Besides being proud of receiving a letter from you, I was much
pleased to know that I am, though at such a distance, sometimes in
your thoughts. I was much pleased, too, with what you have said of
the health and other gratifications you enjoy in Italy. I should
gladly have thanked you at the time, had I known how to address my
letter; and after receiving your proper direction from our friend
Miss Montgomery, I have been prevented from using it by various
things.... But though so long silent I have not been ungrateful, and
thank you with all my heart. The account you give of Venice is very
interesting. There is something affecting in still seeing the
descendants of the former Doges holding a diminished state in their
remaining palaces with so much courtesy. I am sure you have found
yourself a guest in their saloons, hung with paintings of their
ancestors, with very mixed feelings. However, Venice to the eye, as
you describe it, is Venice still; and with its lights at night
gleaming upon the waters makes a very vivid picture to my fancy. You
no doubt have fixed it on canvas, and can carry it about with you
for the delight of your friends who may never see the original.

In return to your kind inquiries after us, I have, all things
considered, a very good account to give. Ladies of four score and
upwards cannot expect to be robust, and need not be gay. We sit by
the fire-side with our books (except when those plaguy notes are to
be written) and receive the visits of our friendly neighbours very
contentedly, and, I ought to say, and trust I may say, very
thankfully.... This morning brought one in whom I feel sure that you
and your daughters take some interest, Maria Edgeworth. She has been
dangerously ill, but is now nearly recovered, and is come from
Ireland to pass the winter months with her sisters in London: weak
in body, but the mind as clear and the spirits as buoyant as ever.
You will be glad to hear that she even has it in her thoughts to
write a new work, and has the plan of it nearly arranged. There will
be nothing new in the story itself, but the purpose and treating of
it will be new, which is, perhaps, a better thing. In our retired
way of living, we know little of what goes on in the literary
world.... I was, however, in town for a few hours the other day, and
calle