Beside  the  great  difference  in  the  age  of  these  competitors  (Walter
was  twenty-three  at  the  publication  of  Gebir,  and  Parr  fifty-one),  and,
at  that  time,  of  reputation,  I  think  that  they  were  kept  from  quarrels
by  mutual  respect,  by  something  like  awe  of  each  other's  temper,
and  a  knowledge  that,  if  war  began  at  all,  it  must  be  to  the  knife.
"  It  would  be  great  impertinence  in  me,"  Mr.  Landor  adds,  "  if  any
opinions  were  offered  here  on  the  Doctor's  literary  pretensions.  But
surely  the  pretensions  of  a  writer  and  reasoner  familiar,  during  many
years,  with  Charles  Fox,  James  Mackintosh,  Bobus  Smith,  Richard
Sharp,  Samuel  Rogers,  and  other  distinguished  people,  could  hardly
have  been  so  contemptible  as  it  is  now  the  fashion  to  suppose.  I  say
this,  though  he  once  treated  me  more  offensively  than  any  one  else
ever  did."

The  correspondence  of  Parr  and  Landor,  while  the  latter  was  still
at  Oxford,  has  been  mentioned  in  a  preceding  page ;  f  ana<  such  of
Parr's  later  letters  as  I  possess,  with  one  or  two  of  Landor's,  though
of  not  much  moment  in  themselves  and  but  a  fragment  of  what
passed  between  them,  will  show  well  enough,  as  I  quote  them  from
time  to  time  in  my  memoir,  the  character  of  their  intercourse.  Gebir,
as  soon  as  published,  found  its  way  to  Hatton,  with  a  letter  in  which
the  writer  told  Parr  that,  however  proud  and  presumptuous  he  might
have  shown  himself  in  the  effort  he  had  made,  he  rather  thought  that
during  the  time  the  Doctor  was  reading  and  examining  it  he  should
himself  be  undergoing  much  the  same  sensation  as  the  unfortunate

*  This  is  entirely  borne  out  by  the  account  of  William  Taylor,  of  Norwich,
t  Ante,  p.  25.
