Letter from William Hayley, Felpham, to Sir Walter Scott, 1814 June 9 : fragment of an autograph manuscript draft.

Expressing his gratitude for the gift of a purse Scott's daughter, Sophia, made for him and discussing he poem he had recently composed; saying "If ever I have powers to travel so far from my cell the old Hermit of the South will give her his personal Benediction in her favorite scene of Abbots Ford - In the mean Time I shall often contemplate the interesting view that you have kindly sent me of your former Residence & the delicate purse that the dear ingenious Sophia has made for me - a Purse which in one point certainly resembles the celebrated purse of Fortunatus - the pleasures it will afford me are inexhaustible as I can never behold it without being filled with the most pleasing Ideas of my lovely young Friend - may God grant you the delight my dear Walter of bestowing this filial Treasure in due Time on such a Man in Heart & Soul - in all points of character & situation as you yourself would create for the architect of her Happiness if among your creative Powers such a power were included - To see a deserving daughter married exactly to the wish of her parents is in my estimation the most exquisite of all heavens delights & yr Enjoyment upon every occasion be as pure & perfect as the Condition of Mortality will allow - as I have now no corporeal daughter of my own upon Earth for I lost one that was singularly endeared to me in her Infancy I exercise my Heart by cultivating affection for the young daughters of my Friends & for some recent children of my own Imagination - this leads me to impart to you a literary Secret & to confess that I have been rash enough in [illegible] of old age to compose a new Poem in seven Cantos - affection for my young Friend of Abbotsford induced me to call the Heroine Sophia the votary of domestic virtue in the characters of a daughter, a wife & a mother;" describing the story of the poem; inserting a note written in the left margin which says "If I think well of the work after keeping it in petto a year I shall be tempted I believe to send it to you with a request that if you approve it in all points it may be printed in Scotland as the production of some anonymous Friend of yours;" continuing "The Composition has had the blessed affect of soothing & fortifying my own spirit under the misfortune of having mistaken a domestic [illegible] for a model of affectionate purity - & of being persecuted by a misguided wife in our ruinous Courts of ecclesiastical Law upon a false & outrageous calumnious Charge of Cruelty a sort of persecution that my adversaries are trying to prolong in the hope of my dropping into the Grave before it can be terminated - but I thank heaven I continue to support their base Hostility & virulence with an undejected spirit - Now let me turn to a pleasanter Topic - I have just had a welcome guest in my Cell who has desired me to remember Him kindly to you & to thank you in his name for an obliging letter - The person I allude to is an hereditary Friend of mine for in my youth I was often the Guest of his learned & benevolent Grandfather the respectable author of a Quarto volume on Saxon coins;" adding that the man's grandson is now the Librarian of Carlton House and would be happy to put "...any of its literary Treasures" at Scott's disposal should he wish to see them; concluding, "I may say to you my dear Walter what my beloved Cowper once said to me / nostrum incredibili modo / consentit astrum / We are both lame but I am in every sense of the word much the lamer of the two - we have both enjoyed the Gratification of gratefully declining to accept the post of Poet Laureate - when it was unexpectedly & more liberally offered to me on the death of Warton I expressed by the following Extempore my Thanks to Mr. Pitt of whom I had seen much when He was a youth & my near neighbor at Lyre in dorsetshire;" the remaining portion of the letter is missing.