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“MY DEAR SIR,—­Let me confess to you that I am not very willing that it should be believed desirous” [he evidently meant to write either ‘that I should be believed desirous,’ or ’that it should be believed that I am desirous’] “of scattering my image indiscriminately over the land.  On this sentiment I forbade Mr. Forster to prefix an engraving of me over my collected works.  If Miss Field wishes one more photograph, Mr. Alinari may send it to her, and I enclose the money to pay for it.  With every good wish for your glory and prosperity,

“I remain, my dear sir,

“Very truly yours,

“W.S.  LANDOR.”

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The writing is that of a sadly shaking hand.  The lady’s request would unquestionably have been more sure of a favourable response had she preferred it in person, instead of doing so through me.  But I suspect from the phrase “one more,” and the underlining of the word one, that she had already received from him more than one photograph, and was ashamed to make yet another application.  But she had led, or allowed, me to imagine that she was then asking for the first time.  The care to send the money for the price of the photograph was a characteristic touch.  Miss Field was, I well remember, a great favourite with Landor.  I remember her telling me that he wished to give her a very large sort of scrap book, in which, among a quantity of things of no value, there were, as I knew, some really valuable drawings; and asking me whether she should accept it, her own feeling leaning to the opinion that she ought not to do so, in which view I strongly concurred.  If I remember right the book had been sent to her residence, and had to be sent back again, not without danger of seriously angering him.

Here are the letters I have spoken of, written by Landor to Mr. Garrow.  They are all undated save by the day of the month, but the post-marks show them to have been all written in 1836-8.  The first is a very long letter, almost the whole of which is about a quarrel between husband and wife, both friends of the writer, which it would serve no good purpose to publish.  The following passage from it, however, must not be lost:—­

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“What egregious blockheads must those animals have been who discover a resemblance to my style in Latin or other quotations.  I have no need of crutches.  I can walk forward without anybody’s arm; and if I wanted one, I should not take an old one in preference.  Not only do I think that quotations are deformities and impediments, but I am apt to believe that my own opinion, at least in those matters of which I venture to treat, is quite as good as any other man’s, living or dead.  If their style is better than my own, it would be bad policy to insert it; if worse, I should be like a tailor who would recommend his abilities by engrafting an old sleeve on a new