had great pleasure yesterday in seeing your Majesty
well and in good spirits.

[Footnote 50: The poem was no doubt _The Palfrey; a Love-Story
of Old Times_.]

_Mr Leigh Hunt to Viscount Melbourne._

32 EDWARDES SQUARE, KENSINGTON, _15th July 1842._

MY LORD,--I was once speaking to Mr Fonblanque[51] of my unwillingness
to trouble your Lordship, when Prime Minister, with a request to lay
my tragedy of the _Legend of Florence_[52] before Her Majesty; and he
said that he was sure your good-nature would not have been displeased
with it. This is the reason why I now venture to ask whether a similar
kindness might be shown the accompanying little poem, supposing
no etiquette to stand in the way of it. I have no Tory channels of
communication with the Palace, nor wish to seek any; neither can I
trespass upon any friendships of Her Majesty's, unless they can find
my excuse in some previous knowledge of me. On the other hand, I have
no fear of being supposed by your Lordship to approach one who is no
longer Premier with less respect than when he was in power. I would
even venture to say, if the mode of testifying it were not so poor a
one, that it is in a double spirit of respectfulness the application
is made. Should it be of a nature calculated to give your Lordship any
perplexity, I can only blush for having been the occasion of it, and
beg it may be laid to the account of an ignorance which lives very
much out of the world. The same reason will plead my excuse for
not knowing whether a letter to Her Majesty ought, or ought not, to
accompany the book; and for begging your Lordship, after its perusal,
to suppress it or otherwise accordingly, in case you can oblige me
in the other part of my request. Your Lordship will perceive that the
Address prefixed to the poem, not having ventured to ask Her Majesty's
permission, does not presume to call itself a dedication; neither does
it leave the public under any erroneous impression whatsoever as to
the nature of its intentions: and on this account I not only expect,
of course, no acknowledgment of its receipt on the part of any
one about Her Majesty's person, but shall be more than content to
understand by your Lordship's own silence that my book has reached its
destination, and therefore not been considered altogether unworthy of
it.

The bookseller tells me that it is no longer "the mode" for authors to
present their volumes _bound_; but in regard to books inten