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perfectly right in rejecting my cobbled alteration of yr Anstyan Stanza — I should never either write or talk to you with that cordial Satisfaction, with which I hope to do both, if I did not see some proofs of your Audacity, as you call that generous Freedom, which is the soul of true Friendship — I still think that Anstey deserves a third Stanza & I beg you will give it Him —

The true Roman Eagle \Mr Gibbon/ has lately spent two delightful days with us — He was as familiar as the Robin, & as Enchanting as the Nghtingale – we talked not a little of you — & when I read him yr verses, that open the Botanic Garden; He declared He never heard any poetry more elegant or pleasing. – He approved also very highly the parts of yr Elegy, which I allow’d Him to hear, for I suppressed