What a lapse
to commit on the first day of my happy "garden state"!
I hope you transmitted the Fox-Journal to its owner, with suitable
thanks. Mr. Cary, the Dante man, dines with me to-day. He is a mode of a
country parson, lean (as a curate ought to be), modest, sensible, no
obtruder of church dogmas, quite a different man from Southey. You would
like him. Pray accept this for a letter, and believe me, with sincere
regards, yours,
C.L.
[1] Wainewright, the notorious poisoner, who, under the name of "Janus
Weathercock," contributed various frothy papers on art and literature to
the "London Magazine."
LXXVIII.
TO MRS. HAZLITT.
_November_, 1823.
Dear Mrs. H.,--Sitting down to write a letter is such a painful
operation to Mary that you must accept me as her proxy. You have seen
our house. What I now tell you is literally true. Yesterday week, George
Dyer called upon us, at one o'clock (_bright noonday_), on his way to
dine with Mrs. Barbauld at Newington. He sat with Mary about half an
hour, and took leave. The maid saw him go out from her kitchen window,
but suddenly losing sight of him, ran up in a fright to Mary. G.D.,
instead of keeping the slip that leads to the gate, had deliberately,
staff in hand, in broad, open day, marched into the New River. [1] He had
not his spectacles on, and you know his absence.
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