“An Irishman who was abroad, came in one day and said that he had seen that morning what he had never seen before,—a fine crop of anchovies growing in the garden. ‘Anchovies?’ said an Englishman, with a half laugh and a tone of wonder. And from this the other, according to the legitimate rules of Irish logic, deduced a quarrel, a challenge, and a duel, in which the poor Englishman, who did not believe that anchovies grew in the garden, was killed on the spot. The moment he fell, the right word came into the challenger’s head. ‘Och! what a pity!’ he cried, ‘and I meant capers all the while!’ Mr. Spence knew the parties, and told this story the other day at Calvert’s, from whence it travelled to me.
“What, think you, was announced the other day
| Ætat. 34. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 171 |
“It occurred to me last night, I know not how, that I have never, to the best of my recollection, seen one of the large house-snails in this country, and very few indeed of the smaller kind, which are so numerous, and of such beautiful varieties in our part of the kingdom. You know what a collector of snail shells I was in my time, hoarding up all the empty ones I could find. The rocks used to be my hunting place. That amusement has made me familiar with every variety in that neighbourhood, and certain I am that the greater number are not to be found here. Slugs we have in plenty. By the by, I have lately seen it mentioned in an old French book, that frogs eat snails, shells and all.
“I wish you had the Cid to have shown the Spaniards; they would have been pleased to see that the Campeador was beginning to have his fame here in England, 700 years after his death. Unquestionably that Chronicle is one of the finest things inthe world; and so I think it will be admitted to be. Coleridge is perfectly delighted with it. Frere, passionately as he admired the poem, had never seen the Chronicle, which is remarkable enough. You will see, by comparing the Dumb-ee scene in both, that the Chronicle is sometimes the most poetical of the two.* I am so fond of this kind of contemporary his-
* Cid, Book ix. c. xiii. |
| 172 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 34. |
“I am getting on with my Letters from Portugal. The evenings close in by tea-time, and fire and candle bring with them close work at the desk, and nothing to take me from it. The Long-man of the Row recommends the small size in preference to quarto, as producing greater profits, in consequence of its readier sale. To this I willingly assent. They will probably extend to three such volumes as Espriella. When they are done, the fresh letters of Espriella will come in their turn; and so I go on. Huzza! two and twenty volumes already; the Cid, when reprinted, will make two more; and, please God, five a year in addition as long as I live.
“Edith has just
been in with her kiss—as regular as the evening gun. She wants to know
when Uncle will come home. Sooner perhaps than he himself thinks, for the
glorious revolution in Spain will bring Bonaparte down. It is morally impossible that such a nation can
be subdued. If King Joseph should fall into
their hands, I pray that —— may
| Ætat. 34. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 173 |
“God bless you!
