He is accumulating facts as to the manner in which the poor have been most effectually benefited, and to assist his labour would be to assist a good and most important cause; perhaps, you will have the goodness to give me a statement on this subject, which of course shall be used as you may think proper. You may likewise have similar facts nearer home, on your own estates. I am convinced that the effects of enabling the common labourer to acquire property must be striking, and must often have been an object of your contemplation. In making any statement of these facts, you will probably think it right to mention some particular cases, with dates, names, and accounts of the quantities of lands, the nature of the improvements, &c. In the reports of the "Society for bettering the condition of the Poor," there is one made on this minute plan of Lord Winchelsea's grants of land to cottagers, which conveys very full and useful information. I trust to your kindness, and believe me Your obliged, H. DAVY. The following letter was written by Davy after his return from an excursion to that beautiful district, the north-west of the county of Somerset. TO THOMAS POOLE, ESQ. October, 1804. MY DEAR POOLE, I RETURNED to town a little while ago, not sorry to see the great city of activity and life; not sorry to see it, though I had just spent two months in enjoying a scenery beautiful and, to me, new; in witnessing much hospitality and unadulterated manners, and in gaining much useful information. Mr. Bernard is writing a history of the poor. I have lived much with him at Roehampton since my return, and he has read to me part of his work, which is popularly eloquent, very intelligent, and full of striking and important truths; but pray say nothing of this, for it is likely that it will appear without his name: the facts will be strong, and perhaps to some people offensive. I have received a letter from Coleridge within the last three weeks: he writes from Malta, in good spirits, and, as usual, from the depth of his being. God bless him!--He was intended for a great man; I hope and trust he will, at some period, appear as such. I am working very hard at this moment, and I hope soon to send you some of the fruits of my labours. I am likewise devising some plans at our Institute, for the improvement of "this generation of vipers;" but, although I am so vain as to announce them, I will not be so tedious as to detail them. In your answer, which I hope I shall soon receive, pray give me an account of the situation of "Poole's Marsh," with regard to the _Parrot_,[49] for I have mentioned the soil in a paper to the Board of Agriculture, which is now in the press. I am, my dear Poole, Your truly affectionate friend, H. DAVY.