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Huntington Library, HM 4872 . Previously published: J. W. Robberds (ed.), A Memoir of the Life and Writings of the Late William Taylor of Norwich, 2 vols (London, 1843), II, pp. 122–124.Dating note: The letter is annotated ‘23rd April’ in another hand; thus dated in Robberds. The letter was written over several days, dated ‘Wednesday’ (23 April in 1806) and ‘Friday’ (25 April in 1806).
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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Had I begun to write to you sooner I could not have told you that your picture was begun this morning, that I had sate
two hours in a very fine velvet chair, & that there I am my portrait is, looking, Mrs Opie says, quite alive; – & if it does, looking very unlike the original which is but
half alive.
To day I dine in the Row. Our Fathers
Nicholsons Review
I have seen only the Doctor, of all the Aikins, meeting him in the
Row on Wednesday last. He pressed me much to go to Newington, which I cannot do
except at the expence of a day, & a day is more than I could afford.
Madoc is going doing well in all but its sale. If you do not know the current value of epic poetry at the
present time I can help you to a pretty just estimate. My profits upon this poem in the course of twelvemonths amount precisely to
three pounds, seventeen shillings, & one penny. In the same space of time Walter
Scott has sold 4500 copies of his Lay,
I talked with the Pater Noster
Dinner is ready. Excuse me for writing so late & so little. Remember me as kindly as can be to your mother. If Portugal be compelled to drive us out, as I now fully expect, I may yet hope to see her again one of these days.