Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.) in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1840/Preface

by Mary Howitt

3

PREFACE.

One of the most melancholy of events has made me the successor of L.E.L. in the editorship of the Drawing Room Scrap-Book. I feel that a responsible and somewhat difficult duty has been laid upon me, less from the intrinsic nature of the work itself, than from being the successor of its former Editor. The pleasant custom of nine years had so associated her name, and her peculiar sentiments and graceful poetry, with these volumes, that, even though it had been possible for me to perform the task more ably, it must take some time to accustom the public to the difference. This consciousness has, I confess, made me perform my part with some anxiety. To the public, however, this volume must be particularly interesting. It contains eight poems which had been prepared for it by its former gifted Editor, and which, for noble sentiment, she never surpassed. I need hardly say how affecting this unfinished labour was to me. I seemed to take up the work, as it were, from the very hands of the dead.

⁠MARY HOWITT.