of this kind, was from an extract, in Cooke the
actor's life, from his Journal, stating that in the reading-room at
Albany, near Washington, he perused English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.
To be popular in a rising and far country has a kind of _posthumous
feel_, very different from the ephemeral _eclat_ and fete-ing, buzzing
and party-ing compliments of the well-dressed multitude. I can safely
say that, during my _reign_ in the spring of 1812, I regretted nothing
but its duration of six weeks instead of a fortnight, and was heartily
glad to resign.

"Last night I supped with Lewis;--and, as usual, though I neither
exceeded in solids nor fluids, have been half dead ever since. My
stomach is entirely destroyed by long abstinence, and the rest will
probably follow. Let it--I only wish the _pain_ over. The 'leap in the
dark' is the least to be dreaded.

"The Duke of * * called. I have told them forty times that, except to
half-a-dozen old and specified acquaintances, I am invisible. His Grace
is a good, noble, ducal person; but I am content to think so at a
distance, and so--I was not at home.

"Galt called.--Mem.--to ask some one to speak to Raymond in favour of
his play. We are old fellow-travellers, and, with all his
eccentricities, he has much strong sense, experience of the world, and
is, as far as I have seen, a good-natured philosophical fellow. I showed
him Sligo's letter on the reports of the Turkish girl's _aventure_ at
Athens soon after it happened. He and Lord Holland, Lewis, and Moore,
and Rogers, and Lady Melbourne have seen it. Murray has a copy. I
thought it had been _unknown_, and wish it were; but Sligo arrived only
some days after, and the _rumours_ are the subject of his letter. That I
shall preserve,--_it is as well_. Lewis and Galt were both _horrified_;
and L. wondered I did not introduce the situation into 'The Giaour.' He
_may_ wonder;--he might wonder more at that production's being written
at all. But to describe the _feelings of that situation_ were
impossible--it is _icy_ even to recollect them.

"The Bride of Abydos was published on Thursday the second of December;
but how it is liked or disliked, I know not. Whether it succeeds or not
is no fault of the public, against whom I can have no complaint. But I
am much more indebted to the tale than I can ever be to the most partial
reader; as it wrung my thoughts from reality to imagination--from
selfish regrets to vivid recollections--and reca