Sunday Evening.

VIII.

When one turns from Miss Mitford's works to the notices in the
biographical dictionary (in which Miss Mitford and Mithridates
occupy the same page), one finds how firmly her reputation is
established. 'Dame auteur,' says my faithful mentor, the Biographic
Generale, 'consideree comme le peintre le plus fidele de la vie
rurale en Angleterre.' 'Author of a remarkable tragedy, "Julian,"
in which Macready played a principal part, followed by "Foscari,"
"Rienzi," and others,' says the English Biographical Dictionary.

'I am charmed with my new cottage,' she writes soon after her last
installation; 'the neighbours are most kind.' Kingsley was one of
the first to call upon her. 'He took me quite by surprise in his
extraordinary fascination,' says the old lady.

Mr. Fields, the American publisher, also went to see Miss Mitford at
Swallowfield, and immediately became a very great ally of hers. It
was to him that she gave her own portrait, by Lucas. Mr. Fields has
left an interesting account of her in his 'Yesterdays with Authors'-
-'Her dogs and her geraniums,' he says, 'were her great glories!
She used to write me long letters about Fanchon, a dog whose
personal acquaintance I had made some time before, while on a visit
to her cottage. Every virtue under heaven she attributed to that
canine individual; and I was obliged to allow in my return letters
that since our planet began to spin, nothing comparable to Fanchon
had ever run on four legs. I had also known Flush, the ancestor of
Fanchon, intimately, and had been accustomed to hear wonderful