the other people
I have become familiar with; and shall only mention in addition Bingham
Baring, eldest son of Lord Ashburton, who was here for some weeks on
account of a dying brother, and whom I saw a great deal of. He is a
pleasant, very good-natured and rather clever man; Conservative Member
for North Staffordshire.

"During the first two months I was here, I rode a great deal about the
Island, having a horse regularly; and was much in agreeable company,
seeing a great deal of beautiful scenery. Since then, the weather has
been much more unsettled, though not cold; and I have gone about less,
as I cannot risk the being wet. But I have spent my time pleasantly,
reading and writing. I have written a good many things for _Blackwood_;
one of which, the _Armor and the Skeleton_, I see is printed in the
February Number. I have just sent them a long Tale, called the _Onyx
Ring_, which cost me a good deal of trouble; and the extravagance
of which, I think, would amuse you; but its length may prevent its
appearance in _Blackwood_. If so, I think I should make a volume of it.
I have also written some poems, and shall probably publish the _Sexton's
Daughter_ when I return.

"My health goes on most favorably. I have had no attack of the chest
this spring; which has not happened to me since the spring before we
went to Bonn; and I am told, if I take care, I may roll along for years.
But I have little hope of being allowed to spend the four first months
of any year in England; and the question will be, Whether to go at
once to Italy, by way of Germany and Switzerland, with my family, or to
settle with them in England, perhaps at Hastings, and go abroad myself
when it may be necessary. I cannot decide till I return; but I think the
latter the most probable.

"To my dear Charles I do not like to use the ordinary forms of ending
a letter, for they are very inadequate to express my sense of your long
and most unvarying kindness; but be assured no one living could say with
more sincerity that he is ever affectionately yours,

"JOHN STERLING."

Other Letters give occasionally views of the shadier side of things:
dark broken weather, in the sky and in the mind; ugly clouds covering
one's poor fitful transitory prospect, for a time, as they might well do
in Sterling's case. Meanwhile we perceive his literary business is fast
developing itself; amid all his confusions, he is never