This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
L. E. L.
185

as piquant, essays in criticism and original prose. Romance and Reality, and Francesca Carrara, novels in three volumes each, afforded farther proof of genius and industry, and were thus requited:—


For the Improvvisatrice she received £300
For the Troubadour 600
For the Golden Violet 200
For the Venetian Bracelet 150
For the Easter Offering 30
For the Drawing-Room Scrap Book, per vol 105
For Romance and Reality 300
For Francesca Carrara 300
For Heath's Book of Beauty 300
And certainly from other Annuals, Magazines, and
Periodicals, not less in ten or twelve years than }
200
In all £2585


Say on an average (estimating the annual Scrap-Book) 250l. a year, and a close approximation will he made to the literary production and the market price. On the death of her grandmother she received a legacy of 350l. and I the good old lady's good old gold watch (of which my pocket was picked in the Olympic Theatre on a memorable dramatic evening, the first appearance, I think, of Charles Mathews the younger, with Liston, his father's old friend); and would have been, in a pecuniary sense, more easy and happy, but for certain family drawbacks which her generous soul never regretted, but rather rejoiced in, whilst her genuine economic spirit, as regarded herself, never, I believe, allowed her expenditure to exceed 120l. a year!! In truth, she was the most unselfish of human creatures; and it was quite extraordinary to witness her ceaseless consideration for the feelings of others, even in minute trifles, whilst her own mind was probably troubled and oppressed; a sweet disposition, so perfectly amiable, from Nature's fount, and so unalterable in its manifestations throughout her entire life,