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diff --git a/old/12632-8.txt b/old/12632-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..35d3914 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12632-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15571 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Yesterdays with Authors, by James T. Fields + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Yesterdays with Authors + +Author: James T. Fields + +Release Date: June 15, 2004 [EBook #12632] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK YESTERDAYS WITH AUTHORS *** + + + + +Produced by Keren Vergon, David Cortesi and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + YESTERDAYS WITH AUTHORS + + By + + JAMES T. FIELDS. + + + +"Was it not yesterday we spoke together?"--SHAKESPEARE + + Seventeenth Edition + + BOSTON: + HOUGHTON, OSGOOD AND COMPANY + The Riverside Press, Cambridge + + 1879 + + * * * * * + + Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, + BY JAMES T. FIELDS, +in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington + + + University Press: Welch, Bigelow, & Co., Cambridge. + + * * * * * + INSCRIBED + + TO MY FELLOW-MEMBERS OF + + THE SATURDAY CLUB. + + * * * * * + + Preface to the Project Gutenberg Edition. + +James Fields (1817-1881) at age 14 became a clerk in a bookstore in +Boston, and in a few years became a partner in the bookselling firm of +Ticknor, Reed and Fields. + +Fields's firm became the publisher for most of the great American +writers of the Nineteenth Century. In this book, Fields tells how he +persuaded a jobless, despondent Nathaniel Hawthorne to let him print +"The Scarlet Letter." + +Fields made frequent visits to England to land the American publishing +rights to the works of important British writers, including the great +superstar of the time, Charles Dickens. Dickens accepted Fields as a +personal friend, entertained him at his retreat, Gad's Hill, and wrote +him many amusing notes that are included here. Fields also socialized +with the cream of London literary society, and the book includes his +personal anecdotes of meeting Wordsworth, Thackeray, and others. He +formed a friendship with Mary Russell Mitford (a successful dramatist +and novelist of the day; two of her works are available in Project +Gutenberg editions) and she wrote him long, gossipy letters, reproduced +here. + +The firm of Ticknor and Fields, after many mergers and acquisitions, +continues to exist today as Houghton Mifflin Books. The firm's original +store, the Old Corner Bookstore, still exists as a bookstore at the +corner of School and Washington streets in Boston. + + * * * * * + +CONTENTS. + + +I. INTRODUCTORY + +II. THACKERAY + +III. HAWTHORNE + +IV. DICKENS + +V. WORDSWORTH + +VI. MISS MITFORD + +VII. "BARRY CORNWALL" AND SOME OF HIS FRIENDS + + INTRODUCTORY. + + * * * * * + + "_Some there are, + By their good works exalted, lofty minds + And meditative, authors of delight + And happiness, which to the end of time + Will live, and spread, and kindle_." + WORDSWORTH. + + + + +I. INTRODUCTORY. + +Surrounded by the portraits of those I have long counted my friends, I +like to chat with the people about me concerning these pictures, my +companions on the wall, and the men and women they represent. These are +my assembled guests, who dropped in years ago and stayed with me, +without the form of invitation or demand on my time or thought. They are +my eloquent silent partners for life, and I trust they will dwell here +as long as I do. Some of them I have known intimately; several of them +lived in other times; but they are all my friends and associates in a +certain sense. + +To converse with them and of them-- + + + "When to the sessions of sweet silent thought + I summon up remembrance of things past"-- + + +is one of the delights of existence, and I am never tired of answering +questions about them, or gossiping of my own free will as to their +every-day life and manners. + +If I were to call the little collection in this diminutive house a +_Gallery of Pictures_, in the usual sense of that title, many would +smile and remind me of what Foote said with his characteristic sharpness +of David Garrick, when he joined his brother Peter in the wine trade: +"Davy lived with three quarts of vinegar in the cellar, calling himself +a wine merchant." + +My friends have often heard me in my "garrulous old age" discourse of +things past and gone, and know what they bring down on their heads when +they request me "to run over," as they call it, the faces looking out +upon us from these plain unvarnished frames. + +Let us begin, then, with the little man of Twickenham, for that is his +portrait which hangs over the front fireplace. An original portrait of +Alexander Pope I certainly never expected to possess, and I must relate +how I came by it. Only a year ago I was strolling in my vagabond way up +and down the London streets, and dropped in to see an old +picture-shop,--kept by a man so thoroughly instructed in his calling +that it is always a pleasure to talk with him and examine his collection +of valuables, albeit his treasures are of such preciousness as to make +the humble purse of a commoner seem to shrink into a still smaller +compass from sheer inability to respond when prices are named. At No. 6 +Pall Mall one is apt to find Mr. Graves "clipp'd round about" by +first-rate canvas. When I dropped in upon him that summer morning he had +just returned from the sale of the Marquis of Hastings's effects. The +Marquis, it will be remembered, went wrong, and his debts swallowed up +everything. It was a wretched stormy day when the pictures were sold, +and Mr. Graves secured, at very moderate prices, five original +portraits. All the paintings had suffered more or less decay, and some +of them, with their frames, had fallen to the floor. One of the best +preserved pictures inherited by the late Marquis was a portrait of Pope, +painted from life by Richardson for the Earl of Burlington, and even +that had been allowed to drop out of its oaken frame. Horace Walpole +says, Jonathan Richardson was undoubtedly one of the best painters of a +head that had appeared in England. He was pupil of the celebrated Riley, +the master of Hudson, of whom Sir Joshua took lessons in his art, and it +was Richardson's "Treatise on Painting" which inflamed the mind of +young Reynolds, and stimulated his ambition to become a great painter. +Pope seems to have had a real affection for Richardson, and probably sat +to him for this picture some time during the year 1732. In Pope's +correspondence there is a letter addressed to the painter making an +engagement with him for a several days' sitting, and it is quite +probable that the portrait before us was finished at that time. One can +imagine the painter and the poet chatting together day after day, in +presence of that canvas. During the same year Pope's mother died, at the +great age of ninety-three; and on the evening of June 10th, while she +lay dead in the house, Pope sent off the following heart-touching letter +from Twickenham to his friend the painter:-- + + "As you know you and I mutually desire to see one another, I hoped + that this day our wishes would have met, and brought you hither. And + this for the very reason which possibly might hinder your coming, + that my poor mother is dead. I thank God, her death was as easy as + her life was innocent; and as it cost her not a groan, or even a + sigh, there is yet upon her countenance such an expression of + tranquillity, nay, almost of pleasure, that it is even amiable to + behold it. It would afford the finest image of a saint expired that + ever painting drew; and it would be the greatest obligation which + even that obliging art could ever bestow on a friend, if you could + come and sketch it for me. I am sure, if there be no very prevalent + obstacle, you will leave any common business to do this; and I hope + to see you this evening, as late as you will, or to-morrow morning + as early, before this winter flower is faded. I will defer her + interment till to-morrow night. I know you love me, or I could not + have written this; I could not (at this time) have written at all. + Adieu! May you die as happily!" + +Several eminent artists of that day painted the likeness of Pope, and +among them Sir Godfrey Kneller and Jervas, but I like the expression of +this one by Richardson best of all. The mouth, it will be observed, is +very sensitive and the eyes almost painfully so. It is told of the poet, +that when he was a boy "there was great sweetness in his look," and +that his face was plump and pretty, and that he had a very fresh +complexion. Continual study ruined his constitution and changed his +form, it is said. Richardson has skilfully kept out of sight the poor +little decrepit figure, and gives us only the beautiful head of a man of +genius. I scarcely know a face on canvas that expresses the poetical +sense in a higher degree than this one. The likeness must be perfect, +and I can imagine the delight of the Rev. Joseph Spence hobbling into +his presence on the 4th of September, 1735, after "a ragged boy of an +ostler came in with a little scrap of paper not half an inch broad, +which contained the following words: 'Mr. Pope would be very glad to see +Mr. Spence at the Cross Inn just now.'" + +English literature is full of eulogistic mention of Pope. Thackeray is +one of the last great authors who has spoken golden words about the +poet. "Let us always take into account," he says, "that constant +tenderness and fidelity of affection which pervaded and sanctified his +life." + +What pluck and dauntless courage possessed the "gallant little cripple" +of Twickenham! When all the dunces of England were aiming their +poisonous barbs at him, he said, "I had rather die at once, than live in +fear of those rascals." A vast deal that has been written about him is +untrue. No author has been more elaborately slandered on principle, or +more studiously abused through envy. Smarting dullards went about for +years, with an ever-ready microscope, hunting for flaws in his character +that might be injuriously exposed; but to-day his defamers are in bad +repute. Excellence in a fellow-mortal is to many men worse than death; +and great suffering fell upon a host of mediocre writers when Pope +uplifted his sceptre and sat supreme above them all. + +Pope's latest champion is John Ruskin. Open his Lectures on Art, +recently delivered before the University of Oxford, and read passage +number seventy. Let us read it together, as we sit here in the presence +of the sensitive poet. + + "I want you to think over the relation of expression to character in + two great masters of the absolute art of language, Virgil and Pope. + You are perhaps surprised at the last named; and indeed you have in + English much higher grasp and melody of language from more + passionate minds, but you have nothing else, in its range, so + perfect. I name, therefore, these two men, because they are the two + most accomplished _artists_, merely as such, whom I know, in + literature; and because I think you will be afterwards interested in + investigating how the infinite grace in the words of the one, the + severity in those of the other, and the precision in those of both, + arise wholly out of the moral elements of their minds,--out of the + deep tenderness in Virgil which enabled him to write the stories of + Nisus and Lausus, and the serene and just benevolence which placed + Pope, in his theology, two centuries in advance of his time, and + enabled him to sum the law of noble life in two lines which, so far + as I know, are the most complete, the most concise, and the most + lofty expression of moral temper existing in English words:-- + + + 'Never elated, while one man's oppressed; + Never dejected, while another's blessed.' + + + I wish you also to remember these lines of Pope, and to make + yourselves entirely masters of his system of ethics; because, + putting Shakespeare aside as rather the world's than ours, I hold + Pope to be the most perfect representative we have, since Chaucer, + of the true English mind; and I think the Dunciad is the most + absolutely chiselled and monumental work 'exacted' in our country. + You will find, as you study Pope, that he has expressed for you, in + the strictest language and within the briefest limits, every law of + art, of criticism, of economy, of policy, and, finally, of a + benevolence, humble, rational, and resigned, contented with its + allotted share of life, and trusting the problem of its salvation to + Him in whose hands lies that of the universe." + +Glance up at the tender eyes of the poet, who seems to have been eagerly +listening while we have been reading Ruskin's beautiful tribute. As he +is so intent upon us, let me gratify still further the honest pride of +"the little nightingale," as they used to call him when he was a child, +and read to you from the "Causeries du Lundi" what that wise French +critic, Sainte-Beuve, has written of his favorite English poet:-- + + "The natural history of Pope is very simple: delicate persons, it + has been said, are unhappy, and he was doubly delicate, delicate of + mind, delicate and infirm of body; he was doubly irritable. But what + grace, what taste, what swiftness to feel, what justness and + perfection in expressing his feeling!... His first masters were + insignificant; he educated himself: at twelve years old he learned + Latin and Greek together, and almost without a master; at fifteen he + resolved to go to London, in order to learn French and Italian + there, by reading the authors. His family, retired from trade, and + Catholic, lived at this time upon an estate in the forest of + Windsor. This desire of his was considered as an odd caprice, for + his health from that time hardly permitted him to move about. He + persisted, and accomplished his project; he learned nearly + everything thus by himself, making his own choice among authors, + getting the grammar quite alone, and his pleasure was to translate + into verse the finest passages he met with among the Latin and Greek + poets. When he was about sixteen years old, he said, his taste was + formed as much as it was later.... If such a thing as literary + temperament exist, it never discovered itself in a manner more + clearly defined and more decided than with Pope. Men ordinarily + become classic by means of the fact and discipline of education; he + was so by vocation, so to speak, and by a natural originality. At + the same time with the poets, he read the best among the critics, + and prepared himself to speak after them. + + * * * * * + + "Pope had the characteristic sign of literary natures, the faithful + worship of genius.... He said one day to a friend: 'I have always + been particularly struck with this passage of Homer where he + represents to us Priam transported with grief for the loss of + Hector, on the point of breaking out into reproaches and invectives + against the servants who surrounded him and against his sons. It + would be impossible for me to read this passage without weeping over + the disasters of the unfortunate old king.' And then he took the + book, and tried to read aloud the passage, 'Go, wretches, curse of + my life,' but he was interrupted by tears. + + * * * * * + + "No example could prove to us better than his to what degree the + faculty of tender, sensitive criticism is an active faculty. We + neither feel nor perceive in this way when there is nothing to give + in return. This taste, this sensibility, so swift and alert, justly + supposes imagination behind it. It is said that Shelley, the first + time he heard the poem of 'Christabel' recited, at a certain + magnificent and terrible passage, took fright and suddenly fainted. + The whole poem of 'Alastor' was to be foreseen in that fainting. + Pope, not less sensitive in his way, could not read through that + passage of the Iliad without bursting into tears. To be a critic to + that degree, is to be a poet." + +Thanks, eloquent and judicious scholar, so lately gone from the world of +letters! A love of what is best in art was the habit of Sainte-Beuve's +life, and so he too will be remembered as one who has kept the best +company in literature,--a man who cheerfully did homage to genius, +wherever and whenever it might be found. + +I intend to leave as a legacy to a dear friend of mine an old faded +book, which I hope he will always prize as it deserves. It is a +well-worn, well-read volume, of no value whatever as an _edition_,--but +_it belonged to Abraham Lincoln_. It is his copy of "The Poetical Works +of Alexander Pope, Esq., to which is prefixed the life of the author by +Dr. Johnson." It bears the imprint on the title-page of J.J. Woodward, +Philadelphia, and was published in 1839. Our President wrote his own +name in it, and chronicles the fact that it was presented to him "by his +friend N.W. Edwards." In January, 1861, Mr. Lincoln gave the book to a +very dear friend of his, who honored me with it in January, 1867, as a +New-Year's present. As long as I live it will remain among my books, +specially treasured as having been owned and read by one of the noblest +and most sorely tried of men, a hero comparable with any of +Plutarch's,-- + + + "The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man, + Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame, + New birth of our new soil, the first American." + + +THACKERAY + + * * * * * + +_What Emerson has said in his fine subtle way of Shakespeare may well be +applied to the author of "Vanity Fair." + +"One can discern in his ample pictures what forms and humanities pleased +him; his delight in troops of friends, in large hospitality, in cheerful +giving._ + + * * * * * + +_"He read the hearts of men and women, their probity, and their second +thought, and wiles; the wiles of innocence, and the transitions by which +virtues and vices slide into their contraries."_ + + + + +II. THACKERAY. + +Dear old Thackeray!--as everybody who knew him intimately calls him, now +he is gone. That is his face, looking out upon us, next to Pope's. What +a contrast in bodily appearance those two English men of genius present! +Thackeray's great burly figure, broad-chested, and ample as the day, +seems to overshadow and quite blot out of existence the author of "The +Essay on Man." But what friends they would have been had they lived as +contemporaries under Queen Anne or Queen Victoria! One can imagine the +author of "Pendennis" gently lifting poor little Alexander out of his +"chariot" into the club, and revelling in talk with him all night long. +Pope's high-bred and gentlemanly manner, combined with his extraordinary +sensibility and dread of ridicule, would have modified Thackeray's usual +gigantic fun and sometimes boisterous sarcasm into a rich and strange +adaptability to his little guest. We can imagine them talking together +now, with even a nobler wisdom and ampler charity than were ever +vouchsafed to them when they were busy amid the turmoils of their +crowded literary lives. + +As a reader and lover of all that Thackeray has written and published, +as well as a personal friend, I will relate briefly something of his +literary habits as I can recall them. It is now nearly twenty years +since I first saw him and came to know him familiarly in London. I was +very much in earnest to have him come to America, and read his series +of lectures on "The English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century," and +when I talked the matter over with some of his friends at the little +Garrick Club, they all said he could never be induced to leave London +long enough for such an expedition. Next morning, after this talk at the +Garrick, the elderly damsel of all work announced to me, as I was taking +breakfast at my lodgings, that Mr. _Sackville_ had called to see me, and +was then waiting below. Very soon I heard a heavy tread on the stairs, +and then entered a tall, white-haired stranger, who held out his hand, +bowed profoundly, and with a most comical expression announced himself +as Mr. Sackville. Recognizing at once the face from published portraits, +I knew that my visitor was none other than Thackeray himself, who, +having heard the servant give the wrong name, determined to assume it on +this occasion. For years afterwards, when he would drop in unexpectedly, +both at home and abroad, he delighted to call himself Mr. Sackville, +until a certain Milesian waiter at the Tremont House addressed him as +Mr. Thack_uary_, when he adopted that name in preference to the other. + +Questions are frequently asked as to the habits of thought and +composition of authors one has happened to know, as if an author's +friends were commonly invited to observe the growth of works he was by +and by to launch from the press. It is not customary for the doors of +the writer's work-shop to be thrown open, and for this reason it is all +the more interesting to notice, when it is possible, how an essay, a +history, a novel, or a poem is conceived, grows up, and is corrected for +publication. One would like very much to be informed how Shakespeare put +together the scenes of Hamlet or Macbeth, whether the subtile thought +accumulated easily on the page before him, or whether he struggled for +it with anxiety and distrust. We know that Milton troubled himself about +little matters of punctuation, and obliged the printer to take special +note of his requirements, scolding him roundly when he neglected his +instructions. We also know that Melanchthon was in his library hard at +work by two or three o'clock in the morning both in summer and winter, +and that Sir William Jones began his studies with the dawn. + +The most popular female writer of America, whose great novel struck a +chord of universal sympathy throughout the civilized world, has habits +of composition peculiarly her own, and unlike those belonging to any +author of whom we have record. She _croons_, so to speak, over her +writings, and it makes very little difference to her whether there is a +crowd of people about her or whether she is alone during the composition +of her books. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was wholly prepared for the press in a +little wooden house in Maine, from week to week, while the story was +coming out in a Washington newspaper. Most of it was written by the +evening lamp, on a pine table, about which the children of the family +were gathered together conning their various lessons for the next day. +Amid the busy hum of earnest voices, constantly asking questions of the +mother, intent on her world-renowned task, Mrs. Stowe wove together +those thrilling chapters which were destined to find readers in so many +languages throughout the globe. No work of similar importance, so far as +we know, was ever written amid so much that seemed hostile to literary +composition. + +I had the opportunity, both in England and America, of observing the +literary habits of Thackeray, and it always seemed to me that he did his +work with comparative ease, but was somewhat influenced by a custom of +procrastination. Nearly all his stories were written in monthly +instalments for magazines, with the press at his heels. He told me that +when he began a novel he rarely knew how many people were to figure in +it, and, to use his own words, he was always very shaky about their +moral conduct. He said that sometimes, especially if he had been dining +late and did not feel in remarkably good-humor next morning, he was +inclined to make his characters villanously wicked; but if he rose +serene with an unclouded brain, there was no end to the lovely actions +he was willing to make his men and women perform. When he had written a +passage that pleased him very much he could not resist clapping on his +hat and rushing forth to find an acquaintance to whom he might instantly +read his successful composition. Gilbert Wakefield, universally +acknowledged to have been the best Greek scholar of his time, said he +would have turned out a much better one, if he had begun earlier to +study that language; but unfortunately he did not begin till he was +fifteen years of age. Thackeray, in quoting to me this saying of +Wakefield, remarked: "My English would have been very much better if I +had read Fielding before I was ten." This observation was a valuable +hint, on the part of Thackeray, as to whom he considered his master in +art. + +James Hannay paid Thackeray a beautiful compliment when he said: "If he +had had his choice he would rather have been famous as an artist than as +a writer; but it was destined that he should paint in colors which will +never crack and never need restoration." Thackeray's characters are, +indeed, not so much _inventions_ as _existences_, and we know them as we +know our best friends or our most intimate enemies. + +When I was asked, the other day, which of his books I like best, I gave +the old answer to a similar question. "_The last one I read_." If I +could possess only _one_ of his works, I think I should choose "Henry +Esmond." To my thinking, it is a marvel in literature, and I have read +it oftener than any of the other works. Perhaps the reason of my +partiality lies somewhat in this little incident. One day, in the snowy +winter of 1852, I met Thackeray sturdily ploughing his way down Beacon +Street with a copy of "Henry Esmond" (the English edition, then just +issued) under his arm. Seeing me some way off, he held aloft the volumes +and began to shout in great glee. When I came up to him he cried out, +"Here is the _very_ best I can do, and I am carrying it to Prescott as a +reward of merit for having given me my first dinner in America. I stand +by this book, and am willing to leave it, when I go, as my card." + +As he wrote from month to month, and liked to put off the inevitable +chapters till the last moment, he was often in great tribulation. I +happened to be one of a large company whom he had invited to a +six-o'clock dinner at Greenwich one summer afternoon, several years ago. +We were all to go down from London, assemble in a particular room at the +hotel, where he was to meet us at six o'clock, _sharp_. Accordingly we +took steamer and gathered ourselves together in the reception-room at +the appointed time. When the clock struck six, our host had not +fulfilled his part of the contract. His burly figure was yet wanting +among the company assembled. As the guests were nearly all strangers to +each other, and as there was no one present to introduce us, a profound +silence fell upon the room, and we anxiously looked out of the windows, +hoping every moment that Thackeray would arrive. This untoward state of +things went on for one hour, still no Thackeray and no dinner. English +reticence would not allow any remark as to the absence of our host. +Everybody felt serious and a gloom fell upon the assembled party. Still +no Thackeray. The landlord, the butler, and the waiters rushed in and +out the room, shrieking for the master of the feast, who as yet had not +arrived. It was confidentially whispered by a fat gentleman, with a +hungry look, that the dinner was utterly spoiled twenty minutes ago, +when we heard a merry shout in the entry and Thackeray bounced into the +room. He had not changed his morning dress, and ink was still visible +upon his fingers. Clapping his hands and pirouetting briskly on one leg, +he cried out, "Thank Heaven, the last sheet of The Virginians has just +gone to the printer." He made no apology for his late appearance, +introduced nobody, shook hands heartily with everybody, and begged us +all to be seated as quickly as possible. His exquisite delight at +completing his book swept away every other feeling, and we all shared +his pleasure, albeit the dinner was overdone throughout. + +The most finished and elegant of all _lecturers_, Thackeray often made a +very poor appearance when he attempted to deliver a set speech to a +public assembly. He frequently broke down after the first two or three +sentences. He prepared what he intended to say with great exactness, and +his favorite delusion was that he was about to astonish everybody with a +remarkable effort. It never disturbed him that he commonly made a woful +failure when he attempted speech-making, but he sat down with such cool +serenity if he found that he could not recall what he wished to say, +that his audience could not help joining in and smiling with him when he +came to a stand-still. Once he asked me to travel with him from London +to Manchester to hear a great speech he was going to make at the +founding of the Free Library Institution in that city. All the way down +he was discoursing of certain effects he intended to produce on the +Manchester dons by his eloquent appeals to their pockets. This passage +was to have great influence with the rich merchants, this one with the +clergy, and so on. He said that although Dickens and Bulwer and Sir +James Stephen, all eloquent speakers, were to precede him, he intended +to beat each of them on this special occasion. He insisted that I +should be seated directly in front of him, so that I should have the +full force of his magic eloquence. The occasion was a most brilliant +one; tickets had been in demand at unheard-of prices several weeks +before the day appointed; the great hall, then opened for the first time +to the public, was filled by an audience such as is seldom convened, +even in England. The three speeches which came before Thackeray was +called upon were admirably suited to the occasion, and most eloquently +spoken. Sir John Potter, who presided, then rose, and after some +complimentary allusions to the author of "Vanity Fair," introduced him +to the crowd, who welcomed him with ringing plaudits. As he rose, he +gave me a half-wink from under his spectacles, as if to say: "Now for +it; the others have done very well, but I will show 'em a grace beyond +the reach of their art." He began in a clear and charming manner, and +was absolutely perfect for three minutes. In the middle of a most +earnest and elaborate sentence he suddenly stopped, gave a look of comic +despair at the ceiling, crammed both hands into his trousers' pockets, +and deliberately sat down. Everybody seemed to understand that it was +one of Thackeray's unfinished speeches and there were no signs of +surprise or discontent among his audience. He continued to sit on the +platform in a perfectly composed manner; and when the meeting was over +he said to me, without a sign of discomfiture, "My boy, you have my +profoundest sympathy; this day you have accidentally missed hearing one +of the finest speeches ever composed for delivery by a great British +orator." And I never heard him mention the subject again. + +Thackeray rarely took any exercise, thus living in striking contrast to +the other celebrated novelist of our time, who was remarkable for the +number of hours he daily spent in the open air. It seems to be almost +certain now, from concurrent testimony, gathered from physicians and +those who knew him best in England, that Thackeray's premature death was +hastened by an utter disregard of the natural laws. His vigorous frame +gave ample promise of longevity, but he drew too largely on his brain +and not enough on his legs. _High_ living and high _thinking_, he used +to say, was the correct reading of the proverb. + +He was a man of the tenderest feelings, very apt to be cajoled into +doing what the world calls foolish things, and constantly performing +feats of unwisdom, which performances he was immoderately laughing at +all the while in his books. No man has impaled snobbery with such a +stinging rapier, but he always accused himself of being a snob, past all +cure. This I make no doubt was one of his exaggerations, but there was a +grain of truth in the remark, which so sharp an observer as himself +could not fail to notice, even though the victim was so near home. + +Thackeray announced to me by letter in the early autumn of 1852 that he +had determined to visit America, and would sail for Boston by the Canada +on the 30th of October. All the necessary arrangements for his lecturing +tour had been made without troubling him with any of the details. He +arrived on a frosty November evening, and went directly to the Tremont +House, where rooms had been engaged for him. I remember his delight in +getting off the sea, and the enthusiasm with which he hailed the +announcement that dinner would be ready shortly. A few friends were +ready to sit down with him, and he seemed greatly to enjoy the novelty +of an American repast. In London he had been very curious in his +inquiries about American oysters, as marvellous stories, which +he did not believe, had been told him of their great size. We +apologized--although we had taken care that the largest specimens to be +procured should startle his unwonted vision when he came to the +table--for what we called the extreme _smallness_ of the oysters, +promising that we would do better next time. Six bloated Falstaffian +bivalves lay before him in their shells. I noticed that he gazed at them +anxiously with fork upraised; then he whispered to me, with a look of +anguish, "How shall I do it?" I described to him the simple process by +which the free-born citizens of America were accustomed to accomplish +such a task. He seemed satisfied that the thing was feasible, selected +the smallest one in the half-dozen (rejecting a large one, "because," he +said, "it resembled the High Priest's servant's ear that Peter cut off") +and then bowed his head as if he were saying grace. All eyes were upon +him to watch the effect of a new sensation in the person of a great +British author. Opening his mouth very wide, he struggled for a moment, +and then all was over. I shall never forget the comic look of despair he +cast upon the other five over-occupied shells. I broke the perfect +stillness by asking him how he felt. "Profoundly grateful," he gasped, +"and as if I had swallowed a little baby." It was many years ago since +we gathered about him on that occasion, but, if my memory serves me, we +had what might be called _a pleasant evening_. Indeed, I remember much +hilarity, and sounds as of men laughing and singing far into midnight. I +could not deny, if called upon to testify in court, that we had a _good +time_ on that frosty November evening. + +We had many happy days and nights together both in England and America, +but I remember none happier than that evening we passed with him when +the Punch people came to dine at his own table with the silver statuette +of Mr. Punch in full dress looking down upon the hospitable board from +the head of the table. This silver figure always stood in a conspicuous +place when Tom Taylor, Mark Lemon, Shirley Brooks, and the rest of his +jolly companions and life-long cronies were gathered together. If I were +to say here that there were any dull moments on _that_ occasion, I +should not expect to be strictly believed. + +Thackeray's playfulness was a marked peculiarity; a great deal of the +time he seemed like a school-boy, just released from his task. In the +midst of the most serious topic under discussion he was fond of asking +permission to sing a comic song, or he would beg to be allowed to +enliven the occasion by the instant introduction of a brief +double-shuffle. Barry Cornwall told me that when he and Charles Lamb +were once making up a dinner-party together, Charles asked him not to +invite a certain lugubrious friend of theirs. "Because," said Lamb, "he +would cast a damper even over a funeral." I have often contrasted the +habitual qualities of that gloomy friend of theirs with the astounding +spirits of both Thackeray and Dickens. They always seemed to me to be +standing in the sunshine, and to be constantly warning other people out +of cloudland. During Thackeray's first visit to America his jollity knew +no bounds, and it became necessary often to repress him when he was +walking in the street. I well remember his uproarious shouting and +dancing when he was told that the tickets to his first course of +readings were all sold, and when we rode together from his hotel to the +lecture-hall he insisted on thrusting both his long legs out of the +carriage window, in deference, as he said, to his magnanimous +ticket-holders. An instance of his procrastination occurred the evening +of his first public appearance in America. His lecture was advertised to +take place at half past seven, and when he was informed of the hour, he +said he would try and be ready at eight o'clock, but thought it very +doubtful. Horrified at this assertion, I tried to impress upon him the +importance of punctuality on this, the night of his first bow to an +American audience. At a quarter past seven I called for him, and found +him not only unshaved and undressed for the evening, but rapturously +absorbed in making a pen-and-ink drawing to illustrate a passage in +Goethe's Sorrows of Werther, for a lady, which illustration,--a charming +one, by the way, for he was greatly skilled in drawing,--he vowed he +would finish before he would budge an inch in the direction of the (I +omit the adjective) Melodeon. A comical incident occurred just as he was +about leaving the hall, after his first lecture in Boston. A shabby, +ungainly looking man stepped briskly up to him in the anteroom, seized +his hand and announced himself as "proprietor of the Mammoth Rat," and +proposed to exchange season tickets. Thackeray, with the utmost gravity, +exchanged cards and promised to call on the wonderful quadruped next +day. + +Thackeray's motto was 'Avoid performing to-day, if possible, what can be +postponed till to-morrow.' Although he received large sums for his +writings, he managed without much difficulty to keep his expenditures +fully abreast, and often in advance of, his receipts. His pecuniary +object in visiting America the second time was to lay up, as he said, a +"pot of money" for his two daughters, and he left the country with more +than half his lecture engagements unfulfilled. He was to have visited +various cities in the Middle and Western States; but he took up a +newspaper one night, in his hotel in New York, before retiring, saw a +steamer advertised to sail the next morning for England, was seized with +a sudden fit of homesickness, rang the bell for his servant, who packed +up his luggage that night, and the next day he sailed. The first +intimation I had of his departure was a card which he sent by the pilot +of the steamer, with these words upon it: "Good by, Fields; good by, +Mrs. Fields; God bless everybody, says W.M.T." Of course he did not +avail himself of the opportunity afforded him for receiving a very large +sum in America, and he afterwards told me in London, that if Mr. Astor +had offered him half his fortune if he would allow that particular +steamer to sail without him, he should have declined the +well-intentioned but impossible favor, and gone on board. + +No man has left behind him a tenderer regard for his genius and foibles +among his friends than Thackeray. He had a natural love of good which +nothing could wholly blur or destroy. He was a most generous critic of +the writings of his contemporaries, and no one has printed or spoken +warmer praise of Dickens, in one sense his great rival, than he. + +Thackeray was not a voluminous correspondent, but what exquisite letters +he has left in the hands of many of his friends! "Should any letters +arrive," he says in a little missive from Philadelphia, "addressed to +the care of J.T.F. for the ridiculous author of this, that, and the +other, F. is requested to send them to Mercantile Library, Baltimore. My +ghostly enemy will be delighted (or will gnash his teeth with rage) to +hear that the lectures in the capital of Pa. have been very well +attended. No less than 750 people paid at the door on Friday night, and +though last night there was a storm of snow so furious that no +reasonable mortal could face it, 500 (at least) amiable maniacs were in +the lecture-room, and wept over the fate of the last king of these +colonies." + +Almost every day, while he was lecturing in America, he would send off +little notes exquisitely written in point of penmanship, and sometimes +embellished with characteristic pen-drawings. Having attended an +extemporaneous supper festival at "Porter's," he was never tired of +"going again." Here is a scrap of paper holding these few words, +written in 1852. + + "Nine o'clock, P.M. Tremont. + + "Arrangements have just been concluded for a meeting _somewhere_ + to-night, which we much desire you should attend. Are you equal to + two nights running of good time?" + +Then follows a pen portrait of a friend of his with a cloven foot and a +devil's tail just visible under his cloak Sometimes, to puzzle his +correspondent, he would write in so small a hand that the note could not +be read without the aid of a magnifying-glass. Calligraphy was to him +one of the fine arts, and he once told Dr. John Brown of Edinburgh, that +if all trades failed, he would earn sixpences by writing the Lord's +Prayer and the Creed (not the Athanasian) in the size of that coin. He +greatly delighted in rhyming and lisping notes and billets. Here is one +of them, dated from Baltimore without signature:-- + + "Dear F----th! The thanguinary fateth (I don't know what their anger + meanth) brought me your letter of the eighth, yethterday, only the + fifteenth! What blunder cauthed by chill delay (thee Doctor + Johnthon'th noble verthe) Thuth kept my longing thoul away, from all + that motht I love on earth? Thankth for the happy contenth!--thothe + Dithpatched to J.G.K. and Thonth, and that thmall letter you + inclothe from Parith, from my dearetht oneth! I pray each month may + tho increathe my thmall account with J.G. King, that all the thipth + which croth the theath, good tidingth of my girlth may bring!--that + every blething fortune yieldth, I altho pray, may come to path on + Mithter and Mrth. J.T. F----th, and all good friendth in Bothton, + Math.!" + +While he was staying at the Clarendon Hotel, in New York, every +morning's mail brought a few lines, sometimes only one line, sometimes +only two words, from him, reporting progress. One day he tells me: +"Immense hawdience last night." Another day he says: "Our shares look +very much up this morning." On the 29th of November, 1852, he writes: +"I find I have a much bigger voice than I knew of, and am not afraid of +anybody." At another time he writes: "I make no doubt you have seen that +admirable paper, the New York Herald, and are aware of the excellent +reception my lectures are having in this city. It was a lucky Friday +when first I set foot in this country. I have nearly saved the fifty +dollars you lent me in Boston." In a letter from Savannah, dated the +19th of March, 1853, in answer to one I had written to him, telling him +that a charming epistle, which accompanied the gift of a silver mug he +had sent to me some time before, had been stolen from me, he says:-- + + "My dear fellow, I remember I asked you in that letter to accept a + silver mug in token of our pleasant days together, and to drink a + health sometimes in it to a sincere friend.... Smith and Elder write + me word they have sent by a Cunard to Boston a packet of paper, + stamped etc. in London. I want it to be taken from the Custom-House, + dooties paid etc., and dispatched to Miss ----, New York. Hold your + tongue, and don't laugh, you rogue. Why shouldn't she have her + paper, and I my pleasure, without your wicked, wicked sneers and + imperence? I'm only a cipher in the young lady's estimation, and why + shouldn't I sigh for her if I like. I hope I shall see you all at + Boston before very long. I always consider Boston as my native + place, you know." + +I wish I could recall half the incidents connected with the dear, dear +old Thackeray days, when I saw him so constantly and enjoyed him so +hugely; but, alas! many of them are gone, with much more that is lovely +and would have been of _good report_, could they be now +remembered;--they are dead as--(Holmes always puts your simile quite +right for you),-- + + "Dead as the bulrushes round little Moses, + On the old banks of the Nile." + +But while I sit here quietly, and have no fear of any bad, +unsympathizing listeners who might, if some other subject were up, +frown upon my levity, let me walk through the dusky chambers of my +memory and report what I find there, just as the records turn up, +without regard to method. + +I once made a pilgrimage with Thackeray (at my request, of course, the +visits were planned) to the various houses where his books had been +written; and I remember when we came to Young Street, Kensington, he +said, with mock gravity, "Down on your knees, you rogue, for here +'Vanity Fair' was penned! And I will go down with you, for I have a high +opinion of that little production myself." He was always perfectly +honest in his expressions about his own writings, and it was delightful +to hear him praise them when he could depend on his listeners. A friend +congratulated him once on that touch in "Vanity Fair" in which Becky +"_admires_" her husband when he is giving Steyne the punishment which +ruins _her_ for life. "Well," he said, "when I wrote the sentence, I +slapped my fist on the table and said, _'That_ is a touch of genius!'" + +He told me he was nearly forty years old before he was recognized in +literature as belonging to a class of writers at all above the ordinary +magazinists of his day. "I turned off far better things then than I do +now," said he, "and I wanted money sadly, (my parents were rich but +respectable, and I had spent my guineas in my youth,) but how little I +got for my work! It makes me laugh," he continued, "at what The Times +pays me now, when I think of the old days, and how much better I wrote +for them then, and got a shilling where I now get ten." + +One day he wanted a little service done for a friend, and I remember his +very quizzical expression, as he said, "Please say the favor asked will +greatly oblige a man of the name of Thackeray, whose only recommendation +is, that he has seen Napoleon and Goethe, and is the owner of Schiller's +sword." + +I think he told me he and Tennyson were at one time intimate; but I +distinctly remember a description he gave me of having heard the poet, +when a young man, storming about in the first rapture of composing his +poem of "Ulysses." One line of it Tennyson greatly revelled in,-- + + "And see the great Achilles, whom we knew." + +"He went through the streets," said Thackeray, "screaming about his +great Achilles, whom we knew," as if we had all made the acquaintance of +that gentleman, and were very proud of it. + +One of the most comical and interesting occasions I remember, in +connection with Thackeray, was going with him to a grand concert given +fifteen or twenty years ago by Madame Sontag. We sat near an entrance +door in the hall, and every one who came in, male and female, Thackeray +pretended to know, and gave each one a name and brief chronicle, as the +presence flitted by. It was in Boston, and as he had been in town only a +day or two, and knew only half a dozen people in it, the biographies +were most amusing. As I happened to know several people who passed, it +was droll enough to hear this great master of character give them their +dues. Mr. Choate moved along in his regal, affluent manner. The large +style of the man, so magnificent and yet so modest, at once arrested +Thackeray's attention, and he forbore to place him in his extemporaneous +catalogue. I remember a pallid, sharp-faced girl fluttering past, and +how Thackeray exulted in the history of this "frail little bit of +porcelain," as he called her. There was something in her manner that +made him hate her, and he insisted she had murdered somebody on her way +to the hall. Altogether this marvellous prelude to the concert made a +deep impression on Thackeray's one listener, into whose ear he whispered +his fatal insinuations. There is one man still living and moving about +the streets I walk in occasionally, whom I never encounter without +almost a shudder, remembering as I do the unerring shaft which Thackeray +sent that night into the unknown man's character. + +One day, many years ago, I saw him chaffing on the sidewalk in London, +in front of the Athenaeum Club, with a monstrous-sized, "copiously +ebriose" cabman, and I judged from the driver's ludicrously careful way +of landing the coin deep down in his breeches-pocket, that Thackeray had +given him a very unusual fare. "Who is your fat friend?" I asked, +crossing over to shake hands with him. "O, that indomitable youth is an +old crony of mine," he replied; and then, quoting Falstaff, "a goodly, +portly man, i' faith, and a corpulent, of a cheerful look, a pleasing +eye, and a most noble _carriage_." It was the _manner_ of saying this, +then, and there in the London street, the cabman moving slowly off on +his sorry vehicle, with one eye (an eye dewy with gin and water, and a +tear of gratitude, perhaps) on Thackeray, and the great man himself so +jovial and so full of kindness! + +It was a treat to hear him, as I once did, discourse of Shakespeare's +probable life in Stratford among his neighbors. He painted, as he alone +could paint, the great poet sauntering about the lanes without the +slightest show of greatness, having a crack with the farmers, and in +very earnest talk about the crops. "I don't believe," said Thackeray, +"that these village cronies of his ever looked upon him as the mighty +poet, + + 'Sailing with supreme dominion + Through the azure deep of air,' + +but simply as a wholesome, good-natured citizen, with whom it was always +pleasant to have a chat. I can see him now," continued Thackeray, +"leaning over a cottage gate, and tasting good Master Such-a-one's +home-brewed, and inquiring with a real interest after the mistress and +her children." Long before he put it into his lecture, I heard him say +in words to the same effect: "I should like to have been Shakespeare's +shoe-black, just to have lived in his house, just to have worshipped +him, to have run on his errands, and seen that sweet, serene face." To +have heard Thackeray depict, in his own charming manner, and at +considerable length, the imaginary walks and talks of Shakespeare, when +he would return to his home from occasional visits to London, pouring +into the ready ears of his unsophisticated friends and neighbors the +gossip from town which he thought would be likely to interest them, is +something to remember all one's days. + +The enormous circulation achieved by the Cornhill Magazine, when it was +first started with Thackeray for its editor in chief, is a matter of +literary history. The announcement by his publishers that a sale of a +hundred and ten thousand of the first number had been reached made the +editor half delirious with joy, and he ran away to Paris to be rid of +the excitement for a few days. I met him by appointment at his hotel in +the Rue de la Paix, and found him wild with exultation and full of +enthusiasm for excellent George Smith, his publisher. "London," he +exclaimed, "is not big enough to contain me now, and I am obliged to add +Paris to my residence! Great heavens," said he, throwing up his long +arms, "where will this tremendous circulation stop! Who knows but that I +shall have to add Vienna and Rome to my whereabouts? If the worst comes +to the worst, New York, also, may fall into my clutches, and only the +Rocky Mountains may be able to stop my progress!" Those days in Paris +with him were simply tremendous. We dined at all possible and impossible +places together. We walked round and round the glittering court of the +Palais Royal, gazing in at the windows of the jewellers' shops, and all +my efforts were necessary to restrain him from rushing in and ordering a +pocketful of diamonds and "other trifles," as he called them; "for," +said he, "how can I spend the princely income which Smith allows me for +editing the Cornhill, unless I begin instantly somewhere?" If he saw a +group of three or four persons talking together in an excited way, after +the manner of that then riant Parisian people, he would whisper to me +with immense gesticulation: "There, there, you see the news has reached +Paris, and perhaps the number has gone up since my last accounts from +London." His spirits during those few days were colossal, and he told me +that he found it impossible to sleep, "for counting up his subscribers." + +I happened to know personally (and let me modestly add, with some degree +of sympathy) what he suffered editorially, when he had the charge and +responsibility of a magazine. With first-class contributors he got on +very well, he said, but the extortioners and revilers bothered the very +life out of him. He gave me some amusing accounts of his +misunderstandings with the "fair" (as he loved to call them), some of +whom followed him up so closely with their poetical compositions, that +his house (he was then living in Onslow Square) was never free of +interruption. "The darlings demanded," said he, "that I should re-write, +if I could not understand their ---- nonsense and put their halting +lines into proper form." "I was so appalled," said he, "when they set +upon me with their 'ipics and their ipecacs,' that you might have +knocked me down with a feather, sir. It was insupportable, and I fled +away into France." As he went on, waxing drolly furious at the +recollection of various editorial scenes, I could not help remembering +Mr. Yellowplush's recommendation, thus characteristically expressed: +"Take my advice, honrabble sir,--listen to a humble footmin: it's +genrally best in poatry to understand puffickly what you mean yourself, +and to igspress your meaning clearly afterwoods,--in the simpler words +the better, p'r'aps." + +He took very great delight in his young daughter's first contributions +to the Cornhill, and I shall always remember how he made me get into a +cab, one day in London, that I might hear, as we rode along, the joyful +news he had to impart, that he had just been reading his daughter's +first paper, which was entitled "Little Scholars." "When I read it," +said he, "I blubbered like a child, it is so good, so simple, and so +honest; and my little girl wrote it, every word of it." + +During his second visit to Boston I was asked to invite him to attend an +evening meeting of a scientific club, which was to be held at the house +of a distinguished member. I was very reluctant to ask him to be +present, for I knew he could be easily bored, and I was fearful that a +prosy essay or geological speech might ensue, and I knew he would be +exasperated with me, even although I were the _innocent_ cause of his +affliction. My worst fears were realized. We had hardly got seated, +before a dull, bilious-looking old gentleman rose, and applied his auger +with such pertinacity that we were all bored nearly to distraction. I +dared not look at Thackeray, but I felt that his eye was upon me. My +distress may be imagined, when he got up quite deliberately from the +prominent place where a chair had been set for him, and made his exit +very noiselessly into a small anteroom leading into the larger room, and +in which no one was sitting. The small apartment was dimly lighted, but +he knew that I knew _he_ was there. Then commenced a series of +pantomimic feats impossible to describe adequately. He threw an +imaginary person (myself, of course) upon the floor, and proceeded to +stab him several times with a paper-folder, which he caught up for the +purpose. After disposing of his victim in this way, he was not +satisfied, for the dull lecture still went on in the other room, and he +fired an imaginary revolver several times at an imaginary head. Still, +the droning speaker proceeded with his frozen subject (it was something +about the Arctic regions, if I remember rightly), and now began the +greatest pantomimic scene of all, namely, murder by poison, after the +manner in which the player king is disposed of in Hamlet. Thackeray had +found a small vial on the mantel-shelf, and out of that he proceeded to +pour the imaginary "juice of cursed hebenon" into the imaginary porches +of somebody's ears. The whole thing was inimitably done, and I hoped +nobody saw it but myself; but years afterwards, a ponderous, fat-witted +young man put the question squarely to me: "What _was_ the matter with +Mr. Thackeray, that night the club met at Mr ----'s house?" + +Overhearing me say one morning something about the vast attractions of +London to a greenhorn like myself, he broke in with, "Yes, but you have +not seen the grandest one yet! Go with me to-day to St. Paul's and hear +the charity children sing." So we went, and I saw the "head cynic of +literature," the "hater of humanity," as a critical dunce in the Times +once called him, hiding his bowed face, wet with tears, while his whole +frame shook with emotion, as the children of poverty rose to pour out +their anthems of praise. Afterwards he wrote in one of his books this +passage, which seems to me perfect in its feeling and tone:-- + + "And yet there is one day in the year when I think St. Paul's + presents the noblest sight in the whole world; when five thousand + charity children, with cheeks like nosegays, and sweet, fresh + voices, sing the hymn which makes every heart thrill with praise and + happiness. I have seen a hundred grand sights in the + world,--coronations, Parisian splendors, Crystal Palace openings, + Pope's chapels with their processions of long-tailed cardinals and + quavering choirs of fat soprani,--but think in all Christendom there + is no such sight as Charity Children's day. _Non Anglei, sed + angeli_. As one looks at that beautiful multitude of innocents; as + the first note strikes; indeed one may almost fancy that cherubs are + singing." + +I parted with Thackeray for the last time in the street, at midnight, in +London, a few months before his death. The Cornhill Magazine, under his +editorship, having proved a very great success, grand dinners were given +every month in honor of the new venture. We had been sitting late at one +of these festivals, and, as it was getting toward morning, I thought it +wise, as far as I was concerned, to be moving homeward before the sun +rose. Seeing my intention to withdraw, he insisted on driving me in his +brougham to my lodgings. When we reached the outside door of our host, +Thackeray's servant, seeing a stranger with his master, touched his hat +and asked where he should drive us. It was then between one and two +o'clock,--time certainly for all decent diners out to be at rest. +Thackeray put on one of his most quizzical expressions, and said to +John, in answer to his question, "I think we will make a morning call on +the Lord Bishop of London." John knew his master's quips and cranks too +well to suppose he was in earnest, so I gave him my address, and we went +on. When we reached my lodgings the clocks were striking two, and the +early morning air was raw and piercing. Opposing all my entreaties for +leave-taking in the carriage, he insisted upon getting out on the +sidewalk and escorting me up to my door, saying, with a mock heroic +protest to the heavens above us, "That it would be shameful for a +full-blooded Britisher to leave an unprotected Yankee friend exposed to +ruffians, who prowl about the streets with an eye to plunder." Then +giving me a gigantic embrace, he sang a verse of which he knew me to be +very fond; and so vanished out of my sight the great-hearted author of +"Pendennis" and "Vanity Fair." But I think of him still as moving, in +his own stately way, up and down the crowded thoroughfares of London, +dropping in at the Garrick, or sitting at the window of the Athenaeum +Club, and watching the stupendous tide of life that is ever moving past +in that wonderful city. + +Thackeray was a _master_ in every sense, having as it were, in himself, +a double quantity of being. Robust humor and lofty sentiment alternated +so strangely in him, that sometimes he seemed like the natural son of +Rabelais, and at others he rose up a very twin brother of the Stratford +Seer. There was nothing in him amorphous and unconsidered. Whatever he +chose to do was always perfectly done. There was a genuine Thackeray +flavor in everything he was willing to say or to write. He detected with +unfailing skill the good or the vile wherever it existed. He had an +unerring eye, a firm understanding, and abounding truth. "Two of his +great master powers," said the chairman at a dinner given to him many +years ago in Edinburgh, "are _satire_ and _sympathy_." George Brimley +remarked, "That he could not have painted Vanity Fair as he has, unless +Eden had been shining in his inner eye." He had, indeed, an awful +insight, with a world of solemn tenderness and simplicity, in his +composition. Those who heard the same voice that withered the memory of +King George the Fourth repeat "The spacious firmament on high" have a +recollection not easily to be blotted from the mind, and I have a kind +of pity for all who were born so recently as not to have heard and +understood Thackeray's Lectures. But they can read him, and I beg of +them to try and appreciate the tenderer phase of his genius, as well as +the sarcastic one. He teaches many lessons to young men, and here is one +of them, which I quote _memoriter_ from "Barry Lyndon": "Do you not, as +a boy, remember waking of bright summer mornings and finding your mother +looking over you? had not the gaze of her tender eyes stolen into your +senses long before you woke, and cast over your slumbering spirit a +sweet spell of peace, and love, and fresh-springing joy?" My dear +friend, John Brown, of Edinburgh (whom may God long preserve to both +countries where he is so loved and honored), chronicles this touching +incident. "We cannot resist here recalling one Sunday evening in +December, when Thackeray was walking with two friends along the Dean +Road, to the west of Edinburgh,--one of the noblest outlets to any city. +It was a lovely evening; such a sunset as one never forgets; a rich dark +bar of cloud hovered over the sun, going down behind the Highland hills, +lying bathed in amethystine bloom; between this cloud and the hills +there was a narrow slip of the pure ether, of a tender cowslip color, +lucid, and as if it were the very body of heaven in its clearness; every +object standing out as if etched upon the sky. The northwest end of +Corstorphine Hill, with its trees and rocks, lay in the heart of this +pure radiance; and there a wooden crane, used in the granary below, was +so placed as to assume the figure of a cross; there it was, +unmistakable, lifted up against the crystalline sky. All three gazed at +it silently. As they gazed, Thackeray gave utterance in a tremulous, +gentle, and rapid voice to what all were feeling, in the word, +'CALVARY!' The friends walked on in silence, and then turned to other +things. All that evening he was very gentle and serious, speaking, as he +seldom did, of divine things,--of death, of sin, of eternity, of +salvation, expressing his simple faith in God and in his Saviour." + +Thackeray was found dead in his bed on Christmas morning, and he +probably died without pain. His mother and his daughters were sleeping +under the same roof when he passed away alone. Dickens told me that, +looking on him as he lay in his coffin, he wondered that the figure he +had known in life as one of such noble presence could seem so shrunken +and wasted; but there had been years of sorrow, years of labor, years of +pain, in that now exhausted life. It was his happiest Christmas morning +when he heard the Voice calling him homeward to unbroken rest. + +HAWTHORNE. + + * * * * * + + _A hundred years ago Henry Vaughan seems almost to have anticipated + Hawthorne's appearance when he wrote that beautiful line,_ + + "_Feed on the vocal silence of his eye_." + + + + +III. HAWTHORNE. + +I am sitting to-day opposite the likeness of the rarest genius America +has given to literature,--a man who lately sojourned in this busy world +of ours, but during many years of his life + + "Wandered lonely as a cloud,"-- + +a man who had, so to speak, a physical affinity with solitude. The +writings of this author have never soiled the public mind with one +unlovely image. His men and women have a magic of their own, and we +shall wait a long time before another arises among us to take his place. +Indeed, it seems probable no one will ever walk precisely the same round +of fiction which he traversed with so free and firm a step. + +The portrait I am looking at was made by Rowse (an exquisite drawing), +and is a very truthful representation of the head of Nathaniel +Hawthorne. He was several times painted and photographed, but it was +impossible for art to give the light and beauty of his wonderful eyes. I +remember to have heard, in the literary circles of Great Britain, that, +since Burns, no author had appeared there with a finer face than +Hawthorne's. Old Mrs. Basil Montagu told me, many years ago, that she +sat next to Burns at dinner, when he appeared in society in the first +flush of his fame, after the Edinburgh edition of his poems had been +published. She said, among other things, that, although the company +consisted of some of the best bred men of England, Burns seemed to her +the most perfect gentleman among them. She noticed, particularly, his +genuine grace and deferential manner toward women, and I was interested +to hear Mrs. Montagu's brilliant daughter, when speaking of Hawthorne's +advent in English society, describe him in almost the same terms as I +had heard her mother, years before, describe the Scottish poet. I +happened to be in London with Hawthorne during his consular residence in +England, and was always greatly delighted at the rustle of admiration +his personal appearance excited when he entered a room. His bearing was +modestly grand, and his voice touched the ear like a melody. + +Here is a golden curl which adorned the head of Nathaniel Hawthorne when +he lay a little child in his cradle. It was given to me many years ago +by one near and dear to him. I have two other similar "blossoms," which +I keep pressed in the same book of remembrance. One is from the head of +John Keats, and was given to me by Charles Cowden Clarke, and the other +graced the head of Mary Mitford, and was sent to me after her death by +her friendly physician, who watched over her last hours. Leigh Hunt says +with a fine poetic emphasis, + + "There seems a love in hair, though it be dead. + It is the gentlest, yet the strongest thread + Of our frail plant,--a blossom from the tree + Surviving the proud trunk;--as though it said, + Patience and Gentleness is Power. In me + Behold affectionate eternity." + +There is a charming old lady, now living two doors from me, who dwelt in +Salem when Hawthorne was born, and, being his mother's neighbor at that +time (Mrs. Hawthorne then lived in Union Street), there came a message +to her intimating that the baby could be seen by calling. So my friend +tells me she went in, and saw the little winking thing in its mother's +arms. She is very clear as to the beauty of the infant, even when only a +week old, and remembers that "he was a pleasant child, quite handsome, +with golden curls." She also tells me that Hawthorne's mother was a +beautiful woman, with remarkable eyes, full of sensibility and +expression, and that she was a person of singular purity of mind. +Hawthorne's father, whom my friend knew well, she describes as a +warm-hearted and kindly man, very fond of children. He was somewhat +inclined to melancholy, and of a reticent disposition. He was a great +reader, employing all his leisure time at sea over books. + +Hawthorne's father died when Nathaniel was four years old, and from that +time his uncle Robert Manning took charge of his education, sending him +to the best schools and afterwards to college. When the lad was about +nine years old, while playing bat and ball at school, he lamed his foot +so badly that he used two crutches for more than a year. His foot ceased +to grow like the other, and the doctors of the town were called in to +examine the little lame boy. He was not perfectly restored till he was +twelve years old. His kind-hearted schoolmaster, Joseph Worcester, the +author of the Dictionary, came every day to the house to hear the boy's +lessons, so that he did not fall behind in his studies. [There is a +tradition in the Manning family that Mr. Worcester was very much +interested in Maria Manning (a sister of Mrs. Hawthorne), who died in +1814, and that this was one reason of his attention to Nathaniel.] The +boy used to lie flat upon the carpet, and read and study the long days +through. Some time after he had recovered from this lameness he had an +illness causing him to lose the use of his limbs, and he was obliged to +seek again the aid of his old crutches, which were then pieced out at +the ends to make them longer. While a little child, and as soon almost +as he began to read, the authors he most delighted in were Shakespeare, +Milton, Pope, and Thomson. The "Castle of Indolence" was an especial +favorite with him during boyhood. The first book he bought with his own +money was a copy of Spenser's "Faery Queen." + +One who watched him during his childhood tells me, that "when he was six +years old his favorite book was Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress': and that +whenever he went to visit his Grandmother Hawthorne, he used to take the +old family copy to a large chair in a corner of the room near a window, +and read it by the hour, without once speaking. No one ever thought of +asking how much of it he understood. I think it one of the happiest +circumstances of his training, that nothing was ever explained to him, +and that there was no professedly intellectual person in the family to +usurp the place of Providence and supplement its shortcomings, in order +to make him what he was never intended to be. His mind developed itself; +intentional cultivation might have spoiled it.... He used to invent long +stories, wild and fanciful, and tell where he was going when he grew up, +and of the wonderful adventures he was to meet with, always ending with, +'And I'm never coming back again,' in quite a solemn tone, that enjoined +upon us the advice to value him the more while he stayed with us." + +When he could scarcely speak plain, it is recalled by members of the +family that the little fellow would go about the house, repeating with +vehement emphasis and gestures certain stagy lines from Shakespeare's +Richard III., which he had overheard from older persons about him. One +line, in particular, made a great impression upon him, and he would +start up on the most unexpected occasions and fire off in his loudest +tone, + + "Stand back, my Lord, and let the coffin pass." + +On the 21st of August, 1820, No. 1 of "The Spectator, edited by N. +Hathorne," neatly written in printed letters by the editor's own hand, +appeared. A prospectus was issued the week before, setting forth that +the paper would be published on Wednesdays, "price 12 cents per annum, +payment to be made at the end of the year." Among the advertisements is +the following:-- + + "Nathaniel Hathorne proposes to publish by subscription a NEW + EDITION of the MISERIES OF AUTHORS, to which will be added a SEQUEL, + containing FACTS and REMARKS drawn from his own experience." + +Six numbers only were published. The following subjects were discussed +by young "Hathorne" in the Spectator,--"On Solitude," "The End of the +Year," "On Industry," "On Benevolence," "On Autumn," "On Wealth," "On +Hope," "On Courage." The poetry on the last page of each number was +evidently written by the editor, except in one instance, when an Address +to the Sun is signed by one of his sisters. In one of the numbers he +apologizes that no deaths of any importance have taken place in the +town. Under the head of Births, he gives the following news, "The lady +of Dr. Winthrop Brown, a son and heir. Mrs. Hathorne's cat, seven +kittens. We hear that both of the above ladies are in a state of +convalescence." One of the literary advertisements reads:-- + +"Blank Books made and for sale by N. Hathorne." + +While Hawthorne was yet a little fellow the family moved to Raymond in +the State of Maine; here his out-of-door life did him great service, for +he grew tall and strong, and became a good shot and an excellent +fisherman. Here also his imagination was first stimulated, the wild +scenery and the primitive manners of the people contributing greatly to +awaken his thought. At seventeen he entered Bowdoin College, and after +his graduation returned again to live in Salem. During his youth he had +an impression that he would die before the age of twenty-five; but the +Mannings, his ever-watchful and kind relations, did everything possible +for the care of his health, and he was tided safely over the period when +he was most delicate. Professor Packard told me that when Hawthorne was +a student at Bowdoin in his freshman year, his Latin compositions showed +such facility that they attracted the special attention of those who +examined them. The Professor also remembers that Hawthorne's English +compositions elicited from Professor Newman (author of the work on +Rhetoric) high commendations. + +When a youth Hawthorne made a journey into New Hampshire with his uncle, +Samuel Manning. They travelled in a two-wheeled chaise, and met with +many adventures which the young man chronicled in his home letters, Some +of the touches in these epistles were very characteristic and amusing, +and showed in those early years his quick observation and descriptive +power. The travellers "put up" at Farmington, in order to rest over +Sunday. Hawthorne writes to a member of the family in Salem: "As we were +wearied with rapid travelling, we found it impossible to attend divine +service, which was, of course, very grievous to us both. In the evening, +however, I went to a Bible class, with a very polite and agreeable +gentleman, whom I afterwards discovered to be a strolling tailor, of +very questionable habits." + +When the travellers arrived in the Shaker village of Canterbury, +Hawthorne at once made the acquaintance of the Community there, and the +account which he sent home was to the effect that the brothers and +sisters led a good and comfortable life, and he wrote: "If it were not +for the ridiculous ceremonies, a man might do a worse thing than to join +them." Indeed, he spoke to them about becoming a member of the Society, +and was evidently much impressed with the thrift and peace of the +establishment. + +This visit in early life to the Shakers is interesting as suggesting to +Hawthorne his beautiful story of "The Canterbury Pilgrims," which is in +his volume of "The Snow-Image, and other Twice-Told Tales." + +A lady of my acquaintance (the identical "Little Annie" of the "Ramble" +in "Twice-Told Tales") recalls the young man "when he returned home +after his collegiate studies." "He was even then," she says, "a most +noticeable person, never going into society, and deeply engaged in +reading everything he could lay his hands on. It was said in those days +that he had read every book in the Athenaeum Library in Salem." This +lady remembers that when she was a child, and before Hawthorne had +printed any of his stories, she used to sit on his knee and lean her +head on his shoulder, while by the hour he would fascinate her with +delightful legends, much more wonderful and beautiful than any she has +ever read since in printed books. + +The traits of the Hawthorne character were stern probity and +truthfulness. Hawthorne's mother had many characteristics in common with +her distinguished son, she also being a reserved and thoughtful person. +Those who knew the family describe the son's affection for her as of the +deepest and tenderest nature, and they remember that when she died his +grief was almost insupportable. The anguish he suffered from her loss is +distinctly recalled by many persons still living, who visited the family +at that time in Salem. + +I first saw Hawthorne when he was about thirty-five years old. He had +then published a collection of his sketches, the now famous "Twice-Told +Tales." Longfellow, ever alert for what is excellent, and eager to do a +brother author opportune and substantial service, at once came