* * * * *

LETTER 61. TO MR. DALLAS.

"Newstead, August 21. 1811.

"Your letter gives me credit for more acute feelings than I
possess; for though I feel tolerably miserable, yet I am at the
same time subject to a kind of hysterical merriment, or rather
laughter without merriment, which I can neither account for nor
conquer, and yet I do not feel relieved by it; but an indifferent
person would think me in excellent spirits. 'We must forget these
things,' and have recourse to our old selfish comforts, or rather
comfortable selfishness. I do not think I shall return to London
immediately, and shall therefore accept freely what is offered
courteously--your mediation between me and Murray. I don't think my
name will answer the purpose, and you must be aware that my plaguy
Satire will bring the north and south Grub Streets down upon the
'Pilgrimage;'--but, nevertheless, if Murray makes a point of it,
and you coincide with him, I will do it daringly; so let it be
entitled 'By the Author of English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.' My
remarks on the Romaic, &c., once intended to accompany the 'Hints
from Horace,' shall go along with the other, as being indeed more
appropriate; also the smaller poems now in my possession, with a
few selected from those published in * *'s Miscellany. I have
found amongst my poor mother's papers all my letters from the East,
and one in particular of some length from Albania. From this, if
necessary, I can work up a note or two on that subject. As I kept
no journal, the letters written on the spot are the best. But of
this anon, when we have definitively arranged.