I have been laughed at most unmercifully by some of the phlegmatic
personages round the library table for my impatience to send you _The
Mine._ "Do you think Margaret cannot live five minutes longer without
it? Saddle the mare, and ride to Dublin, and thence to Black Castle or
Chantony with it, my dear!"
I bear all with my accustomed passiveness, and am rewarded by my
father's having bought it for me; and it is now at Archer's for you.
Observe, I think the poem, as a drama, tiresome in the extreme, and
absurd, but I wish you to see that the very letters from the man in the
quick-silver mine which you recommended to me have been seized upon by a
poet of no inferior genius. Some of the strophes of the fairies are most
beautifully poetic.
Lady Elizabeth Pakenham told us that when Lady Wellesley was presented
to the Queen, Her Majesty said, "I am happy to see you at my court, so
bright an example of constancy. If anybody in this world deserves to be
happy, you do." Then Her Majesty inquired, "But did you really never
write _one_ letter to Sir Arthur Wellesley during his long
absence?"--"No, never, madam."--"And did you never think of him?
"--"Yes, madam, very often."
I am glad constancy is approved of at courts, and hope "the bright
example" may be followed.
_To_ MISS SOPHY RUXTON.