Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 9 July 1836: 'You have not my dear kind friend thought me unkind and thankless in not writing my gratitude to you the moment I felt it, for your books [...] [explains having waited until had time to do justice to these, including one of Mitford's own] [...] My pencil has marked Emily and Fair Rosamund and Henry Talbot The bridal Eve, The Captive & The masque of the Seasons as chief favorites of mine. My pencil always does for me the prudent business which beans & pebbles did for the heroes of childish romance .. marking his footsteps in the wood [...] In these paths, these new paths -- thank you dear Miss Mitford for letting me walk in them'.