‘My dear Sir,—Some little since, in consequence of a distressful representation made to me of the condition of some person connected nearly by marriage with Mrs. Wordsworth, I applied to our common friend, Mr. Sharp, to know if he had any means of procuring an admittance into Christ’s Hospital for a child of one of the parties. His reply was such as I feared it would be. . . . He referred me to you. . . . I have to thank you for a present of your volume of poems, received some time since through the hands of Southey. I have read it with great pleasure. The Columbus is what you intended. It has many bright and striking passages, and poems upon this plan please better on a second perusal than the first. The gaps at first disappoint and vex you.
‘There is a pretty piece1 in which you have done me the honour of imitating me, towards the conclusion particularly, where you must have remembered the Highland Girl. I like the poem much, but the first paragraph is hurt by two apostrophes to objects of different
1 This piece is the lines ‘Written in the Highlands.’ |
| 150 | ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES |
‘I am about to print (do not start) eight thousand lines, which is but a small portion of what I shall oppress the world with if strength and life do not fail me. I shall be content if the publication pays the expenses, for Mr. Scott and your friend Lord Byron flourishing at the rate they do, how can an honest poet hope to thrive?
‘I expect to hear of your taking flight to Paris, unless the convocation of emperors and other personages by which London is to be honoured detain you to assist at the festivities.
‘For me, I would like dearly to see old Blucher, but, as the fates will not allow, I mean to recompense myself by an excursion with Mrs. Wordsworth to Scotland, where I hope to fall in occasionally with a ptarmigan, a roe, or an eagle, and the living bird I certainly should prefer to its image on the panel of a dishonoured emperor’s coach.
‘Farewell. I shall be happy to see you here at all times, for your company is a treat.
