Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

Miscellaneous Papers by Charles Dickens
page 62 of 81 (76%)
lost in her infancy years ago. The heads of a great concourse of
his fellow-workers in the Arts were bowed around his tomb.



ADELAIDE ANNE PROCTER
INTRODUCTION TO HER "LEGENDS AND LYRICS"



In the spring of the year 1853, I observed, as conductor of the
weekly journal Household Words, a short poem among the proffered
contributions, very different, as I thought, from the shoal of
verses perpetually setting through the office of such a periodical,
and possessing much more merit. Its authoress was quite unknown to
me. She was one Miss Mary Berwick, whom I had never heard of; and
she was to be addressed by letter, if addressed at all, at a
circulating library in the western district of London. Through this
channel, Miss Berwick was informed that her poem was accepted, and
was invited to send another. She complied, and became a regular and
frequent contributor. Many letters passed between the journal and
Miss Berwick, but Miss Berwick herself was never seen.

How we came gradually to establish, at the office of Household
Words, that we knew all about Miss Berwick, I have never discovered.
But we settled somehow, to our complete satisfaction, that she was
governess in a family; that she went to Italy in that capacity, and
returned; and that she had long been in the same family. We really
knew nothing whatever of her, except that she was remarkably
business-like, punctual, self-reliant, and reliable: so I suppose
DigitalOcean Referral Badge