Page:Blanchard on L. E. L.pdf/77

Barry Cornwall, Allan Cunningham, Michael Thomas Sadler, and many others then and since distinguished were present. L. E. L. was delighted with her evening; but with a pretty playfulness of feminine humour, the first thing she thought of the next morning, when noting down her impressions of the brilliant literary party, was Mrs. Hall's velvet dress. In her note she says, "You never looked better; pray be as careful of that black velvet dress as if it were a fairy's gift, and the loss would entail all sorts of misfortune. I never saw anything become you so much." And then for her own particular comfort, she proceeds to express "a little of her liking to Mrs. Jameson, as one of the very few that she quite longs to meet again." Of that accomplished writer she says at another time, "I should think Mrs. Jameson must be a delightful woman. I shall never forget how fascinated I was with her 'Diary of an Ennuyée.'" Of Wordsworth, too, who is alluded to in the subjoined passage, she has elsewhere written, in a spirit of lofty appreciation and admiring regard. "There is a story in Plutarch, I think (I never vouch for the correctness of my classics), that the day after the festival complained bitterly, that its predecessor had left nothing for its portion but weariness and lassitude. I have no such complaint to make. I am so well to-day that I really think I must have been a little la malade imaginaire. Amusement is mighty good for most complaints—I found it very beneficial for mine. By the by, you never duly stated what a handsome young man Mr.——is; being a genius, I took it for granted he must be a fright. There is something very impressive in Wordsworth—something rugged and mountainous. He gave me the idea that the statuary sug-