before +the public with a generous estimate of the work in the North American +Review; but the choice little volume, the most promising addition to +American literature that had appeared for many years, made little +impression on the public mind. Discerning readers, however, recognized +the supreme beauty in this new writer, and they never afterwards lost +sight of him. + +In 1828 Hawthorne published a short anonymous romance called Fanshawe. I +once asked him about this disowned publication, and he spoke of it with +great disgust, and afterwards he thus referred to the subject in a +letter written to me in 1851: "You make an inquiry about some supposed +former publication of mine. I cannot be sworn to make correct answers as +to all the literary or other follies of my nonage; and I earnestly +recommend you not to brush away the dust that may have gathered over +them. Whatever might do me credit you may be pretty sure I should be +ready enough to bring forward. Anything else it is our mutual interest +to conceal; and so far from assisting your researches in that direction, +I especially enjoin it on you, my dear friend, not to read any +unacknowledged page that you may suppose to be mine." + +When Mr. George Bancroft, then Collector of the Port of Boston, +appointed Hawthorne weigher and gauger in the custom-house, he did a +wise thing, for no public officer ever performed his disagreeable duties +better than our romancer. Here is a tattered little official document +signed by Hawthorne when he was watching over the interests of the +country: it certifies his attendance at the unlading of a brig, then +lying at Long Wharf in Boston. I keep this precious relic side by side +with one of a similar custom-house character, signed _Robert Burns_. + +I came to know Hawthorne very intimately after the Whigs displaced the +Democratic romancer from office. In my ardent desire to have him +retained in the public service, his salary at that time being his sole +dependence,--not foreseeing that his withdrawal from that sort of +employment would be the best thing for American letters that could +possibly happen,--I called, in his behalf, on several influential +politicians of the day, and well remember the rebuffs I received in my +enthusiasm for the author of the "Twice-Told Tales." One pompous little +gentleman in authority, after hearing my appeal, quite astounded me by +his ignorance of the claims of a literary man on his country. "Yes, +yes," he sarcastically croaked down his public turtle-fed throat, "I see +through it all, I see through it; this Hawthorne is one of them 'ere +visionists, and we don't want no such a man as him round." So the +"visionist" was not allowed to remain in office, and the country was +better served by him in another way. In the winter of 1849, after he had +been ejected from the custom-house, I went down to Salem to see him and +inquire after his health, for we heard he had been suffering from +illness. He was then living in a modest wooden house in Mall Street, if +I remember rightly the location. I found him alone in a chamber over the +sitting-room of the dwelling; and as the day was cold, he was hovering +near a stove. We fell into talk about his future prospects, and he was, +as I feared I should find him, in a very desponding mood. "Now," said I, +"is the time for you to publish, for I know during these years in Salem +you must have got something ready for the press." "Nonsense," said he; +"what heart had I to write anything, when my publishers (M. and Company) +have been so many years trying to sell a small edition of the +'Twice-Told Tales'?" I still pressed upon him the good chances he would +have now with something new. "Who would risk publishing a book for _me_, +the most unpopular writer in America?" "I would," said I, "and would +start with an edition of two thousand copies of anything you write." +"What madness!" he exclaimed; "your friendship for me gets the better of +your judgment. No, no," he continued; "I have no money to indemnify a +publisher's losses on my account." I looked at my watch and found that +the train would soon be starting for Boston, and I knew there was not +much time to lose in trying to discover what had been his literary work +during these last few years in Salem. I remember that I pressed him to +reveal to me what he had been writing. He shook his head and gave me to +understand he had produced nothing. At that moment I caught sight of a +bureau or set of drawers near where we were sitting; and immediately it +occurred to me that hidden away somewhere in that article of furniture +was a story or stories by the author of the "Twice-Told Tales," and I +became so positive of it that I charged him vehemently with the fact. He +seemed surprised, I thought, but shook his head again; and I rose to +take my leave, begging him not to come into the cold entry, saying I +would come back and see him again in a few days. I was hurrying down the +stairs when he called after me from the chamber, asking me to stop a +moment. Then quickly stepping into the entry with a roll of manuscript +in his hands, he said: "How in Heaven's name did you know this thing was +there? As you have found me out, take what I have written, and tell me, +after you get home and have time to read it, if it is good for anything. +It is either very good or very bad,--I don't know which." On my way up +to Boston I read the germ of "The Scarlet Letter"; before I slept that +night I wrote him a note all aglow with admiration of the marvellous +story he had put into my hands, and told him that I would come again to +Salem the next day and arrange for its publication. I went on in such an +amazing state of excitement when we met again in the little house, that +he would not believe I was really in earnest. He seemed to think I was +beside myself, and laughed sadly at my enthusiasm. However, we soon +arranged for his appearance again before the public with a book. + +This quarto volume before me contains numerous letters, written by him +from 1850 down to the month of his death. The first one refers to "The +Scarlet Letter," and is dated in January, 1850. At my suggestion he had +altered the plan of that story. It was his intention to make "The +Scarlet Letter" one of several short stories, all to be included in one +volume, and to be called + + OLD-TIME LEGENDS: +Together With Sketches, +EXPERIMENTAL AND IDEAL. + +His first design was to make "The Scarlet Letter" occupy about two +hundred pages in his new book; but I persuaded him, after reading the +first chapters of the story, to elaborate it, and publish it as a +separate work. After it was settled that "The Scarlet Letter" should be +enlarged and printed by itself in a volume he wrote to me:-- + + "I am truly glad that you like the Introduction, for I was rather + afraid that it might appear absurd and impertinent to be talking + about myself, when nobody, that I know of, has requested any + information on that subject. + + "As regards the size of the book, I have been thinking a good deal + about it. Considered merely as a matter of taste and beauty, the + form of publication which you recommend seems to me much preferable + to that of the 'Mosses.' + + "In the present case, however, I have some doubts of the expediency, + because, if the book is made up entirely of 'The Scarlet Letter,' it + will be too sombre. I found it impossible to relieve the shadows of + the story with so much light as I would gladly have thrown in. + Keeping so close to its point as the tale does, and no otherwise + than by turning different sides of the same to the reader's eye, it + will weary very many people and disgust some. Is it safe, then, to + stake the fate of the book entirely on this one chance? A hunter + loads his gun with a bullet and several buckshot; and, following his + sagacious example, it was my purpose to conjoin the one long story + with half a dozen shorter ones, so that, failing to kill the public + outright with my biggest and heaviest lump of lead, I might have + other chances with the smaller bits, individually and in the + aggregate. However, I am willing to leave these considerations to + your judgment, and should not be sorry to have you decide for the + separate publication. + + "In this latter event it appears to me that the only proper title + for the book would be 'The Scarlet Letter,' for 'The Custom-House' + is merely introductory,--an entrance-hall to the magnificent edifice + which I throw open to my guests. It would be funny if, seeing the + further passages so dark and dismal, they should all choose to stop + there! If 'The Scarlet Letter' is to be the title, would it not be + well to print it on the title-page in red ink? I am not quite sure + about the good taste of so doing, but it would certainly be piquant + and appropriate, and, I think, attractive to the great gull whom we + are endeavoring to circumvent." + +One beautiful summer day, twenty years ago, I found Hawthorne in his +little red cottage at Lenox, surrounded by his happy young family. He +had the look, as somebody said, of a banished lord, and his grand figure +among the hills of Berkshire seemed finer than ever. His boy and girl +were swinging on the gate as we drove up to his door, and with their +sunny curls formed an attractive feature in the landscape. As the +afternoon was cool and delightful, we proposed a drive over to +Pittsfield to see Holmes, who was then living on his ancestral farm. +Hawthorne was in a cheerful condition, and seemed to enjoy the beauty of +the day to the utmost. Next morning we were all invited by Mr. Dudley +Field, then living at Stockbridge, to ascend Monument Mountain. Holmes, +Hawthorne, Duyckinck, Herman Melville, Headley, Sedgwick, Matthews, and +several ladies, were of the party. We scrambled to the top with great +spirit, and when we arrived, Melville, I remember, bestrode a peaked +rock, which ran out like a bowsprit, and pulled and hauled imaginary +ropes for our delectation. Then we all assembled in a shady spot, and +one of the party read to us Bryant's beautiful poem commemorating +Monument Mountain. Then we lunched among the rocks, and somebody +proposed Bryant's health, and "long life to the dear old poet." This was +the most popular toast of the day, and it took, I remember, a +considerable quantity of Heidsieck to do it justice. In the afternoon, +pioneered by Headley, we made our way, with merry shouts and laughter, +through the Ice-Glen. Hawthorne was among the most enterprising of the +merry-makers; and being in the dark much of the time, he ventured to +call out lustily and pretend that certain destruction was inevitable to +all of us. After this extemporaneous jollity, we dined together at Mr. +Dudley Field's in Stockbridge, and Hawthorne rayed out in a sparkling +and unwonted manner. I remember the conversation at table chiefly ran on +the physical differences between the present American and English men, +Hawthorne stoutly taking part in favor of the American. This 5th of +August was a happy day throughout, and I never saw Hawthorne in better +spirits. + +Often and often I have seen him sitting in the chair I am now occupying +by the window, looking out into the twilight. He liked to watch the +vessels dropping down the stream, and nothing pleased him more than to +go on board a newly arrived bark from Down East, as she was just moored +at the wharf. One night we made the acquaintance of a cabin-boy on board +a brig, whom we found off duty and reading a large subscription volume, +which proved, on inquiry, to be a Commentary on the Bible. When +Hawthorne questioned him why he was reading, then and there, that +particular book, he replied with a knowing wink at both of us, "There's +consider'ble her'sy in our place, and I'm a studying up for 'em." He +liked on Sunday to mouse about among the books, and there are few +volumes in this room that he has not handled or read. He knew he could +have unmolested habitation here, whenever he chose to come, and he was +never allowed to be annoyed by intrusion of any kind. He always slept in +the same room,--the one looking on the water; and many a night I have +heard his solemn footsteps over my head, long after the rest of the +house had gone to sleep. Like many other nervous men of genius, he was a +light sleeper, and he liked to be up and about early; but it was only +for a ramble among the books again. One summer morning I found him as +early as four o'clock reading a favorite poem, on Solitude, a piece he +very much admired. That morning I shall not soon forget, for he was in +the vein for autobiographical talk, and he gave me a most interesting +account of his father, the sea-captain, who died of the yellow-fever in +Surinam in 1808, and of his beautiful mother, who dwelt a secluded +mourner ever after the death of her husband. Then he told stories of his +college life, and of his one sole intimate, Franklin Pierce, whom he +loved devotedly his life long. + +In the early period of our acquaintance he much affected the old Boston +Exchange Coffee-House in Devonshire Street, and once I remember to have +found him shut up there before a blazing coal-fire, in the "tumultuous +privacy" of a great snow-storm, reading with apparent interest an +obsolete copy of the "Old Farmer's Almanac," which he had picked up +about the house. He also delighted in the Old Province House, at that +time an inn, kept by one Thomas Waite, whom he has immortalized. After +he was chosen a member of the Saturday Club he came frequently to dinner +with Felton, Longfellow, Holmes, and the rest of his friends, who +assembled once a month to dine together. At the table, on these +occasions, he was rather reticent than conversational, but when he +chose to talk it was observed that the best things said that day came +from him. + +As I turn over his letters, the old days, delightful to recall, come +back again with added interest. + + "I sha'n't have the new story," he says in one of them, dated from + Lenox on the 1st of October, 1850, "ready by November, for I am + never good for anything in the literary way till after the first + autumnal frost, which has somewhat such an effect on my imagination + that it does on the foliage here about me,--multiplying and + brightening its hues; though they are likely to be sober and shabby + enough after all. + + "I am beginning to puzzle myself about a title for the book. The + scene of it is in one of those old projecting-stoned houses, + familiar to my eye in Salem; and the story, horrible to say, is a + little less than two hundred years long; though all but thirty or + forty pages of it refer to the present time. I think of such titles + as 'The House of the Seven Gables,' there being that number of + gable-ends to the old shanty; or 'The Seven-Gabled House'; or simply + 'The Seven Gables.' Tell me how these strike you. It appears to me + that the latter is rather the best, and has the great advantage that + it would puzzle the Devil to tell what it means." + +A month afterwards he writes further with regard to "The House of the +Seven Gables," concerning the title to which he was still in a +quandary:-- + + "'The Old Pyncheon House: A Romance'; 'The Old Pyncheon Family; or + the House of the Seven Gables: A Romance';--choose between them. I + have rather a distaste to a double title? otherwise, I think I + should prefer the second. Is it any matter under which title it is + announced? If a better should occur hereafter, we can substitute. Of + these two, on the whole, I judge the first to be the better. + + "I write diligently, but not so rapidly as I had hoped. I find the + book requires more care and thought than 'The Scarlet Letter'; also + I have to wait oftener for a mood. 'The Scarlet Letter' being all in + one tone, I had only to get my pitch, and could then go on + interminably. Many passages of this book ought to be finished with + the minuteness of a Dutch picture, in order to give them their + proper effect. Sometimes, when tired of it, it strikes me that the + whole is an absurdity, from beginning to end; but the fact is, in + writing a romance, a man is always, or always ought to be, careering + on the utmost verge of a precipitous absurdity, and the skill lies + in coming as close as possible, without actually tumbling over. My + prevailing idea is, that the book ought to succeed better than 'The + Scarlet Letter,' though I have no idea that it will." + +On the 9th of December he was still at work on the new romance, and +writes:-- + + "My desire and prayer is to get through with the business in hand. I + have been in a Slough of Despond for some days past, having written + so fiercely that I came to a stand-still. There are points where a + writer gets bewildered and cannot form any judgment of what he has + done, or tell what to do next. In these cases it is best to keep + quiet." + +On the 12th of January, 1851, he is still busy over his new book, and +writes: "My 'House of the Seven Gables' is, so to speak, finished; only +I am hammering away a little on the roof, and doing up a few odd jobs, +that were left incomplete." At the end of the month the manuscript of +his second great romance was put into the hands of the expressman at +Lenox, by Hawthorne himself, to be delivered to me. On the 27th he +writes:-- + + "If you do not soon receive it, you may conclude that it has + miscarried; in which case, I shall not consent to the universe + existing a moment longer. I have no copy of it, except the wildest + scribble of a first draught, so that it could never be restored. + + "It has met with extraordinary success from that portion of the + public to whose judgment it has been submitted, viz. from my wife. I + likewise prefer it to 'The Scarlet Letter'; but an author's opinion + of his book just after completing it is worth little or nothing, he + being then in the hot or cold fit of a fever, and certain to rate it + too high or too low. + + "It has undoubtedly one disadvantage in being brought so close to + the present time; whereby its romantic improbabilities become more + glaring. + + "I deem it indispensable that the proof-sheets should be sent me for + correction. It will cause some delay, no doubt, but probably not + much more than if I lived in Salem. At all events, I don't see how + it can be helped. My autography is sometimes villanously blind; and + it is odd enough that whenever the printers do mistake a word, it is + just the very jewel of a word, worth all the rest of the + dictionary." + +I well remember with what anxiety I awaited the arrival of the +expressman with the precious parcel, and with what keen delight I read +every word of the new story before I slept. Here is the original +manuscript, just as it came that day, twenty years ago, fresh from the +author's hand. The printers carefully preserved it for me; and Hawthorne +once made a formal presentation of it, with great mock solemnity, in +this very room where I am now sitting. + +After the book came out he wrote:-- + + "I have by no means an inconvenient multitude of friends; but if + they ever do appear a little too numerous, it is when I am making a + list of those to whom presentation copies are to be sent. Please + send one to General Pierce, Horatio Bridge, R.W. Emerson, W.E. + Channing, Longfellow, Hillard, Sumner, Holmes, Lowell, and Thompson + the artist. You will yourself give one to Whipple, whereby I shall + make a saving. I presume you won't put the portrait into the book. + It appears to me an improper accompaniment to a new work. + Nevertheless, if it be ready, I should be glad to have each of these + presentation copies accompanied by a copy of the engraving put + loosely between the leaves. Good by. I must now trudge two miles to + the village, through rain and mud knee-deep, after that accursed + proof-sheet. The book reads very well in proofs, but I don't believe + it will take like the former one. The preliminary chapter was what + gave 'The Scarlet Letter' its vogue." + +The engraving he refers to in this letter was made from a portrait by +Mr. C.G. Thompson, and at that time, 1851, was an admirable likeness. On +the 6th of March he writes:-- + + "The package, with my five heads, arrived yesterday afternoon, and + we are truly obliged to you for putting so many at our disposal. + They are admirably done. The children recognized their venerable + sire with great delight. My wife complains somewhat of a want of + cheerfulness in the face; and, to say the truth, it does appear to + be with a bedevilled melancholy; but it will do all the better for + the author of 'The Scarlet Letter.' In the expression there is a + singular resemblance (which I do not remember in Thompson's picture) + to a miniature of my father." + +His letters to me, during the summer of 1851, were frequent and +sometimes quite long. "The House of the Seven Gables" was warmly +welcomed, both at home and abroad. On the 23d of May he writes:-- + + "Whipple's notices have done more than pleased me, for they have + helped me to see my book. Much of the censure I recognize as just; I + wish I could feel the praise to be so fully deserved. Being better + (which I insist it is) than 'The Scarlet Letter,' I have never + expected it to be so popular (this steel pen makes me write + awfully). ---- ---- Esq., of Boston, has written to me, complaining + that I have made his grandfather infamous! It seems there was + actually a Pyncheon (or Pynchon, as he spells it) family resident in + Salem, and that their representative, at the period of the + Revolution, was a certain Judge Pynchon, a Tory and a refugee. This + was Mr. ----'s grandfather, and (at least, so he dutifully describes + him) the most exemplary old gentleman in the world. There are + several touches in my account of the Pyncheons which, he says, make + it probable that I had this actual family in my eye, and he + considers himself infinitely wronged and aggrieved, and thinks it + monstrous that the 'virtuous dead' cannot be suffered to rest + quietly in their graves. He further complains that I speak + disrespectfully of the ----'s in Grandfather's Chair. He writes more + in sorrow than in anger, though there is quite enough of the latter + quality to give piquancy to his epistle. The joke of the matter is, + that I never heard of his grandfather, nor knew that any Pyncheons + had ever lived in Salem, but took the name because it suited the + tone of my book, and was as much my property, for fictitious + purposes, as that of Smith. I have pacified him by a very polite and + gentlemanly letter, and if ever you publish any more of the Seven + Gables, I should like to write a brief preface, expressive of my + anguish for this unintentional wrong, and making the best reparation + possible else these wretched old Pyncheons will have no peace in the + other world, nor in this. Furthermore, there is a Rev. Mr. ----, + resident within four miles of me, and a cousin of Mr. ----, who + states that he likewise is highly indignant. Who would have dreamed + of claimants starting up for such an inheritance as the House of the + Seven Gables! + + "I mean, to write, within six weeks or two months next ensuing, a + book of stories made up of classical myths. The subjects are: The + Story of Midas, with his Golden Touch, Pandora's Box, The Adventure + of Hercules in quest of the Golden Apples, Bellerophon and the + Chimera, Baucis and Philemon, Perseus and Medusa; these, I think, + will be enough to make up a volume. As a framework, I shall have a + young college student telling these stories to his cousins and + brothers and sisters, during his vacations, sometimes at the + fireside, sometimes in the woods and dells. Unless I greatly + mistake, these old fictions will work up admirably for the purpose; + and I shall aim at substituting a tone in some degree Gothic or + romantic, or any such tone as may best please myself, instead of the + classic coldness, which is as repellant as the touch of marble. + + "I give you these hints of my plan, because you will perhaps think + it advisable to employ Billings to prepare some illustrations. There + is a good scope in the above subjects for fanciful designs. + Bellerophon and the Chimera, for instance: the Chimera a fantastic + monster with three heads, and Bellerophon fighting him, mounted on + Pegasus; Pandora opening the box; Hercules talking with Atlas, an + enormous giant who holds the sky on his shoulders, or sailing across + the sea in an immense bowl; Perseus transforming a king and all his + subjects to stone, by exhibiting the Gorgon's head. No particular + accuracy in costume need be aimed at. My stories will bear out the + artist in any liberties he may be inclined to take. Billings would + do these things well enough, though his characteristics are grace + and delicacy rather than wildness of fancy. The book, if it comes + out of my mind as I see it now, ought to have pretty wide success + amongst young people; and, of course, I shall purge out all the old + heathen wickedness, and put in a moral wherever practicable. For a + title how would this do: 'A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys'; or, + 'The Wonder-Book of Old Stories'? I prefer the former. Or 'Myths + Modernized for my Children'; that won't do. + + "I need a little change of scene, and meant to have come to Boston + and elsewhere before writing this book; but I cannot leave home at + present." + +Throughout the summer Hawthorne was constantly worried by people who +insisted that they, or their families in the present or past +generations, had been deeply wronged in "The House of the Seven Gables." +In a note, received from him on the 5th of June, he says:-- + + "I have just received a letter from still another claimant of the + Pyncheon estate. I wonder if ever, and how soon, I shall get a just + estimate of how many jackasses there are in this ridiculous world. + My correspondent, by the way, estimates the number of these Pyncheon + jackasses at about twenty; I am doubtless to by remonstrated with by + each individual. After exchanging shots with all of them, I shall + get you to publish the whole correspondence, in a style to match + that of my other works, and I anticipate a great run for the volume. + + "P.S. My last correspondent demands that another name be + substituted, instead of that of the family; to which I assent, in + case the publishers can be prevailed on to cancel the stereotype + plates. Of course you will consent! Pray do!" + +Praise now poured in upon him from all quarters. Hosts of critics, both +in England and America, gallantly came forward to do him service, and +his fame was assured. On the 15th of July he sends me a jubilant letter +from Lenox, from which I will copy several passages:-- + + "Mrs. Kemble writes very good accounts from London of the reception + my two romances have met with there. She says they have made a + greater sensation than any book since 'Jane Eyre'; but probably she + is a little or a good deal too emphatic in her representation of the + matter. At any rate, she advises that the sheets of any future book + be sent to Moxon, and such an arrangement made that a copyright may + be secured in England as well as here. Could this be done with the + Wonder-Book? And do you think it would be worth while? I must see + the proof-sheets of this book. It is a cursed bore; for I want to be + done with it from this moment. Can't you arrange it so that two or + three or more sheets may be sent at once, on stated days, and so my + journeys to the village be fewer? + + "That review which you sent me is a remarkable production. There is + praise enough to satisfy a greedier author than myself. I set it + aside, as not being able to estimate how far it is deserved. I can + better judge of the censure, much of which is undoubtedly just; and + I shall profit by it if I can. But, after all, there would be no + great use in attempting it. There are weeds enough in my mind, to be + sure, and I might pluck them up by the handful; but in so doing I + should root up the few flowers along with them. It is also to be + considered, that what one man calls weeds another classifies among + the choicest flowers in the garden. But this reviewer is certainly + a man of sense, and sometimes tickles me under the fifth rib. I beg + you to observe, however, that I do not acknowledge his justice in + cutting and slashing among the characters of the two books at the + rate he does; sparing nobody, I think, except Pearl and Phoebe. Yet + I think he is right as to my tendency as respects individual + character. + + "I am going to begin to enjoy the summer now, and to read foolish + novels, if I can get any, and smoke cigars, and think of nothing at + all; which is equivalent to thinking of all manner of things." + +The composition of the "Tanglewood Tales" gave him pleasant employment, +and all his letters, during the period he was writing them, overflow +with evidences of his felicitous mood. He requests that Billings should +pay especial attention to the drawings, and is anxious that the porch of +Tanglewood should be "well supplied with shrubbery." He seemed greatly +pleased that Mary Russell Mitford had fallen in with his books and had +written to me about them. "Her sketches," he said, "long ago as I read +them, are as sweet in my memory as the scent of new hay." On the 18th of +August he writes:-- + + "You are going to publish another thousand of the Seven Gables. I + promised those Pyncheons a preface. What if you insert the + following? + + "(The author is pained to learn that, in selecting a name for the + fictitious inhabitants of a castle in the air, he has wounded the + feelings of more than one respectable descendant of an old Pyncheon + family. He begs leave to say that he intended no reference to any + individual of the name, now or heretofore extant; and further, that, + at the time of writing his book, he was wholly unaware of the + existence of such a family in New England for two hundred years + back, and that whatever he may have since learned of them is + altogether to their credit.) + + "Insert it or not, as you like. I have done with the matter." + +I advised him to let the Pyncheons rest as they were, and omit any +addition, either as note or preface, to the romance. + +Near the close of 1851 his health seemed unsettled, and he asked me to +look over certain proofs "carefully," for he did not feel well enough +to manage them himself. In one of his notes, written from Lenox at that +time, he says:-- + + "Please God, I mean to look you in the face towards the end of next + week; at all events, within ten days. I have stayed here too long + and too constantly. To tell you a secret, I am sick to death of + Berkshire, and hate to think of spending another winter here. But I + must. The air and climate do not agree with my health at all; and, + for the first time since I was a boy, I have felt languid and + dispirited during almost my whole residence here. O that Providence + would build me the merest little shanty, and mark me out a rood or + two of garden-ground, near the sea-coast. I thank you for the two + volumes of De Quincey. If it were not for your kindness in supplying + me with books now and then, I should quite forget how to read." + +Hawthorne was a hearty devourer of books, and in certain moods of mind +it made very little difference what the volume before him happened to +be. An old play or an old newspaper sometimes gave him wondrous great +content, and he would ponder the sleepy, uninteresting sentences as if +they contained immortal mental aliment. He once told me he found such +delight in old advertisements in the newspapers at the Boston Athenaeum, +that he had passed delicious hours among them. At other times he was +very fastidious, and threw aside book after book until he found the +right one. De Quincey was a special favorite with him, and the Sermons +of Laurence Sterne he once commended to me as the best sermons ever +written. In his library was an early copy of Sir Philip Sidney's +"Arcadia," which had floated down to him from a remote ancestry, and +which he had read so industriously for forty years that it was nearly +worn out of its thick leathern cover. Hearing him say once that the old +English State Trials were enchanting reading, and knowing that he did +not possess a copy of those heavy folios, I picked up a set one day in a +bookshop and sent them to him. He often told me that he spent more +hours over them and got more delectation out of them than tongue could +tell, and he said, if five lives were vouchsafed to him, he could employ +them all in writing stories out of those books. He had sketched, in his +mind, several romances founded on the remarkable trials reported in the +ancient volumes; and one day, I remember, he made my blood tingle by +relating some of the situations he intended, if his life was spared, to +weave into future romances. Sir Walter Scott's novels he continued +almost to worship, and was accustomed to read them aloud in his family. +The novels of G.P.R. James, both the early and the later ones, he +insisted were admirable stories, admirably told, and he had high praise +to bestow on the works of Anthony Trollope. "Have you ever read these +novels?" he wrote to me in a letter from England, some time before +Trollope began to be much known in America. "They precisely suit my +taste; solid and substantial, written on the strength of beef and +through the inspiration of ale, and just as real as if some giant had +hewn a great lump out of the earth and put it under a glass case, with +all its inhabitants going about their daily business and not suspecting +that they were made a show of. And these books are as English as a +beefsteak. Have they ever been tried in America? It needs an English +residence to make them thoroughly comprehensible; but still I should +think that the human nature in them would give them success anywhere." + +I have often been asked if all his moods were sombre, and if he was +never jolly sometimes like other people. Indeed he was; and although the +humorous side of Hawthorne was not easily or often discoverable, yet +have I seen him marvellously moved to fun, and no man laughed more +heartily in his way over a good story. Wise and witty H----, in whom +wisdom and wit are so ingrained that age only increases his subtile +spirit, and greatly enhances the power of his cheerful temperament, +always had the talismanic faculty of breaking up that thoughtfully sad +face into mirthful waves; and I remember how Hawthorne writhed with +hilarious delight over Professor L----'s account of a butcher who +remarked that "Idees had got afloat in the public mind with respect to +sassingers." I once told him of a young woman who brought in a +manuscript, and said, as she placed it in my hands, "I don't know what +to do with myself sometimes, I'm so filled with _mammoth thoughts_." A +series of convulsive efforts to suppress explosive laughter followed, +which I remember to this day. + +He had an inexhaustible store of amusing anecdotes to relate of people +and things he had observed on the road. One day he described to me, in +his inimitable and quietly ludicrous manner, being _watched_, while on a +visit to a distant city, by a friend who called, and thought he needed a +protector, his health being at that time not so good as usual. "He stuck +by me," said Hawthorne, "as if he were afraid to leave me alone; he +stayed past the dinner hour, and when I began to wonder if he never took +meals himself, he departed and set another man to _watch_ me till he +should return. That man _watched_ me so, in his unwearying kindness, +that when I left the house I forgot half my luggage, and left behind, +among other things, a beautiful pair of slippers. They _watched_ me so, +among them, I swear to you I forgot nearly everything I owned." + + * * * * * + +Hawthorne is still looking at me in his far-seeing way, as if he were +pondering what was next to be said about him. It would not displease +him, I know, if I were to begin my discursive talk to-day by telling a +little incident connected with a famous American poem. + +Hawthorne dined one day with Longfellow, and brought with him a friend +from Salem. After dinner the friend said: "I have been trying to +persuade Hawthorne to write a story, based upon a legend of Acadie, and +still current there; a legend of a girl who, in the dispersion of the +Acadians, was separated from her lover, and passed her life in waiting +and seeking for him, and only found him dying in a hospital, when both +were old." Longfellow wondered that this legend did not strike the fancy +of Hawthorne, and said to him: "If you have really made up your mind not +to use it for a story, will you give it to me for a poem?" To this +Hawthorne assented, and moreover promised not to treat the subject in +prose till Longfellow had seen what he could do with it in verse. And so +we have "Evangeline" in beautiful hexameters, --a poem that will hold +its place in literature while true affection lasts. Hawthorne rejoiced +in this great success of Longfellow, and loved to count up the editions, +both foreign and American, of this now world-renowned poem. + +I have lately met an early friend of Hawthorne's, older than himself, +who knew him intimately all his life long, and I have learned some +additional facts about his youthful days. Soon after he left college he +wrote some stories which he called "Seven Tales of my Native Land." The +motto which he chose for the title-page was "We are Seven," from +Wordsworth. My informant read the tales in manuscript, and says some of +them were very striking, particularly one or two Witch Stories. As soon +as the little book was well prepared for the press he deliberately threw +it into the fire, and sat by to see its destruction. + +When about fourteen he wrote out for a member of his family a list of +the books he had at that time been reading. The catalogue was a long +one, but my informant remembers that The Waverley Novels, Rousseau's +Works, and The Newgate Calender were among them. Serious remonstrances +were made by the family touching the perusal of this last work, but he +persisted in going through it to the end. He had an objection in his +boyhood to reading much that was called "true and useful." Of history in +general he was not very fond, but he read Froissart with interest, and +Clarendon's History of the Rebellion. He is remembered to have said at +that time "he cared very little for the history of the world before the +fourteenth century." After he left college he read a great deal of +French literature, especially the works of Voltaire and his +contemporaries. He rarely went into the streets during the daytime, +unless there was to be a gathering of the people for some public +purpose, such as a political meeting, a military muster, or a fire. A +great conflagration attracted him in a peculiar manner, and he is +remembered, while a young man in Salem, to have been often seen looking +on, from some dark corner, while the fire was raging. When General +Jackson, of whom he professed himself a partisan, visited Salem in 1833, +he walked out to the boundary of the town to meet him,--not to speak to +him, but only to look at him. When he came home at night he said he +found only a few men and boys collected, not enough people, without the +assistance he rendered, to welcome the General with a good cheer. It is +said that Susan, in the "Village Uncle," one of the "Twice-Told Tales," +is not altogether a creation of his fancy. Her father was a fisherman +living in Salem, and Hawthorne was constantly telling the members of his +family how charming she was, and he always spoke of her as his +"mermaid." He said she had a great deal of what the French call +_espièglerie_. There was another young beauty, living at that time in +his native town, quite captivating to him, though in a different style +from the mermaid. But if his head and heart were turned in his youth by +these two nymphs in his native town, there was soon a transfer of his +affections to quite another direction. His new passion was a much more +permanent one, for now there dawned upon him so perfect a creature that +he fell in love irrevocably; all his thoughts and all his delights +centred in her, who suddenly became indeed the mistress of his soul. She +filled the measure of his being, and became a part and parcel of his +life. Who was this mysterious young person that had crossed his +boyhood's path and made him hers forever? Whose daughter was she that +could thus enthrall the ardent young man in Salem, who knew as yet so +little of the world and its sirens? She is described by one who met her +long before Hawthorne made her acquaintance as "the prettiest low-born +lass that ever ran on the greensward," and she must have been a radiant +child of beauty, indeed, that girl! She danced like a fairy, she sang +exquisitely, so that every one who knew her seemed amazed at her perfect +way of doing everything she attempted. Who was it that thus summoned all +this witchery, making such a tumult in young Hawthorne's bosom? She was +"daughter to Leontes and Hermione," king and queen of Sicilia, and her +name was Perdita! It was Shakespeare who introduced Hawthorne to his +first real love, and the lover never forgot his mistress. He was +constant ever, and worshipped her through life. Beauty always captivated +him. Where there was beauty he fancied other good gifts must naturally +be in possession. During his childhood homeliness was always repulsive +to him. When a little boy he is remembered to have said to a woman who +wished to be kind to him, "Take her away! She is ugly and fat, and has a +loud voice." + +When quite a young man he applied for a situation under Commodore Wilkes +on the Exploring Expedition, but did not succeed in obtaining an +appointment. He thought this a great misfortune, as he was fond of +travel, and he promised to do all sorts of wonderful things, should he +be allowed to join the voyagers. + +One very odd but characteristic notion of his, when a youth, was, that +he should like a competent income which should neither increase nor +diminish, for then, he said, it would not engross too much of his +attention. Surrey's little poem, "The Means to obtain a Happy Life," +expressed exactly what his idea of happiness was when a lad. When a +school-boy he wrote verses for the newspapers, but he ignored their +existence in after years with a smile of droll disgust. One of his +quatrains lives in the memory of a friend, who repeated it to me +recently:-- + + + "The ocean hath its silent caves, + Deep, quiet, and alone; + Above them there are troubled waves, + Beneath them there are none." + + +When the Atlantic Cable was first laid, somebody, not knowing the author +of the lines, quoted them to Hawthorne as applicable to the calmness +said to exist in the depths of the ocean. He listened to the verse, and +then laughingly observed, "I know something of the deep sea myself." + +In 1836 he went to Boston, I am told, to edit the "American Magazine of +Useful Knowledge," for which he was to be paid a salary of six hundred +dollars a year. The proprietors soon became insolvent, so that he +received nothing, but he kept on just the same as if he had been paid +regularly. The plan of the work proposed by the publishers of the +magazine admitted no fiction into its pages. The magazine was printed on +coarse paper and was illustrated by engravings painful to look at. There +were no contributors except the editor, and he wrote the whole of every +number. Short biographical sketches of eminent men and historical +narratives filled up its pages. I have examined the columns of this +deceased magazine, and read Hawthorne's narrative of Mrs. Dustan's +captivity. Mrs. Dustan was carried off by the Indians from Haverhill, +and Hawthorne does not much commiserate the hardships she endured, but +reserves his sympathy for her husband, who was _not_ carried into +captivity, and suffered nothing from the Indians, but who, he says, was +a tenderhearted man, and took care of the children during Mrs. D.'s +absence from home, and probably knew that his wife would be more than a +match for a whole tribe of savages. + +When the Rev. Mr. Cheever was knocked down and flogged in the streets of +Salem and then imprisoned, Hawthorne came out of his retreat and visited +him regularly in jail, showing strong sympathy for the man and great +indignation for those who had maltreated him. + +Those early days in Salem,--how interesting the memory of them must be +to the friends who knew and followed the gentle dreamer in his budding +career! When the whisper first came to the timid boy, in that "dismal +chamber in Union Street," that he too possessed the soul of an artist, +there were not many about him to share the divine rapture that must have +filled his proud young heart. Outside of his own little family circle, +doubting and desponding eyes looked upon him, and many a stupid head +wagged in derision as he passed by. But there was always waiting for him +a sweet and honest welcome by the pleasant hearth where his mother and +sisters sat and listened to the beautiful creations of his fresh and +glowing fancy. We can imagine the happy group gathered around the +evening lamp! "Well, my son," says the fond mother, looking up from her +knitting-work, "what have you got for us to-night? It is some time since +you read us a story, and your sisters are as impatient as I am to have a +new one." And then we can hear, or think we hear, the young man begin in +a low and modest tone the story of "Edward Fane's Rosebud," or "The +Seven Vagabonds," or perchance (O tearful, happy evening!) that tender +idyl of "The Gentle Boy!" What a privilege to hear for the first time a +"Twice-Told Tale," before it was even _once_ told to the public! And I +know with what rapture the delighted little audience must have hailed +the advent of every fresh indication that genius, so seldom a visitant +at any fireside, had come down so noiselessly to bless their quiet +hearthstone in the sombre old town. In striking contrast to Hawthorne's +audience nightly convened to listen while he read his charming tales and +essays, I think of poor Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, facing those +hard-eyed critics at the house of Madame Neckar, when as a young man and +entirely unknown he essayed to read his then unpublished story of "Paul +and Virginia." The story was simple and the voice of the poor and +nameless reader trembled. Everybody was unsympathetic and gaped, and at +the end of a quarter of an hour Monsieur de Buffon, who always had a +loud way with him, cried out to Madame Neckar's servant, "Let the horses +be put to my carriage!" + +Hawthorne seems never to have known that raw period in authorship which +is common to most growing writers, when the style is "overlanguaged," +and when it plunges wildly through the "sandy deserts of rhetoric," or +struggles as if it were having a personal difficulty with Ignorance and +his brother Platitude. It was capitally said of Chateaubriand that "he +lived on the summits of syllables," and of another young author that "he +was so dully good, that he made even virtue disreputable." Hawthorne had +no such literary vices to contend with. His looks seemed from the start +to be + + + "Commercing with the skies," + + +and he marching upward to the goal without impediment. I was struck a +few days ago with the untruth, so far as Hawthorne is concerned, of a +passage in the Preface to Endymion. Keats says: "The imagination of a +boy is healthy, and the mature imagination of a man is healthy; but +there is a space of life between, in which the soul is in a ferment, the +character undecided, the way of life uncertain, the ambition +thick-sighted." Hawthorne's imagination had no middle period of +decadence or doubt, but continued, as it began, in full vigor to the +end. + + * * * * * + +In 1852 I went to Europe, and while absent had frequent most welcome +letters from the delightful dreamer. He had finished the "Blithedale +Romance" during my wanderings, and I was fortunate enough to arrange for +its publication in London simultaneously with its appearance in Boston. +One of his letters (dated from his new residence in Concord, June 17, +1852) runs thus:-- + + "You have succeeded admirably in regard to the 'Blithedale Romance,' + and have got £150 more than I expected to receive. It will come in + good time, too; for my drafts have been pretty heavy of late, in + consequence of buying an estate!!! and fitting up my house. What a + truant you are from the Corner! I wish, before leaving London, you + would obtain for me copies of any English editions of my writings + not already in my possession. I have Routledge's edition of 'The + Scarlet Letter,' the 'Mosses,' and 'Twice-Told Tales'; Bohn's + editions of 'The House of the Seven Gables,' the 'Snow-Image' and + the 'Wonder-Book,' and Bogue's edition of 'The Scarlet + Letter';--these are all, and I should be glad of the rest. I meant + to have written another 'Wonder-Book' this summer, but another task + has unexpectedly intervened. General Pierce of New Hampshire, the + Democratic nominee for the Presidency, was a college friend of mine, + as you know, and we have been intimate through life. He wishes me to + write his biography, and I have consented to do so; somewhat + reluctantly, however, for Pierce has now reached that altitude when + a man, careful of his personal dignity, will begin to think of + cutting his acquaintance. But I seek nothing from him, and therefore + need not be ashamed to tell the truth of an old friend.... I have + written to Barry Cornwall, and shall probably enclose the letter + along with this. I don't more than half believe what you tell me of + my reputation in England, and am only so far credulous on the + strength of the £200, and shall have a somewhat stronger sense of + this latter reality when I finger the cash. Do come home in season + to preside over the publication of the Romance." + +He had christened his estate The Wayside, and in a postscript to the +above letter he begs me to consider the name and tell him how I like it. + +Another letter, evidently foreshadowing a foreign appointment from the +newly elected President, contains this passage:-- + + "Do make some inquiries about Portugal; as, for instance, in what + part of the world it lies, and whether it is an empire, a kingdom, + or a republic. Also, and more particularly, the expenses of living + there, and whether the Minister would be likely to be much pestered + with his own countrymen. Also, any other information about foreign + countries would be acceptable to an inquiring mind." + +When I returned from abroad I found him getting matters in readiness to +leave the country for a consulship in Liverpool. He seemed happy at the +thought of flitting, but I wondered if he could possibly be as contented +across the water as he was in Concord. I remember walking with him to +the Old Manse, a mile or so distant from The Wayside, his new residence, +and talking over England and his proposed absence of several years. We +strolled round the house, where he spent the first years of his married +life, and he pointed from the outside to the windows, out of which he +had looked and seen supernatural and other visions. We walked up and +down the avenue, the memory of which he has embalmed in the "Mosses," +and he discoursed most pleasantly of all that had befallen him since he +led a lonely, secluded life in Salem. It was a sleepy, warm afternoon, +and he proposed that we should wander up the banks of the river and lie +down and watch the clouds float above and in the quiet stream. I recall +his lounging, easy air as he tolled me along until we came to a spot +secluded, and ofttimes sacred to his wayward thoughts. He bade me lie +down on the grass and hear the birds sing. As we steeped ourselves in +the delicious idleness, he began to murmur some half-forgotten lines +from Thomson's "Seasons," which he said had been favorites of his from +boyhood. While we lay there, hidden in the grass, we heard approaching +footsteps, and Hawthorne hurriedly whispered, "Duck! or we shall be +interrupted by somebody." The solemnity of his manner, and the thought +of the down-flat position in which we had both placed ourselves to avoid +being seen, threw me into a foolish, semi-hysterical fit of laughter, +and when he nudged me, and again whispered more lugubriously than ever, +"Heaven help me, Mr. ---- is close upon us!" I felt convinced that if +the thing went further, suffocation, in my case at least, must ensue. + +He kept me constantly informed, after he went to Liverpool, of how he +was passing his time; and his charming "English Note-Books" reveal the +fact that he was never idle. There were touches, however, in his private +letters which escaped daily record in his journal, and I remember how +delightful it was, after he landed in Europe, to get his frequent +missives. In one of the first he gives me an account of a dinner where +he was obliged to make a speech. He says:-- + + "I tickled up John Bull's self-conceit (which is very easily done) + with a few sentences of most outrageous flattery, and sat down in a + general puddle of good feeling." In another he says: "I have taken a + house in Rock Park, on the Cheshire side of the Mersey, and am as + snug as a bug in a rug. Next year you must come and see how I live. + Give my regards to everybody, and my love to half a dozen.... I wish + you would call on Mr. Savage, the antiquarian, if you know him, and + ask whether he can inform me what part of England the original + William Hawthorne came from. He came over, I think in 1634.... It + would really be a great obligation if he could answer the above + query. Or, if the fact is not within his own knowledge, he might + perhaps indicate some place where such information might be obtained + here in England. I presume there are records still extant somewhere + of all the passengers by those early ships, with their English + localities annexed to their names. Of all things, I should like to + find a gravestone in one of these old churchyards with my own name + upon it, although, for myself, I should wish to be buried in + America. The graves are too horribly damp here." + +The hedgerows of England, the grassy meadows, and the picturesque old +cottages delighted him, and he was never tired of writing to me about +them. While wandering over the country, he was often deeply touched by +meeting among the wild-flowers many of his old New England +favorites,--bluebells, crocuses, primroses, foxglove, and other flowers +which are cultivated in out gardens, and which had long been familiar to +him in America. + +I can imagine him, in his quiet, musing way, strolling through the +daisied fields on a Sunday morning and hearing the distant church-bells +chiming to service. His religion was deep and broad, but it was irksome +for him to be fastened in by a pew-door, and I doubt if he often heard +an English sermon. He very rarely described himself as _inside_ a +church, but he liked to wander among the graves in the churchyards and +read the epitaphs on the moss-grown slabs. He liked better to meet and +have a talk with the _sexton_ than with the _rector_. + +He was constantly demanding longer letters from home; and nothing gave +him more pleasure than, monthly news from "The Saturday Club," and +detailed accounts of what was going forward in literature. One of his +letters dated in January, 1854, starts off thus:-- + + "I wish your epistolary propensities were stronger than they are. + All your letters to me since I left America might be squeezed into + one.... I send Ticknor a big cheese, which I long ago promised him, + and my advice is, that he keep it in the shop, and daily, between + eleven and one o'clock, distribute slices of it to your half-starved + authors, together with crackers and something to drink.... I thank + you for the books you send me, and more especially for Mrs. Mowatt's + Autobiography, which seems to me an admirable book. Of all things I + delight in autobiographies; and I hardly ever read one that + interested me so much. She must be a remarkable woman, and I cannot + but lament my ill fortune in never having seen her on the stage or + elsewhere.... I count strongly upon your promise to be with us in + May. Can't you bring Whipple with you?" + +One of his favorite resorts in Liverpool was the boarding-house of good +Mrs. Blodgett, in Duke Street, a house where many Americans have found +delectable quarters, after being tossed on the stormy Atlantic. "I have +never known a better woman," Hawthorne used to say, "and her motherly +kindness to me and mine I can never forget." Hundreds of American +travellers will bear witness to the excellence of that beautiful old +lady, who presided with such dignity and sweetness over her hospitable +mansion. + +On the 13th of April, 1854, Hawthorne wrote to me this characteristic +letter from the consular office in Liverpool:-- + + "I am very glad that the 'Mosses' have come into the hands of our + firm; and I return the copy sent me, after a careful revision. When + I wrote those dreamy sketches, I little thought that I should ever + preface an edition for the press amidst the bustling life of a + Liverpool consulate. Upon my honor, I am not quite sure that I + entirely comprehend my own meaning, in some of these blasted + allegories; but I remember that I always had a meaning, or at least + thought I had. I am a good deal changed since those times; and, to + tell you the truth, my past self is not very much to my taste, as I + see myself in this book. Yet certainly there is more in it than the + public generally gave me credit for at the time it was written. + + "But I don't think myself worthy of very much more credit than I + got. It has been a very disagreeable task to read the book. The + story of 'Rappacini's Daughter' was published in the Democratic + Review, about the year 1844; and it was prefaced by some remarks on + the celebrated French author (a certain M. de l'Aubépine), from + whose works it was translated. I left out this preface when the + story was republished; but I wish you would turn to it in the + Democratic, and see whether it is worth while to insert it in the + new edition. I leave it altogether to your judgment. + + "A young poet named ---- has called on me, and has sent me some + copies of his works to be transmitted to America. It seems to me + there is good in him; and he is recognized by Tennyson, by Carlyle, + by Kingsley, and others of the best people here. He writes me that + this edition of his poems is nearly exhausted, and that Routledge is + going to publish another enlarged and in better style. + + "Perhaps it might be well for you to take him up in America. At all + events, try to bring him into notice; and some day or other you may + be glad to have helped a famous poet in his obscurity. The poor + fellow has left a good post in the customs to cultivate literature + in London! + + "We shall begin to look for you now by every steamer from Boston. + You must make up your mind to spend a good while with us before + going to see your London friends. + + "Did you read the article on your friend De Quincey in the last + Westminster? It was written by Mr. ---- of this city, who was in + America a year or two ago. The article is pretty well, but does + nothing like adequate justice to De Quincey; and in fact no + Englishman cares a pin for him. We are ten times as good readers and + critics as they. + + "Is not Whipple coming here soon?" + +Hawthorne's first visit to London afforded him great pleasure, but he +kept out of the way of literary people as much as possible. He +introduced himself to nobody, except Mr. ----, whose assistance he +needed, in order to be identified at the bank. He wrote to me from 24 +George Street, Hanover Square, and told me he delighted in London, and +wished he could spend a year there. He enjoyed floating about, in a sort +of unknown way, among the rotund and rubicund figures made jolly with +ale and port-wine. He was greatly amused at being told (his informants +meaning to be complimentary) "that he would never be taken for anything +but an Englishman." He called Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade," +just printed at that time, "a broken-kneed gallop of a poem." He +writes:-- + + "John Bull is in high spirits just now at the taking of Sebastopol. + What an absurd personage John is! I find that my liking for him + grows stronger the more I see of him, but that my admiration and + respect have constantly decreased." + +One of his most intimate friends (a man unlike that individual of whom +it was said that he was the friend of everybody that did not need a +friend) was Francis Bennoch, a merchant of Wood Street, Cheapside, +London, the gentleman to whom Mrs. Hawthorne dedicated the English +Note-Books. Hawthorne's letters abounded in warm expressions of +affection for the man whose noble hospitality and deep interest made his +residence in England full of happiness. Bennoch was indeed like a +brother to him, sympathizing warmly in all his literary projects, and +giving him the benefit of his excellent judgment while he was sojourning +among strangers. Bennoch's record may be found in Tom Taylor's admirable +life of poor Haydon, the artist. All literary and artistic people who +have had the good fortune to enjoy his friendship have loved him. I +happen to know of his bountiful kindness to Miss Mitford and Hawthorne +and poor old Jerdan, for these hospitalities happened in my time; but he +began to befriend all who needed friendship long before I knew him. His +name ought never to be omitted from the literary annals of England; nor +that of his wife either, for she has always made her delightful fireside +warm and comforting to her husband's friends. + +Many and many a happy time Bennoch, Hawthorne, and myself have had +together on British soil. I remember we went once to dine at a great +house in the country, years ago, where it was understood there would be +no dinner speeches. The banquet was in honor of some society,--I have +quite forgotten what,--but it was a jocose and not a serious club. The +gentleman who gave it, Sir ----, was a most kind and genial person, and +gathered about him on this occasion some of the brightest and best from +London. All the way down in the train Hawthorne was rejoicing that this +was to be a dinner without speech-making; "for," said he, "nothing would +tempt me to go if toasts and such confounded deviltry were to be the +order of the day." So we rattled along, without a fear of any impending +cloud of oratory. The entertainment was a most exquisite one, about +twenty gentlemen sitting down at the beautifully ornamented table. +Hawthorne was in uncommonly good spirits, and, having the seat of honor +at the right of his host, was pretty keenly scrutinized by his British +brethren of the quill. He had, of course, banished all thought of +speech-making, and his knees never smote together once, as he told me +afterwards. But it became evident to my mind that Hawthorne's health was +to be proposed with all the honors. I glanced at him across the table, +and saw that he was unsuspicious of any movement against his quiet +serenity. Suddenly and without warning our host rapped the mahogany, and +began a set speech of welcome to the "distinguished American romancer." +It was a very honest and a very hearty speech, but I dared not look at +Hawthorne. I expected every moment to see him glide out of the room, or +sink down out of sight from his chair. The tortures I suffered on +Hawthorne's account, on that occasion, I will not attempt to describe +now. I knew nothing would have induced the shy man of letters to go down +to Brighton, if he had known he was to be spoken at in that manner. I +imagined his face a deep crimson, and his hands trembling with nervous +horror; but judge of my surprise, when he rose to reply with so calm a +voice and so composed a manner, that, in all my experience of +dinner-speaking, I never witnessed such a case of apparent ease. +(Easy-Chair C ---- himself, one of the best makers of after-dinner or +any other speeches of our day, according to Charles Dickens,--no +inadequate judge, all will allow,--never surpassed in eloquent effect +this speech by Hawthorne.) There was no hesitation, no sign of lack of +preparation, but he went on for about ten minutes in such a masterly +manner, that I declare it was one of the most successful efforts of the +kind ever made. Everybody was delighted, and, when he sat down, a wild +and unanimous shout of applause rattled the glasses on the table. The +meaning of his singular composure on that occasion I could never get him +satisfactorily to explain, and the only remark I ever heard him make, in +any way connected with this marvellous exhibition of coolness, was +simply, "What a confounded fool I was to go down to that speech-making +dinner!" + +During all those long years, while Hawthorne was absent in Europe, he +was anything but an idle man. On the contrary, he was an eminently busy +one, in the best sense of that term; and if his life had been prolonged, +the public would have been a rich gainer for his residence abroad. His +brain teemed with romances, and once I remember he told me he had no +less than five stories, well thought out, any one of which he could +finish and publish whenever he chose to. There was one subject for a +work of imagination that seems to have haunted him for years, and he has +mentioned it twice in his journal. This was the subsequent life of the +young man whom Jesus, looking on, "loved," and whom he bade to sell all +that he had and give to the poor, and take up his cross and follow him. +"Something very deep and beautiful might be made out of this," Hawthorne +said, "for the young man went away sorrowful, and is not recorded to +have done what he was bidden to do." + +One of the most difficult matters he had to manage while in England was +the publication of Miss Bacon's singular book on Shakespeare. The poor +lady, after he had agreed to see the work through the press, broke off +all correspondence with him in a storm of wrath, accusing him of +pusillanimity in not avowing full faith in her theory; so that, as he +told me, so far as her good-will was concerned, he had not gained much +by taking the responsibility of her book upon his shoulders. It was a +heavy weight for him to bear in more senses than one, for he paid out of +his own pocket the expenses of publication. + +I find in his letters constant references to the kindness with which he +was treated in London. He spoke of Mrs. S.C. Hall as "one of the best +and warmest-hearted women in the world." Leigh Hunt, in his way, pleased +and satisfied him more than almost any man he had seen in England. "As +for other literary men," he says in one of his letters, "I doubt whether +London can muster so good a dinner-party as that which assembles every +month at the marble palace in School Street." + +All sorts of adventures befell him during his stay in Europe, even to +that of having his house robbed, and his causing the thieves to be tried +and sentenced to transportation. In the summer-time he travelled about +the country in England and pitched his tent wherever fancy prompted. One +autumn afternoon in September he writes to me from Leamington:-- + + "I received your letter only this morning, at this cleanest and + prettiest of English towns, where we are going to spend a week or + two before taking our departure for Paris. We are acquainted with + Leamington already, having resided here two summers ago; and the + country round about is unadulterated England, rich in old castles, + manor-houses, churches, and thatched cottages, and as green as + Paradise itself. I only wish I had a house here, and that you could + come and be my guest in it; but I am a poor wayside vagabond, and + only find shelter for a night or so, and then trudge onward again. + My wife and children and myself are familiar with all kinds of + lodgement and modes of living, but we have forgotten what home + is,--at least the children have, poor things! I doubt whether they + will ever feel inclined to live long in one place. The worst of it + is, I have outgrown my house in Concord, and feel no inclination to + return to it. + + "We spent seven weeks in Manchester, and went most diligently to the + Art Exhibition; and I really begin to be sensible of the rudiments + of a taste in pictures." + +It was during one of his rambles with Alexander Ireland through the +Manchester Exhibition rooms that Hawthorne saw Tennyson wandering about. +I have always thought it unfortunate that these two men of genius could +not have been introduced on that occasion. Hawthorne was too shy to seek +an introduction, and Tennyson was not aware that the American author was +present. Hawthorne records in his journal that he gazed at Tennyson with +all his eyes, "and rejoiced more in him than in all the other wonders of +the Exhibition." When I afterwards told Tennyson that the author whose +"Twice-Told Tales" he happened to be then reading at Farringford had met +him at Manchester, but did not make himself known, the Laureate said in +his frank and hearty manner: "Why didn't he come up and let me shake +hands with him? I am sure I should have been glad to meet a man like +Hawthorne anywhere." + +At the close of 1857 Hawthorne writes to me that he hears nothing of the +appointment of his successor in the consulate, since he had sent in his +resignation. "Somebody may turn up any day," he says, "with a new +commission in his pocket." He was meanwhile getting ready for Italy, and +he writes, "I expect shortly to be released from durance." + +In his last letter before leaving England for the Continent he says:-- + + "I made up a huge package the other day, consisting of seven closely + written volumes of journal, kept by me since my arrival in England, + and filled with sketches of places and men and manners, many of + which would doubtless be very delightful to the public. I think I + shall seal them up, with directions in my will to have them opened + and published a century hence; and your firm shall have the refusal + of them then. + + "Remember me to everybody, for I love all my friends at least as + well as ever." + +Released from the cares of office, and having nothing to distract his +attention, his life on the Continent opened full of delightful +excitement. His pecuniary situation was such as to enable him to live +very comfortably in a country where, at that time, prices were moderate. + +In a letter dated from a villa near Florence on the 3d of September, +1858, he thus describes in a charming manner his way of life in Italy:-- + + "I am afraid I have stayed away too long, and am forgotten by + everybody. You have piled up the dusty remnants of my editions, I + suppose, in that chamber over the shop, where you once took me to + smoke a cigar, and have crossed my name out of your list of authors, + without so much as asking whether I am dead or alive. But I like it + well enough, nevertheless. It is pleasant to feel at last that I am + really away from America,--a satisfaction that I never enjoyed as + long as I stayed in Liverpool, where it seemed to me that the + quintessence of nasal and hand-shaking Yankeedom was continually + filtered and sublimated through my consulate, on the way outward and + homeward. I first got acquainted with my own countrymen there. At + Rome, too, it was not much better. But here in Florence, and in the + summer-time, and in this secluded villa, I have escaped out of all + my old tracks, and am really remote. + + "I like my present residence immensely. The house stands on a hill, + overlooking Florence, and is big enough to quarter a regiment; + insomuch that each member of the family, including servants, has a + separate suite of apartments, and there are vast wildernesses of + upper rooms into which we have never yet sent exploring expeditions. + + "At one end of the house there is a moss-grown tower, haunted by + owls and by the ghost of a monk, who was confined there in the + thirteenth century, previous to being burned at the stake in the + principal square of Florence. I hire this villa, tower and all, at + twenty-eight dollars a month; but I mean to take it away bodily and + clap it into a romance, which I have in my head ready to be written + out. + + "Speaking of romances, I have planned two, one or both of which I + could have ready for the press in a few months if I were either in + England or America. But I find this Italian atmosphere not favorable + to the close toil of composition, although it is a very good air to + dream in. I must breathe the fogs of old England or the east-winds + of Massachusetts, in order to put me into working trim. + Nevertheless, I shall endeavor to be busy during the coming winter + at Rome, but there will be so much to distract my thoughts that I + have little hope of seriously accomplishing anything. It is a pity; + for I have really a plethora of ideas, and should feel relieved by + discharging some of them upon the public. + + "We shall continue here till the end of this month, and shall then + return to Rome, where I have already taken a house for six months. + In the middle of April we intend to start for home by the way of + Geneva and Paris; and, after spending a few weeks in England, shall + embark for Boston in July or the beginning of August. After so long + an absence (more than five years already, which will be six before + you see me at the old Corner), it is not altogether delightful to + think of returning. Everybody will be changed, and I myself, no + doubt, as much as anybody. Ticknor and you, I suppose, were both + upset in the late religious earthquake, and when I inquire for you + the clerks will direct me to the 'Business Men's Conference.' It + won't do. I shall be forced to come back again and take refuge in a + London lodging. London is like the grave in one respect,--any man + can make himself at home there; and whenever a man finds himself + homeless elsewhere, he had better either die or go to London. + + "Speaking of the grave reminds me of old age and other disagreeable + matters; and I would remark that one grows old in Italy twice or + three times as fast as in other countries. I have three gray hairs + now for one that I brought from England, and I shall look venerable + indeed by next summer, when I return. + + "Remember me affectionately to all my friends. Whoever has a + kindness for me may be assured that I have twice as much for him." + +Hawthorne's second visit to Rome, in the winter of 1859, was not a +fortunate one. His own health was excellent during his sojourn there, +but several members of his family fell ill, and he became very nervous +and longed to get away. In one of his letters he says:-- + + "I bitterly detest Rome, and shall rejoice to bid it farewell + forever; and I fully acquiesce in all the mischief and ruin that has + happened to it, from Nero's conflagration downward. In fact, I wish + the very site had been obliterated before I ever saw it." + +He found solace, however, during the series of domestic troubles +(continued illness in his family) that befell, in writing memoranda for +"The Marble Faun." He thus announces to me the beginning of the new +romance:-- + + "I take some credit to myself for having sternly shut myself up for + an hour or two almost every day, and come to close grips with a + romance which I have been trying to tear out of my mind. As for my + success, I can't say much; indeed, I don't know what to say at all. + I only know that I have produced what seems to be a larger amount of + scribble than either of my former romances, and that portions of it + interested me a good deal while I was writing them; but I have had + so many interruptions, from things to see and things to suffer, that + the story has developed itself in a very imperfect way, and will + have to be revised hereafter. I could finish it for the press in the + time that I am to remain here (till the 15th of April), but my brain + is tired of it just now; and, besides, there are many objects that I + shall regret not seeing hereafter, though I care very little about + seeing them now; so I shall throw aside the romance, and take it up + again next August at The Wayside." + +He decided to be back in England early in the summer, and to sail for +home in July. He writes to me from Rome:-- + + "I shall go home, I fear, with a heavy heart, not expecting to be + very well contented there.... If I were but a hundred times richer + than I am, how very comfortable I could be! I consider it a great + piece of good fortune that I have had experience of the discomforts + and miseries of Italy, and did not go directly home from England. + Anything will seem like Paradise after a Roman winter. + + "If I had but a house fit to live in, I should be greatly more + reconciled to coming home; but I am really at a loss to imagine how + we are to squeeze ourselves into that little old cottage of mine. We + had outgrown it before we came away, and most of us are twice as big + now as we were then. + + "I have an attachment to the place, and should be sorry to give it + up; but I shall half ruin myself if I try to enlarge the house, and + quite if I build another. So what is to be done? Pray have some + plan for me before I get back; not that I think you can possibly hit + on anything that will suit me.... I shall return by way of Venice + and Geneva, spend two or three weeks or more in Paris, and sail for + home, as I said, in July. It would be an exceeding delight to me to + meet you or Ticknor in England, or anywhere else. At any rate, it + will cheer my heart to see you all and the old Corner itself, when I + touch my dear native soil again." + +I went abroad again in 1859, and found Hawthorne back in England, +working away diligently at "The Marble Faun." While travelling on the +Continent, during the autumn I had constant letters from him, giving +accounts of his progress on the new romance. He says: "I get along more +slowly than I expected.... If I mistake not, it will have some good +chapters." Writing on the 10th of October he tells me:-- + + "The romance is almost finished, a great heap of manuscript being + already accumulated, and only a few concluding chapters remaining + behind. If hard pushed, I could have it ready for the press in a + fortnight; but unless the publishers [Smith and Elder were to bring + out the work in England] are in a hurry, I shall be somewhat longer + about it. I have found far more work to do upon it than I + anticipated. To confess the truth, I admire it exceedingly at + intervals, but am liable to cold fits, during which I think it the + most infernal nonsense. You ask for the title. I have not yet fixed + upon one, but here are some that have occurred to me; neither of + them exactly meets my idea: 'Monte Beni; or, The Faun. A Romance.' + 'The Romance of a Faun.' 