17 DECEMBER 1927, Page 17

LAMARTINE'S ENGLISH WIFE [To the Editor of the SpEcr.vroa.] SIR,--

A French friend, who is working on a study of Lamartine, poet and statesman, has asked me to help her to obtain information about his English wife. She tells me that Madame de Lamartine was the daughter of Colonel Birch, who served in the Militia during the Napoleonic invasion scare, and the niece of Mr. Birch, a poet who has a memorial in the Abbey. Madame de Lamartine was related to the Churchill, Crawford, Wandford, Bryant, and Craigie families. My friend wonders whether any members of these families possess letters from Madame de Lamartinc. Doubtless some reader of the Spectator can supply the information, for which I.-should be grateful.-- Non freux.