I was grieved at the heart that the General could not come, and that illness was in part the cause that hindered him, I have sent him by his express desire, a new edition of the first book, and half the second. He would not suffer me to send it to you, my dear, lest you should post it away to Maty at once, He did not

give that reason, but being shrewd, I found it,

་།

and the leaves to bud, and every

The grass begins to grow, thing is preparing to be beautiful against you come.

Adieu.

W. C.

You enquire of our walks, I perceive, as well as our rides. They are beautiful, You enquire also concerning a cellar. You have two cellars. Oh! what years have passed since we took the same walks, and drank out of the same bottle! but a few more weeks and then!

LETTER LIII..

To Lady HESKETH.

Olney, May 8, 1786.

I did not at all doubt that

your ten

derness for my feelings had inclined you to suppress in your Letters to me the intelligence concerning Maty's critique, that yet reached me from another quarter. When I wrote to you I had

not

not learned it from the General, but from my friend Bull, who only knew it by hear-say. The next post brought me the news of it from the first-mentioned, and the critique itself inclosed. Together with it came also a squib discharged against me in the Public Advertizer. The General's Letter found me in one of my most melancholy moods, and my spirits did not rise on the receipt of it. The Letter indeed that he had cut from the news-paper gave me little pain, both because it contained nothing formidable, though written with malevolence enough, and because a nameless author can have no more weight with his readers than the reason which he has on his side, can give him. But Maty's animadversions hurt me more. In part they appeared to me unjust, and in part illnatured, and yet the man himself being an oracle in every body's account, I apprehended that he had done me much mischief. Why he says that the Translation is far from exact, is best known to himself. For I know it to be as exact as is compatible with poetry; and prose translations of Homer are not wanted; the world has one already. But I will not fill my Letter to you with hypercriticisms, I will only add an extract from a Letter of Colman's, that I received last Friday, and will then dismiss the subject. It came accompanied by a copy of the Specimen, which he himself had amended, and with so much taste and candour that it charmed me. He says as follows:

"One

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"One copy I have returned, with some remarks prompted by my zeal for your success, not, Heaven knows, by arrogance " or impertinence. I know no other way at once so plain, and so "short, of delivering my thoughts on the specimen of your Translation, which on the whole I admire exceedingly, thinking it breathes the spirit, and conveys the manner of the original; though having here neither Homer, nor Pope's Homer, I cannot speak precisely of particular lines or expressions, or compare your blank-verse with his rhyme, except by declaring that I "think blank-verse infinitely more congenial to the magnificent simplicity of Homer's hexameters, than the confined couplets, " and the jingle of rhyme."

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His amendments are chiefly bestowed on the lines encumbered with Elisions, and I will just take this opportunity to tell you, my dear, because I know you to be as much interested in what I write as myself, that some of the most offensive of those Elisions were occasioned by mere criticism. I was fairly hunted into them by vexatious objections made without end by and his friend,

and altered, and altered, till at last I did not care how I altered. Many thanks for 's verses, which deserve just the character you give of them. They are neat and easy-but I would mumble her well if I could get at her, for allowing herself to suppose for a moment that I praised the Chancellor with a view to emolument. I wrote those Stanzas merely for my own amusement, and they slept

in

in a dark closet years after I composed them; not in the least designed for publication. But when Johnson had printed off the longer pieces of which the first volume principally consists, he wrote me word that he wanted yet two thousand lines to swell it to a proper size. On that occasion it was that I collected every scrap of verse that I could find, and that among the rest. None of the smaller poems had been introduced, or had been published at all with my name, but for this necessity.

Just as I wrote the last word I was called down to Dr. Kerr, who came to pay me a voluntary visit. Were I sick, his cheerful and friendly manner would almost restore me. Air and exercise are his theme; them he recommends as the best physic for me, and in all weathers. Come, therefore, my dear, and take a little of this good physic with me, for you will find it beneficial as well as I ; come and assist Mrs. Unwin in the re-establishment of your Cousin's health. Air and exercise, and she and you together, will make me a perfect Samson. You will have a good house over your head, comfortable apartments, obliging neighbours, good roads, a pleasant country, and in us your constant companions, two who will love you, and do already love you dearly, and with all our hearts. If you are in any danger of trouble it is from myself, if my fits of dejection seize me; and as often as they do, you will be grieved for me; but perhaps by your assistance I shall be able to resist them better. If there is a creature under leaven, from whose co-opera

tions, with Mrs. Unwin, I can reasonably expect such a blessing, that creature is yourself. I was not without such attacks when I lived in London, though at that time they were less oppressive, but in your company I was never unhappy a whole day in all my life.

Of how much importance is an Author to himself. I return to that abominable Specimen again, just to notice Maty's impatient censure of the repetition that you mention. I mean of the word Hand. In the original there is not a repetition of it. But to repeat a word in that manner, and on such an occasion, is by no means what he calls it, a modern invention. In Homer I could shew him many such, and in Virgil they abound. Colman, who in his judgment of classical matters, is inferior to none, says, "I know not why Maty objects to this expression." I could easily change it, but the case standing thus, I know not whether my proud stomach will condescend so low. I rather feel myself disinclined to it.

One evening last week, Mrs. Unwin and I took our walk to Weston, and as we were returning through the grove, opposite the house, the Throckmortons presented themselves at the door. They are owners of a house at Weston, at present empty. It is a very good one, infinitely superior to ours. When we drank Chocolate with them, they both expressed their ardent desire that we would take it, wishing to have us for nearer neighbours. If you, my

Cousin,