[ George Carless Swayne of Harrow School, divine and author. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('G. C. Swayne') to Major R. G. Macgregor, praising his 'Specimens from the Greek Anthology' with reference to Blackwood's Magazine and Walter Savage Landor.

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. He praises Macgregor's book for representing 'most faithfully the spirit of the original. This I take it is the chief merit of any translation.' Macgregor's 'employment in this manner so distinct from the ordinary pursuits of the leisure of an officer, proves the work to be “con amore”'. He mentions the collection of 'Professor Jacobs', feeling that such work will 'give the author a high standing amongst the scholars of our country, but it is for those who engage in such works to be generally aware that as a commercial speculation they are not likely to succeed.' Referring to Blackwood's Magazine, he states that he is himself 'in the habit of writing for a very popular periodical, and finding no place for classical articles. The public taste is not sufficiently chastened and refined. Otherwise I believe that the works of Walter Savage Landor would rank with the first of the day.' He does however feel that things are turning in the right direction, 'which is to divorce scholarship from pedantry'. In a postscript he states that he has 'several connexions in the Indian army, amongst others Dr. Marshall who I believe was chief of the original staff in Burmah, and is now in this country'. See Catherine Reilly, 'Mid-Victorian Poetry, 1860-1879' (2000).