t in the
first novel he opened.

* * * * *

Walter Scott has no business to write novels,
especially good ones. It is not fair. He has fame
and profit enough as a poet, and should not be
taking the bread out of other people's mouths.

I do not like him, and do not mean to like
_Waverley_[340] if I can help it, but fear I must.

I am quite determined, however, not to be pleased
with Mrs. West's _Alicia De Lacy_, should I ever
meet with it, which I hope I shall not. I think I
_can_ be stout against anything written by Mrs.
West.[341] I have made up my mind to like no
novels really but Miss Edgeworth's, yours, and my
own.

What can you do with Egerton to increase the
interest for him? I wish you could contrive
something, some family occurrence to bring out his
good qualities more. Some distress among brothers
and sisters to relieve by the sale of his curacy!
Something to carry him mysteriously away, and then
be heard of at York or Edinburgh in an old great
coat. I would not seriously recommend anything
improbable, but if you could invent something
spirited for him it would have a good effect. He
might lend all his money to Captain Morris, but
then he would be a great fool if he did. Cannot
the Morrises quarrel and he reconcile them? Excuse
the liberty I take in these suggestions.

* * * * *

The Webbs are really gone! When I saw the wagons
at the door, and thought of all the trouble they
must have in moving, I began to reproach myself
for not having liked them better, but since the
wagons have disappeared my conscience has been
closed again, and I am excessively glad they are
gone.

I am very fond of Sherlock's sermons and prefer
them to almost any.

Anna's marriage took place on November 8. Her husband was afterwards a
clergyman, but he did not take Orders until about three years after the
marriage; and the first home of the young couple was at Hendon, to which
place the following letter was addressed, Jane being at that time with
her brother Henry, in Hans Place:--