She even published doggerel verses in the _Dublin Weekly Advertiser_, and signed them "Speranza," which annoyed Lady Wilde intensely.

One read thus:-- Your progeny is quite a pest To those who hate such "critters"; Some sport I'll have, or I'm blest I'll fry the Wilde breed in the West Then you can call them Fritters.
She wrote letters to _Saunders Newsletter_, and even reviewed a book of Lady Wilde's entitled "The First Temptation," and called it a "blasphemous production." Moreover, when Lady Wilde was staying at Bray, Miss Travers sent boys to offer the pamphlet for sale to the servants in her house.

In fine Miss Travers showed a keen feminine ingenuity and pertinacity in persecution worthy of a nobler motive.
But the defence did not rely on such annoyance as sufficient provocation for Lady Wilde's libellous letter.

The plea went on to state that Miss Travers had applied to Sir William Wilde for money again and again, and accompanied these applications with threats of worse pen-pricks if the requests were not acceded to.

It was under these circumstances, according to Lady Wilde, that she wrote the letter complained of to Dr.Travers and enclosed it in a sealed envelope.