"Ravenna, 9bre 9°, 1820.
"The talent you approve of is an amiable one, and might prove a
'national service,' but unfortunately I must be angry with a man
before I draw his real portrait; and I can't deal in '_generals_,'
so that I trust never to have provocation enough to make a
_Gallery_. If '_the_ parson' had not by many little dirty sneaking
traits provoked it, I should have been silent, though I _had
observed_ him. Here follows an alteration: put--
Devil with _such_ delight in damning,
That if at the resurrection
Unto him the free election
Of his future could be given,
'Twould be rather Hell than Heaven;
that is to say, if these two new lines do not too much lengthen out
and weaken the amiability of the original thought and expression.
You have a discretionary power about showing. I should think that
Croker would not disrelish a sight of these light little humorous
things, and may be indulged now and then.
"Why, I do like one or two vices, to be sure; but I can back a
horse and fire a pistol 'without thinking or blinking' like Major
Sturgeon; I have fed at times for two months together on sheer
biscuit and water (without metaphor); I can get over seventy or
eighty miles a day _riding_ post, and _swim five_ at a stretch, as
at Venice, in 1818, or at least I _could do_, and have done it
ONCE.
"I know Henry Matthews: he is the image, to the very voice, of his
brother Charles, only darker--his laugh his in particular. The
first time I ever met him was in Scrope Davies's rooms after his
brother's death, and I nearly dropped, thinking that it was his
ghost. I have also dined with him in his rooms at King's College.
Hobhouse once purposed a similar Memoir; but I am afraid that the
letters of Charles's correspondence with me (which are at Whitton
with my other papers) would hardly do for the public: for our
lives were not over strict, and our letters somewhat lax upon most
subjects.[10]
"Last week I sent you a correspondence with Galignani, and some
documents on your property. You have now, I think, an opportunity
of _checking_, or at least _limiting_, those _French
republications_. You may let all your authors publish what they
please _against me_ and _mine_. A publisher is not, and cannot be,
responsible for all the works that issue from his printer's.
"The 'White Lady of Avenel' is not quite so good as a _real well
authenticated_ ('Donna Bianca') White Lady of Colalto, or spectre
in the Marca Trivigiana, who has been repeatedly seen. There is a
man (a huntsman) now alive who saw her also. Hoppner could tell you
all about her, and so can Rose, perhaps. I myself have _no doubt_
of the fact, historical and spectral.[11] She always appeared on
particular occasions, before the deaths of the family, &c. &c. I
heard Madame Benzoni say, that she knew a gentleman who had seen
her cross his room at Colalto Castle. Hoppner saw and spoke with
the huntsman who met her at the chase, and never _hunted_
afterwards. She was a girl attendant, who, one day dressing the
hair of a Countess Colalto, was seen by her mistress to smile upon
her husband in the glass. The Countess had her shut up in the wall
of the castle, like Constance de Beverley. Ever after, she haunted
them and all the Colaltos. She is described as very beautiful and
fair. It is well authenticated."
[Footnote 10: Here follow some details respecting his friend Charles S.
Matthews, which have already been given in the first volume of this
work.]
[Footnote 11: The ghost-story, in which he here professes such serious
belief, forms the subject of one of Mr. Rogers's beautiful Italian
sketches.--See "Italy," p. 43. edit. 1830.]
* * * * *