LORD  BYRON  and  his  TIMES
Byron
Documents Biography Criticism
Recollections of Writers
Douglas Jerrold to Mary Cowden Clarke, 21 October 1849
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
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Contents
Preface
Chapter I.
Chapter II.
Chapter III.
Chapter IV.
Chapter V.
Chapter VI.
Chapter VII.
Chapter VIII.
Chapter IX
John Keats
Charles Lamb
Mary Lamb
Leigh Hunt
Douglas Jerrold
Charles Dickens
Index
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Putney, Oct. 21st, 1849.

My dear Mrs. Clarke,—The wisdom of the law is about to preach from the scaffold on the sacredness of life; and, to illustrate its sanctity, will straightway strangle a woman as soon as she have strength renewed from childbirth. I would fain believe, despite the threat of Sir G—— G—— to hang this wretched creature as soon as restorations shall have had their benign effect, that the Government only need pressure from without to commute the sentence. A
274 RECOLLECTIONS OF WRITERS  
petition—a woman’s petition—is in course of signature. You are, I believe, not a reader of that mixture of good and evil, a newspaper; hence, may be unaware of the fact. I need not ask you, Will you sign it? The document lies at Gilpin’s—a noble fellow—the bookseller, Bishopsgate. Should her Majesty run down the list of names, I think her bettered taste in Shakespeare would dwell complacently on the name of Mary Cowden Clarke.

I don’t know when they pay dividends at the Bank, but if this be the time, you can in the same journey fill your pocket, and lighten your conscience. Regards to Clarke.

Yours ever truly,
D. Jerrold.