Lord Essex's trial is printed with the State Trials. In return for your
obliging offer, I can acquaint you with a delightful publication of this
winter, "A Collection of Old Ballads and Poetry," in three volumes, many
from Pepys's Collection at Cambridge. There were three such published
between thirty and forty years ago, but very carelessly, and wanting
many in this set: indeed, there were others, of a looser sort, which the
present editor [Dr. Percy[1]], who is a clergyman, thought it decent to
omit....

[Footnote 1: Dr. Percy, Bishop of Dromore, in Ireland, was the heir male
of the ancient Earls of Northumberland, and the title of his collection
was "Reliques of English Poetry." He was also himself the author of more
than one imitation of the old ballads, one of which is mentioned by
Johnson in a letter to Mr. Langton: "Dr. Percy has written a long ballad
in many _fits_ [fyttes]. It is pretty enough: he has printed and will
soon publish it" (Boswell, iii., ann. 1771).]

My bower is determined, but not at all what it is to be. Though I write
romances, I cannot tell how to build all that belongs to them. Madame
Danois, in the Fairy Tales, used to _tapestry_ them with _jonquils_; but
as that furniture will not last above a fortnight in the year, I shall
prefer something more huckaback. I have decided that the outside shall
be of _treillage_, which, however, I shall not commence, till I have
again seen some of old Louis's old-fashioned _Galanteries_ at
Versailles. Rosamond's bower, you, and I, and Tom Hearne know, was a
labyrinth: but as my territory will admit of a very short clew, I lay
aside all thoughts of a mazy habitation: though a bower is very
different from an arbour, and must have more chambers than one. In
short, I both know, and don't know what it should be. I am almost afraid