John Wilson Croker to John Murray, 18 September 1816: 'I have read with great pleasure the poem you lent me [Childe Harold III]. It is written with great vigour, and the descriptive part is peculiarly to my taste, for I am fond of realities, even to the extent of being fond of localities. A spot of ground a yard square, a rock, a hillock, on which some great achievement has been performed, or to which any recollections of interest attach, excite my feelings more than all the monuments of art [...] But I did not read with equal pleasure a note or two which reflects [sic] on the Bourbon family. What has a poet who writes for immortality, to do with the little temporary passions of political parties? [...] I wish you could persuade Lord Byron to leave out these two or three lines of prose, which will make thousands dissatisfied with his glorious poetry [comments further in defence of French royal family] [...] pray use your influence on this point. As to the poem itself, except a word or two suggested by Mr. Giffard, I do not think anything can be altered for the better.'