Page:Life of Edmond Malone.djvu/149

Rh In the spring, Lord Sunderlin, his lady, and sisters, reached London on their way to the Continent. Edmond and his family delighted in each other; but as he could seldom visit Ireland without impeding the progress of the “book,” so he could not be tempted to participate in their excursion. Catherine however gave him an occasional journal of proceedings, and in one of her letters from Nice where several Irish friends had made a halt, gives an alluring sketch of the spot, still with the hope of drawing the critic from his task and his home.

“Both she” (Henrietta, usually called Harriet, her elder sister) “and Lady Sunderlin like the place extremely. Indeed it is an absolute paradise. A thousand paths we have to walk, and for miles without an inclosure, in the midst of orange-trees and all kinds of sweet shrubs. If the lower rank of people properly enjoyed their situations, they would be much above us, for most of their cottages are placed in the most beautiful and delightful spots that can be conceived. But their inhabitants see not as we do, and wonder at us for admiring them.”

With the ruling passion strong within him, Lord Charlemont, as usual, solicits his good offices in the acquisition of books, negotiations with booksellers, and occasional criticism:—

“Your acquisition for me is magnificent, and what is still better than magnificence though seldom allied to it, extremely cheap. You are certainly the best book-jockey that ever existed. I long to see my new old treasure, and expect it daily. Payne, however,