“ * * * It is worth a little trouble to prevent a possible mistake, even though mistake might lead to no consequences.
“You know how glad I am that ‘De Vere’ in is the hands of such a man as your friend. What I wish to explain is in regard to the inscription on the old column at Talbois, in, I think, the second chapter of the first volume, and which is meant as a key to the story. It begins with—
‘Trust in thy own good sword, Rather than prince’s word,’ &c.
|
“From what accompanies this, one would suppose that it
was really (as stated) the composition of Edward, the
seventeenth Earl of Oxford; and it has just occurred to me that
a reviewer might think of (possibly mention) it as such. I feel it right
therefore to say
| R. PLUMER WARD. | 43 |
“As I am writing I will just say a word about the
possibility and the consequence of making applications of the characters to
individuals of the present day. What I say in the preface is no more than true:
I know not such people as Mowbray,
Cleveland, or Clayton, or Oldcastle. I am
not sure, however, that I could defend myself in regard to Wentworth. For though no individual answers to
him exactly, it would be difficult to deny altogether that I had not distinct
people in mind, in forming the different parts of his character. All the
anecdotes regarding his administration, as found in the last chapter of the
fourth volume, belong to Mr. Pitt; and it
would not be easy to say that, in regard to the character of his eloquence, his
love of letters, and all that distinguishes his conversation, in the chapter on
posthumous fame, in the second volume, what is stated does not apply to
Mr. Canning. Nor, if anybody finds
out and marks this resemblance
| 44 | R. PLUMER WARD. |
“In the portrait of Lady Clanellan, on her introduction in the first volume, those who know her as well as I do may recognise the amiable Duchess of Buckingham. If they do, I cannot deny it.
“In Herbert I certainly confess my old and revered master Dr. Cyril Jackson, the former Dean of Christ Church; and many of the stories in the Man of Imagination, some perhaps also of the Man of Content (Mowerdale), may possibly be found in my own history.
“I think this is the extent of my confession; and I make
it upon the same principle as a client or a patient would to his lawyer or
physician, viz., the imprudence of not laying his case unreservedly before
them. My extreme anxiety not to be exposed to accusations of meaning things and
people which and
| R. PLUMER WARD. | 45 |
“About those I have mentioned as prototypes I am indifferent, as they, at least, cannot feel either hurt or offended.
“The candour in which I write might make me allow that perhaps I had the old Duke of Newcastle, or part of him, in view, in Lord Mowbray; but I am not even sure of this myself. In the same manner I might mention Lord Waldegrave as Lord Clanellan; but no part of Cleveland, no part of Clayton.
“If you think this long explanation unnecessary, burn it; if not, use it with a view to my feeling upon it. I wish it, with the same view, to be shown to your cultivated friend.” * * *
