"FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD." [To THE EDITOR OF THE
"SPECTATOR."] SIR,—In your issue of April 29th you print a letter from Mr. Thomas Hardy in which he contradicts "a statement in a recent book by Mr. E. Downey, called Twenty Years Ago,' to the effect that the novel, 'Far from the Madding Crowd,' was offered to the late Mr. W. Tinsley, and withdrawn because he would not give a rise' on another publisher's price for it." I did not state—nor, to my knowledge, did Mr. Tinsley ever state—that "Far from the Madding Crowd" was withdrawn from him. I make him say—and I was most careful to reproduce his assertions accurately—that he had never seen " Far from the Madding Crowd." The statement which I did make was Mr. Tinsley's, and was to the effect that while "A Pair of Blue Eyes" was " running " through Tinsleys' Magazine Mr. Hardy told him that the editor of another magazine was willing to give for a new novel a considerably larger price than Mr. Tinsley was paying. Mr. Tinsley said, good-humouredly: " Take the offer. I couldn't spring to so much." I expect he fancied that Mr. Hardy in telling him of the price offered by the Cornhill was giving a reasonable explanation of his desire to make a change of publishers. One of Mr. Tinsley's deepest regrets was that he was not able to retain the author of " Under the Green- wood Tree" ; but be was not blind to the fact that the Cornhill—wholly outside any question of pounds, shillings, and pence—was infinitely more attractive to a novelist than his own magazine. I am very sorry if any words of mine have annoyed Mr. Hardy ; nothing was further from my thoughts than to say anything which might be calculated to give him offence.—I am, Sir, &c., EDMUND DOWNEY.
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