LITERARY AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 315 



accordingly. Do, I beg and entreat of you, agree to this, and say 

 so when you write. 



" Forgive all this forwardness and earnestness, and believe me to 

 be your faithful servant and admirer, 



"Allan Cunningham." 



"27 Lower Belgrave Place, 

 November 7, 1828. 



" My dear Friend : — My little Annual— thanks to your ex- 

 quisite Edderliue, and your kind and seasonable words — has been 

 very successful. It is not yet published, and cannot appear these 

 eight days, yet we have sold 6,000 copies. The booksellers all look 

 kindly upon it ; the proprietor is very much pleased with his suc- 

 cess ; and it is generally looked upon here as a work fairly rooted 

 in public favor. The first large paper proof-copy ready shall be on 

 its way to Gloucester Place before it is an hour finished. It is in- 

 deed outwardly a most splendid book. 



" I must now speak of the future. The Keepsake people last sea- 

 son bought up some of my friends, and imagined, because they had 

 succeeded with one or two eminent ones, that my book was crushed, 

 and would not be any thing like a rival. They were too wily for me ; 

 and though I shall never be able to meet them in their own way, 

 still I must endeavor to gather all the friends round me that I can. 

 I have been with our mutual friend Lockhart this morning, and we 

 have made the following arrangement, which he permits me to men- 

 tion to you, in the hope you will aid me on the same conditions. 

 He has promised me a poem, and a piece of prose to the extent of 

 from twenty to thirty pages, for £50, and engaged to write for no 

 other annual. Now if you would help me on the same terms, and 

 to the same extent, I shall consider myself fortunate. It is true 

 you kindly promised to aid me with whatever I liked for next year, 

 and desired me not to talk of money. My dear friend, we make 

 money of you, and why not make some return ? I beg you will, 

 therefore, letting bygones be bygones in money matters, join with 

 Mr. Lockhart in this. I could give you many reasons for doing it, 

 all of which would influence you. It is enough to say, that my 

 rivals will come next year into the field, in all the strength of talent, 

 and rank, and fashion, and strive to bear me down. The author of 

 ' Edderline,' and many other things equally delightful, can prevent 

 this, and to him I look for help. 



