Life And Letters Of Maria Edgeworth/Volume 1/Letter 63

To MISS MARGARET RUXTON.

EDGEWORTHSTOWN, May 23, 1806.

I have been laughed at most unmercifully by some of the phlegmatic personages round the library table for my impatience to send you The Mine. "Do you think Margaret cannot live five minutes longer without it? Saddle the mare, and ride to Dublin, and thence to Black Castle or Chantony with it, my dear!"

I bear all with my accustomed passiveness, and am rewarded by my father's having bought it for me; and it is now at Archer's for you. Observe, I think the poem, as a drama, tiresome in the extreme, and absurd, but I wish you to see that the very letters from the man in the quick-silver mine which you recommended to me have been seized upon by a poet of no inferior genius. Some of the strophes of the fairies are most beautifully poetic.

Lady Elizabeth Pakenham told us that when Lady Wellesley was presented to the Queen, Her Majesty said, "I am happy to see you at my court, so bright an example of constancy. If anybody in this world deserves to be happy, you do." Then Her Majesty inquired, "But did you really never write one letter to Sir Arthur Wellesley during his long absence?"&mdash;"No, never, madam."&mdash;"And did you never think of him? "&mdash;"Yes, madam, very often."

I am glad constancy is approved of at courts, and hope "the bright example" may be followed.