to
the charms of simple music; and not unfrequently have seen the tears in
his eyes while listening to the Irish Melodies. Among those that thus
affected him was one beginning "When first I met thee warm and young,"
the words of which, besides the obvious feeling which they express, were
intended also to admit of a political application. He, however,
discarded the latter sense wholly from his mind, and gave himself up to
the more natural sentiment of the song with evident emotion.

On one or two of these evenings, his favourite actor, Mr. Kean, was of
the party; and on another occasion, we had at dinner his early
instructor in pugilism, Mr. Jackson, in conversing with whom, all his
boyish tastes seemed to revive;--and it was not a little amusing to
observe how perfectly familiar with the annals of "The Ring[60]," and
with all the most recondite phraseology of "the Fancy," was the sublime
poet of Childe Harold.

The following note is the only one, of those I received from him at this
time, worth transcribing:--

"December 14. 1814.

"My dearest Tom,

"I will send the pattern to-morrow, and since you don't go to our
friend ('of the _keeping_ part of the town') this evening, I shall
e'en sulk at home over a solitary potation. My self-opinion rises
much by your eulogy of my social qualities. As my friend Scrope is
pleased to say, I believe I am very well for a 'holiday drinker.'
Where the devil are you? With Woolridge[61], I conjecture--for
which you deserve another abscess. Hoping that the American war
will last for many years, and that all the prizes may be registered
at Bermoothes, believe me, &c.

"P.S. I have just been composing an epistle to the Archbishop for
an especial licence. Oons! it looks serious. Murray is impatient to
see you, and would call, if you will give him audience. Your new
coat!--I wonder you like the colour, and don't go about, like
Dives, in purple."

[Footnote 51: I had frequently, both in earnest and in jest, expressed
these hopes to him; and, in one of my letters, after touching upon some
matters relative to my own little domestic circle, I added, "This will
all be unintelligible to you; though I sometimes cannot help thinking it
within the range of possibility, that even _you_, volcano as you are,
may, one day, cool down into something of the same _habitable_ state.
Indeed, when one thinks of lava having b