Autograph letter signed : Keswick, to John Wilson Croker, 1812 Nov. 25.

Discussing his writing and saying that "twenty years ago I also could write one or two hundred lines a day & even at a later time (1799) 1200 of the best lines which I ever wrote were produced in one week. I am now comparatively a slow writer, rejecting more of what occurs, less easily satisfied with what is not rejected & less ardent in what was once my passionate pursuit. You need not be told that there is no intellectual exertion so delightful as that of composing a great poem: but my mind has attained a sort of quietism from which it does not willingly permit itself to be roused;" saying that he would "lay aside all other avocations & devote myself exclusively to the completion of my Portuguese histories. Yonder they lie unfinished upon the shelf, half-a-yard length of manuscripts, the work of many years....I am of a short-lived race, & sometimes regret that any thing should compel me thus to leave undone that which in all human probability no other person will ever undertake with half the advantage that I have possessed;" informing him that his poem will most likely be 5500 lines "of which only 2400 are written;" adding that he would greatly appreciate his criticism as the sections of the poem are delivered to him.