y College.

"There are some curious commentaries on Dante preserved here,
which you should see. Believe me ever, faithfully and most
affectionately, yours," &c.

* * * * *

LETTER 359. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Ravenna, March 1. 1820.

"I sent you by last post the translation of the first Canto of the
Morgante Maggiore, and wish you to ask Rose about the word
'sbergo,' _i.e._ 'usbergo,' which I have translated _cuirass_. I
suspect that it means _helmet_ also. Now, if so, which of the
senses is best accordant with the text? I have adopted cuirass, but
will be amenable to reasons. Of the natives, some say one, and some
t'other: but they are no great Tuscans in Romagna. However, I will
ask Sgricci (the famous improvisatore) to-morrow, who is a native
of Arezzo. The Countess Guiccioli who is reckoned a very cultivated
young lady, and the dictionary, say _cuirass_. I have written
cuirass, but _helmet_ runs in my head nevertheless--and will run in
verse very well, whilk is the principal point. I will ask the Sposa
Spina Spinelli, too, the Florentine bride of Count Gabriel Rusponi,
just imported from Florence, and get the sense out of somebody.

"I have just been visiting the new Cardinal, who arrived the day
before yesterday in his legation. He seems a good old gentleman,
pious and simple, and not quite like his predecessor, who was a
bon-vivant, in the worldly sense of the words.

"Enclosed is a letter which I received some time ago from Dallas.
It will explain itself. I have not answered it. This comes of doing
people good. At one time or another (including copyrights) this
person has had about fourteen hundred pounds of my money, and he
writes what he calls a posthumous work about me, and a scrubby
letter accusing me of treating him ill, when I never did any such
thing. It is true that I left off letter-writing, as I have done
with almost everybody else; but I can't see how that was misusing
him.

"I look upon his epistle as the consequence of my not sending him
another hundred pounds, which he wrote to me for about two years
ago, and which I thought proper to withhold, he having had his
share, methought, of what I could dispone upon others.

"In your last you ask me after my articles of domestic wants; I
bel