h and
feeling. I don't know if you know Henry Chorley. He is the friend of
Robert Browning, and the especial favorite of John Kenyon, and has
always been a sort of adopted nephew of mine. Poor Mrs. Hemans loved
him well; so did a very different person, Lady Blessington,--so that
altogether you may fancy him a very likeable person; but he is much
more,--generous, unselfish, loyal, and as true as steel, worth all
his writings a thousand times over. If my house be in such condition
as to allow of my getting to London to see "Old Love and New
Fortune," I shall consult with Mr. Lucas about the time of sitting
to him for a portrait, as I have promised to do; for, although there
be several extant, not one is passably like. John Lucas is a man of
so much taste that he will make a real old woman's picture of it,
just with my every-day look and dress.

Will you make my most grateful thanks to Mr. Whipple, and also to
the author of "Greenwood Leaves," which I read with great pleasure,
and say all that is kindest and most respectful for me to Mr. and
Mrs. George Ticknor. I shall indeed expect great delight from his
book.

Ever, dear Mr. Fields, most gratefully yours,

M.R.M.

We have had a Mr. Richmond here, lecturing and so forth. Do you know
him? I can fancy what Mr. Webster would be on the Hungarian
question. To hear Mr. Cobden talk of it was like the sound of a
trumpet.

Three-mile Cross, November 25, 1850.

I have been waiting day after day, dear Mr. Fields, to send you two
books,--one new, the other old,--one by my friend, Mr. Bennett; the
other a volume [her Dramatic Poems] long out of print in England,
and never, I think, known in America. I had great difficulty in
procuring the shabby copy which I send you, but I think you will
like it because it is mine, and comes to you from friend to friend,
and because there is more of myself, that is, of my own inner
feelings and fancies, than one ever ventures to put into prose. Mr.
Bennett's volume, which is from himself as well as from me, I am
sure you will like; most thoroughly would like each other if ever
you met. He has the poet's heart and the poet's mind, large,
truthful, generous, and full of true refinement, delightful as a
companion, and invaluable as a man.

After eight years' absolute cessation of compositio