“Brussels, July 13, 1838.
“The excessive heat (102 in the shade) has been such that I have been obliged to send my children to the country about nine miles off—a pretty village between Waterloo and [ ]. Kate and I are going to-morrow on a little tour along the Meuse by Namur (shades of my Uncle Toby!), and shall be away for about a fortnight.... I drive my own horses, and merely bring Kate and a groom.”
To Mr Alexander Spencer.
“Boulevards de l’Observation, Brussels, Sept. 13, 1838.
“I have been obliged to change my residence, very much in some respects to my disadvantage, inasmuch as my present one is vis-à-vis to the Embassy, and consequently inviting a daily, almost hourly, intercourse there, besides giving me a kind of publicity. My new residence is No. 33 Boulevarde de l’Observation, a very good house—four rooms on each floor, with garden, coach-house, and five-stalled stable. It has been the residence of the Portuguese Ambassador up to this time, and is in perfect repair.... Mr Dumont, the Irish Under Secretary, has been a patient of mine for some time past. We are great friends. He has dined here several times with me, and if anything medical official is in the new Poor-Law Bill, I think I should have an offer of it at least.”
To Mr Alexander Spencer.
“33 Boulevard de l’Observation, Nov. 12, 1838.
“The fatal facility of the Embassy bag for troubling one’s friends—as you have cause to feel—induces me to bore you with a commission, the performance of which I cannot spare you, for I have no other friend to whom I can commit myself et mes affaires at this juncture.
“I have just received a letter from Mortimer O’Sullivan, to whose management I had entrusted an arrangement with M’Glashan concerning the sale of a republished edition of ‘Harry Lorrequer,’ and who from unavoidable absence is compelled to leave the negotiation on your shoulders....
“M’Glashan proposes (O’S. writes to me) to publish H. L. in monthly numbers, with illustrations like the ‘Pickwick,’ in preference to a 2-vol. form; in which I thoroughly coincide. He also desires to have an answer from me as to my plan regarding the length of the work and my expectations as to payment. To which I reply that I am willing to give twelve monthly numbers of the size of ‘Pickwick’ (i.e., two sheets each), those already in the D. U. M. going as far as the Mag. (for £150), and thus concluding the work in these twelve numbers.