y gives (among the _less-read_) the admirable
_Progress of the Soul_ and some of the pregnant _Holy
Sonnets_. Do you know Donne? There is hardly an English poet
better worth a thorough knowledge, in spite of his provoking
conceits and occasional jagged jargon.

The following paragraph on Whitehead is valuable:

Charles Whitehead's principal poem is _The Solitary_, which
in its day had admirers. It perhaps most recalls Goldsmith.
He also wrote a supernatural poem called _Ippolito_. There
was a volume of his poems published about 1848, or perhaps a
little later, by Bentley. It is disappointing, on the whole,
from the decided superiority of its best points to the
rest.... But the novel of _Richard Savage_ is very
remarkable,--a real character really worked out.

To aid me in certain researches I was at the time engaged in making in
the back-numbers of almost forgotten periodicals, Rossetti wrote:

The old _Monthly Mag._ was the precursor of the _New
Monthly_, which started about 1830, or thereabouts I think,
after which the old one ailed, but went on till fatal old
Heraud finished it off by editing it, and fairly massacred
that elderly innocent. You speak, in a former letter
(touching the continuation of _Christabel_), of "a certain
European magazine." Are you aware that it was as old a thing
as _The Gentleman's_, and went on _ad infinitum?_ Other such
were the _Universal Magazine, the Scots' Magazine_--all
endless in extent and beginning time out of mind,--to say
nothing of the _Ladies' Magazine and Wits' Magazine_. Then
there was the _Annual Register_. All these are quarters in
which you might prosecute researches, and might happen to
find something about Keats. _The Monthly Magazine_ must have
commenced almost as early, I believe. I cannot help thinking
there was a similar _Imperial Magazine_.

The following letter possesses an interest independent of its subject,
which to me, however, is interest enough. Mr. William Watson had sent
Rossetti a copy of a volume of poems he had just published, and
had received a letter in acknowledgment, wherein our friend, with
characteristic appreciativeness, said many cordial words of it:

Your young friend Watson [he said in a subsequent letter]
wrote me in a very modest mood for one who can do as he can
at his age. I t