fresh one bolstered up, Ah! he may dress me as he Sk bel likes but he shan't tickle me pillow the feathers,-I would not give a tester for such puns, let us ope brown (erratum--a large B-a Bumble B.) will go no further in the Bedroom & not call Mat Snook a relation to Mattrass- This is grown to a conclusion-I had excellent puns in my head but one bad one from Brown has quite upset me but I am quite set-up for more, but I'm content to be conqueror. Your's in love. Cha'. Brown. N.B. I beg leaf [sic] to withdraw all my Puns—they are all wash, an base uns. XCV. To FANNY KEATS. Wentworth Place Feby. [1819]. Thursday My dear Fanny, Your Letter to me at Bedhampton hurt me very much,-What objection can there be to your receiving a Letter from me? At Bedhampton I was unwell and did not go out of the Garden Gate but twice or thrice during the fortnight I was there-Since I came back I have been taking care of myself I have been obliged to do so, and am now in hopes that by this care I shall get rid of a sore throat which has haunted me at intervals nearly a twelvemonth. I had always a presentiment of not being able to succeed in persuading Mr. Abbey to let you remain longer at School-I am very sorry that he will not consent. I recommend you to keep up all that you know and to learn more by yourself however little. The time will come when you will be more pleased with Life-look forward to that time and, though it may appear a trifle be careful not to let the idle and retired Life you lead fix any awkward habit or behaviour on you-whether you sit or walk endeavour to let it be in a seemly and if possible a graceful manner. We have been very little together: but you have not the less been with me in thought. You have no one in the world besides me who would sacrifice any thing for you-I feel myself the only Protector you have. In all your little troubles think of me with the thought that there is at least one person in England who if he could would help you out of them-I live in hopes of being able to make you happy. -I should not perhaps write in this manner, if it were not for the fear of not being able to see you often or long together. I am in hopes Mr. Abbey will not object any more to your receiving a letter now and then from me. How unreasonable! I want a few more lines from you for George-there are some young Men, acquaintances of a Schoolfellow of mine, going out to Birkbeck's at the latter end of this Month-I am in expectation every day of hearing from George-I begin to fear his last letters miscarried. I shall be in town to-morrow-if you should not be in town, I shall send this little parcel by the Walthamstow Coach-I think you will like GoldsmithWrite me soon Your affectionate Brother John Mrs. Dilke has not been very well-she is gone a walk to town to-day for exercise. My dear Fanny, XCVI. To FANNY KEATS. Wentworth Place Saturday Morn— I intended to have not failed to do as you requested, and write you as you say once a fortnight. On looking to your letter I find there is no date; and not knowing how long it is since I received it I do not precisely know how great a sinner I am. I am getting quite well, and Mrs. Dilke is getting on pretty well. You must pay no attention to Mrs. Abbey's unfeeling and ignorant gabble. You can't stop an old woman's crying more than you can a Child's. The old woman is the greatest nuisance because she is too old for the rod. Many people live opposite a Blacksmith's till they cannot hear the hammer. I have been in Town for two or three days and came back last night. I have been a little concerned at not hearing from George-I continue in daily expectation. Keep on reading and play as much on the music and the grassplot as you can. I should like to take possession of those Grassplots for a Month or so; and send Mrs. A. to Town to count coffee berries instead of currant Bunches, for I want you to teach me a few common dancing steps-and I would buy a Watch box to practise them in by myself. I think. I had better always pay the postage of these Letters. I shall send you another book the first time I am in Town early enough to book it with one of the morning Walthamstow Coaches. You did not say a word about your Chilblains. Write me directly and let me know about them-Your Letter shall be answered like an echo. My dear Haydon, Wentworth Place. [Postmark, 8 March 1819.] You must be wondering where I am and what I am about! I am mostly at Hampstead, and about nothing; being in a sort of qui bono temper, not exactly on the road to an epic poem. Nor must you think I have forgotten you. No, I have about every three days been to Abbey's and to the Law[y]ers. Do let me know how you have been getting on, and in what spirits you are. You got out gloriously in yesterday's Examiner. What a set of little people we live amongst! I went the other day into an ironmonger's shop-without any change in my sensations-men and tin kettles are much the same in these days-they do not study like children at five and thirty-but they talk like men of twenty. Conversation is not a search after knowledge, but an endeavour at effect. In this respect two most opposite men, Wordsworth and Hunt, are the same. A friend of mine observed the other day that if Lord Bacon were to make any remark in a party of the present day, the conversation would stop on the sudden./ I am convinced of this, and from this I have come to this resolution-never to write for den. the sake of writing or making a poem, but from running over with any little knowledge or experience which many years of reflection may perhaps give me; otherwise I will be dumb. What imagination I have I shall enjoy, and greatly, for I have experienced the satisfaction of having great conceptions without the trouble of sonnetteering. I will not spoil my love of gloom by writing an Ode to Darkness! With respect to my livelihood, I will not write for it,for I will not run with that most vulgar of all crowds, the literary. Such things I ratify by looking upon myself, and trying myself at lifting mental weights, as it were. I am three and twenty, with little knowledge and middling intellect. It is true that in the height of enthusiasm I have been cheated into some fine passages; but that is not the thing. I have not been to see you because all my going out has been to town, and that has been a great deal. Write I have been employed lately in writing to George -I do not send him very short letters, but keep on day after day. There were some young Men I think I told you of who were going to the Settlement: they have changed their minds, and I am disappointed in my ex |