'[your letter] has gratified a wish of more than twenty years standing. It is I think fully that time since I was for a great part of a very snowy winter the inhabitant of an old house in the country in a course of poetical study so very like that of your very admirably painted young poet that I could hardly help saying "thats me" when I was reading the tale to my family. Among the very few books which fell under my hands was a volume or two of Dodsley's Register one of which contained copious extracts from the "Village" & the "Library" particularly the conclusion of Book I of the former and an extract from the latter beginning with the desription of the old Romancers. [Scott describes how he memorised these but could not afford to buy the books themselves] You may therefore guess my sincere delight when I saw your poems at a later period assume the rank in the public estimation which they so well deserve'.