though it does not destroy the pleasantness of her book for summer reading."*

In 1849, "The Bird of Passage," in three volumes, made its appearance; a rechauffé of scenes and impressions of Oriental and Continental travel previously described.

Traces of a tendency to mysticism, which are slightly obvious in all the preceding works of Mrs. Romer, were very manifestly displayed in a work of fiction, in three volumes, entitled "Sturmer, or the Mesmerist."

In 1852, the last work bearing the name of Mrs. Romer on the title-page appeared, "Filia Dolorosa: Memoirs of Marie Therese Charlotte, Duchess of Angoulême." This, we are informed in the preface, was commenced by her, and completed by Dr. Doran.

LETTERS FROM MRS. ISABELLA ROMER TO LADY BLESSINGTON. "20 Boulevard Poissonnière, Paris, 14th October, 1839. "DEAR LADY BLESSINGTON,-You see that you can not be amiable with impunity, and that I have not forgotten your kind request that I would write to you, for I avail myself of the first leisure moment that has occurred since my return home to devote it to so pleasant an occupation.

"The date of my letter will doubtless surprise you; it almost surprised myself after the vast project which absorbed me when I took leave of youmeditating upon mummies-prating of pyramids dreaming hieroglyphically, having interviews with Mr. [ ], and seriously turning over in my own mind his suggestions that I should read up other travelers' observations, and note down my own upon the wonders I was going to contemplate-and all to end upon the Boulevard of Paris!! I can only compare myself to Bouffè, in I forget what vaudeville, who, after pompously exclaiming, 'C'etait l'année de mon voyage en Russie!' and being replied to by 'Comment, vous avez été en Russie? quickly rejoins, 'Non je suis allé jusqu'à Bondy;' for my grand projects have had the same puny results, and all malgré moi. In fact, we had determined to take a peep at Spain, chemin faisant to Egypt, and therefore journeyed along the coast of Brighton to Falmouth, in order to embark in the peninsular steamer for Lisbon, Cadiz, &c., but at Falmouth we were detained fifteen days in such a stress of weather as it would have been madness to put to sea in. The bay was crowded with yachts, all bound (or, rather, windbound) for the same place with ourselves. Grosvenor Square was assembled at the Land's End. Lord Yarborough, Lord and Lady Wilton, Lord and Lady Godolphin, Mr. and Lady C. Talbot, Mr. and Mrs. Villiers, formed *The Athenæum, August 29th, 1846, p. 879.

part of the aristocratic little squadron. There were also two or three yachts belonging to the Irish Yacht Club, but they seemed to be looked upon as aliens by the others-as distinct from them as Bloomsbury is from May Fair. I suppose there are nautical as well as hunting 'snobs,' and that these latter, being of that sort, would have contaminated the others had they come between the wind and their nobility!'

"But to return to ourselves: we lost patience, and determined to set out and start for Marseilles, there to embark by the Mediterranean instead of the dreadful Bay of Biscay, when I received intelligence which necessitated my giving up the idea of the whole thing for this year. My sole remaining trustee had died, and I was left to the mercy of whoever his executors might be, and obliged to exert myself personally to nominate new trustees, &c., which affair is not yet terminated, and therefore the Egyptian tour is put off until next year. I have been betrayed into this most egotistical detail in order to account for what would otherwise have appeared to you a puerile caprice. My only consolation in this disappointment, caused by 'hope deferred,' is, that I shall be enabled to read your next work as soon as it appears in print, and to retrace my recollections of the dear Clonmel Quakers through the medium of your clever and graceful pen. Apropos to writing, I must tell you that Mr. C called upon me, and discoursed at great length upon the subject of publishing for me; we, however (and, as matters turned out, I consider it a fortunate circumstance), came to no understanding beyond that of Mr. C- being offered the refusal of my first production. He wished me to furnish him with articles à fin et mesure for his magazine, but, having already declined Mr. F's very liberal offers to me because I do not wish to write for magazines, I also declined Mr. C's proposal to that effect.

