'Dear Mr Gosse, I hope that I am not impertinent in telling you how heartily I have enjoyed your Gray. I think it one of the most charming biographies I ever read; & I would gladly subscribe to nearly all your criticism, if I had not a feeling that in some points wh. you touch, I am too much of an outsider for any subscription to have much value. The only criticism wh. I might cavil a bit would concern the Bard. I never could feel that the old gentleman ought to derive so much satisfaction from the advent of the Tudor destiny; & Gray?s desire to administer that bit of consolation seems to me to miss the point & rather spoil his design. Still I am fond of the Bard as one is fond of what one has already known by heart.'