Page:Poetical Remains.pdf/21

Rh

hours of her society. Her residence both at Ambleside and at Abbotsford, was fortunately of sufficient duration to make her intimately acquainted with the illustrious persons there; and while in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, her principal sojourn was at Milburn Tower, the seat of the venerable Sir Robert Liston.

Shortly after her return from a second visit to Scotland, Mrs Hemans changed her residence to Dublin, where her Hymns for Childhood, and her National Lyrics and Songs for Music were published. It was impossible now, when her fame had become national, to live altogether in the quiet sequestration which she had enjoyed in Wales, and had expected to find at Wavertree; but, that she courted retirement, as much as the nature of her situation and the claims of society admitted, is evident.

The seeds of the complaint which terminated the existence of this amiable and gifted woman, had long been sown, and their growth