'The Faun of Monte Beni.' 'Monte Beni: a + Romance.' 'Miriam: a Romance.' 'Hilda: a Romance.' 'Donatello: a + Romance.' 'The Faun: a Romance.' 'Marble and Man: a Romance.' When + you have read the work (which I especially wish you to do before it + goes to press), you will be able to select one of them, or imagine + something better. There is an objection in my mind to an Italian + name, though perhaps Monte Beni might do. Neither do I wish, if I + can help it, to make the fantastic aspect of the book too prominent + by putting the Faun into the title-page." + +Hawthorne wrote so intensely on his new story, that he was quite worn +down before he finished it. To recruit his strength he went to Redcar, +where the bracing air of the German Ocean soon counteracted the ill +effect of overwork. "The Marble Faun" was in the London printing-office +in November, and he seemed very glad to have it off his hands. His +letters to me at this time (I was still on the Continent) were jubilant +with hope. He was living in Leamington, and was constantly writing to me +that I should find the next two months more comfortable in England than +anywhere else. On the 17th he writes:-- + + "The Italian spring commences in February, which is certainly an + advantage, especially as from February to May is the most + disagreeable portion of the English year. But it is always summer by + a bright coal-fire. We find nothing to complain of in the climate of + Leamington. To be sure, we cannot always see our hands before us for + fog; but I like fog, and do not care about seeing my hand before me. + We have thought of staying here till after Christmas and then going + somewhere else,--perhaps to Bath, perhaps to Devonshire. But all + this is uncertain. Leamington is not so desirable a residence in + winter as in summer; its great charm consisting in the many + delightful walks and drives, and in its neighborhood to interesting + places. I have quite finished the book (some time ago) and have sent + it to Smith and Elder, who tell me it is in the printer's hands, but + I have received no proof-sheets. They wrote to request another title + instead of the 'Romance of Monte Beni,' and I sent them their choice + of a dozen. I don't know what they have chosen; neither do I + understand their objection to the above. Perhaps they don't like the + book at all; but I shall not trouble myself about that, as long as + they publish it and pay me my £600. For my part, I think it much my + best romance; but I can see some points where it is open to assault. + If it could have appeared first in America, it would have been a + safe thing.... + + "I mean to spend the rest of my abode in England in blessed + idleness: and as for my journal, in the first place I have not got + it here; secondly, there is nothing in it that will do to publish." + + * * * * * + +Hawthorne was, indeed, a consummate artist, and I do not remember a +single slovenly passage in all his acknowledged writings. It was a +privilege, and one that I can never sufficiently estimate, to have +known him personally through so many years. He was unlike any other +author I have met, and there were qualities in his nature so sweet and +commendable, that, through all his shy reserve, they sometimes asserted +themselves in a marked and conspicuous manner. I have known rude people, +who were jostling him in a crowd, give way at the sound of his low and +almost irresolute voice, so potent was the gentle spell of command that +seemed born of his genius. + +Although he was apt to keep aloof from his kind, and did not hesitate +frequently to announce by his manner that + + "Solitude to him + Was blithe society, who filled the air + With gladness and involuntary songs," + +I ever found him, like Milton's Raphael, an "affable" angel, and +inclined to converse on whatever was human and good in life. + +Here are some more extracts from the letters he wrote to me while he was +engaged on "The Marble Faun." On the 11th of February, 1860, he writes +from Leamington in England (I was then in Italy):-- + + "I received your letter from Florence, and conclude that you are now + in Rome, and probably enjoying the Carnival,--a tame description of + which, by the by, I have introduced into my Romance. + + "I thank you most heartily for your kind wishes in favor of the + forthcoming work, and sincerely join my own prayers to yours in its + behalf, but without much confidence of a good result. My own opinion + is, that I am not really a popular writer, and that what popularity + I have gained is chiefly accidental, and owing to other causes than + my own kind or degree of merit. Possibly I may (or may not) deserve + something better than popularity; but looking at all my productions, + and especially this latter one, with a cold or critical eye, I can + see that they do not make their appeal to the popular mind. It is + odd enough, moreover, that my own individual taste is for quite + another class of works than those which I myself am able to write. + If I were to meet with such books as mine, by another writer, I + don't believe I should be able to get through them. + + * * * * * +"To return to my own moonshiny Romance; its fate will soon +be settled, for Smith and Elder mean to publish on the 28th of this +month. Poor Ticknor will have a tight scratch to get his edition +out contemporaneously; they having sent him the third volume +only a week ago. I think, however, there will be no danger of +piracy in America. Perhaps nobody will think it worth stealing. +Give my best regards to William Story, and look well at his Cleopatra, +for you will meet her again in one of the chapters which I wrote +with most pleasure. If he does not find himself famous henceforth, +the fault will be none of mine. I, at least, have done my duty by +him, whatever delinquency there may be on the part of other critics. + +"Smith and Elder persist in calling the book 'Transformation,' which +gives one the idea of Harlequin in a pantomime; but I have strictly +enjoined upon Ticknor to call it 'The Marble Faun; a Romance of Monte +Beni.'" + +In one of his letters written at this period, referring to his design of +going home, he says:-- + + "I shall not have been absent seven years till the 5th of July next, + and I scorn to touch Yankee soil sooner than that.... As regards + going home I alternate between a longing and a dread." + +Returning to London from the Continent, in April, I found this letter, +written from Bath, awaiting my arrival:-- + + "You are welcome back. I really began to fear that you had been + assassinated among the Apennines or killed in that outbreak at Rome. + I have taken passages for all of us in the steamer which sails the + 16th of June. Your berths are Nos. 19 and 20. I engaged them with + the understanding that you might go earlier or later, if you chose; + but I would advise you to go on the 16th; in the first place, + because the state-rooms for our party are the most eligible in the + ship; secondly, because we shall otherwise mutually lose the + pleasure of each other's company. Besides, I consider it my duty, + towards Ticknor and towards Boston, and America at large, to take + you into custody and bring you home; for I know you will never come + except upon compulsion. Let me know at once whether I am to use + force. + + "The book (The Marble Faun) has done better than I thought it + would; for you will have discovered, by this time, that it is an + audacious attempt to impose a tissue of absurdities upon the public + by the mere art of style of narrative. I hardly hoped that it would + go down with John Bull; but then it is always my best point of + writing, to undertake such a task, and I really put what strength I + have into many parts of this book. + + "The English critics generally (with two or three unimportant + exceptions) have been sufficiently favorable, and the review in the + Times awarded the highest praise of all. At home, too, the notices + have been very kind, so far as they have come under my eye. Lowell + had a good one in the Atlantic Monthly, and Hillard an excellent one + in the Courier; and yesterday I received a sheet of the May number + of the Atlantic containing a really keen and profound article by + Whipple, in which he goes over all my works, and recognizes that + element of unpopularity which (as nobody knows better than myself) + pervades them all. I agree with almost all he says, except that I am + conscious of not deserving nearly so much praise. When I get home, I + will try to write a more genial book; but the Devil himself always + seems to get into my inkstand, and I can only exorcise him by + pensful at a time. + + "I am coming to London very soon, and mean to spend a fortnight of + next month there. I have been quite homesick through this past + dreary winter. Did you ever spend a winter in England? If not, + reserve your ultimate conclusion about the country until you have + done so." + +We met in London early in May, and, as our lodgings were not far apart, +we were frequently together. I recall many pleasant dinners with him and +mutual friends in various charming seaside and country-side places. We +used to take a run down to Greenwich or Blackwall once or twice a week, +and a trip to Richmond was always grateful to him. Bennoch was +constantly planning a day's happiness for his friend, and the hours at +that pleasant season of the year were not long enough for our delights. +In London we strolled along the Strand, day after day, now diving into +Bolt Court, in pursuit of Johnson's whereabouts, and now stumbling +around the Temple, where Goldsmith at one time had his quarters. +Hawthorne was never weary of standing on London Bridge, and watching +the steamers plying up and down the Thames. I was much amused by his +manner towards importunate and sometimes impudent beggars, scores of +whom would attack us even in the shortest walk. He had a mild way of +making a severe and cutting remark, which used to remind me of a little +incident which Charlotte Cushman once related to me. She said a man in +the gallery of a theatre (I think she was on the stage at the time) made +such a disturbance that the play could not proceed. Cries of "Throw him +over" arose from all parts of the house, and the noise became furious. +All was tumultuous chaos until a sweet and gentle female voice was heard +in the pit, exclaiming, "No! I pray you don't throw him over! I beg of +you, dear friends, don't throw him over, but--_kill him where he is_." + +One of our most royal times was at a parting dinner at the house of +Barry Cornwall. Among the notables present were Kinglake and Leigh Hunt. +Our kind-hearted host and his admirable wife greatly delighted in +Hawthorne, and they made this occasion a most grateful one to him. I +remember when we went up to the drawing-room to join the ladies after +dinner, the two dear old poets, Leigh Hunt and Barry Cornwall, mounted +the stairs with their arms round each other in a very tender and loving +way. Hawthorne often referred to this scene as one he would not have +missed for a great deal. + +His renewed intercourse with Motley in England gave him peculiar +pleasure, and his genius found an ardent admirer in the eminent +historian. He did not go much, into society at that time, but there were +a few houses in London where he always seemed happy. + +I met him one night at a great evening-party, looking on from a nook a +little removed from the full glare of the _soirée_. Soon, however, it +was whispered about that the famous American romance-writer was in the +room, and an enthusiastic English lady, a genuine admirer and +intelligent reader of his books, ran for her album and attacked him for +"a few words and his name at the end." He looked dismally perplexed, and +turning to me said imploringly in a whisper, "For pity's sake, what +shall I write? I can't think of a word to add to my name. Help me to +something." Thinking him partly in fun, I said, "Write an original +couplet,--this one, for instance,-- + + 'When this you see, + Remember me,'" + +and to my amazement he stepped forward at once to the table, wrote the +foolish lines I had suggested, and, shutting the book, handed it very +contentedly to the happy lady. + +We sailed from England together in the month of June, as we had +previously arranged, and our voyage home was, to say the least, an +unusual one. We had calm summer, moonlight weather, with no storms. Mrs. +Stowe was on board, and in her own cheery and delightful way she +enlivened the passage with some capital stories of her early life. + +When we arrived at Queenstown, the captain announced to us that, as the +ship would wait there six hours, we might go ashore and see something of +our Irish friends. So we chartered several jaunting-cars, after much +tribulation and delay in arranging terms with the drivers thereof, and +started off on a merry exploring expedition. I remember there was a good +deal of racing up and down the hills of Queenstown, much shouting and +laughing, and crowds of beggars howling after us for pence and beer. The +Irish jaunting-car is a peculiar institution, and we all sat with our +legs dangling over the road in a "dim and perilous way." Occasionally a +horse would give out, for the animals were sad specimens, poorly fed +and wofully driven. We were almost devoured by the ragamuffins that ran +beside our wheels, and I remember the "sad civility" with which +Hawthorne regarded their clamors. We had provided ourselves before +starting with much small coin, which, however, gave out during our first +mile. Hawthorne attempted to explain our inability further to supply +their demands, having, as he said to them, nothing less than a sovereign +in his pocket, when a voice from the crowd shouted, "Bedad, your honor, +I can change that for ye"; and the knave actually did it on the spot. + +Hawthorne's love for the sea amounted to a passionate worship; and while +I (the worst sailor probably on this planet) was longing, spite of the +good company on board, to reach land as soon as possible, Hawthorne was +constantly saying in his quiet, earnest way, "I should like to sail on +and on forever, and never touch the shore again." He liked to stand +alone in the bows of the ship and see the sun go down, and he was never +tired of walking the deck at midnight. I used to watch his dark, +solitary figure under the stars, pacing up and down some unfrequented +part of the vessel, musing and half melancholy. Sometimes he would lie +down beside me and commiserate my unquiet condition. Seasickness, he +declared, he could not understand, and was constantly recommending most +extraordinary dishes and drinks, "all made out of the _artist's_ brain," +which he said were sovereign remedies for nautical illness. I remember +to this day some of the preparations which, in his revelry of fancy, he +would advise me to take, a farrago of good things almost rivalling +"Oberon's Feast," spread out so daintily in Herrick's "Hesperides." He +thought, at first, if I could bear a few roc's eggs beaten up by a +mermaid on a dolphin's back, I might be benefited. He decided that a +gruel made from a sheaf of Robin Hood's arrows would be strengthening. +When suffering pain, "a right gude willie-waught," or a stiff cup of +hemlock of the Socrates brand, before retiring, he considered very good. +He said he had heard recommended a dose of salts distilled from the +tears of Niobe, but he didn't approve of that remedy. He observed that +he had a high opinion of hearty food, such as potted owl with Minerva +sauce, airy tongues of sirens, stewed ibis, livers of Roman Capitol +geese, the wings of a Phoenix not too much done, love-lorn nightingales +cooked briskly over Aladdin's lamp, chicken-pies made of fowls raised by +Mrs. Carey, Nautilus chowder, and the like. Fruit, by all means, should +always be taken by an uneasy victim at sea, especially Atalanta pippins +and purple grapes raised by Bacchus & Co. Examining my garments one day +as I lay on deck, he thought I was not warmly enough clad, and he +recommended, before I took another voyage, that I should fit myself out +in Liverpool with a good warm shirt from the shop of Nessus & Co. in +Bold Street, where I could also find stout seven-league boots to keep +out the damp. He knew another shop, he said, where I could buy +raven-down stockings, and sable clouds with a silver lining, most warm +and comfortable for a sea voyage. + +His own appetite was excellent, and day after day he used to come on +deck after dinner and describe to me what he had eaten. Of course his +accounts were always exaggerations, for my amusement. I remember one +night he gave me a running catalogue of what food he had partaken during +the day, and the sum total was convulsing from its absurdity. Among the +viands he had consumed, I remember he stated there were "several yards +of steak," and a "whole warrenful of Welsh rabbits." The "divine spirit +of Humor" was upon him during many of those days at sea, and he revelled +in it like a careless child. + +That was a voyage, indeed, long to be remembered, and I shall ever look +back upon it as the most satisfactory "sea turn" I ever happened to +experience. I have sailed many a weary, watery mile since then, but +_Hawthorne_ was not on board! + +The summer after his arrival home he spent quietly in Concord, at the +Wayside, and illness in his family made him at times unusually sad. In +one of his notes to me he says:-- + + "I am continually reminded nowadays of a response which I once heard + a drunken sailor make to a pious gentleman, who asked him how he + felt, 'Pretty d--d miserable, thank God!' It very well expresses my + thorough discomfort and forced acquiescence." + +Occasionally he wrote requesting me to make a change, here and there, in +the new edition of his works then passing through the press. On the 23d +of September, 1860, he writes:-- + + "Please to append the following note to the foot of the page, at the + commencement of the story called 'Dr. Heidegger's Experiment,' in + the 'Twice-Told Tales': 'In an English Review, not long since, I + have been accused of plagiarizing the idea of this story from a + chapter in one of the novels of Alexandra Dumas. There has + undoubtedly been a plagiarism, on one side or the other; but as my + story was written a good deal more than twenty years ago, and as the + novel is of considerably more recent date, I take pleasure in + thinking that M. Dumas has done me the honor to appropriate one of + the fanciful conceptions of my earlier days. He is heartily welcome + to it; nor is it the only instance, by many, in which the great + French romancer has exercised the privilege of commanding genius by + confiscating the intellectual property of less famous people to his + own use and behoof.'" + +Hawthorne was a diligent reader of the Bible, and when sometimes, in my +ignorant way, I would question, in a proof-sheet, his use of a word, he +would almost always refer me to the Bible as his authority. It was a +great pleasure to hear him talk about the Book of Job, and his voice +would be tremulous with feeling, as he sometimes quoted a touching +passage from the New Testament. In one of his letters he says to me:-- + + "Did not I suggest to you, last summer, the publication of the Bible + in ten or twelve 12mo volumes? I think it would have great success, + and, at least (but, as a publisher, I suppose this is the very + smallest of your cares), it would result in the salvation of a great + many souls, who will never find their way to heaven, if left to + learn it from the inconvenient editions of the Scriptures now in + use. It is very singular that this form of publishing the Bible in a + single bulky or closely printed volume should be so long continued. + It was first adopted, I suppose, as being the universal mode of + publication at the time when the Bible was translated. Shakespeare, + and the other old dramatists and poets, were first published in the + same form; but all of them have long since been broken into dozens + and scores of portable and readable volumes; and why not the Bible?" + +During this period, after his return from Europe, I saw him frequently +at the Wayside, in Concord. He now seemed happy in the dwelling he had +put in order for the calm and comfort of his middle and later life. He +had added a tower to his house, in which he could be safe from +intrusion, and where he could muse and write. Never was poet or romancer +more fitly shrined. Drummond at Hawthornden, Scott at Abbotsford, +Dickens at Gad's Hill, Irving at Sunnyside, were not more appropriately +sheltered. Shut up in his tower, he could escape from the tumult of +life, and be alone with only the birds and the bees in concert outside +his casement. The view from this apartment, on every side, was lovely, +and Hawthorne enjoyed the charming prospect as I have known, few men to +enjoy nature. + +His favorite walk lay near his house,--indeed it was part of his own +grounds,--a little hillside, where he had worn a foot-path, and where he +might be found in good weather, when not employed in the tower. While +walking to and fro on this bit of rising ground he meditated and +composed innumerable romances that were never written, as well as some +that were. Here he, first announced to me his plan of "The Dolliver +Romance," and, from what he told me of his design of the story as it +existed in his mind, I thought it would have been the greatest of his +books. An enchanting memory is left of that morning when he laid out the +whole story before me as he intended to write it. The plot was a grand +one, and I tried to tell him how much I was impressed by it. Very soon +after our interview, he wrote to me:-- + + "In compliance with your exhortations, I have begun to think + seriously of that story, not, as yet, with a pen in my hand, but + trudging to and fro on my hilltop.... I don't mean to let you see + the first chapters till I have written the final sentence of the + story. Indeed, the first chapters of a story ought always to be the + last written.... If you want me to write a good book, send me a good + pen; not a gold one, for they seldom suit me; but a pen flexible and + capacious of ink, and that will not grow stiff and rheumatic the + moment I get attached to it. I never met with a good pen in my + life." + +Time went on, the war broke out, and he had not the heart to go on with +his new Romance. During the month of April, 1862, he made a visit to +Washington with his friend Ticknor, to whom he was greatly attached. +While on this visit to the capital he sat to Leutze for a portrait. He +took a special fancy to the artist, and, while he was sitting to him, +wrote a long letter to me. Here is an extract from it:-- + + "I stay here only while Leutze finishes a portrait, which I think + will be the best ever painted of the same unworthy subject. One + charm it must needs have,--an aspect of immortal jollity and + well-to-doness; for Leutze, when the sitting begins, gives me a + first-rate cigar, and when he sees me getting tired, he brings out a + bottle of splendid champagne; and we quaffed and smoked yesterday, + in a blessed state of mutual good-will, for three hours and a half, + during which the picture made a really miraculous progress. Leutze + is the best of fellows." + +In the same letter he thus describes the sinking of the Cumberland, and +I know of nothing finer in its way:-- + + "I see in a newspaper that Holmes is going to write a song on the + sinking of the Cumberland; and feeling it to be a subject of + national importance, it occurs to me that he might like to know her + present condition. She lies with her three masts sticking up out of + the water, and careened over, the water being nearly on a level with + her maintop,--I mean that first landing-place from the deck of the + vessel, after climbing the shrouds. The rigging does not appear at + all damaged. There is a tattered bit of a pennant, about a foot and + a half long, fluttering from the tip-top of one of the masts; but + the flag, the ensign of the ship (which never was struck, thank + God), is under water, so as to be quite invisible, being attached to + the gaff, I think they call it, of the mizzen-mast; and though this + bald description makes nothing of it, I never saw anything so + gloriously forlorn as those three masts. I did not think it was in + me to be so moved by any spectacle of the kind. Bodies still + occasionally float up from it. The Secretary of the Navy says she + shall lie there till she goes to pieces, but I suppose by and by + they will sell her to some Yankee for the value of her old iron. + + "P.S. My hair really is not so white as this photograph, which I + enclose, makes me. The sun seems to take an infernal pleasure in + making me venerable,--as if I were as old as himself." + +Hawthorne has rested so long in the twilight of impersonality, that I +hesitate sometimes to reveal the man even to his warmest admirers. This +very day Sainte-Beuve has made me feel a fresh reluctance in unveiling +my friend, and there seems almost a reproof in these words, from the +eloquent French author:-- + + "We know nothing or nearly nothing of the life of La Bruyère, and + this obscurity adds, it has been remarked, to the effect of his + work, and, it may be said, to the piquant happiness of his destiny. + If there was not a single line of his unique book, which from the + first instant of its publication did not appear and remain in the + clear light, so, on the other hand, there was not one individual + detail regarding the author which was well known. Every ray of the + century fell upon each page of the book and the face of the man who + held it open in his hand was veiled from our sight." + +Beautifully said, as usual with Sainte-Beuve, but I venture, +notwithstanding such eloquent warning, to proceed. + +After his return home from Washington Hawthorne sent to me, during the +month of May, an article for the Atlantic Monthly, which he entitled +"Chiefly about War-Matters." The paper, excellently well done +throughout, of course, contained a personal description of President +Lincoln, which I thought, considered as a portrait of a living man, and +drawn by Hawthorne, it would not be wise or tasteful to print. The +office of an editor is a disagreeable one sometimes, and the case of +Hawthorne on Lincoln disturbed me not a little. After reading the +manuscript, I wrote to the author, and asked his permission to omit his +description of the President's personal appearance. As usual,--for he +was the kindest and sweetest of contributors, the most good-natured and +the most amenable man to advise I ever knew,--he consented to my +proposal, and allowed me to print the article with the alterations. If +any one will turn to the paper in the Atlantic Monthly (it is in the +number for July, 1862), it will be observed there are several notes; all +of these were written by Hawthorne himself. He complied with my request +without a murmur, but he always thought I was wrong in my decision. He +said the whole description of the interview and the President's personal +appearance were, to his mind, the only parts of the article worth +publishing. "What a terrible thing," he complained, "it is to try to let +off a little bit of truth into this miserable humbug of a world!" +President Lincoln is dead, and as Hawthorne once wrote to me, "Upon my +honor, it seems to me the passage omitted has an historical value," I +will copy here verbatim what I advised my friend, both on his own +account and the President's, not to print nine years ago. Hawthorne and +his party had gone into the President's room, annexed, as he says, as +supernumeraries to a deputation from a Massachusetts whip-factory, with +a present of a splendid whip to the Chief Magistrate:-- + + "By and by there was a little stir on the staircase and in the + passage way, and in lounged a tall, loose-jointed figure, of an + exaggerated Yankee port and demeanor, whom (as being about the + homeliest man I ever saw, yet by no means repulsive or disagreeable) + it was impossible not to recognize as Uncle Abe. + + "Unquestionably, Western man though he be, and Kentuckian by birth, + President Lincoln is the essential representative of all Yankees, + and the veritable specimen, physically, of what the world seems + determined to regard as our characteristic qualities. It is the + strangest and yet the fittest thing in the jumble of human + vicissitudes, that he, out of so many millions, unlooked for, + unselected by any intelligible process that could be based upon his + genuine qualities, unknown to those who chose him, and unsuspected + of what endowments may adapt him for his tremendous responsibility, + should have found the way open for him to fling his lank personality + into the chair of state,--where, I presume, it was his first impulse + to throw his legs on the council-table, and tell the Cabinet + Ministers a story. There is no describing his lengthy awkwardness, + nor the uncouthness of his movement; and yet it seemed as if I had + been in the habit of seeing him daily, and had shaken hands with him + a thousand times in some village street; so true was he to the + aspect of the pattern American, though with a certain extravagance + which, possibly, I exaggerated still further by the delighted + eagerness with which I took it in. If put to guess his calling and + livelihood, I should have taken him for a country schoolmaster as + soon as anything else. He was dressed in a rusty black frock-coat + and pantaloons, unbrushed, and worn so faithfully that the suit had + adapted itself to the curves and angularities of his figure, and had + grown to be an outer skin of the man. He had shabby slippers on his + feet. His hair was black, still unmixed with gray, stiff, somewhat + bushy, and had apparently been acquainted with neither brush nor + comb that morning, after the disarrangement of the pillow; and as to + a nightcap, Uncle Abe probably knows nothing of such effeminacies. + His complexion is dark and sallow, betokening, I fear, an + insalubrious atmosphere around the White House; he has thick black + eyebrows and an impending brow; his nose is large, and the lines + about his mouth are very strongly defined. + + "The whole physiognomy is as coarse a one as you would meet anywhere + in the length and breadth of the States; but, withal, it is + redeemed, illuminated, softened, and brightened by a kindly though + serious look out of his eyes, and an expression of homely sagacity, + that seems weighted with rich results of village experience. A great + deal of native sense; no bookish cultivation, no refinement; honest + at heart, and thoroughly so, and yet, in some sort, sly,--at least, + endowed with a sort of tact and wisdom that are akin to craft, and + would impel him, I think, to take an antagonist in flank, rather + than to make a bull-run at him right in front. But, on the whole, I + liked this sallow, queer, sagacious visage, with the homely human + sympathies that warmed it; and, for my small share in the matter, + would as lief have Uncle Abe for a ruler as any man whom it would + have been practicable to put in his place. + + "Immediately on his entrance the President accosted our member of + Congress, who had us in charge, and, with a comical twist of his + face, made some jocular remark about the length of his breakfast. He + then greeted us all round, not waiting for an introduction, but + shaking and squeezing everybody's hand with the utmost cordiality, + whether the individual's name was announced to him or not. His + manner towards us was wholly without pretence, but yet had a kind of + natural dignity, quite sufficient to keep the forwardest of us from + clapping him on the shoulder and asking for a story. A mutual + acquaintance being established, our leader took the whip out of its + case, and began to read the address of presentation. The whip was an + exceedingly long one, its handle wrought in ivory (by some artist in + the Massachusetts State Prison, I believe), and ornamented with a + medallion of the President, and other equally beautiful devices; and + along its whole length there was a succession of golden bands and + ferrules. The address was shorter than the whip, but equally well + made, consisting chiefly of an explanatory description of these + artistic designs, and closing with a hint that the gift was a + suggestive and emblematic one, and that the President would + recognize the use to which such an instrument should be put. + + "This suggestion gave Uncle Abe rather a delicate task in his reply, + because, slight as the matter seemed, it apparently called for some + declaration, or intimation, or faint foreshadowing of policy in + reference to the conduct of the war, and the final treatment of the + Rebels. But the President's Yankee aptness and not-to-be-caughtness + stood him in good stead, and he jerked or wiggled himself out of + the dilemma with an uncouth dexterity that was entirely in + character; although, without his gesticulation of eye and + mouth,--and especially the flourish of the whip, with which he + imagined himself touching up a pair of fat horses,--I doubt whether + his words would be worth recording, even if I could remember them. + The gist of the reply was, that he accepted the whip as an emblem of + peace, not punishment; and, this great affair over, we retired out + of the presence in high good-humor, only regretting that we could + not have seen the President sit down and fold up his legs (which is + said to be a most extraordinary spectacle), or have heard him tell + one of those delectable stories for which he is so celebrated. A + good many of them are afloat upon the common talk of Washington, and + are certainly the aptest, pithiest, and funniest little things + imaginable; though, to be sure, they smack of the frontier freedom, + and would not always bear repetition in a drawing-room, or on the + immaculate page of the Atlantic." + +So runs the passage which caused some good-natured discussion nine years +ago, between the contributor and the editor. Perhaps I was squeamish not +to have been, willing to print this matter at that time. Some persons, +no doubt, will adopt that opinion, but as both President and author have +long ago met on the other side of criticism and magazines, we will leave +the subject to their decision, they being most interested in the +transaction. I did what seemed best in 1862. In 1871 "circumstances have +changed" with both parties, and I venture to-day what I hardly dared +then. + + * * * * * + +Whenever I look at Hawthorne's portrait, and that is pretty often, some +new trait or anecdote or reminiscence comes up and clamors to be made +known to those who feel an interest in it. But time and eternity call +loudly for mortal gossip to be brief, and I must hasten to my last +session over that child of genius, who first saw the light on the 4th of +July, 1804. + +One of his favorite books was Lockhart's Life of Sir Walter Scott, and +in 1862 I dedicated to him the Household Edition of that work. When he +received the first volume, he wrote to me a letter of which I am so +proud that I keep it among my best treasures. + + "I am exceedingly gratified by the dedication. I do not deserve so + high an honor; but if you think me worthy, it is enough to make the + compliment in the highest degree acceptable, no matter who may + dispute my title to it. I care more for your good opinion than for + that of a host of critics, and have an excellent reason for so + doing; inasmuch as my literary success, whatever it has been or may + be, is the result of my connection with you. Somehow or other you + smote the rock of public sympathy on my behalf, and a stream gushed + forth in sufficient quantity to quench my thirst though not to drown + me. I think no author can ever have had publisher that he valued so + much as I do mine." + +He began in 1862 to send me some articles from his English Journal for +the Atlantic magazine, which he afterwards collected into a volume and +called "Our Old Home." On forwarding one for December of that year he +says:-- + + "I hope you will like it, for the subject seemed interesting to me + when I was on the spot, but I always feel a singular despondency and + heaviness of heart in reopening those old journals now. However, if + I can make readable sketches out of them, it is no matter." + +In the same letter he tells me he has been re-reading Scott's Life, and +he suggests some additions to the concluding volume. He says:-- + + "If the last volume is not already printed and stereotyped, I think + you ought to insert in it an explanation of all that is left + mysterious in the former volumes,--the name and family of the lady + he was in love with, etc. It is desirable, too, to know what have + been the fortunes and final catastrophes of his family and intimate + friends since his death, down to as recent a period as the death of + Lockhart. All such matter would make your edition more valuable; and + I see no reason why you should be bound by the deference to living + connections of the family that may prevent the English publishers + from inserting these particulars. We stand in the light of + posterity to them, and have the privileges of posterity.... I + should be glad to know something of the personal character and life + of his eldest son, and whether (as I have heard) he was ashamed of + his father for being a literary man. In short, fifty pages devoted + to such elucidation would make the edition unique. Do come and see + us before the leaves fall." + +While he was engaged in copying out and rewriting his papers on England +for the magazine he was despondent about their reception by the public. +Speaking of them, one day, to me, he said: "We must remember that there +is a good deal of intellectual ice mingled with this wine of memory." He +was sometimes so dispirited during the war that he was obliged to +postpone his contributions for sheer lack of spirit to go on. Near the +close of the year 1862 he writes:-- + + "I am delighted at what you tell me about the kind appreciation of + my articles, for I feel rather gloomy about them myself. I am really + much encouraged by what you say; not but what I am sensible that you + mollify me with a good deal of soft soap, but it is skilfully + applied and effects all you intend it should.... I cannot come to + Boston to spend more than a day, just at present. It would suit me + better to come for a visit when the spring of next year is a little + advanced, and if you renew your hospitable proposition then, I shall + probably be glad to accept it; though I have now been a hermit so + long, that the thought affects me somewhat as it would to invite a + lobster or a crab to step out of his shell." + +He continued, during the early months of 1863, to send now and then an +article for the magazine from his English Note-Books. On the 22d of +February he writes:-- + + "Here is another article. I wish it would not be so wretchedly long, + but there are many things which I shall find no opportunity to say + unless I say them now; so the article grows under my hand, and one + part of it seems just about as well worth printing as another. + Heaven sees fit to visit me with an unshakable conviction that all + this series of articles is good for nothing; but that is none of my + business, provided the public and you are of a different opinion. If + you think any part of it can be left out with advantage, you are + quite at liberty to do so. Probably I have not put Leigh Hunt quite + high enough for your sentiments respecting him; but no more genuine + characterization and criticism (so far as the writer's purpose to be + true goes) was ever done. It is very slight. I might have made more + of it, but should not have improved it. + + "I mean to write two more of these articles, and then hold my hand. + I intend to come to Boston before the end of this week, if the + weather is good. It must be nearly or quite six months since I was + there! I wonder how many people there are in the world who would + keep their nerves in tolerably good order through such a length of + nearly solitary imprisonment?" + +I advised him to begin to put the series in order for a volume, and to +preface the book with his "Consular Experiences." On the 18th of April +he writes:-- + + "I don't think the public will bear any more of this sort of + thing.... I had a letter from ----, the other day, in which he sends + me the enclosed verses, and I think he would like to have them + published in the Atlantic. Do it if you like, I pretend to no + judgment in poetry. He also sent this epithalamium by Mrs. ----, and + I doubt not the good lady will be pleased to see it copied into one + of our American newspapers with a few laudatory remarks. Can't you + do it in the Transcript, and send her a copy? You cannot imagine how + a little praise jollifies us poor authors to the marrow of our + bones. Consider, if you had not been a publisher, you would + certainly have been one of our wretched tribe, and therefore ought + to have a fellow-feeling for us. Let Michael Angelo write the + remarks, if you have not the time." + +("Michael Angelo" was a clever little Irish-boy who had the care of my +room. Hawthorne conceived a fancy for the lad, and liked to hear stories +of his smart replies to persistent authors who called during my absence +with unpromising-looking manuscripts.) On the 30th of April he writes:-- + + "I send the article with which the volume is to commence, and you + can begin printing it whenever you like. I can think of no better + title than this, 'Our Old Home; a Series of English Sketches, by,' + etc. I submit to your judgment whether it would not be well to print + these 'Consular Experiences' in the volume without depriving them + of any freshness they may have by previous publication in the + magazine? + + "The article has some of the features that attract the curiosity of + the foolish public, being made up of personal narrative and gossip, + with a few pungencies of personal satire, which will not be the less + effective because the reader can scarcely find out who was the + individual meant. I am not without hope of drawing down upon myself + a good deal of critical severity on this score, and would gladly + incur more of it if I could do so without seriously deserving + censure. + + "The story of the Doctor of Divinity, I think, will prove a good + card in this way. It is every bit true (like the other anecdotes), + only not told so darkly as it might have been for the reverend + gentleman. I do not believe there is any danger of his identity + being ascertained, and do not care whether it is or no, as it could + only be done by the impertinent researches of other people. It seems + to me quite essential to have some novelty in the collected volume, + and, if possible, something that may excite a little discussion and + remark. But decide for yourself and me; and if you conclude not to + publish it in the magazine, I think I can concoct another article in + season for the August number, if you wish. After the publication of + the volume, it seems to me the public had better have no more of + them. + + "J---- has been telling us a mythical story of your intending to + walk with him from Cambridge to Concord. We should be delighted to + see you, though more for our own sakes than yours, for our aspect + here is still a little winterish. When you come, let it be on + Saturday, and stay till Monday. I am hungry to talk with you." + +I was enchanted, of course, with the "Consular Experiences," and find +from his letters, written at that time, that he was made specially happy +by the encomiums I could not help sending upon that inimitable sketch. +When the "Old Home" was nearly all in type, he began to think about a +dedication to the book. On the 3d of May he writes:-- + + "I am of three minds about dedicating the volume. First, it seems + due to Frank Pierce (as he put me into the position where I made all + those profound observations of English scenery, life, and character) + to inscribe it to him with a few pages of friendly and explanatory + talk, which also would be very gratifying to my own lifelong + affection for him. + + "Secondly, I want to say something to Bennoch to show him that I am + thoroughly mindful of all his hospitality and kindness; and I + suppose he might be pleased to see his name at the head of a book of + mine. + + "Thirdly, I am not convinced that it is worth while to inscribe it + to anybody. We will see hereafter." + +The book moved on slowly through the press, and he seemed more than +commonly nervous about the proof-sheets. On the 28th of May he says in a +note to me:-- + + "In a proof-sheet of 'Our Old Home' which I sent you to-day (page + 43, or 4, or 5 or thereabout) I corrected a line thus, 'possessing a + happy faculty of seeing my own interest.' Now as the public interest + was my sole and individual object while I held office, I think that + as a matter of scanty justice to myself, the line ought to stand + thus, 'possessing a happy faculty of seeing my own interest and the + public's.' Even then, you see, I only give myself credit for half + the disinterestedness I really felt. Pray, by all means, have it + altered as above, even if the page is stereotyped; which it can't + have been, as the proof is now in the Concord post-office, and you + will have it at the same time with this. + + "We are getting into full leaf here, and your walk with J---might + come off any time." + +An arrangement was made with the liberal house of Smith and Elder, of +London, to bring out "Our Old Home" on the same day of its publication +in Boston. On the 1st of July Hawthorne wrote to me from the Wayside as +follows:-- + + "I am delighted with Smith and Elder, or rather with you; for it is + you that squeeze the English sovereigns out of the poor devils. On + my own behalf I never could have thought of asking more than £50, + and should hardly have expected to get £10; I look upon the £180 as + the only trustworthy funds I have, our own money being of such a + gaseous consistency. By the time I can draw for it, I expect it will + be worth at least fifteen hundred dollars. + + "I shall think over the prefatory matter for 'Our Old Home' to-day, + and will write it to-morrow. It requires some little thought and + policy in order to say nothing amiss at this time; for I intend to + dedicate the book to Frank Pierce, come what may. It shall reach you + on Friday morning. + + "We find ---- a comfortable and desirable guest to have in the + house. My wife likes her hugely, and for my part, I had no idea that + there was such a sensible woman of letters in the world. She is just + as healthy-minded as if she had never touched a pen. I am glad she + had a pleasant time, and hope she will come back. + + "I mean to come to Boston whenever I can be sure of a cool day. + + "What a prodigious length of time you stayed among the mountains! + + "You ought not to assume such liberties of absence without the + consent of your friends, which I hardly think you would get. I, at + least, want you always within attainable distance, even though I + never see you. Why can't you come and stay a day or two with us, and + drink some spruce beer?" + +Those were troublous days, full of war gloom and general despondency. +The North was naturally suspicious of all public men, who did not bear a +conspicuous part in helping to put down the Rebellion. General Pierce +had been President of the United States, and was not identified, to say +the least, with the great party which favored the vigorous prosecution +of the war. Hawthorne proposed to dedicate his new book to a very dear +friend, indeed, but in doing so he would draw public attention in a +marked way to an unpopular name. Several of Hawthorne's friends, on +learning that he intended to inscribe his book to Franklin Pierce, came +to me and begged that I would, if possible, help Hawthorne to see that +he ought not to do anything to jeopardize the currency of his new +volume. Accordingly I wrote to him, just what many of his friends had +said to me, and this is his reply to my letter, which bears date the +18th of July, 1863:-- + + "I thank you for your note of the 15th instant, and have delayed my + reply thus long in order to ponder deeply on your advice, smoke + cigars over it, and see what it might be possible for me to do + towards taking it. I find that it would be a piece of poltroonery in + me to withdraw either the dedication or the dedicatory letter. My + long and intimate personal relations with Pierce render the + dedication altogether proper, especially as regards this book, + which would have had no existence without his kindness; and if he is + so exceedingly unpopular that his name is enough to sink the volume, + there is so much the more need that an old friend should stand by + him. I cannot, merely on account of pecuniary profit or literary + reputation, go back from what I have deliberately felt and thought + it right to do; and if I were to tear out the dedication, I should + never look at the volume again without remorse and shame. As for the + literary public, it must accept my book precisely as I think fit to + give it, or let it alone. + + "Nevertheless, I have no fancy for making myself a martyr when it is + honorably and conscientiously possible to avoid it; and I always + measure out my heroism very accurately according to the exigencies + of the occasion, and should be the last man in the world to throw + away a bit of it needlessly. So I have looked over the concluding + paragraph and have amended it in such a way that, while doing what I + know to be justice to my friend, it contains not a word that ought + to be objectionable to any set of readers. If the public of the + North see fit to ostracize me for this, I can only say that I would + gladly sacrifice a thousand or two of dollars rather than retain the + good-will of such a herd of dolts and mean-spirited scoundrels. I + enclose the rewritten paragraph, and shall wish to see a proof of + that and the whole dedication. + + "I had a call from an Englishman yesterday, and kept him to dinner; + not the threatened ----, but a Mr. ----, introduced by ----. He says + he knows you, and he seems to be a very good fellow. I have strong + hopes that he will never come back here again, for J---- took him on + a walk of several miles, whereby they both caught a most tremendous + ducking, and the poor Englishman was frightened half to death by the + thunder.... On the other page is the list of presentation people, + and it amounts to twenty-four, which your liberality and kindness + allow me. As likely as not I have forgotten two or three, and I held + my pen suspended over one or two of the names, doubting whether they + deserved of me so especial a favor as a portion of my heart and + brain. I have few friends. Some authors, I should think, would + require half the edition for private distribution." + +"Our Old Home" was published in the autumn of 1863, and although it was +everywhere welcomed, in England the strictures were applied with a +liberal hand. On the 18th of October he writes to me:-- + + "You sent me the 'Reader' with a notice of the book, and I have + received one or two others, one of them from Bennoch. The English + critics seem to think me very bitter against their countrymen, and + it is, perhaps, natural that they should, because their self-conceit + can accept nothing short of indiscriminate adulation; but I really + think that Americans have more cause than they to complain of me. + Looking over the volume, I am rather surprised to find that whenever + I draw a comparison between the two people, I almost invariably cast + the balance against ourselves. It is not a good nor a weighty book, + nor does it deserve any great amount either of praise or censure. I + don't care about seeing any more notices of it." + +Meantime the "Dolliver Romance," which had been laid aside on account of +the exciting scenes through which we were then passing, and which +unfitted him for the composition of a work of the imagination, made +little progress. In a note written to me at this time he says:-- + + "I can't tell you when to expect an instalment of the Romance, if + ever. There is something preternatural in my reluctance to begin. I + linger at the threshold, and have a perception of very disagreeable + phantasms to be encountered if I enter. I wish God had given me the + faculty of writing a sunshiny book." + +I invited him to come to Boston and have a cheerful week among his old +friends, and threw in as an inducement a hint that he should hear the +great organ in the Music Hall. I also suggested that we could talk over +the new Romance together, if he would gladden us all by coming to the +city. Instead of coming, he sent this reply:-- + + "I thank you for your kind invitation to hear the grand instrument; + but it offers me no inducement additional to what I should always + have for a visit to your abode. I have no ear for an organ or a + jewsharp, nor for any instrument between the two; so you had better + invite a worthier guest, and I will come another time. + + "I don't see much probability of my having the first chapter of the + Romance ready so soon as you want it. There are two or three + chapters ready to be written, but I am not yet robust enough to + begin, and I feel as if I should never carry it through. + + "Besides, I want to prefix a little sketch of Thoreau to it, + because, from a tradition which he told me about this house of mine, + I got the idea of a deathless man, which is now taking a shape very + different from the original one. It seems the duty of a live + literary man to perpetuate the memory of a dead one, when there is + such fair opportunity as in this case: but how Thoreau would scorn + me for thinking that _I_ could perpetuate him! And I don't think so. + + "I can think of no title for the unborn Romance. Always heretofore I + have waited till it was quite complete before attempting to name it, + and I fear I shall have to do so now. I wish you or Mrs. Fields + would suggest one. Perhaps you may snatch a title out of the + infinite void that will miraculously suit the book, and give me a + needful impetus to write it. + + "I want a great deal of money..... I wonder how people manage to + live economically. I seem to spend little or nothing, and yet it + will get very far beyond the second thousand, for the present + year.... If it were not for these troublesome necessities, I doubt + whether you would ever see so much as the first chapter of the new + Romance. + + "Those verses entitled 'Weariness,' in the last magazine, seem to me + profoundly touching. I too am weary, and begin to look ahead for the + Wayside Inn." + +I had frequent accounts of his ill health and changed appearance, but I +supposed he would rally again soon, and become hale and strong before +the winter fairly set in. But the shadows even then were about his +pathway, and Allan Cunningham's lines, which he once quoted to me, must +often have occurred to him,-- + + "Cauld's the snaw at my head, + And cauld at my feet, + And the finger o' death's at my een, + Closing them to sleep." + +We had arranged together that the "Dolliver Romance" should be first +published in the magazine, in monthly instalments, and we decided to +begin in the January number of 1864. On the 8th of November came a long +letter from him:-- + + "I foresee that there is little probability of my getting the first + chapter ready by the 15th, although I have a resolute purpose to + write it by the end of the month. It will be in time for the + February number, if it turns out fit for publication at all. As to + the title, we must defer settling that till the book is fully + written, and meanwhile I see nothing better than to call the series + of articles 'Fragments of a Romance.' This will leave me to exercise + greater freedom as to the mechanism of the story than I otherwise + can, and without which I shall probably get entangled in my own + plot. When the work is completed in the magazine, I can fill up the + gaps and make straight the crookednesses, and christen it with a + fresh title. In this untried experiment of a serial work I desire + not to pledge myself, or promise the public more than I may + confidently expect to achieve. As regards the sketch of Thoreau, I + am not ready to write it yet, but will mix him up with the life of + The Wayside, and produce an autobiographical preface for the + finished Romance. If the public like that sort of stuff, I too find + it pleasant and easy writing, and can supply a new chapter of it for + every new volume, and that, moreover, without infringing upon my + proper privacy. An old Quaker wrote me, the other day, that he had + been reading my Introduction to the 'Mosses' and the 'Scarlet + Letter,' and felt as if he knew me better than his best friend; but + I think he considerably overestimates the extent of his intimacy + with me. + + "I received several private letters and printed notices of 'Our Old + Home' from England. It is laughable to see the innocent wonder with + which they regard my criticisms, accounting for them by jaundice, + insanity, jealousy, hatred, on my part, and never admitting the + least suspicion that there may be a particle of truth in them. The + monstrosity of their self-conceit is such that anything short of + unlimited admiration impresses them as malicious caricature. But + they do me great injustice in supposing that I hate them. I would as + soon hate my own people. + + "Tell Ticknor that I want a hundred dollars more, and I suppose I + shall keep on wanting more and more till the end of my days. If I + subside into the almshouse before my intellectual faculties are + quite extinguished, it strikes me that I would make a very pretty + book out of it; and, seriously, if I alone were concerned, I should + not have any great objection to winding up there." + +On the 14th of November came a pleasant little note from him, which +seemed to have been written in better spirits than he had shown of +late. Photographs of himself always amused him greatly, and in the +little note I refer to there is this pleasant passage:-- + + "Here is the photograph,--a grandfatherly old figure enough; and I + suppose that is the reason why you select it. + + "I am much in want of _cartes de visite_ to distribute on my own + account, and am tired and disgusted with all the undesirable + likenesses as yet presented of me. Don't you think I might sell my + head to some photographer who would be willing to return me the + value in small change; that is to say, in a dozen or two of cards?" + +The first part of Chapter I. of "The Dolliver Romance" came to me from +the Wayside on the 1st of December. Hawthorne was very anxious to see it +in type as soon as possible, in order that he might compose the rest in +a similar strain, and so conclude the preliminary phase of Dr. Dolliver. +He was constantly imploring me to send him a good pen, complaining all +the while that everything had failed him in that line. In one of his +notes begging me to hunt him up something that he could write with, he +says:-- + + "Nobody ever suffered more from pens than I have, and I am glad that + my labor with the abominable little tool is drawing to a close." + +In the month of December Hawthorne attended the funeral of Mrs. Franklin +Pierce, and, after the ceremony, came to stay with us. He seemed ill and +more nervous than usual. He said he found General Pierce greatly needing +his companionship, for he was overwhelmed with grief at the loss of his +wife. I well remember the sadness of Hawthorne's face when he told us he +felt obliged to look on the dead. "It was," said he, "like a carven +image laid in its richly embossed enclosure, and there was a remote +expression about it as if the whole had nothing to do with things +present." He told us, as an instance of the ever-constant courtesy of +his friend General Pierce, that while they were standing at the grave, +the General, though completely overcome with his own sorrow, turned and +drew up the collar of Hawthorne's coat to shield him from the bitter +cold. + +The same day, as the sunset deepened and we sat together, Hawthorne +began to talk in an autobiographical vein, and gave us the story of his +early life, of which I have already written somewhat. He said at an +early age he accompanied his mother and sister to the township in Maine, +which his grandfather had purchased. That, he continued, was the +happiest period of his life, and it lasted through several years, when +he was sent to school in Salem. "I lived in Maine," he said, "like a +bird of the air, so perfect was the freedom I enjoyed. But it was there +I first got my cursed habits of solitude." During the moonlight nights +of winter he would skate until midnight all alone upon Sebago Lake, with +the deep shadows of the icy hills on either hand. When he found himself +far away from his home and weary with the exertion of skating, he would +sometimes take refuge in a log-cabin, where half a tree would be burning +on the broad hearth. He would sit in the ample chimney and look at the +stars through the great aperture through which the flames went roaring +up. "Ah," he said, "how well I recall the summer days also, when, with +my gun, I roamed at will through the woods of Maine. How sad middle life +looks to people of erratic temperaments. Everything is beautiful in +youth, for all things are allowed to it then." + +The early home of the Hawthornes in Maine must have been a lonely +dwelling-place indeed. A year ago (May 12, 1870) the old place was +visited by one who had a true feeling for Hawthorne's genius, and who +thus graphically described the spot. + + "A little way off the main-travelled road in the town of Raymond + there stood an old house which has much in common with houses of its + day, but which is distinguished from them by the more evident marks + of neglect and decay. Its unpainted walls are deeply stained by + time. Cornice and window-ledge and threshold are fast falling with + the weight of years. The fences were long since removed from all the + enclosures, the garden-wall is broken down, and the garden itself is + now grown up to pines whose shadows fall dark and heavy upon the old + and mossy roof; fitting roof-trees for such a mansion, planted there + by the hands of Nature herself, as if she could not realize that her + darling child was ever to go out from his early home. The highway + once passed its door, but the location of the road has been changed; + and now the old house stands solitarily apart from the busy world. + Longer than I can remember, and I have never learned how long, this + house has stood untenanted and wholly unused, except, for a few + years, as a place of public worship; but, for myself, and for all + who know its earlier history, it will ever have the deepest + interest, for it was _the early home of Nathaniel Hawthorne_. + + "Often have I, when passing through that town, turned aside to study + the features of that landscape, and to reflect upon the influence + which his surroundings had upon the development of this author's + genius. A few rods to the north runs a little mill-stream, its + sloping bank once covered with grass, now so worn and washed by the + rains as to show but little except yellow sand. Less than half a + mile to the west, this stream empties into an arm of Sebago Lake. + Doubtless, at the time the house was built, the forest was so much + cut away in that direction as to bring into view the waters of the + lake, for a mill was built upon the brook about half-way down the + valley, and it is reasonable to suppose that a clearing was made + from the mill to the landing upon the shore of the pond; but the + pines have so far regained their old dominion as completely to shut + out the whole prospect in that direction. Indeed, the site affords + but a limited survey, except to the northwest. Across a narrow + valley in that direction lie open fields and dark pine-covered + slopes. Beyond these rise long ranges of forest-crowned hills, while + in the far distance every hue of rock and tree, of field and grove, + melts into the soft blue of Mount Washington. The spot must ever + have had the utter loneliness of the pine forests upon the borders + of our northern lakes. The deep silence and dark shadows of the old + woods must have filled the imagination of a youth possessing + Hawthorne's sensibility with images which later years could not + dispel. + + "To this place came the widowed mother of Hawthorne in company with + her brother, an original proprietor and one of the early settlers of + the town of Raymond. This house was built for her, and here she + lived with her son for several years in the most complete seclusion. + Perhaps she strove to conceal here a grief which she could not + forget. In what way, and to what extent, the surroundings of his + boyhood operated in moulding the character and developing the genius + of that gifted author, I leave to the reader to determine. I have + tried simply to draw a faithful picture of his early home." + +On the 15th of December Hawthorne wrote to me:-- + + "I have not yet had courage to read the Dolliver proof-sheet, but + will set about it soon, though with terrible reluctance, such as I + never felt before.... I am most grateful to you for protecting me + from that visitation of the elephant and his cub. If you happen to + see Mr. ---- of L----, a young man who was here last summer, pray + tell him anything that your conscience will let you, to induce him + to spare me another visit, which I know he intended. I really am not + well and cannot be disturbed by strangers without more suffering + than it is worth while to endure. I thank Mrs. P---- and yourself + for your kind hospitality, past and prospective. I never come to see + you without feeling the better for it, but I must not test so + precious a remedy too often." + +The new year found him incapacitated from writing much on the Romance. +On the 17th of January, 1864, he says:-- + + "I am not quite up to writing yet, but shall make an effort as soon + as I see any hope of success. You ought to be thankful that (like + most other broken-down authors) I do not pester you with decrepit + pages, and insist upon your accepting them as full of the old spirit + and vigor. That trouble, perhaps, still awaits you, after I shall + have reached a further stage of decay. Seriously, my mind has, for + the present, lost its temper and its fine edge, and I have an + instinct that I had better keep quiet. Perhaps I shall have a new + spirit of vigor, if I wait quietly for it; perhaps not." + +The end of February found him in a mood which is best indicated in this +letter, which he addressed to me on the 25th of the month:-- + + "I hardly know what to say to the public about this abortive + Romance, though I know pretty well what the case will be. I shall + never finish it. Yet it is not quite pleasant for an author to + announce himself, or to be announced, as finally broken down as to + his literary faculty. It is a pity that I let you put this work in + your programme for the year, for I had always a presentiment that it + would fail us at the pinch. Say to the public what you think best, + and as little as possible; for example: 'We regret that Mr. + Hawthorne's Romance, announced for this magazine some months ago, + still lies upon the author's writing-table, he having been + interrupted in his labor upon it by an impaired state of health'; + or, 'We are sorry to hear (but know not whether the public will + share our grief) that Mr. Hawthorne is out of health and is thereby + prevented, for the present, from proceeding with another of his + promised (or threatened) Romances, intended for this magazine'; or, + 'Mr. Hawthorne's brain is addled at last, and, much to our + satisfaction, he tells us that he cannot possibly go on with the + Romance announced on the cover of the January magazine. We consider + him finally shelved, and shall take early occasion to bury him under + a heavy article, carefully summing up his merits (such as they were) + and his demerits, what few of them can be touched upon in our + limited space'; or, 'We shall commence the publication of Mr. + Hawthorne's Romance as soon as that gentleman chooses to forward it. + We are quite at a loss how to account for this delay in the + fulfilment of his contract; especially as he has already been most + liberally paid for the first number.' Say anything you like, in + short, though I really don't believe that the public will care what + you say or whether you say anything. If you choose, you may publish + the first chapter as an insulated fragment, and charge me with the + overpayment. I cannot finish it unless a great change comes over me; + and if I make too great an effort to do so, it will be my death; not + that I should care much for that, if I could fight the battle + through and win it, thus ending a life of much smoulder and scanty + fire in a blaze of glory. But I should smother myself in mud of my + own making. I mean to come to Boston soon, not for a week but for a + single day, and then I can talk about my sanitary prospects more + freely than I choose to write. I am not low-spirited, nor fanciful, + nor freakish, but look what seem to be realities in the face, and am + ready to take whatever may come. If I could but go to England now, I + think that the sea voyage and the 'Old Home' might set me all right. + + "This letter is for your own eye, and I wish especially that no echo + of it may come back in your notes to me. + + "P.S. Give my kindest regards to Mrs. F----, and tell her that one + of my choicest ideal places is her drawing-room, and therefore I + seldom visit it." + +On Monday, the 28th of March, Hawthorne came to town and made my house +his first station on a journey to the South for health. I was greatly +shocked at his invalid appearance, and he seemed quite deaf. The light +in his eye was beautiful as ever, but his limbs seemed shrunken and his +usual stalwart vigor utterly gone. He said to me with a pathetic voice, +"Why does Nature treat us like little children! I think we could bear it +all if we knew our fate; at least it would not make much difference to +me now what became of me." Toward night he brightened up a little, and +his delicious wit flashed out, at intervals, as of old; but he was +evidently broken and dispirited about his health. Looking out on the bay +that was sparkling in the moonlight, he said he thought the moon rather +lost something of its charm for him as he grew older. He spoke with +great delight of a little story, called "Pet Marjorie," and said he had +read it carefully through twice, every word of it. He had much to say +about England, and observed, among other things, that "the extent over +which her dominions are spread leads her to fancy herself stronger than +she really is; but she is not to-day a powerful empire; she is much like +a squash-vine, which runs over a whole garden, but, if you cut it at the +root, it is at once destroyed." At breakfast, next morning, he spoke of +his kind neighbors in Concord, and said Alcott was one of the most +excellent men he had ever known. "It is impossible to quarrel with him, +for he would take all your harsh words like a saint." + +He left us shortly after this for a journey to Washington, with his +friend Mr. Ticknor. The travellers spent several days in New York, and +then proceeded to Philadelphia. Hawthorne wrote to me from the +Continental Hotel, dating his letter "Saturday evening," announcing the +severe illness of his companion. He did not seem to anticipate a fatal +result, but on Sunday morning the news came that Mr. Ticknor was dead. +Hawthorne returned at once to Boston, and stayed here over night. He was +in a very excited and nervous state, and talked incessantly of the sad +scenes he had just been passing through. We sat late together, +conversing of the friend we had lost, and I am sure he hardly closed his +eyes that night. In the morning he went back to his own home in Concord. + +His health, from that time, seemed to give way rapidly, and in the +middle of May his friend, General Pierce, proposed that they should go +among the New Hampshire hills together and meet the spring there. + +The first letter we received from Mrs. Hawthorne[*] after her husband's +return to Concord in April gave us great anxiety. It was dated "Monday +eve," and here are some extracts from it:-- + + "I have just sent Mr. Hawthorne to bed, and so have a moment to + speak to you. Generally it has been late and I have not liked to + disturb him by sitting up after him, and so I could not write since + he returned, though I wished very much to tell you about him, ever + since he came home. He came back unlooked for that day; and when I + heard a step on the piazza, I was lying on a couch and feeling quite + indisposed. But as soon as I saw him I was frightened out of all + knowledge of myself,--so haggard, so white, so deeply scored with + pain and fatigue was the face, so much more ill he looked than I + ever saw him before. He had walked from the station because he saw + no carriage there, and his brow was streaming with a perfect rain, + so great had been the effort to walk so far.... He needed much to + get home to me, where he could fling off all care of himself and + give way to his feelings, pent up and kept back for so long, + especially since his watch and ward of most excellent, kind Mr. + Ticknor. It relieved him somewhat to break down as he spoke of that + scene.... But he was so weak and weary he could not sit up much, and + lay on the couch nearly all the time in a kind of uneasy somnolency, + not wishing to be read to even, not able to attend or fix his + thoughts at all. On Saturday he unfortunately took cold, and, after + a most restless night, was seized early in the morning with a very + bad stiff neck, which was acutely painful all Sunday. Sunday night, + however, a compress of linen wrung in cold water cured him, with + belladonna. But he slept also most of this morning.... He could as + easily build London as go to the Shakespeare dinner. It tires him so + much to get entirely through his toilet in the morning, that he has + to lie down a long time after it. To-day he walked out on the + grounds, and could not stay ten minutes, because I would not let him + sit down in the wind, and he could not bear any longer exercise. He + has more than lost all he gained by the journey, by the sad event. + From being the nursed and cared for,--early to bed and late to + rise,--led, as it were, by the ever-ready hand of kind Mr. Ticknor, + to become the nurse and night-watcher with all the responsibilities, + with his mighty power of sympathy and his vast apprehension of + suffering in others, and to see death for the first time in a state + so weak as his,--the death also of so valued a friend,--as Mr. + Hawthorne says himself, 'it told upon him' fearfully. There are + lines ploughed on his brow which never were there before.... I have + been up and alert ever since his return, but one day I was obliged, + when he was busy, to run off and lie down for fear I should drop + before his eyes. My head was in such an agony I could not endure it + another moment. But I am well now. I have wrestled and won, and now + I think I shall not fail again. Your most generous kindness of + hospitality I heartily thank you for, but Mr. Hawthorne says he + cannot leave home. He wants rest, and he says when the wind is + _warm_ he shall feel well. This cold wind ruins him. I wish he were + in Cuba or on some isle in the Gulf Stream. But I must say I could + not think him able to go anywhere, unless I could go with him. He is + too weak to take care of himself. I do not like to have him go up + and down stairs alone. I have read to him all the afternoon and + evening and after he walked in the morning to-day. I do nothing but + sit with him, ready to do or not to do, just as he wishes. The + wheels of my small _ménage_ are all stopped. He is my world and all + the business of it. He has not smiled since he came home till + to-day, and I made him laugh with Thackeray's humor in reading to + him; but a smile looks strange on a face that once shone like a + thousand suns with smiles. The light for the time has gone out of + his eyes, entirely. An infinite weariness films them quite. I thank + Heaven that summer and not winter approaches." + +[Footnote *: As I write this paragraph, my friend, the Reverend James +Freeman Clarke, puts into my hand the following note, which Hawthorne +sent to him nearly thirty years ago:-- + + 54 PINCKNEY STREET, Friday, July 8, 1842. + + MY DEAR SIR,--Though personally a stranger to you, I am about to + request of you the greatest favor which I can receive from any man. + I am to be married to Miss Sophia Peabody; and it is our mutual + desire that you should perform the ceremony. Unless it should be + decidedly a rainy day, a carriage will call for you at half past + eleven o'clock in the forenoon. + +Very respectfully yours, + + NATH. HAWTHORNE. + +Rev. JAMES F. CLARKE, Chestnut Street.] + +On Friday evening of the same week Mrs. Hawthorne sent off another +despatch to us:-- + + +"Mr. Hawthorne has been miserably ill for two or three days, so that I +could not find a moment to speak to you. I am most anxious to have him +leave Concord again, and General Pierce's plan is admirable, now that +the General is well himself. I think the serene jog-trot in a private +carriage into country places, by trout-streams and to old farm-houses, +away from care and news, will be very restorative. The boy associations +with the General will refresh him. They will fish, and muse, and rest, +and saunter upon horses' feet, and be in the air all the time in fine +weather. I am quite content, though I wish I could go for a few _petits +sions_. But General Pierce has been a most tender, constant nurse for +many years, and knows how to take care of the sick. And his love for Mr. +Hawthorne is the strongest passion of his soul, now his wife is +departed. They will go to the Isles of Shoals together probably, before +their return. + +"Mr. Hawthorne cannot walk ten minutes now without wishing to sit down, +as I think I told you, so that he cannot take sufficient air except in a +carriage. And his horror of hotels and rail-cars is immense, and human +beings beset him in cities. He is indeed very weak. I hardly know what +takes away his strength. I now am obliged to superintend my workman, who +is arranging the grounds. Whenever my husband lies down (which is sadly +often) I rush out of doors to see what the gardener is about. + +"I cannot feel rested till Mr. Hawthorne is better, but I get along. I +shall go to town when he is safe in the care of General Pierce." + +On Saturday this communication from Mrs. Hawthorne reached us:-- + + "General Pierce wrote yesterday to say he wished to meet Mr. + Hawthorne in Boston on Wednesday, and go from thence on their way. + + "Mr. Hawthorne is much weaker. I find, than he has been before at + any time, and I shall go down with him, having a great many things + to do in Boston; but I am sure he is not fit to be left by himself, + for his steps are so uncertain, and his eyes are very uncertain too. + Dear Mr. Fields, I am very anxious about him, and I write now to say + that he absolutely refuses to see a physician officially, and so I + wish to know whether Dr. Holmes could not see him in some ingenious + way on Wednesday as a friend; but with his experienced, acute + observation, to look at him also as a physician, to note how he is + and what he judges of him comparatively since he last saw him. It + almost deprives me of my wits to see him growing weaker with no aid. + He seems quite bilious, and has a restlessness that is infinite. His + look is more distressed and harassed than before; and he has so + little rest, that he is getting worn out. I hope immensely in regard + of this sauntering journey with General Pierce. + + "I feel as if I ought not to speak to you of anything when you are + so busy and weary and bereaved. But yet in such a sad emergency as + this, I am sure your generous, kind heart will not refuse me any + help you can render.... I wish Dr. Holmes would feel his pulse; I do + not know how to judge of it, but it seems to me irregular." + +His friend, Dr. O.W. Holmes, in compliance with Mrs. Hawthorne's desire, +expressed in this letter to me, saw the invalid, and thus describes his +appearance in an article full of tenderness and feeling which was +published in the "Atlantic Monthly" for July, 1864:-- + + "Late in the afternoon of the day before he left Boston on his last + journey I called upon him at the hotel where he was staying. He had + gone out but a moment before. Looking along the street, I saw a form + at some distance in advance which could only be his,--but how + changed from his former port and figure! There was no mistaking the + long iron-gray locks, the carriage of the head, and the general look + of the natural outlines and movement; but he seemed to have shrunken + in all his dimensions, and faltered along with an uncertain, feeble + step, as if every movement were an effort. I joined him, and we + walked together half an hour, during which time I learned so much + of his state of mind and body as could be got at without worrying + him with suggestive questions,--my object being to form an opinion + of his condition, as I had been requested to do, and to give him + some hints that might be useful to him on his journey. + + "His aspect, medically considered, was very unfavorable. There were + persistent local symptoms, referred especially to the + stomach,--'boring pain,' distension, difficult digestion, with great + wasting of flesh and strength. He was very gentle, very willing to + answer questions, very docile to such counsel as I offered him, but + evidently had no hope of recovering his health. He spoke as if his + work were done, and he should write no more. + + "With all his obvious depression, there was no failing noticeable in + his conversational powers. There was the same backwardness and + hesitancy which in his best days it was hard for him to overcome, so + that talking with him was almost like love-making, and his shy, + beautiful soul had to be wooed from its bashful prudency like an + unschooled maiden. The calm despondency with which he spoke about + himself confirmed the unfavorable opinion suggested by his look and + history." + +I saw Hawthorne alive, for the last time, the day he started on this his +last mortal journey. His speech and his gait indicated severe illness, +and I had great misgivings about the jaunt he was proposing to take so +early in the season. His tones were more subdued than ever, and he +scarcely spoke above a whisper. He was very affectionate in parting, and +I followed him to the door, looking after him as he went up School +Street. I noticed that he faltered from weakness, and I should have +taken my hat and joined him to offer my arm, but I knew he did not wish +to _seem_ ill, and I feared he might be troubled at my anxiety. Fearing +to disturb him, I followed him with my eyes only, and watched him till +he turned the corner and passed out of sight. + +On the morning of the 19th of May, 1864, a telegram, signed by Franklin +Pierce, stunned us all. It announced the death of Hawthorne. In the +afternoon of the same day came this letter to me:-- + + "Pemigewasset House, Plymouth, N.H., Thursday morning, 5 o'clock + + "My Dear Sir,--The telegraph has communicated to you the fact of our + dear friend Hawthorne's death. My friend Colonel Hibbard, who bears + this note, was a friend of H----, and will tell you more than I am + able to write. + + "I enclose herewith a note which I commenced last evening to dear + Mrs. Hawthorne. O, how will she bear this shock! Dear mother--dear + children-- + + "When I met Hawthorne in Boston a week ago, it was apparent that he + was much more feeble and more seriously diseased than I had supposed + him to be. We came from Centre Harbor yesterday afternoon, and I + thought he was on the whole brighter than he was the day before. + Through the week he had been inclined to somnolency during the day, + but restless at night. He retired last night soon after nine + o'clock, and soon fell into a quiet slumber. In less than half an + hour changed his position, but continued to sleep. I left the door + open between his bedroom and mine,--our beds being opposite to each + other,--and was asleep myself before eleven o'clock. The light + continued to burn in my room. At two o'clock, I went to H----'s + bedside; he was apparently in a sound sleep, and I did not place my + hand upon him. At four o'clock I went into his room again, and, as + his position was unchanged, I placed my hand upon him and found that + life was extinct. I sent, however, immediately for a physician, and + called Judge Bell and Colonel Hibbard, who occupied rooms upon the + same floor and near me. He lies upon his side, his position so + perfectly natural and easy, his eyes closed, that it is difficult to + realize, while looking upon his noble face, that this is death. He + must have passed from natural slumber to that from which there is no + waking without the slightest movement. + + "I cannot write to dear Mrs. Hawthorne, and you must exercise your + judgment with regard to sending this and the unfinished note, + enclosed, to her. + + "Your friend, + + "FRANKLIN PIERCE." + +Hawthorne's lifelong desire that the end might be a sudden one was +gratified. Often and often he has said to me, "What a blessing to go +quickly!" So the same swift angel that came as a messenger to Allston, +Irving, Prescott, Macaulay, Thackeray, and Dickens was commissioned to +touch his forehead, also, and beckon him away. + +The room in which death fell upon him, + + "Like a shadow thrown + Softly and lightly from a passing cloud," + +looks toward the east; and standing in it, as I have frequently done, +since he passed out silently into the skies, it is easy to imagine the +scene on that spring morning which President Pierce so feelingly +describes in his letter. + +On the 24th of May we carried Hawthorne through the blossoming orchards +of Concord, and laid him down under a group of pines, on a hillside, +overlooking historic fields. All the way from the village church to the +grave the birds kept up a perpetual melody. The sun shone brightly, and +the air was sweet and pleasant, as if death had never entered the world. +Longfellow and Emerson, Channing and Hoar, Agassiz and Lowell, Greene +and Whipple, Alcott and Clarke, Holmes and Hillard, and other friends +whom he loved, walked slowly by his side that beautiful spring morning. +The companion of his youth and his manhood, for whom he would willingly, +at any time, have given up his own life, Franklin Pierce, was there +among the rest, and scattered flowers into the grave. The unfinished +Romance, which had cost him so much anxiety, the last literary work on +which he had ever been engaged, was laid on his coffin. + + "Ah! who shall lift that wand of magic power, + And the lost clew regain? + The unfinished window in Aladdin's tower + Unfinished must remain." + +Longfellow's beautiful poem will always be associated with the memory of +Hawthorne, and most fitting was it that his fellow-student, whom he so +loved and honored, should sing his requiem. + + + + +DICKENS + + * * * * * + + "_O friend with heart as gentle for distress, + As resolute with wise true thoughts to bind + The happiest with the unhappiest of our kind_" + + John Forster. + +_"All men are to an unspeakable degree brothers, each man's life a +strange emblem of every man's; and Human Portraits, faithfully drawn, +are of all pictures the welcomest on human walls."_--Carlyle. + + + + +IV. DICKENS. + + +I observe my favorite chair is placed to-day where the portraits of +Charles Dickens are easiest seen, and I take the hint accordingly. Those +are likenesses of him from the age of twenty-eight down to the year when +he passed through "the golden gate," as that wise mystic William Blake +calls death. One would hardly believe these pictures represented the +same man! See what a beautiful young person Maclise represents in this +early likeness of the great author, and then contrast the face with that +worn one in the photograph of 1869. The same man, but how different in +aspect! I sometimes think, while looking at those two portraits, I must +have known two individuals bearing the same name, at various periods of +my own life. Let me speak to-day of the younger Dickens. How well I +recall the bleak winter evening in 1842 when I first saw the handsome, +glowing face of the young man who was even then famous over half the +globe! He came bounding into the Tremont House, fresh from the steamer +that had brought him to our shores, and his cheery voice rang through +the hall, as he gave a quick glance at the new scenes opening upon him +in a strange land on first arriving at a Transatlantic hotel. "Here we +are!" he shouted, as the lights burst upon the merry party just entering +the house, and several gentlemen came forward to greet him. Ah, how +happy and buoyant he was then! Young, handsome, almost worshipped for +his genius, belted round by such troops of friends as rarely ever man +had, coming to a new country to make new conquests of fame and +honor,--surely it was a sight long to be remembered and never wholly to +be forgotten. The splendor of his endowments and the personal interest +he had won to himself called forth all the enthusiasm of old and young +America, and I am glad to have been among the first to witness his +arrival. You ask me what was his appearance as he ran, or rather flew, +up the steps of the hotel, and sprang into the hall. He seemed all on +fire with curiosity, and alive as I never saw mortal before. From top to +toe every fibre of his body was unrestrained and alert. What vigor, what +keenness, what freshness of spirit, possessed him! He laughed all over, +and did not care who heard him! He seemed like the Emperor of +Cheerfulness on a cruise of pleasure, determined to conquer a realm or +two of fun every hour of his overflowing existence. That night impressed +itself on my memory for all time, so far as I am concerned with things +sublunary. It was Dickens, the true "Boz," in flesh and blood, who stood +before us at last, and with my companions, three or four lads of my own +age, I determined to sit up late that night. None of us then, of course, +had the honor of an acquaintance with the delightful stranger, and I +little thought that I should afterwards come to know him in the beaten +way of friendship, and live with him day after day in years far distant; +that I should ever be so near to him that he would reveal to me his joys +and his sorrows, and thus that I should learn the story of his life from +his own lips. + +About midnight on that eventful landing, "Boz,"--everybody called him +"Boz" in those days,--having finished his supper, came down into the +office of the hotel, and, joining the young Earl of M----, his +fellow-voyager, sallied out for a first look at Boston streets. It was +a stinging night, and the moon was at the full. Every object stood out +sharp and glittering, and "Boz," muffled up in a shaggy fur coat, ran +over the shining frozen snow, wisely keeping the middle of the street +for the most part. We boys followed cautiously behind, but near enough +not to lose any of the fun. Of course the two gentlemen soon lost their +way on emerging into Washington from Tremont Street. Dickens kept up one +continual shout of uproarious laughter as he went rapidly forward, +reading the signs on the shops, and observing the "architecture" of the +new country into which he had dropped as if from the clouds. When the +two arrived opposite the "Old South Church" Dickens screamed. To this +day I could never tell why. Was it because of its fancied resemblance to +St. Paul's or the Abbey? I declare firmly, the mystery of that shout is +still a mystery to me! + +The great event of Boz's first visit to Boston was the dinner of welcome +tendered to him by the young men of the city. It is idle to attempt much +talk about the banquet given on that Monday night in February, +twenty-nine years ago. Papanti's Hall (where many of us learned to +dance, under the guidance of that master of legs, now happily still +among us and pursuing the same highly useful calling which he practised +in 1842) was the scene of that festivity. It was a glorious episode in +all our lives, and whoever was not there has suffered a loss not easy to +estimate. We younger members of that dinner-party sat in the seventh +heaven of happiness, and were translated into other spheres. +Accidentally, of course, I had a seat just in front of the honored +guest; saw him take a pinch of snuff out of Washington Allston's box, +and heard him joke with old President Quincy. Was there ever such a +night before in our staid city? Did ever mortal preside with such +felicitous success as did Mr. Quincy? How he went on with his delicious +compliments to our guest! How he revelled in quotations from "Pickwick" +and "Oliver Twist" and "The Curiosity Shop"! And how admirably he closed +his speech of welcome, calling up the young author amid a perfect volley +of applause! "Health, Happiness, and a Hearty Welcome to Charles +Dickens." I can see and hear Mr. Quincy now, as he spoke the words. Were +ever heard such cheers before? And when Dickens stood up at last to +answer for himself, so fresh and so handsome, with his beautiful eyes +moist with feeling, and his whole frame aglow with excitement, how we +did hurrah, we young fellows! Trust me, it _was_ a great night; and we +must have made a mighty noise at our end of the table, for I remember +frequent messages came down to us from the "Chair," begging that we +would hold up a little and moderate if possible the rapture of our +applause. + +After Dickens left Boston he went on his American travels, gathering up +materials, as he journeyed, for his "American Notes." He was accompanied +as far as New York by a very dear friend, to whom he afterwards +addressed several most interesting letters. For that friend he always +had the warmest enthusiasm; and when he came the second time to America, +there was no one of his old companions whom he missed more. Let us read +some of these letters written by Dickens nearly thirty years ago. The +friend to whom they were addressed was also an intimate and dear +associate of mine, and his children have kindly placed at my disposal +the whole correspondence. Here is the first letter, time-stained, but +preserved with religious care. + + Fuller's Hotel, Washington, Monday, March 14, 1842. + + My Dear Felton: I was more delighted than I can possibly tell you to + receive (last Saturday night) your welcome letter. We and the + oysters missed you terribly in New York. You carried away with you + more than half the delight and pleasure of my New World; and I + heartily wish you could bring it back again. + + There are very interesting men in this place,--highly interesting, + of course,--but it's not a comfortable place; is it? If spittle + could wait at table we should be nobly attended, but as that + property has not been imparted to it in the present state of + mechanical science, we are rather lonely and orphan-like, in respect + of "being looked arter." A blithe black was introduced on our + arrival, as our peculiar and especial attendant. He is the only + gentleman in the town who has a peculiar delicacy in intruding upon + my valuable time. It usually takes seven rings and a threatening + message from ---- to produce him; and when he comes he goes to fetch + something, and, forgetting it by the way, comes back no more. + + We have been in great distress, really in distress, at the + non-arrival of the Caledonia. You may conceive what our joy was, + when, while we were dining out yesterday, H. arrived with the joyful + intelligence of her safety. The very news of her having really + arrived seemed to diminish the distance between ourselves and home, + by one half at least. + + And this morning (though we have not yet received our heap of + despatches, for which we are looking eagerly forward to this night's + mail),--this morning there reached us unexpectedly, through the + government bag (Heaven knows how they came there), two of our many + and long-looked-for letters, wherein was a circumstantial account of + the whole conduct and behavior of our pets; with marvellous + narrations of Charley's precocity at a Twelfth Night juvenile party + at Macready's; and tremendous predictions of the governess, dimly + suggesting his having got out of pot-hooks and hangers, and darkly + insinuating the possibility of his writing us a letter before long; + and many other workings of the same prophetic spirit, in reference + to him and his sisters, very gladdening to their mother's heart, and + not at all depressing to their father's. There was, also, the + doctor's report, which was a clean bill; and the nurse's report, + which was perfectly electrifying; showing as it did how Master + Walter had been weaned, and had cut a double tooth, and done many + other extraordinary things, quite worthy of his high descent. In + short, we were made very happy and grateful; and felt as if the + prodigal father and mother had got home again. + + What do you think of this incendiary card being left at my door last + night? "General G. sends compliments to Mr. Dickens, and called with + two literary ladies. As the two L.L.'s are ambitious of the honor of + a personal introduction to Mr. D., General G requests the honor of + an appointment for to-morrow." I draw a veil over my sufferings. + They are sacred. + + We have altered our route, and don't mean to go to Charleston, for I + want to see the West, and have taken it into my head that as I am + not obliged to go to Charleston, and don't exactly know why I should + go there, I need do no violence to my own inclinations. My route is + of Mr. Clay's designing, and I think it a very good one. We go on + Wednesday night to Richmond in Virginia. On Monday we return to + Baltimore for two days. On Thursday morning we start for Pittsburg, + and so go by the Ohio to Cincinnati, Louisville, Kentucky, + Lexington, St. Louis; and either down the Lakes to Buffalo, or back + to Philadelphia, and by New York to that place, where we shall stay + a week, and then make a hasty trip into Canada. We shall be in + Buffalo, please Heaven, on the 30th of April. If I don't find a + letter from you in the care of the postmaster at that place, I'll + never write to you from England. + + But if I _do_ find one, my right hand shall forget its cunning, + before I forget to be your truthful and constant correspondent; not, + dear Felton, because I promised it, nor because I have a natural + tendency to correspond (which is far from being the case), nor + because I am truly grateful to you for, and have been made truly + proud by, that affectionate and elegant tribute which ---- sent me, + but because you are a man after my own heart, and I love you _well_. + And for the love I bear you, and the pleasure with which I shall + always think of you, and the glow I shall feel when I see your + handwriting in my own home, I hereby enter into a solemn league, and + covenant to write as many letters to you as you write to me, at + least. Amen. + + Come to England! Come to England! Our oysters are small I know; they + are said by Americans to be coppery, but our hearts are of the + largest size. We are thought to excel in shrimps, to be far from + despicable in point of lobsters, and in periwinkles are considered + to challenge the universe. Our oysters, small though they be, are + not devoid of the refreshing influence which that species of fish is + supposed to exercise in these latitudes. Try them and compare. + + Affectionately yours, + + CHARLES DICKENS. + +His next letter is dated from Niagara, and I know every one will relish +his allusion to oysters with wet feet, and his reference to the +squeezing of a Quaker. + + Clifton House, Niagara Falls, 29th April, 1842. + + My Dear Felton: Before I go any farther, let me explain to you what + these great enclosures portend, lest--supposing them part and parcel + of my letter, and asking to be read--you shall fall into fits, from + which recovery might be doubtful. + + They are, as you will see, four copies of the same thing. The nature + of the document you will discover at a glance. As I hoped and + believed, the best of the British brotherhood took fire at my being + attacked because I spoke my mind and theirs on the subject of an + international copyright; and with all good speed, and hearty private + letters, transmitted to me this small parcel of gauntlets for + immediate casting down. + + Now my first idea was, publicity being the object, to send one copy + to you for a Boston newspaper, another to Bryant for his paper, a + third to the New York Herald (because of its large circulation), and + a fourth to a highly respectable journal at Washington (the property + of a gentleman, and a fine fellow named Seaton, whom I knew there), + which I think is called the Intelligencer. Then the Knickerbocker + stepped into my mind, and then it occurred to me that possibly the + North American Review might be the best organ after all, because + indisputably the most respectable and honorable, and the most + concerned in the rights of literature. + + Whether to limit its publication to one journal, or to extend it to + several, is a question so very difficult of decision to a stranger, + that I have finally resolved to send these papers to you, and ask + you (mindful of the conversation we had on this head one day, in + that renowned oyster-cellar) to resolve the point for me. You need + feel no weighty sense of responsibility, my dear Felton, for + whatever you do is _sure_ to please me. If you see Sumner, take him + into our councils. The only two things to be borne in mind are, + first, that if they be published in several quarters, they must be + published in all _simultaneously_; secondly, that I hold them in + trust, to put them before the people. + + I fear this is imposing a heavy tax upon your friendship; and I + don't fear it the less, by reason of being well assured that it is + one you will most readily pay. I shall be in Montreal about the 11th + of May. Will you write to me there, to the care of the Earl of + Mulgrave, and tell me what you have done? + + So much for that. Bisness first, pleasure artervards, as King + Richard the Third said ven he stabbed the tother king in the Tower, + afore he murdered the babbies. + + I have long suspected that oysters have a rheumatic tendency. Their + feet are always wet; and so much damp company in a man's inside + cannot contribute to his peace. But whatever the cause of your + indisposition, we are truly grieved and pained to hear of it, and + should be more so, but that we hope from your account of that + farewell dinner, that you are all right again. I _did_ receive + Longfellow's note. Sumner I have not yet heard from; for which + reason I am constantly bringing telescopes to bear on the ferryboat, + in hopes to see him coming over, accompanied by a modest + portmanteau. + + To say anything about this wonderful place would be sheer nonsense. + It far exceeds my most sanguine expectations, though the impression + on my mind has been, from the first, nothing but beauty and peace. I + haven't drunk the water. Bearing in mind your caution, I have + devoted myself to beer, whereof there is an exceedingly pretty fall + in this house. + + One of the noble hearts who sat for the Cheeryble brothers is dead. + If I had been in England, I would certainly have gone into mourning + for the loss of such a glorious life. His brother is not expected to + survive him. I am told that it appears from a memorandum found among + the papers of the deceased, that in his lifetime he gave away in + charity £600,000, or three millions of dollars! + + What do you say to my _acting_ at the Montreal Theatre? I am an old + hand at such matters, and am going to join the officers of the + garrison in a public representation for the benefit of a local + charity. We shall have a good house, they say. I am going to enact + one Mr. Snobbington in a funny farce called A Good Night's Rest. I + shall want a flaxen wig and eyebrows; and my nightly rest is broken + by visions of there being no such commodities in Canada. I wake in + the dead of night in a cold perspiration, surrounded by imaginary + barbers, all denying the existence or possibility of obtaining such + articles. If ---- had a flaxen head, I would certainly have it + shaved and get a wig and eyebrows out of him, for a small pecuniary + compensation. + + By the by, if you could only have seen the man at Harrisburg, + crushing a friendly Quaker in the parlor door! It was the greatest + sight I ever saw. I had told him not to admit anybody whatever, + forgetting that I had previously given this honest Quaker a special + invitation to come. The Quaker would not be denied, and H. was + stanch. When I came upon them, the Quaker was black in the face, and + H. was administering the final squeeze. The Quaker was still rubbing + his waistcoat with an expression of acute inward suffering, when I + left the town. I have been looking for his death in the newspapers + almost daily. + + Do you know one General G.? He is a weazen-faced warrior, and in his + dotage. I had him for a fellow-passenger on board a steamboat. I had + also a statistical colonel with me, outside the coach from + Cincinnati to Columbus. A New England poet buzzed about me on the + Ohio, like a gigantic bee. A mesmeric doctor, of an impossibly great + age, gave me pamphlets at Louisville. I have suffered much, very + much. + + If I could get beyond New York to see anybody, it would be (as you + know) to see _you_. But I do not expect to reach the "Carlton" until + the last day of May, and then we are going with the Coldens + somewhere on the banks of the North River for a couple of days. So + you see we shall not have much leisure for our voyaging + preparations. + + You and Dr. Howe (to whom my love) MUST come to New York. On the 6th + of June, you must engage yourselves to dine with us at the + "Carlton"; and if we don't make a merry evening of it, the fault + shall not be in us. + + Mrs. Dickens unites with me in best regards to Mrs. Felton and your + little daughter, and I am always, my dear Felton, + + Affectionately your friend, + + CHARLES DICKENS. + + P.S. I saw a good deal of Walker at Cincinnati. I like him very + much. We took to him mightily at first, because he resembled you in + face and figure, we thought. You will be glad to hear that our news + from home is cheering from first to last, all well, happy, and + loving. My friend Forster says in his last letter that he "wants to + know you," and looks forward to Longfellow. + +When Dickens arrived in Montreal he had, it seems, a busy time of it, +and I have often heard of his capital acting in private theatricals +while in that city. + + Montreal, Saturday, 21st May, 1842. + + My Dear Felton: I was delighted to receive your letter yesterday, + and was well pleased with its contents. I anticipated objection to + Carlyle's letter. I called particular attention to it for three + reasons. Firstly, because he boldly _said_ what all the others + _think_, and therefore deserved to be manfully supported. Secondly, + because it is my deliberate opinion that I have been assailed on + this subject in a manner in which no man with any pretensions to + public respect or with the remotest right to express an opinion on + a subject of universal literary interest would be assailed in any + other country..... + + I really cannot sufficiently thank you, dear Felton, for your warm + and hearty interest in these proceedings. But it would be idle to + pursue that theme, so let it pass. + + The wig and whiskers are in a state of the highest preservation. The + play comes off next Wednesday night, the 25th. What would I give to + see you in the front row of the centre box, your spectacles gleaming + not unlike those of my dear friend Pickwick, your face radiant with + as broad a grin as a staid professor may indulge in, and your very + coat, waistcoat, and shoulders expressive of what we should take + together when the performance was over! I would give something (not + so much, but still a good round sum) if you could only stumble into + that very dark and dusty theatre in the daytime (at any minute + between twelve and three), and see me with my coat off, the stage + manager and universal director, urging impracticable ladies and + impossible gentlemen on to the very confines of insanity, shouting + and driving about, in my own person, to an extent which would + justify any philanthropic stranger in clapping me into a + strait-waistcoat without further inquiry, endeavoring to goad H. + into some dim and faint understanding of a prompter's duties, and + struggling in such a vortex of noise, dirt, bustle, confusion, and + inextricable entanglement of speech and action as you would grow + giddy in contemplating. We perform A Roland for an Oliver, A good + Night's Rest, and Deaf as a Post. This kind of voluntary hard labor + used to be my great delight. The _furor_ has come strong upon me + again, and I begin to be once more of opinion that nature intended + me for the lessee of a national theatre, and that pen, ink, and + paper have spoiled a manager. + + O, how I look forward across that rolling water to home and its + small tenantry! How I busy myself in thinking how my books look, and + where the tables are, and in what positions the chairs stand + relatively to the other furniture; and whether we shall get there in + the night, or in the morning, or in the afternoon; and whether we + shall be able to surprise them, or whether they will be too sharply + looking out for us; and what our pets will say; and how they'll + look, and who will be the first to come and shake hands, and so + forth! If I could but tell you how I have set my heart on rushing + into Forster's study (he is my great friend, and writes at the + bottom of all his letters, "My love to Felton"), and into Maclise's + painting-room, and into Macready's managerial ditto, without a + moment's warning, and how I picture every little trait and + circumstance of our arrival to myself, down to the very color of the + bow on the cook's cap, you would almost think I had changed places + with my eldest son, and was still in pantaloons of the thinnest + texture. I left all these things--God only knows what a love I have + for them--as coolly and calmly as any animated cucumber; but when I + come upon them again I shall have lost all power of self-restraint, + and shall as certainly make a fool of myself (in the popular meaning + of that expression) as ever Grimaldi did in his way, or George III. + in his. + + And not the less so, dear Felton, for having found some warm hearts, + and left some instalments of earnest and sincere affection, behind + me on this continent. And whenever I turn my mental telescope + hitherward, trust me that one of the first figures it will descry + will wear spectacles so like yours that the maker couldn't tell the + difference, and shall address a Greek class in such an exact + imitation of your voice, that the very students hearing it should + cry, "That's he! Three cheers. Hoo-ray-ay-ay-ay-ay!" + + About those joints of yours, I think you are mistaken. They _can't_ + be stiff. At the worst they merely want the air of New York, which, + being impregnated with the flavor of last year's oysters, has a + surprising effect in rendering the human frame supple and flexible + in all cases of rust. + + A terrible idea occurred to me as I wrote those words. The + oyster-cellars,--what do they do when oysters are not in season? Is + pickled salmon vended there? Do they sell crabs, shrimps, winkles, + herrings? The oyster-openers,--what do _they_ do? Do they commit + suicide in despair, or wrench open tight drawers and cupboards and + hermetically sealed bottles for practice? Perhaps they are dentists + out of the oyster season. Who knows? + + Affectionately yours, + + CHARLES DICKENS. + +Dickens always greatly rejoiced in the theatre; and, having seen him act +with the Amateur Company of the Guild of Literature and Art, I can well +imagine the delight his impersonations in Montreal must have occasioned. +I have seen him play Sir Charles Coldstream, in the comedy of Used Up, +with such perfection that all other performers in the same part have +seemed dull by comparison. Even Matthews, superb artist as he is, could +not rival Dickens in the character of Sir Charles. Once I saw Dickens, +Mark Lemon, and Wilkie Collins on the stage together. The play was +called Mrs. Nightingale's Diary (a farce in one act, the joint +production of Dickens and Mark Lemon), and Dickens played six characters +in the piece. Never have I seen such wonderful changes of face and form +as he gave us that night. He was alternately a rattling lawyer of the +Middle Temple, a boots, an eccentric pedestrian and cold-water drinker, +a deaf sexton, an invalid captain, and an old woman. What fun it was, to +be sure, and how we roared over the performance! Here is the playbill +which I held in my hand nineteen years ago, while the great writer was +proving himself to be as pre-eminent an actor as he was an author. One +can see by reading the bill that Dickens was manager of the company, and +that it was under his direction that the plays were produced. Observe +the clear evidence of his hand in the very wording of the bill:-- + + "On Wednesday evening, September 1, 1852. + + "THE AMATEUR COMPANY + OF THE + GUILD OF LITERATURE AND ART; + +To encourage Life Assurance and other provident habits among Authors +and Artists; to render such assistance to both as shall never +compromise their independence; and to found a new Institution where +honorable rest from arduous labors shall still be associated with +the discharge of congenial duties; + +"Will have the honor of presenting," etc., etc., + +But let us go on with the letters. Here is the first one to his friend +after Dickens arrived home again in England. It is delightful, through +and through. + + London, 1 Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regent's Park, Sunday, July + 31, 1842. + + My Dear Felton: Of all the monstrous and incalculable amount of + occupation that ever beset one unfortunate man, mine has been the + most stupendous since I came home. The dinners I have had to eat, + the places I have had to go to, the letters I have had to answer, + the sea of business and of pleasure in which I have been plunged, + not even the genius of an ---- or the pen of a ---- could describe. + + Wherefore I indite a monstrously short and wildly uninteresting + epistle to the American Dando, but perhaps you don't know who Dando + was. He was an oyster-eater, my dear Felton. He used to go into + oyster-shops, without a farthing of money, and stand at the counter + eating natives, until the man who opened them grew pale, cast down + his knife, staggered backward, struck his white forehead with his + open hand, and cried, "You are Dando!!!" He has been known to eat + twenty dozen at one sitting, and would have eaten forty, if the + truth had not flashed upon the shopkeeper. For these offences he was + constantly committed to the House of Correction. During his last + imprisonment he was taken ill, got worse and worse, and at last + began knocking violent double-knocks at Death's door. The doctor + stood beside his bed, with his fingers on his pulse. "He is going," + says the doctor. "I see it in his eye. There is only one thing that + would keep life in him for another hour, and that is--oysters." They + were immediately brought. Dando swallowed eight, and feebly took a + ninth. He held it in his mouth and looked round the bed strangely. + "Not a bad one, is it?" says the doctor. The patient shook his head, + rubbed his trembling hand upon his stomach, bolted the oyster, and + fell back--dead. They buried him in the prison yard, and paved his + grave with oyster-shells. + + We are all well and hearty, and have already begun to wonder what + time next year you and Mrs. Felton and Dr. Howe will come across the + briny sea together. To-morrow we go to the seaside for two months. I + am looking out for news of Longfellow, and shall be delighted when I + know that he is on his way to London and this house. + + I am bent upon striking at the piratical newspapers with the + sharpest edge I can put upon my small axe, and hope in the next + session of Parliament to stop their entrance into Canada. For the + first time within the memory of man, the professors of English + literature seem disposed to act together on this question. It is a + good thing to aggravate a scoundrel, if one can do nothing else, and + I think we can make them smart a little in this way.... + + I wish you had been at Greenwich the other day, where a party of + friends gave me a private dinner; public ones I have refused. C. was + perfectly wild at the reunion, and, after singing all manner of + marine songs, wound up the entertainment by coming home (six miles) + in a little open phaeton of mine, _on his head_, to the mingled + delight and indignation of the metropolitan police. We were very + jovial indeed; and I assure you that I drank your health with + fearful vigor and energy. + + On board that ship coming home I established a club, called the + United Vagabonds, to the large amusement of the rest of the + passengers. This holy brotherhood committed all kinds of + absurdities, and dined always, with a variety of solemn forms, at + one end of the table, below the mast, away from all the rest. The + captain being ill when we were three or four days out, I produced my + medicine-chest and recovered him. We had a few more sick men after + that, and I went round "the wards" every day in great state, + accompanied by two Vagabonds, habited as Ben Allen and Bob Sawyer, + bearing enormous rolls of plaster and huge pairs of scissors. We + were really very merry all the way, breakfasted in one party at + Liverpool, shook hands, and parted most cordially.... + + Affectionately + + Your faithful friend, + + C.D. + + P.S. I have looked over my journal, and have decided to produce my + American trip in two volumes. I have written about half the first + since I came home, and hope to be out in October. This is "exclusive + news," to be communicated to any friends to whom you may like to + intrust it, my dear F. + +What a capital epistolary pen Dickens held! He seems never to have +written the shortest note without something piquant in it; and when he +attempted a _letter_, he always made it entertaining from sheer force of +habit. + +When I think of this man, and all the lasting good and abounding +pleasure he has brought into the world, I wonder at the superstition +that dares to arraign him. A sound philosopher once said: "He that +thinks any innocent pastime foolish has either to grow wiser, or is past +the ability to do so"; and I have always counted it an impudent fiction +that playfulness is inconsistent with greatness. Many men and women have +died of Dignity, but the disease which sent them to the tomb was not +contracted from Charles Dickens. Not long ago, I met in the street a +bleak old character, full of dogmatism, egotism, and rheumatism, who +complained that Dickens had "too much exuberant sociality" in his books +for _him_, and he wondered how any one could get through Pickwick. My +solemn friend evidently preferred the dropping-down-deadness of manner, +which he had been accustomed to find in Hervey's "Meditations," and +other kindred authors, where it always seems to be urged that life would +be endurable but for its pleasures. A person once commended to my +acquaintance an individual whom he described as "a fine, pompous, +gentlemanly man," and I thought it prudent, under the circumstances, to +decline the proffered introduction. + +But I will proceed with those outbursts of bright-heartedness vouchsafed +to us in Dickens's letters. To me these epistles are good as fresh +"Uncommercials," or unpublished "Sketches by Boz." + + 1 Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regent's Park, London, 1st + September, 1842. + + My Dear Felton: Of course that letter in the papers was as foul a + forgery as ever felon swung for.... I have not contradicted it + publicly, nor shall I. When I tilt at such wringings out of the + dirtiest mortality, I shall be another man--indeed, almost the + creature they would make me. + + I gave your message to Forster, who sends a despatch-box full of + kind remembrances in return. He is in a great state of delight with + the first volume of my American book (which I have just finished), + and swears loudly by it. It is _True_, and Honorable I know, and I + shall hope to send it you, complete, by the first steamer in + November. + + Your description of the porter and the carpet-bags prepares me for a + first-rate facetious novel, brimful of the richest humor, on which I + have no doubt you are engaged. What is it called? Sometimes I + imagine the title-page thus:-- + + OYSTERS + IN + EVERY STYLE + or + OPENINGS + OF + LIFE + by + YOUNG DANDO. + + As to the man putting the luggage on his head, as a sort of sign, I + adopt it from this hour. + + I date this from London, where I have come, as a good, profligate, + graceless bachelor, for a day or two; leaving my wife and babbies at + the seaside.... Heavens! if you were but here at this minute! A + piece of salmon and a steak are cooking in the kitchen; it's a very + wet day, and I have had a fire lighted; the wine sparkles on a + side-table; the room looks the more snug from being the only + undismantled one in the house; plates are warming for Forster and + Maclise, whose knock I am momentarily expecting; that groom I told + you of, who never comes into the house, except when we are all out + of town, is walking about in his shirt-sleeves without the smallest + consciousness of impropriety; a great mound of proofs are waiting to + be read aloud, after dinner. With what a shout I would clap you down + into the easiest chair, my genial Felton, if you would but appear, + and order you a pair of slippers instantly! + + Since I have written this, the aforesaid groom--a very small man (as + the fashion is) with fiery-red hair (as the fashion is _not_)--has + looked very hard at me and fluttered about me at the same time, like + a giant butterfly. After a pause, he says, in a Sam Wellerish kind + of way: "I vent to the club this mornin', sir. There vorn't no + letters, sir." "Very good. Topping." "How's missis, sir?" "Pretty + well, Topping." "Glad to hear it, sir. My missis ain't wery well, + sir." "No!" "No, sir, she's a goin', sir, to have a hincrease wery + soon, and it makes her rather nervous, sir; and ven a young voman + gets at all down at sich a time, sir, she goes down wery deep, sir." + To this sentiment I reply affirmatively, and then he adds, as he + stirs the fire (as if he were thinking out loud), "Wot a mystery it + is! Wot a go is natur'!" With which scrap of philosophy, he + gradually gets nearer to the door, and so fades out of the room. + This same man asked me one day, soon after I came home, what Sir + John Wilson was. This is a friend of mine, who took our house and + servants, and everything as it stood, during our absence in America. + I told him an officer. "A wot, sir?" "An officer." And then, for + fear he should think I meant a police-officer, I added, "An officer + in the army." "I beg your pardon, sir," he said, touching his hat, + "but the club as I always drove him to wos the United Servants." + + The real name of this club is the United Service, but I have no + doubt he thought it was a high-life-below-stairs kind of resort, and + that this gentleman was a retired butler or superannuated footman. + + There's the knock, and the Great Western sails, or steams rather, + to-morrow. Write soon again, dear Felton, and ever believe me, ... + + Your affectionate friend, + + CHARLES DICKENS. + + P.S. All good angels prosper Dr. Howe. He, at least, will not like + me the less, I hope, for what I shall say of Laura. + + + London, 1 Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regent's Park, 31st + December, 1842. + + My Dear Felton: Many and many happy New Years to you and yours! As + many happy children as may be quite convenient (no more)! and as + many happy meetings between them and our children, and between you + and us, as the kind fates in their utmost kindness shall favorably + decree! + + The American book (to begin with that) has been a most complete and + thorough-going success. Four large editions have now been sold _and + paid for_, and it has won golden opinions from all sorts of men, + except our friend in F----, who is a miserable creature; a + disappointed man in great poverty, to whom I have ever been most + kind and considerate (I need scarcely say that); and another friend + in B----, no less a person than an illustrious gentleman named ----, + who wrote a story called ----. They have done no harm, and have + fallen short of their mark, which, of course, was to annoy me. Now I + am perfectly free from any diseased curiosity in such respects, and + whenever I hear of a notice of this kind, I never read it; whereby I + always conceive (don't you?) that I get the victory. With regard to + your slave-owners, they may cry, till they are as black in the face + as their own slaves, that Dickens lies. Dickens does not write for + their satisfaction, and Dickens will not explain for their comfort. + Dickens has the name and date of every newspaper in which every one + of those advertisements appeared, as they know perfectly well; but + Dickens does not choose to give them, and will not at any time + between this and the day of judgment.... + + I have been hard at work on my new book, of which the first number + has just appeared. The Paul Joneses who pursue happiness and profit + at other men's cost will no doubt enable you to read it, almost as + soon as you receive this. I hope you will like it. And I + particularly commend, my dear Felton, one Mr. Pecksniff and his + daughters to your tender regards. I have a kind of liking for them + myself. + + Blessed star of morning, such a trip as we had into Cornwall, just + after Longfellow went away! The "we" means Forster, Maclise, + Stanfield (the renowned marine painter), and the Inimitable Boz. We + went down into Devonshire by the railroad, and there we hired an + open carriage from an innkeeper, patriotic in all Pickwick matters, + and went on with post horses. Sometimes we travelled all night, + sometimes all day, sometimes both. I kept the joint-stock purse, + ordered all the dinners, paid all the turnpikes, conducted facetious + conversations with the post boys, and regulated the pace at which we + travelled. Stanfield (an old sailor) consulted an enormous map on + all disputed points of wayfaring; and referred, moreover, to a + pocket-compass and other scientific instruments. The luggage was in + Forster's department; and Maclise, having nothing particular to do, + sang songs. Heavens! If you could have seen the necks of + bottles--distracting in their immense varieties of shape--peering + out of the carriage pockets! If you could have witnessed the deep + devotion of the post-boys, the wild attachment of the hostlers, the + maniac glee of the waiters. If you could have followed us into the + earthy old churches we visited, and into the strange caverns on the + gloomy sea-shore, and down into the depths of mines, and up to the + tops of giddy heights where the unspeakably green water was roaring, + I don't know how many hundred feet below! If you could have seen but + one gleam of the bright fires by which we sat in the big rooms of + ancient inns at night, until long after the small hours had come and + gone, or smelt but one steam of the HOT punch (not white, dear + Felton, like that amazing compound I sent you a taste of, but a + rich, genial, glowing brown) which came in every evening in a huge + broad china bowl! I never laughed in my life as I did on this + journey. It would have done you good to hear me. I was choking and + gasping and bursting the buckle off the back of my stock, all the + way. And Stanfield (who is very much of your figure and temperament, + but fifteen years older) got into such apoplectic entanglements + that we were often obliged to beat him on the back with portmanteaus + before we could recover him. Seriously, I do believe there never was + such a trip. And they made such sketches, those two men, in the most + romantic of our halting-places, that you would have sworn we had the + Spirit of Beauty with us, as well as the Spirit of Fun. But stop + till you come to England,--I say no more. + + The actuary of the national debt couldn't calculate the number of + children who are coming here on Twelfth Night, in honor of Charley's + birthday, for which occasion I have provided a magic lantern and + divers other tremendous engines of that nature. But the best of it + is that Forster and I have purchased between us the entire stock in + trade of a conjurer, the practice and display whereof is intrusted + to me. And O my dear eyes, Felton, if you could see me conjuring the + company's watches into impossible tea-caddies, and causing pieces of + money to fly, and burning pocket-handkerchiefs without hurting 'em, + and practising in my own room, without anybody to admire, you would + never forget as long as you live. In those tricks which require a + confederate, I am assisted (by reason of his imperturbable + good-humor) by Stanfield, who always does his part exactly the wrong + way, to the unspeakable delight of all beholders. We come out on a + small scale, to-night, at Forster's, where we see the old year out + and the new one in. Particulars of shall be forwarded in my next. + + I have quite made up my mind that F---- really believes he _does_ + know you personally, and has all his life. He talks to me about you + with such gravity that I am afraid to grin, and feel it necessary to + look quite serious. Sometimes he _tells_ me things about you, + doesn't ask me, you know, so that I am occasionally perplexed beyond + all telling, and begin to think it was he, and not I, who went to + America. It's the queerest thing in the world. + + The book I was to have given Longfellow for you is not worth sending + by itself, being only a Barnaby. But I will look up some manuscript + for you (I think I have that of the American Notes complete), and + will try to make the parcel better worth its long conveyance. With + regard to Maclise's pictures, you certainly are quite right in your + impression of them; but he is "such a discursive devil" (as he says + about himself), and flies off at such odd tangents, that I feel it + difficult to convey to you any general notion of his purpose. I will + try to do so when I write again. I want very much to know about ---- + and that charming girl..... Give me full particulars. Will you + remember me cordially to Sumner, and say I thank him for his + welcome letter? The like to Hillard, with many regards to himself + and his wife, with whom I had one night a little conversation which + I shall not readily forget. The like to Washington Allston, and all + friends who care for me and have outlived my book.... Always, my + dear Felton, + + With true regard and affection, yours, + + CHARLES DICKENS. + +Here is a letter that seems to me something tremendous in its fun and +pathos:-- + + + 1 Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regent's Park, London, 2d March, + 1843. + + My Dear Felton: I don't know where to begin, but plunge headlong + with a terrible splash into this letter, on the chance of turning up + somewhere. + + Hurrah! Up like a cork again, with the "North American Review" in my + hand. Like you, my dear ----, and I can say no more in praise of it, + though I go on to the end of the sheet. You cannot think how much + notice it has attracted here. Brougham called the other day, with + the number (thinking I might not have seen it), and I being out at + the time, he left a note, speaking of it, and of the writer, in + terms that warmed my heart. Lord Ashburton (one of whose people + wrote a notice in the "Edinburgh," which they have since publicly + contradicted) also wrote to me about it in just the same strain. And + many others have done the like. + + I am in great health and spirits and powdering away at Chuzzlewit, + with all manner of facetiousness rising up before me as I go on. As + to news, I have really none, saving that ---- (who never took any + exercise in his life) has been laid up with rheumatism for weeks + past, but is now, I hope, getting better. My little captain, as I + call him,--he who took me out, I mean, and with whom I had that + adventure of the cork soles,--has been in London too, and seeing all + the lions under my escort. Good heavens! I wish you could have seen + certain other mahogany-faced men (also captains) who used to call + here for him in the morning, and bear him off to docks and rivers + and all sorts of queer places, whence he always returned late at + night, with rum-and-water tear-drops in his eyes, and a complication + of punchy smells in his mouth! He was better than a comedy to us, + having marvellous ways of tying his pocket-handkerchief round his + neck at dinner-time in a kind of jolly embarrassment, and then + forgetting what he had done with it; also of singing songs to wrong + tunes, and calling land objects by sea names, and never knowing + what o'clock it was, but taking midnight for seven in the evening; + with many other sailor oddities, all full of honesty, manliness, and + good temper. We took him to Drury Lane Theatre to see Much Ado About + Nothing. But I never could find out what he meant by turning round, + after he had watched the first two scenes with great attention, and + inquiring "whether it was a Polish piece." ... + + On the 4th of April I am going to preside at a public dinner for the + benefit of the printers; and if you were a guest at that table, + wouldn't I smite you on the shoulder, harder than ever I rapped the + well-beloved back of Washington Irving at the City Hotel in New + York! + + You were asking me--I love to say asking, as if we could talk + together--about Maclise. He is such a discursive fellow, and so + eccentric in his might, that on a mental review of his pictures I + can hardly tell you of them as leading to any one strong purpose. + But the annual Exhibition of the Royal Academy comes off in May, and + then I will endeavor to give you some notion of him. He is a + tremendous creature, and might do anything. But, like all tremendous + creatures, he takes his own way, and flies off at unexpected + breaches in the conventional wall. + + You know H----'s Book, I daresay. Ah! I saw a scene of mingled + comicality and seriousness at his funeral some weeks ago, which has + choked me at dinner-time ever since. C---- and I went as mourners; + and as he lived, poor fellow, five miles out of town, I drove C---- + down. It was such a day as I hope, for the credit of nature, is + seldom seen in any parts but these,--muddy, foggy, wet, dark, cold, + and unutterably wretched in every possible respect. Now, C---- has + enormous whiskers, which straggle all down his throat in such + weather, and stick out in front of him, like a partially unravelled + bird's-nest; so that he looks queer enough at the best, but when he + is very wet, and in a state between jollity (he is always very jolly + with me) and the deepest gravity (going to a funeral, you know), it + is utterly impossible to resist him; especially as he makes the + strangest remarks the mind of man can conceive, without any + intention of being funny, but rather meaning to be philosophical. I + really cried with an irresistible sense of his comicality all the + way; but when he was dressed out in a black cloak and a very long + black hat-band by an undertaker (who, as he whispered me with tears + in his eyes--for he had known H---- many years--was "a character, + and he would like to sketch him"), I thought I should have been + obliged to go away. However, we went into a little parlor where the + funeral party was, and God knows it was miserable enough, for the + widow and children were crying bitterly in one corner, and the other + mourners--mere people of ceremony, who cared no more for the dead + man than the hearse did--were talking quite coolly and carelessly + together in another; and the contrast was as painful and distressing + as anything I ever saw. There was an independent clergyman present, + with his bands on and a Bible under his arm, who, as soon as we were + seated, addressed ---- thus, in a loud, emphatic voice: "Mr. C----, + have you seen a paragraph respecting our departed friend, which has + gone the round of the morning papers?" "Yes, sir," says C----, "I + have," looking very hard at me the while, for he had told me with + some pride coming down that it was his composition. "Oh!" said the + clergyman. "Then you will agree with me, Mr. C----, that it is not + only an insult to me, who am the servant of the Almighty, but an + insult to the Almighty, whose servant I am." "How is that, sir?" + said C----. "It is stated, Mr. C----, in that paragraph," says the + minister, "that when Mr. H---- failed in business as a bookseller, + he was persuaded by _me_ to try the pulpit, which is false, + incorrect, unchristian, in a manner blasphemous, and in all respects + contemptible. Let us pray." With which, my dear Felton, and in the + same breath, I give you my word, he knelt down, as we all did, and + began a very miserable jumble of an extemporary prayer. I was really + penetrated with sorrow for the family, but when C---- (upon his + knees, and sobbing for the loss of an old friend) whispered me, + "that if that wasn't a clergyman, and it wasn't a funeral, he'd have + punched his head," I felt as if nothing but convulsions could + possibly relieve me..... + + Faithfully always, my dear Felton, + + C.D. + +Was there ever such a genial, jovial creature as this master of humor! +When we read his friendly epistles, we cannot help wishing he had +written letters only, as when we read his novels we grudge the time he +employed on anything else. + + Broadstairs, Kent, 1st September, 1843. + + My Dear Felton: If I thought it in the nature of things that you and + I could ever agree on paper, touching a certain Chuzzlewitian + question whereupon F---- tells me you have remarks to make, I should + immediately walk into the same, tooth and nail. But as I don't, I + won't. Contenting myself with this prediction, that one of these + years and days, you will write or say to me, "My dear Dickens, you + were right, though rough, and did a world of good, though you got + most thoroughly hated for it." To which I shall reply, "My dear + Felton, I looked a long way off and not immediately under my nose." + ... At which sentiment you will laugh, and I shall laugh; and then + (for I foresee this will all happen in my land) we shall call for + another pot of porter and two or three dozen of oysters. + + Now don't you in your own heart and soul quarrel with me for this + long silence? Not half so much as I quarrel with myself, I know; but + if you could read half the letters I write to you in imagination, + you would swear by me for the best of correspondents. The truth is, + that when I have done my morning's work, down goes my pen, and from + that minute I feel it a positive impossibility to take it up again, + until imaginary butchers and bakers wave me to my desk. I walk about + brimful of letters, facetious descriptions, touching morsels, and + pathetic friendships, but can't for the soul of me uncork myself. + The post-office is my rock ahead. My average number of letters that + _must_ be written every day is, at the least, a dozen. And you could + no more know what I was writing to you spiritually, from the perusal + of the bodily thirteenth, than you could tell from my hat what was + going on in my head, or could read my heart on the surface of my + flannel waistcoat. + + This is a little fishing-place; intensely quiet; built on a cliff + whereon--in the centre of a tiny semicircular bay--our house stands; + the sea rolling and dashing under the windows. Seven miles out are + the Goodwin Sands, (you've heard of the Goodwin Sands?) whence + floating lights perpetually wink after dark, as if they were + carrying on intrigues with the servants. Also there is a big + lighthouse called the North Foreland on a hill behind the village, a + severe parsonic light, which reproves the young and giddy floaters, + and stares grimly out upon the sea. Under the cliff are rare good + sands, where all the children assemble every morning and throw up + impossible fortifications, which the sea throws down again at high + water. Old gentlemen and ancient ladies flirt after their own manner + in two reading-rooms and on a great many scattered seats in the open + air. Other old gentlemen look all day through telescopes and never + see anything. In a bay-window in a one pair sits from nine o'clock + to one a gentleman with rather long hair and no neckcloth, who + writes and grins as if he thought he were very funny indeed. His + name is Boz. At one he disappears, and presently emerges from a + bathing-machine, and may be seen--a kind of salmon-colored + porpoise--splashing about in the ocean. After that he may be seen + in another bay-window on the ground-floor, eating a strong lunch; + after that, walking a dozen miles or so, or lying on his back in the + sand reading a book. Nobody bothers him unless they know he is + disposed to be talked to; and I am told he is very comfortable + indeed. He's as brown as a berry, and they _do_ say is a small + fortune to the innkeeper who sells beer and cold punch. But this is + mere rumor. Sometimes he goes up to London (eighty miles, or so, + away), and then I'm told there is a sound in Lincoln Inn Fields at + night, as of men laughing, together with a clinking of knives and + forks and wine-glasses. + + I never shall have been so near you since we parted aboard the + George Washington as next Tuesday. Forster, Maclise, and I, and + perhaps Stanfield, are then going aboard the Cunard steamer at + Liverpool, to bid Macready good by, and bring his wife away. It will + be a very hard parting. You will see and know him of course. We gave + him a splendid dinner last Saturday at Richmond, whereat I presided + with my accustomed grace. He is one of the noblest fellows in the + world, and I would give a great deal that you and I should sit + beside each other to see him play Virginius, Lear, or Werner, which + I take to be, every way, the greatest piece of exquisite perfection + that his lofty art is capable of attaining. His Macbeth, especially + the last act, is a tremendous reality; but so indeed is almost + everything he does. You recollect, perhaps, that he was the guardian + of our children while we were away. I love him dearly.... + + You asked me, long ago, about Maclise. He is such a wayward fellow + in his subjects, that it would be next to impossible to write such + an article as you were thinking of about him. I wish you could form + an idea of his genius. One of these days a book will come out, + "Moore's Irish Melodies," entirely illustrated by him, on every + page. _When_ it comes, I'll send it to you. You will have some + notion of him then. He is in great favor with the queen, and paints + secret pictures for her to put upon her husband's table on the + morning of his birthday, and the like. But if he has a care, he will + leave his mark on more enduring things than palace walls. + + And so L---- is married. I remember _her_ well, and could draw her + portrait, in words, to the life. A very beautiful and gentle + creature, and a proper love for a poet. My cordial remembrances and + congratulations. Do they live in the house where we breakfasted?.... + + I very often dream I am in America again; but, strange to say, I + never dream of you. I am always endeavoring to get home in disguise, + and have a dreary sense of the distance. _Apropos_ of dreams, is it + not a strange thing if writers of fiction never dream of their own + creations; recollecting, I suppose, even in their dreams, that they + have no real existence? _I_ never dreamed of any of my own + characters, and I feel it so impossible that I would wager Scott + never did of his, real as they are. I had a good piece of absurdity + in my head a night or two ago. I dreamed that somebody was dead. I + don't know who, but it's not to the purpose. It was a private + gentleman, and a particular friend; and I was greatly overcome when + the news was broken to me (very delicately) by a gentleman in a + cocked hat, top boots, and a sheet. Nothing else. "Good God!" I + said, "is he dead?" "He is as dead, sir," rejoined the gentleman, + "as a door-nail. But we must all die, Mr. Dickens; sooner or later, + my dear sir." "Ah!" I said. "Yes, to be sure. Very true. But what + did he die of?" The gentleman burst into a flood of tears, and said, + in a voice broken by emotion: "He christened his youngest child, + sir, with a toasting-fork." I never in my life was so affected as at + his having fallen a victim to this complaint. It carried a + conviction to my mind that he never could have recovered. I knew + that it was the most interesting and fatal malady in the world; and + I wrung the gentleman's hand in a convulsion of respectful + admiration, for I felt that this explanation did equal honor to his + head and heart! + + What do you think of Mrs. Gamp? And how do you like the undertaker? + I have a fancy that they are in your way. O heaven! such green woods + as I was rambling among down in Yorkshire, when I was getting that + done last July! For days and weeks we never saw the sky but through + green boughs; and all day long I cantered over such soft moss and + turf, that the horse's feet scarcely made a sound upon it. We have + some friends in that part of the country (close to Castle Howard, + where Lord Morpeth's father dwells in state, _in_ his park indeed), + who are the jolliest of the jolly, keeping a big old country house, + with an ale cellar something larger than a reasonable church, and + everything like Goldsmith's bear dances, "in a concatenation + accordingly." Just the place for you, Felton! We performed some + madnesses there in the way of forfeits, picnics, rustic games, + inspections of ancient monasteries at midnight, when the moon was + shining, that would have gone to your heart, and, as Mr. Weller + says, "come out on the other side." ... + + Write soon, my dear Felton; and if I write to you less often than I + would, believe that my affectionate heart is with you always. Loves + and regards to all friends, from yours ever and ever, + + CHARLES DICKENS. + +These letters grow better and better as we get on. Ah me! and to think +we shall have no more from that delightful pen! + + Devonshire Terrace, London, January 2, 1844. + + My Very Dear Felton: You are a prophet, and had best retire from + business straightway. Yesterday morning, New Year's day, when I + walked into my little workroom after breakfast, and was looking out + of window at the snow in the garden,--not seeing it particularly + well in consequence of some staggering suggestions of last night, + whereby I was beset,--the postman came to the door with a knock, for + which I denounced him from my heart. Seeing your hand upon the cover + of a letter which he brought, I immediately blessed him, presented + him with a glass of whiskey, inquired after his family (they are all + well), and opened the despatch with a moist and oystery twinkle in + my eye. And on the very day from which the new year dates, I read + your New Year congratulations as punctually as if you lived in the + next house. Why don't you? + + Now, if instantly on the receipt of this you will send a free and + independent citizen down to the Cunard wharf at Boston, you will + find that Captain Hewett, of the Britannia steamship (my ship), has + a small parcel for Professor Felton of Cambridge; and in that parcel + you will find a Christmas Carol in prose; being a short story of + Christmas by Charles Dickens. Over which Christmas Carol Charles + Dickens wept and laughed and wept again, and excited himself in a + most extraordinary manner in the composition; and thinking whereof + he walked about the black streets of London, fifteen and twenty + miles, many a night when all the sober folks had gone to bed.... Its + success is most prodigious. And by every post all manner of + strangers write all manner of letters to him about their homes and + hearths, and how this same Carol is read aloud there, and kept on a + little shelf by itself. Indeed, it is the greatest success, as I am + told, that this ruffian and rascal has ever achieved. + + Forster is out again; and if he don't go in again, after the manner + in which we have been keeping Christmas, he must be very strong + indeed. Such dinings, such dancings, such conjurings, such + blindman's-buffings, such theatre-goings, such kissings-out of old + years and kissings-in of new ones, never took place in these parts + before. To keep the Chuzzlewit going, and do this little book, the + Carol, in the odd times between two parts of it, was, as you may + suppose, pretty tight work. But when it was done I broke out like a + madman. And if you could have seen me at a children's party at + Macready's the other night, going down a country dance with Mrs. + M., you would have thought I was a country gentleman of independent + property, residing on a tiptop farm, with the wind blowing straight + in my face every day.... + + Your friend, Mr. P----, dined with us one day (I don't know whether + I told you this before), and pleased us very much. Mr. C---- has + dined here once, and spent an evening here. I have not seen him + lately, though he has called twice or thrice; for K----being unwell + and I busy, we have not been visible at our accustomed seasons. I + wonder whether H---- has fallen in