'by rudeness. But you would have been amused with the row, and the dialogue, and the dress-or ' rather the undress-of the party, where I had intro'duced myself in a devil of a hurry, and the astonish'ment that ensued. I had gone out of the theatre, ' for coolness, into the garden ;-there I had tumbled

6

over some dogs, and, coming away from them in very ' ill-humour, encountered the man in a worse, which produced all this confusion.

6

'Well-and why don't you "launch ?"-Now is your time. The people are tolerably tired with me, ' and not very much enamoured of **, who has just spawned a quarto of metaphysical blank verse, which is nevertheless only a part of a poem.

6

6

Murray talks of divorcing Larry and Jacky—a bad

sign for the authors, who, I suppose, will be divorced

<

too, and throw the blame upon one another. Seriously, 'I don't care a cigar about it, and I don't see why Sam 'should.

'Let me hear from and of you and my godson. If ' a daughter, the name will do quite as well.

'Ever, &c.'

LETTER 196.

August 13th, 1814.

I wrote yesterday to Mayfield, and have just now ' enfranked your letter to mamma.

My stay in town

TO MR. MOORE.

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is so uncertain (not later than next week) that your

packets for the north may not reach me; and as I 'know not exactly where I am going-however, New

stead is my most probable destination, and if you 'send your despatches before Tuesday, I can forward 'them to our new ally. But, after that day, you had 'better not trust to their arrival in time.

** has been exiled from Paris, on dit, for saying the Bourbons were old women. The Bourbons 'might have been content, I think, with returning the compliment.

(

"

}

'I told you all about Jacky and Larry yesterday;they are to be separated,—at least, so says the grand M., and I know no more of the matter. Jeffrey has done me more than "justice;" but as to tragedy'um !-I have no time for fiction at present. A man 'cannot paint a storm with the vessel under bare 'poles, on a lee-shore. When I get to land, I will 'try what is to be done, and, if I founder, there 'be plenty of mine elders and betters to console Mel" pomene.

When at Newstead, you must come over, if only 'for a day-should Mrs. M. be exigeante of your preThe place is worth seeing, as a ruin, and I

C

sence.

6

C can assure you there was some fun there, even in my

time; but that is past. The ghosts*, however, and

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the gothics, and the waters, and the desolation, make 'it very lively still.

6

Ever, dear Tom, yours, &c.'

It was, if I mistake not, during his recent visit to Newstead, that he himself actually fancied he saw the ghost of the Black Friar, which was supposed to have haunted the Abbey from the time of the dissolution of the monasteries, and which he thus describes, from the recollection perhaps of his own fantasy, in Don Juan :

'It was no mouse, but, lo! a monk, array'd

In cowl and beads and dusky garb, appear'd,
Now in the moonlight, and now lapsed in shade,
With steps that trod as heavy, yet unheard:

"

'His garments only a slight murmur made;

'He moved as shadowy as the sisters weird, But slowly; and as he pass'd Juan by,

"

Glanced, without pausing, on him a bright eye.'

It is said, that the Newstead ghost appeared, also, to Lord Byron's cousin, Miss Fanny Parkins, and that she made a sketch of him from

memory.

Newstead Abbey, September 2nd, 1814.

'I am obliged by what you have sent, but would 'rather not see anything of the kind*; we have had ' enough of these things already, good and bad, and 'next month you need not trouble yourself to collect ' even the higher generation-on my account. It gives 'me much pleasure to hear of Mr. Hobhouse's and 'Mr. Merivale's good entreatment by the journals you

' mention.

'I still think Mr. Hogg and yourself might make

"

out an alliance. Dodsley's was, I believe, the last ' decent thing of the kind, and his had great success ' in its day, and lasted several years; but then he had 'the double advantage of editing and publishing.

The Spleen, and several of Gray's odes, much of 'Shenstone, and many others of good repute, made their 'first appearance in his collection. Now, with the

LETTER 197.

support of Scott, Wordsworth, Southey, &c., I see

little reason why you should not do as well; and if

once fairly established, you would have assistance 'from the youngsters, I dare say. Stratford Canning

(whose "Buonaparte " is excellent), and many others, ' and Moore, and Hobhouse, and I, would try a fall

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TO MR. MURRAY.

now and then (if permitted), and you might coax Campbell, too, into it. By the by, he has an unpub'lished (though printed) poem on a scene in Germany ' (Bavaria, I think), which I saw last year, that is perfectly magnificent, and equal to himself. I wonder 'he don't publish it.

C

'Oh!—do you recollect S **, the engraver's, mad letter about not engraving Phillips's picture of Lord

Foley? (as he blundered it); well, I have traced it,

*The reviews and magazines of the month.

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