Autograph letter signed with initials : [London], to Richard Hengist Horne, Wednesday. Thursday rather. [1844 June 13].

Referring to a poem by Mrs. Norton; expressing her delight that he will be including Barry Cornwall in his book and commenting on Cornwall's poetry; saying "His lyrical poems are most exquisite, . . like an embodied music - In the melodies of words he is learned, & in the causes of tears, not uninstructed. His dramatic fragments are not masculine - but Ford was not masculine . . when he wrote alone. They seem to me to have dramatic intonations, moving if not deep. His fault is only felt in a continuous reading, when one becomes aware of a certain sameness . . a one tonedness which is not the tone of a trumpet. It is a more effeminate instrument - it i̲s̲ an effeminate instrument. In my own p̲r̲i̲v̲a̲te̲ opinion, Barry Cornwall has done a good deal with all his genius, & perhaps as a consequence of his genius, to emasculate the poetry of the passing age. To talk of 'fair things' when he had to speak of women, & of 'laughing flowers' when his business was with a full blown daisy, is the fashion of his school. His care has not been to use the most expressive but the prettiest word. His Muse has held her Pandemonium too much in the cavity of his ear. Still that this arises from a too exquisite sense of Beauty as a m̲e̲a̲n̲s̲ as well as an object, is evident - and for all sweet & exquisitely pathetical lyric qualities, we need not go farther than to Barry Cornwall;" citing specific examples from Cornwall and praising their lyricism; thanking him for sending her the book of Mr. Patmore's poems and commenting "Between you & me, - 'dreadfully private,' - this w'd have been more generous of me, if I had not by a few glances, nearly satisfied myself that he is not a Tennyson & never c'd have been. Also he is not to be reproached with Barry Cornwall's fault of over-affluence in music;" telling him that she will include his name in her book "...& prove that we are not under different banners...;" adding, in a postscript, that Miss Mitford looks well and thanking him for his criticism.