The first letter of the following series was, it will be seen, written a few days before he left Diodati.

LETTER 247.

TO MR. MURRAY.

'Diodati, Oct. 5th, 1816.

'Save me a copy of " Buck's Richard III." repub'lished by Longman; but do not send out more books, I have too many.

The "Monody" is in too many paragraphs, which 'makes it unintelligible to me; if any one else under'stands it in the present form, they are wiser; however, as it cannot be rectified till my return, and has 'been already published, even publish it on in the 'collection-it will fill up the place of the omitted epistle.

"Strike out" by request of a friend," which is sad 'trash, and must have been done to make it ridicu'lous.

'Be careful in the printing the stanzas beginning, Though the day of my destiny, &c."

6.66

which I think well of as a composition.

"The Antiquary" is not the best of the three, but much above all the last twenty years, saving its elder 'brothers. Holcroft's Memoirs are valuable as showing strength of endurance in the man, which is worth more than all the talent in the world.

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Margaret of And so you have been publishing 'Anjou" and an Assyrian tale, and refusing W. W.'s 'Waterloo, and the "Hue and Cry." I know not ' which most to admire, your rejections or acceptances. 'I believe that prose is, after all, the most reputable, 'for certes, if one could foresee-but I won't go on'that is, with this sentence; but poetry is, I fear, in

'curable. God help me! if I proceed in this scribbling, I shall have frittered away my mind before I

' am thirty, but it is at times a real relief to me. For the present-good evening."

"Martigny, October 9th, 1816.

Thus far on my way to Italy. We have just passed the "Pisse-Vache" (one of the first torrents in Switzerland) in time to view the iris which the sun flings along it before noon.

'I have written to you twice lately. Mr. Davies, I 'hear, is arrived. He brings the original MS. which you wished to see. Recollect that the printing is to be from that which Mr. Shelley brought; and recol'lect, also, that the concluding stanzas of Childe 'Harold (those to my daughter) which I had not made up my mind whether to publish or not when they 'were first written (as you will see marked on the margin of the first copy), I had (and have) fully de'termined to publish with the rest of the Canto, as in • the copy which you received by Mr. Shelley, before 'I sent it to England.

'Our weather is very fine, which is more than the 'summer has been.-At Milan I shall expect to hear 'from you. Address either to Milan, poste restante, 'or by way of Geneva, to the care of Monsr. Hentsch, Banquier. I write these few lines in case my other letter should not reach you; I trust one of them ' will.

'P.S. My best respects and regards to Mr. Gifford. ‹ Will you tell him it may perhaps be as well to put a 'short note to that part relating to Clarens, merely to

say, that of course the description does not refer to 'that particular spot so much as to the command of scenery round it? I do not know that this is neces6 sary, and leave it to Mr. G.'s choice, as my editor,

' if he will allow me to call him so at this distance.'

LETTER 249.

TO MR. MURRAY.

'Milan, October 15th, 1816.

I hear that Mr. Davies has arrived in England,'but that of some letters, &c., committed to his care by Mr. H., only half have been delivered. This in'telligence naturally makes me feel a little anxious for 'mine, and amongst them for the MS., which I wished

to have compared with the one sent by me through 'the hands of Mr. Shelley. I trust that it has arrived 'safely,—and indeed not less so, that some little crys'tals, &c., from Mont Blanc, for my daughter and my ' nieces, have reached their address. Pray have the goodness to ascertain from Mr. Davies that no acci'dent (by customhouse or loss) has befallen them, ' and satisfy me on this point at your earliest conveni

'ence.

'If I recollect rightly, you told me that Mr. Gifford had kindly undertaken to correct the press (at my request) during my absence-at least I hope

It will add to my many obligations to that gen

'tleman.

'I wrote to you, on my way here, a short note, dated 'Martigny. Mr. Hobhouse and myself arrived here 'a few days ago, by the Simplon and Lago Maggiore route. Of course we visited the Borromean Islands, which are fine, but too artificial. The Simplon is 'magnificent in its nature and its art,-both God and 'man have done wonders,―to say nothing of the devil