-=73? 



DEDICA TOR Y LE TTER 

 7o my Daughter ALICE and my Granddaughter LORNA 



It was -with you, my ALICE, that I had many a pleasant 

 ramble in the woods and over the rocks which encompass 

 the winding Dove, in the happy days of old; since those 

 days you have known what sorrow is, and deep affliction. 

 May God in His mercy grant that your future time on 

 earth may be full of happiness and joy. To you I dedi- 

 cated my first Booklet. 



And to you, too, my gentle LORNA, I dedicated that 

 Dovedale Booklet long before you were old enough to 

 read it. In it I said: ' ' //" it serves no other purpose, it 

 may serve to remind you, when you grow older, that once 

 upon a time, when you were not yet three years old, you 

 romped with your grandfather on the green grass under 

 the apple-trees; you fished with him in the River, his 

 walking-stick for your rod, two yards of twine for your 

 line, a pin for your hook, and a battered metal minnow for 

 your fish and how gleefully you landed your little tin 

 'tout'!" 



Since those never-to-be-forgotten happy days you, my 

 Lorna, have grown up to womanhood, 



' ' Standing with reluctant feet, 

 Where the brook and river meet, 

 Womanhood and childhood fleet." 



LONGFELLOW. 



May all your ftiture. days on earth be as unclouded and as 

 happy as those with which you have hitherto been blessed. 



My first book was dedicated to your Aunt and to you 

 only for in those days you had only one baby brother, 

 now you have a whole host of brothers and sisters and 

 cousins, who will not be jealous because my last book bears 

 the same dedication as my first. God be with you all! 



E. M. 



London, February J4th, 1906. 



"8753 



