Autograph letter signed with initials : [London], to Richard Hengist Horne, 1843 December 23.

Commenting on and comparing the work of contemporary female writers and commenting specifically on Agnes Strickland, Hannah Lawrance and Sarah Stickney Ellis; saying "By the way, either a Stickney or a Strictland [sic] wrote the 'Poetry of Life', prose (very) essays, which I couldn't get to the end of - full of words & signifying nothing. I confess that I wondered a good deal at Mr. Buckingham's or the Literary Institute's selection of Miss Strictland as the second female honorary member - in order that Miss Mitford should not find herself in an unpleasant pre-eminence of unity, - Nobody to be found fit for the honor; - even upon that equivocal ground of necessity - - except Miss Strictland! And Miss Martineau, Mrs. Jameson, Maria Edgeworth, Mary Howitt & Lady Morgan all alive! - with long established European reputations! France & Germany will be a little astonished I think: and, for my own part, although it gave me cordial pleasure to hear of the honor justly won & honorably paid to dear Miss Mitford, I should have been more pleased even for h̲e̲r̲ s̲a̲k̲e̲, & appreciated the appreciation more fully, if it had united her name to the name of these distinguished contemporaries, rather than severed it from them. The Institute however has determined it otherwise, it seems - crowning her alone or fixing on Miss Strictland for a lady of the bedchamber or a train-bearer. Do not mention, if you please, that I have made any remarks: I write to you in all confidence;" adding, in a postscript, "Talking of poets - - no, not talking of poets, - but thinking of poets, - are you aware, O Orion, that the most popular poet alive is the Reverend Robert Montgomery, who walks into his twenty & something-th edition 'like nothing'?...oh, Flushie is more a poet, by the shining of his eyes!"