Fishmongers' Company, and he made such sad work of speechifying that I asked him whether it was in honour of the company that he floundered so.'

What most amused Henry Crabbe Robinson on this occasion was the reading by Lady Blessington of 'a ridiculously absurd letter from an American, suggesting that a monument should be raised to Bryon, to be built of flint and brass and covered with great names. Lady Blessington was asked to contribute an Andenken in return for which she was promised that her name should have a prominent place.'

Though as she tells a correspondent she had now all the horrors of authorship on her hands, and had not an hour to call her own by day, whilst at night she retired to bed so fatigued as to be unable to sleep, yet she found time to write letters to her friends when they needed advice or sympathy. For example when through loss of speculations and breaking health, ill fortune was beginning to darken the life of the elder Charles Mathews, she wrote his wife the following kindly letter:—

'It is strange my dearest friend, but it is no less strange than true, that there exists some hidden cord of sympathy, "some lightening of the mind " that draws kindred souls towards each other when the bodies are separated. I have been for the last four days thinking so much of you, that had this day been tolerable, I should have gone to you, as

I had a thousand misgivings that something was wrong, when lo, your little note arrives, and I find that you too have been thinking of your absent friend.

'I shall be glad to hear that Mr Mathews is returned and in better health and spirits. I feel all that you had to undergo; that wear and tear of mind, that exhausts both nerves and spirits is more pernicious in its effects than greater trials. The latter call forth our energies to bear them, but the former wear us out without leaving even the self-complacency of resisted shocks. I shall be most glad to see you again, and to tell you that in nearness as in distance your affection is the cable that holds the sheet - anchor, and reconciles me to a world where I see much to pity and little to console.'

Towards the end of this year and whilst her 'Conversations' were yet attracting much attention, she set about writing a novel, her first serious effort in this department of literature. The book which chiefly dealt with Irish politics was called The Repealers, and when published in June 1833, was favourably received by the press. Her personal friends hastened to applaud her efforts, and amongst the letters received from them relative to The Repealers, was a characteristic effusion from Walter Savage Landor, which ran as follows:

'I am inclined to hope and believe that The Repealers may do good. Pardon me smiling at your expression, the only one per

haps not original in the book, going to the root of the evil. This is always said about the management of Ireland. Alas the root of the evil lies deeper than the centre of the earth.

'Two things must be done and done soon. It must be enacted that any attempt to separate one part of the United Kingdom from the other is treason. Secondly, no churchman, excepting the two archbishops and the Bishop of London, shall enjoy more than twelve hundred pounds yearly from the Church, the remainder being vested in Government for the support of the poor. Formerly the clergy and the poor were joint tenants; nay, the clergy distributed amongst the poor more than half. Even in the territories of the Pope himself, the bishoprics, one with another, do not exceed eight hundred a year, and certainly a fifth at least is distributed among the needy. What a scandal that an admiral who has served fifty years and endangered his life in fifty actions, should receive but a twentieth part of what is thrown into the surplice of some cringing college tutor, whose services two hundred a year would overpay. I am afraid that Sir Robert Peel's quick eye may overlook this. Statesmen, like goats, live the most gaily among inequalities.'

Lady Blessington was daily becoming more absorbed by literature, a pursuit which had the desired effect of occupying her thoughts and adding to her income: for not only was she a contributor to the New Monthly, the author

of a novel, but in this year 1833 she was appointed to the editorship of the Book of Beauty, one of the forerunners of the modern annuals. For some time previous Christmas gift-books had become the fashion: the first of these having been introduced from Germany into England in 1822 by Ackerman the publisher, and called Forget-me-Not. A year later he issued Friendship's Offering. These productions which contained poems and sketches whose worthlessness would now prevent their admission into the poorest of our magazines, were fairly well illustrated, interleaved with sheets of blank paper, bound in tinted wrappers of the same material, and sold for twelve shillings.

Their success begot competition, and with rivalry they improved. In 1824 Alaric Watts edited The Literary Souvenir, next year S. C. Hall edited The Amulet for Baynes of Paternoster Row; later still came The Scenic Annual edited by Thomas Campbell; Tableaux or Picturesque Scenes of National Character, Beauty and Costume edited by Mary Russell Mitford; The Court Journal edited by the Hon. Mrs Norton; The Gem edited by Tom Hood; The Anniversary edited by Allan Cunningham; Heath's Book of Beauty edited by L. E Landon; and The Keepsake first edited by Mansel Reynolds and afterwards by the Countess of Blessington.

In one year no less than seventeen of these annuals were published. The rapid improvement they made in art and literature was

appreciated by the public with whom for a time they became extremely popular. At first the annuals were mainly contributed to by people of rank and fashion, interest in whose social position it was hoped, would compensate for their lack of talent: but later it was found necessary to secure the production of distinguished and popular writers to whom large prices were paid. For instance Sir Walter Scott received five hundred pounds for a contribution to The Keepsake, and Tom Moore was offered six hundred pounds for one hundred and twenty lines of prose or verse by the editor of the same publication. Theodore Hook first published his sketch The Splendid Annual-The Lord Mayor of London -in The Anniversary; the Dream of Eugene Aram first appeared in The Gem; whilst Walter Savage Landor wrote some of his Imaginary Conversations for the Book of Beauty.

The art department also made rapid strides towards perfection. Painters were now paid from twenty to a hundred and fifty pounds for permission to have their works produced. In one instance the publishers of The Amulet paid twelve hundred guineas for the use and the engraving of the plates it contained: and strange to say this number was the most profitable they published. The binding of the annuals kept pace with their contents; tinted paper was no longer used, it being discarded for silk of gorgeous colours; silk in time giving place to velvet and morocco