your way. Poor H----! He was a + good fellow, and has the most grateful heart I ever met with. Our + journeyings seem to be a dream now. Talking of dreams, strange + thoughts of Italy and France, and maybe Germany, are springing up + within me as the Chuzzlewit clears off. It's a secret I have hardly + breathed to any one, but I "think" of leaving England for a year, + next midsummer, bag and baggage, little ones and all,--then coming + out with _such_ a story, Felton, all at once, no parts, + sledge-hammer blow. + + I send you a Manchester paper, as you desire. The report is not + exactly done, but very well done, notwithstanding. It was a very + splendid sight, I assure you, and an awful-looking audience. I am + going to preside at a similar meeting at Liverpool on the 26th of + next month, and on my way home I may be obliged to preside at + another at Birmingham. I will send you papers, if the reports be at + all like the real thing. + + I wrote to Prescott about his book, with which I was perfectly + charmed. I think his descriptions masterly, his style brilliant, his + purpose manly and gallant always. The introductory account of Aztec + civilization impressed me exactly as it impressed you. From + beginning to end, the whole history is enchanting and full of + genius. I only wonder that, having such an opportunity of + illustrating the doctrine of visible judgments, he never remarks, + when Cortes and his men tumble the idols down the temple steps and + call upon the people to take notice that their gods are powerless to + help themselves, that possibly if some intelligent native had + tumbled down the image of the Virgin or patron saint after them + nothing very remarkable might have ensued in consequence. + + Of course you like Macready. Your name's Felton. I wish you could + see him play Lear. It is stupendously terrible. But I suppose he + would be slow to act it with the Boston company. + + Hearty remembrances to Sumner, Longfellow, Prescott, and all whom + you know I love to remember. Countless happy years to you and + yours, my dear Felton, and some instalment of them, however slight, + in England, in the loving company of + + THE PROSCRIBED ONE. + + O, breathe not his name. + + * * * * * + +Here is a portfolio of Dickens's letters, written to me from time to +time during the past ten years. As long ago as the spring of 1858 I +began to press him very hard to come to America and give us a course of +readings from his works. At that time I had never heard him read in +public, but the fame of his wonderful performances rendered me eager to +have my own country share in the enjoyment of them. Being in London in +the summer of 1859, and dining with him one day in his town residence, +Tavistock House, Tavistock Square, we had much talk in a corner of his +library about coming to America. I thought him over-sensitive with +regard to his reception here, and I tried to remove any obstructions +that might exist in his mind at that time against a second visit across +the Atlantic. I followed up our conversation with a note setting forth +the certainty of his success among his Transatlantic friends, and urging +him to decide on a visit during the year. He replied to me, dating from +"Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent." + + "I write to you from my little Kentish country house, on the very + spot where Falstaff ran away. + + "I cannot tell you how very much obliged to you I feel for your kind + suggestion, and for the perfectly frank and unaffected manner in + which it is conveyed to me. + + "It touches, I will admit to you frankly, a chord that has several + times sounded in my breast, since I began my readings. I should very + much like to read in America. But the idea is a mere dream as yet. + Several strong reasons would make the journey difficult to me, + and--even were they overcome--I would never make it, unless I had + great general reason to believe that the American people really + wanted to hear me. + + "Through the whole of this autumn I shall be reading in various + parts of England, Ireland, and Scotland. I mention this, in + reference to the closing paragraph of your esteemed favor. + + "Allow me once again to thank you most heartily, and to remain, + + "Gratefully and faithfully yours, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +Early in the month of July, 1859, I spent a day with him in his +beautiful country retreat in Kent. He drove me about the leafy lanes in +his basket wagon, pointing out the lovely spots belonging to his +friends, and ending with a visit to the ruins of Rochester Castle. We +climbed up the time-worn walls and leaned out of the ivied windows, +looking into the various apartments below. I remember how vividly he +reproduced a probable scene in the great old banqueting-room, and how +graphically he imagined the life of _ennui_ and every-day tediousness +that went on in those lazy old times. I recall his fancy picture of the +dogs stretched out before the fire, sleeping and snoring with their +masters. That day he seemed to revel in the past, and I stood by, +listening almost with awe to his impressive voice, as he spoke out whole +chapters of a romance destined never to be written. On our way back to +Gad's Hill Place, he stopped in the road, I remember, to have a crack +with a gentleman who he told me was a son of Sydney Smith. The only +other guest at his table that day was Wilkie Collins; and after dinner +we three went out and lay down on the grass, while Dickens showed off a +raven that was hopping about, and told anecdotes of the bird and of his +many predecessors. We also talked about his visiting America, I putting +as many spokes as possible into that favorite wheel of mine. A day or +two after I returned to London I received this note from him:-- + + "...Only to say that I heartily enjoyed our day, and shall long + remember it. Also that I have been perpetually repeating the ---- + experience (of a more tremendous sort in the way of ghastly + comicality, experience there is none) on the grass, on my back. + Also, that I have not forgotten Cobbett. Also, that I shall trouble + you at greater length when the mysterious oracle, of New York, + pronounces. + + "Wilkie Collins begs me to report that he declines pale horse, and + all other horse exercise--and all exercise, except eating, drinking, + smoking, and sleeping--in the dog days. + + "With united kind regards, believe me always cordially yours, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +An agent had come out from New York with offers to induce him to arrange +for a speedy visit to America, and Dickens was then waiting to see the +man who had been announced as on his way to him. He was evidently giving +the subject serious consideration, for on the 20th of July he sends me +this note:-- + + "As I have not yet heard from Mr. ---- of New York, I begin to think + it likely (or, rather, I begin to think it more likely than I + thought it before) that he has not backers good and sufficient, and + that his 'mission' will go off. It is possible that I may hear from + him before the month is out, and I shall not make any reading + arrangements until it has come to a close; but I do not regard it as + being very probable that the said ---- will appear satisfactorily, + either in the flesh or the spirit. + + "Now, considering that it would be August before I could move in the + matter, that it would be indispensably necessary to choose some + business connection and have some business arrangements made in + America, and that I am inclined to think it would not be easy to + originate and complete all the necessary preparations for beginning + in October, I want your kind advice on the following points:-- + + "1. Suppose I postponed the idea for a year. + + "2. Suppose I postponed it until after Christmas. + + "3. Suppose I sent some trusty person out to America _now_, to + negotiate with some sound, responsible, trustworthy man of business + in New York, accustomed to public undertakings of such a nature; my + negotiator being fully empowered to conclude any arrangements with + him that might appear, on consultation, best. + + "Have you any idea of any such person to whom you could recommend + me? Or of any such agent here? I only want to see my way distinctly, + and to have it prepared before me, out in the States. Now, I will + make no apology for troubling you, because I thoroughly rely on your + interest and kindness. + + "I am at Gad's Hill, except on Tuesdays and the greater part of + Wednesdays. + + "With kind regards, very faithfully yours, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +Various notes passed between us after this, during my stay in London in +1859. On the 6th of August he writes:-- + + "I have considered the subject in every way, and have consulted with + the few friends to whom I ever refer my doubts, and whose judgment + is in the main excellent. I have (this is between ourselves) come to + the conclusion _that I will not go now_. + + "A year hence I may revive the matter, and your presence in America + will then be a great encouragement and assistance to me. I shall see + you (at least I count upon doing so) at my house in town before you + turn your face towards the locked-up house; and we will then, + reversing Macbeth, 'proceed further in this business.' ... + + "Believe me always (and here I forever renounce 'Mr.,' as having + anything whatever to do with our communication, and as being a mere + preposterous interloper), + + "Faithfully yours, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +When I arrived in Rome, early in 1860, one of the first letters I +received from London was from him. The project of coming to America was +constantly before him, and he wrote to me that he should have a great +deal to say when I came back to England in the spring; but the plan fell +through, and he gave up all hope of crossing the water again. However, I +did not let the matter rest; and when I returned home I did not cease, +year after year, to keep the subject open in my communications with him. +He kept a watchful eye on what was going forward in America, both in +literature and politics. During the war, of course, both of us gave up +our correspondence about the readings. He was actively engaged all over +Great Britain in giving his marvellous entertainments, and there +certainly was no occasion for his travelling elsewhere. In October, +1862, I sent him the proof-sheets of an article, that was soon to appear +in the Atlantic Monthly, on "Blind Tom," and on receipt of it he sent me +a letter, from which this is an extract:-- + + "I have read that affecting paper you have had the kindness to send + me, with strong interest and emotion. You may readily suppose that I + have been most glad and ready to avail myself of your permission to + print it. I have placed it in our Number made up to-day, which will + be published on the 18th of this month,--well before you,--as you + desire. + + "Think of reading in America? Lord bless you, I think of reading in + the deepest depth of the lowest crater in the Moon, on my way there! + + "There is no sun-picture of my Falstaff House as yet; but it shall + be done, and you shall have it. It has been much improved internally + since you saw it.... + + "I expect Macready at Gad's Hill on Saturday. You know that his + second wife (an excellent one) presented him lately with a little + boy? I was staying with him for a day or two last winter, and, + seizing an umbrella when he had the audacity to tell me he was + growing old, made at him with Macduff's defiance. Upon which he fell + into the old fierce guard, with the desperation of thirty years ago. + + "Kind remembrances to all friends who kindly remember me. + + "Ever heartily yours, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +Every time I had occasion to write to him after the war, I stirred up +the subject of the readings. On the 2d of May, 1866, he says:-- + + "Your letter is an excessively difficult one to answer, because I + really do not know that any sum of money that could be laid down + would induce me to cross the Atlantic to read. Nor do I think it + likely that any one on your side of the great water can be prepared + to understand the state of the case. For example, I am now just + finishing a series of thirty readings. The crowds attending them + have been so astounding, and the relish for them has so far outgone + all previous experience, that if I were to set myself the task, 'I + will make such or such a sum of money by devoting myself to readings + for a certain time,' I should have to go no further than Bond + Street or Regent Street, to have it secured to me in a day. + Therefore, if a specific offer, and a very large one indeed, were + made to me from America, I should naturally ask myself, 'Why go + through this wear and tear, merely to pluck fruit that grows on + every bough at home?' It is a delightful sensation to move a new + people; but I have but to go to Paris, and I find the brightest + people in the world quite ready for me. I say thus much in a sort of + desperate endeavor to explain myself to you. I can put no price upon + fifty readings in America, because I do not know that any possible + price could pay me for them. And I really cannot say to any one + disposed towards the enterprise, 'Tempt me,' because I have too + strong a misgiving that he cannot in the nature of things do it. + + "This is the plain truth. If any distinct proposal be submitted to + me, I will give it a distinct answer. But the chances are a round + thousand to one that the answer will be no, and therefore I feel + bound to make the declaration beforehand. + + "....This place has been greatly improved since you were here, and + we should be heartily glad if you and she could see it. + + "Faithfully yours ever, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +On the 16th of October he writes:-- + + "Although I perpetually see in the papers that I am coming out with + a new serial, I assure you I know no more of it at present. I am + _not_ writing (except for Christmas number of 'All the Year Round'), + and am going to begin, in the middle of January, a series of + forty-two readings. Those will probably occupy me until Easter. + Early in the summer I hope to get to work upon a story that I have + in my mind. But in what form it will appear I do not yet know, + because when the time comes I shall have to take many circumstances + into consideration..... + + "A faint outline of a castle in the air always dimly hovers between + me and Rochester, in the great hall of which I see myself reading to + American audiences. But my domestic surroundings must change before + the castle takes tangible form. And perhaps _I_ may change first, + and establish a castle in the other world. So no more at present. + + "Believe me ever faithfully yours, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +In June, 1867, things begin to look more promising, and I find in one +of his letters, dated the 3d of that month, some good news, as +follows:-- + + "I cannot receive your pleasantest of notes, without assuring you of + the interest and gratification that _I_ feel on _my_ side in our + alliance. And now I am going to add a piece of intelligence that I + hope may not be disagreeable. + + "I am trying hard so to free myself, as to be able to come over to + read this next winter! Whether I may succeed in this endeavor or no + I cannot yet say, but I am trying HARD. So in the mean time don't + contradict the rumor. In the course of a few mails I hope to be able + to give you positive and definite information on the subject. + + "My daughter (whom I shall not bring if I come) will answer for + herself by and by. Understand that I am really endeavoring tooth and + nail to make my way personally to the American public, and that no + light obstacles will turn me aside, now that my hand is in. + + "My dear Fields, faithfully yours always, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +This was followed up by another letter, dated the 13th, in which he +says:-- + + "I have this morning resolved to send out to Boston, in the first + week in August, Mr. Dolby, the secretary and manager of my readings. + He is profoundly versed in the business of those delightful + intellectual feasts (!), and will come straight to Ticknor and + Fields, and will hold solemn council with them, and will then go to + New York, Philadelphia, Hartford, Washington, etc., etc., and see + the rooms for himself, and make his estimates. He will then + telegraph to me: 'I see my way to such and such results. Shall I go + on?' If I reply, 'Yes,' I shall stand committed to begin reading in + America with the month of December. If I reply, 'No,' it will be + because I do not clearly see the game to be worth so large a candle. + In either case he will come back to me. + + "He is the brother of Madame Sainton Dolby, the celebrated singer. I + have absolute trust in him and a great regard for him. He goes with + me everywhere when I read, and manages for me to perfection. + + "We mean to keep all this STRICTLY SECRET, as I beg of you to do, + until I finally decide for or against. I am beleaguered by every + kind of speculator in such things on your side of the water; and it + is very likely that they would take the rooms over our heads,--to + charge me heavily for them,--or would set on foot unheard-of + devices for buying up the tickets, etc., etc., if the probabilities + oozed out. This is exactly how the case stands now, and I confide it + to you within a couple of hours after having so far resolved. Dolby + quite understands that _he_ is to confide in you, similarly, without + a particle of reserve. + + "Ever faithfully yours, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +On the 12th of July he says:-- + + "Our letters will be crossing one another rarely! I have received + your cordial answer to my first notion of coming out; but there has + not yet been time for me to hear again.... + + "With kindest regard to 'both your houses,' public and private, + + "Ever faithfully yours, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +He had engaged to write for "Our Young Folks" "A Holiday Romance," and +the following note, dated the 25th of July, refers to the story:-- + + "Your note of the 12th is like a cordial of the best sort. I have + taken it accordingly. + + "Dolby sails in the Java on Saturday, the 3d of next month, and will + come direct to you. You will find him a frank and capital fellow. He + is perfectly acquainted with his business and with his chief, and + may be trusted without a grain of reserve. + + "I hope the Americans will see the joke of 'Holiday Romance.' The + writing seems to me so like children's, that dull folks (on _any_ + side of _any_ water) might perhaps rate it accordingly! I should + like to be beside you when you read it, and particularly when you + read the Pirate's story. It made me laugh to that extent that my + people here thought I was out of my wits, until I gave it to them to + read, when they did likewise. + + "Ever cordially yours, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +On the 3d of September he breaks out in this wise, Dolby having arrived +out and made all arrangements for the readings:-- + + "Your cheering letter of the 21st of August arrived here this + morning. A thousand thanks for it. I begin to think (nautically) + that I 'head west'ard.' You shall hear from me fully and finally as + soon as Dolby shall have reported personally. + + "The other day I received a letter from Mr. ---- of New York (who + came over in the winning yacht, and described the voyage in the + Times), saying he would much like to see me. I made an appointment + in London, and observed that when he _did_ see me he was obviously + astonished. While I was sensible that the magnificence of my + appearance would fully account for his being overcome, I + nevertheless angled for the cause of his surprise. He then told me + that there was a paragraph going round the papers, to the effect + that I was 'in a critical state of health.' I asked him if he was + sure it wasn't 'cricketing' state of health? To which he replied, + Quite. I then asked him down here to dinner, and he was again + staggered by finding me in sporting training; also much amused. + + "Yesterday's and to-day's post bring me this unaccountable paragraph + from hosts of uneasy friends, with the enormous and wonderful + addition that 'eminent surgeons' are sending me to America for + 'cessation from literary labor'!!! So I have written a quiet line to + the Times, certifying to my own state of health, and have also + begged Dixon to do the like in the Athenaeum. I mention the matter + to you, in order that you may contradict, from me, if the nonsense + should reach America unaccompanied by the truth. But I suppose that + the New York Herald will probably have got the latter from Mr. ---- + aforesaid..... + + "Charles Reade and Wilkie Collins are here; and the joke of the time + is to feel my pulse when I appear at table, and also to inveigle + innocent messengers to come over to the summer-house, where I write + (the place is quite changed since you were here, and a tunnel under + the high road connects this shrubbery with the front garden), to + ask, with their compliments, how I find myself _now_. + + "If I come to America this next November, even you can hardly + imagine with what interest I shall try Copperfield on an American + audience, or, if they give me their heart, how freely and fully I + shall give them mine. We will ask Dolby then whether he ever heard + it before. + + "I cannot thank you enough for your invaluable help to Dolby. He + writes that at every turn and moment the sense and knowledge and + tact of Mr. Osgood are inestimable to him. + + "Ever, my dear Fields, faithfully yours, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +Here is a little note dated the 3d of October:-- + + "I cannot tell you how much I thank you for your kind little letter, + which is like a pleasant voice coming across the Atlantic, with + that domestic welcome in it which has no substitute on earth. If + you knew how strongly I am inclined to allow myself the pleasure of + staying at your house, you would look upon me as a kind of ancient + Roman (which, I trust in Heaven, I am not) for having the courage to + say no. But if I gave myself that gratification in the beginning, I + could scarcely hope to get on in the hard 'reading' life, without + offending some kindly disposed and hospitable American friend + afterwards; whereas if I observe my English principle on such + occasions, of having no abiding-place but an hotel, and stick to it + from the first, I may perhaps count on being consistently + uncomfortable. + + "The nightly exertion necessitates meals at odd hours, silence and + rest at impossible times of the day, a general Spartan behavior so + utterly inconsistent with my nature, that if you were to give me a + happy inch, I should take an ell, and frightfully disappoint you in + public. I don't want to do that, if I can help it, and so I will be + good in spite of myself. + + "Ever your affectionate friend, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +A ridiculous paragraph in the papers following close on the public +announcement that Dickens was coming to America in November, drew from +him this letter to me, dated also early in October:-- + + "I hope the telegraph clerks did not mutilate out of recognition or + reasonable guess the words I added to Dolby's last telegram to + Boston. 'Tribune London correspondent totally false.' Not only is + there not a word of truth in the pretended conversation, but it is + so absurdly unlike me that I cannot suppose it to be even invented + by any one who ever heard me exchange a word with mortal creature. + For twenty years I am perfectly certain that I have never made any + other allusion to the republication of my books in America than the + good-humored remark, 'that if there had been international copyright + between England and the States, I should have been a man of very + large fortune, instead of a man of moderate savings, always + supporting a very expensive public position.' Nor have I ever been + such a fool as to charge the absence of international copyright upon + individuals. Nor have I ever been so ungenerous as to disguise or + suppress the fact that I have received handsome sums for advance + sheets. When I was in the States, I said what I had to say on the + question, and there an end. I am absolutely certain that I have + never since expressed myself, even with soreness, on the subject. + Reverting to the preposterous fabrication of the London + correspondent, the statement that I ever talked about 'these + fellows' who republished my books, or pretended to know (what I + don't know at this instant) who made how much out of them, or ever + talked of their sending me 'conscience money,' is as grossly and + completely false as the statement that I ever said anything to the + effect that I could not be expected to have an interest in the + American people. And nothing can by any possibility be falser than + that. Again and again in these pages (All the Year Round) I have + expressed my interest in them. You will see it in the 'Child's + History of England.' You will see it in the last Preface to + 'American Notes.' Every American who has ever spoken with me in + London, Paris, or where not, knows whether I have frankly said, 'You + could have no better introduction to me than your country.' And for + years and years when I have been asked about reading in America, my + invariable reply has been, 'I have so many friends there, and + constantly receive so many earnest letters from personally unknown + readers there, that, but for domestic reasons, I would go + to-morrow.' I think I must, in the confidential intercourse between + you and me, have written you to this effect more than once. + + "The statement of the London correspondent from beginning to end is + false. It is false in the letter and false in the spirit. He may + have been misinformed, and the statement may not have originated + with him. With whomsoever it originated, it never originated with + me, and consequently is false. More than enough about it. + + "As I hope to see you so soon, my dear Fields, and as I am busily at + work on the Christmas number, I will not make this a longer letter + than I can help. I thank you most heartily for your proffered + hospitality, and need not tell you that if I went to any friend's + house in America, I would go to yours. But the readings are very + hard work, and I think I cannot do better than observe the rule on + that side of the Atlantic which I observe on this,--of never, under + such circumstances, going to a friend's house, but always staying at + a hotel. I am able to observe it here, by being consistent and never + breaking it. If I am equally consistent there, I can (I hope) offend + no one. + + "Dolby sends his love to you and all his friends (as I do), and is + girding up his loins vigorously. + + "Ever, my dear Fields, heartily and affectionately yours, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +Before sailing in November he sent off this note to me from the office +of All the Year Round:-- + +"I received your more than acceptable letter yesterday morning, and +consequently am able to send you this line of acknowledgment by the next +mail. Please God we will have that walk among the autumn leaves, before +the readings set in. + +"You may have heard from Dolby that a gorgeous repast is to be given to +me to-morrow, and that it is expected to be a notable demonstration. I +shall try, in what I say, to state my American case exactly. I have a +strong hope and belief that within the compass of a couple of minutes or +so I can put it, with perfect truthfulness, in the light that my +American friends would be best pleased to see me place it in. Either so, +or my instinct is at fault. + +"My daughters and their aunt unite with me in kindest loves. As I write, +a shrill prolongation of the message comes in from the next room, 'Tell +them to take care of you-u-u!' + +"Tell Longfellow, with my love, that I am charged by Forster (who has +been very ill of diffused gout and bronchitis) with a copy of his Sir +John Eliot. + +"I will bring you out the early proof of the Christmas number. We +publish it here on the 12th of December. I am planning it (No +Thoroughfare) out into a play for Wilkie Collins to manipulate after I +sail, and have arranged for Fechter to go to the Adelphi Theatre and +play a Swiss in it. It will be brought out the day after Christmas day. + +"Here, at Boston Wharf, and everywhere else, + +"Yours heartily and affectionately, + +"C.D." + +On a blustering evening in November, 1867, Dickens arrived in Boston +Harbor, on his second visit to America. A few of his friends, under the +guidance of the Collector of the port, steamed down in the custom-house +boat to welcome him. It was pitch dark before we sighted the Cuba and +ran alongside. The great steamer stopped for a few minutes to take us on +board, and Dickens's cheery voice greeted me before I had time to +distinguish him on the deck of the vessel. The news of the excitement +the sale of the tickets to his readings had occasioned had been earned +to him by the pilot, twenty miles out. He was in capital spirits over +the cheerful account that all was going on so well, and I thought he +never looked in better health. The voyage had been a good one, and the +ten days' rest on shipboard had strengthened him amazingly he said. As +we were told that a crowd had assembled in East Boston, we took him in +our little tug and landed him safely at Long Wharf in Boston, where +carriages were in waiting. Rooms had been taken for him at the Parker +House, and in half an hour after he had reached the hotel he was sitting +down to dinner with half a dozen friends, quite prepared, he said, to +give the first reading in America that very night, if desirable. +Assurances that the kindest feelings towards him existed everywhere put +him in great spirits, and he seemed happy to be among us. On Sunday he +visited the School Ship and said a few words of encouragement and +counsel to the boys. He began his long walks at once, and girded himself +up for the hard winter's work before him. Steadily refusing all +invitations to go out during the weeks he was reading, he only went into +one other house besides the Parker, habitually, during his stay in +Boston. Every one who was present remembers the delighted crowds that +assembled nightly in the Tremont Temple, and no one who heard Dickens, +during that eventful month of December, will forget the sensation +produced by the great author, actor, and reader. Hazlitt says of Kean's +Othello, "The tone of voice in which he delivered the beautiful +apostrophe 'Then, O, farewell,' struck on the heart like the swelling +notes of some divine music, like the sound of years of departed +happiness." There were thrills of pathos in Dickens's readings (of David +Copperfield, for instance) which Kean himself never surpassed in +dramatic effect. + +He went from Boston to New York, carrying with him a severe catarrh +contracted in our climate. In reality much of the time during his +reading in Boston he was quite ill from the effects of the disease, but +he fought courageously against its effects, and always came up, on the +night of the reading, all right. Several times I feared he would be +obliged to postpone the readings, and I am sure almost any one else +would have felt compelled to do so; but he declared no man had a right +to break an engagement with the public, if he were able to be out of +bed. His spirit was wonderful, and, although he lost all appetite and +could partake of very little food, he was always cheerful and ready for +his work when the evening came round. Every morning his table was +covered with invitations to dinners and all sorts of entertainments, but +he said, "I came for hard work, and I must try to fulfil the +expectations of the American public." He did accept a dinner which was +tendered to him by some of his literary friends in Boston; but the day +before it was to come off he was so ill he felt obliged to ask that the +banquet might be given up. The strain upon his strength and nerves was +very great during all the months he remained in the country, and only a +man of iron will could have accomplished all he did. And here let me +say, that although he was accustomed to talk and write a great deal +about eating and drinking, I have rarely seen a man eat and drink less. +He liked to dilate in imagination over the brewing of a bowl of punch, +but I always noticed that when the punch was ready, he drank less of it +than any one who might be present. It was the sentiment of the thing and +not the thing itself that engaged his attention. He liked to have a +little supper every night after a reading, and have three or four +friends round the table with him, but he only pecked at the viands as a +bird might do, and I scarcely saw him eat a hearty meal during his whole +stay in the country. Both at Parker's Hotel in Boston, and at the +Westminster in New York, everything was arranged by the proprietors for +his comfort and happiness, and tempting dishes to pique his invalid +appetite were sent up at different hours of the day, with the hope that +he might be induced to try unwonted things and get up again the habit of +eating more; but the influenza, that seized him with such masterful +powder, held the strong man down till he left the country. + +One of the first letters I had from him, after he had begun his reading +tour, was dated from the Westminster Hotel in New York, on the 15th of +January, 1868. + + My Dear Fields: On coming back from Philadelphia just now (three + o'clock) I was welcomed by your cordial letter. It was a delightful + welcome and did me a world of good. + + The cold remains just as it was (beastly), and where it was (in my + head). We have left off referring to the hateful subject, except in + emphatic sniffs on my part, convulsive wheezes, and resounding + sneezes. + + The Philadelphia audience ready and bright. I think they understood + the Carol better than Copperfield, but they were bright and + responsive as to both.--They also highly appreciated your friend Mr. + Jack Hopkins. A most excellent hotel there, and everything + satisfactory. While on the subject of satisfaction, I know you will + be pleased to hear that a long run is confidently expected for the + No Thoroughfare drama. Although the piece is well cast and well + played, my letters tell me that Fechter is so remarkably fine as to + play down the whole company. The Times, in its account of it, said + that "Mr. Fechter" (in the Swiss mountain scene, and in the Swiss + Hotel) "was practically alone upon the stage." It is splendidly got + up, and the Mountain Pass (I planned it with the scene-painter) was + loudly cheered by the whole house. Of course I knew that Fechter + would tear himself to pieces rather than fall short, but I was not + prepared for his contriving to get the pity and sympathy of the + audience out of his passionate love for Marguerite. + + My dear fellow, you cannot miss me more than I miss you and yours. + And Heaven knows how gladly I would substitute Boston for Chicago, + Detroit, and Co.! But the tour is fast shaping itself out into its + last details, and we must remember that there is a clear fortnight + in Boston, not counting the four Farewells. I look forward to that + fortnight as a radiant landing-place in the series.... + + Rash youth! No presumptuous hand should try to make the punch, + except in the presence of the hoary sage who pens these lines. With + _him_ on the spot to perceive and avert impending failure, with + timely words of wisdom to arrest the erring hand and curb the + straying judgment, and, with such gentle expressions of + encouragement as his stern experience may justify, to cheer the + aspirant with faint hopes of future excellence,--with these + conditions observed, the daring mind may scale the heights of sugar + and contemplate the depths of lemon. Otherwise not. + + Dolby is at Washington, and will return in the night. ---- is on + guard. He made a most brilliant appearance before the Philadelphia + public, and looked hard at them. The mastery of his eye diverted + their attention from his boots: charming in themselves, but + (unfortunately) two left ones. + + I send my hearty and enduring love. Your kindness to the British + Wanderer is deeply inscribed in his heart. + + When I think of L----'s story about Dr. Webster, I feel like the + lady in Nickleby who "has had a sensation of alternate cold and + biling water running down her back ever since." + + Ever, my dear Fields, your affectionate friend, + + C.D. + +His birthday, 7th of February, was spent in Washington, and on the 9th +of the month he sent this little note from Baltimore:-- + + Baltimore, Sunday, February 9, 1868. + + My Dear Fields: I thank you heartily for your pleasant note (I can + scarcely tell you _how_ pleasant it was to receive the same) and for + the beautiful flowers that you sent me on my birthday. For + which--and much more--my loving thanks to both. + + In consequence of the Washington papers having referred to the + august 7th of this month, my room was on that day a blooming garden. + Nor were flowers alone represented there. The silversmith, the + goldsmith, the landscape-painter, all sent in their contributions. + After the reading was done at night, the whole audience rose; and it + was spontaneous, hearty, and affecting. + + I was very much surprised by the President's face and manner. It is, + in its way, one of the most remarkable faces I have ever seen. Not + imaginative, but very powerful in its firmness (or perhaps + obstinacy), strength of will, and steadiness of purpose. There is a + reticence in it too, curiously at variance with that first + unfortunate speech of his. A man not to be turned or trifled with. A + man (I should say) who must be killed to be got out of the way. His + manners, perfectly composed. We looked at one another pretty hard. + There was an air of chronic anxiety upon him. But not a crease or a + ruffle in his dress, and his papers were as composed as himself. + (Mr. Thornton was going in to deliver his credentials, immediately + afterwards.) + + This day fortnight will find me, please God, in my "native Boston." + I wish I were there to-day. + + Ever, my dear Fields, your affectionate friend, + + CHARLES DICKENS, _Chairman Missionary Society._ + +When he returned to Boston in the latter part of the month, after his +fatiguing campaign in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, +he seemed far from well, and one afternoon sent round from the Parker +House to me this little note, explaining why he could not go out on our +accustomed walk. + + I have been terrifying Dolby out of his wits, by setting in for a + paroxysm of sneezing, and it would be madness in me, with such a + cold, and on such a night, and with to-morrow's reading before me, + to go out. I need not add that I shall be heartily glad to see you + if you have time. Many thanks for the Life and Letters of Wilder + Dwight. I shall "save up" that book, to read on the passage home. + After turning over the leaves, I have shut it up and put it away; + for I am a great reader at sea, and wish to reserve the interest + that I find awaiting me in the personal following of the sad war. + Good God, when one stands among the hearths that war has broken, + what an awful consideration it is that such a tremendous evil _must_ + be sometimes! + + Ever affectionately yours, + + CHARLES DICKENS. + + * * * * * + +I will dispose here of the question often asked me by correspondents, +and lately renewed in many epistles, _"Was Charles Dickens a believer in +our Saviour's life and teachings?"_ Persons addressing to me such +inquiries must be profoundly ignorant of the works of the great author, +whom they endeavor by implication to place among the "Unbelievers." If +anywhere, out of the Bible, God's goodness and mercy are solemnly +commended to the world's attention, it is in the pages of Dickens. I had +supposed that these written words of his, which have been so extensively +copied both in Europe and America, from his last will and testament, +dated the 12th of May, 1869, would forever remain an emphatic testimony +to his Christian faith:-- + + "I commit my soul to the mercy of God, through our Lord and Saviour + Jesus Christ, and I exhort my dear children humbly to try to guide + themselves by the teachings of the New Testament." + +I wish it were in my power to bring to the knowledge of all who doubt +the Christian character of Charles Dickens certain other memorable words +of his, written years ago, with reference to Christmas. They are not as +familiar as many beautiful things from the same pen on the same subject, +for the paper which enshrines them has not as yet been collected among +his authorized works. Listen to these loving words in which the +Christian writer has embodied the life of his Saviour:-- + + "Hark! the Waits are playing, and they break my childish sleep! What + images do I associate with the Christmas music as I see them set + forth on the Christmas tree? Known before all others, keeping far + apart from all the others, they gather round my little bed. An + angel, speaking to a group of shepherds in a field; some travellers, + with eyes uplifted, following a star; a baby in a manger; a child in + a spacious temple, talking with grave men; a solemn figure with a + mild and beautiful face, raising a dead girl by the hand; again, + near a city gate, calling back the son of a widow, on his bier, to + life; a crowd of people looking through the opened roof of a chamber + where he site, and letting down a sick person on a bed, with ropes; + the same in a tempest, walking on the water to a ship; again, on a + sea-shore, teaching a great multitude; again, with a child upon his + knee, and other children round; again, restoring sight to the blind, + speech to the dumb, hearing to the deaf, health to the sick, + strength to the lame, knowledge to the ignorant; again, dying upon a + cross, watched by armed soldiers, a thick darkness coming on, the + earth beginning to shake, and only one voice heard,--'Forgive them, + for they know not what they do!'" + +The writer of these pages begs to say here, most respectfully and +emphatically, that he will not feel himself bound, in future, to reply +to any inquiries, from however well-meaning correspondents, as to +whether Charles Dickens was an "Unbeliever," or a "Unitarian," or an +"Episcopalian," or whether "he ever went to church in his life," or +"used improper language," or "drank enough to hurt him." He was human, +very human, but he was no scoffer or doubter. His religion was of the +heart, and his faith beyond questioning. He taught the world, said Dean +Stanley over his new-made grave in Westminster Abbey, great lessons of +"the eternal value of generosity, of purity, of kindness, and of +unselfishness," and by his fruits he shall be known of all men. + +Let me commend to the attention of my numerous nameless correspondents, +who have attempted to soil the moral character of Dickens, the following +little incident, related to me by himself, during a summer-evening walk +among the Kentish meadows, a few months before he died. I will try to +tell the story, if possible, as simply and naturally as he told it to +me. + +"I chanced to be travelling some years ago," he said, "in a railroad +carriage between Liverpool and London. Beside myself there were two +ladies and a gentleman occupying the carriage. We happened to be all +strangers to each other, but I noticed at once that a clergyman was of +the party. I was occupied with a ponderous article in the 'Times,' when +the sound of my own name drew my attention to the fact that a +conversation was going forward among the three other persons in the +carriage with reference to myself and my books. One of the ladies was +perusing 'Bleak House,' then lately published, and the clergyman had +commenced a conversation with the ladies by asking what book they were +reading. On being told the author's name and the title of the book, he +expressed himself greatly grieved that any lady in England should be +willing to take up the writings of so vile a character as Charles +Dickens. Both the ladies showed great surprise at the low estimate the +clergyman put upon an author whom they had been accustomed to read, to +say the least, with a certain degree of pleasure. They were evidently +much shocked at what the man said of the immoral tendency of these +books, which they seemed never before to have suspected; but when he +attacked the author's private character, and told monstrous stories of +his immoralities in every direction, the volume was shut up and +consigned to the dark pockets of a travelling bag. I listened in wonder +and astonishment, behind my newspaper, to stories of myself, which if +they had been true would have consigned any man to a prison for life. +After my fictitious biographer had occupied himself for nearly an hour +with the eloquent recital of my delinquencies and crimes, I very quietly +joined in the conversation. Of course I began by modestly doubting some +statements which I had just heard, touching the author of 'Bleak House,' +and other unimportant works of a similar character. The man stared at +me, and evidently considered my appearance on the conversational stage +an intrusion and an impertinence. 'You seem to speak,' I said, 'from +personal knowledge of Mr. Dickens. Are you acquainted with him?' He +rather evaded the question, but, following him up closely, I compelled +him to say that he had been talking, not from his own knowledge of the +author in question; but he said he knew for a certainty that every +statement he had made was a true one. I then became more earnest in my +inquiries for proofs, which he arrogantly declined giving. The ladies +sat by in silence, listening intently to what was going forward. An +author they had been accustomed to read for amusement had been traduced +for the first time in their hearing, and they were waiting to learn +what I had to say in refutation of the clergyman's charges. I was taking +up his vile stories, one by one, and stamping them as false in every +particular, when the man grew furious, and asked me if I knew Dickens +personally. I replied, 'Perfectly well; no man knows him better than I +do; and all your stories about him from beginning to end, to these +ladies, are unmitigated lies.' The man became livid with rage, and asked +for my card. 'You shall have it,' I said, and, coolly taking out +one, I presented it to him without bowing. We were just then nearing the +station in London, so that I was spared a longer interview with my +_truthful_ companion; but, if I were to live a hundred years, I should +not forget the abject condition into which the narrator of my crimes was +instantly plunged. His face turned white as his cravat, and his lips +refused to utter words. He seemed like a wilted vegetable, and as if his +legs belonged to somebody else. The ladies became aware of the situation +at once, and, bidding them 'good day,' I stepped smilingly out of the +carriage. Before I could get away from the station the man had mustered +up strength sufficient to follow me, and his apologies were so nauseous +and craven, that I pitied him from my soul. I left him with this +caution, 'Before you make charges against the character of any man +again, about whom you know nothing, and of whose works you are utterly +ignorant, study to be a seeker after Truth, and avoid Lying as you would +eternal perdition.'" + +I never ceased to wonder at Dickens's indomitable cheerfulness, even +when he was suffering from ill health, and could not sleep more than two +or three hours out of the twenty-four. He made it a point never to +inflict on another what he might be painfully enduring himself, and I +have seen him, with what must have been a great effort, arrange a merry +meeting for some friends, when I knew that almost any one else under +similar circumstances would have sought relief in bed. + +One evening at a little dinner given by himself to half a dozen friends +in Boston, he came out very strong. His influenza lifted a little, as he +said afterwards, and he took advantage of the lull. Only his own pen +could possibly give an idea of that hilarious night, and I will merely +attempt a brief reference to it. As soon as we were seated at the table, +I read in his lustrous eye, and heard in his jovial voice, that all +solemn forms were to be dispensed with on that occasion, and that +merriment might be confidently expected. To the end of the feast there +was no let up to his magnificent cheerfulness and humor. J---- B----, +ex-minister plenipotentiary as he was, went in for nonsense, and he, I +am sure, will not soon forget how undignified we all were, and what +screams of laughter went up from his own uncontrollable throat. Among +other tomfooleries, we had an imitation of scenes at an English +hustings, Dickens bringing on his candidate (his friend D----), and I +opposing him with mine (the ex-minister). Of course there was nothing +spoken in the speeches worth remembering, but it was Dickens's _manner_ +that carried off the whole thing. D---- necessarily now wears his hair +so widely parted in the middle that only two little capillary scraps are +left, just over his ears, to show what kind of thatch once covered his +jolly cranium. Dickens pretended that _his_ candidate was superior to +the other, _because_ he had no hair; and that mine, being profusely +supplied with that commodity was in consequence disqualified in a marked +degree for an election. His speech, for volubility and nonsense, was +nearly fatal to us all. We roared and writhed in agonies of laughter, +and the candidates themselves were literally choking and crying with the +humor of the thing. But the fun culminated when I tried to get a hearing +in behalf of my man, and Dickens drowned all my attempts to be heard +with imitative jeers of a boisterous election mob. He seemed to have as +many voices that night as the human throat is capable of, and the +repeated interrupting shouts, among others, of a pretended husky old man +bawling out at intervals, "Three cheers for the bald 'un!" "Down vith +the hairy aristocracy!" "Up vith the little shiny chap on top!" and +other similar outbursts, I can never forget. At last, in sheer +exhaustion, we all gave in, and agreed to break up and thus save our +lives, if it were not already too late to make the attempt. + +The extent and variety of Dickens's tones were wonderful. Once he +described to me in an inimitable way a scene he witnessed many years ago +at a London theatre, and I am certain no professional ventriloquist +could have reproduced it better. I could never persuade him to repeat +the description in presence of others; but he did it for me several +times during our walks into the country, where he was, of course, +unobserved. His recital of the incident was irresistibly droll, and no +words of mine can give the _situation_ even, as he gave it. He said he +was once sitting in the pit of a London theatre, when two men came in +and took places directly in front of him. Both were evidently strangers +from the country, and not very familiar with the stage. One of them was +stone deaf, and relied entirely upon his friend to keep him informed of +the dialogue and story of the play as it went on, by having bawled into +his ear, word for word, as near as possible what the actors and +actresses were saying. The man who could hear became intensely +interested in the play, and kept close watch of the stage. The deaf man +also shared in the progressive action of the drama, and rated his friend +soundly, in a loud voice, if a stitch in the story of the play were +inadvertently dropped. Dickens gave the two voices of these two +spectators with his best comic and dramatic power. Notwithstanding the +roars of the audience, for the scene in the pit grew immensely funny to +them as it went on, the deaf man and his friend were too much interested +in the main business of the evening to observe that they were noticed. +One bawled louder, and the other, with his elevated ear-trumpet, +listened more intently than ever. At length the scene culminated in a +most unexpected manner. "Now," screamed the hearing man to the deaf one, +"they are going to elope!" "_Who_ is going to elope?" asked the deaf +man, in a loud, vehement tone. "Why, them two, the young man in the red +coat and the girl in a white gown, that's a talking together now, and +just going off the stage!" "Well, then, you must have missed telling me +something they've said before," roared the other in an enraged and +stentorian voice; "for there was nothing in their conduct all the +evening, as you have been representing it to me, that would warrant them +in such a proceeding!" At which the audience could not bear it any +longer, and screamed their delight till the curtain fell. + +Dickens was always planning something to interest and amuse his friends, +and when in America he taught us several games arranged by himself, +which we played again and again, he taking part as our instructor. While +he was travelling from point to point, he was cogitating fresh charades +to be acted when we should again meet. It was at Baltimore that he first +conceived the idea of a walking-match, which should take place on his +return to Boston, and he drew up a set of humorous "articles," which he +sent to me with this injunction, "Keep them in a place of profound +safety, for attested execution, until my arrival in Boston." He went +into this matter of the walking-match with as much earnest directness as +if he were planning a new novel. The articles, as prepared by himself, +are thus drawn up:-- + + "Articles of agreement entered into at Baltimore, in the United + States of America, this third day of February in the year of our + Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, between ----, + British subject, _alias_ the Man of Ross, and ----, American + citizen, _alias_ the Boston Bantam. + + "Whereas, some Bounce having arisen between the above men in + reference to feats of pedestrianism and agility, they have agreed to + settle their differences and prove who is the better man, by means + of a walking-match for two hats a side and the glory of their + respective countries; and whereas they agree that the said match + shall come off, whatsoever the weather, on the Mill Dam Road outside + Boston, on Saturday, the 29th day of this present month; and whereas + they agree that the personal attendants on themselves during the + whole walk, and also the umpires and starters and declarers of + victory in the match shall be ---- of Boston, known in sporting + circles as Massachusetts Jemmy, and Charles Dickens of Falstaff's + Gad's Hill, whose surprising performances (without the least + variation) on that truly national instrument, the American catarrh, + have won for him the well-merited title of the Gad's Hill Gasper:-- + + "1. The men are to be started, on the day appointed, by + Massachusetts Jemmy and The Gasper. + + "2. Jemmy and The Gasper are, on some previous day, to walk out at + the rate of not less than four miles an hour by the Gasper's watch, + for one hour and a half. At the expiration of that one hour and a + half they are to carefully note the place at which they halt. On the + match's coming off they are to station themselves in the middle of + the road, at that precise point, and the men (keeping clear of them + and of each other) are to turn round them, right shoulder inward, + and walk back to the starting-point. The man declared by them to + pass the starting-point first is to be the victor and the winner of + the match. + + "3. No jostling or fouling allowed. + + "4. All cautions or orders issued to the men by the umpires, + starters, and declarers of victory to be considered final and + admitting of no appeal. + + "5. A sporting narrative of the match to be written by The Gasper + within one week after its coming off, and the same to be duly + printed (at the expense of the subscribers to these articles) on a + broadside. The said broadside to be framed and glazed, and one copy + of the same to be carefully preserved by each of the subscribers to + these articles. + + "6. The men to show on the evening of the day of walking, at six + o'clock precisely, at the Parker House, Boston, when and where a + dinner will be given them by The Gasper. The Gasper to occupy the + chair, faced by Massachusetts Jemmy. The latter promptly and + formally to invite, as soon as may be after the date of these + presents, the following guests to honor the said dinner with their + presence; that is to say [here follow the names of a few of his + friends, whom he wished to be invited]. + + "Now, lastly. In token of their accepting the trusts and offices by + these articles conferred upon them, these articles are solemnly and + formally signed by Massachusetts Jemmy and by the Gad's Hill Gasper, + as well as by the men themselves. + + "Signed by the Man of Ross, otherwise ----. + + "Signed by the Boston Bantam, otherwise ----. + + "Signed by Massachusetts Jemmy, otherwise ----. + + "Signed by the Gad's Hill Gasper, otherwise Charles Dickens. + + "Witness to the signatures, ----." + +When he returned to Boston from Baltimore, he proposed that I should +accompany him over the walking-ground "at the rate of not less than four +miles an hour, for one hour and a half." I shall not soon forget the +tremendous pace at which he travelled that day. I have seen a great many +walkers, but never one with whom I found it such hard work to keep up. +Of course his object was to stretch out the space as far as possible for +our friends to travel on the appointed day. With watch in hand, Dickens +strode on over the Mill Dam toward Newton Centre. When we reached the +turning-point, and had established the extreme limit, we both felt that +we had given the men who were to walk in the match excellent good +measure. All along the road people had stared at us, wondering, I +suppose, why two men on such a blustering day should be pegging away in +the middle of the road as if life depended on the speed they were +getting over the ground. We had walked together many a mile before this, +but never at such a rate as on this day. I had never seen his full power +tested before, and I could not but feel great admiration for his +walking pluck. We were both greatly heated, and, seeing a little shop by +the roadside, we went in for refreshments. A few sickly-looking oranges +were all we could obtain to quench our thirst, and we seized those and +sat down on the shop door-steps, tired and panting. After a few minutes' +rest we started again and walked back to town. Thirteen miles' stretch +on a brisk winter day did neither of us any harm, and Dickens was in +great spirits over the match that was so soon to come off. We agreed to +walk over the ground again on the appointed day, keeping company with +our respective men. Here is the account that Dickens himself drew up, of +that day's achievement, for the broadside. + +THE SPORTING NARRATIVE. + + THE MEN. + + "The Boston Bantam (_alias_ Bright Chanticleer) is a young bird, + though too old to be caught with chaff. He comes of a thorough game + breed, and has a clear though modest crow. He pulls down the scale + at ten stone and a half and add a pound or two. His previous + performances in the pedestrian line have not been numerous. He once + achieved a neat little match against time in two left boots at + Philadelphia; but this must be considered as a pedestrian + eccentricity, and cannot be accepted by the rigid chronicler as high + art. The old mower with the scythe and hour-glass has not yet laid + his mauley heavily on the Bantam's frontispiece, but he has had a + grip at the Bantam's top feathers, and in plucking out a handful was + very near making him like the great Napoleon Bonaparte (with the + exception of the victualling department), when the ancient one found + himself too much occupied to carry out the idea, and gave it up. The + Man of Ross (_alias_ old Alick Pope, _alias_ + Allourpraises-whyshouldlords, etc.) is a thought and a half too + fleshy, and, if he accidentally sat down upon his baby, would do it + to the tune of fourteen stone. This popular codger is of the + rubicund and jovial sort, and has long been known as a piscatorial + pedestrian on the banks of the Wye. But Izaak Walton hadn't + pace,--look at his book and you'll find it slow,--and when that + article comes in question, the fishing-rod may prove to some of his + disciples a rod in pickle. Howbeit, the Man of Ross is a lively + ambler, and has a smart stride of his own. + + THE TRAINING. + + "If vigorous attention to diet could have brought both men up to the + post in tip-top feather, their condition would have left nothing to + be desired. But both might have had more daily practice in the + poetry of motion. Their breathings were confined to an occasional + Baltimore burst under the guidance of The Gasper, and to an amicable + toddle between themselves at Washington. + + THE COURSE. + + "Six miles and a half, good measure, from the first tree on the Mill + Dam Road, lies the little village (with no refreshments in it but + five oranges and a bottle of blacking) of Newton Centre. Here + Massachusetts Jemmy and The Gasper had established the + turning-point. The road comprehended every variety of inconvenience + to test the mettle of the men, and nearly the whole of it was + covered with snow. + + THE START + + was effected beautifully. The men taking their stand in exact line + at the starting-post, the first tree aforesaid, received from The + Gasper the warning, "Are you ready?" and then the signal, "One, two, + three. Go!" They got away exactly together, and at a spinning speed, + waited on by Massachusetts Jemmy and the Gasper. + + THE RACE. + + "In the teeth of an intensely cold and bitter wind, before which the + snow flew fast and furious across the road from right to left, the + Bantam slightly led. But the Man responded to the challenge, and + soon breasted him. For the first three miles each led by a yard or + so alternately; but the walking was very even. On four miles being + called by The Gasper the men were side by side; and then ensued one + of the best periods of the race, the same splitting pace being held + by both through a heavy snow-wreath and up a dragging hill. At this + point it was anybody's game, a dollar on Rossius and two + half-dollars on the member of the feathery tribe. When five miles + were called, the men were still shoulder to shoulder. At about six + miles The Gasper put on a tremendous spirt to leave the men behind + and establish himself at the turning-point at the entrance of the + village. He afterwards declared that he received a mental + knock-downer on taking his station and facing about, to find Bright + Chanticleer close in upon him, and Rossius steaming up like a + locomotive. The Bantam rounded first; Rossius rounded wide; and from + that moment the Bantam steadily shot ahead. Though both were + breathed at the town, the Bantam quickly got his bellows into + obedient condition, and blew away like an orderly blacksmith in full + work. The forcing-pumps of Rossius likewise proved themselves tough + and true, and warranted first-rate, but he fell off in pace; whereas + the Bantam pegged away with his little drumsticks, as if he saw his + wives and a peck of barley waiting for him at the family perch. + Continually gaining upon him of Ross, Chanticleer gradually drew + ahead within a very few yards of half a mile, finally doing the + whole distance in two hours and forty-eight minutes. Ross had ceased + to compete three miles short of the winning-post, but bravely walked + it out and came in seven minutes later. + + REMARKS. + + "The difficulties under which this plucky match was walked can only + be appreciated by those who were on the ground. To the excessive + rigor of the icy blast and the depth and state of the snow must be + added the constant scattering of the latter into the air and into + the eyes of the men, while heads of hair, beards, eyelashes, and + eyebrows were frozen into icicles. To breathe at all, in such a + rarefied and disturbed atmosphere, was not easy; but to breathe up + to the required mark was genuine, slogging, ding-dong, hard labor. + That both competitors were game to the backbone, doing what they did + under such conditions, was evident to all; but to his gameness the + courageous Bantam added unexpected endurance and (like the sailor's + watch that did three hours to the cathedral clock's one) unexpected + powers of going when wound up. The knowing eye could not fail to + detect considerable disparity between the lads; Chanticleer being, + as Mrs. Cratchit said of Tiny Tim, 'very light to carry,' and + Rossius promising fair to attain the rotundity of the Anonymous Cove + in the Epigram:-- + + And when he walks the streets the paviors cry, + "God bless you, sir!"--and lay their rammers by. + +The dinner at the Parker House, after the fatigues of the day, was a +brilliant success. The Great International Walking-Match was over; +America had won, and England was nowhere. The victor and the vanquished +were the heroes of the occasion, for both had shown great powers of +endurance and done their work in capital time. We had no set speeches at +the table, for we had voted eloquence a bore before we sat down. David +Copperfield, Hyperion, Hosea Biglow, the Autocrat, and the Bad Boy were +present, and there was no need of set speeches. The ladies present, +being all daughters of America, smiled upon the champion, and we had a +great, good time. The banquet provided by Dickens was profusely +decorated with flowers, arranged by himself. The master of the feast was +in his best mood, albeit his country had lost; and we all declared, when +we bade him good night, that none of us had ever enjoyed a festival +more. + +Soon after this Dickens started on his reading travels again, and I +received from him frequent letters from various parts of the country. On +the 8th of March, 1868, he writes from a Western city:-- + + Sunday, 8th March, 1868. + + My Dear Fields: We came here yesterday most comfortably in a + "drawing-room car," of which (Rule Britannia!) we bought exclusive + possession. ---- is rather a depressing feather in the eagle's wing, + when considered on a Sunday and in a thaw. Its hotel is likewise a + dreary institution. But I have an impression that we must be in the + wrong one, and buoy myself up with a devout belief in the other, + over the way. The awakening to consciousness this morning on a + lop-sided bedstead facing nowhere, in a room holding nothing but + sour dust, was more terrible than the being afraid to go to bed last + night. To keep ourselves up we played whist (double dummy) until + neither of us could bear to speak to the other any more. We had + previously supped on a tough old nightmare named buffalo. + + What do you think of a "Fowl de poulet"? or a "Paettie de Shay"? or + "Celary"? or "Murange with cream"? Because all these delicacies are + in the printed bill of fare! If Mrs. Fields would like the recipe, + how to make a "Paettie de Shay," telegraph instantly, and the recipe + shall be purchased. We asked the Irish waiter what this dish was, + and he said it was "the Frinch name the steward giv' to oyster + pattie." It is usually washed down, I believe, with "Movseaux," or + "Table Madeira," or "Abasinthe," or "Curraco," all of which drinks + are on the wine list. I mean to drink my love to ---- after dinner + in Movseaux. Your ruggeder nature shall be pledged in Abasinthe. + + Ever affectionately, + + CHARLES DICKENS. + +On the 19th of March he writes from Albany:-- + + Albany, 19th March, 1868. + + My Dear ----: I should have answered your kind and welcome note + before now, but that we have been in difficulties. After creeping + through water for miles upon miles, our train gave it up as a bad + job between Rochester and this place, and stranded us, early on + Tuesday afternoon, at Utica. There we remained all night, and at six + o'clock yesterday morning were ordered up to get ready for starting + again. Then we were countermanded. Then we were once more told to + get ready. Then we were told to stay where we were. At last we got + off at eight o'clock, and after paddling through the flood until + half past three, got landed here,--to the great relief of our minds + as well as bodies, for the tickets were all sold out for last night. + We had all sorts of adventures by the way, among which two of the + most notable were:-- + + 1. Picking up two trains out of the water, in which the passengers + had been composedly sitting all night, until relief should arrive. + + 2. Unpacking and releasing into the open country a great train of + cattle and sheep that had been in the water I don't know how long, + and that had begun in their imprisonment to eat each other. I never + could have realized the strong and dismal expressions of which the + faces of sheep are capable, had I not seen the haggard countenances + of this unfortunate flock as they were tumbled out of their dens and + picked themselves up and made off, leaping wildly (many with broken + legs) over a great mound of thawing snow, and over the worried body + of a deceased companion. Their misery was so very human that I was + sorry to recognize several intimate acquaintances conducting + themselves in this forlornly gymnastic manner. + + As there is no question that our friendship began in some previous + state of existence many years ago, I am now going to make bold to + mention a discovery we have made concerning Springfield. We find + that by remaining there next Saturday and Sunday, instead of coming + on to Boston, we shall save several hours' travel, and much wear and + tear of our baggage and camp-followers. Ticknor reports the + Springfield hotel excellent. Now will you and Fields come and pass + Sunday with us there? It will be delightful, if you can. If you + cannot, will you defer our Boston dinner until the following Sunday? + Send me a hopeful word to Springfield (Massasoit House) in reply, + please. + + Lowell's delightful note enclosed with thanks. _Do_ make a trial for + Springfield. We saw Professor White at Syracuse, and went out for a + ride with him. Queer quarters at Utica, and nothing particular to + eat; but the people so very anxious to please, that it was better + than the best cuisine. I made a jug of punch (in the bedroom + pitcher), and we drank our love to you and Fields. Dolby had more + than his share, under pretence of devoted enthusiasm. Ever + affectionately yours, + + CHARLES DICKENS. + +His readings everywhere were crowned with enthusiastic success, and if +his strength had been equal to his will, he could have stayed in America +another year, and occupied every night of it with his wonderful +impersonations. I regretted extremely that he felt obliged to give up +visiting the West. Invitations which greatly pleased him came day after +day from the principal cities and towns, but his friends soon discovered +that his health would not allow him to extend his travels beyond +Washington. + +He sailed for home on the 19th of April, 1868, and we shook hands with +him on the deck of the Russia as the good ship turned her prow toward +England. He was in great spirits at the thought of so soon again seeing +Gad's Hill, and the prospect of a rest after all his toilsome days and +nights in America. While at sea he wrote the following letter to me:-- + + Aboard The Russia, Bound For Liverpool, Sunday, 26th April, 1868. + + My Dear Fields: In order that you may have the earliest intelligence + of me, I begin this note to-day in my small cabin, purposing (if it + should prove practicable) to post it at Queenstown for the return + steamer. + + We are already past the Banks of Newfoundland, although our course + was seventy miles to the south, with the view of avoiding ice seen + by Judkins in the Scotia on his passage out to New York. The Russia + is a magnificent ship, and has dashed along bravely. We had made + more than thirteen hundred and odd miles at, noon to-day. The wind, + after being a little capricious, rather threatens at the present + time to turn against us, but our run is already eighty miles ahead + of the Russia's last run in this direction,--a very fast one. ...To + all whom it may concern, report the Russia in the highest terms. She + rolls more easily than the other Cunard Screws, is kept in perfect + order, and is most carefully looked after in all departments. We + have had nothing approaching to heavy weather; still, one can speak + to the trim of the ship. Her captain, a gentleman; bright, polite, + good-natured, and vigilant..... + + As to me, I am greatly better, I hope. I have got on my right boot + to-day for the first time; the "true American" seems to be turning + faithless at last; and I made a Gad's Hill breakfast this morning, + as a further advance on having otherwise eaten and drunk all day + ever since Wednesday. + + You will see Anthony Trollope, I dare say. What was my amazement to + see him with these eyes come aboard in the mail tender just before + we started! He had come out in the Scotia just in time to dash off + again in said tender to shake hands with me, knowing me to be aboard + here. It was most heartily done. He is on a special mission of + convention with the United States post-office. + + We have been picturing your movements, and have duly checked off + your journey home, and have talked about you continually. But I have + thought about, you both, even much, much more. You will never know + how I love you both; or what you have been to me in America, and + will always be to me everywhere; or how fervently I thank you. + + All the working of the ship seems to be done on my forehead. It is + scrubbed and holystoned (my head--not the deck) at three every + morning. It is scraped and swabbed all day. Eight pairs of heavy + boots are now clattering on it, getting the ship under sail again. + Legions of ropes'-ends are flopped upon it as I write, and I must + leave off with Dolby's love. + + Thursday, 30th. + + Soon after I left off as above we had a gale of wind, which blew all + night. For a few hours on the evening side of midnight there was no + getting from this cabin of mine to the saloon, or _vice versa,_ so + heavily did the sea break over the decks. The ship, however, made + nothing of it, and we were all right again by Monday afternoon. + Except for a few hours yesterday (when we had a very light head + wind), the weather has been constantly favorable, and we are now + bowling away at a great rate, with a fresh breeze filling all our + sails. We expect to be at Queenstown between midnight and three in + the morning. + + I hope, my dear Fields, you may find this legible, but I rather + doubt it; for there is motion enough on the ship to render writing + to a landsman, however accustomed to pen and ink, rather a difficult + achievement. Besides which, I slide away gracefully from the paper, + whenever I want to be particularly expressive..... + + ----, sitting opposite to me at breakfast, always has the following + items: A large dish of porridge, into which he casts slices of + butter and a quantity of sugar. Two cups of tea. A steak. Irish + stew. Chutnee, and marmalade. Another deputation of two has + solicited a reading to-night. Illustrious novelist has + unconditionally and absolutely declined. + + More love, and more to that, from your ever affectionate friend, + + C.D. + +His first letter from home gave us all great pleasure, for it announced +his complete recovery from the severe influenza that had fastened itself +upon him so many months before. Among his earliest notes I find these +paragraphs:-- + + "I have found it so extremely difficult to write about America + (though never so briefly) without appearing to blow trumpets on the + one hand, or to be inconsistent with my avowed determination _not_ + to write about it on the other, that I have taken the simple course + enclosed. The number will be published on the 6th of June. It + appears to me to be the most modest and manly course, and to derive + some graceful significance from its title..... + + "Thank my dear ---- for me for her delightful letter received on the + 16th. I will write to her very soon, and tell her about the dogs. I + would write by this post, but that Wills's absence (in Sussex, and + getting no better there as yet) so overwhelms me with business that + I can scarcely get through it. + + "Miss me? Ah, my dear fellow, but how do I miss _you!