Item 185 - Letter from George G. Loane to R. C. Trevelyan

Woodthorpe, The Thrupp, Nr. Stroud, Glos. - Trevelyan's 'Christmas token' ["From the Shiffolds"] gave him a 'double pleasure', from the remembrance of the writer and content of the books. The first poem ["Epistle to Philip Erasmus"] is a 'treat', and relieved him of the fear Trevelyan was a 'childless man'; also envies him the 'rhododendrons & azaleas denied to [his own] lime-soaked soil'. Asks if the 'best beloved [is] the Spirit of Poetry'; comments on a translation from Latin he likes. Points out a parallel between Milton's 'Forget thyself to marble' [in "Il Pensero"], with his similar use in the lines on Shakespeare, and a line in the comedy "Albumazar" [by Thomas Tomkis] of 1607; he is 'always on the watch for some classical origin'.