The stinking stone was the first thing for which I enquired in Crediton Church.

I believe there is nothing wonderful in it: strike a flint, & you will produce a strong smell. The size of the stone may possibly make it remarkable, & at any rate no one should be allowed to indulge that vile English humour of breaking it to carry away a fragment. Our nation is infamous for this – Robert Lovell has just been groaning over an example of it in Bedes chair, – certainly the most venerable relic in these kingdoms, which is utterly defaced & half destroyed by those who have cut their names in it, & carried pieces away.

I am not certain whether or not I have said to <you> in any former letter, that if your invitation to pass a xxx day or two with the Longmans should be repeated, I wish you to accept it. This I should not do, if you were not disposed to like the female part of the family.

But they appear very likeable persons, & I should like you to be better acquainted with them, because I believe their father has a sort of feeling towards me which is not entirely dependent upon the state of my accounts. Bookseller usually consider author as a goose whom he has to pluck; – & in that light the firm in Paternoster Row consider me & deal with me accordingly; but I believe that Longman individually regards me with respect & good will.

You will not wonder that you are wished for at home now that the winter is approaching, & we are left to ourselves, – totally to ourselves it will soon be. Without intending to hurry you, or prevent any visits which you may purpose to make, I suppose, you will think of returning with Bertha about February, – that is as soon as the weather becomes mild enough for travelling. There is a bare possibility, (which must neither be built upon, nor mentioned to any one except your Uncle Henry,) – that I may go to London at that time, under pretext of bringing you home, – but in reality to see a favourite book of yours carried thro the press xx with all imaginable secresy & dispatch.

I have done so much to it within the last three weeks, as to render this possible, – & in fact easy, if that abominable Tale of Paraguay

were not hanging about my neck like a millstone. I get on with it con amore:

& yet should proceed with more pleasure if you were here to witness its progress. – You would have had some nonsense from me ere this, if all my nonsense had not of late been directed into this channel.

Your character of John L. is not a pleasant one, & I am sorry for it, – the fault not being one <of that kind> which time is likely to correct. No man can either be happy himself thro life, or make those so who are connected with him, unless he has good principles, good temper, & good health. A woman may be deceived concerning the first, & must take her chance for the last: but if she marries a man of uncomfortable temper it must be her own fault. You have not mentioned Bridget

in your letters, – a wild-eyed girl who took my fancy much. Indeed I liked the whole family. There was a warmth & heartiness in their whole behavior towards me, which one does not always find in the family of an old friend, however close the ties of friendship may be with the master of the house.

But I must conclude that I may pass the rest of the evening with your friend the D^r. –

There is a prospect of seeing Sir W Scott here for a day, with Heber, so Scott writes to tell me. – Cuthbert sends his love & a kiss, & the promise of a letter. He was xxxx very unwell last week with one of his bilious attacks, but thank God is perfectly recovered. Your mother & the Venerable are drinking tea with the Miss Dentons.

Our kindest remembrances to M^rs Browne & Mary