B. B. also visited
the Rev. Mr. Mitford at Benhall, a village between Woodbridge and
Saxmundham, who was then engaged in editing the Aldine edition of the
English Poets. But B. B.'s correspondents were numerous. Poor,
unfortunate L. E. L. sent him girlish letters. Mrs. Hemans was also a
correspondent, as were the Howitts and Mrs. Opie and Dr. Drake, of
Hadley, whose literary disquisitions are now, alas! forgotten; and poor
Charles Lloyd, whose father wrote of his son's many books 'that it is
easier to write them than to gain numerous readers.' Dr. Bowring and
Josiah Conder were also on writing terms with the Quaker poet. His
excursions, his daughter tells us, rarely extended beyond a few miles
round Woodbridge, to the vale of Dedham, Constable's birthplace and
painting-room; or to the neighbouring seacoast, including Aldborough,
doubly dear to him from its association with the memory and poetry of
Crabbe. Once upon a time he dined with Sir Robert Peel, when he had the
pleasure of meeting Airy, the late Astronomer Royal, whom he had known as
a lad at Playford. The dinner with Sir Robert Peel ended satisfactorily,
as it resulted in the bestowal by the Queen on the poet of a pension of
100 pounds a year. He was now beyond the fear of being tempted to commit
forgery, and being hung in consequence--a possibility, which was the
occasion of one of Lamb's wittiest letters. The gentle Elia made merry
over the chance of a Quaker poet being hung.

Amiable and liberal as was Bernard Barton, he could and did strike hard
when occasion required. In East Anglia, when I was a lad, there was a
great deal of intolerance--almost as much as exists in society circles at
the present day--and that is saying a great deal. Churchmen, in their
ignorance, were ready to put down Dissent in every way, and occasionally,
by their absurdity, they roused the righteous ire of the Quaker poet.
One of them, for instance, had said at a public meeting: 'This was the
opinion he had formed of Dissenters, that they were wolves in sheep's
clothing.' Whereupon B. B. wrote:

'Wolves in sheep's clothing! bitter words and big;
But who applies them? first the speaker scan;
A suckling Tory! an apostate Whig!
Indeed a very silly, weak young man!

'What such an one may either think or say,
With sober people matters not one pin;
In _their_ opinion his own senseless bray
Proves _him_ the ASS WRAPT IN A LION'S SKI