_ We talk about + you both at Gad's Hill every day of our lives. And I never see the + place looking very pretty indeed, or hear the birds sing all day + long and the nightingales all night, without restlessly wishing that + you were both there. + + "With best love, and truest and most enduring regard, ever, my dear + Fields, + + "Your most affectionate, + + "C.D." + + ".... I hope you will receive by Saturday's Cunard a case + containing: + + 1. A trifling supply of the pen-knibs that suited your hand. 2. A + do. of unfailing medicine for cockroaches. 3. Mrs. Gamp, for ----. + + "The case is addressed to you at Bleecker Street, New York. If it + should be delayed for the knibs (or nibs) promised to-morrow, and + should be too late for the Cunard packet, it will in that case come + by the next following Inman steamer. + + "Everything here looks lovely, and I find it (you will be surprised + to hear) really a pretty place! I have seen No Thoroughfare twice. + Excellent things in it; but it drags, to my thinking. It is, + however, a great success in the country, and is now getting up with + great force in Paris. Fechter is ill, and was ordered off to + Brighton yesterday. Wills is ill too, and banished into Sussex for + perfect rest. Otherwise, thank God, I find everything well and + thriving. You and my dear Mrs. F---- are constantly in my mind. + Procter greatly better...." + +On the 25th of May he sent off the following from Gad's Hill:-- + + My Dear ----: As you ask me about the dogs, I begin with them. When + I came down first, I came to Gravesend, five miles off. The two + Newfoundland dogs coming to meet me, with the usual carriage and the + usual driver, and beholding me coming in my usual dress out at the + usual door, it struck me that their recollection of my having been + absent for any unusual time was at once cancelled. They behaved + (they are both young dogs) exactly in their usual manner; coming + behind the basket phaeton as we trotted along, and lifting their + heads to have their ears pulled,--a special attention which they + receive from no one else. But when I drove into the stable-yard, + Linda (the St. Bernard) was greatly excited; weeping profusely, and + throwing herself on her back that she might caress my foot with her + great fore-paws. M----'s little dog too, Mrs. Bouncer, barked in the + greatest agitation on being called down and asked by M----, "Who is + this?" and tore round and round me, like the dog in the Faust + outlines. You must know that all the farmers turned out on the road + in their market-chaises to say, "Welcome home, sir!" that all the + houses along the road were dressed with flags; and that our + servants, to cut out the rest, had dressed this house so, that every + brick of it was hidden. They had asked M----'s permission to "ring + the alarm-bell (!) when master drove up"; but M----, having some + slight idea that that compliment might awaken master's sense of the + ludicrous, had recommended bell abstinence. But on Sunday, the + village choir (which includes the bell-ringers) made amends. After + some unusually brief pious reflection in the crowns of their hats at + the end of the sermon, the ringers bolted out and rang like mad + until I got home. (There had been a conspiracy among the villagers + to take the horse out, if I had come to our own station, and draw me + here. M---- and G---- had got wind of it and warned me.) + + Divers birds sing here all day, and the nightingales all night. The + place is lovely, and in perfect order. I have put five mirrors in + the Swiss Chalet (where I write), and they reflect and refract in + all kinds of ways the leaves that are quivering at the windows, and + he great fields of waving corn, and the sail-dotted river. My room + is up among the branches of the trees; and the birds and the + butterflies fly in and out, and the green branches shoot in, at the + open windows, and the lights and shadows of the clouds come and go + with the rest of the company. The scent of the flowers, and indeed + of everything that is growing for miles and miles, is most + delicious. + + Dolby (who sends a world of messages) found his wife much better + than he expected, and the children (wonderful to relate!) perfect. + The little girl winds up her prayers every night with a special + commendation to Heaven of me and the pony,--as if I must mount him + to get there! I dine with Dolby (I was going to write "him," but + found it would look as if I were going to dine with the pony) at + Greenwich this very day, and if your ears do not burn from six to + nine this evening, then the Atlantic is a non-conductor. We are + already settling--think of this!--the details of my farewell course + of readings. I am brown beyond relief, and cause the greatest + disappointment in all quarters by looking so well. It is really + wonderful what those fine days at sea did for me! My doctor was + quite broken down in spirits when he saw me, for the first time + since my return, last Saturday. "Good Lord!" he said, recoiling; + "seven years younger!" + + It is time I should explain the otherwise inexplicable enclosure. + Will you tell Fields, with my love, (I suppose he hasn't used _all_ + the pens yet?) that I think there is in Tremont Street a set of my + books, sent out by Chapman, not arrived when I departed. Such set of + the immortal works of our illustrious, etc., is designed for the + gentleman to whom the enclosure is addressed. If T., F., & Co. will + kindly forward the set (carriage paid) with the enclosure to ----'s + address, I will invoke new blessings on their heads, and will get + Dolby's little daughter to mention them nightly. + + "No Thoroughfare" is very shortly coming out in Paris, where it is + now in active rehearsal. It is still playing here, but without + Fechter, who has been very ill. The doctor's dismissal of him to + Paris, however, and his getting better there, enables him to get up + the play there. He and Wilkie missed so many pieces of stage effect + here, that, unless I am quite satisfied with his report, I shall go + over and try my stage-managerial hand at the Vaudeville Theatre. I + particularly want the drugging and attempted robbing in the bedroom + scene at the Swiss inn to be done to the sound of a waterfall rising + and falling with the wind. Although in the very opening of that + scene they speak of the waterfall and listen to it, nobody thought + of its mysterious music. I could make it, with a good stage + carpenter, in an hour. Is it not a curious thing that they want to + make me a governor of the Foundling Hospital, because, since the + Christmas number, they have had such an amazing access of visitors + and money? + + My dear love to Fields once again. Same to you and him from M---- + and G----. I cannot tell you both how I miss you, or how overjoyed I + should be to see you here. + + Ever, my dear ----, your most affectionate friend, + + C.D. + +Excellent accounts of his health and spirits continued to come from +Gad's Hill, and his letters were full of plans for the future. On the +7th of July he writes from Gad's Hill as usual:-- + + Gad's Hill Place, Tuesday, 7th July, 1868. + + My Dear Fields: I have delayed writing to you (and ----, to whom my + love) until I should have seen Longfellow. When he was in London the + first time he came and went without reporting himself, and left me + in a state of unspeakable discomfiture. Indeed, I should not have + believed in his having been here at all, if Mrs. Procter had not + told me of his calling to see Procter. However, on his return he + wrote to me from the Langham Hotel, and I went up to town to see + him, and to make an appointment for his coming here. He, the girls, + and ---- came down last Saturday night, and stayed until Monday + forenoon. I showed them all the neighboring country that could be + shown in so short a time, and they finished off with a tour of + inspection of the kitchens, pantry, wine-cellar, pickles, sauces, + servants' sitting-room, general household stores, and even the + Cellar Book, of this illustrious establishment. Forster and Kent + (the latter wrote certain verses to Longfellow, which have been + published in the "Times," and which I sent to D----) came down for a + day, and I hope we all had a really "good time." I turned out a + couple of postilions in the old red jacket of the old red royal + Dover road, for our ride; and it was like a holiday ride in England + fifty years ago. Of course we went to look at the old houses in + Rochester, and the old cathedral, and the old castle, and the house + for the six poor travellers who, "not being rogues or proctors, + shall have lodging, entertainment, and four pence each." + + Nothing can surpass the respect paid to Longfellow here, from the + Queen downward. He is everywhere received and courted, and finds (as + I told him he would, when we talked of it in Boston) the workingmen + at least as well acquainted with his books as the classes socially + above them..... + + Last Thursday I attended, as sponsor, the christening of Dolby's son + and heir,--a most jolly baby, who held on tight by the rector's left + whisker while the service was performed. What time, too, his little + sister, connecting me with the pony, trotted up and down the centre + isle, noisily driving herself as that celebrated animal, so that it + went very hard with the sponsorial dignity. + + ---- is not yet recovered from that concussion of the brain, and I + have all his work to do. This may account for my not being able to + devise a Christmas number, but I seem to have left my invention in + America. In case you should find it, please send it over. I am going + up to town to-day to dine with Longfellow. And now, my dear Fields, + you know all about me and mine. + + You are enjoying your holiday? and are still thinking sometimes of + our Boston days, as I do? and are maturing schemes for coming here + next summer? A satisfactory reply to the last question is + particularly entreated. + + I am delighted to find you both so well pleased with the Blind Book + scheme. I said nothing of it to you when we were together, though I + had made up my mind, because I wanted to come upon you with that + little burst from a distance. It seemed something like meeting + again when I remitted the money and thought of your talking of it. + + The dryness of the weather is amazing. All the ponds and surface + wells about here are waterless, and the poor people suffer greatly. + The people of this village have only one spring to resort to, and it + is a couple of miles from many cottages. I do not let the great dogs + swim in the canal, because the people have to drink of it. But when + they get into the Medway, it is hard to get them out again. The + other day Bumble (the son, Newfoundland dog) got into difficulties + among some floating timber, and became frightened. Don (the father) + was standing by me, shaking off the wet and looking on carelessly, + when all of a sudden he perceived something amiss, and went in with + a bound and brought Bumble out by the ear. The scientific way in + which he towed him along was charming. + + Ever your loving + + C.D. + + * * * * * + +During the summer of 1868 constant messages and letters came from +Dickens across the seas, containing pleasant references to his visit in +America, and giving charming accounts of his way of life at home. Here +is a letter announcing the fact that he had decided to close forever his +appearance in the reading-desk:-- + + Liverpool, Friday, October 30, 1868. + + My Dear ----: I ought to have written to you long ago. But I have + begun my one hundred and third Farewell Readings, and have been so + busy and so fatigued that my hands have been quite full. Here are + Dolby and I again leading the kind of life that you know so well. We + stop next week (except in London) for the month of November, on + account of the elections, and then go on again, with a short holiday + at Christmas. We have been doing wonders, and the crowds that pour + in upon us in London are beyond all precedent or means of providing + for. I have serious thoughts of doing the murder from Oliver Twist; + but it is so horrible, that I am going to try it on a dozen people + in my London hall one night next month, privately, and see what + effect it makes. + + My reason for abandoning the Christmas number was, that I became + weary of having my own writing swamped by that of other people. This + reminds me of the Ghost story. I don't think so well of it my dear + Fields, as you do. It seems to me to be too obviously founded on + Bill Jones (in Monk Lewis's Tales of Terror), and there is also a + remembrance in it of another Sea-Ghost story entitled, I think, + "Stand from Under," and written by I don't know whom. _Stand from + under_ is the cry from aloft when anything is going to be sent down + on deck, and the ghost is aloft on a yard.... + + You know all about public affairs, Irish churches, and party + squabbles. A vast amount of electioneering is going on about here; + but it has not hurt us; though Gladstone has been making speeches, + north, east, south, and west of us. I hear that C----is on his way + here in the Russia. Gad's Hill must be thrown open..... + + Your most affectionate + + CHARLES DICKENS. + +We had often talked together of the addition to his _répertoire_ of some +scenes from "Oliver Twist," and the following letter explains itself:-- + + Glasgow, Wednesday, December 16, 1868. + + Mr Dear ----: ...And first, as you are curious about the Oliver + murder, I will tell you about that trial of the same at which you + _ought_ to have assisted. There were about a hundred people present + in all. I have changed my stage. Besides that back screen which you + know so well, there are two large screens of the same color, set + off, one on either side, like the "wings" at a theatre. And besides + those again, we have a quantity of curtains of the same color, with + which to close in any width of room from wall to wall. Consequently, + the figure is now completely isolated, and the slightest action + becomes much more important. This was used for the first time on the + occasion. But behind the stage--the orchestra being very large and + built for the accommodation of a numerous chorus--there was ready, + on the level of the platform, a very long table, beautifully + lighted, with a large staff of men ready to open oysters and set + champagne corks flying. Directly I had done, the screens being + whisked off by my people, there was disclosed one of the prettiest + banquets you can imagine; and when all the people came up, and the + gay dresses of the ladies were lighted by those powerful lights of + mine, the scene was exquisitely pretty; the hall being newly + decorated, and very elegantly; and the whole looking like a great + bed of flowers and diamonds. + + Now, you must know that all this company were, before the wine went + round, unmistakably pale, and had horror-stricken faces. Next + morning, Harness (Fields knows--Rev. William--did an edition of + Shakespeare--old friend of the Kembles and Mrs. Siddons), writing to + me about it, and saying it was "a most amazing and terrific thing," + added, "but I am bound to tell you that I had an almost irresistible + impulse upon me to _scream_, and that, if any one had cried out, I + am certain I should have followed." He had no idea that on the night + P----, the great ladies' doctor, had taken me aside and said, "My + dear Dickens, you may rely upon it that if only one woman cries out + when you murder the girl, there will be a contagion of hysteria all + over this place." It is impossible to soften it without spoiling it, + and you may suppose that I am rather anxious to discover how it goes + on the 5th of January!!! We are afraid to announce it elsewhere, + without knowing, except that I have thought it pretty safe to put it + up once in Dublin. I asked Mrs. K----, the famous actress, who was + at the experiment: "What do _you_ say? Do it, or not?" "Why, of + course, do it," she replied. "Having got at such an effect as that, + it must be done. But," rolling her large black eyes very slowly, and + speaking very distinctly, "the public have been looking out for a + sensation these last fifty years or so, and by Heaven they have got + it!" With which words, and a long breath and a long stare, she + became speechless. Again, you may suppose that I am a little + anxious! I had previously tried it, merely sitting over the fire in + a chair, upon two ladies separately, one of whom was G----. They had + both said, "O, good gracious! if you are going to do _that_, it + ought to be seen; but it's awful." So once again you may suppose I + am a little anxious!... + + Not a day passes but Dolby and I talk about you both, and recall + where we were at the corresponding time of last year. My old + likening of Boston to Edinburgh has been constantly revived within + these last ten days. There is a certain remarkable similarity of + tone between the two places. The audiences are curiously alike, + except that the Edinburgh audience has a quicker sense of humor and + is a little more genial. No disparagement to Boston in this, because + I consider an Edinburgh audience perfect. + + I trust, my dear Eugenius, that you have recognized yourself in a + certain Uncommercial, and also some small reference to a name rather + dear to you? As an instance of how strangely something comic springs + up in the midst of the direst misery, look to a succeeding + Uncommercial, called "A Small Star in the East," published to-day, + by the by. I have described, with _exactness_, the poor places into + which I went, and how the people behaved, and what they said. I was + wretched, looking on; and yet the boiler-maker and the poor man with + the legs filled me with a sense of drollery not to be kept down by + any pressure. + + The atmosphere of this place, compounded of mists from the highlands + and smoke from the town factories, is crushing my eyebrows as I + write, and it rains as it never does rain anywhere else, and always + does rain here. It is a dreadful place, though much improved and + possessing a deal of public spirit. Improvement is beginning to + knock the old town of Edinburgh about, here and there; but the + Canongate and the most picturesque of the horrible courts and wynds + are not to be easily spoiled, or made fit for the poor wretches who + people them to live in. Edinburgh is so changed as to its + notabilities, that I had the only three men left of the Wilson and + Jeffrey time to dine with me there, last Saturday. + + I read here to-night and to-morrow, go back to Edinburgh on Friday + morning, read there on Saturday morning, and start southward by the + mail that same night. After the great experiment of the 5th,--that + is to say, on the morning of the 6th,--we are off to Belfast and + Dublin. On every alternate Tuesday I am due in London, from + wheresoever I may be, to read at St. James's Hall. + + I think you will find "Fatal Zero" (by Percy Fitzgerald) a very + curious analysis of a mind, as the story advances. A new beginner in + A.Y.R. (Hon. Mrs. Clifford, Kinglake's sister), who wrote a story in + the series just finished, called "The Abbot's Pool," has just sent + me another story. I have a strong impression that, with care, she + will step into Mrs. Graskell's vacant place. W---- is no better, and + I have work enough even in that direction. + + God bless the woman with the black mittens, for making me laugh so + this morning! I take her to be a kind of public-spirited Mrs. + Sparsit, and as such take her to my bosom. God bless you both, my + dear friends, in this Christmas and New Year time, and in all times, + seasons, and places, and send you to Gad's Hill with the next + flowers! + + Ever your most affectionate + + C.D. + +All who witnessed the reading of Dickens in the "Oliver Twist" murder +scene unite in testifying to the wonderful effect he produced in it. Old +theatrical _habitués_ have told me that, since the days of Edmund Kean +and Cooper, no mimetic representation had been superior to it. I became +so much interested in all I heard about it, that I resolved early in the +year 1869 to step across the water (it is only a stride of three +thousand miles) and see it done. The following is Dickens's reply to my +announcement of the intended voyage:-- + + A.Y.R. Office, London, Monday, February 15, 1869. + + My Dear Fields: Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah! It is a remarkable instance + of magnetic sympathy that before I received your joyfully welcomed + announcement of your probable visit to England, I was waiting for + the enclosed card to be printed, that I might send you a clear + statement of my Readings. I felt almost convinced that you would + arrive before the Farewells were over. What do you say to _that_? + + The final course of Four Readings in a week, mentioned in the + enclosed card, is arranged to come off, on + + Monday, June 7th; + + Tuesday, June 8th; + + Thursday, June 10th; and + + Friday, June 11th: last night of all. + + We hoped to have finished in May, but cannot clear the country off + in sufficient time. I shall probably be about the Lancashire towns + in that month. There are to be three morning murders in London not + yet announced, but they will be extra the London nights I send you, + and will in no wise interfere with them. We are doing most + amazingly. In the country the people usually collapse with the + murder, and don't fully revive in time for the final piece; in + London, where they are much quicker, they are equal to both. It is + very hard work; but I have never for a moment lost voice or been + unwell; except that my foot occasionally gives me a twinge. We shall + have in London on the 2d of March, for the second murder night, + probably the greatest assemblage of notabilities of all sorts ever + packed together. D---- continues steady in his allegiance to the + Stars and Stripes, sends his kindest regard, and is immensely + excited by the prospect of seeing you. Gad's Hill is all ablaze on + the subject. We are having such wonderfully warm weather that I fear + we shall have a backward spring there. You'll excuse east-winds, + won't you, if they shake the flowers roughly when you first set foot + on the lawn? I have only seen it once since Christmas, and that was + from last Saturday to Monday, when I went there for my birthday, and + had the Forsters and Wilkie to keep it. I had had ----'s letter + four days before, and drank to you both most heartily and lovingly. + + I was with M---- a week or two ago. He is quite surprisingly infirm + and aged. Could not possibly get on without his second wife to take + care of him, which she does to perfection. I went to Cheltenham + expressly to do the murder for him, and we put him in the front row, + where he sat grimly staring at me. After it was over, he thus + delivered himself, on my laughing it off and giving him some wine: + "No, Dickens--er--er--I will NOT," with sudden emphasis, --"er--have + it--er--put aside. In my--er--best times--er--you remember them, my + dear boy--er--gone, gone! --no,"--with great emphasis again,--"it + comes to this--er --TWO MACBETHS!" with extraordinary energy. After + which he stood (with his glass in his hand and his old square jaw of + its old fierce form) looking defiantly at Dolby as if Dolby had + contradicted him; and then trailed off into a weak pale likeness of + himself as if his whole appearance had been some clever optical + illusion. + + I am away to Scotland on Wednesday next, the 17th, to finish there. + Ireland is already disposed of, and Manchester and Liverpool will + follow within six weeks. "Like lights in a theatre, they are being + snuffed out fast," as Carlyle says of the guillotined in his + Revolution. I suppose I shall be glad when they are all snuffed out. + Anyhow, I think so now. + + The N----s have a very pretty house at Kensington. He has quite + recovered, and is positively getting fat. I dined with them last + Friday at F----'s, having (marvellous to relate!) a spare day in + London. The warm weather has greatly spared F----'s bronchitis; but + I fear that he is quite unable to bear cold, or even changes of + temperature, and that he will suffer exceedingly if east-winds + obtain. One would say they must at last, for it has been blowing a + tempest from the south and southwest for weeks and weeks. + + The safe arrival of my boy's ship in Australia has been telegraphed + home, but I have not yet heard from him. His post will be due a week + or so hence in London. My next boy is doing very well, I hope, at + Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Of my seafaring boy's luck in getting a + death-vacancy of First Lieutenant, aboard a new ship-of-war on the + South American Station, I heard from a friend, a captain in the + Navy, when I was at Bath the other day; though we have not yet heard + it from himself. Bath (setting aside remembrances of Roderick Random + and Humphrey Clinker) looked, I fancied, just as if a cemetery-full + of old people had somehow made a successful rise against death, + carried the place by assault, and built a city with their + gravestones; in which they were trying to look alive, but with very + indifferent success. + + C---- is no better, and no worse. M---- and G---- send all manner of + loves, and have already represented to me that the red-jacketed + post-boys must be turned out for a summer expedition to Canterbury, + and that there must be lunches among the cornfields, walks in Cobham + Park, and a thousand other expeditions. Pray give our pretty M---- + to understand that a great deal will be expected of her, and that + she will have to look her very best, to look as I have drawn her. If + your Irish people turn up at Gad's at the same time, as they + probably will, they shall be entertained in the yard, with muzzled + dogs. I foresee that they will come over, haymaking and hopping, and + will recognize their beautiful vagabonds at a glance. + + I wish Reverdy Johnson would dine in private and hold his tongue. He + overdoes the thing. C---- is trying to get the Pope to subscribe, + and to run over to take the chair at his next dinner, on which + occasion Victor Emmanuel is to propose C----'s health, and may all + differences among friends be referred to him. With much love always, + and in high rapture at the thought of seeing you both here, + + Ever your most affectionate + + C.D. + +A few weeks later, while on his reading tour, he sent off the +following:-- + + Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool, Friday, April 9, 1869. + + My Dear Fields: The faithful Russia will bring this out to you, as a + sort of warrant to take you into loving custody and bring you back + on her return trip. + + I have been "reading" here all this week, and finish here for good + to-night. To-morrow the Mayor, Corporation, and citizens give me a + farewell dinner in St. George's Hall. Six hundred and fifty are to + dine, and a mighty show of beauty is to be mustered besides. N---- + had a great desire to see the sight, and so I suggested him as a + friend to be invited. He is over at Manchester now on a visit, and + will come here at midday to-morrow, and go back to London with us on + Sunday afternoon. On Tuesday I read in London, and on Wednesday + start off again. To-night is No. 68 out of one hundred. I am very + tired of it, but I could have no such good fillip as you among the + audience, and that will carry me on gayly to the end. So please to + look sharp in the matter of landing on the bosom of the used-up, + worn-out, and rotten old Parient. I rather think that when the 12th + of June shall have shaken off these shackles, there _will_ be borage + on the lawn at Gad's. Your heart's desire in that matter, and in the + minor particulars of Cobham Park, Rochester Castle, and Canterbury + shall be fulfilled, please God! The red jackets shall turn out again + upon the turnpike road, and picnics among the cherry-orchards and + hop-gardens shall be heard of in Kent. Then, too, shall the + Uncommercial resuscitate (being at present nightly murdered by Mr. + W. Sikes) and uplift his voice again. + + The chief officer of the Russia (a capital fellow) was at the + Reading last night, and Dolby specially charged him with the care of + you and yours. We shall be on the borders of Wales, and probably + about Hereford, when you arrive. Dolby has insane projects of + getting over here to meet you; so amiably hopeful and obviously + impracticable, that I encourage him to the utmost. The regular + little captain of the Russia, Cook, is just now changed into the + Cuba, whence arise disputes of seniority, etc. I wish he had been + with you, for I liked him very much when I was his passenger. I like + to think of your being in _my_ ship! + + ---- and ---- have been taking it by turns to be "on the point of + death," and have been complimenting one another greatly on the + fineness of the point attained. My people got a very good impression + of ----, and thought her a sincere and earnest little woman. + + The Russia hauls out into the stream to-day, and I fear her people + may be too busy to come to us to-night. But if any of them do, they + shall have the warmest of welcomes for your sake. (By the by, a very + good party of seamen from the Queen's ship Donegal, lying in the + Mersey, have been told off to decorate St. George's Hall with the + ship's bunting. They were all hanging on aloft upside down, holding + to the gigantically high roof by nothing, this morning, in the most + wonderfully cheerful manner.) + + My son Charley has come for the dinner, and Chappell (my Proprietor, + as--isn't it Wemmick?--says) is coming to-day, and Lord Dufferin + (Mrs. Norton's nephew) is to come and make _the_ speech. I don't + envy the feelings of my noble friend when he sees the hall. + Seriously, it is less adapted to speaking than Westminster Abbey, + and is as large.... + + I hope you will see Fechter in a really clever piece by Wilkie. Also + you will see the Academy Exhibition, which will be a very good one; + and also we will, please God, see everything and more, and + everything else after that. I begin to doubt and fear on the subject + of your having a horror of me after seeing the murder. I don't + think a hand moved while I was doing it last night, or an eye looked + away. And there was a fixed expression of horror of me, all over the + theatre, which could not have been surpassed if I had been going to + be hanged to that red velvet table. It is quite a new sensation to + be execrated with that unanimity; and I hope it will remain so! + + [Is it lawful--would that woman in the black gaiters, green veil, + and spectacles, hold it so--to send my love to the pretty M----?] + + Pack up, my dear Fields, and be quick. + + Ever your most affectionate + + C.D. + +It will be remembered that Dickens broke down entirely during the month +of April, being completely worn out with hard work in the Readings. He +described to me with graphic earnestness, when we met in May, all the +incidents connected with the final crisis, and I shall never forget how +he imitated himself during that last Reading, when he nearly fell before +the audience. It was a terrible blow to his constitution, and only a man +of the greatest strength and will could have survived it. When we +arrived in Queenstown, this note was sent on board our steamer. + + Loving welcome to England. Hurrah! + + Office Of All The Year Round, Wednesday, May 5, 1869. + + My Dear ----: I fear you will have been uneasy about me, and will + have heard distorted accounts of the stoppage of my Readings. It is + a measure of precaution, and not of cure. I was too tired and too + jarred by the railway fast express, travelling night and day. No + half-measure could be taken; and rest being medically considered + essential, we stopped. I became, thank God, myself again, almost as + soon as I could rest! I am good for all country pleasures with you, + and am looking forward to Gad's, Rochester Castle, Cobham Park, red + jackets, and Canterbury. When you come to London we shall probably + be staying at our hotel. You will learn, here, where to find us. I + yearn to be with you both again! + + Love to M----. + + Ever your affectionate C.D. + + I hope this will be put into your hands on board, in Queenstown + Harbor. + +We met in London a few days after this, and I found him in capital +spirits, with such a protracted list of things we were to do together, +that, had I followed out the prescribed programme, it would have taken +many more months of absence from home than I had proposed to myself. We +began our long rambles among the thoroughfares that had undergone +important changes since I was last in London, taking in the noble Thames +embankments, which I had never seen, and the improvements in the city +markets. Dickens had moved up to London for the purpose of showing us +about, and had taken rooms only a few streets off from our hotel. Here +are two specimens of the welcome little notes which I constantly found +on my breakfast-table:-- + + Office Of All The Year Round, London, Wednesday, May 19, 1869. + + My Dear Fields: Suppose we give the weather a longer chance, and say + Monday instead of Friday. I think we must be safer with that + precaution. If Monday will suit you, I propose that we meet here + that day,--your ladies and you and I,--and cast ourselves on the + stony-hearted streets. If it be bright for St. Paul's, good; if not, + we can take some other lion that roars in dull weather. We will dine + here at six, and meet here at half past two. So IF you should want + to go elsewhere after dinner, it can be done, notwithstanding. Let + me know in a line what you say. + + O the delight of a cold bath this morning, after those + lodging-houses! And a mild sniffler of punch, on getting into the + hotel last night, I found what my friend Mr. Wegg calls, "Mellering, + sir, very mellering." + + With kindest regards, ever affectionately, + + CHARLES DICKENS. + + Office Of All The Year Round, London, Tuesday, May 25, 1869. + + My Dear Fields: First, you leave Charing Cross Station, by North + Kent railway, on Wednesday, June 2d, at 2.10 for Higham Station, the + next station beyond Gravesend. Now, bring your lofty mind back to + the previous Saturday, next Saturday. There is only one way of + combining Windsor and Richmond. That way will leave us but two hours + and a half at Windsor. This would not be long enough to enable us to + see the inside of the castle, but would admit of our seeing the + outside, the Long Walk, etc. I will assume that such a survey will + suffice. That taken for granted, meet me at Waterloo Terminus (Loop + Line for Windsor) at 10.35, on Saturday morning. + + The rendezvous for Monday evening will be _here at half past eight_. + As I don't know Mr. Eytinge's number in Guildford Street, will you + kindly undertake to let him know that we are going out with the + great Detective? And will you also give him the time and place for + Gad's? + + I shall be here on Friday for a few hours; meantime at Gad's + aforesaid. + + With love to the ladies, ever faithfully, + + C.D. + +During my stay in England in that summer of 1869, I made many excursions +with Dickens both around the city and into the country. Among the most +memorable of these London rambles was a visit to the General +Post-Office, by arrangement with the authorities there, a stroll among +the cheap theatres and lodging-houses for the poor, a visit to +Furnival's Inn and the very room in it where "Pickwick" was written, and +a walk through the thieves' quarter. Two of these expeditions were made +on two consecutive nights, under the protection of police detailed for +the service. On one of these nights we also visited the lock-up houses, +watch-houses, and opium-eating establishments. It was in one of the +horrid opium-dens that he gathered the incidents which he has related in +the opening pages of "Edwin Drood." In a miserable court we found the +haggard old woman blowing at a kind of pipe made of an old penny +ink-bottle. The identical words which Dickens puts into the mouth of +this wretched creature in "Edwin Drood" we heard her croon as we leaned +over the tattered bed on which she was lying. There was something +hideous in the way this woman kept repeating, "Ye'll pay up +according, deary, won't ye?" and the Chinamen and Lascars made +never-to-be-forgotten pictures in the scene. I watched Dickens intently +as he went among these outcasts of London, and saw with what deep +sympathy he encountered the sad and suffering in their horrid abodes. At +the door of one of the penny lodging-houses (it was growing toward +morning, and the raw air almost cut one to the bone), I saw him snatch a +little child out of its poor drunken mother's arms, and bear it in, +filthy as it was, that it might be warmed and cared for. I noticed that +whenever he entered one of these wretched rooms he had a word of cheer +for its inmates, and that when he left the apartment he always had a +pleasant "Good night" or "God bless you" to bestow upon them. I do not +think his person was ever recognized in any of these haunts, except in +one instance. As we entered a low room in the worst alley we had yet +visited, in which were huddled together some forty or fifty +half-starved-looking wretches, I noticed a man among the crowd +whispering to another and pointing out Dickens. Both men regarded him +with marked interest all the time he remained in the room, and tried to +get as near him, without observation, as possible. As he turned to go +out, one of these men pressed forward and said, "Good night, sir," with +much feeling, in reply to Dickens's parting word. + +Among other places, we went, a little past midnight, into one of the +Casual Wards, which were so graphically described, some years ago, in an +English magazine, by a gentleman who, as a pretended tramp, went in on a +reporting expedition. We walked through an avenue of poor tired sleeping +forms, all lying flat on the floor, and not one of them raised a head to +look at us as we moved thoughtfully up the aisle of sorrowful humanity. +I think we counted sixty or seventy prostrate beings, who had come in +for a night's shelter, and had lain down worn out with fatigue and +hunger. There was one pale young face to which I whispered Dickens's +attention, and he stood over it with a look of sympathizing interest not +to be easily forgotten. There was much ghastly comicality mingled with +the horror in several of the places we visited on those two nights. We +were standing in a room half filled with people of both sexes, whom the +police accompanying us knew to be thieves. Many of these abandoned +persons had served out their terms in jail or prison, and would probably +be again sentenced under the law. They were all silent and sullen as we +entered the room, until an old woman spoke up with a strong, beery +voice: "Good evening, gentlemen. We are all wery poor, but strictly +honest." At which cheerful apocryphal statement, all the inmates of the +room burst into boisterous laughter, and began pelting the imaginative +female with epithets uncomplimentary and unsavory. Dickens's quick eye +never for a moment ceased to study all these scenes of vice and gloom, +and he told me afterwards that, bad as the whole thing was, it had +improved infinitely since he first began to study character in those +regions of crime and woe. + +Between eleven and twelve o'clock on one of the evenings I have +mentioned we were taken by Dickens's favorite Detective W---- into a +sort of lock-up house, where persons are brought from the streets who +have been engaged in brawls, or detected in the act of thieving, or who +have, in short, committed any offence against the laws. Here they are +examined for commitment by a sort of presiding officer, who sits all +night for that purpose. We looked into some of the cells, and found them +nearly filled with wretched-looking objects who had been brought in that +night. To this establishment are also brought lost children who are +picked up in the streets by the police,--children who have wandered away +from their homes, and are not old enough to tell the magistrate where +they live. It was well on toward morning, and we were sitting in +conversation with one of the officers, when the ponderous door opened +and one of these small wanderers was brought in. She was the queerest +little figure I ever beheld, and she walked in, holding the police +officer by the hand as solemnly and as quietly if she were attending her +own obsequies. She was between four and five years old, and had on what +was evidently her mother's bonnet,--an enormous production, resembling a +sort of coal-scuttle, manufactured after the fashion of ten or fifteen +years ago. The child had, no doubt, caught up this wonderful head-gear +in the absence of her parent, and had gone forth in quest of adventure. +The officer reported that he had discovered her in the middle of the +street, moving ponderingly along, without any regard to the horses and +vehicles all about her. When asked where she lived, she mentioned a +street which only existed in her own imagination, and she knew only her +Christian name. When she was interrogated by the proper authorities, +without the slightest apparent discomposure she replied in a steady +voice, as she thought proper, to their questions. The magistrate +inadvertently repeated a question as to the number of her brothers and +sisters, and the child snapped out, "I told ye wunst; can't ye hear?" +When asked if she would like anything, she gayly answered, "Candy, cake +and _candy_." A messenger was sent out to procure these commodities, +which she instantly seized on their arrival and began to devour. She +showed no signs of fear, until one of the officers untied the huge +bonnet and took it off, when she tearfully insisted upon being put into +it again. I was greatly impressed by the ingenious efforts of the +excellent men in the room to learn from the child where she lived, and +who her parents were. Dickens sat looking at the little figure with +profound interest, and soon came forward and asked permission to speak +with the child. Of course his request was granted, and I don't know when +I have enjoyed a conversation more. She made some very smart answers, +which convulsed us all with laughter as we stood looking on; and the +creator of "little Nell" and "Paul Dombey" gave her up in despair. He +was so much interested in the little vagrant, that he sent a messenger +next morning to learn if the rightful owner of the bonnet had been +found. Report came back, on a duly printed form, setting forth that the +anxious father and mother had applied for the child at three o'clock in +the morning, and had borne her away in triumph to her home. + +It was a warm summer afternoon towards the close of the day, when +Dickens went with us to visit the London Post-Office. He said: "I know +nothing which could give a stranger a better idea of the size of London +than that great institution. The hurry and rush of letters! men up to +their chin in letters! nothing but letters everywhere! the air full of +letters!--suddenly the clock strikes; not a person is to be seen, _nor_ +a letter: only one man with a lantern peering about and putting one +drop-letter into a box." For two hours we went from room to room, with +him as our guide, up stairs and down stairs, observing the myriad clerks +at their various avocations, with letters for the North Pole, for the +South Pole, for Egypt and Alaska, Darien and the next street. + +The "Blind Man," as he was called, appeared to afford Dickens as much +amusement as if he saw his work then for the first time; but this was +one of the qualities of his genius; there was inexhaustibility and +freshness in everything to which he turned his attention. The ingenuity +and loving care shown by the "Blind Man" in deciphering or guessing at +the apparently inexplicable addresses on letters and parcels excited his +admiration. "What a lesson to all of us," he could not help saying, "to +be careful in preparing our letters for the mail!" His own were always +directed with such exquisite care, however, that had he been brother to +the "Blind Man," and considered it his special work in life to teach +others how to save that officer trouble, he could hardly have done +better. + +Leaving the hurry and bustle of the Post-Office behind us, we strolled +out into the streets of London. It was past eight o'clock, but the +beauty of the soft June sunset was only then overspreading the misty +heavens. Every sound of traffic had died out of those turbulent +thoroughfares; now and then a belated figure would hurry past us and +disappear, or perhaps in turning the corner would linger to "take a good +look" at Charles Dickens. But even these stragglers soon dispersed, +leaving us alone in the light of day and the sweet living air to +heighten the sensation of a dream. We came through White Friars to the +Temple, and thence into the Temple Garden, where our very voices echoed. +Dickens pointed up to Talfourd's room, and recalled with tenderness the +merry hours they had passed together in the old place. Of course we +hunted out Goldsmith's abode, and Dr. Johnson's, saw the site of the +Earl of Essex's palace, and the steps by which he was wont to descend to +the river, now so far removed. But most interesting of all to us there +was "Pip's" room, to which Dickens led us, and the staircase where the +convict stumbled up in the dark, and the chimney nearest the river +where, although less exposed than in "Pip's" days, we could well +understand how "the wind shook the house that night like discharges of +cannon, or breakings of a sea." We looked in at the dark old staircase, +so dark on that night when "the lamps were blown out, and the lamps on +the bridges and the shore were shuddering," then went on to take a peep, +half shuddering ourselves, at the narrow street where "Pip" by and by +found a lodging for the convict. Nothing dark could long survive in our +minds on that June night, when the whole scene was so like the airy work +of imagination. Past the Temple, past the garden to the river, mistily +fair, with a few boats moving upon its surface, the convict's story was +forgotten, and we only knew this was Dickens's home, where he had lived +and written, lying in the calm light of its fairest mood. + + * * * * * + +Dickens had timed our visit to his country house in Kent, and arranged +that we should appear at Gad's Hill with the nightingales. Arriving at +the Higham station on a bright June day in 1869, we found his stout +little pony ready to take us up the hill; and before we had proceeded +far on the road, the master himself came out to welcome us on the way. +He looked brown and hearty, and told us he had passed a breezy morning +writing in the châlet. We had parted from him only a few days before in +London, but I thought the country air had already begun to exert its +strengthening influence,--a process he said which commonly set in the +moment he reached his garden gate. + +It was ten years since I had seen Gad's Hill Place, and I observed at +once what extensive improvements had been made during that period. +Dickens had increased his estate by adding quite a large tract of land +on the opposite side of the road, and a beautiful meadow at the back of +the house. He had connected the front lawn, by a passageway running +under the road, with beautifully wooded grounds, on which was erected +the Swiss châlet, a present from Fechter. The old house, too, had been +greatly improved, and there was an air of assured comfort and ease about +the charming establishment. No one could surpass Dickens as a host; and +as there were certain household rules (hours for meals, recreation, +etc.), he at once announced them, so that visitors never lost any time +"wondering" when this or that was to happen. + +Lunch over, we were taken round to see the dogs, and Dickens gave us a +rapid biographical account of each as we made acquaintance with the +whole colony. One old fellow, who had grown superannuated and nearly +blind, raised himself up and laid his great black head against Dickens's +breast as if he loved him. All were spoken to with pleasant words of +greeting, and the whole troop seemed wild with joy over the master's +visit. "Linda" put up her shaggy paw to be shaken at parting; and as we +left the dog-houses, our host told us some amusing anecdotes of his +favorite friends. + +Dickens's admiration of Hogarth was unbounded, and he had hung the +staircase leading up from the hall of his house with fine old +impressions of the great master's best works. Observing our immediate +interest in these pictures, he seemed greatly pleased, and proceeded at +once to point out in his graphic way what had struck his own fancy most +in Hogarth's genius. He had made a study of the painter's _thought_ as +displayed in these works, and his talk about the artist was delightful. +He used to say he never came down the stairs without pausing with new +wonder over the fertility of the mind that had conceived and the hand +that had executed these powerful pictures of human life; and I cannot +forget with what fervid energy and feeling he repeated one day, as we +were standing together on the stairs in front of the Hogarth pictures, +Dr. Johnson's epitaph, on the painter:-- + + "The hand of him here torpid lies, + That drew the essential form of grace; + Here closed in death the attentive eyes + That saw the manners in the face." + +Every day we had out-of-door games, such as "Bowls," "Aunt Sally," and +the like, Dickens leading off with great spirit and fun. Billiards came +after dinner, and during the evening we had charades and dancing. There +was no end to the new divertisements our kind host was in the habit of +proposing, so that constant cheerfulness reigned at Gad's Hill. He went +into his work-room, as he called it, soon after breakfast, and wrote +till twelve o'clock; then he came out, ready for a long walk. The +country about Gad's Hill is admirably adapted for pedestrian exercise, +and we went forth every day, rain or shine, for a stretcher. Twelve, +fifteen, even twenty miles were not too much for Dickens, and many a +long tramp we have had over the hop-country together. Chatham, +Rochester, Cobham Park, Maidstone,--anywhere, out under the open sky and +into the free air! Then Dickens was at his best, and talked. Swinging +his blackthorn stick, his lithe figure sprang forward over the ground, +and it took a practised pair of legs to keep alongside of his voice. In +these expeditions I heard from his own lips delightful reminiscences of +his early days in the region we were then traversing, and charming +narratives of incidents connected with the writing of his books. + +Dickens's association with Gad's Hill, the city of Rochester, the road +to Canterbury, and the old cathedral town itself, dates back to his +earliest years. In "David Copperfield," the most autobiographic of all +his books, we find him, a little boy, (so small, that the landlady is +called to peer over the counter and catch a glimpse of the tiny lad who +possesses such "a spirit,") trudging over the old Kent Road to Dover. "I +see myself," he writes, "as evening closes in, coming over the bridge at +Rochester, footsore and tired, and eating bread that I had bought for +supper. One or two little houses, with the notice, 'Lodgings for +Travellers' hanging out, had tempted me; but I was afraid of spending +the few pence I had, and was even more afraid of the vicious looks of +the trampers I had met or overtaken. I sought no shelter, therefore, but +the sky; and toiling into Chatham,--which in that night's aspect is a +mere dream of chalk, and drawbridges, and mastless ships in a muddy +river, roofed like Noah's arks,--crept, at last, upon a sort of +grass-grown battery overhanging a lane, where a sentry was walking to +and fro. Here I lay down near a cannon; and, happy in the society of the +sentry's footsteps, though he knew no more of my being above him than +the boys at Salem House had known of my lying by the wall, slept soundly +until morning," Thus early he noticed "the trampers" which infest the +old Dover Road, and observed them in their numberless gypsy-like +variety; thus early he looked lovingly on Gad's Hill Place, and wished +it might be his own, if he ever grew up to be a man. His earliest +memories were filled with pictures of the endless hop-grounds and +orchards, and the little child "thought it all extremely beautiful!" + +Through the long years of his short life he was always consistent in his +love for Kent and the old surroundings. When the after days came and +while travelling abroad, how vividly the childish love returned! As he +passed rapidly over the road on his way to France he once wrote: "Midway +between Gravesend and Rochester the widening river was bearing the +ships, white-sailed or black-smoked, out to sea, when I noticed by the +wayside a very queer small boy. + +"'Halloa!' said I to the very queer small boy, 'where do you live?' + +"'At Chatham,' says he. + +"'What do you do there?' said I. + +"'I go to school,' says he. + +"I took him up in a moment, and we went on. Presently the very queer +small boy says, 'This is Gad's Hill we are coming to, where Falstaff +went out to rob those travellers, and ran away.' + +"'You know something about Falstaff, eh?' said I. + +"'All about him,' said the very queer small boy. 'I am old (I am nine) +and I read all sorts of books. But _do_ let us stop at the top of the +hill, and look at the house there, if you please!' + +"'You admire that house,' said I. + +"'Bless you, sir,' said the very queer small boy, 'when I was not more +than half as old as nine, it used to be a treat for me to be brought to +look at it. And now I am nine, I come by myself to look at it. And ever +since I can recollect, my father, seeing me so fond of it, has often +said to me, "If you were to be very persevering and were to work hard, +you might some day come to live in it." Though that's impossible!' said +the very queer small boy, drawing a low breath, and now staring at the +house out of window with all his might. I was rather annoyed to be told +this by the very queer small boy; for that house happens to be _my_ +house, and I have reason to believe that what he said was true." + +What stay-at-home is there who does not know the Bull Inn at Rochester, +from which Mr. Tupman and Mr. Jingle attended the ball, Mr. Jingle +wearing Mr. Winkle's coat? or who has not seen in fancy the +"gypsy-tramp," the "show-tramp," the "cheap jack," the "tramp-children," +and the "Irish hoppers" all passing over "the Kentish Road, bordered" in +their favorite resting-place "on either side by a wood, and having on +one hand, between the road-dust and the trees, a skirting patch of +grass? Wild-flowers grow in abundance on this spot, and it lies high and +airy, with the distant river stealing steadily away to the ocean, like a +man's life." + +Sitting in the beautiful châlet during his later years and watching +this same river stealing away like his own life, he never could find a +harsh word for the tramps, and many and many a one has gone over the +road rejoicing because of some kindness received from his hands. Every +precaution was taken to protect a house exposed as his was to these wild +rovers, several dogs being kept in the stable-yard, and the large outer +gates locked. But he seldom made an excursion in any direction without +finding some opportunity to benefit them. One of these many kindnesses +came to the public ear during the last summer of his life. He was +dressing in his own bedroom in the morning, when he saw two Savoyards +and two bears come up to the Falstaff Inn opposite. While he was +watching the odd company, two English bullies joined the little party +and insisted upon taking the muzzles off the bears in order to have a +dance with them. "At once," said Dickens, "I saw there would be trouble, +and I watched the scene with the greatest anxiety. In a moment I saw how +things were going, and without delay I found myself at the gate. I +called the gardener by the way, but he managed to hold himself at safe +distance behind the fence. I put the Savoyards instantly in a secure +position, asked the bullies what they were at, forced them to muzzle the +bears again, under threat of sending for the police, and ended the whole +affair in so short a time that I was not missed from the house. +Unfortunately, while I was covered with dust and blood, for the bears +had already attacked one of the men when I arrived, I heard a carriage +roll by. I thought nothing of it at the time, but the report in the +foreign journals which startled and shocked my friends so much came +probably from the occupants of that vehicle. Unhappily, in my desire to +save the men, I entirely forgot the dogs, and ordered the bears to be +carried into the stable-yard until the scuffle should be over, when a +tremendous tumult arose between the bears and the dogs. Fortunately we +were able to separate them without injury, and the whole was so soon +over that it was hard to make the family believe, when I came in to +breakfast, that anything of the kind had gone forward." It was the +newspaper report, causing anxiety to some absent friends, which led, on +inquiry, to this rehearsal of the incident. + +Who does not know Cobham Park? Has Dickens not invited us +there in the old days to meet Mr. Pickwick, who pronounced it +"delightful!--thoroughly delightful," while "the skin of his expressive +countenance was rapidly peeling off with exposure to the sun"? Has he +not invited the world to enjoy the loveliness of its solitudes with him, +and peopled its haunts for us again and again? + +Our first _real_ visit to Cobham Park was on a summer morning when +Dickens walked out with us from his own gate, and, strolling quietly +along the road, turned at length into what seemed a rural wooded +pathway. At first we did not associate the spot in its spring freshness +with that morning after Christmas when he had supped with the "Seven +Poor Travellers," and lain awake all night with thinking of them; and +after parting in the morning with a kindly shake of the hand all round, +started to walk through Cobham woods on his way towards London. Then on +his lonely road, "the mists began to rise in the most beautiful manner +and the sun to shine; and as I went on," he writes, "through the bracing +air, seeing the hoar frost sparkle everywhere, I felt as if all nature +shared in the joy of the great Birthday. Going through the woods, the +softness of my tread upon the mossy ground and among the brown leaves +enhanced the Christmas sacredness by which I felt surrounded. As the +whitened stems environed me, I thought how the Founder of the time had +never raised his benignant hand, save to bless and heal, except in the +case of one unconscious tree." + +Now we found ourselves on the same ground, surrounded by the full beauty +of the summer-time. The hand of Art conspiring with Nature had planted +rhododendrons, as if in their native soil beneath the forest-trees. They +were in one universal flame of blossoms, as far as the eye could see. +Lord and Lady D----, the kindest and most hospitable of neighbors, were +absent; there was not a living figure beside ourselves to break the +solitude, and we wandered on and on with the wild birds for companions +as in our native wildernesses. By and by we came near Cobham Hall, with +its fine lawns and far-sweeping landscape, and workmen and gardeners and +a general air of summer luxury. But to-day we were to go past the hall +and lunch on a green slope under the trees, (was it _just_ the spot +where Mr. Pickwick tried the cold punch and found it satisfactory? I +never liked to ask!) and after making the old woods ring with the +clatter and clink of our noontide meal, mingled with floods of laughter, +were to come to the village, and to the very inn from which the +disconsolate Mr. Tupman wrote to Mr. Pickwick, after his adventure with +Miss Wardle. There is the old sign, and here we are at the Leather +Bottle, Cobham, Kent. "There's no doubt whatever about that." Dickens's +modesty would not allow him to go in, so we made the most of an outside +study of the quaint old place as we strolled by; also of the cottages +whose inmates were evidently no strangers to our party, but were cared +for by them as English cottagers are so often looked after by the kindly +ladies in their neighborhood. And there was the old churchyard, "where +the dead had been quietly buried 'in the sure and certain hope' which +Christmas-time inspired." There too were the children, whom, seeing at +their play, he could not but be loving, remembering who had loved them! +One party of urchins swinging on a gate reminded us vividly of Collins, +the painter. Here was his composition to the life. Every lover of rural +scenery must recall the little fellow on the top of a five-barred gate +in the picture Collins painted, known widely by the fine engraving made +of it at the time. And there too were the blossoming gardens, which now +shone in their new garments of resurrection. The stillness of midsummer +noon crept over everything as we lingered in the sun and shadow of the +old village. Slowly circling the hall, we came upon an avenue of +lime-trees leading up to a stately doorway in the distance. The path was +overgrown, birds and squirrels were hopping unconcernedly over the +ground, and the gates and chains were rusty with disuse. "This avenue," +said Dickens, as we leaned upon the wall and looked into its cool +shadows, "is never crossed except to bear the dead body of the lord of +the hall to its last resting-place; a remnant of superstition, and one +which Lord and Lady D---- would be glad to do away with, but the +villagers would never hear of such a thing, and would consider it +certain death to any person who should go or come through this entrance. +It would be a highly unpopular movement for the present occupants to +attempt to uproot this absurd idea, and they have given up all thoughts +of it for the time." + +It was on a subsequent visit to Cobham village that we explored the +"College," an old foundation of the reign of Edward III. for the aged +poor of both sexes. Each occupant of the various small apartments was +sitting at his or her door, which opened on a grassy enclosure with +arches like an abandoned cloister of some old cathedral. Such a motley +society, brought together under such unnatural circumstances, would of +course interest Dickens. He seemed to take a profound pleasure in +wandering about the place, which was evidently filled with the +associations of former visits in his own mind. He was usually possessed +by a childlike eagerness to go to any spot which he had made up his mind +it was best to visit, and quick to come away, but he lingered long about +this leafy old haunt on that Sunday afternoon. + +Of Cobham Hall itself much might be written without conveying an +adequate idea of its peculiar interest to this generation. The terraces, +and lawns, and cedar-trees, and deer-park, the names of Edward III. and +Elizabeth, the famous old Cobhams and their long line of distinguished +descendants, their invaluable pictures and historic chapel, have all +been the common property of the past and of the present. But the air of +comfort and hospitality diffused about the place by the present owners +belongs exclusively to our time, and a little Swiss châlet removed from +Gad's Hill, standing not far from the great house, will always connect +the name of Charles Dickens with the place he loved so well. The châlet +has been transferred thither as a tribute from the Dickens family to the +kindness of their friends and former neighbors. We could not fail, +during our visit, to think of the connection his name would always have +with Cobham Hall, though he was then still by our side, and the little +châlet yet remained embowered in its own green trees overlooking the +sail-dotted Medway as it flowed towards the Thames. + +The old city of Rochester, to which we have already referred as being +particularly well known to all Mr. Pickwick's admirers, is within +walking distance from Gad's Hill Place, and was the object of daily +visits from its occupants. The ancient castle, one of the best ruins in +England, as Dickens loved to say, because less has been done to it, +rises with rugged walls precipitously from the river. It is wholly +unrestored; just enough care has been bestowed to prevent its utter +destruction, but otherwise it stands as it has stood and crumbled from +year to year. We climbed painfully up to the highest steep of its +loftiest tower, and looked down on the wonderful scene spread out in the +glory of a summer sunset. Below, a clear trickling stream flowed and +tinkled as it has done since the rope was first lowered in the year 800 +to bring the bucket up over the worn stones which still remain to attest +the fact. How happy Dickens was in the beauty of that scene! What +delight he took in rebuilding the old place, with every legend of which +he proved himself familiar, and repeopling it out of the storehouse of +his fancy. "Here was the kitchen, and there the dining-hall! How +frightfully dark they must have been in those days, with such small +slits for windows, and the fireplaces without chimneys! There were the +galleries; this is one of the four towers; the others, you will +understand, corresponded with this; and now, if you're not dizzy, we +will come out on the battlements for the view!" Up we went, of course, +following our cheery leader until we stood among the topmost +wall-flowers, which were waving yellow and sweet in the sunset air. East +and west, north and south, our eyes traversed the beautiful garden land +of Kent, the land beloved of poets through the centuries. Below lay the +city of Rochester on one hand, and in the heart of it an old inn where a +carrier was even then getting out, or putting in, horses and wagon for +the night. A procession, with banners and music, was moving slowly by +the tavern, and the quaint costumes in which the men were dressed +suggested days long past, when far other scenes were going forward in +this locality. It was almost like a pageant marching out of antiquity +for our delectation. Our master of ceremonies revelled that day in +repeopling the queer old streets down into which we were looking from +our charming elevation. His delightful fancy seemed especially alert on +that occasion, and we lived over again with him many a chapter in the +history of Rochester, full of interest to those of us who had come from +a land where all is new and comparatively barren of romance. + +Below, on the other side, was the river Medway, from whose depths the +castle once rose steeply. Now the _débris_ and perhaps also a slight +swerving of the river from its old course have left a rough margin, over +which it would not be difficult to make an ascent. Rochester Bridge, +too, is here, and the "windy hills" in the distance; and again, on the +other hand, Chatham, and beyond, the Thames, with the sunset tingeing +the many-colored sails. We were not easily persuaded to descend from our +picturesque vantage-ground; but the master's hand led us gently on from +point to point, until we found ourselves, before we were aware, on the +grassy slope outside the castle wall. Besides, there was the cathedral +to be visited, and the tomb of Richard Watts, "with the effigy of worthy +Master Richard starting out of it like a ship's figurehead." + +After seeing the cathedral, we went along the silent High Street, past +queer Elizabethan houses with endless gables and fences and +lattice-windows, until we came to Watts's Charity, the house of +entertainment for six poor travellers. The establishment is so familiar +to all lovers of Dickens through his description of it in the article +entitled "Seven Poor Travellers" among his "Uncommercial" papers, that +little is left to be said on that subject; except perhaps that no +autobiographic sketch ever gave a more faithful picture, a closer +portrait, than is there conveyed. + +Dickens's fancy for Rochester, and his numberless associations with it, +have left traces of that city in almost everything he wrote. From the +time when Mr. Snodgrass first discovered the castle ruin from Rochester +Bridge, to the last chapter of Edwin Drood, we observe hints of the +city's quaintness or silence; the unending pavements, which go on and +on till the wisest head would be puzzled to know where Rochester ends +and where Chatham begins, the disposition of Father Time to have his own +unimpeded way therein, and of the gray cathedral towers which loom up in +the background of many a sketch and tale. Rochester, too, is on the way +to Canterbury, Dickens's best loved cathedral, the home of Agnes +Wickfield, the sunny spot in the life and memory of David Copperfield. +David was particularly small, as we are told, when he first saw +Canterbury, but he was already familiar with Roderick Random, Peregrine +Pickle, Humphrey Clinker, Tom Jones, The Vicar of Wakefield, Don +Quixote, Gil Blas, and Robinson Crusoe, who came out, as he says, a +glorious host, to keep him company. Naturally, the calm old place, the +green nooks, the beauty of the cathedral, possessed a better chance with +him than with many others, and surely no one could have loved them more. +In the later years of his life the crowning-point of the summer holidays +was "a pilgrimage to Canterbury." + +The sun shone merrily through the day when he chose to carry us thither. +Early in the morning the whole house was astir; large hampers were +packed, ladies and gentlemen were clad in gay midsummer attire, and, +soon after breakfast, huge carriages with four horses, and postilions +with red coats and top-boots, after the fashion of the olden time, were +drawn up before the door. Presently we were moving lightly over the +road, the hop-vines dancing on the poles on either side, the orchards +looking invitingly cool, the oast-houses fanning with their wide arms, +the river glowing from time to time through the landscape. We made such +a clatter passing through Rochester, that all the main street turned out +to see the carriages, and, being obliged to stop the horses a moment, a +shopkeeper, desirous of discovering Dickens among the party, hit upon +the wrong man, and confused an humble individual among the company by +calling a crowd, pointing him out as Dickens, and making him the mark of +eager eyes. This incident seemed very odd to us in a place he knew so +well. On we clattered, leaving the echoing street behind us, on and on +for many a mile, until noon, when, finding a green wood and clear stream +by the roadside, we encamped under the shadow of the trees in a retired +spot for lunch. Again we went on, through quaint towns and lonely roads, +until we came to Canterbury, in the yellow afternoon. The bells for +service were ringing as we drove under the stone archway into the +soundless streets. The whole town seemed to be enjoying a simultaneous +nap, from which it was aroused by our horses' hoofs. Out the people ran, +at this signal, into the highway, and we were glad to descend at some +distance from the centre of the city, thus leaving the excitement behind +us. We had been exposed to the hot rays of the sun all day, and the +change into the shadow of the cathedral was refreshing. Service was +going forward as we entered; we sat down, therefore, and joined our +voices with those of the choristers. Dickens, with tireless observation, +noted how sleepy and inane were the faces of many of the singers, to +whom this beautiful service was but a sickening monotony of repetition. +The words, too, were gabbled over in a manner anything but impressive. +He was such a downright enemy to form, as substituted for religion, that +any dash of untruth or unreality was abhorrent to him. When the last +sounds died away in the cathedral we came out again into the cloisters, +and sauntered about until the shadows fell over the beautiful enclosure. +We were hospitably entreated, and listened to many an historical tale of +tomb and stone and grassy nook; but under all we were listening to the +heart of our companion, who had so often wandered thither in his +solitude, and was now rereading the stories these urns had prepared for +him. + +During one of his winter visits, he says (in "Copperfield"):-- + +"Coming into Canterbury, I loitered through the old streets with a sober +pleasure that calmed my spirits and eased my heart. There were the old +signs, the old names over the shops, the old people serving in them. It +appeared so long since I had been a school-boy there, that I wondered +the place was so little changed, until I reflected how little I was +changed myself. Strange to say, that quiet influence which was +inseparable in my mind from Agnes seemed to pervade even the city where +she dwelt. The venerable cathedral towers, and the old jackdaws and +rooks, whose airy voices made them more retired than perfect silence +would have done; the battered gateways, once stuck full with statues, +long thrown down and crumbled away, like the reverential pilgrims who +had gazed upon them; the still nooks, where the ivied growth of +centuries crept over gabled ends and ruined walls; the ancient houses; +the pastoral landscape of field, orchard, and garden;--everywhere, in +everything, I felt the same serene air, the same calm, thoughtful, +softening spirit." + +Walking away and leaving Canterbury behind us forever, we came again +into the voiceless streets, past a "very old house bulging out over the +road, ... quite spotless in its cleanliness, the old-fashioned brass +knocker on the low, arched door ornamented with carved garlands of fruit +and flowers, twinkling like a star," the very house, perhaps, "with +angles and corners and carvings and mouldings," where David Copperfield +was sent to school. We were turned off with a laughing reply, when we +ventured to accuse this particular house of being _the one_, and were +told there were several that "would do"; which was quite true, for +nothing could be more quaint, more satisfactory to all, from the lovers +of Chaucer to the lovers of Dickens, than this same city of Canterbury. +The sun had set as we rattled noisily out of the ancient place that +afternoon, and along the high road, which was quite novel in its evening +aspect. There was no lingering now; on and on we went, the postilions +flying up and down on the backs of their huge horses, their red coats +glancing in the occasional gleams of wayside lamps, fire-flies making +the orchards shine, the sunset lighting up vast clouds that lay across +the western sky, and the whole scene filled with evening stillness. When +we stopped to change horses, the quiet was almost oppressive. Soon after +nine we espied the welcome lantern of Gad's Hill Place and the open +gates. And so ended Dickens's last pilgrimage to Canterbury. + +There was another interesting spot near Gad's Hill which was one of +Dickens's haunts, and this was the "Druid-stone," as it is called, at +Maidstone. This is within walking distance of his house, along the +breezy hillside road, which we remember blossomy and wavy in the summer +season, with open spaces in the hedges where one may look over wide +hilly slopes, and at times come upon strange cuts down into the chalk +which pervades this district. We turned into a lane from the dusty road, +and, following our leader over a barred gate, came into wide grassy +fields full of summer's bloom and glory. A short walk farther brought us +to the Druid-stone, which Dickens thought to be, from the fitness of its +position, simply a vantage-ground chosen by priests,--whether Druid or +Christian of course it would be impossible to say,--from which to +address a multitude. The rock served as a kind of background and +sounding-board, while the beautiful sloping of the sward upward from the +speaker made it an excellent position for out-of-door discourses. On +this day it was only a blooming solitude, the birds had done all the +talking, until we arrived. It was a fine afternoon haunt, and one +worthy of a visit, apart from the associations which make the place +dear. + +One of the weirdest neighborhoods to Gad's Hill, and one of those most +closely associated with Dickens, is the village of Cooling. A cloudy day +proved well enough for Cooling; indeed, was undoubtedly chosen by the +adroit master of hospitalities as being a fitting sky to show the dark +landscape of "Great Expectations." The pony-carriage went thither to +accompany the walking party and carry the baskets; the whole way, as we +remember, leading on among narrow lanes, where heavy carriages were +seldom seen. We are told in the novel, "On every rail and gate, wet lay +clammy, and the marsh mist was so thick that the wooden finger on the +post directing people to our village--a direction which they never +accepted, for they never came there--was invisible to me until I was +close under it." The lanes certainly wore that aspect of never being +accepted as a way of travel; but this was a delightful recommendation to +our walk, for summer kept her own way there, and grass and wild-flowers +were abundant. It was already noon, and low clouds and mists were lying +about the earth and sky as we approached a forlorn little village on the +edge of the wide marshes described in the opening of the novel. This was +Cooling, and passing by the few cottages, the decayed rectory, and +straggling buildings, we came at length to the churchyard. It took but a +short time to make us feel at home there, with the marshes on one hand, +the low wall over which Pip saw the convict climb before he dared to run +away; "the five little stone lozenges, each about a foot and a half +long, ... sacred to the memory of five little brothers, ...to which I +had been indebted for a belief that they all had been born on their +backs, with their hands in their trousers pockets, and had never taken +them out in this state of existence";--all these points, combined with +the general dreariness of the landscape, the far-stretching marshes, and +the distant sea-line, soon revealed to us that this was Pip's country, +and we might momently expect to see the convict's head, or to hear the +clank of his chain, over that low wall. + +We were in the churchyard now, having left the pony within eye-shot, and +taken the baskets along with us, and were standing on one of those very +lozenges, somewhat grass-grown by this time, and deciphering the +inscriptions. On tiptoe we could get a wide view of the marsh, with, the +wind sweeping in a lonely limitless way through the tall grasses. +Presently hearing Dickens's cheery call, we turned to see what he was +doing. He had chosen a good flat gravestone in one corner (the corner +farthest from the marsh and Pip's little brothers and the expected +convict), had spread a wide napkin thereupon after the fashion of a +domestic dinner-table, and was rapidly transferring the contents of the +hampers to that point. The horrible whimsicality of trying to eat and +make merry under these deplorable circumstances, the tragic-comic +character of the scene, appeared to take him by surprise. He at once +threw himself into it (as he says in "Copperfield" he was wont to do +with anything to which he had laid his hand) with fantastic eagerness. +Having spread the table after the most approved style, he suddenly +disappeared behind the wall for a moment, transformed himself by the aid +of a towel and napkin into a first-class head-waiter, reappeared, laid a +row of plates along the top of the wall, as at a bar-room or +eating-house, again retreated to the other side with some provisions, +and, making the gentlemen of the party stand up to the wall, went +through the whole play with most entire gravity. When we had wound up +with a good laugh, and were again seated together on the grass around +the table, we espied two wretched figures, not the convicts this time, +although we might have easily persuaded ourselves so, but only tramps +gazing at us over the wall from the marsh side as they approached, and +finally sitting down, just outside the churchyard gate. They looked +wretchedly hungry and miserable, and Dickens said at once, starting up, +"Come, let us offer them a glass of wine and something good for lunch." +He was about to carry them himself, when what he considered a happy +thought seemed to strike him. "_You_ shall carry it to them," he cried, +turning to one of the ladies; "it will be less like a charity and more +like a kindness if one of you should speak to the poor souls!" This was +so much in character for him, who stopped always to choose the most +delicate way of doing a kind deed, that the memory of this little +incident remains, while much, alas! of his wit and wisdom have vanished +beyond the power of reproducing. We feasted on the satisfaction the +tramps took in their lunch, long after our own was concluded; and, +seeing them well off on their road again, took up our own way to Gad's +Hill Place. How comfortable it looked on our return; how beautifully the +afternoon gleams of sunshine shone upon the holly-trees by the porch; +how we turned away from the door and went into the playground, where we +bowled on the green turf, until the tall maid in her spotless cap was +seen bringing the five-o'clock tea thitherward; how the dews and the +setting sun warned us at last we must prepare for dinner; and how +Dickens played longer and harder than any one of the company, scorning +the idea of going in to tea at that hour, and beating his ball instead, +quite the youngest of the company up to the last moment!