Letter from Letitia Elizabeth Landon, London, to Eliza Norcott Townshend, 1829 : autograph manuscript signed.

Apologizing for her silence over the past few months and explaining that she had suffered attacks of "spasmodic asthma" and rheumatism; referring to the cold and writing "much as I like the very sound of such a name as 'Skiddaw' one cannot but think it is a cold latitude for your delicate health"; saying how much she envies Townshend's proximity to Robert Southey, "a man who I admire as much as I respect, who I would almost go on alpine pilgrimage to see"; asking "is he not very handsome"; writing on Southey's work, "by some strange omission I never read Thalaba till during my late illness, it is quite extraordinary the hold it took on my imagination, I was obliged to take large quantities of opium, and I completely acted the whole poem over again in my dreams. I declare even now I shudder at the mention of the caves of Domdaniel"; saying that the little news she has to convey seems unworthy for Townshend, "sublimated as your ideas must be from living among clouds and mountains [...] what do you care to hear that the [sleeves?] are larger than ever, and the dresses shorter and fuller; that there is quite a civil war going on between ringlets and large curls"; asking whether Townshend has read The Disowned yet and praising it at length: "never was I so fascinated by a work in prose before, Algernon Mordaunt is quite my beau ideale of a hero..."; sending William Jerdan's kindest regards and mentioning that he has been meaning to write to Chauncy Hare Townshend, but "busy as he is, his intentions are more easily imagined than fulfilled"; concluding "If I began this epistle with an appeal to your kindness, truly I must end it with another, but it is your own fault, you said I might write to you."