ABSTRACT
Of the reviews, Clare preferred this: he thanked Taylor, 10 December 1827, for the reviews, ‘which are as usual talking of what I know not and as usual liking that least which I think best but I like the Eclectic much the best in fact I always liked it there is a heartiness in the praise and that coming from a Poet pleases me much better’ (LJC, p. 207). Josiah Conder (1789–1855) was proprietor and editor of the Eclectic Review from 1814 to 1837, and a poet himself: The Star in the East, with other Poems, 1824, was carefully read by Clare. It is possible that Conder wrote earlier notices of Clare in the Eclectic (see Nos 23 and 60).
