Page:William Jerdan.pdf/11

176 "Old Brompton, Feb. 14th.

"Miss Landon feels particularly indebted to Mr. Jerdan for the trouble he has kindly taken, and more so for the very friendly and candid opinion he has given on the subject. It will prove a source of much gratification to the youthful writer that a man of Mr. Jerdan's acknowledged talent should allow them the smallest merit; at the same time it will prove a strong inducement for further improvement, endeavouring to avoid those errors in each branch his kindness has pointed out. Miss L. cannot conclude without again apologising for the very great liberty taken, and to assure Mr. J. it will ever be remembered with gratitude."

The manuscripts were corrected, and some other short compositions submitted to me, from all of which I was the more and more forcibly struck with the innate genius they displayed, and the unmistakeable proofs that the writer possessed the great essential elements of taste, feeling, warmth, and imagination, without which the attempt to write poetry is but a sham. On the 11th of March, No. 164 of the "Literary Gazette," her first composition, entitled "Rome," was printed and published, under the signature of L. I copy it:—

Oh, how art thou changed, thou proud daughter of fame, Since that hour of ripe glory when empire was thine, When Earth's purple rulers, kings, quail'd at thy name, And thy Capitol worshipped as Liberty's shrine.

In the day of thy pride, when thy crest was untamed, And the red star of conquest was bright on thy path, When the meteor of death thy stern falchion's edge flamed, And earth trembled as burst the dark storm of thy wrath.