ttel Geste of Robin Hood_,
this king of England was Edward the First; so that the existence of the
"bold outlaw" is antedated by the author of _Ivanhoe_ upwards of seventy
years. This, however, does not affect the story, excepting to those who
entertain the fond fancy, that when they read an historical novel they
read history.[1] Do you wonder, Eusebius, at my chronological learning?
You well may; it must appear to you a very unexpected commodity. The
truth is, my attention has been directed to this very matter by my
antiquarian friend M'Gutch of Worcester, who not only pointed out to me
the essay in the _Westminster_, but, finding my curiosity excited, sent
me many of the ballads, Robin Hood's garlands, and _The Lyttel Geste_,
together with an able introduction of his own to a new edition of the
collection he is about to produce, with which you will be delighted, and
learn all that is to be known; and it is more than you would expect to
meet with about this "gentle robber."

S----, to whom I read the foregoing remarks on _Ivanhoe_, said, I ought
to do penance for the criticism. I left the penance to his choice; and,
like a true friend, he imposed a pleasure; I do not say, Eusebius, that
if left to myself I should have been a Franciscan. He took up _Marmion_,
and read it from beginning to end. It is indeed a noble poem. Will not
the day come, when Sir Walter's poems will be more read than his novels,
good though they be?

In his poetry Scott always reminds me of Homer. There is the same energy
ever working to the one simple purpose--the same spontaneity and belief
in its own tale; and diversity of character for relief's sake is common
to both. In reading Homer we must discard all our school notions; we
began to read with difficulty; the task was a task, though it was true
we warmed in it--the thread was broken a thousand times; and we too
often pictured to ourselves the old bard in his gravity of beard and
age--not in that vigour, that freshness of manhood, which is conspicuous
in both poems, at whatever age they were composed.

I have had the curiosity, Eusebius, to enquire of very many real
scholars, who have professed to keep up their Greek after leaving the
universities, if they have re-read Homer in Greek, and almost all have
confessed that they had not. They read him in Pope and Cowper. Let them
read him offhand, and fluently, continuously, as they do _Marmion_, or
the _Lay of the Last Minstrel_, and I cannot bu