Page:The Earliest English Translations of Bürger's Lenore - A Study in English and German Romanticism - Emerson (1915).djvu/63

 correspondent and later the editor of her poetical works. She is describing the "poetical readings" which formed "part of our amusements" on a visit to Nottingham:

Two years later, when her enthusiasm for Mr. Spencer's translation had somewhat cooled, Miss Seward received from Mr. Colin Mackenzie of Edinburgh a copy of Scott's William and Helen as published in 1796, and in manuscript The Triumph of Constancy, an otherwise unknown translation from Bürger, as well as Scott's own ballad imitation Glenfinlas. These facts Miss Seward added as a note to a copy of her letter to Mr. Mackenzie. That letter is otherwise interesting as showing how Mr. Saville obtained the extracts from Scott's poem and Miss Seward's later views respecting it:

Two years since a friend of mine met with the William and Helen at the cottage of the celebrated recluses of Llangollen Vale. He reads finely, and he was desired to read it in their circle. It was in manuscript, and he understood unpublished; but that was a mistake. Thus he considered as an indulgence that he obtained permission to make extracts from William and Helen, of those parts