elf far from that Edenic region where we had recently passed so
many happy hours; from those bowers in Llangollen Vale, whence the
purest pleasures have so often flowed to my heart and mind, as from a
full and overflowing fountain."

From Lichfield, Nov. 9, 1802, Miss Seward discourses to Miss Ponsonby on
modern tragedy, and concludes with the following bit of "blue-stocking
gossip:"--

"Though I know her not, I am pleased that Mrs. Spencer has had the
good fortune to interest and delight you; for I am always desirous
that men of genius should not do what they are so prone to do, marry
every-day women.

"Naughty brook, for having behaved outrageously again! That little
stream of the mountain is a true spoiled child, whom we love the
better for its faults, and for all the trouble and alarm they
occasion. You see I presume to involve myself, as if, in some sort,
the interesting little virago belonged to me. Certainly it is my
peculiar pet amongst your scenic children, dear to my taste, as they
are beautiful; to my heart as being yours."

In a letter from Lichfield, June 13, 1805, Miss Seward begins:--

"'With a trembling hand, my beloved Miss Ponsonby, do I take up the
pen to thank you for a thrice kind letter. It had not remained
several weeks unacknowledged, but for this terrible malady of the
head, which has oppressed me with so much severity during the
interim. I think it must soon lay me low. Not at my time of life
does the constitution, pushed from its equipoise by long enduring
disease, regain it amid the struggles.

"Immediately on receiving your last, I sent for Madoc; by far the
most captivating work of its genuinely inspired author."

In the same letter the following passage occurs:--

"Our young friend Cary has published his translation of Dante's
Inferno. It is thought the best which has appeared, and the sale
goes on well. He presents a copy to yourself and Lady Eleanor, and I
trust you will receive it soon."

After some literary disquisitions on the Inferno, the Lay of the Last
Minstrel, and Madoc; and an allusion to King George's visit to Lichfield,
the letter thus concludes:--

"Present me devoutly to your beloved Lady Eleanor. Most interesting
is your description of that visit, mutually paid to that desolate and
silent Dinbren. How worthy of yourselves that hour of