the more it disquiets me; so I will say no more about it.  It is bad enough to be a scribbler, without having recourse to such shifts to extort praise, or deprecate censure.  It is anticipating, it is begging, kneeling, adulating,—­the devil! the devil! the devil! and all without my wish, and contrary to my express desire.  I wish Murray had been tied to Payne’s neck when he jumped into the Paddington Canal[27], and so tell him,—­that is the proper receptacle for publishers.  You have thoughts of settling in the country, why not try Notts.?  I think there are places which would suit you in all points, and then you are nearer the metropolis.  But of this anon.  I am, yours,” &c.

[Footnote 27:  In a note on his “Hints from Horace,” he thus humorously applies this incident:—­

“A literary friend of mine walking out one lovely evening last summer on the eleventh bridge of the Paddington Canal, was alarmed by the cry of ‘One in jeopardy!’ He rushed along, collected a body of Irish haymakers (supping on buttermilk in an adjoining paddock), procured three rakes, one eel spear, and a landing-net, and at last (horresco referens) pulled out—­his own publisher.  The unfortunate man was gone for ever, and so was a large quarto wherewith he had taken the leap, which proved, on enquiry, to have been Mr. S——­’s last work.  Its ’alacrity of sinking’ was so great, that it has never since been heard of, though some maintain that it is at this moment concealed at Alderman Birch’s pastry-premises, Cornhill.  Be this as it may, the coroner’s inquest brought in a verdict of ‘Felo de Bibliopola’ against a ‘quarto unknown,’ and circumstantial evidence being since strong against the ’Curse of Kehama’ (of which the above words are an exact description), it will be tried by its peers next session in Grub Street.  Arthur, Alfred, Davideis, Richard Coeur de Lion, Exodus, Exodiad, Epigoniad, Calvary, Fall of Cambria, Siege of Acre, Don Roderick, and Tom Thumb the Great, are the names of the twelve jurors.  The judges are Pye, * * *, and the bellman of St. Sepulchre’s.”]

* * * * *

LETTER 69.  TO MR. DALLAS.

     “Newstead Abbey, Sept. 21. 1811.

     “I have shown my respect for your suggestions by adopting them; but
     I have made many alterations in the first proof, over and above;
     as, for example: 

        “Oh Thou, in Hellas deem’d of heavenly birth,
        &c. &c.

        “Since shamed full oft by later lyres on earth,
        Mine, &c.

        “Yet there I’ve wander’d by the vaunted rill;

     and so on.  So I have got rid of Dr. Lowth and ‘drunk’ to boot, and
     very glad I am to say so.  I have also sullenised the line as
     heretofore, and in short have been quite conformable.