“My dear William,—Since my last I have visited Mr. J—— several times. The last time he wished me to dine with him, which I happened not to be able to do, and was very sorry for it, for his acquaintance is to me a matter of great importance, not only from the engine he wields—and a formidable one it is, being the most widely circulated journal in Europe—but also because he is acquainted with all the principal literary characters of the day, and a very pleasant kind of man. He was talking of Maginn, who writes a good deal for Blackwood, and spoke in high terms of his talents; nevertheless, though he is his friend, he confessed he did not think him a very considerate critic, and thought there was something unfeeling in his persecution of Barry Cornwall, who by the way is an acquaintance of my Spanish friend’s. You may have seen those letters to Bryan Proctor in “Blackwood’s Magazine.” Barry Cornwall is, he says, one of the mildest, modestest young fellows he ever saw, and does anything but assume. Maginn, however, imagines that those he attacks, think as little of the affair as himself, which is by no means the case. The other day he attacked Campbell’s

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‘Ritter Bann*’ most happily, and at the same time cuttingly, and afterwards wanted J—— to get up a dinner and bring Campbell and him together. J—— begged leave to decline. He is a singular-looking being, Dr. Maginn. A young man about twenty-six years of age, with grey hair, and one of the most talented eyes, when he lets it speak out, I ever beheld. Banim, who is his bosom crony, says he considers him one of the most extraordinary men he ever knew. He attacked Banim too before they were acquainted, but that’s all forgot long since. Hazlitt praised Banim in the ‘London Magazine’ and of course rendered it imperative on Blackwood to abuse him. Have you seen Campbell’s late poems, any of them? I have been told that the volume of his, which is coming out shortly, ‘Theodric,’ &c, is very poor indeed—lamentably so. Campbell is the most finical exact kind of fellow in the whole world. As an instance, I have heard that he was asked to write a little poem some time since for the occasion of Burns’s monument, which was then in agitation, and in which my informant took great interest. Campbell consented, but directed that proofs should be sent to him to the country, and before the poem appeared, had actually sent five or six messengers back and forward to and from town with revisions of commas and semicolons!!! There is a young writer here, Miss Landon, the author of the ‘Improvisatrice,’ a poem which has made some noise lately, who has been brought out by J——, and to be sure he does praise her. She sent some pieces to the ‘Literary Gazette’ a few years since, and through that journal (without intending any insinuations as to desert) has made herself popular enough to run through a few editions. J—— has asked me to meet Alaric Watts† at his house, when the latter comes to town, which he intends shortly. Watts is a very sweet writer in his own way, and rather a favourite. I have got a few days since a note from my friend Banim to know what has become of me? and he adds as a spur that Dr. Maginn has just been with him, and said that Mr. J—— expressed himself highly pleased with the series I am at present furnishing him. I dined the other day—at least about a month since—with him

* “The Writer Tam” was the name of this burlesque.—W. J. † Watts was also so offended with some of Maginn’s devilries, that in one of his letters to me he denounces him, in his wrath, as a blackguard.—W. J.

GERALD GRIFFIN.

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and a friend of his, an artist of the name of Foster (to whom, if you recollect, Madame de Genlis dedicated one of her works, and expresses her gratitude for his assistance in some of her literary labours). He is one of the most delightful facetious fellows I ever saw.