“Allow me to thank your Correspondent of last Saturday for both his praise and blame; I am grateful for one and confess to the other, in his notice of a little poem――‘My Mother,’ of which I was the author, it may be something more than sixty years ago. I see now, so much as he does, though _not in all its implications_, that, should another edition pass through the press, I will take care that the offending verse shall be omitted; or, as I may hope (without troubling the Laureate), replaced. I have regarded our good old theologian, Dr. Watts, as nearly our only predecessor in verses for children; and his name――a name I revere――I may perhaps plead in part, though not so far as to accept now, what did not strike me as objectionable then. There has been an illustrated edition of our ‘Original Poems’ recently published by Mr. Virtue, and I am sorry to see it retained there; but, as still the living author, I have sufficient right to expunge it. “Possibly you may have heard the names of Ann and Jane Taylor, of whom _I_ am the _Ann_; and remain, yours, &c., ANN GILBERT.” The Editor added: “She sends us the following alteration of the verse:―― For could our Father in the skies, Look down with pleased or loving eyes, If ever I could dare despise, My Mother?” This suggested alteration, does not, however, remove the objectionable word “despise,” which is utterly absurd as applied to such a mother as the poem describes. It may be added that the original last verse is still very generally printed with the poem. The history of the poem was thus given in that valuable storehouse of literary facts, “Notes and Queries,” in August 30, 1884. “In 1798, Ann Taylor, then residing with her family in Colchester, aged about sixteen, made a purchase of _A Minor’s Pocket-Book_, a periodical published by Harvey and Darton, 55, Gracechurch Street, London. This contained enigmas, and the solutions of previous ones, and poetical pieces to which prizes were adjudged. Fired with enthusiasm, she set to work, and unravelled enigma, charade, and rebus, and forwarded the results under the signature of ‘Juvenilia.’ They were successful, and obtained the first prize――six pocket-books. She continued her contributions for some years, at first anonymously, assisted by her younger sister Jane, and subsequently she became the editor during twelve or fourteen years, up to the time of her marriage in 1813.