TO MR. WILLIAM BANKES

Cheltenham, September 28, 1812.

My dear Bankes,-When you point out to one clvi how people can be intimate at the distance of some seventy leagues, I will plead guilty to your charge, and accept your farewell, but not wittingly, till you give me some better reason than my silence, which merely proceeded from a notion founded on your own declaration of old, that you hated writing and receiving letters. Besides, how was I to find out a man of many residences? If I had addressed you now, it had been to your borough, where I must have conjectured you were amongst your constituents. So now, in despite of Mr. N. and Lady W., you shall be as 'much better' as the Hexham post-office will allow me to make you. I do assure you I am much indebted to you for thinking of me at all, and can't spare you even from amongst the superabundance of friends with whom you suppose me surrounded.

You heard that Newstead is sold - the sum £140,000; sixty to remain in mortgage on the estate for three years, paying interest, of course. Rochdale is also likely to do well-so my worldly matters are mending. I have been here some time drinking the waters, simply because there are waters to drink, and they are very medicinal, and sufficiently disgusting. In a few days I set out for Lord Jersey's, but return here, where I am quite alone, go out very little, and enjoy in its fullest extent the dolce far niente. What

you are about I cannot guess, even from your date; —not dauncing to the sound of the gitourney in the Hall of the Lowthers? one of whom is here, ill, poor thing, with a phthisic. I heard that you passed through here (at the sordid inn where I first alighted) the very day before I arrived in these parts. We had a very pleasant set here; at first the Jerseys, Melbournes, Cowpers, and Hollands, but all gone; and the only persons I know are the Rawdons and Oxfords, with some later acquaintances of less brilliant descent.

But I do not trouble them much; and as for your rooms and your assemblies, 'they are not dreamed of in our philosophy!!'-Did you read of a sad accident in the Wye t' other day? A dozen drowned; and Mr. Rossoe, a corpulent gentleman, preserved by a boat-hook or an eel-spear, begged, when he heard his wife was saved-no-lost--to be thrown in again!!

-as if he could not have thrown himself in, had he wished it; but this passes for a trait of sensibility. What strange beings men are, in and out of the Wye!

I have to ask you a thousand pardons for not fulfilling some orders before I left town; but if you knew all the cursed entanglements I had to wade through, it would be unnecessary to beg your forgiveness. When will Parliament (the new one) meet ?— in sixty days, on account of Ireland, I presume: the Irish election will demand a longer period for completion than the constitutional allotment. Yours, of course, is safe, and all your side of the question. Salamanca is the ministerial watchword, and all will

go well with you. I hope you will speak more frequently; I am sure at least you ought, and it will be expected. I see Portman means to stand again. Good night.-Ever yours most affectionately,

TO LORD HOLLAND

Μπαίρων.

September 28.

I have altered the middle couplet, so as I hope clvii partly to do away with W.'s objection. I do think, in the present state of the stage, it had been unpardonable to pass over the horses and Miss Mudie, etc. As Betty is no longer a boy, how can this be applied to him? He is now to be judged as a man. If he acts still like a boy, the public will but be more ashamed of their blunder. I have, you see, now taken it for granted that these things are reformed. I confess, I wish that part of the Address to stand; but if W. is inexorable, e'en let it go. I have also new-cast the lines, and softened the hint of future combustion, and sent them off this morning. Will you have the goodness to add, or insert, the approved alterations as they arrive? They come like shadows, so depart'; occupy me, and, I fear, disturb you.

Do not let Mr. W. put his Address into Elliston's hands till you have settled on these alterations. E. will think it too long:-much depends on the speaking. I fear it will not bear much curtailing, without chasms in the sense.

It is certainly too long in the reading; but if Elliston exerts himself, such a favourite with the public will

not be thought tedious. I should think it so, if he were not to speak it.—Yours ever, etc.

P.S.-On looking again, I doubt my idea of having obviated W.'s objection. To the other House allusion is non sequitur-but I wish to plead for this part, because the thing really is not to be passed over. Many afterpieces at the Lyceum by the same company have already attracted this 'Augean Stable'-and Johnson, in his prologue against 'Lunn' (the harlequin manager, Rich), -' Hunt,'- 'Mahomet,' etc., is surely a fair precedent.

TO LORD HOLLAND

clviii

September 29, 1812.

Shakspeare certainly ceased to reign in one of his kingdoms, as George III. did in America, and George iv. may in Ireland? Now, we have nothing to do out of our own realms, and when the monarchy was gone, his Majesty had but a barren sceptre. I have cut away, you will see, and altered, but make it what you please; only I do implore, for my own gratification, one lash on those accursed quadrupeds—'a long shot, Sir Lucius, if you love me.' I have altered 'wave,' etc., and the 'fire,' and so forth for the timid.

Let me hear from you when convenient, and believe me, etc.

P.S.-Do let that stand, and cut out elsewhere. I shall choke, if we must overlook their d—d menagerie.

TO LORD HOLLAND

September 30, 1812.

I send you the most I can make of it; for I am clix not so well as I was, and find I 'pall in resolution.'

I wish much to see you, and will be at Tetbury by twelve on Saturday; and from thence I go on to Lord Jersey's. It is impossible not to allude to the degraded state of the Stage, but I have lightened it, and endeavoured to obviate your other objections. There is a new couplet for Sheridan, allusive to his Monody. All the alterations I have marked thus |,

-as you will see by comparison with the other copy. I have cudgelled my brains with the greatest willingness, and only wish I had more time to have done better.

You will find a sort of clap-trap laudatory couplet inserted for the quiet of the Committee, and I have added, towards the end, the couplet you were pleased to like. The whole Address is seventy-three lines, still perhaps too long; and, if shortened, you will save time, but, I fear, a little of what I meant for sense also.

With myriads of thanks, I am ever, etc.

My sixteenth edition of respects to Lady H.-How she must laugh at all this!

I wish Murray, my publisher, to print off some copies as soon as your Lordship returns to town-it will ensure correctness in the papers afterwards.