The Luggie Author:David Gray Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Dobell, will you read ' The Luggie,' and see whether or not it is worthy of your favour or acceptance ? I have inscribed it to you, after the ancient manner of T... more »homson. God knows it is not much; but, as I said to you a year ago, it is all I have." The tender bribe of the dedication was modestly declined for reasons deemed satisfactory, but with the aid of his lady friends at Hampstead, and the ready co-operation of Mr. Macmillan, publisher, Cambridge, the poem was, without loss of time, put into the hands of the printer. By a fortunate accident, a specimen page beginning, " How beautiful!" reached Merkland on the very day preceding his death. It was accompanied by the following note from the accomplished hand of the authoress of "Ethel:"— " Upper-terrace Lodge, Nov. 29. " My dear Mr. Gray,—I have heard from Mr. Macmillan this morning. He says the MS. will form a volume like ' Edwin of Deira;' and the enclosed is a specimen page sent, with the printer's estimate. I cannot resist the impulse to send it on to you, because I think it will give you so much pleasure to see even this small portion of your work already in the form in which I hope before long we may see it published. After Mr. Dobell's praise of your poetry, you will hardly care for mine; yet I will say briefly that those sonnets which I found time to read before sending off the MS. to Cambridge, impressed me deeply with their truth, and beauty, and rare excellence and simplicity of pathos. It seems to me, too, that in your poetry, even the most mournful, there is a shining forth of that hopeful, loving faith in God's love, which it is indeed a good thing for poets to teach, and which I earnestly trust is the abiding solace and rest of your ownspirit. I can only write these few lines now; but believe that I am always...« less