Robert Browning, Sr to Thomas Powell, 11 March 1843: 'I hope the enclosed may be acceptable as curiosities. They were written by Robert when quite a child. I once had nearly a hundred of them. But he has destroyed all that ever came in his way, having a great aversion to the practice of many biographers in recording every trifling incident that falls in their way [...] There was one amongst them "On Bonaparte" -- remarkably beautiful -- and had I not seen it in his own handwriting I never would have believed it to have been the production of a child. It is destroyed.'