. 0002

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The writer mentions this, because Sir Joseph is one among all the Great and the Good of the age who have smild at the impotent Shafts of this Master of Villainy and of Vice.

Should the writer be so fortunate as not to be told of his application being either unbecoming or out of Season, he trusts he can, with the utmost propriety, refer Sir Joseph for at least a testimony as to integrity of conduct, to either the Dean of Peterbro', the Master of St.John's or his Tutor in college.

As the writer feels in full Force the generous impulse of a Britton's zeal, to make himself at least useful to his country, he humbly trusts in Sir Joseph's well-known patronage of the Muses, thus to place him in a situation where alone perhaps such an Ambition as he has mentioned can be directed to proper  [indecipherable].  The Writer can, attest he hopes, boast of one pretension to such an instance of condescension in the worthy successor to the Chair of Alma Mater's [indecipherable] – viz. that he knows how to be grateful!