Mr. C. was now preparing for a second edition of his Poems, and had sent
the order in which they were to be printed, with the following letter,
accompanying two new Poems.
"Stowey, Friday Morning.
My dear Cottle.
... If you do not like the following verses, or if you do not think them
worthy of an edition in which I profess to give nothing but my choicest
fish, picked, gutted, and cleaned, please to get some one to write them
out and send them, with my compliments, to the editor of the New Monthly
Magazine. But if you think of them as I do (most probably from parental
dotage for my last born) let them immediately follow 'The Kiss.'
God love you,