"I had a very pleasant dinner at Murray's. I met there D'Israeli and an
artist [Brockedon] just returned from Italy with an immense number of
beautiful sketches of Italian scenery and architecture. D'Israeli's wife
and daughter came in in the course of the evening, and we did not
adjourn until twelve o'clock. I had a long _tete-a-tete_ with old
D'Israeli in a corner. He is a very pleasant, cheerful old fellow,
curious about America, and evidently tickled at the circulation his
works have had there, though, like most authors just now, he groans at
not being able to participate in the profits. Murray was very merry and
loquacious. He showed me a long letter from Lord Byron, who is in Italy.
It is written with some flippancy, but is an odd jumble. His Lordship
has written some 104 stanzas of the fourth canto ('Childe Harold'). He
says it will be less metaphysical than the last canto, but thinks it
will be at least equal to either of the preceding. Murray left town
yesterday for some watering-place, so that I have had no further talk
with him, but am to keep my eye on his advertisements and write to him
when anything offers that I may think worth republishing in America.
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