and--throws a
handkerchief over her face when he takes her to his arms--never to leave
her! I maintain it--a little Shakespeare--a Cockney Shakespeare, if you
will: but as distinct, if not so great, a piece of pure Genius as was
born in Stratford. Oh, I am quite sure of that, had I to choose but one
of them, I would choose Dickens' hundred delightful Caricatures rather
than Thackeray's half-dozen terrible Photographs.

In Michael Kelly's Reminiscences {146} (quite worth reading about
Sheridan) I found that, on January 22, 1802, was produced at Drury Lane
an Afterpiece called _Urania_, by the Honourable W. Spencer, in which
'the scene of Urania's descent was entirely new to the stage, and
produced an extraordinary effect.' Hence then the Picture which my poor
Brother sent you to America.

'D'autres choses encore.' You may judge, I suppose, by the N.E. wind in
London what it has been hereabout. Scarce a tinge of Green on the
hedgerows; scarce a Bird singing (only once the Nightingale, with broken
Voice), and no flowers in the Garden but the brave old Daffydowndilly,
and Hyacinth--which I scarce knew was so hardy. I am quite pleased to
find how comfortably they do in my Garden, and look so Chinese gay. Two
of my dear Blackbirds have I found dead--of Cold and Hunger, I suppose;
but one is even now singing--across that Funeral Bell. This is so, as I
write, and tell you--Well: we have Sunshine at last--for a day--'thankful
for small Blessings,' etc.

I think I have felt a little sadder since March 31 that shut my
seventieth Year behind me, while my Brother was--in some such way as I
shall be if I live two or three years longer--'Parlons d'autres'--that I
am still able to be sincerely yours

E. F.G.

LVI.

WOODBRIDGE: _May_ 18, [1879.]

MY DEAR MRS. KEMBLE,

By this Post you ought to receive my Crabbe Book, about which I want your
Opinion--not as to your own liking, which I doubt not will be more than
it deserves: but about whether it is best confined to Friends, who will
like it, as you do, more or less out of private prejudice--Two points in
particular I want you to tell me;

(1) Whether the Stories generally seem to you to be curtailed so much
that they do not leave any such impression as in the Original. That is
too long and tiresome; but (as in Richardson) its very length serves to
impress it on the mind:--My Abstract is, I doubt not, more readable: but,
on that account partly, leaving but a