the sauntering Lakers as much as the pig frightened him.

"The Scotch reviewers are grown remarkably civil to me; partly because Elmsley was, and partly because Walter Scott is, connected with them. My Amadis and the Chatterton have been noticed very respectfully there. I told you in my last that Amadis sold well as much in one year as Thalaba in three! But I feel, and my booksellers feel, that I am getting on in the world, and the publication of Madoc will set me still higher.

"How goes on the Spanish? keep to it by all means; for it is not an impossible nor an improbable thing that you and I may one day meet in Portugal; and, if so, take a journey together. You will then find it useful; for it turns readily into Portuguese. My uncle and I keep up a pretty regular intercourse. I am trying to set his affairs here in order. A cargo of books value about eleven pounds, which were lost for twelve months, have been recovered, and I am feeding upon them. God bless you, Tom! lose no opportunity of writing. Edith's love.

R. S."

CHAPTER XI.

FAMILY DETAILS.-POLITICS.- -HE WISHES TO EDIT SIR PHILIP

SIDNEY'S WORKS. DR. VINCENT.

SPANISH WAR. -WISHES

THE WEST INDIES.

TO GO TO PORTUGAL WITH SIR

USE OF REVIEWING.
ABYSSINIA.

WRITTEN. TRAVELS IN

SIR W. SCOTT'S NEW POEM.

EARLY POEMS, WHY
STEEL MIRRORS.

MADOC. -THE COMPASS, WHEN

FIRST USED. THE DIVING BELL.

CHANGES IN THE CRITICAL REVIEW.

USES OF PRINTING.

- LOSS OF THE ABER

GAVENNY.-ENDOWMENT OF THE ROMISH CHURCH IN IRELAND.

REASONS FOR

NOT

TRANSLATION FROM THE LATIN. GOING TO LONDON. ENGLISH POETRY. PUBLICATION OF MADOC. DUTY UPON FOREIGN BOOKS A GREAT HARDSHIP. STORY OF PELAYO. THE BUTLER. -MADOC CRITICISED

SOMERVILLE.

AND DEFENDED.-REVIEWING.-LITERARY REMARKS.-LORD SUGGESTION TO HIS BROTHER THOMAS ΤΟ COLLECT INFORMATION ABOUT THE WEST INDIES. - THE MORAVIANS. VISIT TO SCOTLAND AND ΤΟ SIR W. SCOTT REVIEWALS OF MADOC. ESFRIELLA'S

AT ASHIESTIEL.

LETTERS.

To Lieutenant Southey, H. M. S. Galatea.

"Dear Tom,

"Greta Hall, July 30. 1804.

"Your three letters have arrived all together this evening, and have relieved me from very considerable anxiety. Mine I find are consigned to the Atlantic without bottles; and three books of Madoc,

which Edith copied in them, gone to edify the
sharks—gentlemen who will digest them far more
easily than the critics. However, there must be yet
some other letters on the way, and I trust you will
have learnt before this can reach you that I have
two Ediths in the family, -the Edithling (who was
born on the last of April) continuing to do well, only
that I am myself somewhat alarmed at that prema-
ture activity of eye and spirits, and those sudden
startings, which were in her poor sister the symptoms
of a dreadful and deadly disease. However, I am on
my guard.
I did not mean to trust
my affections again on so frail a foundation, — and
yet the young one takes me from my desk and makes
me talk nonsense as fluently as you perhaps can
imagine.

"Both Edith and I are well; indeed, I have weathered a rude winter, and a ruder spring, bravely. Harry is here, and has been here about three weeks, and will remain till the end of October. He is a very excellent companion, and tempts me out into the air and the water when I should else be sitting at home. We have made our way well in the world, Tom, thus far, and by God's help we shall yet get on better. Make your fortune, and Joe may yet live to share its comforts, as he stands upon his Majesty's books in my name, though degraded by the appellation of mongrel. Madoc is in a Scotch press,— Ballantyne's, who printed the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Borders, a book which you may remember I bought at Bristol.

"You ask of Amadis: it has been well reviewed,

both in the Annual and Edinburgh, by Walter Scott, who in both has been very civil to me. Of all my later publications, this has been the most successful, more than 500 of the 1000 having sold within the year, so that there is a fair chance of the 50%. dependent upon the sale of the whole. Thalaba has been very admirably reviewed in the Critical, by William Taylor; but it does not sell, and will not for some years reach a second edition. Reviewing is coming round again! one parcel arrived! another on the road! a third ready to start! I grudge the time thus to be sold, sorely; but patience! it is, after all, better than pleading in a stinking court of law, — or or being called up at midnight to a patient; it is better than being a soldier or a sailor; better than calculating profits and loss on a counter; better, in, short than anything but independence.

66

July is, indeed, a lovely month at the Lakes, and so the Lakers seem to think, for they swarm here. We have been much interrupted by visiters; among others, young Roscoe; and more are yet to come. These are not the only interruptions; we have been, or rather are, manufacturing black currant jam for my uncle, and black currant wine for ourselves, Harry and I chief workmen, -pounding them in a wooden bowl with a great stone, as the acid acts upon a metal mortar. We have completed a great work in bridging the river Greta at the bottom of the orchard, by piling heaps of stones so as to step from one to another, many a hard hour's sport, half knee-deep in the water. Davy has been here stark mad for angling. This is our history:

yours has been busier. As for news, the packet which conveys this will convey later intelligence than it is in my power to communicate. Sir Francis may, and probably will, lose his election; but it is evident he has not lost his popularity. Pitt will go blundering on till every body, by miserable experience, think him what I always did. Whensoever

the great change of ministry, to which we all look on with hope, takes place, I shall have friends in power able to serve me, and shall, in fact, without scruple apply to Fox through one or two good channels this may be very remote, and yet may be very near. When Madoc is published, I mean to send Fox a copy, with such a note as may be proper for me to address to such a man.

"God bless you, Tom! it grows late, and I have two proofs to correct for to-night's post. Once more, God bless you!

R. S."

To Lieutenant Southey, H. M. S. Galatea.

"Dear Tom,

"Keswick, Sept. 12. 1804.

"It is a heartless and hopeless thing, to write letter after letter, when there seems so little probability of their ever reaching you. How is it that all your letters seem to find me, and none of mine to find you? I cannot comprehend. I write, and write, and write, always directing Bar