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BL Add. MS 28268, ff. 261–62
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editors wish 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.
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This, I hope will find you in your place at the fire side, and
all who are dear to you, in the same circle, or a similar one. How does Mr B. & the boy? the
little girls, and the elders of Stouts
Hill? When I reflect on the times which have past since I wrote last I
feel vex’d, and lower’d in my own estimation, and therefore I will proceed
without reflection, at least without that of the retrospective kind, which I can
least bear. Your venerable parents honourd me with a call twice, by whom I
learnd that you were in health &c, and obtaind an address to Miss Sharp then on a visit, and of
which I have made no use, but now write to her at her home.
This is the way I treat my friends. Your
father has been helping me with his advice as to the treatment of my boys knee, so as to
obtain strength by degrees, he is healthy and strong except his lameness, and
the rest are as I wish them, except when they give the rein to their tongues,
and croud round the fire. And now you will exclaim ‘but how are you yourself?’
Then honestly my dear friend I am but so so, I have now and then a staunch,
stupendous WindCliff* of a headache, that leaves me as weak and worthless as if
I had been in a hot bath for a fortnight. Out of these fits I rise with a spirit
that lasts——5 hours! or a day and half! I believe you know that I have not
budg’d an inch after the Muses since April, but I have a strong notion that we
shall be friends in the spring.
Many thanks for ‘Marmion;’ It comes, when compared with The Lay,
like a round of beef after a Sirloin;d Canto I lookd and expected that he would, at least
poetically, rescue the poor girl from the dungeon; and when I left her there I
felt a burning indignation, A little of it was for the past, and the rest for
the [word obscured] old lumps of iniquity who are saddled with the crime, or in
case they call off, for the historians who have told the Tale! I think the
passage of Marmion through the Scottish Camp is a masterly description; many
other parts strike like lightning in a dark night, but I question if the local
tales of superstition add here the interest they do in the
Lay, and that for reasons I must leave you to find out.
I must now give you another proof of my great inattention of late to what would have spurd me once to immediate action. I had long ago, a letter from Miss Cooper, and I have never answerd it! I know many months ago that there were Songs for me at Dr Crotch’s, and I never went for them untill the night before last. I know that Mr Baker beat me hollow at expedition and galantry for Miss C had the song at the time of its publication, and very glad was I to hear it. And now will you for me give them the essence of this letter, and all the apology you can pick out of it, saying moreover that I am above ground, and with a lively remembrance of pleasures and events, never more than now their humble servant.
I have my Musical brother in town for a while, and we are making Harps by the dozen.
With regard to Books, the first Vol of ye
Steriotype Edition has past my hands, but not publishd; and the 2d vol is in great forwardness.
You will know that continuations or additions to popular Songs of acknowledged
merit and pathos are not often successful, but I have lately been delighted with
one on the subject of ‘Robin Gray’. It work’d effectually at sensibility’s pump,
and did me a deal of good, and at some future lucky hour I will certainly copy
it for you.
Once again pray speak to the good folks at Ferney-Hill, and believe me whither well or ill, [word deleted] sad or foolish, musical or out of tune, with true love to your self and family, Your sincere, but sulky friend and servant
* Windcliff is most stupendous cliff on the Wye near
Chepstow [note added by T. J.
Lloyd Baker]