LETTER XXVII > 49 



yesterday interrupted by the coming in of Dick Younger, I nt)W 

 proceed from t'other Side of the way. — I shall not let ye last 

 Subject escape me, I have a good deal to say upon it. My first 

 Business shall be to find Fault. I have number'd ye Lines & 

 shall referr to them. 



The hooking, d smiles, in ye 9th Line, into a parenthesis, 

 checks ye Harmony of ye Verse ; & if it is not a Parenthesis, it 

 is not English ; tho' I remember such a Use of ye Word in 

 Thompson. Smiling foresees wd be easier. Heck objected to 

 ye word clap a Gothic Front in ye 23d L : as too familiar a 

 Phrase, & ye complex word 07i't in ye next L : is abominable & 

 intolerable. I have substituted in ye place or rather over it 



mask ye House of Want, 



And bid ye Cot admire it's Gothic Front — 



but Miss Hecky will not bear to have a Cottage call'd ye House 

 of Want, but ye House of Content. I am of her Miad, so I referr 

 ye just Correction of ye Line to You, but corrected it shall be ; 

 besides She is unwilling to lose ye antique Turrets. 



L : 31, 32. In vain we try Check dtc : I seem to want an 

 Ease of Language ; To clieck ye Sob : I am sorry to lose thick 

 Sob. 



The next Thing which comes under my Eesentment is no 

 poetical Business but ye Business of the Vicar, I mean ye 

 Description of the hot Man d ye cool Lover. How did you dare 

 to set me in a Light so disagreable to ye Ladies, when you knew 

 ye Ladies, & above all, my Queen wd see them ? and as to your 

 Lovers Hue, I desire to be painted by Milton & not by such lilly- 

 liver'd Judges of Love, & I must remind You that He tells You 

 that Angels glow wth 



celestial rosy Red, Ijov e's proper Hue : — 

 Come, Sr, I had rather look like an Angel than like a Fool. — 

 We all agree that You had a strong Idea when You used ye 

 Epithet L. 59 desperate Justice, but we do not quite com- 

 prendre. — Line 98, and should be when. L: 102 hangr'y is so 

 very local a phrase that not one of ye Family could tell what it 

 meant 'till I explained : & we are a little concerned that so 

 charming a Poem should in more Places than one be wrote only 

 for a Circle of Intimates, ditto ye Crofts is of the same Nature ; 

 & I don't understand that myself. — Miss Hecky is bold in her 

 Criticism in L. 112 (where to show ye Peculiarity of Selbourne 

 in it's Scenes You illustrate it by it's Self) & says, that to call 

 Selborne Selbournian is to say that Mary'bon is very Marybonish: 

 but I think her too bold here a great deal, & that ye Thing is 

 greatly defensible. I must add that when I read to a whole 

 Circle of Friends & came to ye exaggerated Compliment of L: 

 122 which ends wth Divine, my Aunt Thomas cried out, '• Oh 



