el mos estimados, se responde siempre D. Quixote como se el jamas como se debe alabado M. Cervantes fuese el solo autor Castellano digno de ser nombrado. Soy yo como V. M. muy aficionado para los libros de caballeria, y si V. M. alcancese algunos de los que el Cura y el Barbiero no quieren que sean quemados me haria muy gran servicio en mandarmeles. Yo aconsejeria a V.M. de comprar la traduccion del Pastor Fido de Guarini por el Doctor Christobal de Figueroa la del Aminta del Tasso por D. Juan de Xauregui, porque el mismo Cervantes que menosprecia casi todas las traducciones, a estas dos les da alabanzas altisimas, y mi parece a mi que se juzga mejor de una traduccion antes de haber leido el original, porque las traducciones son hechas para los que no entienden el idioma de donde son traducidas, y non para otros. Si estas dos traducciones meritan las alabanzas que han recibido han de ser muy buenas, porque los originales lo son en extremo.*

y

* "I should like to know what are the books you carried with you on your journey, and principally whether you have read any poets, and whether you were pleased with them. In this country, if any one is asked whether he has studied Spanish, and what are the books in that language most esteemed, the answer always is, 'Don Quixote;' as if the neverenough-praised Miguel Cervantes were the only Spanish author worth reading. I am, as you know, very fond of books of chivalry; and if you can find any of those which the curé and the barber did not choose should be burnt, you would do me a great service by sending them to me. I would advise you to buy the translation of the 'Pastor Fido' of Guarini, by Doctor Christobal de Figueroa, and that of the 'Aminta' of Tasso, by Don Juan de Xaureguy; because Cervantes himself, who despises nearly ail translations, gives the highest praises to these; and it seems to me that one judges better of a translation before reading the original work than afterwards; for translations are intended for those who do not understand the idiom of the language from which they are translated, and not for others. If these two translations deserve the praises they have received, they must be very good; for the originals are extremely so."

"I observe you say nothing in you say nothing in any of your letters of Montserrat; I hope you did not omit seeing it, as by the description of travellers it seems very well worth seeing, indeed next to Grenada it is the place in all Spain that I have the greatest curiosity about. Valentia you do not mention either, but I dare say if you had any great expectations about it you were disappointed, as I have always believed it to be a country something like Lombardy, flat and rich, and of course insipid to the traveller. There is nothing new of importance since the taking of Valenciennes; there were reports of the Queen's being executed, but they were unfounded, and I still hope that they will abstain from this one act of butchery.* The proceedings in Poland grow, if possible, more disgusting than ever, as you will see by the papers. Everything in the world seems to be taking a wrong turn; and, strange as it sounds, I think the success of the wretches who now govern Paris is like to be the least evil of any that can happen. There is a notion abroad that the American States are going to quarrel with us on account of our proceedings with respect to their ships. To be sure our conduct to them, as well as to the Danes, Swedes, Duke of Tuscany, and others who wished to be neutral, has been insufferable, both for arrogance and injustice; but, on the other hand, there are some articles in the treaty between France and America that scarcely leave the latter in the state of a neutral

This hope was not destined to be fulfilled. Marie Antoinette was executed about two months after the date of this letter.

+ The last partition of Poland, which took place in this year, by Russia and Prussia, is here alluded to.

nation; but these articles, as I understand, are not the ground of quarrel, if there be one. If Pitt is absurd enough to bring it to one, I should think our commerce would suffer more in this war than in any other preceding one; but we live in a time when everything is so extraordinary that it is in vain to conjecture what will happen of any political kind. What has been doing where you are seems to exceed everything since the expulsion of the Moriscoes, and the story of the Imperial Consul* seems quite incredible, not because of its injustice, but because I should have thought the Emperor would have protected his officer. I dare say if this business is mentioned here, Pitt will say (as about Poland) that he disapproves it and is sorry for it. Your contrast of the manner in which the causes of Tyranny and Freedom are treated here is very good, and I dare say I shall make use of it in the House of Commons; so when you get the papers with the debates look sharp. I am tired with writing, and dinner is ready, so adieu. I will write every fortnight, or three weeks at least. "Yours affectionately,

SAME TO SAME.

