lections of his acting are, to my loss,
but shadowy and imperfect. Which confession I now make publickly, and
without mental qualification or reserve, to all whom it may concern. But
the deduction of this pleasant gentleman that therefore the Grimaldi
book must be bad, I must take leave to doubt. I don't think that to edit
a man's biography from his own notes it is essential you should have
known him, and I don't believe that Lord Braybrooke had more than the
very slightest acquaintance with Mr. Pepys, whose memoirs he edited two
centuries after he died."

Enormous meanwhile, and without objection audible on any side, had been
the success of the completed _Pickwick_, which we celebrated by a
dinner, with himself in the chair and Talfourd in the vice-chair,
everybody in hearty good humor with every other body; and a copy of
which I received from him on the 11th of December in the most luxurious
of Hayday's bindings, with a note worth preserving for its closing
allusion. The passage referred to in it was a comment, in delicately
chosen words, that Leigh Hunt had made on the inscription at the grave
in Kensal Green:[14] "Chapman & Hall have just sent me, with a copy of
our deed, three 'extra-super' bound copies of _Pickwick_, as per
specimen inclosed. The first I forward to you, the second I have
presented to our good friend Ainsworth, and the third Kate has retained
for herself. Accept your copy with one sincere and most comprehensive
expression of my warmest friendship and esteem; and a hearty renewal, if
there need be any renewal when there has been no interruption, of all
those assurances of affectionate regard which our close friendship and
communion for a long time back has every day implied. . . . That beautiful
passage you were so kind and considerate as to send me, has given me the
only feeling akin to pleasure (sorrowful pleasure it is) that I have yet
had, connected with the loss of my dear young friend and companion; for
whom my love and attachment will never diminish, and by whose side, if
it please God to leave me in possession of sense to signify my wishes,
my bones, whenever or wherever I die, will one day be laid. Tell Leigh
Hunt when you have an opportunity how much he has affected me, and how
deeply I thank him for what he has done. You cannot say it too
strongly."

The "deed" mentioned was one executed in the previous month to restore
to him a third ownership in the book which had thus far enriched all