‘My dear Rogers,—I have been unfortunate in missing you twice, yet
with the consolation that it proved you were recovered in health, which I had
heard was not as good as we all wish. For myself I am a mere rustic, but not as
yet oblitus meorum, and therefore, I hope, not obliviscendus illis. But in a fortnight more I shall be
once more in the whirl of the world, though I
| 72 | ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES |
‘I send you another little production of Arthur’s; it is much superior to the other. You have candour to make allowance for the cloudy state of new wine, which will not disguise from a connoisseur’s taste a racy flavour and strong body. You must always keep in mind that he is not quite twenty-one, and with this allowance I am not perhaps quite misled as a father in thinking his performances a little out of the common.
‘Tunbridge, whatever you may fancy, is excellent wintering. We have a very small society of people we like, and play sixpenny whist when it might be dull else, not otherwise. . . .
