“Another homo, cui nomen Colburn, lord of the New Monthly Magazine, has written for my portrait. Now according to all rules of arithmetic (of which I know little) and algebra (of which I know nothing), if a portrait in one magazine be to do me yeoman’s service, portraits in two will do the service of two yeomen. So do you answer for me to the European, either by note or letter, offering your drawing, and I will send the alter homo to the Doctor to make use of the bust. Quoad the biographical sketch, nothing more need be mentioned than that I was born at Bristol, Aug. 12. 1774,—prince and poet having the same birthday,—was of Westminster and afterwards of Balliol College, Oxford, and that my maternal uncle being chaplain of the British Factory at Lisbon, my studies were by that circumstance led towards the literature and history of Portugal and Spain. This is what I shall tell Colburn, and his merry men may dress it up as he pleases.
“But O Grosvenor! I have this day thought of a third ‘Portrait
of the author,’ to be prefixed to the delectable history of Dr. D. D——, to which history I
yesterday wrote the preface with a peacock’s pen. It is to be the back of
the writer, sitting at his desk with his peacock’s pen in his hand. As
soon as Roderick is
finished, which it will very soon be, I think the spirit will move me to spur
myself on with
| 78 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 40. |
