h delighted as Dr. Kippis with
reading his letters. He was a good-natured harmless little
soul, but more like a silver penny than a genius. It was a
neat fiddle-faddle bit of sterling, that had read good books,
and kept good company; but was too trifling for use, and only
fit to please a child."--On Dr. Nash's first volume of
'Worcestershire': "It is a folio of prodigious corpulence, and
yet dry enough; but it is finely dressed with many heads and
views." He characterises Pennant; "_He_ is not one of our
plodders (alluding to Gough); rather the other extreme;
his _corporal_ spirits (for I cannot call them _animal_) do
not allow him to digest anything. He gave a round jump
from ornithology to antiquity, and, as if they had any
relation, thought he understood everything that lay between
them. The report of his being disordered is not true; he has
been with me, and at least is as composed as ever I saw him."
His literary correspondence with his friend Cole abounds
with this easy satirical criticism--he delighted to
ridicule authors!--as well as to starve the miserable artists
he so grudgingly paid. In the very volumes he celebrated the
arts, he disgraced them by his penuriousness; so that he
loved to indulge his avarice at the expense of his vanity!

[33] This opinion on Walpole's talent for letter-writing was
published in 1812, many years before the public had the
present collection of his letters; my prediction has been
amply verified. He wrote a great number to Bentley, the son
of Dr. Bentley, who ornamented Gray's works with some
extraordinary designs. Walpole, who was always proud and
capricious, observes his friend Cole, broke with Bentley
because he would bring his wife with him to Strawberry-hill.
He then asked Bentley for all his letters back, but he
would not in return give Bentley's own.

This whole correspondence abounded with literature, criticism,
and wit of the most original and brilliant composition. This
is the opinion of no friend, but an admirer, and a good judge;
for it was Bentley's own.

[34] This is the renowned Strawberry-hill, a villa still standing on
the banks of the Thames, between Teddington and Twickenham,