in Chancery. Though I have called on Mr. Edwards twice for Lady Hamilton's[1] direction, was so unfortunate as to find him out both times. I will repeat my call on him to-morrow morning. My dear sir, I wish now to satisfy you that all is in a good train; I am going on briskly with the plates,[2] find everything promising; work in abundance; and, if God blesses me with health, doubt not yet to make a figure in the great dance of life that shall amuse the spectators in the sky. I thank you for my "Demosthenes,"[3] which has now become a noble subject. My wife gets better every day. Hope earnesdy that you have escaped the brush of my evil star, which I believe is now for ever fallen into the abyss. God bless and preserve you and our good Lady Paulina with the good things both of this life and of eternity. And with you, my much admired and respected Edward,[4] the bard of Oxford, whose verses still sound upon my ear like
- ↑ Emma Hart, Lady Hamilton, Nelson's mistress and Romney's most frequent sitter.
- ↑ See note i, p. 133.
- ↑ Probably "The Death of Demosthenes," engraved by Blake after Thomas Hayley, in William Hayley's Essay on Sculpture, published in 1800.
- ↑ See Gilchrist (1880), vol. i. p, 203: "Diligent research as to who 'Edward the Bard of Oxford ' might be, yields no other suggestion than that he was a certain young Mr. Edward Marsh, of Oriel College, who, when visiting Hayley while Blake was also his frequent guest and fellow-labourer, had been wont to read aloud to them the Hermit's own compositions in a singularly melodious voice."
