and eventually to the project of his life. Diligent inquiry and indifferent health have, however, postponed its appearance longer than I had anticipated. In addition to the materials supplied by this gentleman, he was good enough to procure from the present Earl of Charlemont a packet of letters written to Malone by the late lord, and which Mr. Rooper had returned to the family. The letters of Malone to that nobleman during a correspondence of twenty years have disappeared—by some said to be lost, by others destroyed.
A contingency against which there is no provision, caused the dispersion of many other papers. After the publication of Shakspeare, an agreeable evening spent by the younger Boswell with the Malone family induced the ladies, at the suggestion of Mr. Rooper, to propose his acceptance of some memorial of their late brother. The most appropriate was deemed to be a box of papers, letters, and notes upon books, men, or miscellaneous subjects which his pursuits might turn to useful public account. A note to that effect was sent him next day. The box followed in a day or two more. No acknowledgment being made, the ladies, upon inquiry, ascertained to their surprise and regret, that his death had occurred the day after its reception. Unluckily, he proved to be in pecuniary difficulties; the creditors reckoned these papers among his property; and they became scattered at the sale of his effects in 1825.
For the manuscript anecdotes subjoined to the life, with free permission for their use, I am indebted to the Reverend J. H. Gabell, to whose father, the
