not for Wordsworth's. We are very anxious to know about Tennyson new work, 'In Memoriam.' Do tell us about it. You are aware that it was written years ago, and relates to a son of Mr. Hallam, who was Tennyson's intimate friend and the betrothed of his sister. I have heard, through someone who had seen the MS., that it is full of beauty and pathos. . . . Dearest, ever dear Miss Mitford, speak particularly of your health. May God bless you, prays
Your ever affectionate E. B. B.
Robert's kindest regards.
Florence: July 8, 1850.
My dearest Miss Mitford, -- I this moment have your note; and as a packet of ours is going to England, I snatch up a pen to do what I can with it in the brief moments between this and post time. I don't wait till it shall be possible to write at length, because I have something immediate to say to you. Your letter is delightful, yet it is not for that that I rush so upon answering it. Nor even is it for the excellent news of your consenting, for dear Mr. Chorley's sake, to give us some more of your 'papers,'1 though 'blessed be the hour, and month, and year' when he set about editing the 'Ladies' Companion' and persuading you to do such a thing. No, what I want to say is strictly personal to me. You are the kindest, warmest- hearted, most affectionate of critics, and precisely as such it is that you have thrown me into a paroxysm of terror. My
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