the papers have by this time probably answered to you.

Sir Thomas Lawrence is dead. The event has been most distressing,
and most sudden and unexpected to us. It really seemed as though we
had seen him but the day before we heard of it; and indeed, it was
but a few days since my mother had called on him, and since he had
written to me a long letter on the subject of my Belvidera, full of
refined taste and acute criticism, as all his letters to me were.
It was a great shock; indeed, so much so, that absolute amazement
for a little time prevented my feeing all the regret I have since
experienced about it. Nor was it till I sat down to write to
Cecilia, to request her to prevent any sudden communication of the
event to my aunt Siddons, that I felt it was really true, and found
some relief in crying. I had to act Belvidera that same night, and
it was with a very heavy heart that I repeated those passages in
which poor Sir Thomas Lawrence had pointed out alterations and
suggested improvements. He is a great loss to me, individually. His
criticism was invaluable to me. He was a most attentive observer;
no shade of feeling or slightest variation of action or inflection
of voice escaped him; his suggestions were _always_ improvements,
conveyed with the most lucid clearness; and, as you will easily
believe, his strictures were always sufficiently tempered with
refined flattery to have disarmed the most sensitive self-love. My
Juliet and Belvidera both owe much to him, and in this point of
view alone his loss is irreparable to me. It is some matter of
regret, too, as you may suppose, that we can have no picture of me
by him, but this is a more selfish and less important motive of
sorrow than my loss of his advice in my profession. I understand
that my aunt Siddons was dreadfully shocked by the news, and cried,
"And have I lived to see him go before me!" ... His promise to send
you a print from his drawing of me, dearest H----, he cannot
perform, but I will be his executor in this instance, and if you
will tell me how it can be conveyed to you, I will send you one.

This letter, my dearest H----, which was begun on Sunday, I now sit
down to finish on Tuesday evening, and cannot do better, I think,
than give you a full account of our last night's success; for