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372 bard. Southey had suggested the creation of the office of Historiographer as an appropriate one for him, but on inquiry, he found such a one already existed; and on the death of the person holding it, shortly afterwards, his application was anticipated. The appointment was honorary, there being no salary attached.

On the receipt of a letter from Sir Walter Scott, Southey proceeded to London, and had an interview with Croker. Relating the circumstance he says: "He (Croker) had spoken to the Prince, and the Prince observing that I had written some good things in favour of the Spaniards, said the office should be given me. You will admire the reason, and infer from it that I ought to have been made Historiographer because I had written 'Madoc. It is singular how seldom poetical merit of any kind has been regarded as the qualification necessary for holding the solitary office in England professedly tenable only by a poet. It was on the occasion of this visit to London that Southey met Lord Byron at Holland House; and the prejudices, perhaps just ones, he had conceived against the noble poet melted away amid the fascinations of his prepossessing manners. "I saw a man," he writes, "whom in voice, manner and countenance, I liked very much more than either his character or his writings had given me reason to expect." On the acceptance of his new office, he had intimated some hope that the disagreeable requirements of annual celebration might be in some degree dispensed with, and was led to expect that some such rational arrangement would be made. But no reformation of the kind was attempted, and after waiting some weeks, he was admitted to be sworn in, in the customary way. He then left London, resolved to acquit himself to the best of his ability; but to exercise his discretion about giving to the world his official inspiration.

The regularity of home life was occasionally relieved by