. records two or three circumstances
which give a general interest to Hans Place. Here it was that Miss
Landon was born on the 14th August, 1802, in the house now No. 25; and
"it is remarkable that the greater portion of L. E. L.'s existence was
passed on the spot where she was born. From Hans Place and its
neighbourhood she was seldom absent, and then not for any great length of
time; until within a year or two of her death, she had there found her
home, not indeed in the house of her birth, but close by. Taken
occasionally during the earlier years of childhood into the country, it
was to Hans Place she returned. Here some of her school time was passed.
When her parents removed she yet clung to the old spot, and, as her own
mistress, chose the same scene for her residence. When one series of
inmates quitted it, she still resided there with their successors,
returning continually after every wandering, 'like a blackbird to his
nest.'"

The partiality of Miss Landon for London was extraordinary. In a letter,
written in 1834, and addressed to a reverend gentleman, she ominously
says, "When I have the good luck or ill luck (I rather lean to the latter
opinion) of being married, I shall certainly insist on the wedding
excursion not extending much beyond Hyde Park Corner."

When in her sixth year (1808), Miss Landon was sent to school at No. 22
Hans Place. This school was then kept by Miss Bowden, who in 1801 had
published 'A Poetical Introduction to the Study of Botany,' {32a} and in
1810 a poem entitled 'The Pleasures of Friendship.' {32b} Miss Bowden
became the Countess St. Quentin, and died some years ago in the
neighbourhood of Paris. In this house, where she had been educated, Miss
Landon afterwards resided for many years as a boarder with the Misses
Lance, who conducted a ladies' school. "It seems," observes the
biographer of L. E. L., "to have been appropriated to such purposes from
the time it was built, nor was L. E. L. the first who drank at the 'well
of English' within its walls. Miss Mitford, we believe, was educated
there, and Lady Caroline Lamb was an inmate for a time."

It is the remark of Miss Landon herself, that "a history of the how and
where works of imagination have been produced would often be more
extraordinary than the works themselves." "Her own case," observes a
female friend, "is, in some degree, an illustration of perfect
independence of mind over all external circumstances. Perha