As we had none of us been apprised of his peculiarities with respect to food, the embarrassment of our host was not a little, on discovering that there was nothing upon the table which his noble guest could eat or drink. Neither meat, fish, nor wine, would Lord Byron touch; and of biscuits and soda-water, which he asked for, there had been, unluckily, no provision. He professed, however, to be equally well pleased with potatoes and vinegar; and of these meagre materials contrived to make rather a hearty dinner. I shall now resume the series of his correspondence with other friends. [Footnote 33: In speaking thus, I beg to disclaim all affected modesty, Lord Byron had already made the same distinction himself in the opinions which he expressed of the living poets; and I cannot but be aware that, for the praises which he afterwards bestowed on my writings, I was, in a great degree, indebted to his partiality to myself.] * * * * * LETTER 77. TO MR. HARNESS. "8. St. James's Street, Dec. 6. 1811. "My dear Harness, "I write again, but don't suppose I mean to lay such a tax on your pen and patience as to expect regular replies. When you are inclined, write; when silent, I shall have the consolation of knowing that you are much better employed. Yesterday, Bland and I called on Mr. Miller, who, being then out, will call on Bland[34] to-day or to-morrow. I shall certainly endeavour to bring them together.--You are censorious, child; when you are a little older, you will learn to dislike every body, but abuse nobody. "With regard to the person of whom you speak, your own good sense must direct you. I never pretend to advise, being an implicit believer in the old proverb. This present frost is detestable. It is the first I have felt for these three years, though I longed for one in the oriental summer, when no such thing is to be had, unless I had gone to the top of Hymettus for it. "I thank you most truly for the concluding part of your letter. I have been of late not much accustomed to kindness from any quarter, and am not the less pleased to meet with it again from one where I had known it earliest. I have not changed in all my ramblings,--Harrow, and, of course, yourself never left me, and the "'Dulces reminiscitur Argos' attended me to the very spot to which that sentence alludes in the mind of the fallen Argive--Our intimacy began before we began to date at all, and it rests with you to continue it till the hour which must number it and me with the things that _were_. "Do read mathematics.--I should think _X plus Y_ at least as amusing as the Curse of Kehama, and much more intelligible. Master S.'s poems _are_, in fact, what parallel lines might be--viz. prolonged _ad infinitum_ without meeting any thing half so absurd as themselves.