Page:Blanchard on L. E. L.pdf/220

220 We are not speaking here merely of literary intimacies, or, we should rather say, of intimacies with ladies to whom our literature is indebted. Of the friendship she thus enjoyed, some pleasant examples have been cited in the course of our narrative; and to the names of Mrs. Thomson, Mrs. Hall, Miss Roberts, Miss Mitford, Miss Jewsbury, &c., may be added those of Lady Stepney, Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley, Miss Jane Porter, Miss Louisa Stuart Costello, and Miss Strickland. But the list of acquaintances by whom she was held in estimation, and to whom her visits had often given pleasure, admits of many additions, in the names of Miss Turin, with whom she stayed in Paris, Mrs. General Fagan, to whom her latest letter was addressed, Lady Gore Ousely, Mrs. Dawson Damer, Mrs. Skinner, Mrs. Kemmis, Mrs. and Miss Sheldon, &c., from some of whom her marriage and departure from England brought letters expressive of the highest personal esteem, and the friendliest regret at the loss of her society. We need hardly here mention the Misses Lance—those amiable persons with whom it was L. E. L.'s good fortune to reside so long, who knew all her acts, all her habits, all her conduct so well, and who esteemed because they knew her.

While thus alluding to some of L. E. L.'s female friends, we are agreeably reminded of one who has that equal right to be included amongst them; which a long preserved and intimate attachment confers. We allude to Miss Thomson, now Mrs. John Moren, a young friend with whom L. E. L. frequently corresponded, and who, while these sheets were passing through the press, has favoured us with some pleasant proofs of her advantages in that respect. These are to be found in the letters