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British Library, Add MS 30927. Not previously published.
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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Thank God I am once more by my own fireside. Yesterday I arrived & am now no otherwise sensible of having been
xxx five & forty hours travelling than that my ancles are somewhat swolln.
And now for the first time I can sit down in quiet & perfect comfort to write a Letter. – Your report concerning Ballantyne & W Scott was like most reports a great deal of falsehood founded upon some little truth. There is so bankruptcy in the case, – & Scott is just so far involved with them, that his friends find it necessary to bear them through their difficulties.
I was sworn in as Laureat on Thursday the 4th & my appointment dates from the 12th of August, – being both my birthday & the Princes the
coincidence is remarkable. Pyeth & as a thing of course the
succession begins from the following day. Last Thursday I made my appearance at the Levee in the Doctors full dress suit. The coat was taken in for the occasion & I was sans
doubt on that day the best drest poet in Christendom. Croker took me. The
spectacle was very fine, – the apartments are magnificent in the highest degree, & nothing can be imagined more splendid than the
crowd of uniforms, of all sorts & all services. The number of stars, medals, &c made it a proud sight for an Englishman. I saw
Graham there & Sir Samuel Achmuty & Sir John Stuart,xx then rose & past on.
Your feelings respecting this appointment will very soon be changed. In me, of all men, it would have been at once
gross folly & rank cowardice to have refused it. It becomes honourable if I make it so, – & what reason have I to distrust
either my own intentions or my own powers? – As for the ridicule which it at first provoked, a well-turned jest will amuse me as much
as it can x any one else, – & even a dull one does me the unintended service of making me appear of importance to the
reader. The more abuse, the more censure, the more satire, the more sarcasm the better, – because the lathe will soon be turned. For be
you assured that I shall derive honour from the office from by giving honour to it.
I have bought Du Tertre,xx Lygons History of Barbadoes,
My time was so fully occupied during my absence from eight in the morning till eleven at night, that I had no possible
leisure for writing any other letters than those which carried home the account of my proceedings. I was weary beyond measure of new
faces & perpetual change, scarcely ever dining two days together in the same place nor with the same company. – In the way of
documents I got hold of some good private as well as offical correspondence, & shall have every assistance which the public office
can give me.
For want of red wax I must seal with black. – The seal – a fine Scotch topaz – was a present from Scott, which I got cut in London –
I like Bewicks blockXxx <Two> thousand impressions will be as many as I can possibly want for very many years: for many of these
books are my Uncles, & I should not put them in all my own, – for
instance xxx is may xxx xxx xxxx all that are in Duck Row
Will you buy for me half a dozen of your Durham-Toasting Cheeses & pack them off by the Carrier. Tell me the
cost & I will send it with the amount of Bewicks Bill. – I think my
Uncle will have a block cut.