200 HENRY KIRKE WHITE S RESrAiy?. 



and obtrusive opinions, and beg leave, therefore to con- 

 elude, with respects to yourself and Mrs Booth, by as- 

 suring you that 1 am, according to custom from time im- 

 memorial, and in due form. 

 Dear Sir, 

 Your obliged humble servant, 



Henry Kikke White. 



TO MR CIIARLESWORTH. 



Nottingham, 1802. 



Dea-r Sir, 



I am sure you will excuse me for not having imme- 

 diately answered your letter, when I relate the cause. — 

 I was preparing, at that moment when I received yours, 

 a volume of poems for the press, which I shall shortly 

 see published. I finished and sent them off for London 

 last night ; and I now hasten to acknowledge your letter. 



I am very happy that any poem of mine should meet 

 with your approbation. I prefer the cool and dispas- 

 sionate praise of the discriminate few, to the boisterous 

 applause of the croivcl. 



Our professions neither of them leave much leisure for 

 the study of polite literature ; I myself have, however, 

 comecZ time, if you will allow the metaphor; and while 

 I have made such a proficiency in the law as has ensured 

 me the regard of my governors, I have paid my secret 

 devoirs to the ladies of Helicon. My draughts at the 

 '• fountain Arethuse," it is true, have been principally 

 made at the hour of midnight, when even the guardian 

 nymphs of the well may be supposed to have slept ; they 

 are, consequently, stolen and forced. I do not see any- 

 thing in the confinement of our situations, in the mean- 

 time, which should separate congenial minds. A literary 

 acquaintance is, to me, always valuable; and a. friend, 

 whether lettered or unlettered, is highly worth cultivation. 

 1 h(/pe we shall both of us have enough leisure to keep 



