He is,
also, a casual contributor to that long-established repository of
national customs and antiquities, the Gentleman's Magazine, and is one
of those that every now and then make an inquiry concerning some
obsolete custom or rare legend; nay, it is said that several of his
communications have been at least six inches in length. He frequently
receives parcels by coach from different parts of the kingdom,
containing mouldy volumes and almost illegible manuscripts; for it is
singular what an active correspondence is kept up among literary
antiquaries, and how soon the fame of any rare volume, or unique copy,
just discovered among the rubbish of a library, is circulated among
them. The parson is more busy than common just now, being a little
flurried by an advertisement of a work, said to be preparing for the
press, on the mythology of the middle ages. The little man has long
been gathering together all the hobgoblin tales he could collect,
illustrative of the superstitions of former times; and he is in a
complete fever lest this formidable rival should take the field before
him.
Shortly after my arrival at the Hall, I called at the parsonage, in
company with Mr. Bracebridge and the general.
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