which is the subject given this year for a painting (for the Gold Medal), to the Students of the Royal Academy of Arts?
(1840)
A young girl, writing from America, asks a natural question.
We have your book of poems, and I have read “Enoch Arden.” So I thought I would write and see if it is true. Was there a girl whose name was Anna Lee, and two boys named Enoch Arden and Philip Ray?
I felt very sorry for Philip at first and afterward for Enoch, when he came home and found his wife had married Philip and he saw her children grown up, but could not go to see them....
I have a pet rooster, and it is very cunning. I hold it and pet it and I love it lots.
Well, I must close, hoping to hear from you soon, for I want to know if the story of Enoch is true.
(1891)
U.S.A. again supplies the following naïveté:
Dear Sir—I intrude a line on your notice, to ask a little favor.