Letter from William Bodham Donne, Mattishall, to Frederick Walpole Keppel, 1845? April 1 : autograph manuscript signed.

Assuring Keppel that he has published no verses offensive to the Church, or anything else, of late, owing to his general lack of energy and inspiration ("my faculties have been for many weeks in complete torpor and so far from saying fie to a canon, I could not have said Bo! to a goose."; adding that he will not be publishing in the Edinburgh review, as "Professor [Macvey] Napier so clearly insinuated that they did not want a new contributor", and concluding that he has "almost shelved as to writing, except a few articles for Dr [William]Smith's Biography"; mentioning that his son Charles has settled at school, acknowledging Keppel's offer to lend him Walpole's History of George III (1845) and The vestiges of the creation (by Robert Chambers, first published in 1844); urging Keppel to send off his "answer to the advertisement for the Members", expressing his general frustration with national politics, including Lord John Russell's fear of "pledging himself" and the hypocritical conduct of the Whigs, "Peel seems to have nearly as much power on the opposition as on the ministerial benches. Where is the use of shouting 'Lier' to D'Israeli, if the vote is still for Peele. Carlyle is right in saying that the English people are enchanted."