il
I know her decision. I have not seen the great Exhibition, and,
unless she arrives, most probably shall not see it. My lameness,
which has now lasted five months, is the reason I give to myself for
not going, chairs being only admitted for an hour or two on Saturday
mornings. But I suspect that my curiosity has hardly reached the
fever-heat needful to encounter the crowd and the fatigue. It is
amusing to find how people are cooling down about it. We always were
a nation of idolaters, and always had the trick of avenging
ourselves upon our poor idols for the sin of our own idolatry. Many
an overrated, and then underrated, poet can bear witness to this. I
remember when my friend Mr. Milnes was called _the_ poet, although
Scott and Byron were in their glory, and Wordsworth had written all
of his works that will live. We make gods of wood and stone, and
then we knock them to pieces; and so figuratively, if not literally,
shall we do by the Exhibition. Next month I am going to move to a
cottage at Swallowfield,--so called, I suppose, because those
migratory birds meet by millions every autumn in the park there, now
belonging to some friends of mine, and still famous as the place
where Lord Clarendon wrote his history. That place is still almost a
palace; mine an humble but very prettily placed cottage. O, how
proud and glad I should be, if ever I could receive Mr. and Mrs.
Fields within its walls for more than a poor hour! I shall have
tired you with this long letter, but you have made me reckon you
among my friends,--ay, one of the best and kindest,--and must take
the consequence.

Ever yours, M.R.M.

Swallowfield, Saturday Night.

I write you two notes at once, my dear friend, whilst the
recollection of your conversation is still in my head and the
feeling of your kindness warm on my heart. To write, to thank you
for a visit which has given me so much pleasure, is an impulse not
to be resisted. Pray tell Mr. and Mrs. Bennoch how delighted I am to
make their acquaintance and how earnestly I hope we may meet often.
They are charming people.

Another motive that I had for writing at once is to tell you that
the more I think of the title of the forthcoming book, the less I
like it; and I care more for it, now that you are concerned in the
matter, than I did before. "Per