about England. He was always a little in the past tense. Buckthorne's
advice to his friend is, never to be eloquent to an author except in
praise of his own works, or, what is nearly as acceptable, in
disparagement of the work of his contemporaries. "If ever he speaks
favorably of the productions of a particular friend, dissent boldly from
him; pronounce his friend to be a blockhead; never fear his being vexed.
Much as people speak of the irritability of authors, I never found one to
take offense at such contradictions. No, no, sir, authors are
particularly candid in admitting the faults of their friends." At the
dinner Buckthorne explains the geographical boundaries in the land of
literature: you may judge tolerably well of an author's popularity by the
wine his bookseller gives him. "An author crosses the port line about
the third edition, and gets into claret; and when he has reached the
sixth or seventh, he may revel in champagne and burgundy." The two ends
of the table were occupied by the two partners, one of whom laughed at
the clever things said by the poet, while the other maintained his
sedateness and kept on carving. "His gravity was explained to us by my
friend Buckthorne. He informed me that the concerns of the house were
admirably distributed among the partners. Thus, for instance, said he,
the grave gentleman is the carving partner, who attends to the joints;
and the other is the laughing partner, who attends to the jokes." If any
of the jokes from the lower end of the table reached the upper end, they
seldom produced much effect. "Even the laughing partner did not think it
necessary to honor them with a smile; which my neighbor Buckthorne
accounted for by informing me that there was a certain degree of
popularity to be obtained before a book seller could afford to laugh at
an author's jokes."

In August, 1820, we find Irving in Paris, where his reputation secured
him a hearty welcome: he was often at the Cannings' and at Lord