Meadows, a brilliant conversationalist and passionate lover of the immortal Bard whose page his pencil was destined to illustrate, and Buckstone, the distinguished comedian, were among Blanchard's boy-friends. Then came Chatfield, the artist; and then John Ogden, an eccentric, lettered thinker, who never moved far from his humble beginnings. Before he was of age Laman Blanchard was one of a knot of bookish young men, and had given the world assurance that it was his vocation-not to be a reader in a printing-office, but to give work to readers. He was not of age when he married Miss Anne Gates, a young lady of great personal attractions and amiability, and when he began to be a regular contributor to the periodicals of the day.

In 1827, through the influence of his brotherin-law, Mr. N. A. Vigors,2 member for Carlow, and Sir Stamford Raffles, Blanchard was appointed Secretary to the Zoological Society; and it was in the house of the Society in Bruton Street, Bond Street, that he was able to form those literary associations which were the delight of his life, and which he valued above merely worldly fortune. He had already become known as a contributor of

1 A connexion of Colonel Gates of the American War. 2 Mr. Vigors was one of the founders of the Zoological Society.

graceful, and something more than graceful, verse to the magazines and annuals of the day. He was only twenty-four when he published his 'Lyric Offerings,' his publisher being Mr. William Harrison Ainsworth, then in business in Old Bond Street, who was afterwards to become one among his most intimate friends. The poems were inscribed to Charles Lamb, and the author of 'Elia' acknowledged the compliment in a manner that went straight to the young author's heart:

'Sir, I beg to return my acknowledgements for the present of your elegant volume, which I should have esteemed without the bribe of the name prefixed to it. I have been much pleased with it throughout, but am most taken with the peculiar delicacy of some of the Sonnets. I shall put them up among my poetical treasures.

'Your obliged servant,

'CH. LAMB.'

The sonnets are full of a delicate tenderness that would charm Charles Lamb, and that delighted many gifted men after him. Allan Cunningham spoke these encouraging words to the young poet :

'27 Lower Belgrave Place: June 20, 1829.

'Dear Sir, I was no stranger to your merits, but if I had been, your volume and your written verses would have made me wish for your acquaintance. The former is full of sweet poetry, such as poetical minds admire, more, I am afraid, than the grosser part of the world; and the latter well deserves a place in my publication, and it shall find an early one. With many thanks, and many good wishes, and with a desire to be acquainted with you personally,

'I remain, my dear Sir,

'Your obliged servant,
'ALLAN CUNNINGHAM.'

But more interesting than all the complimentary and encouraging letters which Blanchard received when his first volume appeared, is the following letter (written many years later, when the two poets had become friends) from Mr. Robert Browning, in which he describes his journey from Camberwell to Bond Street, in quest of the 'Offerings':

'My dear Blanchard,-I have to beg the favour of your acceptance of the accompanying little poem, and to beg that you will forgive the tardiness of its arrival on the score of my having just

got up from a very sick bed, indeed, where a fortnight's brain-and-liver fever has reduced me to the shade of a shade. I shall gather strength, I hope, this fine weather. Shame, shame, shame on you that the giving of rhymes is all on my side; or -not to talk of giving-what would I do to once again run (real running, for I was a boy), run to Bond Street from Camberwell and come back with a small book brimful of the sweetest and truest things in the world: it is many years ago since I gave it away to a friend nothing I could give seemed too good for, but the noble and musical lines, that fine "sun-bronzed, like Triumph on a pedestal," that bridge "dark trees. were dying round," that super-delicious "song of the wave," live within me yet, "being things immortal."

'Will you please to notice that I have changed my address; if, in a week or two you will conquer the interminable Kent Road, and on passing the turnpike at New Cross, you will take the first lane with a quickset hedge to the right, you will “descry a house resembling a goose-pie;" only a crooked, hasty, and rash goose-pie. We have a garden and trees, and little green hills of a sort to go out on. Will you come? I say in a week or two, because

at present I can hardly crawl, and could barely

shake your hand.

'Yours very truly,

'Craven Cottage, Saturday.'

'ROBERT BROWNING.'

Sir Edward L. Bulwer wrote:

'I read your poems with so much pleasure the other day- just sent them to be bound. How charming they are!'

'Surrey: April 30, 1841.'

Not even Mr. Browning's appeal stirred Blanchard to collect the poems that between 1828 and his death he scattered over the leading serials of the day; although friends on all sides urged him (Lord Lytton being among the foremost) not only to collect, but to buckle on his armour and give the world a poem worthy of his undoubted genius. It must have been very soon after the publication of the 'Offerings' (for the lady speaks of Blanchard's recent withdrawal from the editorship of 'La Belle Assemblée,' which was his first appearance as an editor) that Miss Louisa Sheridan, who was then editing the Comic Offering,' addressed him the following letter :