Henry Goldsmith (1722–68) was Oliver's older brother and the sibling to whom he looked for guidance in his youth. Henry had acted as a peacemaker with his brother's tutor Theaker Wilder during Goldsmith's troublesome early Trinity years, and Goldsmith would stay with Henry, a clergyman, upon his return from Dublin in 1751–2. In the dedication to The Traveller, or a Prospect of Society (1764), Goldsmith indicated that he had sent a draft of part of that poem to Henry from Switzerland, probably in 1755. The letter below features lines of verse; Henry may, therefore, have been a sounding board for Goldsmith's earlier poetic efforts, though no other examples of such correspondence are extant. Henry died unexpectedly, and much to his brother's sorrow, in 1768. Hence, Goldsmith dedicated his second major poem, The Deserted Village (1770), to Joshua Reynolds: ‘The only dedication I ever made was to my brother, because I loved him better than most other men. He is since dead. Permit me to inscribe this Poem to you’ (CW, IV: 285).

The copy-text is the manuscript in the British Library. It was first published by Percy in 1801. It is addressed ‘To | The Revd. Henry Goldsmith, at Lowfield, near | Ballymore in Westmeath; | Ireland.’ It is postmarked 13 January.