‘The Mayor of Sligo has requested that a second copy of Idylls, Legends, and Lyrics be purchased. The verses are very sweet. They do not stir the spirit like the strong lines of Byron: but they come over us with a bewitching softness that in certain moods is still more delightful, and soothe the troubled spirits with a refreshing sense of truth, purity, and elegance.
‘They are pensive rather than passionate, and more full of wisdom and tenderness than flights of fancy, or overwhelming bursts of emotion; while they are moulded into grace, at least as much by the effect of the moral beauties they disclose as by the taste and judgment with which they are constructed.
‘DAVID SAULTRY,
Chief Librarian, Free Public Library,
Sligo, Ireland.’
‘I have read the first poem, Ilamea, in this interesting volume of verse, and can bear my testimony as to its beauty of conception and true poetic merit. I like the poetry exceedingly, and feel quite confident that the work only requires to be better known to secure it a very wide circulation.
‘ALFRED LANCASTER,
Chief Librarian, Free Public Library,
St. Helens.’