--all this +returns with vivid distinctness as I write these inadequate words. + +Many days and weeks passed over after those June days were ended before +we were to see Dickens again. Our meeting then was at the station in +London, on our way to Gad's Hill once more. He was always early at a +railway station, he said, if only to save himself the unnecessary and +wasteful excitement hurry commonly produces; and so he came to meet us +with a cheery manner, as if care were shut up in some desk or closet he +had left behind, and he were ready to make the day a gay one, whatever +the sun might say to it. A small roll of manuscript in his hand led him +soon to confess that a new story was already begun; but this +communication was made in the utmost confidence, as if to account for +any otherwise unexplainable absences, physically or mentally, from our +society, which might occur. But there were no gaps during that autumn +afternoon of return to Gad's Hill. He told us how summer had brought him +no vacation this year, and only two days of recreation. One of those, he +said, was spent with his family at "Rosherville Gardens," "the place," +as a huge advertisement informed us, "to spend a happy day." His +curiosity with regard to all entertainments for the people, he said to +us, carried him thither, and he seemed to have been amused and rewarded +by his visit. The previous Sunday had found him in London; he was +anxious to reach Gad's Hill before the afternoon, but in order to +accomplish this he must walk nine miles to a way station, which he did. +Coming to the little village, he inquired where the station was, and, +being shown in the wrong direction, walked calmly down a narrow road +which did not lead there at all. "On I went," he said, "in the perfect +sunshine, over yellow leaves, without even a wandering breeze to break +the silence, when suddenly I came upon three or four antique wooden +houses standing under trees on the borders of a lovely stream, and, a +little farther, upon an ancient doorway to a grand hall, perhaps the +home of some bishop of the olden time. The road came to an end there, +and I was obliged to retrace my steps; but anything more entirely +peaceful and beautiful in its aspect on that autumnal day than this +retreat, forgotten by the world, I almost never saw." He was eager, too, +to describe for our entertainment one of the yearly cricket-matches +among the villagers at Gad's Hill which had just come off. Some of the +toasts at the supper afterward were as old as the time of Queen Anne. +For instance,-- + + "More pigs, + Fewer parsons"; + +delivered with all seriousness; a later one was, "May the walls of old +England never be covered with French polish!" + +Once more we recall a morning at Gad's Hill, a soft white haze over +everything, and the yellow sun burning through. The birds were singing, +and beauty and calm pervaded the whole scene. We strayed through Cobham +Park and saw the lovely vistas through the autumnal haze; once more we +reclined in the cool châlet in the afternoon, and watched the vessels +going and coming upon the ever-moving river. Suddenly all has vanished; +and now, neither spring nor autumn, nor flowers nor birds, nor dawn nor +sunset, nor the ever-moving river, can be the same to any of us again. +We have all drifted down upon the river of Time, and one has already +sailed out into the illimitable ocean. + + * * * * * + +On a pleasant Sunday morning in October, 1869, as I sat looking out on +the beautiful landscape from my chamber window at Gad's Hill, a servant +tapped at my door and gave me a summons from Dickens, written in his +drollest manner on a sheet of paper, bidding me descend into his study +on business of great importance. That day I heard from the author's lips +the first chapters of "Edwin Drood" the concluding lines of which +initial pages were then scarcely dry from the pen. The story is +unfinished, and he who read that autumn morning with such vigor of voice +and dramatic power is in his grave. This private reading took place in +the little room where the great novelist for many years had been +accustomed to write, and in the house where on a pleasant evening in the +following June he died. The spot is one of the loveliest in Kent, and +must always be remembered as the last residence of Charles Dickens. He +used to declare his firm belief that Shakespeare was specially fond of +Kent, and that the poet chose Gad's Hill and Rochester for the scenery +of his plays from intimate personal knowledge of their localities. He +said he had no manner of doubt but that one of Shakespeare's haunts was +the old inn at Rochester, and that this conviction came forcibly upon +him one night as he was walking that way, and discovered Charles's Wain +over the chimney just as Shakespeare has described it, in words put into +the mouth of the carrier in King Henry IV. There is no prettier place +than Gad's Hill in all England for the earliest and latest flowers, and +Dickens chose it, when he had arrived at the fulness of his fame and +prosperity, as the home in which he most wished to spend the remainder +of his days. When a boy, he would often pass the house with his father +and frequently said to him, "If ever I have a dwelling of my own, Gad's +Hill Place is the house I mean to buy." In that beautiful retreat he had +for many years been accustomed to welcome his friends, and find +relaxation from the crowded life of London. On the lawn playing at +bowls, in the Swiss summer-house charmingly shaded by green leaves, he +always seemed the best part of summer, beautiful as the season is in the +delightful region where he lived. + +There he could be most thoroughly enjoyed, for he never seemed so +cheerfully at home anywhere else. At his own table, surrounded by his +family, and a few guests, old acquaintances from town,--among them +sometimes Forster, Carlyle, Reade, Collins, Layard, Maclise, Stone, +Macready, Talfourd,--he was always the choicest and liveliest companion. +He was not what is called in society a professed talker, but he was +something far better and rarer. + +In his own inimitable manner he would frequently relate to me, if +prompted, stories of his youthful days, when he was toiling on the +London Morning Chronicle, passing sleepless hours as a reporter on the +road in a post-chaise, driving day and night from point to point to take +down the speeches of Shiel or O'Connell. He liked to describe the +post-boys, who were accustomed to hurry him over the road that he might +reach London in advance of his rival reporters, while, by the aid of a +lantern, he was writing out for the press, as he flew over the ground, +the words he had taken down in short-hand. Those were his days of severe +training, when in rain and sleet and cold he dashed along, scarcely able +to keep the blinding mud out of his tired eyes; and he imputed much of +his ability for steady hard work to his practice as a reporter, kept at +his grinding business, and determined if possible to earn seven guineas +a week. A large sheet was started at this period of his life, in which +all the important speeches of Parliament were to be reported _verbatim_ +for future reference. Dickens was engaged on this gigantic journal. Mr. +Stanley (afterwards Lord Derby) had spoken at great length on the +condition of Ireland. It was a long and eloquent speech, occupying many +hours in the delivery. Eight reporters were sent in to do the work. Each +one was required to report three quarters of an hour, then to retire, +write out his portion, and to be succeeded by the next. Young Dickens +was detailed to lead off with the first part. It also fell to his lot, +when the time came round, to report the closing portions of the speech. +On Saturday the whole was given to the press, and Dickens ran down to +the country for a Sunday's rest. Sunday morning had scarcely dawned, +when his father, who was a man of immense energy, made his appearance in +his son's sleeping-room. Mr. Stanley was so dissatisfied with what he +found in print, except the beginning and ending of his speech (just what +Dickens had reported) that he sent immediately to the office and +obtained the sheets of those parts of the report. He there found the +name of the reporter, which, according to custom, was written on the +margin. Then he requested that the young man bearing the name of Dickens +should be immediately sent for. Dickens's father, all aglow with the +prospect of probable promotion in the office, went immediately to his +son's stopping-place in the country and brought him back to London. In +telling the story, Dickens said: "I remember perfectly to this day the +aspect of the room I was shown into, and the two persons in it, Mr. +Stanley and his father. Both gentlemen were extremely courteous to me, +but I noted their evident surprise at the appearance of so young a man. +While we spoke together, I had taken a seat extended to me in the middle +of the room. Mr. Stanley told me he wished to go over the whole speech +and have it written out by me, and if I were ready he would begin now. +Where would I like to sit? I told him I was very well where I was, and +we could begin immediately. He tried to induce me to sit at a desk, but +at that time in the House of Commons there was nothing but one's knees +to write upon, and I had formed the habit of doing my work in that way. +Without further pause he began and went rapidly on, hour after hour, to +the end, often becoming very much excited and frequently bringing down +his hand with great violence upon the desk near which he stood." + +I have before me, as I write, an unpublished autograph letter of young +Dickens, which he sent off to his employer in November, 1835, while he +was on a reporting expedition for the Morning Chronicle. At that early +stage of his career he seems to have had that unfailing accuracy of +statement so marked in after years when he became famous. The letter was +given to me several years ago by one of Dickens's brother reporters. +Thus it runs:-- + + George And Pelican, Newbury, Sunday Morning. + + Dear Fraser: In conjunction with The Herald we have arranged for a + Horse Express from Marlborough to London on Tuesday night, to go the + whole distance at the rate of thirteen miles an hour, for six + guineas: half has been paid, but, to insure despatch, the remainder + is withheld until the boy arrives at the office, when he will + produce a paper with a copy of the agreement on one side, and an + order for three guineas (signed by myself) on the other. Will you + take care that it is duly honored? A Boy from The Herald will be in + waiting at our office for their copy; and Lyons begs me to remind + you most strongly that it is an indispensable part of our agreement + _that he should not be detained one instant_. + + We go to Bristol to-day, and if we are equally fortunate in laying + the chaise-horses, I hope the packet will reach town by seven. As + all the papers have arranged to leave Bristol the moment Russell is + down, we have determined on adopting the same plan,--one of us will + go to Marlborough in the chaise with one Herald man, and the other + remain at Bristol with the second Herald man to conclude the account + for the next day. The Times has ordered a chaise and four the whole + distance, so there is every probability of our beating them hollow. + From all we hear, we think the Herald, relying on the packet + reaching town early, intends publishing the report in their first + Edition. This is however, of course, mere speculation on our parts, + as we have no direct means of ascertaining their intention. + + I think I have now given you all needful information. I have only in + conclusion to impress upon you the necessity of having all the + compositors ready, at a very early hour, for if Russell be down by + half past eight, we hope to have his speech in town at six. + + Believe me (for self and Beard) very truly yours, + + Charles Dickens. + + Nov., 1835. + + Thomas Fraser, Esq., Morning Chronicle Office. + +No writer ever lived whose method was more exact, whose industry was +more constant, and whose punctuality was more marked, than those of +Charles Dickens. He never shirked labor, mental or bodily. He rarely +declined, if the object were a good one, taking the chair at a public +meeting, or accepting a charitable trust. Many widows and orphans of +deceased literary men have for years been benefited by his wise +trusteeship or counsel, and he spent a great portion of his time +personally looking after the property of the poor whose interests were +under his control. He was, as has been intimated, one of the most +industrious of men, and marvellous stories are told (not by himself) of +what he has accomplished in a given time in literary and social matters. +His studies were all from nature and life, and his habits of observation +were untiring. If he contemplated writing "Hard Times," he arranged with +the master of Astley's circus to spend many hours behind the scenes with +the riders and among the horses; and if the composition of the "Tale of +Two Cities" were occupying his thoughts, he could banish himself to +France for two years to prepare for that great work. Hogarth pencilled +on his thumb-nail a striking face in a crowd that he wished to preserve; +Dickens with his transcendent memory chronicled in his mind whatever of +interest met his eye or reached his ear, any time or anywhere. Speaking +of memory one day, he said the memory of children was prodigious; it was +a mistake to fancy children ever forgot anything. When he was +delineating the character of Mrs. Pipchin, he had in his mind an old +lodging-house keeper in an English watering-place where he was living +with his father and mother when he was but two years old. After the book +was written he sent it to his sister, who wrote back at once: "Good +heavens! what does this mean? you have painted our lodging-house keeper, +and you were but two years old at that time!" Characters and incidents +crowded the chambers of his brain, all ready for use when occasion +required. No subject of human interest was ever indifferent to him, and +never a day went by that did not afford him some suggestion to be +utilized in the future. + +His favorite mode of exercise was walking; and when in America, scarcely +a day passed, no matter what the weather, that he did not accomplish his +eight or ten miles. It was on these expeditions that he liked to recount +to the companion of his rambles stories and incidents of his early life; +and when he was in the mood, his fun and humor knew no bounds. He would +then frequently discuss the numerous characters in his delightful books, +and would act out, on the road, dramatic situations, where Nickleby or +Copperfield or Swiveller would play distinguished parts. I remember he +said, on one of these occasions, that during the composition of his +first stories he could never entirely dismiss the characters about whom +he happened to be writing; that while the "Old Curiosity Shop" was in +process of composition Little Nell followed him about everywhere; that +while he was writing "Oliver Twist" Fagin the Jew would never let him +rest, even in his most retired moments; that at midnight and in the +morning, on the sea and on the land, Tiny Tim and Little Bob Cratchit +were ever tugging at his coat-sleeve, as if impatient for him to get +back to his desk and continue the story of their lives. But he said +after he had published several books, and saw what serious demands his +characters were accustomed to make for the constant attention of his +already overtasked brain, he resolved that the phantom individuals +should no longer intrude on his hours of recreation and rest, but that +when he closed the door of his study he would shut them all in, and only +meet them again when he came back to resume his task. That force of will +with which he was so pre-eminently endowed enabled him to ignore these +manifold existences till he chose to renew their acquaintance. He said, +also, that when the children of his brain had once been launched, free +and clear of him, into the world, they would sometimes turn up in the +most unexpected manner to look their father in the face. + +Sometimes he would pull my arm while we were walking together and +whisper, "Let us avoid Mr. Pumblechook, who is crossing the street to +meet us"; or, "Mr. Micawber is coming; let us turn down this alley to +get out of his way." He always seemed to enjoy the fun of his comic +people, and had unceasing mirth over Mr. Pickwick's misadventures. In +answer one day to a question, prompted by psychological curiosity, if he +ever dreamed of any of his characters, his reply was, "Never; and I am +convinced that no writer (judging from my own experience, which cannot +be altogether singular, but must be a type of the experience of others) +has ever dreamed of the creatures of his own imagination. It would," he +went on to say, "be like a man's dreaming of meeting himself, which is +clearly an impossibility. Things exterior to one's self must always be +the basis of dreams." The growing up of characters in his mind never +lost for him a sense of the marvellous. "What an unfathomable mystery +there is in it all!" he said one day. Taking up a wineglass, he +continued: "Suppose I choose to call this a _character_, fancy it a man, +endue it with certain qualities; and soon the fine filmy webs of +thought, almost impalpable, coming from every direction, we know not +whence, spin and weave about it, until it assumes form and beauty, and +becomes instinct with life." + +In society Dickens rarely referred to the traits and characteristics of +people he had known; but during a long walk in the country he delighted +to recall and describe the peculiarities, eccentric and otherwise, of +dead and gone as well as living friends. Then Sydney Smith and Jeffrey +and Christopher North and Talfourd and Hood and Rogers seemed to live +over again in his vivid reproductions, made so impressive by his +marvellous memory and imagination. As he walked rapidly along the road, +he appeared to enjoy the keen zest of his companion in the numerous +impersonations with which he was indulging him. + +He always had much to say of animals as well as of men, and there were +certain dogs and horses he had met and known intimately which it was +specially interesting to him to remember and picture. There was a +particular dog in Washington which he was never tired of delineating. +The first night Dickens read in the Capital this dog attracted his +attention. "He came into the hall by himself," said he, "got a good +place before the reading began, and paid strict attention throughout. He +came the second night, and was ignominiously shown out by one of the +check-takers. On the third night he appeared again with another dog, +which he had evidently promised to pass in free; but you see," continued +Dickens, "upon the imposition being unmasked, the other dog apologized +by a howl and withdrew. His intentions, no doubt, were of the best, but +he afterwards rose to explain outside, with such inconvenient eloquence +to the reader and his audience, that they were obliged to put him down +stairs." + +He was such a firm believer in the mental faculties of animals, that it +would have gone hard with a companion with whom he was talking, if a +doubt were thrown, however inadvertently, on the mental intelligence of +any four-footed friend that chanced to be at the time the subject of +conversation. All animals which he took under his especial patronage +seemed to have a marked affection for him. Quite a colony of dogs has +always been a feature at Gad's Hill. + +In many walks and talks with Dickens, his conversation, now, alas! so +imperfectly recalled, frequently ran on the habits of birds, the raven, +of course, interesting him particularly. He always liked to have a raven +hopping about his grounds, and whoever has read the new Preface to +"Barnaby Rudge" must remember several of his old friends in that line. +He had quite a fund of canary-bird anecdotes, and the pert ways of birds +that picked up worms for a living afforded him infinite amusement. He +would give a capital imitation of the way a robin-redbreast cocks his +head on one side preliminary to a dash forward in the direction of a +wriggling victim. There is a small grave at Gad's Hill to which Dickens +would occasionally take a friend, and it was quite a privilege to stand +with him beside the burial-place of little Dick, the family's favorite +canary. + +What a treat it was to go with him to the London Zoölogical Gardens, a +place he greatly delighted in at all times! He knew the zoölogical +address of every animal, bird, and fish of any distinction; and he +could, without the slightest hesitation, on entering the grounds, +proceed straightway to the celebrities of claw or foot or fin. The +delight he took in the hippopotamus family was most exhilarating. He +entered familiarly into conversation with the huge, unwieldy creatures, +and they seemed to understand him. Indeed, he spoke to all the +unphilological inhabitants with a directness and tact which went home to +them at once. He chaffed with the monkeys, coaxed the tigers, and +bamboozled the snakes, with a dexterity unapproachable. All the keepers +knew him, he was such a loyal visitor, and I noticed they came up to him +in a friendly way, with the feeling that they had a sympathetic listener +always in Charles Dickens. + +There were certain books of which Dickens liked to talk during his walks +Among his especial favorites were the writings of Cobbett, DeQuincey, +the Lectures on Moral Philosophy by Sydney Smith, and Carlyle's French +Revolution. Of this latter Dickens said it was the book of all others +which he read perpetually and of which he never tired,--the book which +always appeared more imaginative in proportion to the fresh imagination +he brought to it, a book for inexhaustibleness to be placed before every +other book. When writing the "Tale of Two Cities," he asked Carlyle if +he might see one of the works to which he referred in his history; +whereupon Carlyle packed up and sent down to Gad's Hill _all_ his +reference volumes, and Dickens read them faithfully. But the more he +read the more he was astonished to find how the facts had passed through +the alembic of Carlyle's brain and had come out and fitted themselves, +each as a part of one great whole, making a compact result, +indestructible and unrivalled; and he always found himself turning away +from the books of reference, and re-reading with increased wonder this +marvellous new growth. There were certain books particularly hateful to +him, and of which he never spoke except in terms of most ludicrous +raillery. Mr. Barlow, in "Sandford and Merton," he said was the favorite +enemy of his boyhood and his first experience of a bore. He had an +almost supernatural hatred for Barlow, "because he was so very +_instructive_, and always hinting doubts with regard to the veracity of +'Sindbad the Sailor,' and had no belief whatever in 'The Wonderful Lamp' +or 'The Enchanted Horse.'" Dickens rattling his mental cane over the +head of Mr. Barlow was as much better than any play as can be well +imagined. He gloried in many of Hood's poems, especially in that biting +Ode to Rae Wilson, and he would gesticulate with a fine fervor the +lines, + + "...the hypocrites who ope Heaven's door + Obsequious to the sinful man of riches,-- + But put the wicked, naked, bare-legged poor + In parish _stocks_ instead of _breeches_." + +One of his favorite books was Pepys's Diary, the curious discovery of +the key to which, and the odd characteristics of its writer, were a +never-failing source of interest and amusement to him. The vision of +Pepys hanging round the door of the theatre, hoping for an invitation to +go in, not being able to keep away in spite of a promise he had made to +himself that he would spend no more money foolishly, delighted him. +Speaking one day of Gray, the author of the Elegy, he said: "No poet +ever came walking down to posterity with so _small_ a book under his +arm." He preferred Smollett to Fielding, putting "Peregrine Pickle" +above "Tom Jones." Of the best novels by his contemporaries he always +spoke with warm commendation, and "Griffith Gaunt" he thought a +production of very high merit. He was "hospitable to the thought" of all +writers who were really in earnest, but at the first exhibition of +floundering or inexactness he became an unbeliever. People with +dislocated understandings he had no tolerance for. + +He was passionately fond of the theatre, loved the lights and music and +flowers, and the happy faces of the audience; he was accustomed to say +that his love of the theatre never failed, and, no matter how dull the +play, he was always careful while he sat in the box to make no sound +which could hurt the feelings of the actors, or show any lack of +attention. His genuine enthusiasm for Mr. Fechter's acting was most +interesting. He loved to describe seeing him first, quite by accident, +in Paris, having strolled into a little theatre there one night. "He was +making love to a woman," Dickens said, "and he so elevated her as well +as himself by the sentiment in which he enveloped her, that they trod in +a purer ether, and in another sphere, quite lifted out of the present. +'By heavens!' I said to myself, 'a man who can do this can do +anything.' I never saw two people more purely and instantly elevated by +the power of love. The manner, also," he continued, "in which he presses +the hem of the dress of Lucy in the Bride of Lammermoor is something +wonderful. The man has genius in him which is unmistakable." + +Life behind the scenes was always a fascinating study to Dickens. "One +of the oddest sights a green-room can present," he said one day, "is +when they are collecting children for a pantomime. For this purpose the +prompter calls together all the women in the ballet, and begins giving +out their names in order, while they press about him eager for the +chance of increasing their poor pay by the extra pittance their children +will receive. 'Mrs. Johnson, how many?' 'Two, sir.' 'What ages?' 'Seven +and ten.' 'Mrs. B., how many?' and so on, until the required number is +made up. The people who go upon the stage, however poor their pay or +hard their lot, love it too well ever to adopt another vocation of their +free-will. A mother will frequently be in the wardrobe, children in the +pantomime, elder sisters in the ballet, etc." + + * * * * * + +Dickens's habits as a speaker differed from those of most orators. He +gave no thought to the composition of the speech he was to make till the +day before he was to deliver it. No matter whether the effort was to be +a long or a short one, he never wrote down a word of what he was going +to say; but when the proper time arrived for him to consider his +subject, he took a walk into the country and the thing was done. When he +returned he was all ready for his task. + +He liked to talk about the audiences that came to hear him read, and he +gave the palm to his Parisian one, saying it was the quickest to catch +his meaning. Although he said there were many always present in his room +in Paris who did not fully understand English, yet the French eye is so +quick to detect expression that it never failed instantly to understand +what he meant by a look or an act. "Thus, for instance," he said, "when +I was impersonating Steerforth in 'David Copperfield,' and gave that +peculiar grip of the hand to Emily's lover, the French audience burst +into cheers and rounds of applause." He said with reference to the +preparation of his readings, that it was three months' hard labor to get +up one of his own stories for public recitation, and he thought he had +greatly improved his presentation of the "Christmas Carol" while in this +country. He considered the storm scene in "David Copperfield" one of the +most effective of his readings. The character of Jack Hopkins in "Bob +Sawyer's Party" he took great delight in representing, and as Jack was a +prime favorite of mine, he brought him forward whenever the occasion +prompted. He always spoke of Hopkins as my particular friend, and he was +constantly quoting him, taking on the peculiar voice and turn of the +head which he gave Jack in the public reading. + +It gave him a natural pleasure when he heard quotations from his own +books introduced without effort into conversation. He did not always +remember, when his own words were quoted, that he was himself the author +of them, and appeared astounded at the memory of others in this regard. +He said Mr. Secretary Stanton had a most extraordinary knowledge of his +books and a power of taking the text up at any point, which he supposed +to belong to only one person, and that person not himself. + +It was said of Garrick that he was the _cheerfullest_ man of his age. +This can be as truly said of Charles Dickens. In his presence there was +perpetual sunshine, and gloom was banished as having no sort of +relationship with him. No man suffered more keenly or sympathized more +fully than he did with want and misery; but his motto was, "Don't stand +and cry; press forward and help remove the difficulty." The speed with +which he was accustomed to make the deed follow his yet speedier +sympathy was seen pleasantly on the day of his visit to the School-ship +in Boston Harbor. He said, previously to going on board that ship, +nothing would tempt him to make a speech, for he should always be +obliged to do it on similar occasions, if he broke through his rule so +early in his reading tour. But Judge Russell had no sooner finished his +simple talk, to which the boys listened, as they always do, with eager +faces, than Dickens rose as if he could not help it, and with a few +words so magnetized them that they wore their hearts in their eyes as if +they meant to keep the words forever. An enthusiastic critic once said +of John Ruskin, "that he could discover the Apocalypse in a daisy." As +noble a discovery may be claimed for Dickens. He found all the fair +humanities blooming in the lowliest hovel. He never _put on_ the good +Samaritan: that character was native to him. Once while in this country, +on a bitter, freezing afternoon,--night coming down in a drifting +snow-storm,--he was returning with me from a long walk in the country. +The wind and baffling sleet were so furious that the street in which we +happened to be fighting our way was quite deserted; it was almost +impossible to see across it, the air was so thick with the tempest; all +conversation between us had ceased, for it was only possible to breast +the storm by devoting our whole energies to keeping on our feet; we +seemed to be walking in a different atmosphere from any we had ever +before encountered. All at once I missed Dickens from my side. What had +become of him? Had he gone down in the drift, utterly exhausted, and was +the snow burying him out of sight? Very soon the sound of his cheery +voice was heard on the other side of the way. With great difficulty, +over the piled-up snow, I struggled across the street, and there found +him lifting up, almost by main force, a blind old man who had got +bewildered by the storm, and had fallen down unnoticed, quite unable to +proceed. Dickens, a long distance away from him, with that tender, +sensitive, and penetrating vision, ever on the alert for suffering in +any form, had rushed at once to the rescue, comprehending at a glance +the situation of the sightless man. To help him to his feet and aid him +homeward in the most natural and simple way afforded Dickens such a +pleasure as only the benevolent by intuition can understand. + +Throughout his life Dickens was continually receiving tributes from +those he had benefited, either by his books or by his friendship. There +is an odd and very pretty story (vouched for here as true) connected +with the influence he so widely exerted. In the winter of 1869, soon +after he came up to London to reside for a few months, he received a +letter from a man telling him that he had begun life in the most humble +way possible, and that he considered he owed his subsequent great +success and such education as he had given himself entirely to the +encouragement and cheering influence he had derived from Dickens's +books, of which he had been a constant reader from his childhood. He had +been made a partner in his master's business, and when the head of the +house died, the other day, it was found he had left the whole of his +large property to this man. As soon as he came into possession of this +fortune, his mind turned to Dickens, whom he looked upon as his +benefactor and teacher, and his first desire was to tender him some +testimonial of gratitude and veneration. He then begged Dickens to +accept a large sum of money. Dickens declined to receive the money, but +his unknown friend sent him instead two silver table ornaments of great +intrinsic value bearing this inscription: "To Charles Dickens, from one +who has been cheered and stimulated by his writings, and held the author +amongst his first Remembrances when he became prosperous." One of these +silver ornaments was supported by three figures, representing three +seasons. In the original design there were, of course, four, but the +donor was so averse to associating the idea of Winter in any sense with +Dickens that he caused the workman to alter the design and leave only +the _cheerful_ seasons. No event in the great author's career was ever +more gratifying and pleasant to him. + +His friendly notes were exquisitely turned, and are among his most +charming compositions. They abound in felicities only like himself. In +1860 he wrote to me while I was sojourning in Italy: "I should like to +have a walk through Rome with you this bright morning (for it really +_is_ bright in London), and convey you over some favorite ground of +mine. I used to go up the street of Tombs, past the tomb of Cecilia +Metella, away out upon the wild campagna, and by the old Appian Road +(easily tracked out among the ruins and primroses), to Albano. There, at +a very dirty inn, I used to have a very dirty lunch, generally with the +family's dirty linen lying in a corner, and inveigle some very dirty +Vetturino in sheep-skin to take me back to Rome." + +In a little note in answer to one I had written consulting him about the +purchase of some old furniture in London he wrote: "There is a chair +(without a bottom) at a shop near the office, which I think would suit +you. It cannot stand of itself, but will almost seat somebody, if you +put it in a corner, and prop one leg up with two wedges and cut another +leg off, The proprietor asks £20, but says he admires literature and +would take £18. He is of republican principles and I think would take +£17 19_s_. 6_d_. from a cousin; shall I secure this prize? It is very +ugly and wormy, and it is related, but without proof, that on one +occasion Washington declined to sit down in it." + +Here are the last two missives I ever received from his dear, kind +hand:-- + + 5 Hyde Park Place, London, W., Friday, January 14, 1870. + + My Dear Fields: We live here (opposite the Marble Arch) in a + charming house until the 1st of June, and then return to Gad's. The + Conservatory is completed, and is a brilliant success;--but an + expensive one! + + I read this afternoon at three,--a beastly proceeding which I + particularly hate,--and again this day week at three. These morning + readings particularly disturb me at my book-work; nevertheless I + hope, please God, to lose no way on their account. An evening + reading once a week is nothing. By the by, I recommenced last + Tuesday evening with the greatest brilliancy. + + I should be quite ashamed of not having written to you and my dear + Mrs. Fields before now, if I didn't know that you will both + understand how occupied I am, and how naturally, when I put my + papers away for the day, I get up and fly. I have a large room here, + with three fine windows, overlooking the Park,--unsurpassable for + airiness and cheerfulness. + + You saw the announcement of the death of poor dear Harness. The + circumstances are curious. He wrote to his old friend the Dean of + Battle saying he would come to visit him on that day (the day of his + death). The Dean wrote back: "Come next day, instead, as we are + obliged to go out to dinner, and you will be alone." Harness told + his sister a little impatiently that he _must_ go on the first-named + day,--that he had made up his mind to go, and MUST. He had been + getting himself ready for dinner, and came to a part of the + staircase whence two doors opened,--one, upon another level passage; + one, upon a flight of stone steps. He opened the wrong door, fell + down the steps, injured himself very severely, and died in a few + hours. + + You will know--_I_ don't--what Fechter's success is in America at + the time of this present writing. In his farewell performances at + the Princess's he acted very finely. I thought the three first acts + of his Hamlet very much better than I had ever thought them + before,--and I always thought very highly of them. We gave him a + foaming stirrup cup at Gad's Hill. Forster (who has been ill with + his bronchitis again) thinks No. 2 of the new book (Edwin Drood) a + clincher,--I mean that word (as his own expression) for _Clincher_. + There is a curious interest steadily working up to No. 5, which + requires a great deal of art and self-denial. I think also, apart + from character and picturesqueness, that the young people are placed + in a very novel situation. So I hope--at Nos. 5 and 6 the story will + turn upon an interest suspended until the end. + + I can't believe it, and don't, and won't, but they say Harry's + twenty-first birthday is next Sunday. I have entered him at the + Temple just now; and if he don't get a fellowship at Trinity Hall + when his time comes, I shall be disappointed, if in the present + disappointed state of existence. + + I hope you may have met with the little touch of Radicalism I gave + them at Birmingham in the words of Buckle? With pride I observe that + it makes the regular political traders, of all sorts, perfectly mad. + Sich was my intentions, as a grateful acknowledgment of having been + misrepresented. + + I think Mrs. ----'s prose very admirable, but I don't believe it! + No, I do _not_. My conviction is that those Islanders get + frightfully bored by the Islands, and wish they had never set eyes + upon them! + + Charley Collins has done a charming cover for the monthly part of + the new book. At the very earnest representations of Millais (and + after having seen a great number of his drawings) I am going to + engage with a new man; retaining, of course, C.C.'s cover aforesaid. + K---- has made some more capital portraits, and is always improving. + + My dear Mrs. Fields, if "He" (made proud by chairs and bloated by + pictures) does not give you my dear love, let us conspire against + him when you find him out, and exclude him from all future + confidences. Until then + + Ever affectionately yours and his, + + C.D. + + 5 Hyde Park Place, London, W., Monday, April 18, 1870. + + My dear Fields: I have been hard at work all day until post time, + and have only leisure to acknowledge the receipt, the day before + yesterday, of your note containing such good news of Fechter; and to + assure you of my undiminished regard and affection. + + We have been doing wonders with No. 1 of Edwin Drood. _It has very, + very far outstripped every one of its predecessors._ + + Ever your affectionate friend, + + Charles Dickens + +Bright colors were a constant delight to him; and the gay hues of +flowers were those most welcome to his eye. When the rhododendrons were +in bloom in Cobham Park, the seat of his friend and neighbor, Lord +Darnley, he always counted on taking his guests there to enjoy the +magnificent show. He delighted to turn out for the delectation of his +Transatlantic cousins a couple of postilions in the old red jackets of +the old red royal Dover road, making the ride as much as possible like a +holiday drive in England fifty years ago. + +When in the mood for humorous characterization, Dickens's hilarity was +most amazing. To hear him tell a ghost story with a very florid +imitation of a very pallid ghost, or hear him sing an old-time stage +song, such as he used to enjoy in his youth at a cheap London theatre, +to see him imitate a lion in a menagerie-cage, or the clown in a +pantomime when he flops and folds himself up like a jack-knife, or to +join with him in some mirthful game of his own composing, was to become +acquainted with one of the most delightful and original companions in +the world. + +On one occasion, during a walk with me, he chose to run into the wildest +of vagaries about _conversation_. The ludicrous vein he indulged in +during that two hours' stretch can never be forgotten. Among other +things, he said he had often thought how restricted one's conversation +must become when one was visiting a man who was to be hanged in half an +hour. He went on in a most surprising manner to imagine all sorts of +difficulties in the way of becoming interesting to the poor fellow. +"Suppose," said he, "it should be a rainy morning while you are making +the call, you could not possibly indulge in the remark, 'We shall have +fine weather to-morrow, sir,' for what would that be to him? For my +part, I think," said he, "I should confine my observations to the days +of Julius Caesar or King Alfred." + +At another time when speaking of what was constantly said about him in +certain newspapers, he observed: "I notice that about once in every +seven years I become the victim of a paragraph disease. It breaks out in +England, travels to India by the overland route, gets to America per +Cunard line, strikes the base of the Rocky Mountains, and, rebounding +back to Europe, mostly perishes on the steppes of Russia from inanition +and extreme cold." When he felt he was not under observation, and that +tomfoolery would not be frowned upon or gazed at with astonishment, he +gave himself up without reserve to healthy amusement and strengthening +mirth. It was his mission to make people happy. Words of good cheer were +native to his lips, and he was always doing what he could to lighten the +lot of all who came into his beautiful presence. His talk was simple, +natural, and direct, never dropping into circumlocution nor elocution. +Now that he is gone, whoever has known him intimately for any +considerable period of time will linger over his tender regard for, and +his engaging manner with, children; his cheery "Good Day" to poor people +he happened to be passing in the road; his trustful and earnest "Please +God," when he was promising himself any special pleasure, like rejoining +an old friend or returning again to scenes he loved. At such times his +voice had an irresistible pathos in it, and his smile diffused a +sensation like music. When he came into the presence of squalid or +degraded persons, such as one sometimes encounters in almshouses or +prisons, he had such soothing words to scatter here and there, that +those who had been "most hurt by the archers" listened gladly, and loved +him without knowing who it was that found it in his heart to speak so +kindly to them. + +Oftentimes during long walks in the streets and by-ways of London, or +through the pleasant Kentish lanes, or among the localities he has +rendered forever famous in his books, I have recalled the sweet words +in which Shakespeare has embalmed one of the characters in Love's +Labor's Lost:-- + + "A merrier man, + Within the limit of becoming mirth, + I never spent an hour's talk withal: + His eye begets occasion for his wit; + For every object that the one doth catch + The other turns to a mirth-moving jest, + Which his fair tongue, conceit's expositor, + Delivers in such apt and gracious words + That aged ears play truant at his tales, + And younger hearings are quite ravished; + So sweet and voluble is his discourse." + +Twenty years ago Daniel Webster said that Dickens had already done more +to ameliorate the condition of the English poor than all the statesmen +Great Britain had sent into Parliament. During the unceasing demands +upon his time and thought, he found opportunities of visiting personally +those haunts of suffering in London which needed the keen eye and +sympathetic heart to bring them before the public for relief. Whoever +has accompanied him, as I have, on his midnight walks into the cheap +lodging-houses provided for London's lowest poor, cannot have failed to +learn lessons never to be forgotten. Newgate and Smithfield were lifted +out of their abominations by his eloquent pen, and many a hospital is +to-day all the better charity for having been visited and watched by +Charles Dickens. To use his own words, through his whole life he did +what he could "to lighten the lot of those rejected ones whom the world +has too long forgotten and too often misused." + +These inadequate, and, of necessity, hastily written, records must stand +for what they are worth as personal recollections of the great author +who has made so many millions happy by his inestimable genius and +sympathy. His life will no doubt be written out in full by some +competent hand in England; but however numerous the volumes of his +biography, the half can hardly be told of the good deeds he has +accomplished for his fellow-men. + +And who could ever tell, if those volumes were written, of the subtle +qualities of insight and sympathy which rendered him capable of +friendship above most men,--which enabled him to reinstate its ideal, +and made his presence a perpetual joy, and separation from him an +ineffaceable sorrow? + + + + +WORDSWORTH. + +_"His mind is, as it were, coeval with the primary forms of things; his +imagination holds immediately from nature, and 'owes no allegiance' but +'to the elements.' ....He sees all things in himself."_--Hazlitt. + + + + +V. WORDSWORTH. + +That portrait looking down so calmly from the wall is an original +picture of the poet Wordsworth, drawn in crayon a few years before he +died. He went up to London on purpose to sit for it, at the request of +Moxon, his publisher, and his friends in England always considered it a +perfect likeness of the poet. After the head was engraved, the artist's +family disposed of the drawing, and through the watchful kindness of my +dear old friend, Mary Russell Mitford, the portrait came across the +Atlantic to this house. Miss Mitford said America ought to have on view +such a perfect representation of the great poet, and she used all her +successful influence in my behalf. So there the picture hangs for +anybody's inspection at any hour of the day. + +I once made a pilgrimage to the small market-town of Hawkshead, in the +valley of Esthwaite, where Wordsworth went to school in his ninth year. +The thoughtful boy was lodged in the house of Dame Anne Tyson in 1788; +and I had the good fortune to meet a lady in the village street who +conducted me at once to the room which the lad occupied while he was a +scholar under the Rev. William Taylor, whom he loved and venerated so +much. I went into the chamber which he afterwards described in The +Prelude, where he + + "Had lain awake on summer nights to watch + The moon in splendor couched among the leaves + Of a tall ash, that near our cottage stood"; + +and I visited many of the beautiful spots which tradition points out as +the favorite haunts of his childhood. + +It was true Lake-country weather when I knocked at Wordsworth's cottage +door, three years before he died, and found myself shaking hands with +the poet at the threshold. His daughter Dora had been dead only a few +months, and the sorrow that had so recently fallen upon the house was +still dominant there. I thought there was something prophet-like in the +tones of his voice, as well as in his whole appearance, and there was a +noble tranquillity about him that almost awed one, at first, into +silence. As the day was cold and wet, he proposed we should sit down +together in the only room in the house where there was a fire, and he +led the way to what seemed a common sitting or dining room. It was a +plain apartment, the rafters visible, and no attempt at decoration +noticeable. Mrs. Wordsworth sat knitting at the fireside, and she rose +with a sweet expression of courtesy and welcome as we entered the +apartment. As I had just left Paris, which was in a state of commotion, +Wordsworth was eager in his inquiries about the state of things on the +other side of the Channel. As our talk ran in the direction of French +revolutions, he soon became eloquent and vehement, as one can easily +imagine, on such a theme. There was a deep and solemn meaning in all he +had to say about France, which I recall now with added interest. The +subject deeply moved him, of course, and he sat looking into the fire, +discoursing in a low monotone, sometimes quite forgetful that he was not +alone and soliloquizing. I noticed that Mrs. Wordsworth listened as if +she were hearing him speak for the first time in her life, and the work +on which she was engaged lay idle in her lap, while she watched intently +every movement of her husband's face. I also was absorbed in the man and +in his speech. I thought of the long years he had lived in communion +with nature in that lonely but lovely region. The story of his life was +familiar to me, and I sat as if under the influence of a spell. Soon he +turned and plied me with questions about the prominent men in Paris whom +I had recently seen and heard in the Chamber of Deputies. "How did +Guizot bear himself? What part was De Tocqueville taking in the fray? +Had I noticed George Lafayette especially?" America did not seem to +concern him much, and I waited for him to introduce the subject, if he +chose to do so. He seemed pleased that a youth from a far-away country +should find his way to Rydal cottage to worship at the shrine of an old +poet. + +By and by we fell into talk about those who had been his friends and +neighbors among the hills in former years. "And so," he said, "you read +Charles Lamb in America?" "Yes," I replied, "and _love_ him too." "Do +you hear that, Mary?" he eagerly inquired, turning round to Mrs. +Wordsworth. "Yes, William, and no wonder, for he was one to be loved +everywhere," she quickly answered. Then we spoke of Hazlitt, whom he +ranked very high as a prose-writer; and when I quoted a fine passage +from Hazlitt's essay on Jeremy Taylor, he seemed pleased at my +remembrance of it. + +He asked about Inman, the American artist, who had painted his portrait, +having been sent on a special mission to Rydal by Professor Henry Reed +of Philadelphia, to procure the likeness. The painter's daughter, who +accompanied her father, made a marked impression on Wordsworth, and both +he and his wife joined in the question, "Are all the girls in America as +pretty as she?" I thought it an honor Mary Inman might well be proud of +to be so complimented by the old bard. In speaking of Henry Reed, his +manner was affectionate and tender. + +Now and then I stole a glance at the gentle lady, the poet's wife, as +she sat knitting silently by the fireside. This, then, was the Mary whom +in 1802 he had brought home to be his loving companion through so many +years. I could not help remembering too, as we all sat there together, +that when children they had "practised reading and spelling under the +same old dame at Penrith," and that they had always been lovers. There +sat the woman, now gray-haired and bent, to whom the poet had addressed +those undying poems, "She was a phantom of delight," "Let other bards of +angels sing," "Yes, thou art fair," and "O, dearer far than life and +light are dear." I recalled, too, the "Lines written after Thirty-six +Years of Wedded Life," commemorating her whose + + "Morn into noon did pass, noon into eve, + And the old day was welcome as the young, + As welcome, and as beautiful,--in sooth + More beautiful, as being a thing more holy." + +When she raised her eyes to his, which I noticed she did frequently, +they seemed overflowing with tenderness. + +When I rose to go, for I felt that I must not intrude longer on one for +whom I had such reverence, Wordsworth said, "I must show you my library, +and some tributes that have been sent to me from the friends of my +verse." His son John now came in, and we all proceeded to a large room +in front of the house, containing his books. Seeing that I had an +interest in such things, he seemed to take a real pleasure in showing me +the presentation copies of works by distinguished authors. We read +together, from many a well-worn old volume, notes in the handwriting of +Coleridge and Charles Lamb. I thought he did not praise easily those +whose names are indissolubly connected with his own in the history of +literature. It was languid praise, at least, and I observed he hesitated +for mild terms which he could apply to names almost as great as his own. +I believe a duplicate of the portrait which Inman had painted for Reed +hung in the room; at any rate a picture of himself was there, and he +seemed to regard it with veneration as we stood before it. As we moved +about the apartment, Mrs. Wordsworth quietly followed us, and listened +as eagerly as I did to everything her husband had to say. Her spare +little figure flitted about noiselessly, pausing as we paused, and +always walking slowly behind us as we went from object to object in the +room. John Wordsworth, too, seemed deeply interested to watch and listen +to his father. "And now," said Wordsworth, "I must show you one of my +latest presents." Leading us up to a corner of the room, we all stood +before a beautiful statuette which a young sculptor had just sent to +him, illustrating a passage in "The Excursion." Turning to me, +Wordsworth asked, "Do you know the meaning of this figure?" I saw at a +glance that it was + + "A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract + Of inland ground, applying to his ear + The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell," + +and I quoted the lines. My recollection of the words pleased the old +man; and as we stood there in front of the figure he began to recite the +whole passage from "The Excursion," and it sounded very grand from the +poet's own lips. He repeated some fifty lines, and I could not help +thinking afterwards, when I came to hear Tennyson read his own poetry, +that the younger Laureate had caught something of the strange, +mysterious tone of the elder bard. It was a sort of chant, deep and +earnest, which conveyed the impression that the reciter had the highest +opinion of the poetry. + +Although it was raining still, Wordsworth proposed to show me Lady +Fleming's grounds, and some other spots of interest near his cottage. +Our walk was a wet one; but as he did not seem incommoded by it, I was +only too glad to hold the umbrella over his venerable head. As we went +on, he added now and then a sonnet to the scenery, telling me precisely +the circumstances under which it had been composed. It is many years +since my memorable walk with the author of "The Excursion," but I can +call up his figure and the very tones of his voice so vividly that I +enjoy my interview over again any time I choose. He was then nearly +eighty, but he seemed hale and quite as able to walk up and down the +hills as ever. He always led back the conversation that day to his own +writings, and it seemed the most natural thing in the world for him to +do so. All his most celebrated poems seemed to live in his memory, and +it was easy to start him off by quoting the first line of any of his +pieces. Speaking of the vastness of London, he quoted the whole of his +sonnet describing the great city, as seen in the morning from +Westminster Bridge. When I parted with him at the foot of Rydal Hill, he +gave me messages to Rogers and other friends of his whom I was to see in +London. As we were shaking hands I said, "How glad your many readers in +America would be to see you on our side of the water!" "Ah," he replied, +"I shall never see your country,--that is impossible now; but" (laying +his hand on his son's shoulder) "John shall go, please God, some day." I +watched the aged man as he went slowly up the hill, and saw him +disappear through the little gate that led to his cottage door. The ode +on "Intimations of Immortality" kept sounding in my brain as I came down +the road, long after he had left me. + +Since I sat, a little child, in "a woman's school," Wordsworth's poems +had been familiar to me. Here is my first school-book, with a name +written on the cover by dear old "Marm Sloper," setting forth that the +owner thereof is "aged 5." As I went musing along in Westmoreland that +rainy morning, so many years ago, little figures seemed to accompany +me, and childish voices filled the air as I trudged through the wet +grass. My small ghostly companions seemed to carry in their little hands +quaint-looking dog's-eared books, some of them covered with cloth of +various colors. None of these phantom children looked to be over six +years old, and all were bareheaded, and some of the girls wore +old-fashioned pinafores. They were the schoolmates of my childhood, and +many of them must have come out of their graves to run by my side that +morning in Rydal. I had not thought of them for years. Little Emily +R---- read from her book with a chirping lisp:-- + + "O, what's the matter? what's the matter? + What is't that ails young Harry Gill?" + +Mary B---- began:-- + + "Oft I had heard of Lucy Grey"; + +Nancy C---- piped up:-- + + "'How many are you, then,' said I, + 'If there are two in heaven?' + The little maiden did reply, + 'O Master! we are seven.'" + +Among the group I seemed to recognize poor pale little Charley F----, +who they told me years ago was laid in St. John's Churchyard after they +took him out of the pond, near the mill-stream, that terrible Saturday +afternoon. He too read from his well-worn, green-baize-covered book,-- + + "The dew was falling fast, the stars began to blink." + +Other white-headed little urchins trotted along _very near_ me all the +way, and kept saying over and over their "spirit ditties of no tone" +till I reached the village inn, and sat down as if in a dream of +long-past years. + +Two years ago I stood by Wordsworth's grave in the churchyard at +Grasmere, and my companion wove a chaplet of flowers and placed it on +the headstone. Afterwards we went into the old church and sat down in +the poet's pew. "They are all dead and gone now," sighed the gray-headed +sexton; "but I can remember when the seats used to be filled by the +family from Rydal Mount. Now they are all outside there in yon grass." + + + + +MISS MITFORD. + + + _"I care not, Fortune, what you me deny: + You cannot rob me of free Nature's grace; + You cannot shut the windows of the sky, + Through which Aurora shows her brightening face; + You cannot bar my constant feet to trace + The woods and lawns, by living streams at eve: + Let health my nerves and finer fibres brace, + And I their toys to the great children leave: + Of fancy, reason, virtue, naught can me bereave."_ + + THOMSON. + + + + +VI. MISS MITFORD. + +That portrait hanging near Wordsworth's is next to seeing Mary Russell +Mitford herself as I first saw her, twenty-three years ago, in her +geranium-planted cottage at Three-Mile Cross. She sat to John Lucas for +the picture in her serene old age, and the likeness is faultless. She +had proposed to herself to leave the portrait, as it was her own +property, to me in her will; but as I happened to be in England during +the latter part of her life, she altered her determination, and gave it +to me from her own hands. + +Sydney Smith said of a certain quarrelsome person, that his very face +was a breach of the peace. The face of that portrait opposite to us is a +very different one from Sydney's fighter. Everything that belongs to the +beauty of old age one will find recorded in that charming countenance. +Serene cheerfulness most abounds, and that is a quality as rare as it is +commendable. It will be observed that the dress of Miss Mitford in the +picture before us is quaint and somewhat antiquated even for the time +when it was painted, but a pleasant face is never out of fashion. + +An observer of how old age is neglected in America said to me the other +day, "It seems an impertinence to be alive after sixty on this side of +the globe"; and I have often thought how much we lose by not cultivating +fine old-fashioned ladies and gentlemen. Our aged relatives and friends +seem to be tucked away, nowadays, into neglected corners, as though it +were the correct thing to give them a long preparation for still +narrower quarters. For my own part, comely and debonair old age is most +attractive; and when I see the "thick silver-white hair lying on a +serious and weather-worn face, like moonlight on a stout old tower," I +have a strong tendency to lift my hat, whether I know the person or not. + + "No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace + As I have seen in an autumnal face." + +It was a fortunate hour for me when kind-hearted John Kenyon said, as I +was leaving his hospitable door in London one summer midnight in 1847, +"You must know my friend, Miss Mitford. She lives directly on the line +of your route to Oxford, and you must call with my card and make her +acquaintance." I had lately been talking with Wordsworth and Christopher +North and old Samuel Rogers, but my hunger at that time to stand face to +face with the distinguished persons in English literature was not +satisfied. So it was during my first "tourification" in England that I +came to know Miss Mitford. The day selected for my call at her cottage +door happened to be a perfect one on which to begin an acquaintance with +the lady of "Our Village." She was then living at Three-Mile Cross, +having removed there from Bertram House in 1820. The cottage where I +found her was situated on the high road between Basingstoke and Reading; +and the village street on which she was then living contained the +public-house and several small shops near by. There was also close at +hand the village pond full of ducks and geese, and I noticed several +young rogues on their way to school were occupied in worrying their +feathered friends. The windows of the cottage were filled with flowers, +and cowslips and violets were plentifully scattered about the little +garden. Miss Mitford liked to have one dog, at least, at her heels, and +this day her pet seemed to be constantly under foot. I remember the room +into which I was shown was sanded, and a quaint old clock behind the +door was marking off the hour in small but very loud pieces. The +cheerful old lady called to me from the head of the stairs to come up +into her sitting-room. I sat down by the open window to converse with +her, and it was pleasant to see how the village children, as they went +by, stopped to bow and curtsey. One curly-headed urchin made bold to +take off his well-worn cap, and wait to be recognized as "little +Johnny". "No great scholar," said the kind-hearted old lady to me, "but +a sad rogue among our flock of geese. Only yesterday the young marauder +was detected by my maid with a plump gosling stuffed half-way into his +pocket!" While she was thus discoursing of Johnny's peccadilloes, the +little fellow looked up with a knowing expression, and very soon caught +in his cap a gingerbread dog, which the old lady threw to him from the +window. "I wish he loved his book as well as he relishes sweetcake," +sighed she, as the boy kicked up his heels and disappeared down the +lane. + +Her conversation that afternoon, full of anecdote, ran on in a perpetual +flow of good-humor, and I was shocked, on looking at my watch, to find I +had stayed so long, and had barely time to reach the railway-station in +season to arrive at Oxford that night. We parted with the mutual +determination and understanding to keep our friendship warm by +correspondence, and I promised never to come to England again without +finding my way to Three-Mile Cross. + +During the conversation that day, Miss Mitford had many inquiries to +make concerning her American friends, Miss Catherine Sedgwick, Daniel +Webster, and Dr. Chancing. Her voice had a peculiar ringing sweetness in +it, rippling out sometimes like a beautiful chime of silver bells; and +when she told a comic story, hitting off some one of her acquaintances, +she joined in with the laugh at the end with great heartiness and +_naïveté_. When listening to anything that interested her, she had a way +of coming into the narrative with "Dear me, dear me, dear me," three +times repeated, which it was very pleasant to hear. + +From that summer day our friendship continued, and during other visits +to England I saw her frequently, driving about the country with her in +her pony-chaise, and spending many happy hours in the new cottage which +she afterwards occupied at Swallowfield. Her health had broken down +years before, from too constant attendance on her invalid parents, and +she was never certain of a well day. When her father died, in 1842, +shamefully in debt (for he had squandered two fortunes not exactly his +own, and was always one of the most improvident of men, belonging to +that class of impecunious individuals who seem to have been born +insolvent), she said, "Everybody shall be paid, if I sell the gown off +my back or pledge my little pension." And putting her shoulder to the +domestic wheel, she never nagged for an instant, or gave way to +despondency. + +She was always cheerful, and her talk is delightful to remember. From +girlhood she had known and had been intimate with most of the prominent +writers of her time, and her observations and reminiscences were so +shrewd and pertinent that I have scarcely known her equal. + +Carlyle tells us "nothing so lifts a man from all his mean +imprisonments, were it but for moments, as true admiration"; and Miss +Mitford admired to such an extent that she must have been lifted in this +way nearly all her lifetime. Indeed she erred, if she erred at all, on +this side, and overpraised and over-admired everything and everybody +whom she regarded. When she spoke of Beranger or Dumas or Hazlitt or +Holmes, she exhausted every term of worship and panegyric. Louis +Napoleon was one of her most potent crazes, and I fully believe, if she +had been alive during the days of his downfall, she would have died of +grief. When she talked of Munden and Bannister and Fawcett and Emery, +those delightful old actors for whom she had had such an exquisite +relish, she said they had made comedy to her a living art full of +laughter and tears. How often have I heard her describe John Kemble, +Mrs. Siddons, Miss O'Neil, and Edmund Kean, as they were wont to +electrify the town in her girlhood! With what gusto she reproduced +Elliston, who was one of her prime favorites, and tried to make me, +through her representation of him, feel what a spirit there was in the +man. Although she had been prostrated by the hard work and increasing +anxieties of forty years of authorship, when I saw her she was as fresh +and independent as a skylark. She was a good hater as well as a good +praiser, and she left nothing worth saving in an obnoxious reputation. + +I well remember, one autumn evening, when half a dozen friends were +sitting in her library after dinner, talking with her of Tom Taylor's +Life of Haydon, then lately published, how graphically she described to +us the eccentric painter, whose genius she was among the foremost to +recognize. The flavor of her discourse I cannot reproduce; but I was too +much interested in what she was saying to forget the main incidents she +drew for our edification, during those pleasant hours now far away in +the past. + +"I am a terrible forgetter of dates," she used to say, when any one +asked her of the _time when_; but for the _manner how_ she was never at +a loss. "Poor Haydon!" she began. "He was an old friend of mine, and I +am indebted to Sir William Elford, one of my dear father's +correspondents during my girlhood, for a suggestion which sent me to +look at a picture then on exhibition in London, and thus was brought +about my knowledge of the painter's existence. He, Sir William, had +taken a fancy to me, and I became his child-correspondent. Few things +contribute more to that indirect after-education, which is worth all the +formal lessons of the school-room a thousand times told, than such +good-humored condescension from a clever man of the world to a girl +almost young enough to be his granddaughter. I owe much to that +correspondence, and, amongst other debts, the acquaintance of Haydon. +Sir William's own letters were most charming,--full of old-fashioned +courtesy, of quaint humor, and of pleasant and genial criticism on +literature and on art. An amateur-painter himself, painting interested +him particularly, and he often spoke much and warmly of the young man +from Plymouth, whose picture of the 'Judgment of Solomon' was then on +exhibition in London. 'You must see it,' said he, 'even if you come to +town on purpose.'"