MRS. TRAILL.
[To THE EDITOR OF THR "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—In a kind notice of Mrs. Trail's "Pearls and Pebbles," in the Spectator of November end, you express a doubt whether
she is still alive. I am glad to say that, at nearly ninety- three years of age, she is not only alive, but still keeps up her old interest in questions of natural history ; and that she was able last summer to enjoy camping-out on the little island in Stony Lake that was granted to her by the Ottawa Department.
As a child in the "thirties," one of the books I loved best was "The Sketch-Book of a Young Naturalist," and in later years I often wondered who was the author. It was only on reading the biographical chapter that precedes "Pearls and Pebbles" that I found the name of my old favourite in the list of Mrs. Traill's early publications.
If a reprint of her books for children could be now issued, it would be, I feel sure, not only a boon to the little successors of those for whom they were written, but would be a gratifying, though tardy, testimonial to Mrs. Traill of their lasting worth. And if Lord Salisbury should follow the example of Lord Palmerston, and make a grant to one whose years of literary work must be almost unprecedented, it would be a kind and gracious act, and would cheer days that cannot now be long
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