lighted; and once she
whispered to her father, 'If I am a very good little girl, may I see my
doll to-morrow?' However, all memory of vision seems to have faded from
her before she left the sick-room, though, taught by those around her,
she soon began to take an imaginary interest in colour, and a very real
one in form and texture. An old nurse is still alive who remembers
making a pink frock for her when she was a child, her delight at its
being pink and her pleasure in stroking down the folds; and when in 1835
the young Princess Victoria visited Oxford with her mother, Bessie, as
she was always called, came running home, exclaiming, 'Oh, mamma, I have
seen the Duchess of Kent, and she had on a brown silk dress.' Her
youthful admiration of Wordsworth was based chiefly upon his love of
flowers, but also on personal knowledge. When she was about ten years
old, Wordsworth went to Oxford to receive the honorary degree of D.C.L.
from the University. He stayed with Dr. Gilbert, then Principal of
Brasenose, and won Bessie's heart the first day by telling at the dinner
table how he had almost leapt off the coach in Bagley Wood to gather the
blue veronica. But she had a better reason for remembering that visit.
One day she was in the drawing-room alone, and Wordsworth entered. For a
moment he stood silent before the blind child, the little sensitive face,
with its wondering, inquiring look, turned towards him. Then he gravely
said, 'Madam, I hope I do not disturb you.' She never forgot that
'Madam'--grave, solemn, almost reverential.

As for the great practical work of her life, the amelioration of the
condition of the blind, Miss Martin gives a wonderful account of her
noble efforts and her noble success; and the volume contains a great many
interesting letters from eminent people, of which the following
characteristic note from Mr. Ruskin is not the least interesting:

DENMARK HILL, 2nd September 1871.

MADAM,--I am obliged by your letter, and I deeply sympathise with the
objects of the institution over which you preside. But one of my main
principles of work is that every one must do their best, and spend
their all in their own work, and mine is with a much lower race of
sufferers than you plead for--with those who 'have eyes and see
not.'--I am, Madam, your faithful servant, J. Ruskin.

Miss Martin is a most sympathetic biographer, and her book should be read
by all who care to know the hi