"You will act as you please upon that point; but whether I go or stay, I shall not say another word on the subject till May--nor then, unless quite convenient to yourself. I have many things I wish to leave to your care, principally papers. The _vases_ need not be now sent, as Mr. Ward is gone to Scotland. You are right about the errata page; place it at the beginning. Mr. Perry is a little premature in his compliments: these may do harm by exciting expectation, and I think we ought to be above it--though I see the next paragraph is on the _Journal_[113], which makes me suspect _you_ as the author of both. "Would it not have been as well to have said 'in two Cantos' in the advertisement? they will else think of _fragments_, a species of composition very well for _once_, like _one ruin_ in a _view_; but one would not build a town of them. The Bride, such as it is, is my first _entire_ composition of any length (except the Satire, and be d----d to it), for The Giaour is but a string of passages, and Childe Harold is, and I rather think always will be, unconcluded. I return Mr. Hay's note, with thanks to him and you. "There have been some epigrams on Mr. Ward: one I see to-day. The first I did not see, but heard yesterday. The second seems very bad. I only hope that Mr. Ward does not believe that I had any connection with either. I like and value him too well to allow my politics to contract into spleen, or to admire any thing intended to annoy him or his. You need not take the trouble to answer this, as I shall see you in the course of the afternoon. "P.S. I have said this much about the epigrams, because I lived so much in the _opposite camp_, and, from my post as an engineer, might be suspected as the flinger of these hand-grenadoes; but with a worthy foe, I am all for open war, and not this bushfighting, and have not had, nor will have, any thing to do with it. I do not know the author." [Footnote 113: Penrose's Journal.] * * * * * TO MR. MURRAY. "Nov. 30. 1813. "Print this at the end of _all that is of 'The Bride of Abydos_,' as an errata page. BN. "Omitted, Canto 2d, page 47., after line 449., "So that those arms cling closer round my neck. Read, "Then if my lip once murmur, it must be No sigh for safety, but a prayer for thee." * * * * * TO MR. MURRAY. "Tuesday evening, Nov. 30. 1813. "For the sake of correctness, particularly in an errata page, the alteration of the couplet I have just sent (half an hour ago) must take place, in spite of delay or cancel; let me see the _proof_ early to-morrow. I found out _murmur_ to be a neuter _verb_, and have been obliged to alter the line so as to make it a substantive, thus--