ps to the L.
E. L., of whom so many nonsensical things have been said, as that she
should write with a crystal pen, dipped in dew, upon silver paper, and
use for pounce the dust of a butterfly's wing, a dilettante of literature
would assign for the scene of her authorship a fairy-like boudoir, with
rose-coloured and silver hangings, fitted with all the luxuries of a
fastidious taste. How did the reality agree with this fancy sketch?
[Picture: Attic, No. 22 Hans Place] Miss Landon's drawing-room, {33}
indeed, was prettily furnished, but it was her invariable habit to write
in her bed-room. I see it now, that homely-looking, almost uncomfortable
room, fronting the street, and barely furnished with a simple white bed,
at the foot of which was a small, old, oblong-shaped, sort of
dressing-table, quite covered with a common worn writing-desk, heaped
with papers, while some strewed the ground, the table being too small for
aught besides the desk; a little high-backed cane chair, which gave you
any idea rather than that of comfort. A few books scattered about
completed the author's paraphernalia."

In this attic did the muse of L. E. L. dream of and describe music,
moonlight, and roses, and "apostrophise loves, memories, hopes, and
fears," with how much ultimate appetite for invention or sympathy may be
judged from her declaration that, "there is one conclusion at which I
have arrived, that a horse in a mill has an easier life than an author.
I am fairly fagged out of my life."

Miss Roberts, who had resided in the same house with Miss Landon,
prefixed a brief memoir to a collection of poems by that lamented lady,
which appeared shortly after her death, her own mournful lines--

"_Alas_! _hope is not prophecy_--_we dream_,
_But rarely does the glad fulfilment come_;
_We leave our land_, _and we return no more_."

And within less than twenty months from the selection of these lines they
became applicable to her who had quoted them.

Emma Roberts accompanied her sister, Mrs. M'Naughten, to India, where she
resided for some time. On her sister's death Miss Roberts returned to
England, and employed her pen assiduously and advantageously in
illustrating the condition of our eastern dominions. She returned to
India, and died at Poonah, on the 17th September, 1840. Though
considerably the elder, she was one of the early friends of Miss Landon,
having for several years previous to her first visit to India boarded