rs!--I say, do you remember those precious ones of the Sanctuary? A
few days ago one of them turned up again. I found it in my great-coat
pocket, and thought of you. I have seen the article in the _Edinburgh_
about the Bible--exceedingly brilliant and clever, but rather too
epigrammatic, quotations scanty and not correct. Ford is certainly a
most astonishing fellow; he quite flabbergasts me--handbooks, review's,
and I hear that he has just been writing a 'Life of Velasquez' for the
'Penny Cyclopaedia'!"

OULTON HALL, LOWESTOFT, _March_ 13, 1843.

"So the second edition is disposed of. Well and good. Now, my dear
friend, have the kindness to send me an account of the profits of it and
let us come to a settlement. Up to the present time do assure you I have
not made a penny by writing, what with journeys to London and tarrying
there. Basta! I hate to talk of money matters.

"Let them call me a nonentity if they will; I believe that some of those
who say I am a phantom would alter their tone provided they were to ask
me to a good dinner; bottles emptied and fowls devoured are not exactly
the feats of a phantom: no! I partake more of the nature of a Brownie or
Robin Goodfellow--goblins, 'tis true, but full of merriment and fun, and
fond of good eating and drinking. Occasionally I write a page or two of
my life. I am now getting my father into the Earl of Albemarle's
regiment, in which he was captain for many years. If I live, and my
spirits keep up tolerably well, I hope that within a year I shall be
able to go to press with something which shall beat the 'Bible in
Spain.'"

And a few days later:

"I have received your account for the two editions. I am perfectly
satisfied. We will now, whenever you please, bring out a third edition.

"The book which I am at present about will consist, if I live to finish
it, of a series of Rembrandt pictures, interspersed here and there with
a Claude. I shall tell the world of my parentage, my early thoughts and
habits, how I become a _sap-engro,_ or viper-catcher: my wanderings with
the regiment in England, Scotland, and Ireland, in which last place my
jockey habits first commenced: then a great deal about Norwich, Billy
Taylor, Thurtell, etc.: how I took to study and became a _lav-engro._
What do you think of this for a bill of fare? I am now in a blacksmith's
shop in the south of Ireland taking lessons from the Vulcan in horse
charming and horse-shoe making. By the bye, I wish I