THE LATE LADY RITCHIE.
[To THE EDITOR or THE SPEIITATOR."1
Sta,—The following nlay prove of interest to some of your readers, to whom the name of Thackeray recalls much that is best and most treasured in mid-Victorian English literature, and to whom also Lady Ritchie may have been personally known. In a collection of unpublished and most characteristic letters by the late Lady Buxton, wife of Sir Edward Buxton and daughter-in-law of the well-known philanthropist, Sir Dwell Buxton, the friend of William Wilberforce, this pas- sage occurs—Lady Buxton is writing from London to a member of her family in the year 1883 " We met many nice people at Abbey Lodge" (the home of the Ernest de Bunsens, Mrs. de Bunsen being a sister of Ludy Buxton. both daughters of Samuel Gurney); "the most telling was Mrs. Ritchie, We Anne Thackeray, very charming. Wanted to write a Life of Mrs. Opie. But .... gets more interested in Earlham " (the home of the Gurneys) "and longs to draw a picture of that. I want Aunt Fry's Life to lend her. I wish to help her. She is the authoress of 'Old Kensington ' and greatly attracted by 'Friends,' through her friend Miss Stevens, who wrote the pleasant review of Caroline Fox and the Fox circle."
unfortunately that picture of Earlhain, which would have been a very delightful one had it been drawn by Lady Ritchie's sympathetic pen, lies, to my belief, never been accomplished.-
1 am, Sir, &c., CONSTANCE BATTERSEA. The Pleasaunce, Orerslrand, Norfolk.
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