Walter Savage Landor Author:John Forster 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: 1775-97- XL Eetreat To Wales. In the later memory of Landor the various matters consequent on his departure from Oxford continued to live only confusedly ;... more » and at the time of his letter to me in 1855 he had the belief that Dorothea Lyttelton's intercession had obtained for him a separate allowance of four hundred a year, though his own non-compliance with certain conditions compelled him to surrender it. Her letters will not only have shown how such errors may have found place in his mind, but will account for sundry statements naturally repeated since his death because put forth with his authority while he lived; and in order to explain the interesting comment'which these have received from Mr. Robert Landor, of whom I had inquired respecting them before Miss Lvttelton's letters were found, their substance shall here be briefly stated. They are to this effect: That Landor, after he left Oxford, was looking out for a profession. That his godfather General Powell, with whom upon leaving Oxford he lived in London, promised that he would obtain for his godson a commission in the army if the young republican would keep his opinions to himself. That Landor replied he would suppress his opinions for no man, and declined the offer. That his father then promised him four hundred a year if he would study for the law, and only a hundred and fifty a year if he would not. But that, the law being less to Lan- dor's taste than the army, after a brief residence in London he put the Severn sea between him and his friends, and retired into Wales. As for Landor looking out for a profession, this was certainly never at any time the case. The earlier home- disagreements and objections turned chiefly upon this, that he as decidedly refused as his father eagerly desired to give such a di...« less