The Alfred [8] has three hundred and fifty-four candidates for six
vacancies. The cook has run away and left us liable, which makes our
committee very plaintive. Master Brook, our head serving-man, has the
gout, and our new cook is none of the best. I speak from report,--for
what is cookery to a leguminous-eating Ascetic? So now you know as much
of the matter as I do. Books and quiet are still there, and they may
dress their dishes in their own way for me. Let me know your
determination as to Newstead, and believe me, Yours ever,
[Greek: Mpairon.]
[Footnote 1: Here follows one of the 'Thyrza' poems.]
[Footnote 2: The Hon. John William Ward, afterwards fourth Earl of
Dudley. Byron said of him (Lady Blessington's 'Conversations with Lord
Byron', p. 197),
"Ward is one of the best-informed men I know, and, in a 'tete-a-tete',
is one of the most agreeable companions. He has great originality,
and, being 'tres distrait', it adds to the piquancy of his
observations, which are sometimes somewhat 'trop naive', though always
amusing. This 'naivete' of his is the more piquant from his being
really a good-natured man, who unconsciously thinks aloud. Interest
Ward on a subject, and I know no one who can talk better. His
expressions are concise without being poor, and terse and epigrammatic
without being affected," etc.
Of somewhat the same opinion was Lady H. Leveson Gower ('Letters of
Harriet, Countess Granville', vol.
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