Letter from William Hayley, Felpham, to John Nichols, 1816 April 7 : autograph manuscript signed.

Congratulating him on the completion of his "Magnum Opus;" saying "In looking into a Dictionary of living Authors I perceive you & I were born in the same year, & in reading a very acute, entertaining, & instructive Book, written by a Friend of yours (The Quarrels of Authors) I find, that you are still as active & benevolent as ever - I rejoice with you on the completion of your Magnum Opus, your literary anecdotes of the 18th century & I beg the favour of you to prepare for me a copy of it, in neat & strong half-binding with 20 Leaves of writing paper in each volume, which I wish to have prepared with what the Binders call, I believe, false backs, so as to lie perfectly open, that the possessor may write in them with Ease - I have a very copious heap of manuscript Letters from many memorable writers of the Century you illustrate, & your Book will be my best Guide for putting them all into such becoming order, that perhaps some 50 years hence this private Collection may prove particularly pleasing & valuable to some of my heirs, after all my literary occupations have long terminated in the sacred sleep of the Grave. A very worthy Relation of mine, who was the first officer wounded in the famous siege of Gibraltar, & is now an Ordnance Store Keeper at Purfleet, Capt. Godfrey, is coming to pass a few social days with me soon after the 14th of this month; if you will be so kind as to have the Books I have desired ready for Him I will beg Him to call on you, to pay for them & escort them in his Gig to the literary cell of a crippled, but I thank Heaven, a still cheerful Hermit, who is my good Brother Biographer;" adding, in a postscript, "pray remember, if you ever make excursions in summer or autumn to the coast, that it would afford me sincere pleasure to bid you welcome in person to this marine cell."