'Keswick, April 11, 1813. My dear Sir, I received yesterday from Old Brathay, your Epistles of Horace, and am much obliged to you for the book. You have attempted a task of great difficulty, and you have performed it respectably everywhere, and in some parts with singular success. 'Charles writes to me in healthy spirits. I am glad to find that he has amused himself with "Alfieri," an occupation which I suggested to him last year. If he completes the translation (as seems likely) it will be an acquisition to our literature, and may at least be expected to repay him with credit. I hope we shall soon see him here, now that we are enjoying long evenings and fine weather. 'Believe me, my dear Sir' [the signature has been cut away]. And here, save for one other slight experiment to be mentioned later, we leave Mr. Lloyd as translator. XV CHARLES LLOYD AT OLD BRATHAY 1808-1815 OF Charles Lloyd's life at Old Brathay the records are meagre. He spent the years in alternations of light and shadow, the light never very radiant, the shadow gloomy beyond description. As he grew older, his fits of melancholy depression became increasingly serious, and, as Dr. Garnett points out in the 'Dictionary of National Biography,' bore a curious likeness to those which afflicted Cowper. But during his serene, or less troubled periods, Lloyd's conditions had little resemblance to those of the recluse of Olney. His house was noisy with children, to whom he seems to have been a loving and solicitous. parent; his wife was ever at his side; members of his family continually paid him visits, and in the neighbourhood he had many friends. Lloyd's tastes were simple. Walking, with long pauses for the contemplation of scenery, gardening, reading, and conversation at high pressure-these were his favourite beguilements. According to De Quincey, Lloyd's house was at one time a centre of gaiety. Many dinner parties were given, at which Lloyd was an admirable host, and there were even dances, in which, though he took no part, he found much pleasure. The Old Brathay cottage numbered among its visitors the Wordsworths, the Coleridges, the Southeys, Christopher North' and Miss Penny (afterwards his wife), Dr. Watson, the Bishop of Llandaff, Miss Watson his daughter, with whom Charles Lloyd corresponded in French, and De Quincey. It is to the account of Lloyd which forms a chapter in De Quincey's Autobiography' that we are indebted for much that is known of him at this time. De Quincey, it is true, is not always to be relied upon, but we must take what we can. He wrote thus of Lloyd's appearance: He was tall and somewhat clumsy not intellectual so much as benign and conciliatory in his expression of face. His features were not striking, but they expressed |