ABSTRACT
The Morning Post (like the New Times), thanks largely to Mrs Emmerson and Lord Radstock, contained a number of ‘puffs’ on Clare, who soon tired of these attentions. Writing to Taylor on 3 April 1821, Clare referred to ‘those silly beggarly flattery in the Morning Post &c &c &c—I think Ive gaind as much harm as good by it—& am nothing in debt on that quarter’ (LJC, p. 111); his sentiments were pre-echoed by Taylor in a letter of 31 May 1820 to his brother James, after the third edition of Poems Descriptive had appeared: ‘I am much annoyed by Lord R’s puffing in the Post & New Times & am determined to put an end to it, for I cannot but think it is disgraceful to me & injurious to Clare’s Fame as well as Feelings.’ Later in the same letter, Taylor gloomily prophesied, ‘Poor Fellow! I question if his advancement will make him much happier.’ (Quoted in Olive Taylor, ‘John Taylor, Author and Publisher’, London Mercury, July 1925, xii, 262.)
