were afterwards collected into the first volume of "Sketches of Irish Character."
There was now a brisk demand for her Irish tales, both in England and America, they were so fresh, so natural, so human. Her husband's influence as an editor, no doubt, helped to push her on. He was associated with Theodore Hook, from 1837,as sub-editor of "The New Monthly Magazine," before he became sole editor. This brought him and his wife into the society of many of the contributors—the Hon. Mrs. Norton, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Disraeli, Bulwer Lytton and others.
Mrs. Hall's mode of working may be best illustrated by the following words of her own: "I remember having a conversation with my friend, Maria Edgeworth. She did not see so clearly as I saw the value of imagination in literature for the young, and was almost angry when she discovered that a sketch I had written of a scene at Killarney was pure invention. She told me, indeed, that she had been so much deceived by one of my pictures as to have actually inquired for, and tried to find out, the hero of it, and argued strongly for truth in fiction. I ventured to ask her if her portrait of Sir Condy, in Castle Rackrent, was a veritable likeness, and endeavoured to convince her that to call imagination to the aid of reason, to mingle the ideal with the real, was not only
