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Mary Webb. “To a little child begging.” Manuscript poem, one leaf, 5⅞″ x 7⅜″, on white laid ruled paper, black ink. Twelve lines in two stanzas, with two corrections. After Henry and Mary moved to London in 1921, Webb found the postwar suffering in the capital much more apparent than in the Shropshire countryside. Webb could not refuse any plea for help, and gave to those in need from her slender resources with a passionate recklessness. Her lavish charity aggravated her financial distress, which in turn worsened her already fragile health.