ity of doubt that she accidentally
poisoned herself with prussic acid, which she used to take for spasms of
the heart.

It is tolerably exact, and it is not harsh, to say that "L. E. L." is a
Mrs. Hemans with the influence of Byron added, not to the extent of any
"impropriety," but to the heightening of the Romantic tone and of a
native sentimentality. Her verse is generally musical and sweet: it is
only sometimes silly. But it is too often characterised by what can but
be called the "gush" which seems to have affected all the poetesses of
this period except Sara Coleridge (1802-50) (who has some verses worthy
of even her name in _Phantasmion_, her only independent book), and which
appears in very large measure in the work of Mrs. Browning.

Sir Henry Taylor's poetical repute illustrates the converse of the
proposition which is illustrated by that of Horne. It is probable that,
if each is measured by his best things, _Orion_ and _Philip Van
Artevelde_, Horne must be allowed to be a good deal the better poet. But
a placid official life enabled Taylor both to gain powerful friends and
to devote himself to literature merely when and how he pleased. And so
he has burdened his baggage with no mere hack-work. He was indeed a
singularly lucky person. The son of a man of fair family but reduced
fortune who had taken to farming, Henry Taylor began in the navy. But he
disliked the service very much, and either obtained or received his
discharge after only nine months' sea life as a mid-shipman during the
year 1814. Then he entered the public store-keeper's department, but was
ousted by rearrangements after four years' service. These beginnings
were not very promising; but his father allowed him to stay quietly at
home till by pure luck he obtained a third post under Government in the
Colonial Office. This he held for nearly fifty years, during which it
gave him affluence and by degrees a very high position, and left him
abundance of time for society and letters. He resigned it in 1872, and
died on 27th March 1886. He wrote some prose of various kinds, and just
before his death published a pleasant autobiography. But his literary
fame rests on a handful of plays and poems, all of them, except _St.
Clement's Eve_, which did not appear till 1862, produced at leisurely
intervals between 1827 (_Isaac Comnenus_) and 1847 (_The Eve of the
Conquest_ and other poems). The intervening works were _Philip Van
Artevelde_ (his masterpiece, 18