t your punctuation. I have, but with some
difficulty, _not_ added any more to this snake of a poem, which has
been lengthening its rattles every month. It is now fearfully long,
being more than a Canto and a half of Childe Harold, which contains
but 882 lines per book, with all late additions inclusive.

"The last lines Hodgson likes. It is not often he does, and when he
don't he tells me with great energy, and I fret and alter. I have
thrown them in to soften the ferocity of our Infidel, and, for a
dying man, have given him a good deal to say for himself.

"I was quite sorry to hear you say you stayed in town on my
account, and I hope sincerely you did not mean so superfluous a
piece of politeness.

"Our _six_ critiques!--they would have made half a Quarterly by
themselves; but this is the age of criticism."

* * * * *

The following refer apparently to a still later edition.

LETTER 131. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Stilton, Oct. 3. 1813.

"I have just recollected an alteration you may make in the proof to
be sent to Aston.--Among the lines on Hassan's Serai, not far from
the beginning, is this--

"Unmeet for Solitude to share.

Now to share implies more than _one_, and Solitude is a single
gentleman; it must be thus--

"For many a gilded chamber's there,
Which Solitude might well forbear;

and so on.--My address is Aston Hall, Rotherham.

"Will you adopt this correction? and pray accept a Stilton cheese
from me for your trouble. Ever yours, B.

"If[75] the old line stands let the other run thus--

"Nor there will weary traveller halt,
To bless the sacred bread and salt.

"_Note_.--To partake of food--to break bread and taste salt with
your host, ensures the safety of the guest; even though an enemy,
his person from that moment becomes sacred.

"There is another additional note sent yesterday--on the Priest in
the Confessional.

"P.S.--I leave this to your discretion; if any body thinks the old
line a good one or the cheese a bad one, don't accept either. But,
in that case, the word _share_ is repeated soon after in the line--

"To share the master's bread and salt;

and must be altered to--

"To break the master's bread and salt.

This is not so well, th