'I am going to make a request to you, Sir, which is of a slightly impudent nature. It is, that you will be so good as to give me a copy of "Adam Bede", - and I advance three pretexts for asking this favour from you. Firstly my delight in the book; and in the "Stories from Clerical Life", ever since the first part of "Amos Barton" in Blackwood. It almost seems presumptuous in me to express all the admiration I feel; you might be tempted to quote Dr Johnson'.