My best regards to him and his.
The _Rev.Wm.Barnes_, of Dorset dialect fame, is another memory; as also in years past the late _Chevalier de Chatelain_, a relative of my Norwood friend, _Victor de Pontigny_, a well-known musical authority.
No doubt I have corresponded with most of the literary men of my day, from Tennyson to--well, I will not sound a bathos, but I do not publish private notes without permission, and in fact there would be no end of such printed amenities of literature battledored and shuttlecocked from one to another.

I may, however, mention as a good habit of mine (is it not a good one ?) that, whenever I like a book, I take leave to thank its author, and have usually received, _en revanche_, warm letters of their gratitude from many, especially if young ones.

Surely it is proper in a veteran so to encourage a juvenile or even a mature brother, should he seem to deserve it.

As also, be it known, that sometimes I have taken up the pen faithfully and honestly to rebuke: in these realistic and atheistic days there are some modern writers, both of prose and poetry, older or younger, who have reason to thank me for timely expostulations,--if they have attended to my friendly strictures..