nes.]

DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, YORK GATE, REGENT'S PARK,
_Monday, 15th April, 1844._

DEAR SIR,

I don't know how it has happened that I have been so long in
acknowledging the receipt of your kind present of your poems[24]; but I
_do_ know that I have often thought of writing to you, and have very
often reproached myself for not carrying that thought into execution.

I have not been neglectful of the poems themselves, I assure you, but
have read them with very great pleasure. They struck me at the first
glance as being remarkably nervous, picturesque, imaginative, and
original. I have frequently recurred to them since, and never with the
slightest abatement of that impression. I am much flattered and
gratified by your recollection of me. I beg you to believe in my
unaffected sympathy with, and appreciation of, your powers; and I
entreat you to accept my best wishes, and genuine though tardy thanks.

Dear Sir, faithfully yours.

[Sidenote: Mr. Charles Babbage.]

9, OSNABURGH TERRACE, NEW ROAD, _28th May, 1844._

MY DEAR SIR,

I regret to say that we are placed in the preposterous situation of
being obliged to postpone our little dinner-party on Saturday, by reason
of having no house to dine in. We have not been burnt out; but a
desirable widow (as a tenant, I mean) proposed, only last Saturday, to
take our own house for the whole term of our intended absence abroad, on
condition that she had possession of it to-day. We fled, and were driven
into this place, which has no convenience for the production of any
other banquet than a cold collation of plate and linen, the only
comforts we have not left behind us.

My consolation lies in knowing what sort of dinner you would have had if
you had come _here_, and in looking forward to claiming the fulfilment
of your kind promise when we are again at home.

Always believe me, my dear Sir, faithfully yours.

[Sidenote: Countess of Blessington.]

MILAN, _Wednesday, November 20th, 1844._

MY DEAR LADY BLESSINGTON,

Appearances are against me. Don't believe them. I have written you, in
intention, fifty letters, and I can claim no credit for anyone of them
(though they were the best letters you ever read), for they all
originated in my desire to live in your memory and regard. Since I heard
from Co