lorn
condition) pronounced by some delightful creature? In a previous state
of existence, I believe.

Oh, Memory, Memory!

Ever yours faithfully.

Y--no C. G.--no D. C. D. I think it is--but I don't know--"there's
nothing in it."

FOOTNOTES:

[36] This and following letters to Mr. and Mrs. Cowden Clarke appeared
in a volume entitled "Recollections of Writers."

[37] The house in which Shakespeare was born, at Stratford-on-Avon.

[38] A character in "Used Up."

[39] As fairies in "Merry Wives."

[40] A huge blot of smeared ink.

[41] "Young Gas."}

[42] "Gas-Light Boy."} Names he had playfully given himself.

1849.

[Sidenote: Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton.]

DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _23rd February, 1849._

MY DEAR SIR EDWARD,

I have not written sooner to thank you for "King Arthur" because I felt
sure you would prefer my reading it before I should do so, and because I
wished to have an opportunity of reading it with the sincerity and
attention which such a composition demands.

This I have done. I do not write to express to you the measure of my
gratification and pleasure (for I should find that very difficult to be
accomplished to my own satisfaction), but simply to say that I have read
the poem, and dwelt upon it with the deepest interest, admiration, and
delight; and that I feel proud of it as a very good instance of the
genius of a great writer of my own time. I should feel it as a kind of
treason to what has been awakened in me by the book, if I were to try to
set off my thanks to you, or if I were tempted into being diffuse in its
praise. I am too earnest on the subject to have any misgiving but that I
shall convey something of my earnestness to you in the briefest and most
unaffected flow of expression.

Accept it for what a genuine word of homage is worth, and believe me,

Faithfully yours.

[Sidenote: Mr. C. Cowden Clarke.]

DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _May 5th, 1849._

MY DEAR SIR,

I am very sorry to say that my Orphan Working School vote is promised in
behalf of an unfortunate young orphan, who, after being canvassed for,
polled for, written for, quarrelled for, fought for, called for, and
done all kind of things for, by ladies who wouldn't go away and wouldn't
be satisfied with anything anybody said or did for them, was floo