Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 15, No. 87, March, 1875Various
History
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 15, No. 87, March, 1875
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
Here is another, undated, but shown by the Bath postmark to have been
written in 1857. The whole letter is strongly characteristic of the
writer, as indeed was everything that Landor wrote, said or did, so
thoroughly and in every sense of the word was he _original_; but, as
in the preceding letter, the most interesting portion is that toward
the end, where he gives some amusing indications of his peculiar
political opinions and feelings. This letter also was written to the
same correspondent:
"My dear friend: It is now three years since I have been in London,
except in passing through it to the Crystal Palace, without
dismounting." [How curiously the phrase indicates the habits of the
writer's youth, when gentlemen's journeys were for the most part
performed on horseback!] "At Sydenham I remained three weeks, almost;
but the air of London always disagreed with me, added to which, the
necessity of visiting was always intolerable to me, and I have lost
many friends by refusing to undergo it. If Mr. Trollope should find a
few days' leisure for Bath, I can promise him a hearty reception and a
comfortable bedroom. Is it not singular that on your letter being
brought to me I laid down for it _Town and Country_ [a novel by
Frances Trollope], which interests me as much on a second reading as
on the first? To-morrow I must run--imagine a man of eighty-one
running!--for the Athenaeum. I myself have not thrown away the pen,
which sadly wants mending. They have published _Scenes from the
Shades,_ and _Alfieri and Metastasio_, and _Codrus and Polio_. These
last three are in _Fraser_. If they bring a few pounds or shillings,
the money will be given to Capera, a laboring man who has written some
noble poetry." [The writer in question produced some very tolerable
verses, remarkable as coming from a man in his position, but in our
friend's enthusiastic language they become "noble poetry" directly he
makes the man his protegé--a truly Landorian touch!] "I could have
collected three hundred pounds for Kossuth from friends who wrote to
me about it, and probably ten or a dozen times as much from others,
for no man ever had so few friends or acquaintances as I have. Nearly
all are dead, and I have no leisure or inclination for new ones. It
gave me much pleasure to hear that the fine and pleasant Lord Normanby
is in part recovered from his paralysis. I parted from him at Bath
with few hopes. Never have I spent a winter in England so free from
every kind of malady as this last. A disastrous war ends with a
disgraceful peace. We are to have an illumination and ringing of
bells. Sir Claude Scott and myself will not illuminate, but I have
promised the ringers twenty shillings if they will muffle the bells.
Rejoice! The best generals and best soldiers in the Crymea [sic] were
Italians.
"W.S.L."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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