shall be glad to hear from you, on business, on common-place, or anything, or nothing-but death -I am already too familiar with the dead. It is strange that I look on the skulls which stand beside me (I have always had four in my study-) without emotion, but I cannot strip the features of those I have known of their fleshy covering, even in idea, without a hideous sensation; but the worms are less ceremonious. Surely the Romans did well when they burned the dead. I shall be happy to hear from you, and am, yours very sincerely,

BYRON.

TO MR. BOLTON

Newstead Abbey, August 16, 1811.

Sir, I have answered the queries on the margin. I wish Mr. Davies's claims to be most fully allowed, and, further, that he be one of my executors. I wish the will to be made in a manner to prevent all discussion, if possible, after my decease; and this I leave to you as a professional gentleman.

With regard to the few and simple directions for the disposal of my carcass, I must have them implicitly fulfilled, as they will, at least, prevent trouble and expense, and (what would be of little consequence to me, but may quiet the conscience of the survivors) the garden is consecrated ground. These directions are copied verbatim from my former will; the alterations in other parts have arisen from the death of Mrs. B. I have the honour to be, your most obedient, humble servant, BYRON.

TO MR. BOLTON

Newstead Abbey, August 20, 1811.

Sir,—The witnesses shall be provided from amongst xxxvi my tenants, and I shall be happy to see you on any day most convenient to yourself. I forgot to mention, that it must be specified by codicil, or otherwise, that my body is on no account to be removed from the vault where I have directed it to be placed; and in case any of my successors within the entail (from bigotry, or otherwise) might think proper to remove the carcass, such proceeding shall be attended by forfeiture of the estate, which in such case shall go to my sister, the Honble. Augusta Leigh and her heirs on similar conditions.-I have the honour to be, Sir, your very obedient, humble servant, BYRON.

ΤΟ MR. DALLAS

Newstead, August 21, 1811.

Your letter gives me credit for more acute feelings lxxxii than I possess; for though I feel tolerably miserable, yet I am at the same time subject to a kind of hysterical merriment, or rather laughter without merriment, which I can neither account for nor conquer, and yet I do not feel relieved by it; but an indifferent person would think me in excellent spirits. 'We must forget these things,' and have recourse to our old selfish comforts, or rather comfortable selfishness. I do not think I shall return to London immediately, and shall therefore accept freely what is offered courteously-your mediation between me and Murray. I don't think my name will answer the

purpose, and you must be aware that my plaguy Satire will bring the north and south Grub Streets down upon the Pilgrimage;-but, nevertheless, if Murray makes a point of it, and you coincide with. him, I will do it daringly; so let it be entitled, 'By the author of English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.' My remarks on the Romaic, etc., once intended to accompany the Hints from Horace, shall go along with the other, as being indeed more appropriate; also the smaller poems now in my possession, with a few selected from those published in Hobhouse's Miscellany. I have found amongst my poor mother's papers all my letters from the East, and one in particular of some length from Albania. From this, if necessary, I can work up a note or two on that subject. As I kept no journal, the letters written on the spot are the best. But of this anon, when we have definitely arranged.

Of

Has Murray shown the work to any one? He may-but I will have no traps for applause. course there are little things I would wish to alter, and perhaps the two stanzas of a buffooning cast on London's Sunday are as well left out. I much wish to avoid identifying Childe Harold's character with mine, and that, in sooth, is my second objection to my name appearing in the title-page. When you have made arrangements as to time, size, type, etc., favour me with a reply. I am giving you an universe of trouble, which thanks cannot atone for. I made a kind of prose apology for my scepticism at the head of the MS., which, on recollection, is so much more like an attack than a defence, that, haply, it

might better be omitted:-perpend, pronounce. After all, I fear Murray will be in a scrape, with the orthodox; but I cannot help it, though I wish him well through it. As for me, 'I have supped full of criticism,' and I don't think that the 'most dismal treatise' will stir and rouse my ‘fell of hair,' till 'Birnam wood do come to Dunsinane.'

I shall continue to write at intervals, and hope you will pay me in kind. How does Pratt get on, or rather get off, Joe Blackett's posthumous stock? You killed that poor man amongst you, in spite of your Ionian friend and myself, who would have saved him from Pratt, poetry, present poverty, and posthumous oblivion. Cruel patronage! to ruin a man at his calling; but then he is a divine subject for subscription and biography; and Pratt, who makes the most of his dedications, has inscribed the volume to no less than five families of distinction.

I am sorry you don't like Harry White: with a great deal of cant, which in him was sincere (indeed it killed him as you killed Joe Blackett), certes there is poesy and genius. I don't say this on account of my simile and rhymes; but surely he was beyond all the Bloomfields and Blacketts, and their collateral cobblers, whom Lofft and Pratt have or may kidnap from their calling into the service of the trade. must excuse my flippancy, for I am writing I know not what, to escape from myself. Hobhouse is gone to Ireland. Mr. Davies has been here on his way to Harrowgate.

You

You did not know Matthews: he was a man of

the most astonishing powers, as he sufficiently proved at Cambridge, by carrying off more prizes and fellowships, against the ablest candidates, than any other graduate on record; but a most decided atheist, indeed noxiously so, for he proclaimed his principles. in all societies. I knew him well, and feel a loss not easily to be supplied to myself-to Hobhouse never. -Let me hear from you, and believe me, etc.

TO MR. HODGSON

Newstead Abbey, August 22, 1811.

lxxxviii You may have heard of the sudden death of my mother, and poor Matthews, which with that of Wingfield (of which I was not fully aware till just before I left town, and indeed hardly believed it), has made a sad chasm in my connections. Indeed the blows followed each other so rapidly that I am yet stupid from the shock; and though I do eat, and drink, and talk, and even laugh, at times, yet I can hardly persuade myself that I am awake, did not every morning convince me mournfully to the contrary.—I shall now waive the subject,—the dead are at rest, and none but the dead can be so.

You will feel for poor Hobhouse,-Matthews was the 'god of his idolatry'; and if intellect could exalt a man above his fellows, no one could refuse him pre-eminence. I knew him most intimately, and valued him proportionably; but I am recurring—so let us talk of life and the living.

If you should feel a disposition to come here, you will find 'beef and a sea-coal fire,' and not un