Letter from Richard Garnett, London, to William Angus Knight, 1889 October 11 : autograph manuscript signed.

Commenting on Knight's 'Life of Wordsworth; saying that he read it "...with very great interest. Long as the book is, I do not think it is too long, and I am sure it has not a page which I for my part should not have been [illegible] to lose. There is one trifling error, or rather misprint, to which I may be excused for drawing your attention. In speaking of Maclise's sketch of Wordsworth (not [illegible] from the life, I should say) you do not mention that it is one of the famous series of sketches of celebrities, generally more or less caricatured, in Fraser's Magazine, where it appeared in October, 1832. The collection, with the original letter-press and large commentary, has been republished by Professor Bates. The publisher of the print, of course, was not Farmer but Fraser. When speaking of Shelley's Peter Bell, I could wish that you had quoted the noble praise bestowed upon Wordsworth in that eccentric satire : - But Peter's verse was clear, and came / Announcing, from the frozen hearth / Of a cold age, that none might tame / The soul of what diviner flame / It augured to the earth : - Like gentle rains as the dry plains / Making that green which late was grey, / Or like the sudden moon that stains / Some gloomy chamber's windowpanes / With a broad light like day. This is as fine as Coleridge, and [illegible] discriminating."