"April 6. 1823.
"It _would_ be worse than idle, knowing, as I do, the utter
worthlessness of words on such occasions, in me to attempt to express
what I ought to feel, and do feel for the loss you have sustained[1];
and I must thus dismiss the subject, for I dare not trust myself
further with it _for your_ sake, or for my own. I shall _endeavour_
to see you as soon as it may not appear intrusive. Pray excuse the
levity of my yesterday's scrawl--I little thought under what
circumstances it would find you.
[Footnote 1: The death of Lord B----'s son, which had been long
expected, but of which the account had just then arrived.]
"I have received a very handsome and flattering note from Count ----.
He must excuse my apparent rudeness and real ignorance in replying to
it in English, through the medium of your kind interpretation. I
would not on any account deprive him of a production, of which I
really think more than I have even _said_, though you are good enough
not to be dissatisfied even with that; but whenever it is completed,
it would give me the greatest pleasure to have a _copy_--but _how_ to
keep it secret? literary secrets are like others. By changing the
names, or at least omitting several, and altering the circumstances
indicative of the writer's real station or situation, the author
would render it a most amusing publication. His countrymen have not
been treated, either in a literary or personal point of view, with
such deference in English recent works, as to lay him under any very
great national obligation of forbearance; and really the remarks are
so true and piquante, that I cannot bring myself to wish their
suppression; though, as Dangle says, 'He is _my_ friend,' many of
these personages 'were _my friends_, but much such friends as Dangle
and his allies.
"I return you Dr. Parr's letter--I have met him at Payne Knight's and
elsewhere, and he did me the honour once to be a patron of mine,
although a great friend of the other branch of the House of Atreus,
and the Greek teacher (I believe) of my _moral_ Clytemnestra--I say
_moral_, because it is true, and is so useful to the virtuous, that
it enables them to do any thing without the aid of an Ægisthus.
"I beg my compliments to Lady B., Miss P., and to your _Alfred_. I
think, since his Majesty of the same name, there has not been such a
learned surveyor of our Saxon society.
"Ever yours most truly, N. B."
"April 9. 1823.
"P.S. I salute Miledi, Mademoiselle Mama, and the illustrious
Chevalier Count ----; who, I hope, will continue his history of 'his
own times.' There are some strange coincidences between a part of his
remarks and a certain work of mine, now in MS. in England, (I do not
mean the hermetically sealed Memoirs, but a continuation of certain
Cantos of a certain poem,) especially in _what_ a _man_ may do in
London with impunity while he is 'à la mode;' which I think it well
to state, that he may not suspect me of taking advantage of his
confidence. The observations are very general."