that peculiar character which can only thrive when supported by
passion and prejudice, and falling in with a dispute of this nature, it
is absolutely necessary to jump at once into fanaticism. Accordingly,
I had no sooner obtained a glimpse of the letter of the starving poet,
embalmed within the precious leaves of one of the most noted
albums of Europe, than I immediately enlisted under Lady
Holberton's colors as a faithful Otwaysian. With that excellent lady I
take a tragical view of the Lumley Letter, conceiving that a man
must be blind as a bat, not to see that it was written by the author
of Venice Preserved, and this in spite of other celebrated collectors,
who find in the same sheet so much that is comical and Hudibrastic.
Strange that any man in his senses should hold such an opinion--yet
the Butlerites number strong, some of them are respectable people,
too; more's the pity that such should be the case.

As we have already observed, the controversy began in the library of
Sir John Blank, and it continued throughout the life-time of that
excellent and well-known collector. At his death, a few years since, it
passed into the hands of his daughter, the widow of Colonel H-----;
and it will be readily imagined that although the main question is
still as much undecided as ever, yet the value of the document itself
has been immeasurably increased by a controversy of twenty years
standing, on its merits. I wish I could add that the fortune of Colonel
H----- had augmented in the same proportion; but, unhappily for his
widow, the reverse was the case; and it was owing to this
combination of circumstances that Lady Holberton at length obtained
possession of the Lumley Autograph. Mrs. H----- became very
desirous of procuring for her eldest son a cornetcy in the regiment
once commanded by his father; as she was now too poor to
purchase, the matter required management and negotiation. How it