"If it is not asking too much of you, might I request that you would let Mr. C know of my postponed journey? for I believe that he now expects to receive a volume from me upon Egypt in the spring. During the fortnight that has elapsed since my return here, I have been so occupied by business as to leave me no opportunity of learning les on dits. There appear to be few English, comparatively to other autumns, now in Paris. The French embassy to Persia has departed, and caused great despair among the Bayaderes of the Opera: one of the calembourgs of the day is that "dans les coulisses on n'entend pas que des cris perçans"-Persans.

'But my papa warns me to conclude. I can not, however, do so without assuring you that, if so very a recluse as I am can be of any use to you here, my services are at your command, and shall ever be most cheerfully exerted on your behalf. Pray, therefore, do not scruple to employ me in any way that I can be useful.

"Mr. B

charges me to mettre ses hommages à vos pieds, de sa part, à l'homme aimable par excellence le Comte D'Orsay.

"And now, dear Lady Blessington, farewell.

"Perhaps it is too much to ask that, in the multitude of your occupations.

you should devote half an hour to writing to me. I will only say that your doing so would make me very happy, and that a letter from you would be the next best substitute for the delightful moments I have passed in your society. "Believe me to be, with every sentiment of esteem, your ladyship's sincerely obliged ISABELLA F. ROMER."

"31 Chester Square, Monday, 18th. "I would not thank you in form, my dear Lady Blessington, for the Book of Beauty' until I had read every word of it. I have just finished it, and to my thanks I must add the expression of my sincere admiration for its contents, more especially those portions that have emanated from Gore House.

"It is no new thing to tell you that you do every thing well that you undertake; but I must, nevertheless, repeat the oft-told tale, and offer my humble meed of praise to your 'Historical Sketches,' as I have so often done to your works of imagination. How ably you have been seconded by your fair young coadjutrix! Pray congratulate Miss Power, in my name, upon the ability and grace she has evinced in her share of the undertaking. Her style is charming, at once showing extensive reading and deep research, without the alloy of stiffness or pedantry.

ISABELLA F. ROMER."

"Cairo, November 9th, 1845.

"As you kindly expressed a wish to hear from me in the course of my peregrinations, I seize upon the first opportunity of sending letters to England which has occurred since my arrival in the City of the Califs, to recall myself to your remembrance, and to tell you that thus far we have journeyed most prosperously, par mer et par terre. A fortnight passed at Malta Sound served to increase my delight in that loveliest of all places, Valetta, and certainly tended to make me fastidious about the spots afterward to be visited. However, after making this declaration, I am bound to admit that traveling in Egypt is far less uncomfortable than I had previously been led to imagine, and that the pleasures so far overbalance the pains of the undertaking that I now begin to wonder at their being dwelt upon so much as they have been.

"We have been only a week in Cairo, and have therefore not yet seen one half of its lions; but as the prevailing winds are now favorable for the navigation of the Nile, we intend to profit by them to make an excursion to Upper Egypt, and on our return to Thebes we shall see Cairo in detail at our leisure. I shall therefore abstain from inflicting upon you any half finished description of the place, but merely say that, in point of local coloring, Cairo is far more interesting than Constantinople, inasmuch as that it is purely an Arabian city, and perfectly Oriental, both as regards men and things, customs and manners. The picturesque façades of the houses; the narrow streets, crowded with camels, dromedaries, and those most delightful of all animals, Egyptian asses; the thronging, noisy population in their graceful costumes; the strange garb of the women, muffled to the eyes in voluminous black manVOL. II-E

tles, and mounted astride upon what is here termed 'the high ass'—all is so totally dissimilar to any thing one has seen elsewhere, that one could almost fancy one's self carried back to the days of the great Saladin or Tagloon.

