Two Antiquaries: Walpole and ColeSince to criticize the Yale edition of Horace Walpole’s letters to Cole is impossible, for there cannot in the whole universe exist a single human being whose praise or blame of such minute and monumental learning can be of any value — if such exists his knowledge has been tapped already — the only course for the reader is to say nothing about the learning and the industry, the devotion and the skill which have created these two huge volumes, and to record merely such fleeting² thoughts as have formed in the mind from a single reading. To encourage our selves, let us assert, though not with entire confidence, that books after all exist to be read — even the most learned of editors would to some extent at least agree with that. But how, the question immediately arises, can we read this magnificent instalment — for these are but the first two volumes of this edition in which Mr. Lewis will give us the complete correspondence — of our old friend Horace Walpole’s letters? Ought not the presses to have issued in a supplementary³ pocket a supplementary pair of eyes? Then, with the usual pair fixed⁴ upon the text, the additional pair could range the notes, thus sweeping⁵ together into one haul not only what Horace is saying to Cole and what Cole is saying to Horace, but a multitude of minor⁶ men and matters: for example, Thomas Farmer, who ran away and left two girls with child; Thomas Wood, who was never drunk but had a bad constitution and was therefore left fifty pounds and bed and furniture in Cole’s will; Cole’s broken leg, how it was broken, and why it was badly mended; Birch, who had (it is thought) an apoplectic⁷ fit riding in the Hampstead Road, fell from his horse, and died; Thomas Western (1695–1754), who was one of the pall-bearers at the funeral of Cole’s father; Cole’s niece, the daughter of a wholesale⁸ cheesemonger; John Woodyer, a man of

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