Page:Emma Roberts Memoir of L. E. L.pdf/23

Rh revert every moment to the affectionate kindness of her disposition, which extended even to things inanimate; while her growing partiality for every work that she undertook was very remarkable. In commencing the Drawing Room Scrap-Book, she looked upon it as a mere collection of engravings, to which it was no easy task to give any poetical interest; and her first effusions, beautiful as they were, being written under this impression, were less striking than those which succeeded. The work, however, became familiar and captivating; and she bestowed upon it the produce of the richest mines of her thought. In her preface to the volume for 1839 she observes, "For the last few years the Drawing Room Scrap-Book has been the cherished record of my poetical impressions, and my only poetical work; and I grew gradually to look forward to June and July, as recalling my first keen delight in composition." She had for some time previous to her departure from England, contemplated a republication of her favourite poems, selected from this cherished child of her fancy; and now that the task 26