endowment, patronage, and the like, it will never rise to eminence superior to a Scotch university, or be resorted to by any but poor scholars, who may wish to qualify themselves to get into Orders and hold a Curacy. "Mr. Clayton and Mr. Brown had a meeting about Jarrow and Heworth, but they have not said to what conclusions they came respecting it. I was not well enough at the time to meet them, as Mr. Brown requested, in Newcastle, but I will see Mr. C. on the subject soon if I be well enough. "I am also much obliged for your inquiries respecting my health. Within the last week I have made more improvement than I had done since I came from Newcastle in October. But I am shattered in some respects beyond all hope of recovery. "My poor study does not contain books of reference to enable me to prosecute the work in which I am engaged with the ease and satisfaction to myself and the expedition I could wish-and here I am overwhelmed with expenses in the education of my family, which I cannot afford to send to a public school, or sick in seeing some of them, who are grown up, buried in obscurity for want of society, and unnoticed by such as by some small attention might make the place in a degree comfortable to them. But I must not venture to write more on this subject for I have started a matter which of late has given me great uneasiness, but of which I will not permit myself to complain. I am, dear Sir, most truly yours, "JOHN HODGSON." "MY DEAR SIR, TO ROBERT MACKRETH, Esq. Whelpington, 23rd April, 1831. "Mr. Scriven has done wonders to the portrait since I last saw a proof of it; and the more I look at it the more I admire it. The work on the face is exceedingly fine, and the drapery and back-ground boldly and well executed. I could not have thought the border could have produced so much good effect. Still, however, I would say that the tint upon the left cheek bone, and that circles the under part of the left eye, is a little too bright: the under eyelid not sufficiently detached from the eye, but too much blended with it; and the shadow on the upper corner of the right side of the mouth hardly finely enough shaded off: also the point of light upon the turn of the forehead not bright enough. These few remarks I make without much consideration. Perhaps there is more of frown than of contemplation or thought in the contraction of the muscle over the right eyebrow, but any body will be able to criticise on the engraving better than I can. I return the proof, though I am very desirous of having two or three before the plate is lettered. By all means employ Mr. Scriven to superintend the printing, and let the royal size be on India paper. I think I mentioned to you the number of impressions I should want; about 60 royal and 265 demys for my book; besides a few more on larger paper, and some for your sister. But Mr. Scriven would do me a great favour by sending a list of the number of impressions taken from the plate before it leaves his hands; and to pack the plate carefully with the impressions, that I may have it in case of a new edition of my work being called for, for such I hope will be the case. I wish the impressions to come here, and I will send them with the other engravings to the binder when the work is ready for delivery. Be so good as to convey my best thanks to Mr. Scriven for the skill and care he has used in the engraving. I take the earliest opportunity of returning you the proof and the miniature, and pray do what you can to save me a few unlettered proofs, which I want for a very particular purpose. I must not, however, ask anything which would run to an expense which the subscription will not cover. The subscribers' separate copies, perhaps, had best be upon India paper, but not of a size greater than would allow them to be packed with the volume they are intended to be sent out with. I have not a list of the subscribers. Could you favour me with two or three copies, or half a dozen if you have them, of your circulars about the engraving, to write lists of the subscribers upon? "JOHN HODGSON." CHAPTER X.-1832. Correspondence-the Portrait-Correspondence-the Roman Wall-another Volume of the History of Northumberland, Part II. vol. ii.-Review of it, and Extracts from it-Dean Ogle's Latin Ode to the Blyth-Correspondence-Commencement of a regular Journal-Correspondence. "MY DEAR SIR, Whelpington, 7 Jan. 1832. "The bearer of this, Mr. Wm. Woodman, is a young Northumberland gentleman who is going to London to qualify as an attorney. His object in being a bearer of a letter to you is to consult you about the charter of Morpeth School, which had got among Lord Widdrington's† papers, and with them was seized at his attainder, and taken from Whitehall to the Tower in 1819. "I have been once again at Housesteads on the Roman Wall, and had eleven men at work for four days, but made no other discovery than of some hypocausts, which I supposed to have been part of the apparatus of a granary and a kitchen. The sections of the wall I opened in 1830 were very much injured by the frost of the succeeding winter; but still I found no new character of building either in the stones or the Wall. The Wall in this part is standing in many places six feet high from its foundations, faced with freestones on both sides, each stone being about ten inches square, and the middle filled up with rumler work of whinstone and lime: for in this neighbourhood the Wall runs for many miles on the edge of an