Nearly
all are dead, and I have no leisure or inclination for new ones. It
gave me much pleasure to hear that the fine and pleasant Lord Normanby
is in part recovered from his paralysis. I parted from him at Bath
with few hopes. Never have I spent a winter in England so free from
every kind of malady as this last. A disastrous war ends with a
disgraceful peace. We are to have an illumination and ringing of
bells. Sir Claude Scott and myself will not illuminate, but I have
promised the ringers twenty shillings if they will muffle the bells.
Rejoice! The best generals and best soldiers in the Crymea [sic] were
Italians.
"W.S.L."
Landor had many queer crotchets about spelling, and always absolutely
declined to follow any rule but his own. It seems to have been one of
these crotchets to spell Crimea as he spells it in the above-quoted
letter--on what grounds I do not pretend to be able to guess: With
regard to the seemingly unpatriotic sentiment contained in the last
lines, it must be remembered that the writer was addressing a person
long resident in Italy, and eagerly anxious for the well-doing of the
Italian troops in their struggle with the different despotisms which
oppressed the Peninsula. The bribing the ringers to _muffle_ the bells
is a highly characteristic trait.
Of a third letter I will print only a part, because the remainder
concerns the unfortunate affair which compelled the writer finally to
leave England--the result, as is well known, of a trial for libel in
which Landor was cast in heavy damages which were far beyond his
diminished means to pay.
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