'My dear Glengary,—As soon as you can prove yourself to be my chief I shall be ready to acknowledge you. In the meantime,
'I am yours, Macdonald.'
Charles Lamb being tickled by the oddity of Haydon's address, sent him the following reply to an invitation:—
'My Dear Haydon,—I will come with pleasure to 22, Lisson Grove North, at Rossi's, half-way up, right hand side, if I can find it.
'Yours,C. Lamb.
'20, Russel Court, 'Covent Garden East,
'Half-way up, next the corner,
'Left hand side.'
Ignorant people when they manage to write a letter are usually very proud of their performance, and this is illustrated by a very good story in the Countess Spencer's 'East and West.' A lady proposed to Mrs. Law, a poor woman in St. Peter's Home, Kilburn, that she should write to Lady E., who had been very kind to her. She had some doubts at first, but they passed away, and she dictated a letter which is given, and the narrator adds:—
'Having finished it to her evident pride, I offered to read it to her; but I had hardly got down the first page when she became so deeply affected by her own eloquence, that she began to cry and rock herself backwards and forwards. I persevered, and when I had read the last word, paused, not knowing what to say to this unexpected grief. Mrs. Law put down her handkerchief, and shaking her head very seriously, said, "Well, now, that is a lovely letter! It's a great denial to me that I can't write, or I'd send plenty like it."'
It is usually supposed that writing comes natural to all, but we are often led to agree with Sheridan, that 'easy writing is cursed hard reading,' and the highest art is often required to be thoroughly natural. The Irish hodman, however, managed to express in a fine confused way his inner feeling, that he himself was little better than a machine:—
'Dear Pat,—Come over here and earn your money: there is nothing for you to do but to carry the bricks up a ladder, for there is a man at the top who takes them from you and does all the work.'