length along.' Such, I suspect, mine will be,
though it ought to contain only thanks for the admirable ones you have
sent to me on the late affairs of Tuscany. Yesterday Mr. Trollope gave
them to me as your present. I then exprest a hope that he or you would
undertake a history of Italian affairs from the Treaty of Campo Formio
down to the present day. Indeed, I hope and trust that it may be
continued a year or two farther, until the recovery of Rome from the
most perfidious enemy she and Italy were ever opprest by. And this
under the title of deliverer! Lay your two heads together, and let me
have to boast that the best and truest of our historians were my
personal friends. Southey and Napier were most intimately so. Hallam
is a dull proser--no discovery or illustration, no profound thought,
no vivid description, not even a harmonious period. Macaulay is a
smart reviewer, indifferent to truth, a hanger-on of party. Lingard is
more honest, and writes better. He does not tag together loose
epigrams with a crooked pin. Now put the empty chairs of these people
against the wall, and sit down to your table with a long piece of work
before you. And now you must be tired, as I foretold you would be. So
hail the farewell of your affectionate old friend,

"W. LANDOR."

* * * * *

Here is another, undated, but shown by the Bath postmark to have been
written in 1857. The whole letter is strongly characteristic of the
writer, as indeed was everything that Landor wrote, said or did, so
thoroughly and in every sense of the word was he _original_; but, as
in the preceding letter, the most interesting portion is that toward
the end, where he gives some amusing indications of his peculiar
political opinions and feelings. This letter also was written to the
same correspondent:

"My dear friend: It is now three years since I have been in London,
except in passing through it to the Crystal Palace, without
dismounting." [How curiously the phrase indicates the habits of the
writer's youth, when gentlemen's journeys were for the most part
performed on horseback!] "At Sydenham I remained three weeks, almost;
but the air of London always disagreed with me, added to which, the
necessity of visiting was always intolerable to me, and I have lost
many friends by refusing to undergo it. If Mr. Trollope should find a
few days' leisure for Bath, I can promise him a hearty reception and a
comfortable bedroom. Is it n