On my return to town I find the letter awaiting me which you did me the
favour to address to me, I believe--for it has no date--some days ago.
I have the greatest tenderness for the memory of Hood, as I had for
himself. But I am not very favourable to posthumous memorials in the
monument way, and I should exceedingly regret to see any such appeal as
you contemplate made public, remembering another public appeal that was
made and responded to after Hood's death. I think that I best discharge
my duty to my deceased friend, and best consult the respect and love
with which I remember him, by declining to join in any such public
endeavours as that which you (in all generosity and singleness of
purpose, I am sure) advance. I shall have a melancholy gratification in
privately assisting to place a simple and plain record over the remains
of a great writer that should be as modest as he was himself, but I
regard any other monument in connection with his mortal resting-place as
a mistake.