ublime, I fancy, than anything in the Henriade. And
one Canto ends:
J'ai dans mon temps possede des maitresses,
Et j'aime encore a retrouver mon coeur--
is very pretty in the old Sinner. . . .
I am engaged in preparing to depart from these dear Rooms where I have
been thirteen years, and don't know yet where I am going. {169}
_To John Allen_.
GRANGE FARM: WOODBRIDGE
_Febr_: 21/74.
MY DEAR ALLEN,
While I was reading a volume of Ste. Beuve at Lowestoft a Fortnight ago,
I wondered if you got on with him; j'avais envie de vous ecrire une
petite Lettre a ce sujet: but I let it go by. Now your Letter comes; and
I will write: only a little about S. B. however, only that: the Volume I
had with me was vol. III. of my Edition (I don't know if yours is the
same), and I thought you [would] like _all_ of three Causeries in it:
Rousseau, Frederick the Great, and Daguesseau: the rest you might not so
much care for: nor I neither.
Hare's Spain was agreeable to hear read: I have forgot all about it. His
'Memorials' were insufferably tiresome to me. You don't speak of
Tichborne, which I never tire of: only wondering that the Lord Chief
Justice sets so much Brains to work against so foolish a Bird. {170} The
Spectator on Carlyle is very good, I think. As to Politics I scarce
meddle with them. I have been glad to revert to Don Quixote, which I
read easily enough in the Spanish: it is so delightful that I don't
grudge looking into a Dictionary for the words I forget. It won't do in
English; or _has not done_ as yet: the English colloquial is not the
Spanish do. It struck me oddly that--of all things in the world!--Sir
Thomas Browne's Language might suit.
They now sell at the Railway Stalls Milnes' Life of Keats for half a
crown, as well worth the money as any Book. I would send you a Copy if
you liked: as I bought three or four to give away.
You may see that I have changed my Address: obliged to leave the Lodging
where I had been thirteen years: and to come here to my own house, while
another Lodging is getting ready, which I doubt I shall not inhabit, as
it will entail Housekeeping on me. But I like to keep my house for my
Nieces: it is not my fault they do not make it their home.
Ever yours, E. F. G.
_To S. Laurence_.
GRANGE FARM, WOODBRIDGE.
_February_ 26/74.
MY DEAR LAURENCE,
. . . I am not very solicitous about the Likeness {171} as I might be of
some dear Friend; but I was willing
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