about the Association it is unnecessary to
add, and as a proof of it we find in the spring that Mr. Kingsley asked
the Rev. Llewelyn Davies either to preach or to lend his pulpit in aid
of her work.

On her return to Chichester the remainder of January was spent in
writing letters to ask for anecdotes concerning the blind, and in
obtaining material for her proposed book.

An autograph letter soliciting patronage was written at this time to the
blind King of Hanover. She tells how she first dictated, then copied it
herself, and also wrote herself to enclose it to Miss Boyle, by whom it
was to be forwarded. "Seems little enough," she adds, "but took a long
time."

With regard to her biographies, Levy writes as follows:

"I think Mr. Taylor would lend any work he has; the best he has I think
are all German. The translations which I have heard from them remind me
of the efforts which have been made to discover the North-West Passage,
you are continually boring through ice, and if perchance you do meet
with a piece of clear water you are no sooner aware that it is such than
you are hemmed in with ice again.

"If you were to write and ask him to lend you any work on the biography
of the blind it would do good, but all that Germany has produced for the
blind is not worth spending much time upon." He proceeds to tell her of
a meeting held at St. John's Wood, and of the feeling that seemed to
prevail that the institution there for the blind must either adopt "our
views" or else come to the ground; and how in consequence of this the
title had been changed to "The London Society for teaching the blind to
read and for teaching the Blind Industrial Arts." He ends his letter,
"It seems truly miraculous that in so short a space of time so much
should be done with the various institutions. There is St. John's Wood,
St. George's, Manchester, Bristol, Exeter, York, and Bath of which we
know."

Bessie's friends heard of her proposed book on the blind with interest.
Mr. Browne, the Rector of Pevensey, wrote in warm approval, and offered
when in London to consult books for her at the British Museum. The late
Colonel Fyers wrote from Dover Castle, enclosing an account of the life
of a blind doctor, Rockliffe, of Ashley in Lincolnshire. Her brother Tom
writes from Trinity College, sending notes on the life of the blind
professor, Sanderson of Cambridge, who died in 1739. He speaks of a
picture on the stairs of the library, of which he