Autograph letter signed.
8vo. 3 pp. on bifolium.
€ 350.00
To "Thistle" (Robert Hume Middlemass), editor of "The Bouquet", a monthly miscellany "culled from Marylebone Gardens", with thanks for a recent issue: "Permit me to express my thanks my dear Madam for 'The Bouquet' which met my hand a few day since. It reflects great credit on the fingers that fashion it and I only wish that others would follow your [...] example and exercise busy brains instead of yawing lips. May I now and then extract a portion into my journal? I shall give it a notice very soon and shall watch its progress with interest [...]".
From 1849 to 1854 Cook wrote, edited, and published "Eliza Cook's Journal", a weekly periodical she described as one of "utility and amusement". The "Bouquet" was a literary magazine run by aristocratic women based on the far side of Regent's Park. Only subscribers were allowed to contribute, and each had to choose the name of a flower to sign her work: Jean Middlemass was "Mignonette", Lady Hester Browne "Bluebell", and the Knatchbull sisters "Kingcups". The young Christina Rossetti contributed Italian verses under the name of "Calta".
With traces of old mounting on the verso and few light ink smudges.
