no doubt of it whatever myself. But as the question is disputed, I ought to have expressed myself less positively; especially since my old schoolfellow and pleasant acquaintance, James Boswell the younger, was of a different opinion. His opinion upon any point of old English literature should be of great weight; and I speak of him now, as I shall always think, with a friendly feeling of respect for his many good qualities, and of regret for his loss. The other error is of a different kind. I expressed a hope that the lost poems of William Browne might yet be found, not knowing at that time that they had been recovered, and printed in a very beautiful form by Sir Egerton Brydges: - one of the many services which he has rendered to the literature of his country. KESWICK, March 26. 1831. R. S. |