486 LEAVES THEY HAVE TOUCHED. 



translations in her works sliow tliat her linguistic acquirements 

 were extensive. 



Charles Hemans himself, as the author of Historic and Monumental 

 Rome, Ancient Christianity and Sacred Art in Italy, and other works, 

 has become a man of note in the world of letters. 



Of Charles Dickens, England's modern literary Hogarth, so to 

 speak, I have a manuscript fragment. In it he chances to speak of 

 his own " Uncommercial Traveller" — a series of papers more pleasing 

 than most of his productions, being less exaggerated, and approach- 

 ing in quiet humour Geoffrey Crayon's sketches of certain grades of 

 English character. " No. 20 Wellington Strand, London, Wednesday, 



second December, 1868. Dear Mr. . Is my Uncommercial revise 



ready? I shall be glad to speak with you for one moment, if you 

 can come round. C. D." I have also his name on the cover of a note 

 addressed to " W. Empson, Esquire," written at length, as we fami- 

 liarly speak of him — Charles Dickens. The customary conven- 

 tional suffixes and affixes sound strange when attached to names that 

 have become known world-wide. I remember, on walking through 

 the General Post Office in London, I felt slightly surprised when I 

 was shown letters bearing the superscription " Charles Dickens, Esq." 



As a companion to the Dickens' autograph I show a very splendid 

 one of an artist who has helped readers, now for a long period, to 

 realize with distinctness the innumerable creations of Dickens and 

 other modern writers. It is a curious and somewhat grotesque signa- 

 ture, with which doubtless we are already familiar, having seen it so 

 often etched at the foot of copper-plate illustrations. With the seven 

 words which precede 'it, I give it thus: "Benj. Lumley, Esq., with 

 the regards of Geo, Cruikshank." 



As introductory to my Shakspeare signature — or what has been 

 deemed such — I produce four autographs of eminent Shakspeare 

 scholars. • First : a fragment from a note of Mrs. Jameson : " My 

 time being cut up into hours and half-hours, I write in much haste. 

 Pray excuse me : and believe me, truly yours, Anna Jameson." I 

 could add another, signed Anna Murphy — Mrs. Jameson's maiden 

 name, a postscript to which tells her correspondent that ' she would 

 have written more, had there not been an impertinent fellow looking 

 over her shoulder.' Next, a sentence from a note of Mrs. Cowden 

 Clarke, compiler of the Shakspeare Concordance: "I cannot refrain 

 from sending a few lines of thanks, written on plan-paper which will 



