TALBOT692

Castleford ¹
4^th April 1816.

My Dear Mamma,

I send you an epigram on an ingenious author, of whom it is to be wished that his productions were as luminous as they are vo-luminous –

How fast we sink from bad to worse!
Who now in dull pathetic verse,
Proses about his “doe of Rylstone” ²
And like a flat and heavy mill-stone,
Our patience wears, & wears away
With one unvarying, simple lay.
In writing quarto’s where’s the merit?
What are words worth without spirit?³

Tell me how you like it.

What do you think of this circumstance? A came to visit B, & bought a horse of him for 30 guineas, which (I believe) he continued to owe him: and after riding it during his visit, all which time it was kept at B’s expense, resold it to B for 80 guineas – The same gentleman A some time before persuaded the same B that a fine horse of his was unsound, & was worth only 50£ which he gave him for it; – & the next year, pretending it was quite cured, resold it to B for 150£ – A has been staying all the winter in B’s house, with five horses, & (for part of the time) with all his family. B has now at length, with the utmost difficulty, succeeded in dislodging him, & as soon as he was fairly gone, pulled down his stable! – A is, you see, worse even than Lady Cork. ⁴

I remain, Y^r Aff^te Son
W. H. F. Talbot.

P.S. what is M^rs Campbell’s ⁵ direction?
Cranbourne Lodge ⁶
What County?

Lady Elis. Feilding
31 Sackville S^t
London

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