escarpment of whin or basalt. I hope as soon as spring sets in to go once again, and finish my researches at Housesteads, and to take a good surveyor with me to put all my This letter having been, by not an unusual mistake upon the coming in of a new year, wrongly dated, has been already printed in p. 192 above. It was written in reality in the year at which we have arrived, and to which it must be considered to belong. †The rebel earl of 1715. sketches, plans, and sections, into order for their publication in the Archæologia Eliana. My friend Mr. Hedley has built a house close to his station of Vindolana, or Little Chesters; and in some researches has found several altars dedicated by prefects of the Cohors quarta Gallorum. There have also some curious inscriptions been found at Caervorran (Magna), all of which I have promised to go to copy as soon as the weather will allow me to write and sketch in the air. open This last and the preceding summer have been very disastrous to my family, and I have been much borne down with an epidemic fever myself; so that I could not get the papers about the Roman Wall, of which I promised you a copy, prepared for the press. I shall, however, in a very short time have some biographical and other papers ready for begging your acceptance of a copy of each. "I last night sent to press the Preface and Indexes to another volume of the Newcastle Antiquarian Transactions, of which Mr. Adamson will in a short time send a copy to the British Museum. Yours, dear Sir, most truly, "JOHN HODGSON." TO ROB. MACKRETH, Esq.-Jan. 7, 1832.—“ A new year is a sad time for exposing poverty. I really have not at present a farthing to spare for Mr. Scriven. For a long time in summer I had 50l. laid up to send him when he called for it; but many unseen causes have since that time risen up to wrest it out of my hand. You will however have to receive the subscriptions for the plate; and if on that security you dare join me in a note for 40l. at Sir M. W. Ridley's bank, and say what it is for, I will be willing to give my name to it. They will, I am sure very readily let you have it, but they require two names. "MY DEAR SIR, To ROBERT MACKRETH, Esq. "JOHN HODGSON." Whelpington, 10 Jan. 1832. "There is not a stamp of any kind to get here, and, if there was, I know no more than a child how to draw a bill in the manner you * It would appear from this letter, and some of the Correspondence by which it is succeeded, that, as the portrait was progressing in the hands of the engraver, money was wanted upon account of the work, and that, the subscriptions towards it not having been received, Hodgson was called upon to advance such a sum as was required. His mention, and know of no person I could draw it upon. The only thing of the kind I know any thing about is a promissory note, by one of which I got money last summer to pay Mr. Scriven; but urgent demands upon me from ill health, affliction, and the demands of my book, compelled me to make use of it above two months ago; and I think in my last letter to Mr. Scriven I mentioned that I might not be able to send him money as I had before intimated, but that he must rely on the subscription, which had to be paid to you. If I knew how to draw, and on what kind of a stamp, and any body to draw upon, I would do it immediately. I really had forgot that the subscriptions were to be paid to me. Nothing depresses my spirits more than to be asked for money that I cannot pay. If I could have come to Newcastle some plan might have been devised. One thing is certain, that, if I shall have to collect the subscriptions, I can never do it. Mr. Scriven shall be paid; but for me to send about to the subscribers to my book to ask for the subscriptions for the portrait, is what all my feelings would revolt at. It is impossible for me to accompany the portrait with any intimation that money will be due for it. That can be done no way but by your sending a printed note with each portrait, saying that you request the subscription may be paid either to you or at the Courant Office. I have never employed any person to collect the subscriptions for my book till long after they were due, the subscribers having generally sent the charge either to myself or the Courant Office. Will you have the kindness to keep me out of this dilemma by your advice. Mr. Mackay, my children's tutor, suggests that Mr. Scriven might draw upon me, which I am willing that he may do, and to settle with him when the subscriptions to pay his charge are got in. If Mr. Scriven had the impressions ready for delivery could they not be sent to each subscriber, or to many of them near Newcastle, before the work is ready, as I see nothing in your circular about the time of delivering the proofs? You see the circular was sent out by you, which makes me think that the proofs ought to be accompanied with a short notice also from you when the subscriptions ought to be paid, and I see no person so proper to pay them to as yourself. I am not wishing to get trouble off myself and throw it upon you. I will take the trouble to pack up all the proofs with your card about the subscriptions, and to many subscribers write a note myself, thanking them for the honour they have done me. I will letters on this subject, especially that which comes next in the order of time, are very characteristic of their writer, of his profound ignorance in money transactions, and of his candour and simplicity in confessing it. |