11 FEBRUARY 1888, Page 15

EDWARD LEAR.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR,") 812,—Your note on this genial artist calls to mind the way in which he used pathetically to bewail the success of "The Book of Nonsense." "I have tried all my life to do good work" (and. his sketch note-book showed how he must have worked), "but the public will only run after nonsense." None the less there was a method in his nonsense, for I remember his remarking that it was very easy to write bad sense, but very hard to write pure nonsense.—I am, Sir, ttc., The Vicarage, Greenwich, S.E. BROOKE LAXIIERT.