“Dear Patmore,—I do not
think you have a right to tantalize me by saying you have a ‘bright
thought,’ which is evidently to do you good, and then stop
without telling it. You must feel that such a thought, leading to such
consequences, must be most interesting to me, and I shall really be most
anxious to be told it, when properly concocted. At any rate, I am glad you are
going to do something with those ‘Tales of the Olden Time.’ I liked
them so well, as indeed everything I have seen of yours (particularly your
play), that I am
absolutely astonished at your consuming your own bright fires in clearing
others of smoke and dirt. What is to hinder you, with far less waste of time
(and far pleasanter employment too), from reaping as much of the harvest of
letters as those rapid and suc-
| R. PLUMER WARD. | 143 |
“By the way, I have just finished the last work of the last-mentioned, and was more, far more interested by it than by any of his other works. I could not quit it, notwithstanding it was, as usual, filled with improbabilities. But Robert Beaufort, Lord Lilburn, Mr. Beaufort, the Mortons, Madame Mirevale, and some others, make up for wants in the still more principal (or intended principal) characters, the hero, Philip, and the strange and overpowering anomaly, Gawtry. They are admirably touched, the interest never ceases from beginning to end, and prevents you from stopping to mark faults. No mean service. What do you say to it? * *
“The plot thickens, and we may soon be out.*
“Notwithstanding the stones I have thrown at the Sourkrouts and Paragraphs, who will no doubt pelt me in return, my
* Alluding to “De Clifford.” |
| 144 | R. PLUMER WARD. |
“Adieu. Always much yours,
