LETTER 287. TO MR. MURRAY.

"La Mira, near Venice, July 8. 1817

"If you can convey the enclosed letter to its address, or discover
the person to whom it is directed, you will confer a favour upon
the Venetian creditor of a deceased Englishman. This epistle is a
dun to his executor, for house-rent. The name of the insolvent
defunct is, or was, _Porter Valter_, according to the account of
the plaintiff, which I rather suspect ought to be _Walter Porter_,
according to our mode of collocation. If you are acquainted with
any dead man of the like name a good deal in debt, pray dig him up,
and tell him that 'a pound of his fair flesh' or the ducats are
required, and that 'if you deny them, fie upon your law!'

"I hear nothing more from you about Moore's poem, Rogers, or other
literary phenomena; but to-morrow, being post-day, will bring
perhaps some tidings. I write to you with people talking Venetian
all about, so that you must not expect this letter to be all
English.

"The other day, I had a squabble on the highway, as follows: I was
riding pretty quickly from Dolo home about eight in the evening,
when I passed a party of people in a hired carriage, one of whom,
poking his head out of the window, began bawling to me in an
inarticulate but insolent manner. I wheeled my horse round, and
overtaking, stopped the coach, and said, 'Signor, have you any
commands for me?' He replied, impudently as to manner, 'No.' I then
asked him what he meant by that unseemly noise, to the discomfiture
of the passers-by. He replied by some piece of impertinence, to