NOTE. To Messrs. Blackwood & Son, to Messrs. George Bell & The only instance in which I have not received free permission to quote has occurred in the case of Mrs. Browning's Poems. Nevertheless, it will be found that I have been able to supply my chapter on Mrs. Browning with ample illustrative extracts. It may be well for me to confess that I am aware of the objections to which the title of this book lies open. Ladies who write verse now-a-days do not care to be called "Poetesses "; yet, as they have not had the wit to find a better designation for themselves, the name must serve while I attempt a measured compliance with the invitation held out by Landor's Cleone: "You may compose a panegyric on all of our sex who have excelled in poetry." E. S. R. REDHILL, CHISLEHURST. |