"C. J. F."

"THETFORD, 17th September, [1793.]

"PENSAR que yo pueda escriber Castellano en este lugar sin gramatica, sin diccionario, sin libros Castellanos quienes quiera, es pensar en el excusado. Estoy aqui para cazar y no para estudiar, para matar a las perdices (no sè si esto es bien escrito) y no para

* I have not found in Lord Holland's letters the story here alluded to.

matar a mi mismo con buscar palabras y modos de hablar y sentencias en un idioma que no intiendo.

"Dicenme (escribe la Duquesa a Teresa Panza) que hay bellotas gordas en bellotas gordas en ese lugar; mandeme V. M. hasta dos docenas que los estimaré mucho por ser de su mano," y quisiera yo que V. M. me mandase bellotas ya gordas ya pequeñas de todos los generos que hay en ese pais donde esta V. M. Creo tambien que esta es la sazon para cogerlas maduras y me gustaria mucho a mi de tener bellotas de todos los robles, encinas, alcornoques se que hay en esa fertilisima España.

V. M. habra ya leído la declaracion de Milor Hood a Toulon correspondiente en todo a lo que dixo el Embaxador de Prusia. No se puede olvidar que en la constitucion de 1789, hay la destruccion de la nobilidad, de la yglesia, y que aquella constitucion y no la ultima es el sugeto de la declamacion de M. Burke. En Flandes me parece a mi que el mes de Setiembre ha de ser siempre fatal a las armadas reales como aqui a las perdices. El Duque de York no solamente ha faltado de tomar Dunquerque a los Franceses mas es aparente que está en peligro manifiesto. Pero no hay duda que este asedio (no se si es Castellano) de Dunquerque ha habido su origen aqui y no es segun el consejo del dicho Duque. Dicenme que el nuestro Tio el Duque de Richmond, gone out, and that he complains much of the Admiralty, but I know this only by report.

is

*

"Thetford, 17th September, 1793. "To think that I can write Spanish here without Grammar, without Dictionary, and without Spanish books, is to think very unwisely. I am

VOL. III.

E

"That the Admiralty have been to blame I can easily believe; and, knowing my uncle's great dislike to the Duke of York, I do not think it impossible that he may have been so too; but, even if Ordnance and Admiralty had done all they could, the project was fundamentally absurd, dangerous to the extreme, as has appeared in the execution, and worse than useless, I think, if attained. But to besiege it, without previously enabling themselves to invest it, was a degree of madness quite unaccountable; and this I know was the general opinion of all reasonable military men before the failure; for opinions formed upon the event you know I do not give much credit to.t

here for shooting, and not for study-to kill partridges (I don't know if I have written the Spanish word rightly), and not to kill myself with looking out for words and modes of speaking and sentences in a language which I do not understand. They tell me,' writes the Duchess to Tereza Panza 'that there are very large acorns in that place: send me two dozen, and I shall esteem them much from your hand.' And I wish that you would send me acorns, large as well as small of all kinds that there are in that place. I believe that this is the season for gathering them ripe; and I should like much to have acorns of all the different kinds of oak and cork trees which there are to be found in fertile Spain.

"You will have read the declaration of Lord Hood, corresponding exactly to what was said by the Prussian Ambassador. One must not forget, that in the Constitution of 1789 there is the abolition of nobility and of the church, and that it is that same Constitution, and not the last, which is the subject of the declamation of Mr. Burke. In Flanders it appears that the month of September is always fatal to the royal armies, as here to the partridges. The Duke of York has not only failed in taking Dunkirk from the French, but seems to be in manifest danger himself. But there is no doubt that this siege of Dunkirk had its origin here, and not in the advice of the said Duke. It is said that our uncle the Duke of Richmond is gone out.

* On the enmity between the Duke of York and the Duke of Richmond, see "Lord Holland's Memoirs of the Whig Party," vol. i. p. 68.

+ Soon after the capture of Valenciennes the Duke of York laid siege