d taste, and learning, and good humour
(though not a whit less severe for that), in every line of that
critique.

"Next to _your_ being an E. Reviewer, _my_ being of the same
kidney, and Jeffrey's being such a friend to both, are amongst the
events which I conceive were not calculated upon in Mr.--what's his
name?'s--'Essay on Probabilities.'

"But, Tom, I say--Oons! Scott menaces the 'Lord of the Isles." Do
you mean to compete? or lay by, till this wave has broke upon the
_shelves_? (of booksellers, not rocks--a _broken_ metaphor, by the
way.) You _ought_ to be afraid of nobody; but your modesty is
really as provoking and unnecessary as a * *'s. I am very merry,
and have just been writing some elegiac stanzas on the death of Sir
P. Parker. He was my first cousin, but never met since boyhood. Our
relations desired me, and I have scribbled and given it to Perry,
who will chronicle it to-morrow. I am as sorry for him as one could
be for one I never saw since I was a child; but should not have
wept melodiously, except 'at the request of friends.'

"I hope to get out of town and be married, but I shall take
Newstead in my way; and you must meet me at Nottingham and
accompany me to mine Abbey. I will tell you the day when I know it.

"Ever," &c.

"P.S. By the way my wife elect is perfection, and I hear of nothing
but her merits and her wonders, and that she is 'very pretty.' Her
expectations, I am told, are great; but _what_, I have not asked. I
have not seen her these ten months."

* * * * *

LETTER 204. TO MR. MOORE.

"October 14. 1814.

"An' there were any thing in marriage that would make a difference
between my friends and me, particularly in your case, I would 'none
on't.' My agent sets off for Durham next week, and I shall follow
him, taking Newstead and you in my way. I certainly did not address
Miss Milbanke with these views, but it is likely she may prove a
considerable _parti_. All her father can give, or leave her, he
will; and from her childless uncle, Lord Wentworth, whose barony,
it is supposed, will devolve on Ly. Milbanke (her sister), she has
expectations. But these will depend upon his own disposition, which
seems very partial towards her. She is an only child, and Sir R.'s
estates,