Letter from William Stigand, London, to Madame Blaze de Bury, 1859 : autograph manuscript signed.

Writing to say that he has sent her the "E.R." (i.e. the Edinburgh Review?) by post and asking her to let him know what she thinks of it or whether she has heard anything about it; complaining that he has been unwell owing to the "atrocious" weather; stating that he has been much occupied with his poems, which are in the hands of Champman and Hall, noting that many of them are in an unfinished state, and that he intends to finish them for inclusion in the volume, although it will not include "the long poem I have talked to you about", as that will not be finished for some time; discussing the work, and observing that he believes it to be original in conception, being an attempt "to give in one narrative a factual and still fair account of the virtues & vices of an epoch which may be called the mother age of European civilization" and that he knows of no other poem of this nature except Tasso, and stating that he keeps "much more to the facts" than Tasso does; wondering whether he should postpone publication of his book until he completes his long poem, and asking her to look over some proofs which he will send her; asking her, in a postscript, if she has seen (Tennyson's) Idylls of the King, and stating that he thinks them "very weak" and complaining that he found the book "unmanly & prurient" and that he read the poems "with great difficulty & little pleasure", concluding that (Tennyson) has never equalled his first volume, and that he is "the silken drawing room bard, & ought always to be found in green morocco with gold tinting."