“Though I have never had the honour of being introduced to you, you have frequently been pleased to convey to me very kind and flattering messages,* and I trust, therefore, you will allow me, without any further ceremony, to say—That I took an early opportunity this morning of seeing the Prince Regent, who arrived here late yesterday; and I then delivered to his Royal Highness my earnest wish and anxious desire that the vacant situation of poet laureate might be conferred on you. The Prince replied, ‘that you had already been written to, and that if you wished it every thing would be settled as I could desire.’
“I hope, therefore, I may be allowed to congratulate you on this event. You are the man to whom it ought first to have been offered, and it gave me sincere pleasure to find that those sentiments of high approbation
* The Royal librarian had forwarded to Scott presentation copies of his successive publications—The Progress of Maritime Discovery—Falconer’s Shipwreck, with a Life of the Author—Naufragia—A Life of Nelson, in two quarto volumes, &c. &c. &c. |
| POET LAUREATESHIP. | 81 |
