best eye is increasing. Should it cover the eye wholly, you must have recourse to an operation, which is perfectly safe and not very painful. Mr. Alexander performed the operation on Lord Lowther, who was totally blind; and, besides the fee he gave him of a thousand guineas, he sent him the first brace of partridges he shot with his recovered sight."

From Miss Hutton to Miss M. A. Coltman.

"My dear Ann,

"Leamington, Sept. 21, 1833.

When I had taken a cup of coffee, and Mary a mutton chop, at the Bedford Hotel, I sent her out in quest of a lodging, which she was so fortunate as to find at the next door. I have a handsome drawing room looking on the principal street, a dining room behind it, and two bed rooms over them, the front one divided into a small bed room for myself and a cabin for my maid. In summer the price of these is three guineas and a half a week, in winter two and a half, and the proprietor kindly considers the 9th of September as winter, and on Mary representing me as a 'quiet old lady,' he offered to let me have them for two guineas. If your courage had held out, the two back rooms would have been yours without any expense; when I found I had so much to offer you, I was very sorry that your courage had failed. You, who care little for the pomps and vanities of this world, would care little for the sight of them from my windows; for me, though nothing that this world affords could now prevail upon me to share them, I like to view them at a distance; and here I see in abundance private

carriages, hackney coaches, which, from their being drawn. by one horse, are absurdly called cars, hackney phaetons, as they are called, though the equipage of Phaeton is reduced to one horse (indeed, everywhere one horse is made to do the work of two), and to these are added a multitude of well-dressed pedestrians.

"Custom, however, soon abated my relish for this species of amusement, but I have had another and a greater. In one of the aforesaid phaetons I have visited Kenilworth Castle-magnificent in ruins; Guy's Cliff, an ancient manorial house, with Gaveston's Hill-a stone pillar, surmounted by a cross, marking the spot where the worthless and wicked favourite of Edward the Second was beheaded; Offchurch Bury, another old manorial mansion, probably erected on the site of the palace of Offa, King of the Mercians, from whom the place takes its name. Here also is a fine park, and, sovereign of a number of stately trees, stands a chestnut, under whose branches it is said. that 300 men may find shelter. In a Bath chair, which was admitted within the gates, I had a near view of Warwick Castle, the most noble and most picturesque ancient baronial residence in Great Britain. In all these places I read as I ran; or, rather, I read as I was carried; for in no one instance did I quit the vehicle that bore me.

"October the 12th, Bennett's Hill. So far I had written at Leamington, but with such pale ink that, in pity to thy eyes, I have written it over again.

"I remained at Leamington three weeks, and associated with no human being (my valuable maid excepted) but Mr. Ryland, a friend of fifty years' standing,

who has taken the Priory at Warwick, a beautiful residence, as old as Henry the Eighth, built on the site of a monastery.

"The little mechanical artist who drew your profiles was at Leamington, and I sat to him for mine, to add to your collection of friends. I send it with this, but I am afraid it is not a very good likeness; the little demon has taken a piece from my chin and added it to my nose.

"I am now shut up for the winter, and my reflections must revert to the past. Among the agreeable ones will be the Cinderella hours you passed by my fireside. Kind remembrances to Mrs. Pilkington, for whom I have a real esteem. And for yourself, the love of

"Your ever affectionate Friend,

"CATHERINE HUTTON."

From Miss Hutton to Miss M. A. Coltman.

"Bennett's Hill, nr. Birmingham,

"My dear Ann,—

"June 9, 1834

I set out for London on the 14th of April, and reached home on the 4th of May, having been six days on the road, going and coming, and fifteen days in town. In this latter interval I visited old friends and new, and was told by all who had seen me before that I looked well. My brother went to town before me, and I found him looking very ill; he had either the influenza or a violent cold. The thing is the same, it differs only in being epidemic or not.

Mrs. Gill, I am afraid, is in a bad way. She does not digest her food without pain. My brother and I wish her to try Leamington, and the advice of a physician there; but, for some reason or other, she declines it. She is an excellent woman, and one of three whom I know who injures herself by performing what she considers her duty to others. The other two are Mrs. Richards, wife of the Vicar of St. Martin's, London, and Ann Coltman. I have endeavoured to persuade them that there is a duty owing to themselves, but to no purpose.

"I, too, have read 'Helen,' and I admire the rectitude and sincerity of Lady Davenant; but I should never have thought of appropriating such a character to myself, if you and Mrs. Pilkington had not honoured me so highly as to do it for me. I have heard the objection made to Miss Edgeworth's system of education that you make against her novel-that she advocates morality but not religion. In education this is unpardonable; in a novel I think it is not. Lady Davenant speaks and acts according to her conscience; that is, according to what she believes to be right; and has not the all-wise Author of our being given us this criterion to regulate our actions? I hate disputing upon religion, because every human creature must believe. as he is convinced ; but when I said to you that 'we should not strive to be above the nature God has given us,' I did not mean that we should not strive to do well; for I think, with you, that 'virtue is the resistance of evil.' All I meant was that, having striven to do our best, we should not make ourselves miserable because we could not do more. To return to 'Helen.' It contains, indeed, a high moral

lesson. Undeviating truth, vacillation, and falsehood, are placed before us, with the consequences attendant upon each.

"Ever yours most affectionately,

"CATHERINE HUTTON."

Miss Edgeworth's "Helen" was published in the year 1834, so that Miss Hutton and her friend must have read it. soon after it came out.

From Miss Hutton to Miss M. A. Coltman.

"Bennett's Hill, nr. Birmingham,

"My dear Ann,

"July 30, 1834.

"I answer your letter immediately to warn you, for I am afraid you are not sufficiently aware of the danger of using your newly-recovered sight. You undergo the operation on the 30th of June, and you write a page to me on the 7th of July. Mr. Frazer has been couched several times by Mr. Alexander, one of the first oculists in London, and he has, each time, been kept in a darkened room for two or three weeks, and restricted to low diet to prevent fever. This is, I suppose, unnecessary for you, whose diet can scarcely be lowered; but eyes that have been long covered are too weak to bear the light, and ought not to be exposed to it until they have gathered strength, much less should they be used. I shall be very anxious to know how you go on, but pray do not write yourself; let somebody, anybody, write three or four lines to tell me the effect of the second operation. I do congratulate you on the sight regained, and I entreat you not to put it to hazard.