One of the most popular figures in British book illustration in the latter part of the 19th Century, rivalled only by Walter Crane and Randolph Caldecott. She is best known for sugar-sweet pictures of little children and girls in bonnets. ALS, four pages on two adjoining sheets, 4 x 6, 39 Frognal, Hampstead, N.W. letterhead, September 27, 1895. In part: “Dear Lady Tennyson, I have put the new Monkey Baby into a box and sent it to Aubrey with a tiny Donkey and some more little monkeys - - I could not get a rabbit for Lionel so I got the best substitute I could…I was not burnt up in the train after all - - but today it is hotter than hot - and I grumble like anything - and it all looks so normal after that divine Place, it was so lovely and so near to the sky…it was beautiful. I was very sorry to leave it. I do hope you are feeling better. I felt so miserable to think that you had sat up feeling so ill while I did such a bad portrait - but I trust you are free from headache now and have had no anxiety about your mother today. I did like being with you so much. I am so glad to have got to know you - You were so very good to me and made me so happy. I have been writing letters all day…so I feel considerably stupid and tired…The garden is green and shady with a few roses still left, but I am not delighted to find my self here - - it is rather forlorn. I hope you are better. I send you much love…it is all a delightful memory to look back upon. I shall think of it often. With kind regards to Lord Tennyson.” In fine condition, with a bit of edge toning and a few mild creases. COA John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and R&R COA.
