1938
Time Gathered

My mother’s company and conversation as the years went by were necessarily a stimulation to any intelligence I possessed, and I think it made me precocious in one or two ways. One of them was the very strong interest that I took in all sorts of people. Their resemblances and differences engrossed my attention. Of course I did not consider them philosophically, I merely observed and mentally recorded. They did not have to be of any great importance-they were men and women, that was enough for me. But so many of our visitors were intrinsically of particular interest, since they were individuals, and not merely types. I noted them all. And, without attempting a long list, I would cite the names of Wilkie Collins; two lady novelists, Mrs. Cashel Hoey and Mrs. Lynn Linton; George Augustus Sala; handsome Mrs. John Wood, the actress; Buxton, the actor; Sothern, the creator of Lord Dundreary; T. H. S. Escott, the editor of the Saturday Review; Colonel Addison, father of Judge Addison, and grand­father of Sir Joseph Addison, our late Minister at Tokio. (p22)

.....

They, the high-placed among her contemporaries, welcomed her as of themselves. Wilkie Collins, the merit of whose novels still receives a full acknowledgement, had a sincere admiration of her power and originality (pp283-284)

From Time Gathered W B Maxwell, London and New York 1938

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