Manchester Memoirs, VoL liv. (1910), No. 9, 



IX. Correspondence between Mrs. Hemans and 

 Matthew Nicholson, an early member of this 

 Society. 



By Francis Nicholson, F.Z.S. 



Received and read November i6th, igog. 



By virtue of my relationship with the recipient,^ 

 I am possessed of a number of letters addressed by 

 Felicia Dorothea Browne and her mother and sister, to 

 Matthew Nicholson, of Richmond Row, near Liverpool. 

 Mr. Nicholson preserved these letters carefully, and also 

 drafts of many of his replies. In the course of the ninety 

 years that have elapsed since his death some of the letters 

 have been lost, but enough remain to throw much light 

 on the personal and literary history of Mrs. Hemans for 

 several years prior to her marriage. 



Felicia Dorothea Browne, better known as Mrs 

 Hemans, though not considered one of our greatest poets 

 is recognised as one of the most distinguished natives of 

 Lancashire. She is acknowledged to have had the " true 

 poet's gifts of grace, sweetness, and tenderness." A few 

 of her poems are well known to everyone by reason of 

 their appearance in hymn books and school books, or 

 from having had the fortune to be set to good tunes. The 

 writer of " Casablanca," " The Better Land," and " The 

 Graves of a Household," is not likely to be consigned to 

 oblivion. 



Felicia Dorothea Browne was the elder daughter of 

 George Browne, who was for some time a merchant in 

 Liverpool, but failed in 1793. He must have been in a 

 considerable way of business, as it took ten years to wind 



Febriia7y 22nd, igio. 



