[2] In a letter to his friend Bedford (he being then aged fifty) he writes: “I have taken again to my old coat and old shoes; dine at the reasonable hour of four; enjoy, as I used to do, the wholesome indulgence of a nap after dinner,” etc. [3] Letter to Bedford, under date of December, 1793.--_Life and Correspondence_, p. 69. [4] In the _Imaginary Conversation_ between Southey and Porson, Landor makes Porson say: “It is pleasant to find two poets [Southey and Wordsworth] living as brothers, and particularly when the palm lies between them, with hardly a third in sight.” Lamb, too, in a letter to Mr. Coleridge (p. 194, Moxon edition of 1832, London), says: “On the whole, I expect Southey one day to rival Milton; I already deem him equal to Cowper, and superior to all living poets besides.” This is _apropos_ of _Joan of Arc_, which had then recently appeared. He begins his letter: “With _Joan of Arc_ I have been delighted, amazed; I had not presumed to expect anything of such excellence from Southey.” [5] George IV. was appointed Regent in the year 1811, the old king, George III., being then plainly so far bereft of his senses as to incapacitate him even for intelligent clerical service. He died, as we shall find later, in the year 1820, when the Regent succeeded, and reigned for ten years. The _Croker Papers_ (1884), recently published, make mention of Mr. Croker’s intervention in the matter of the bestowal of the Laureate-ship upon Southey. Croker was an old friend of Southey, and a trusted go-between in all literary service for the royal household. [6] The sixth and seventh volumes appeared after the poet’s death, in 1847. [7] Henry Crabb Robinson, b. 1775; d. 1867. _Diary, Reminiscences_, etc. (ed. by Sadler), 1869. [8] Best edition is that of Macmillan, London, 1869. [9] Thomas De Quincey, b. 1785; d. 1859. _Confessions of an English Opium Eater_, 1821. Complete edition of works, 1852-55. _Life and Writings_: H. A. Page, 2 vols. London, 1877. [10] The entry is of 1812, p. 391, chap. xv. Macmillan’s edition. London, 1869. [11] Page 215; vol. ii., _Reminiscences_. Boston Edition. [12] John Wilson, b. 1785; d. 1854; better known as Christopher North, his pseudonym in _Blackwood_. _The Isle of Palms_, 1811; _The City of the Plague_, 1816; _Recreations of Christopher North_, 1842. In 1851 a civil-list pension of £300 was conferred upon him. His younger brother James Wilson was a well-known naturalist, and author of _The Rod and the Gun_. [13] “Old North and Young North.” _Blackwood_, June, 1828.