If I ever shall see thy glorious behind.

It was my pleasure to communicate this verse to our greatest living
conversationalist, a point I mention because it may, in consequence, be
already known to those who, like myself, enjoy the privileges of his
inimitable talk. I possess the original manuscript of the poem, and can
supply copies of the remainder to the curious.

In a magazine managed by the physician of a well-known lunatic asylum I
found many inspiring examples. The patients are permitted to contribute:
they discuss art and literature, subject of course to a stringent
editorial discretion. As you might suppose, poetry occupies a good deal
of space. It was from that source of clouded English I culled the
following:--

His hair is red and blue and white,
His face is almost tan,
His brow is wet with blood and sweat,
He steals from where he can:
And looks the whole world in the face,
A drunkard and a man.

I think we have here a Henley manque. In robustious assertion you will
not find anything to equal it in the Hospital Rhymes of that author. I
was so much struck by the poem that I obtained permission to correspond
with the poet. I discovered that another Sappho might have adorned our
literature; that a mute inglorious Elizabeth Barrett was kept silent in
Darien--for the asylum was in the immediate vicinity of the Peak in
Derbyshire. Of the correspondence which ensued I venture to quote only
one sentence: