Page:Blanchard on L. E. L.pdf/74

74 Oxford prize-poems. My poor dear novels are treated with great contempt. One cousin told me that 'she never wasted her time reading any such trash;' another said, 'she should read it as it was mine, but she preferred more solid works.' Now, is it not curious to note, when intellect has taken one shape, how it retains it? They are all highly educated, and read French, Italian, German, and Spanish. Say something very charming to the pavement of London for me."

Her intimacy with Mrs. S. C. Hall, which commenced in 1828, continued till the close of her life; and among the pleasures which were opened to her by the fame she had established, and the friendships it commanded for her, few were more delightful to her than the social and literary intercourse which for years she enjoyed under the roof of Mr. and Mrs. Hall. They resided near her; she was their frequent guest in Sloane-street and at Fulham; and her talents could not be better known to the public, than her estimable qualities as a companion and a friend were known to them.

A glance at some of the various notes addressed to this lady suggests one observation—that L. E. L.'s opinions about books or about people that she liked, L. E. L. never could keep a secret; if she did not print them, she penned them down as they arose, and dispatched them to the nearest acquaintance who could appreciate them, or to the friend she had last conversed with. Of her mental activity, and the interest she took in authors, actors, and artists, perhaps unknown to her but by their works, we have evidence in innumerable scraps of correspondence with various persons; we cannot make them available for our present purpose, and must be content thus to refer to them; but about