The following letter to her father, from his cousin, Dr. Hermann Piutti, Principal of a Hydropathic establishment in the beautiful Thuringen Wald, where Lydia paid a long visit, shows the impression the young girl made on her German relatives. To one who only knew her in the after years of her public life, this letter is full of characteristic traits. The weakness in her back referred to was never wholly eradicated, and she was never able to make progress in music from the consequent want of sufficient force in the fingers. The same weakness showed itself also in her handwriting, which had a peculiar sort of unfinished look from her inability to grasp her pen firmly-and every one in the Suffrage office knew that Miss Becker could not fold circulars with anything like neatness, much as she insisted on every packet that went forth being neatly and accurately folded, as became documents issued from a lady's office. Her love of chess, referred to by Dr. Piutti, continued her favourite recreation throughout her life and beguiled many weary hours in her last months.

"ELGERSBURG, Feb. 28th, 1845. "DEAR HANNIBAL,-I ought to have written to you and your dear wife long ago and to have expressed my gratitude for the friendship you have shown and the pleasure you have caused to me and my wife in confiding your dear Lydia to our care for some time. She is, I am happy to say, very much improved in health and vigour; a weakness in the back, which doubtless existed for some years, and having rendered her weak and unable to use her bodily strength, seems much better, though

not quite subsided. Lydia is grown tall and stout, and you will be quite surprised to see what a lady-like figure she will be when you meet her again. She is fond of learning and of everything that touches mental faculties and clever understanding; she is sharp and keen in her intellect, clever in judging matters, fond of knowledge, has an excellent memory, and her passion for reading facilitates the study of the German language at present very much, as she is now so far advanced as to read books in German easily. All that is mechanical gives her more trouble to do, although whenever she does it she does it well, viz., writing in German.

"She plays sometimes on the piano very nicely and agreeably, though I think the weakness of her back will for the present prevent that practice which is wanted to carry it on to a higher degree of ability. She began drawing and painting flowers upon china and did it remarkably well. We sometimes have a game of chess, in which I am frequently the loser.

"Lydia is the best tempered girl I ever saw, which principally and partly arises from her activity of mind, which is always busy, time never hanging heavy on her hands. She is always interested for things around her and does all she can to increase her knowledge of things. "Before she leaves Germany, which I trust will be a long while yet, I hope she will see Leipzig, Dresden, and perhaps Berlin.-Always yours most sincerely, HERMANN PIUTTI.”

Continuing her reminiscences of this period, her sister, Miss Esther Becker, writes that her uncle Leigh

went to fetch her home towards the end of the year 1845.

"A great bonfire was kindled on their arrival at Reddish. Lydia had grown very stout and she had a very warm grey cloak. This makes me sure it must have been cold weather when they came, but I find no precise date.

"Soon after her return she began to give us lessons in German and, I think, other branches.

"As a teacher her powers were remarkable; she seemed to go right down to the bottom of things. It all came out so clear to one's mind.

"Our life at Reddish was a quiet and uneventful one, -in the midst of lovely scenery and beautiful flowers.

"The agitations in the political life of the period to some extent affected us. I remember the excitement when it was thought the Chartists might find their way to our peaceful valley, also the year of revolutions, 1848, when Louis Philippe landed in England as 'Mr. Smith.' And the stormy discussions connected with the Anti-Corn Law League were reproduced in miniature in our juvenile circle!

"Doubtless Lydia, with her quick intellect and more. advanced age, took an intelligent interest in these matters; to me they were somewhat unintelligible!

"In 1850 we removed from Reddish to Altham, an interval of thirteen years having elapsed since we left it. The house was finely situated in view of Pendle Hill. The drives and walks about presented great attractions to us, as the scenery was on a bolder, grander scale than that round our pretty valley at Reddish.

"Lydia entered with zest into the study of the plants of the neighbourhood. I remember her pleasure at finding some which were new to her,-Primula farinosa and Pinguicula on Pendle, a rare sort of geranium in Symonstone Lane, etc. She joined a class for painting in water colours, and though she always depreciated her own efforts we have a collection of very beautiful sketches done from nature. She also executed some good copies,-interior of Milan Cathedral, etc.

"In 1862 (I think) she won the gold medal from the Horticultural Society of S. Kensington for the best collection of dried plants made within a year. She adopted the plan of drying the plants very quickly under great pressure and in heat. The press she used was made of transverse pieces of wood, which allowed the air to pass through. She used bricks covered with brown paper as weights. Her specimens preserved their colour beautifully, and she fastened them on to the paper with gum tragacanth-no ugly strips disfiguring them. The competition was open to the United Kingdom. Her pleasure in botany was intense and her knowledge of it thorough and complete. She had some interesting correspondence with the celebrated naturalist Mr. Charles Darwin in connection with some facts she had observed in the course of her studies.

"Our mother died in 1855 and two years later our eldest brother, Ernest. This last was so terrible a trial to Lydia that she never could bear any reference to it. Other troubles, many and bitter, followed. About 1865 we went to live in Manchester.

"She attended the meeting there of the British Association, an era in her intellectual life."

§ 8. Her Early Work.

Miss Becker's first piece of authorship, Botany for Novices, fully bears out her sister's remarks as to her power of clear explanation. It is surprising that so clear and explicit a little book should have disappeared so entirely from circulation. It was written from pure love of her subject. "Lydia knew and loved every little flower that grew," as an old friend and companion of her girlhood expressed it, when speaking of her life at Altham. In the midst of the anxieties of her political work in London, she found her best refreshment in a run down to the gardens and conservatories at Kew. Visitors to the office could always know when Miss Becker was in residence by the flowering plants she always gathered round her-in the little house, 155 Shrewsbury Street, Manchester, where she removed on the death of her father, the little conservatory was her constant pleasure. Flowers were her delight. Astronomy had the next largest share of her studies in her pre-suffrage days, and a little treatise on Elementary Astronomy, a companion volume to the Botany for Novices, was written by her, but never published; probably the circulation of her first venture did not encourage expenditure on another. The MS. has been preserved by the friend already referred to, and shows her grasp of the subject and her descriptive power.

1Published by Remington, Rugby, 1864, under her initials L. E. B.