"The present ruler of Egypt is a fine, healthy old man, likely to live a dozen years longer, and, for the sake of the country, it is to be hoped he may do So. He is now much occupied with the marriage of his youngest daughter with Kiamil Pasha, which is to take place next month, when there will be extraordinary rejoicings in Cairo. He has given her £280,000 worth of diamonds, and also the Defterdar's Palace (the house where Kleber was assassinated), newly furnished, in the most sumptuous manner, partly in the Oriental, partly in the European style. I never saw mirrors of such magnitude and beauty as those in the princess's salaamlik. As the waters of the Nile have not yet subsided sufficiently to admit of a visit to the great pyramids of Ghizeh with any comfort, I have postponed going there until our return from the upper country, when, in descending the river, we shall take all the pyramids in detail, ending by the finest of them all, that of Cheops. And now, dear Lady Blessington, will you not exclaim at the egotism of this letter? I blush for myself when I perceive that I have filled three pages without telling you of the deep concern with which we read in the papers at Malta of the painful accident Count D'Orsay had met with. I trust in Heaven that the injury has only been temporary, and I assure you that it would afford the greatest satisfaction both to Mr. B― and to myself to hear that the wounded hand is restored to its healthy state.

Pray let me have the happiness of hearing that you are all as well as I wish you to be, and if you will write to me on the receipt of this, and direct your letter to J. B, Esq., care of Messrs. Briggs, Alexandria, Egypt, it will be forwarded to me here, and I shall have the pleasure of receiving news from Gore House on my return from the head-quarters of hieroglyphics. I dined yesterday at our consul general's, Colonel Barnett, where we met the French consul general, Monsieur Barrot (brother of Odillon Barrot), and his pretty English wife. There had been, on the previous day, a presentation to the Pasha of the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, which Louis Philippe sent out to him, in acknowledgment of the bon accueil which the Duc de Montpensier received in this country. Queen Victoria has also been sending her picture, set in diamonds, to Mohammed Ali; and, after the formal presentation of it, his highness gave a dinner to all the Englishmen in Cairo. This day he has done the same thing by the French sojourning here.

"Adieu, my dear Lady Blessington. Mr. B- unites with me in a thousand kind regards to you and to your charming nieces, not forgetting l'artist par excellence, Count D'Orsay, and I remain, ever and affectionately yours, "I. F. ROMER "

CHAPTER V.

W. S. LANDOR, ESQ.

IN a letter of Mr. Landor to Lady Blessington in 1837, the following brief notice of his career was given by him:

"Walter Landor, of Ipsley Court, in the county of Warwick, married first, Maria, only daughter and heiress of J. Wright, Esq., by whom he had an only daughter, married to her cousin, Humphrey Arden, Esq., of Longcroft, in Staffordshire; secondly, Elizabeth, eldest daughter and co-heiress of Charles Savage, of Tachebrooke, who brought about eighty thousand pounds into the family. The eldest child of this marriage, Walter Savage Landor, was born January 30th, 1775. He was educated at Rugby his private tutor was Dr. Heath, of St. Paul's. When he had reached the head of the school, he was too young for college, and was placed under the private tuition of Mr. Langley, of Ashbourne. After a year, he was entered at Trinity College, Oxford, where the learned Benwell was his private tutor.* At the peace of Amiens he went to France, but returned at the end of the year."

"In 1808, on the first insurrection in Spain, in June, he joined the Viceroy of Gallicia, Blake. The 'Madrid Gazette' of August mentions a gift from him of twenty thousand reals. On the extinction of the Constitution, he returned to Don P. Caval

It has been stated that Landor was rusticated at college for the boyish freak of firing a gun in the quadrangle of his college, and that, after this occurrence, he never returned to take a degree. He repaired to London on leaving college, and remained there for some time, under the care of General Powell, his godfather, who pressed him to enter the army. Having declined that proposition, his father, desiring to make him a lawyer, offered him £400 a year if he would reside in the Temple and study the law, but only a small pittance, of about £150 a year, in the event of a refusal. He proceeded to South Wales, and resided in great seclusion for some time at Swansea.-R. R. M.

1 Men of the Time, p. 273, London, 1853.