'_September_ 5_th_, 1850.

'MY DEAR SIR,--I trust your suggestion for Miss Kavanagh's benefit
will have all success. It seems to me truly felicitous and
excellent, and, I doubt not, she will think so too. The last class
of female character will be difficult to manage: there will be nice
points in it--yet, well-managed, both an attractive and instructive
book might result therefrom. One thing may be depended upon in the
execution of this plan. Miss Kavanagh will commit no error, either
of taste, judgment, or principle; and even when she deals with the
feelings, I would rather follow the calm course of her quiet pen than
the flourishes of a more redundant one where there is not strength to
restrain as well as ardour to impel.

'I fear I seemed to you to speak coolly of the beauty of the Lake
scenery. The truth is, it was, as scenery, exquisite--far beyond
anything I saw in Scotland; but it did not give me half so much
pleasure, because I saw it under less congenial auspices. Mr. Smith
and Sir J. K. Shuttleworth are two different people with whom to
travel. I need say nothing of the former--you know him. The latter
offers me his friendship, and I do my best to be grateful for the
gift; but his is a nature with which it is difficult to
assimilate--and where there is no assimilation, how can there be real
regard? Nine parts out of ten in him are utilitarian--the tenth is
artistic. This tithe of his nature seems to me at war with all the
rest--it is just enough to incline him restlessly towards the artist
class, and far too little to make him one of them. The consequent
inability to _do_ things which he _admires_, embitters him I
think--it makes him doubt perfections and dwell on faults. Then his
notice or presence scarcely tend to set one at ease or make one
happy: he is worldly and formal. But I must stop--have I already
said too much? I think not, for you will feel it is said in
confidence and will not repeat it.

'The article in the _Palladium_ is indeed such as to atone for a
hundred unfavourable or imbecile reviews. I have expressed what I
think of it to Mr. Taylor, who kindly wrote me a letter on the
subject. I thank you also for the newspaper notices, and for some
you sent me a few weeks ago.

'I should much like to ca