_July_ 25/53.

MY DEAR POLLOCK,

Thank you for your letter. Though I believed the Calderon to be on the
whole well done and entertaining, I began to wish to be told it was so by
others, for fear I had made a total mistake: which would have been a
bore. And the very free and easy translation lies open to such easy
condemnation, unless it be successful.

Your account of Sherborne rouses all the Dowager within me. I shall have
to leave this cottage, I believe, and have not yet found a place
sufficiently dull to migrate to. Meanwhile to-morrow I am going to one
of my great treats: viz. the Assizes at Ipswich: where I shall see little
Voltaire Jervis, {283a} and old Parke, {283b} who I trust will have the
gout, he bears it so Christianly.

_To G. Crabbe_.

BOULGE, WOODBRIDGE,
_Sept_. 12/53.

MY DEAR GEORGE,

I enclose you a scrap from 'The Leader' as you like to see criticisms on
my Calderon. I suppose your sisters will send you the Athenaeum in which
you will see a more determined spit at me. I foresaw (as I think I told
you) how likely this was to be the case: and so am not surprized. One
must take these chances if one will play at so doubtful a game. I
believe those who read the Book, without troubling themselves about
whether it is a free Translation or not, like it: but Critics must be
supposed to know all, and it is safe to condemn. On the other hand, the
Translation may not be good on any ground: and then the Critics are all
right.

_To E. B. Cowell_.

3 PARK VILLAS WEST, RICHMOND, SURREY,
_October_ 25/53.

MY DEAR COWELL,

. . . I think I forgot to tell you that Mr. Maccarthy (my literal Rival
in Calderon) mentions in his Preface a masterly Critique on Calderon in
the Westminster 1851, which I take to be yours. {284} He says it, and
the included translations, are the best Commentary he has seen on the
subject.

I have ordered Eastwick's Gulistan: for I believe I shall potter out so
much Persian. The weak Apologue {285a} goes on (for I have not had time
for much here) and I find it difficult enough even with Jones's
Translation.

I am now going to see the last of the Tennysons at Twickenham.

_To F. Tennyson_.

BREDFIELD RECTORY, {285b} WOODBRIDGE.
_December_ 27/53.

MY DEAR FREDERIC,

I am too late to wish you a Happy Christmas; so must wish you a happy New
Year. Write to me here, and tell me (in however few words) how you
prospered in your journey to Italy: how you all are the