‘My dear Sir,—I have a great favour to request of
you, and hope that you will not pronounce me a very impertinent person for so
doing. A very interesting and excellent woman, an especial friend of mine,
Miss Katharine Sedgwick, is about
visiting England with her brother, who is travelling to recover entirely from
the effects of a paralytic stroke, from which he is already partially restored.
Her name may possibly be known to you, as her books have been both republished
and reviewed in England; at any rate, she is a very dear friend of mine, and
upon that ground I venture to recommend her to your kindness. The celebrity of
American writers has but a faint echo generally on your side of the water, but
her writings, which are chiefly addressed to the young and the poor of her own
country, are very excellent in their spirit and execution, and she is
altogether a person whom even you might be well pleased to know, rare for her
goodness, and with talents of no common order. Pray, my dear Sir, if it is not
asking too much of you, extend some courtesy to my friend. I have indeed but
little claim upon you to justify such a petition, but the request, I think,
recom-
| 182 | ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES |
