SAMUEL PALMER.

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this toil and minute accuracy on the writer's part, nothing but pleasure for the reader-no tediousness;' and many more things had I but time to write them. I had a beautiful and enthusiastic letter from Mr. Palmer, and one full of feeling from Browning," about the Blake.

Samuel Palmer's letter is characteristic; we give nearly the whole of it:-"Furze Hill House, Red Hill, Nov.

"MY DEAR MRS. GILCHRIST: How shall I thank you enough for such a treasure as this dear delightful book— how keep it so long out of my hands as will suffice to let me fill this paper? I could not wait for the paperknife but fell upon it, reading all in between :-now, I have cut the first volume, and read wildly everywhere :— and now again I begin at the beginning, and meanwhile write to tell you how it has delighted me; raising, however, a strange ferment of distressing and delicious thought.

"Surely never book has been put forth more lovingly : the dear Author and the Editor,—Mr. Linton, the Publisher, and Printer, seem all to have laboured at a labour of love:-and instead of being sparingly illustrated, as I understood it was to be, it is, both in quantity and unrivalled quality, the richest Book of all illustrated ones that I have ever seen. It is not a pearl thrown to the swinish many, but a tiara of jewels.-What will they do? turn again and rend, or take kindly to this new and costly diet?

"Hitherto the English people have shown themselves inflexibly obtuse to high art,-making the very words a favourite bye-word.

"There is an evident preciousness (if there be such

a word) about the book,-as we read, and look at the illustrations, and read on again,—which can hardly fail to strike every one ;-and to those who are too callous even to feel this, it must at least commend itself as the most curious and extraordinary thing they ever handled. And then, the respectable' who keep gigs, and 'by sweet reserve and modesty grow fat,' will be enraged at it-an excellent symptom ;-grasping it like an electric eel the more the pain the tighter the grasp. So, with one thing and another I cannot help thinking it will have a great run, edition after edition;—and as already it is certain to be an imperishable monument of the dear Biographer, it seems to me likely to bear his name far beyond the bounds of his native land, perhaps by way of translations. The fancies however of the piggy populace are beyond calculation, or anything more than vague conjecture. Akenside said he would be willing to stake the value of his judgment on the success of Dyer's Fleece-but it did not take.'

"I rather thought there would have been an engraving from the cast of Blake's head taken during his lifetime, as Mr. W. B. Richmond told me he had made a very careful drawing on purpose ;-perhaps it might be worth considering for a future edition; but it seems ungracious even to hint an addition to so profuse a banquet.

"I do hope it may provoke a lively art-controversy in the periodicals, unless people have gone quite to sleep -and ceased to care for anything but their cheque books and arm chairs. . How often I think of your sweet house on the 'L' Allegro' upland among

THOSE ENRICHED WALLS.

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the green hills.-How your book,-so doubly and dearly your own book, will delight your eyes as you sit within those enriched walls!—And your dear children will grow familiar with every page of it— . . . it... And now, my dear Mrs. Gilchrist, I have two requests to make, one is that you will not write a line to me when you could be otherwise better employed. Secondly, that when you exist in a vacuum and want something to do, you will tell me any little doings of the little people; any particulars you have time for, which will bring all before my mind's eye, as you are already within my heart.-Believe me, Dear Mrs. Gilchrist,

Ever faithfully yours,

S. PALMER." "P.S. Now I am going to begin the Book at the beginning even before the ink is dry.”

About this time the family at Brookbank made the acquaintance of Christina Rossetti; mention is made of her by Anne Gilchrist in a letter to Mrs. Burnie :"The week before I left [Brookbank] Mr. William Rossetti brought down his sister, Christina, to spend a few days with me, and Mr. William Haines came over to meet them. We were both altogether charmed with Miss Rossetti-there is a sweetness, an unaffected simplicity and gentleness, with all her gifts that is very winning and I hope to see more of her. She was so kind to the children and so easy to please and make comfortable that though a stranger to me, she was not at all a formidable guest.'

L

"M

CHAPTER XV.

LETTER FROM CHRISTINA

G. ROSSETTI.

1864-1867. AGE 36-39.

Y acquaintance with Jean Ingelow's Poems to which you kindly introduced me, has been followed by a very slight acquaintance with herself. She appears as unaffected as her verses, though not their equal in regular beauty: however I fancy hers is one of those variable faces in which the variety is not the least charm.

"Have you noticed the advertisement appearing from time to time of William's blank verse translation of Dante's Inferno? I hope it will soon be published, but Mr. Macmillan does not send proofs with all the speed we could wish. Next year promises or threatens-to bear an unwonted crop of Dantesque literature: however, I think that on its own ground and within its own. confessed limits, William's work will be well able to hold its own.

"Since my pleasant days at Brookbank last summer, I have paid a visit to Cheltenham and made a short stay at Malvern. The latter place is very delightful