is; and thinking over
our five and thirty years' Acquaintance as I sit alone by my Fire these
long Nights. I had seen very little of him for these last ten years;
_nothing_ for the last five; he did not care to write; and people told me
he was become a little spoiled: by London praise, and some consequent
Egotism. But he was a very fine Fellow. His Books are wonderful:
Pendennis; Vanity Fair; and the Newcomes; to which compared Fielding's
seems to me coarse work. I don't know yet how his two daughters are left
provided for; the Papers say well. He had built and furnished a fine
House at 7 or 8000 pounds cost; which is as good a Property for them to
let or sell as any other, I suppose; and the Copyright of his Books must
also be a good Property: always supposing he had not encumbered all these
by anticipation.

I was not at all well myself for three months; but either the Doctor's
Stuff, or the sharp clear weather, or both, have set me up pretty much as
I was before. I have nothing to tell, as usual, of People or Places; for
I have scarce stirred from this Place since my little Ship was laid up in
the middle of October. Donne writes sometimes; I see an article of his
about the Antonines advertised in the present Edinburgh; but that you
know is out of my Line. His second son, Mowbray, is lately married to a
Daughter (I don't know which) of Mrs. Salmon's; widow of a former Rector
here, whom your Elizabeth will remember all about, I dare say.

This time ten years I was lodging at Oxford, reading Persian with you. I
doubt I shall never do so again; I am too lazy to turn Dictionaries over
now; and indeed had some while ceased to expect much to turn up from
them. You are quite right, as a Scholar, to work out the Mine; but you
admit that nothing is likely to come out of such Value as from the Greek,
Latin, and English, which we have ready to our hands. Did I tell you how
pleased I had been with Sophocles and AEschylus in my Boat this Summer?

I dare say you are quite right about my 'Birds': indeed I think I had
always told you that my Version was of no _public_ use; I only wanted a
few Copies for private use; and I wanted you to add a short Account, and
a few Notes; in which I am shy of trusting my own Irish Accuracy. But
you have plenty of better work, and _this_ is quite as well left.

Miss Ingelow's second volume isn't half so good as her first, to my
thinking; more ambitious, with a twang of Tennyson. I can'