Elizabeth Barrett to Mary Russell Mitford, 26 July 1842: 'If our dear Mr Kenyon should turn out to be bewitched [by Ellen Pickering], it was not achieved by the novels. He keeps Wordsworth & Tennyson in his house until weeks count up into months without reading a page of them: he is not likely to read a Miss P. But I who read more of good & bad than I dare confess, & who of late years [as invalid] have stretched out my hand for literature, more sometimes to be languid & half asleep over than for thoughtful purpose, know her novels very well, & have found the degree of amusement or beguilement I sought, from several of them. Nobody can praise them for good writing to be sure, -- nor for any other sort of elevation above the commonplace [...] But there is a degree of amusement to be confessed in the books -- at least by me when I am sleepy -- & there is an amiableness & good feeling which I was always pleased to confess.'