--The reader of Haydon's Life will remember that Sir +William Elford, in conjunction with a Plymouth banker named Tingecombe, +ultimately purchased the picture. The poor artist was overwhelmed with +astonishment and joy when he walked into the exhibition-room and read +the label, "Sold," which had been attached to his picture that morning +before he arrived. "My first impulse," he says in his Autobiography, +"was gratitude to God." + +"It so happened," continued Miss Mitford, "that I merely passed through +London that season, and, being detained by some of the thousand and one +nothings which are so apt to detain women in the great city, I arrived +at the exhibition, in company with a still younger friend, so near the +period of closing, that more punctual visitors were moving out, and the +doorkeeper actually turned us and our money back. I persisted, however, +assuring him that I only wished to look at one picture, and promising +not to detain him long. Whether my entreaties would have carried the +point or not, I cannot tell; but half a crown did; so we stood +admiringly before the 'Judgment of Solomon.' I am no great judge of +painting; but that picture impressed me then, as it does now, as +excellent in composition, in color, and in that great quality of telling +a story which appeals at once to every mind. Our delight was sincerely +felt, and most enthusiastically expressed, as we kept gazing at the +picture, and seemed, unaccountably to us at first, to give much pleasure +to the only gentleman who had remained in the room,--a young and very +distinguished-looking person, who had watched with evident amusement our +negotiation with the doorkeeper. Beyond indicating the best position to +look at the picture, he had no conversation with us; but I soon surmised +that we were seeing the painter, as well as his painting; and when, two +or three years afterwards, a friend took me by appointment to view the +'Entry into Jerusalem,' Haydon's next great picture, then near its +completion, I found I had not been mistaken. + +"Haydon was, at that period, a remarkable person to look at and listen +to. Perhaps your American word _bright_ expresses better than any other +his appearance and manner. His figure, short, slight, elastic, and +vigorous, looked still more light and youthful from the little +sailor's-jacket and snowy trousers which formed his painting costume. +His complexion was clear and healthful. His forehead, broad and high, +out of all proportion to the lower part of his face, gave an +unmistakable character of intellect to the finely placed head. Indeed, +he liked to observe that the gods of the Greek sculptors owed much of +their elevation to being similarly out of drawing! The lower features +were terse, succinct, and powerful,--from the bold, decided jaw, to the +large, firm, ugly, good-humored mouth. His very spectacles aided the +general expression; they had a look of the man. But how shall I attempt +to tell you of his brilliant conversation, of his rapid, energetic +manner, of his quick turns of thought, as he flew on from topic to +topic, dashing his brush here and there upon the canvas? Slow and quiet +persons were a good deal startled by this suddenness and mobility. He +left such people far behind, mentally and bodily. But his talk was so +rich and varied, so earnest and glowing, his anecdotes so racy, his +perception of character so shrewd, and the whole tone so spontaneous and +natural, that the want of repose was rather recalled afterwards than +felt at the time. The alloy to this charm was a slight coarseness of +voice and accent, which contrasted somewhat strangely with his constant +courtesy and high breeding. Perhaps this was characteristic. A defect of +some sort pervades his pictures. Their great want is equality and +congruity,--that perfect union of qualities which we call _taste_. His +apartment, especially at that period when he lived in his painting-room, +was in itself a study of the most picturesque kind. Besides the great +picture itself, for which there seemed hardly space between the walls, +it was crowded with casts, lay figures, arms, tripods, vases, draperies, +and costumes of all ages, weapons of all nations, books in all tongues. +These cumbered the floor; whilst around hung smaller pictures, sketches, +and drawings, replete with originality and force. With chalk he could do +what he chose. I remember he once drew for me a head of hair with nine +of his sweeping, vigorous strokes! Among the studies I remarked that day +in his apartment was one of a mother who had just lost her only +child,--a most masterly rendering of an unspeakable grief. A sonnet, +which I could not help writing on this sketch, gave rise to our long +correspondence, and to a friendship which never flagged. Everybody feels +that his life, as told by Mr. Taylor, with its terrible catastrophe, is +a stern lesson to young artists, an awful warning that cannot be set +aside. Let us not forget that amongst his many faults are qualities +which hold out a bright example. His devotion to his noble art, his +conscientious pursuit of every study connected with it, his unwearied +industry, his love of beauty and of excellence, his warm family +affection, his patriotism, his courage, and his piety, will not easily +be surpassed. Thinking of them, let us speak tenderly of the ardent +spirit whose violence would have been softened by better fortune, and +who, if more successful, would have been more gentle and more humble." + +And so with her vigilant and appreciative eye she saw, and thus in her +own charming way she talked of, the man whose name, says Taylor, as a +popularizer of art, stands without a rival among his brethren. + +She loathed mere dandies, and there were no epithets too hot for her +contempts in that direction. Old beaux she heartily despised, and, +speaking of one whom she had known, I remember she quoted with a fine +scorn this appropriate passage from Dickens: "Ancient, dandified men, +those crippled _invalides_ from the campaign of vanity, where the only +powder was hair-powder, and the only bullets fancy balls." + +There was no half-way with her, and she never could have said with M---- +S----, when a certain visitor left the room one day after a call, "If we +did not _love_ our dear friend Mr. ---- so much, shouldn't we hate him +tremendously!" Her neighbor, John Ruskin, she thought as eloquent a +prose-writer as Jeremy Taylor, and I have heard her go on in her fine +way, giving preferences to certain modern poems far above the works of +the great masters of song. Pascal says that "the heart has reasons that +reason does not know"; and Miss Mitford was a charming exemplification +of this wise saying. + +Her dogs and her geraniums were her great glories. She used to write me +long letters about Fanchon, a dog whose personal acquaintance I had +made some time before, while on a visit to her cottage. Every virtue +under heaven she attributed to that canine individual; and I was obliged +to allow in my return letters, that, since our planet began to spin, +nothing comparable to Fanchon had ever run on four legs. I had also +known Flush, the ancestor of Fanchon, intimately, and had been +accustomed to hear wonderful things of that dog; but Fanchon had graces +and genius unique. Miss Mitford would have joined with Hamerton in his +gratitude for canine companionship, when he says, "I humbly thank Divine +Providence for having invented dogs, and I regard that man with +wondering pity who can lead a dogless life." + +Her fondness for rural life, one may well imagine, was almost +unparalleled. I have often been with her among the wooded lanes of her +pretty country, listening for the nightingales, and on such occasions +she would discourse so eloquently of the sights and sounds about us, +that her talk seemed to me "far above singing." She had fallen in love +with nature when a little child, and had studied the landscape till she +knew familiarly every flower and leaf which grows on English soil. She +delighted in rural vagabonds of every sort, especially in gypsies; and +as they flourished in her part of the country, she knew all their ways, +and had charming stories to tell of their pranks and thievings. She +called them "the commoners of nature"; and once I remember she pointed +out to me on the road a villanous-looking youth on whom she smiled as we +passed, as if he had been Virtue itself in footpad disguise. She knew +all the literature of rural life, and her memory was stored with +delightful eulogies of forests and meadows. When she repeated or read +aloud the poetry she loved, her accents were + + "Like flowers' voices, if they could but speak." + +She _understood_ how to enjoy rural occupations and rural existence, +and she had no patience with her friend Charles Lamb, who preferred the +town. Walter Savage Landor addressed these lines to her a few months +before she died, and they seem to me very perfect and lovely in their +application:-- + + "The hay is carried; and the hours + Snatch, as they pass, the linden flow'rs; + And children leap to pluck a spray + Bent earthward, and then run away. + Park-keeper! catch me those grave thieves + About whose frocks the fragrant leaves, + Sticking and fluttering here and there, + No false nor faltering witness bear. + + "I never view such scenes as these + In grassy meadow girt with trees, + But comes a thought of her who now + Sits with serenely patient brow + Amid deep sufferings: none hath told + More pleasant tales to young and old. + Fondest was she of Father Thames, + But rambled to Hellenic streams; + Nor even there could any tell + The country's purer charms so well + As Mary Mitford. + Verse! go forth + And breathe o'er gentle breasts her worth. + Needless the task ... but should she see + One hearty wish from you and me, + A moment's pain it may assuage,-- + A rose-leaf on the couch of Age." + +And Harriet Martineau pays her respects to my friend in this wise: "Miss +Mitford's descriptions of scenery, brutes, and human beings have such +singular merit, that she may be regarded as the founder of a new style; +and if the freshness wore off with time, there was much more than a +compensation in the fine spirit of resignation and cheerfulness which +breathed through everything she wrote, and endeared her as a suffering +friend to thousands who formerly regarded her only as a most +entertaining stranger." + +What lovely drives about England I have enjoyed with Miss Mitford as my +companion and guide! We used to arrange with her trusty Sam for a day +now and then in the open air. He would have everything in readiness at +the appointed hour, and be at his post with that careful, kind-hearted +little maid, the "hemmer of flounces," all prepared to give the old lady +a fair start on her day's expedition. Both those excellent servants +delighted to make their mistress happy, and she greatly rejoiced in +their devotion and care. Perhaps we had made our plans to visit Upton +Court, a charming old house where Pope's Arabella Fermor had passed many +years of her married life. On the way thither we would talk over "The +Rape of the Lock" and the heroine, Belinda, who was no other than +Arabella herself. Arriving on the lawn in front of the decaying mansion, +we would stop in the shade of a gigantic oak, and gossip about the times +of Queen Elizabeth, for it was then the old house was built, no doubt. + +Once I remember Miss Mitford carried me on a pilgrimage to a grand old +village church with a tower half covered with ivy. We came to it through +laurel hedges, and passed on the way a magnificent cedar of Lebanon. It +was a superb pile, rich in painted glass windows and carved oak +ornaments. Here Miss Mitford ordered the man to stop, and, turning to me +with great enthusiasm, said, "This is Shiplake Church, where Alfred +Tennyson was married!" Then we rode on a little farther, and she called +my attention to some of the finest wych-elms I had ever seen. + +Another day we drove along the valley of the Loddon, and she pointed out +the Duke of Wellington's seat of Strathfieldsaye. As our pony trotted +leisurely over the charming road, she told many amusing stories of the +Duke's economical habits, and she rated him soundly for his money-saving +propensities. The furniture in the house she said was a disgrace to the +great man, and she described a certain old carpet that had done service +so many years in the establishment that no one could tell what the +original colors were. + +But the mansion most dear to her in that neighborhood was the residence +of her kind friends the Russells of Swallowfield Park. It is indeed a +beautiful old place, full of historical and literary associations, for +there Lord Clarendon wrote his story of the Great Rebellion. Miss +Mitford never ceased to be thankful that her declining years were +passing in the society of such neighbors as the Russells. If she were +unusually ill, they were the first to know of it and come at once to her +aid. Little attentions, so grateful to old age, they were always on the +alert to offer; and she frequently told me that their affectionate +kindness had helped her over the dark places of life more than once, +where without their succor she must have dropped by the way. + +As a letter-writer, Miss Mitford has rarely been surpassed. Her "Life, +as told by herself in Letters to her Friends," is admirably done in +every particular. Few letters in the English language are superior to +hers, and I think they, will come to be regarded as among the choicest +specimens of epistolary literature. When her friend, the Rev. William +Harness, was about to collect from Miss Mitford's correspondents, for +publication, the letters she had written to them, he applied to me among +others. I was obliged to withhold the correspondence for a reason that +existed then; but I am no longer restrained from printing it now. Miss +Mitford's first letter to me was written in 1847, and her last one came +only a few weeks before she died, in 1855. I am inclined to think that +her correspondence, so full of point in allusions, so full of anecdote +and recollections, will be considered among her finest writings. Her +criticisms, not always the wisest, were always piquant and readable. She +had such a charming humor, and her style was so delightful, that her +friendly notes had a relish about them quite their own. In reading some +of them here collected one will see that she overrated my little +services as she did those of many of her personal friends. I shall have +hard work to place the dates properly, for the good lady rarely took the +trouble to put either month or year at the head of her paper. + +She began her correspondence with me before I left England after making +her acquaintance, and, true to the instincts of her kind heart, the +object of her first letter was to press upon my notice the poems of a +young friend of hers, and she was constantly saying good words for +unfledged authors who were struggling forward to gain recognition. No +one ever lent such a helping hand as she did to the young writers of her +country. + +The recognition which America, very early in the career of Miss Mitford, +awarded her, she never forgot, and she used to say, "It takes ten years +to make a literary reputation in England, but America is wiser and +bolder, and dares say at once, 'This is fine.'" + +Sweetness of temper and brightness of mind, her never-failing +characteristics, accompanied her to the last; and she passed on in her +usual cheerful and affectionate mood, her sympathies uncontracted by +age, narrow fortune, and pain. + +A plain substantial cross marks the spot in the old churchyard at +Swallowfield, where, according to her own wish, Mary Mitford lies +sleeping. It is proposed to erect a memorial in the old parish church to +her memory, and her admirers in England have determined, if a sufficient +sum can be raised, to build what shall be known as "The Mitford Aisle," +to afford accommodation for the poor people who are not able to pay for +seats. Several of Miss Mitford's American friends will join in this +beautiful object, and a tablet will be put up in the old church +commemorating the fact that England and America united in the tribute. + +LETTERS, 1848-1849. + + Three-mile Cross, December 4, 1848. + + Dear Mr. Fields: My silence has been caused by severe illness. For + more than a twelvemonth my health has been so impaired as to leave + me a very poor creature, almost incapable of any exertion at all + times, and frequently suffering severe pain besides. So that I have + to entreat the friends who are good enough to care for me never to + be displeased if a long time elapses between my letters. My + correspondents being so numerous, and I myself so utterly alone, + without any one even to fold or seal a letter, that the very + physical part of the task sometimes becomes more fatiguing than I + can bear. I am not, generally speaking, confined to my room, or even + to the house; but the loss of power is so great that after the short + drive or shorter walk which my very skilful medical adviser orders, + I am too often compelled to retire immediately to bed, and I have + not once been well enough to go out of an evening during the year + 1848. Before its expiration I shall have completed my sixty-first + year; but it is not age that has so prostrated me, but the hard work + and increasing anxiety of thirty years of authorship, during which + my poor labors were all that my dear father and mother had to look + to, besides which for the greater part of that time I was constantly + called upon to attend to the sick-bed, first of one aged parent and + then of another. Few women could stand this, and I have only to be + intensely thankful that the power of exertion did not fail until the + necessity of such exertion was removed. Now my poor life is (beyond + mere friendly feeling) of value to no one. I have, too, many + alleviations,--in the general kindness of the neighborhood, the + particular goodness of many admirable friends, the affectionate + attention of a most attached and intelligent old servant, and above + all in my continued interest in books and delight in reading. I love + poetry and people as well at sixty as I did at sixteen, and can + never be sufficiently grateful to God for having permitted me to + retain the two joy-giving faculties of admiration and sympathy, by + which we are enabled to escape from the consciousness of our own + infirmities into the great works of all ages and the joys and + sorrows of our immediate friends. Among the books which I have been + reading with the greatest interest is the Life of Dr. Channing, and + I can hardly tell you the glow of gratification with which I found + my own name mentioned, as one of the writers in whose works that + great man had taken pleasure. The approbation of Dr. Channing is + something worth toiling for. I know no individual suffrage that + could have given me more delight. Besides this selfish pleasure and + the intense interest with which I followed that admirable thinker + through the whole course of his pure and blameless life, I have + derived another and a different satisfaction from that work,--I mean + from its reception in England. I know nothing that shows a greater + improvement in liberality in the least liberal part of the English + public, a greater sweeping away of prejudice whether national or + sectarian, than the manner in which even the High Church and Tory + party have spoken of Dr. Channing. They really seem to cast aside + their usual intolerance in his case, and to look upon a Unitarian + with feelings of Christian fellowship. God grant that this spirit + may continue! Is American literature rich in native biography? Just + have the goodness to mention to me any lives of Americans, whether + illustrious or not, that are graphic, minute, and outspoken. I + delight in French memoirs and English lives, especially such as are + either autobiography or made out by diaries and letters; and + America, a young country with manners as picturesque and unhackneyed + as the scenery, ought to be full of such works. We have had two + volumes lately that will interest your countrymen: Mr. Milnes's Life + of John Keats, that wonderful youth whose early death was, I think, + the greatest loss that English poetry ever experienced. Some of the + letters are very striking as developments on character, and the + richness of diction in the poetical fragments is exquisite. Mrs. + Browning is still at Florence with her husband. She sees more + Americans than English. + + Books here are sadly depreciated. Mr. Dyce's admirable edition of + Beaumont and Fletcher, brought out two years ago at £6 12_s._ is now + offered at £2 17_s._ + + Adieu, dear Mr. Fields; forgive my seeming neglect, and believe me + always most faithfully yours, + + M.R. MITFORD. + + (No date, 1849.) + + Dear Mr. Fields: I cannot tell you how vexed I am at this mistake + about letters, which must have made you think me careless of your + correspondence and ungrateful for your kindness. The same thing has + happened to me before, I may say often, with American letters,--with + Professor Norton, Mrs. Sigourney, the Sedgwicks,--in short I always + feel an insecurity in writing to America which I never experience in + corresponding with friends on the Continent; France, Germany, + Italy, even Poland and Russia, are comparatively certain. Whether it + be the agents in London who lose letters, or some fault in the + post-office, I cannot tell, but I have twenty times experienced the + vexation, and it casts a certain discouragement over one's + communications. However, I hope that this letter will reach you, and + that you will be assured that the fault does not lie at my door. + + During the last year or two my health has been declining much, and I + am just now thinking of taking a journey to Paris. My friend, Henry + Chorley of the Athenaeum, the first musical critic of Europe, is + going thither next month to assist at the production of Meyerbeer's + Prophète at the French Opera, and another friend will accompany me + and my little maid to take care of us; so that I have just hopes + that the excursion, erenow much facilitated by railways, may do me + good. I have always been a great admirer of the great Emperor, and + to see the heir of Napoleon at the Elysée seems to me a real piece + of poetical justice. I know many of his friends in England, who all + speak of him most highly; one of them says, "He is the very + impersonation of calm and simple honesty." I hope the nation will be + true to him, but, as Mirabeau says, "there are no such words as + 'jamais' or 'toujours' with the French public." + + 10th of June, 1849. + + I have been waiting to answer your most kind and interesting letter, + dear Mr. Fields, until I could announce to you a publication that + Mr. Colburn has been meditating and pressing me for, but which, + chiefly I believe from my own fault in not going to town, and not + liking to give him or Mr. Shoberl the trouble of coming here, is now + probably adjourned to the autumn. The fact is that I have been and + still am very poorly. We are stricken in our vanities, and the only + things that I recollect having ever been immoderately proud of--my + garden and my personal activity--have both now turned into causes of + shame and pity; the garden, declining from one bad gardener to + worse, has become a ploughed field,--and I myself, from a severe + attack of rheumatism, and since then a terrible fright in a + pony-chaise, am now little better than a cripple. However, if there + be punishment here below, there are likewise + consolations,--everybody is kind to me; I retain the vivid love of + reading, which is one of the highest pleasures of life; and very + interesting persons come to see me sometimes, from both sides of the + water,--witness, dear Mr. Fields, our present correspondence. One + such person arrived yesterday in the shape of Doctor ----, who has + been working musical miracles in Scotland, (think of making singing + teachers of children of four or five years of age!) and is now on + his way to Paris, where, having been during seven years one of the + editors of the National, he will find most of his colleagues of the + newspaper filling the highest posts in the government. What is the + American opinion of that great experiment; or, rather, what is + yours? I wish it success from the bottom of my heart, but I am a, + little afraid, from their total want of political economy (we have + not a school-girl so ignorant of the commonest principles of demand + and supply as the whole of the countrymen of Turgot from the + executive government downwards), and from a certain warlike tendency + which seems to me to pierce through all their declarations of peace. + We hear the flourish of trumpets through all the fine phrases of the + orators, and indeed it is difficult to imagine what they will do + with their _soi-disant ouvriers_,--workmen who have lost the habit + of labor,--unless they make soldiers of them. In the mean time some + friends of mine are about to accompany your countryman Mr. Elihu + Burritt as a deputation, and doubtless M. de Lamartine will give + them as eloquent an answer as heart can desire,--no doubt he will + keep peace if he can,--but the government have certainly not + hitherto shown firmness or vigor enough to make one rely upon them, + if the question becomes pressing and personal. In Italy matters seem + to be very promising. We have here one of the Silvio Pellico + exiles,--Count Carpinetta,--whose story is quite a romance. He is + just returned from Turin, where he was received with enthusiasm, + might have been returned as Deputy for two places, and did recover + some of his property, confiscated years ago by the Austrians. It + does one's heart good to see a piece of poetical justice transferred + to real life. _Apropos_ of public events, all London is talking of + the prediction of an old theological writer of the name of Fleming, + who in or about the year 1700 prophesied a revolution in France in + 1794 (only one year wrong), and the fall of papacy in 1848 at all + events. + + Ever yours, M.R.M. + + (No date, 1849) + + DEAR MR. FIELDS: I must have seemed very ungrateful in being so long + silent. But your magnificent present of books, beautiful in every + sense of the word, has come dropping in volume by volume, and only + arrived complete (Mr. Longfellow's striking book being the last) + about a fortnight ago, and then it found me keeping my room, as I am + still doing, with a tremendous attack of neuralgia on the left side + of the face. I am getting better now by dint of blisters and tonic + medicine; but I can answer for that disease well deserving its bad + eminence of "painful." It is however, blessed be God! more + manageable than it used to be; and my medical friend, a man of + singular skill, promises me a cure. + + I have seen things of Longfellow's as fine as anything in Campbell + or Coleridge or Tennyson or Hood. After all, our great lyrical poets + are great only for half a volume. Look at Gray and Collins, at your + own edition of the man whom one song immortalized, at Gerald + Griffin, whom you perhaps do not know, and at Wordsworth, who, + greatest of the great for about a hundred pages, is drowned in the + flood of his own wordiness in his longer works. To be sure, there + are giants who are rich to overflowing through a whole shelf of + books,--Shakespeare, the mutual ancestor of Englishmen and + Americans, above all,--and I think the much that they did, and did + well, will be the great hold on posterity of Scott and of Byron. + Have you happened to see Bulwer's King Arthur? It astonished me very + much. I had a full persuasion that, with great merit in a certain + way, he would never be a poet. Indeed, he is beginning poetry just + at the age when Scott, Southey, and a host of others, left it off. + But he is a strange person, full of the powerful quality called + _will_, and has produced a work which, although it is not at all in + the fashionable vein and has made little noise, has yet + extraordinary merit. When I say that it is more like Ariosto than + any other English poem that I know, I certainly give it no mean + praise. + + Everybody is impatient for Mr. George Ticknor's work. The subject + seems to me full of interest. Lord Holland made a charming book of + Lope de Vega years ago, and Mr. Ticknor, with equal qualifications + and a much wider field, will hardly fail of delighting England and + America. Will you remember me to him most gratefully and + respectfully? He is a man whom no one can forget. As to Mr. + Prescott, I know no author now, except perhaps Mr. Macaulay, whose + works command so much attention and give so much delight. I am + ashamed to send you so little news, but I live in the country and + see few people. The day I caught my terrible Tic I spent with the + great capitalist, Mr. Goldsmidt, and Mr. Cobden and his pretty wife. + He is a very different person from what one expects,--graceful, + tasteful, playful, simple, and refined, and looking absolutely + young. I suspect that much of his power springs from his genial + character. I heard last week from Mrs. Browning; she and her husband + are at the Baths of Lucca. Mr. Kenyon's graceful book is out, and I + must not forget to tell you that "Our Village" has been printed by + Mr. Bohn in two volumes, which include the whole five. It is + beautifully got up and very cheap, that is to say, for 3 _s._ 6 _d._ + a volume. Did Mr. Whittier send his works, or do I owe them wholly + to your kindness? If he sent them, I will write by the first + opportunity. Say everything for me to your young friend, and believe + me ever, dear Mr. F---- most faithfully and gratefully yours, M.R.M. + +1850. + + (No date.) + + I have to thank you very earnestly, dear Mr. Fields, for two very + interesting books. The "Leaves from Margaret Smith's Journal" are, I + suppose, a sort of Lady Willoughby's Diary, so well executed that + they read like one of the imitations of Defoe,--his "Memoirs of a + Cavalier," for instance, which always seemed to me quite as true as + if they had been actually written seventy years before. Thank you + over and over again for these admirable books and for your great + kindness and attention. What a perfectly American name Peabody is! + And how strange it is that there should be in the United States so + many persons of English descent whose names have entirely + disappeared from the land of their fathers. Did you get my last + unworthy letter? I hope you did. It would at all events show that + there was on my part no intentional neglect, that I certainly had + written in reply to the last letter that I received, although + doubtless a letter had been lost on one side or the other. I live so + entirely in the quiet country that I have little to tell you that + can be interesting. Two things indeed, not generally known, I may + mention: that Stanfield Hall, the scene of the horrible murder of + which you have doubtless read, was the actual birthplace of Amy + Robsart,--of whose tragic end, by the way, there is at last an + authentic account, both in the new edition of Pepys and the first + volume of the "Romance of the Peerage"; and that a friend of mine + saw the other day in the window of a London bookseller a copy of + Hume, ticketed "An Excellent Introduction to Macaulay." The great + man was much amused at this practical compliment, as well he might + be. I have been reading the autobiographies of Lamartine and + Chateaubriand, as well as Raphael, which, although not avowed, is of + course and most certainly a continuation of "Les Confiances." What + strange beings these Frenchmen are! Here is M. de Lamartine at + sixty, poet, orator, historian, and statesman, writing the stories + of two ladies--one of them married--who died for love of him! Think + if Mr. Macaulay should announce himself as a lady-killer, and put + the details not merely into a book, but into a feuilleton! + + The Brownings are living quite quietly at Florence, seeing, I + suspect, more Americans than English. Mrs. Trollope has lost her + only remaining daughter; arrived in England only time enough to see + her die. + + Adieu, dear Mr. Fields; say everything for me to Mr. and Mrs. + Ticknor, and Mr. and Mrs. Norton. How much I should like to see you! + + Ever faithfully yours, M.R.M. + + (February, 1850.) + + You will have thought me either dead or dying, my dear Mr. Fields, + for ungrateful I hope you could not think me to such a friend as + yourself, but in truth I have been in too much trouble and anxiety + to write. This is the story: I live alone, and my servants become, + as they are in France, and ought, I think, always to be, really and + truly part of my family. A most sensible young woman, my own maid, + who waits upon me and walks out with me, (we have another to do the + drudgery of our cottage,) has a little fatherless boy who is the pet + of the house. I wonder whether you saw him during the glimpse we had + of you! He is a fair-haired child of six years old, singularly quick + in intellect, and as bright in mind and heart and temper as a + fountain in the sun. He is at school in Reading, and, the small-pox + raging there like a pestilence, they sent him home to us to be out + of the way. The very next week my man-servant was seized with it, + after vaccination of course. Our medical friend advised me to send + him away, but that was, in my view of things, out of the question; + so we did the best we could,--my own maid, who is a perfect Sister + of Charity in all cases of illness, sitting up with him for seven + nights following, for one or two were requisite during the delirium, + and we could not get a nurse for love or money, and when he became + better, then, as we had dreaded, our poor little boy was struck + down. However, it has pleased God to spare him, and, after a long + struggle, he is safe from the disorder and almost restored to his + former health. But we are still under a sort of quarantine, for, + although people pretend to believe in vaccination, they avoid the + house as if the plague were in it, and stop their carriages at the + end of the village and send inquiries and cards, and in my mind they + are right. To say nothing of Reading, there have been above thirty + severe cases, after vaccination, in our immediate neighborhood, five + of them fatal. I had been inoculated after the old style, my maid + had had the small-pox the natural way and the only one who escaped + was a young girl who had been vaccinated three times, the last two + years ago. Forgive this long story; it was necessary to excuse my + most unthankful silence, and may serve as an illustration of the way + a disease, supposed to be all but exterminated, is making head again + in England. + + Thank you a thousand and a thousand times for your most delightful + books. Mr. Whipple's Lectures are magnificent, and your own Boston + Book could not, I think, be beaten by a London Book, certainly not + approached by the collected works of any other British + city,--Edinburgh, for example. + + Mr. Bennett is most grateful for your kindness, and Mrs. Browning + will be no less enchanted at the honor done her husband. It is most + creditable to America that they think more of our thoughtful poets + than the English do themselves. + + Two female friends of mine--Mrs. Acton Tindal, a young beauty as + well as a woman of genius, and a Miss Julia Day, whom I have never + seen, but whose verses show extraordinary purity of thought, + feeling, and expression--have been putting forth books. Julia Day's + second series she has done me the honor to inscribe to me, + notwithstanding which I venture to say how very much I admire it, + and so I think would you. Henry Chorley is going to be a happy man. + All his life long he has been dying to have a play acted, and now he + has one coming out at the Surrey Theatre, over Blackfriars Bridge. + He lives much among fine people, and likes the notion of a Faubourg + audience. Perhaps he is right. I am not at all afraid of the play, + which is very beautiful,--a blank-verse comedy full of truth and + feeling. I don't know if you know Henry Chorley. He is the friend of + Robert Browning, and the especial favorite of John Kenyon, and has + always been a sort of adopted nephew of mine. Poor Mrs. Hemans loved + him well; so did a very different person, Lady Blessington,--so that + altogether you may fancy him a very likeable person; but he is much + more,--generous, unselfish, loyal, and as true as steel, worth all + his writings a thousand times over. If my house be in such condition + as to allow of my getting to London to see "Old Love and New + Fortune," I shall consult with Mr. Lucas about the time of sitting + to him for a portrait, as I have promised to do; for, although there + be several extant, not one is passably like. John Lucas is a man of + so much taste that he will make a real old woman's picture of it, + just with my every-day look and dress. + + Will you make my most grateful thanks to Mr. Whipple, and also to + the author of "Greenwood Leaves," which I read with great pleasure, + and say all that is kindest and most respectful for me to Mr. and + Mrs. George Ticknor. I shall indeed expect great delight from his + book. + + Ever, dear Mr. Fields, most gratefully yours, + + M.R.M. + + We have had a Mr. Richmond here, lecturing and so forth. Do you know + him? I can fancy what Mr. Webster would be on the Hungarian + question. To hear Mr. Cobden talk of it was like the sound of a + trumpet. + + Three-mile Cross, November 25, 1850. + + I have been waiting day after day, dear Mr. Fields, to send you two + books,--one new, the other old,--one by my friend, Mr. Bennett; the + other a volume [her Dramatic Poems] long out of print in England, + and never, I think, known in America. I had great difficulty in + procuring the shabby copy which I send you, but I think you will + like it because it is mine, and comes to you from friend to friend, + and because there is more of myself, that is, of my own inner + feelings and fancies, than one ever ventures to put into prose. Mr. + Bennett's volume, which is from himself as well as from me, I am + sure you will like; most thoroughly would like each other if ever + you met. He has the poet's heart and the poet's mind, large, + truthful, generous, and full of true refinement, delightful as a + companion, and invaluable as a man. + + After eight years' absolute cessation of composition, Henry Chorley, + of the Athenaeum, coaxed me last summer into writing for a Lady's + Journal, which he was editing for Messrs. Bradbury and Evans, + certain Readings of Poetry, old and new, which will, I suppose, form + two or three separate volumes when collected, buried as they now are + amongst all the trash and crochet-work and millinery. They will be + quite as good as MS., and, indeed, every paper will be enlarged and + above as many again added. One pleasure will be the doing what + justice I can to certain American poets,--Mr. Whittier, for + instance, whose "Massachusetts to Virginia" is amongst the finest + things ever written. I gave one copy to a most intelligent Quaker + lady, and have another in the house at this moment for Mrs. Walter, + widow and mother of the two John Walters, father and son, so well + known as proprietors of the Times. I shall cause my book to be + immediately forwarded to you, but I don't think it will be ready for + a twelvemonth. There is a good deal in it of my own prose, and it + takes a wider range than usual of poetry, including much that has + never appeared in any of the specimen books. Of course, dear friend, + this is strictly between you and me, because it would greatly damage + the work to have the few fragments that have appeared as yet brought + forward without revision and completion in their present detached + and crude form. + + This England of ours is all alight and aflame with Protestant + indignation against popery; the Church of England being likely to + rekindle the fires of 1780, by way of vindicating the right of + private judgment. I, who hold perfect freedom of thought and of + conscience the most precious of all possessions, have of course my + own hatred to these things. Cardinal Wiseman has taken advantage of + the attack to put forth one of the most brilliant appeals that has + appeared in my time; of course you will see it in America. + + Professor Longfellow has won a station in England such as no + American poet ever held before, and assuredly he deserves it. Except + Beranger and Tennyson, I do not know any living man who has written + things so beautiful. I think I like his Nuremburg best of all. Mr. + Ticknor's great work, too, has won golden opinions, especially from + those whose applause is fame; and I foresee that day by day our + literature will become more mingled with rich, bright novelties from + America, not reflections of European brightness, but gems all + colored with your own skies and woods and waters. Lord Carlisle, the + most accomplished of our ministers and the most amiable of our + nobles, is giving this very week to the Leeds Mechanics' Institute a + lecture on his travels in the United States, and another on the + poetry of Pope. + + May I ask you to transmit the accompanying letter to Mrs. H----? She + has sent to me for titles and dates, and fifty things in which I can + give her little help; but what I do know about my works I have sent + her. Only, as, except that I believe her to live in Philadelphia, I + really am as ignorant of her address as I am of the year which + brought forth the first volume of "Our Village," I am compelled to + go to you for help in forwarding my reply. + + Ever, my dear Mr. Fields, most gratefully and faithfully yours, + + M.R. MITFORD. + + Is not Louis Napoleon the most graceful of our European chiefs? I + have always had a weakness for the Emperor, and am delighted to find + the heir of his name turning out so well. + +1851. + + February 10, 1851 + + I cannot tell you, my dear Mr. Fields, how much I thank you for your + most kind letter and parcel, which, after sending three or four + emissaries all over London to seek, (Mr. ---- having ignored the + matter to my first messenger,) was at last sent to me by the Great + Western Railway,--I suspect by the aforesaid Mr. ----, because, + although the name of the London bookseller was dashed out, a + _long-tailed_ letter was left just where the "p" would come in ----, + and as neither Bonn's nor Whittaker's name boasts such a grace, I + suspect that, in spite of his assurance, the packet was in the + Strand, and neither in Ave Maria Lane nor in Henrietta Street, to + both houses I sent. Thank you a thousand times for all your + kindness. The orations are very striking. But I was delighted with + Dr. Holmes's poems for their individuality. How charming a person he + must be! And how truly the portrait represents the mind, the lofty + brow full of thought, and the wrinkle of humor in the eye! (Between + ourselves, I always have a little doubt of genius where there is no + humor; certainly in the very highest poetry the two go + together,--Scott, Shakespeare, Fletcher, Burns.) Another charming + thing in Dr. Holmes is, that every succeeding poem is better than + the last. Is he a widower, or a bachelor, or a married man? At all + events, he is a true poet, and I like him all the better for being a + physician,--the one truly noble profession. There are noble men in + all professions, but in medicine only are the great mass, almost the + whole, generous, liberal, self-denying, living to advance science + and to help mankind. If I had been a man I should certainly have + followed that profession. I rejoice to hear of another Romance by + the author of "The Scarlet Letter." That is a real work of genius. + Have you seen "Alton Locke"? No novel has made so much noise for a + long time; but it is, like "The Saint's Tragedy," inconclusive. + Between ourselves, I suspect that the latter part was written with + the fear of the Bishop before his eyes (the author, Mr. Kingsley, is + a clergyman of the Church of England), which makes the one volume + almost a contradiction of the others. Mrs. Browning is still at + Florence, where she sees scarcely any English, a few Italians, and + many Americans. + + Ever most gratefully yours. + + M.R.M. + + (No date.) + + Dear Mr. Fields: I sent you a packet last week, but I have just + received your two charming books, and I cannot suffer a post to + pass without thanking you for them. Mr. Whittier's volume is quite + what might have been expected from the greatest of Quaker writers, + the worthy compeer of Longfellow, and will give me other extracts to + go with "From Massachusetts to Virginia" and "Cassandra Southwick" + in my own book, where one of my pleasures will be trying to do + justice to American poetry, and Dr. Holmes's fine "Astraea." We have + nothing like that nowadays in England. Nobody writes now in the + glorious resonant metre of Dryden, and very few ever did write as + Dr. Holmes does. I see there is another volume of his poetry, but + the name was new to me. How much I owe to you, my dear Mr. Fields! + That great romance, "The Scarlet Letter," and these fine poets,--for + true poetry, not at all imitative, is rare in England, common as + elegant imitative verse may be,--and that charming edition of Robert + Browning. Shall you republish his wife's new edition? I cannot tell + you how much I thank you. I read an extract from the Times, + containing a report of Lord Carlisle's lecture on America, chiefly + because he and Dr. Holmes say the same thing touching the slavish + regard to opinion which prevails in America. Lord Carlisle is by + many degrees the most accomplished of our nobles. Another + accomplished and cultivated nobleman, a friend of my own, we have + just lost,--Lord Nugent,--liberal, too, against the views of his + family. + + You must make my earnest and very sincere congratulations to your + friend. In publishing Gray, he shows the refinement of taste to be + expected in your companion. I went over all his haunts two years + ago, and have commemorated them in the book you will see by and + by,--the book that is to be,--and there I have put on record the + bride-cake, and the finding by you on my table your own edition of + Motherwell. You are not angry, are you? If your father and mother in + law ever come again to England, I shall rejoice to see them, and + shall be sure to do so, if they will drop me a line. God bless you, + dear Mr. Fields. + + Ever faithfully and gratefully yours, M.R.M. + + Three-mile Cross, July 20, 1851. + + You will have thought me most ungrateful, dear Mr. Fields, in being + so long your debtor for a most kind and charming letter; but first I + waited for the "House of the Seven Gables," and then when it + arrived, only a week ago; I waited to read it a second time. At + sixty-four life gets too short to allow us to read every book once + and again; but it is not so with Mr. Hawthorne's. The first time one + sketches them (to borrow Dr. Holmes's excellent word), and cannot + put them down for the vivid interest; the next, one lingers over the + beauty with a calmer enjoyment. Very beautiful this book is! I thank + you for it again and again. The legendary part is all the better for + being vague and dim and shadowy, all pervading, yet never tangible; + and the living people have a charm about them which is as lifelike + and real as the legendary folks are ghostly and remote. Phoebe, for + instance, is a creation which, not to speak it profanely, is almost + Shakespearian. I know no modern heroine to compare with her, except + it be Eugene Sue's Rigolette, who shines forth amidst the iniquities + of "Les Mystères de Paris" like some rich, bright, fresh cottage + rose thrown by evil chance upon a dunghill. Tell me, please, about + Mr. Hawthorne, as you were so good as to do about that charming + person, Dr. Holmes. Is he young? I think he is, and I hope so for + the sake of books to come. And is he of any profession? Does he + depend altogether upon literature, as too many writers do here? At + all events, he is one of the glories of your most glorious part of + great America. Tell me, too, what is become of Mr. Cooper, that + other great novelist? I think I heard from you, or from some other + Transatlantic friend, that he was less genial and less beloved than + so many other of your notabilities have been. Indeed, one sees that + in many of his recent works; but I have been reading many of his + earlier books again, with ever-increased admiration, especially I + should say "The Pioneers"; and one cannot help hoping that the mind + that has given so much pleasure to so many readers will adjust + itself so as to admit of its own happiness,--for very clearly the + discomfort was his own fault, and he is too clever a person for one + not to wish him well. + + I think that the most distinguished of our own _young_ writers are, + the one a dear friend of mine, John Ruskin; the other, one who will + shortly be so near a neighbor that we must know each other. It is + quite wonderful that we don't now, for we are only twelve miles + apart, and have scores of friends in common. This last is the Rev. + Charles Kingsley, author of "Alton Locke" and "Yeast" and "The + Saint's Tragedy." All these books are full of world-wide truths, and + yet, taken as a whole, they are unsatisfactory and inconclusive, + knocking down without building up. Perhaps that is the fault of the + social system that he lays bare, perhaps of the organization of the + man, perhaps a little of both. You will have heard probably that he, + with other benevolent persons, established a sort of socialist + community (Christian socialism) for journeymen tailors, he himself + being their chaplain. The evil was very great, for of twenty-one + thousand of that class in London, fifteen thousand were ill-paid + and only half-employed. For a while, that is, as long as the + subscription lasted, all went well; but I fear this week that the + money has come to an end, and so very likely will the experiment. + Have you republished "Alton Locke" in America? It has one character, + an old Scotchman, equal to anything in Scott. The writer is still + quite a young man, but out of health. I have heard (but this is + between ourselves) that ----'s brain is suffering,--the terrible + malady by which so many of our great mental laborers (Scott and + Southey, above all) have fallen. Dr. Buckland is now dying of it. I + am afraid ---- may be so lost to the world and his friends, not + merely because his health is going, but because certain + peculiarities have come to my knowledge which look like it. A + brother clergyman saw him the other day, upon a common near his own + house, spouting, singing, and reciting verse at the top of his voice + at one o'clock in the morning. Upon inquiring what was the matter, + the poet said that he never went to bed till two or three o'clock, + and frequently went out in that way to exercise his lungs. My + informant, an orderly person of a very different stamp, set him down + for mad at once; but he is much beloved among his parishioners, and + if the escapade above mentioned do not indicate disease of the + brain, I can only say it would be good for the country if we had + more madmen of the same sort. As to John Ruskin, I would not answer + for quiet people not taking him for crazy too. He is an enthusiast + in art, often right, often wrong,--"in the right very stark, in the + wrong very sturdy,"--bigoted, perverse, provoking, as ever man was; + but good and kind and charming beyond the common lot of mortals. + There are some pages of his prose that seem to me more eloquent than + anything out of Jeremy Taylor, and I should think a selection of his + works would answer to reprint. Their sale here is something + wonderful, considering their dearness, in this age of cheap + literature, and the want of attraction in the subject, although the + illustrations of the "Stones of Venice," executed by himself from + his own drawings, are almost as exquisite as the writings. By the + way, he does not say what I heard the other day from another friend, + just returned from the city of the sea, that Taglioni has purchased + four of the finest palaces, and is restoring them with great taste, + by way of investment, intending to let them to Russian and English + noblemen. She was a very graceful dancer once, was Taglioni; but + still it rather depoetizes the place, which of all others was + richest in associations. + + Mrs. Browning has got as near to England as Paris, and holds out + enough of hope of coming to London to keep me from visiting it until + I know her decision. I have not seen the great Exhibition, and, + unless she arrives, most probably shall not see it. My lameness, + which has now lasted five months, is the reason I give to myself for + not going, chairs being only admitted for an hour or two on Saturday + mornings. But I suspect that my curiosity has hardly reached the + fever-heat needful to encounter the crowd and the fatigue. It is + amusing to find how people are cooling down about it. We always were + a nation of idolaters, and always had the trick of avenging + ourselves upon our poor idols for the sin of our own idolatry. Many + an overrated, and then underrated, poet can bear witness to this. I + remember when my friend Mr. Milnes was called _the_ poet, although + Scott and Byron were in their glory, and Wordsworth had written all + of his works that will live. We make gods of wood and stone, and + then we knock them to pieces; and so figuratively, if not literally, + shall we do by the Exhibition. Next month I am going to move to a + cottage at Swallowfield,--so called, I suppose, because those + migratory birds meet by millions every autumn in the park there, now + belonging to some friends of mine, and still famous as the place + where Lord Clarendon wrote his history. That place is still almost a + palace; mine an humble but very prettily placed cottage. O, how + proud and glad I should be, if ever I could receive Mr. and Mrs. + Fields within its walls for more than a poor hour! I shall have + tired you with this long letter, but you have made me reckon you + among my friends,--ay, one of the best and kindest,--and must take + the consequence. + + Ever yours, M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, Saturday Night. + + I write you two notes at once, my dear friend, whilst the + recollection of your conversation is still in my head and the + feeling of your kindness warm on my heart. To write, to thank you + for a visit which has given me so much pleasure, is an impulse not + to be resisted. Pray tell Mr. and Mrs. Bennoch how delighted I am to + make their acquaintance and how earnestly I hope we may meet often. + They are charming people. + + Another motive that I had for writing at once is to tell you that + the more I think of the title of the forthcoming book, the less I + like it; and I care more for it, now that you are concerned in the + matter, than I did before. "Personal Reminiscences" sounds like a + bad title for an autobiography. Now this is nothing of the sort. It + is literally a book made up of favorite scraps of poetry and prose; + the bits of my own writing are partly critical, and partly have + been interwoven to please Henry Chorley and give something of + novelty, and as it were individuality, to a mere selection, to take + off the dryness and triteness of extracts, and give the pen + something to say in the work as well as the scissors. Still, it is a + book founded on other books, and since it pleased Mr. Bentley to + object to "Readings of Poetry," because he said nobody in England + bought poetry, why "Recollections of Books," as suggested by Mr. + Bennett, approved by me, and as I believed (till this very day) + adopted by Mr. Bentley, seemed to meet exactly the truth of the + case, and to be quite concession enough to the exigencies of the + trade. By the other title we exposed ourselves, in my mind, to all + manner of danger. I shall write this by this same post to Mr. + Bennett, and get the announcement changed, if possible; for it seems + to me a trick of the worst sort. I shall write a list of the + subjects, and I only wish that I had duplicates, and I would send + you the articles, for I am most uncomfortable at the notion of your + being taken in to purchase a book that may, through this misnomer, + lose its reputation in England; for of course it will be attacked as + an unworthy attempt to make it pass for what it is not.... + + Now if you dislike it, or if Mr. Bentley keep that odious title, + why, give it up at once. Don't pray, pray lose money by me. It would + grieve me far more than it would you. A good many of these are about + books quite forgotten, as the "Pleader's Guide" (an exquisite + pleasantry), "Holcroft's Memoirs," and "Richardson's + Correspondence." Much on Darley and the Irish Poets, unknown in + England; and I think myself that the book will contain, as in the + last article, much exquisite poetry and curious prose, as in the + forgotten murder (of Toole, the author's uncle) in the State Trials. + But it should be called by its right name, as everything should in + this world. God bless you! + + Ever faithfully yours, + + M.R.M. + + P.S. First will come the Preface, then the story of the book + (without Henry Chorley's name; it is to be dedicated to him), + noticing the coincidence of "Our Village" having first appeared in + the Lady's Magazine, and saying something like what I wrote to you + last night. I think this will take off the danger of provoking + apprehension on one side and disappointment on the other; because + after all, although anecdote be not the style of the book, it does + contain some. + + May I put in the story of Washington's ghost? without your name, of + course; it would be very interesting, and I am ten times more + desirous of making the book as good as I can, since I have reason to + believe you will be interested in it. Pray, forgive me for having + worried you last night and now again. I am a terribly nervous + person, and hate and dread literary scrapes, or indeed disputes of + any sort. But I ought not to have worried you. Just tell me if you + think this sort of preface will take the sting from the title, for I + dare say Mr. Bentley won't change it. + + Adieu, dear friend. All peace and comfort to you in your journey; + amusement you are sure of. I write also to dear Mr. Bennett, whom I + fear I have also worried. + + Ever most faithfully yours, + + M.R.M. + +1852. + + January 5. + + Mr. Bennoch has just had the very great kindness, dear Mr. Fields, + to let me know of your safe arrival at Genoa, and of your enjoyment + of your journey. Thank God for it! We heard so much about commotions + in the South of France that I had become fidgety about you, the + rather that it is the best who go, and that I for one cannot afford + to lose you. + + Now let me thank you for all your munificence,--that beautiful + Longfellow with the hundred illustrations, and that other book of + Professor Longfellow's, beautiful in another way, the "Golden + Legend." I hope I shall be only one among the multitude who think + this the greatest and best thing he has done yet, so racy, so full + of character, of what the French call local color, so, in its best + and highest sense, original. Moreover, I like the happy ending. Then + those charming volumes of De Quincey and Sprague and Grace + Greenwood. (Is that her real name?) And dear Mr. Hawthorne, and the + two new poets, who, if also young poets, will be fresh glories for + America. How can I thank you enough for all these enjoyments? And + you must come back to England, and add to my obligations by giving + me as much as you can of your company in the merry month of May. I + have fallen in with Mr. Kingsley, and a most charming person he is, + certainly the least like an Englishman of letters, and the most like + an accomplished, high-toned English gentleman, that I have ever met + with. You must know Mr. Kingsley. He is very young too, really + young, for it is characteristic of our "young poets" that they + generally turn out middle-aged and very often elderly. My book is + out at last, hurried through the press in a fortnight,--a process + which half killed me, and has left the volumes, no doubt, full of + errata,--and you, I mean your house, have not got it. I am keeping a + copy for you personally. People say that they like it. I think you + will, because it will remind you of this pretty country, and of an + old Englishwoman who loves you well. Mrs. Browning was delighted + with your visit. She is a Bonapartiste; so am I. I always adored the + Emperor, and I think his nephew is a great man, full of ability, + energy, and courage, who put an end to an untenable situation and + got quit of a set of unrepresenting representatives. The Times + newspaper, right as it seems to me about Kossuth, is dangerously + wrong about Louis Napoleon, since it is trying to stimulate the + nation to a war for which France is more than prepared, is ready, + and England is not. London might be taken with far less trouble and + fewer men than it took to accomplish the _coup d'état_. Ah! I + suspect very different politics will enclose this wee bit notie, if + dear Mr. Bennoch contrives to fold it up in a letter of his own; but + to agree to differ is part of the privileges of friendship; besides, + I think you and I generally agree. + + Ever yours, + + M.R.M. + + P.S. All this time I have not said a word of "The Wonder Book." + Thanks again and again. Who was the Mr. Blackstone mentioned in "The + Scarlet Letter" as riding like a myth in New England History, and + what his arms? A grandson of Judge Blackstone, a friend of mine, + wishes to know. + + (March, 1852.) + + I can never enough thank you, dearest Mr. Fields, for your kind + recollection of me in such a place as the Eternal City. But you + never forget any whom you make happy in your friendship, for that is + the word; and therefore here in Europe or across the Atlantic, you + will always remain.... Your anecdote of the ---- is most + characteristic. I am very much afraid that he is only a poet, and + although I fear the last person in the world to deny that that is + much, I think that to be a really great man needs something more. I + am sure that you would not have sympathized with Wordsworth. I do + hope that you will see Beranger when in Paris. He is the one man in + France (always excepting Louis Napoleon, to whom I confess the + interest that all women feel in strength and courage) whom I should + earnestly desire to know well. In the first place, I think him by + far the greatest of living poets, the one who unites most completely + those two rare things, impulse and finish. In the next, I admire + his admirable independence and consistency, and his generous feeling + for fallen greatness. Ah, what a truth he told, when he said that + Napoleon was the greatest poet of modern days! I should like to have + the description of Beranger from your lips. Mrs. Browning ... has + made acquaintance with Madame Sand, of whom her account is most + striking and interesting. But George Sand is George Sand, and + Beranger is Beranger. + + Thank you, dear friend, for your kind interest in my book. It has + found far more favor than I expected, and I think, ever since the + week after its publication, I have received a dozen of letters daily + about it, from friends and strangers,--mostly strangers,--some of + very high accomplishments, who will certainly be friends. This is + encouragement to write again, and we will have a talk about it when + you come. I should like your advice. One thing is certain, that this + work has succeeded, and that the people who like it best are + precisely those whom one wishes to like it best, the lovers of + literature. Amongst other things, I have received countless volumes + of poetry and prose,--one little volume of poetry written under the + name of Mary Maynard, of the greatest beauty, with the vividness and + picturesqueness of the new school, combined with infinite + correctness and clearness, that rarest of all merits nowadays. Her + real name I don't know, she has only thought it right to tell me + that Mary Maynard was not the true appellation (this is between + ourselves). Her own family know nothing of the publication, which + seems to have been suggested by her and my friend, John Ruskin. Of + course, she must have her probation, but I know of no young writer + so likely to rival your new American school. I sent your gift-books + of Hawthorne, yesterday, to the Walters of Bearwood, who had never + heard of them! Tell him that I have had the honor of poking him into + the den of the Times, the only civilized place in England where they + were barbarous enough not to be acquainted with "The Scarlet + Letter." I wonder what they'll think of it. It will make them stare. + They come to see me, for it is full two months since I have been in + the pony-chaise. I was low, if you remember, when you were here, but + thought myself getting better, was getting better. About Christmas, + very damp weather came on, or rather very wet weather, and the damp + seized my knee and ankles and brought back such an attack of + rheumatism that I cannot stand upright, walk quite double, and am + often obliged to be lifted from step to step up stairs. My medical + adviser (a very clever man) says that I shall get much better when + warm weather comes, but for weeks and weeks we have had east-winds + and frost. No violets, no primroses, no token of spring. A little + flock of ewes and lambs, with a pretty boy commonly holding a lamb + in his arms, who drives his flock to water at the pond opposite my + window, is the only thing that gives token of the season. I am quite + mortified at this on your account, for April, in general a month of + great beauty here, will be as desolate as winter. Nevertheless you + must come and see me, you and Mr. and Mrs. Bennoch, and perhaps you + can continue to stay a day or two, or to come more than once. I want + to see as much of you as I can, and I must change much, if I be in + any condition to go to London, even upon the only condition on which + I ever do go, that is, into lodgings, for I never stay anywhere; and + if I were to go, even to one dear and warm-hearted friend, I should + affront the very many other friends whose invitations I have refused + for so many years. I hope to get at Mr. Kingsley; but I have seen + little of him this winter. We are five miles asunder; his wife has + been ill; and my fear of an open carriage, or rather the medical + injunction not to enter one, has been a most insuperable objection. + We are, as we both said, summer neighbors. However, I will try that + you should see him. He is well worth knowing. Thank you about Mr. + Blackstone. He is worth knowing too, in a different way, a very + learned and very clever man (you will find half Dr. Arnold's letters + addressed to him), as full of crotchets as an egg is full of meat, + fond of disputing and contradicting, a clergyman living in the house + where Mrs. Trollope _was raised_, and very kind after his own + fashion. One thing that I should especially like would be that you + should see your first nightingale amongst our woody lanes. To be + sure, these winds can never last till then. Mr. ---- is coming here + on Sunday. He always brings rain or snow, and that will change the + weather. You are a person who ought to bring sunshine, and I suppose + you do more than metaphorically; for I remember that both times I + have had the happiness to see you--a summer day and a winter + day--were glorious. Heaven bless you, dear friend! May all the + pleasure ... return upon your own head! Even my little world is + charmed at the prospect of seeing you again. If you come to Reading + by the Great Western you could return later and make a longer day, + and yet be no longer from home. + + Ever faithfully yours, M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, April 27, 1852. + + How can I thank you half enough, dearest Mr. Fields, for all your + goodness! To write to me the very day after reaching Paris, to think + of me so kindly! It is what I never can repay. I write now not to + trouble you for another letter, but to remind you that, as soon as + possible after your return to England, I hope to see you and Mr. and + Mrs. Bennoch here. Heaven grant the spring may come to meet you! At + present I am writing in an east-wind, which has continued two months + and gives no sign of cessation. Professor Airy says it will continue + five weeks longer. Not a drop of rain has fallen in all that time. + We have frosts every night, the hedges are as bare as at Christmas, + flowers forget to blow, or if they put forth miserable, infrequent, + reluctant blossoms, have no heart, and I have only once heard the + nightingale in this place where they abound, and not yet seen a + swallow in the spot which takes name from their gatherings. It + follows, of course, that the rheumatism, covered by a glut of wet + weather, just upon the coming in of the new year, is fifty times + increased by the bitter season,--a season which has no parallel in + my recollection. I can hardly sit down when standing, or rise from + my chair without assistance, walk quite double, and am lifted up + stairs step by step by my man-servant. I thought, two years ago, I + could walk fifteen or sixteen miles a day! O, I was too proud of my + activity! I am sure we are smitten in our vanities. However, you + will bring the summer, which is, they say, to do me good; and even + if that should fail, it will do me some good to see you, that is + quite certain. Thank you for telling me about the Galignani, and + about the kind American reception of my book; some one sent me a New + York paper (the Tribune, I think), full of kindness, and I do assure + you that to be so heartily greeted by my kinsmen across the Atlantic + is very precious to me. From the first American has there come + nothing but good-will. However, the general kindness here has taken + me quite by surprise. The only fault found was with the title, + which, as you know, was no doing of mine; and the number of private + letters, books, verses, (commendatory verses, as the old poets have + it), and tributes of all sorts, and from all manner of persons, that + I receive every day is something quite astonishing. + + Our great portrait-painter, John Lucas, certainly the first painter + of female portraits now alive, has been down here to take a portrait + for engraving. He has been most successful. It is looking better, I + suppose, than I ever do look; but not better than under certain + circumstances--listening to a favorite friend, for example--I + perhaps might look. The picture is to go to-morrow into the + engraver's hands, and I hope the print will be completed before your + departure; also they are engraving, or are about to engrave, a + miniature taken of me when I was a little girl between three and + four years old. They are to be placed side by side, the young child + and the old withered woman, ---- a skull and cross-bones could + hardly be a more significant _memento mori_! I have lost my near + neighbor and most accomplished friend, Sir Henry Russell, and many + other friends, for Death has been very busy this winter, and Mr. + Ware is gone! He had sent me his "Zenobia," "from the author," and + for that very reason, I suppose, some one had stolen it; but I had + replaced both that and the letters from Rome, and sent them to Mr. + Kingsley as models for his "Hypatia." He has them still. He had + never heard of them till I named them to him. They seem to me very + fine and classical, just like the best translations from some great + Latin writer. And I have been most struck with Edgar Poe, who has + been republished, prose and poetry, in a shilling volume called + "Readable Books." What a deplorable history it was!--I mean his + own,--the most unredeemed vice that I have met with in the annals of + genius. But he was a very remarkable writer, and must have a niche + if I write again; so must your two poets, Stoddard and Taylor. I am + very sorry you missed Mrs. Trollope; she is a most remarkable woman, + and you would have liked her, I am sure, for her warm heart and her + many accomplishments. I had a sure way to Beranger, one of my dear + friends being a dear friend of his; but on inquiring for him last + week, that friend also is gone to heaven. Do pick up for me all you + can about Louis Napoleon, my one real abiding enthusiasm,--the + enthusiasm of my whole life,--for it began with the Emperor and has + passed quite undiminished to the present great, bold, and able ruler + of France. Mrs. Browning shares it, I think; only she calls herself + cool, which I don't; and another still more remarkable + co-religionist in the L.N. faith is old Lady Shirley (of Alderley), + the writer of that most interesting letter to Gibbon, dated 1792, + published by her father, Lord Sheffield, in his edition of the great + historian's posthumous works. She is eighty-two now, and as active + and vigorous in body and mind, as sixty years ago. + + Make my most affectionate love to my friend in the Avenue des Champs + Elysées, and believe me ever, my dear Mr. Fields, most gratefully + and affectionately yours, + + M.R.M. + + + (No date) + + Ah, my dearest Mr. Fields, how inimitably good and kind you are to + me! Your account of Rachel is most delightful, the rather that it + confirms a preconceived notion which two of my friends had taken + pains to change. Henry Chorley, not only by his own opinion, but by + that of Scribe, who told him that there was no comparison between + her and Viardot. Now if Viardot, even in that one famous part of + Fides, excels Rachel, she must be much the finer actress, having the + horrible drawback of the music to get over. My other friend told me + a story of her, in the modern play of Virginie; she declared that + when in her father's arms she pointed to the butcher's knife, + telling him what to do, and completely reversing that loveliest + story; but I hold to your version of her genius, even admitting that + she did commit the Virginie iniquity, which would be intensely + characteristic of her calling,--all actors and actresses having a + desire to play the whole play themselves, speaking every speech, + producing every effect in their own person. No doubt she is a great + actress, and still more assuredly is Louis Napoleon a great man, a + man of genius, which includes in my mind both sensibility and charm. + There are little bits of his writing from Ham, one where he speaks + of "le repos de ma prison," another long and most eloquent passage + on exile, which ends (I forget the exact words) with a sentiment + full of truth and sensibility. He is speaking of the treatment shown + to an exile in a foreign land, of the mistiness and coldness of + some, of the blandness and smoothness of others, and he goes on to + say, "He must be a man of ten thousand who behaves to an exile just + as he would behave to another person." If I could trust you to + perform a commission for me, and let me pay you the money you spent + upon it, I would ask you to bring me a cheap but comprehensive life + of him, with his works and speeches, and a portrait as like him as + possible. I asked an English friend to do this for me, and fancy his + sending me a book dated on the outside 1847!!!! Did I ever tell you + a pretty story of him, when he was in England after Strasburg and + before Boulogne, and which I know to be true? He spent a twelvemonth + at Leamington, living in the quietest manner. One of the principal + persons there is Mr. Hampden, a descendant of John Hampden, and the + elder brother of the Bishop. Mr. Hampden, himself a very liberal and + accomplished man, made a point of showing every attention in his + power to the Prince, and they soon became very intimate. There was + in the town an old officer of the Emperor's Polish Legion who, + compelled to leave France after Waterloo, had taken refuge in + England, and, having the national talent for languages, maintained + himself by teaching French, Italian, and German in different + families. The old exile and the young one found each other out, and + the language master was soon an habitual guest at the Prince's + table, and treated by him with the most affectionate attention. At + last Louis Napoleon wearied of a country town and repaired to + London; but before he went he called on Mr. Hampden to take leave. + After warm thanks for all the pleasure he had experienced in his + society, he said: "I am about to prove to you my entire reliance + upon your unfailing kindness by leaving you a legacy. I want to ask + you to transfer to my poor old friend the goodness you have lavished + upon me. His health is failing, his means are small. Will you call + upon him sometimes? and will you see that those lodging-house people + do not neglect him? and will you, above all, do for him what he will + not do for himself, draw upon me for what may be wanting for his + needs or for his comforts?" Mr. Hampden promised. The prophecy + proved true; the poor old man grew worse and worse, and finally + died. Mr. Hampden, as he had promised, replaced the Prince in his + kind attentions to his old friend, and finally defrayed the charges + of his illness and of his funeral. "I would willingly have paid them + myself," said he, "but I knew that that would have offended and + grieved the Prince, so I honestly divided the expenses with him, and + I found that full provision had been made at his banker's to answer + my drafts to a much larger amount." Now I have full faith in such a + nature. Let me add that he never forgot Mr. Hampden's kindness, + sending him his different brochures and the kindest messages, both + from Ham and the Elysée. If one did not not admire Louis Napoleon, I + should like to know upon whom one could, as a public man, fix one's + admiration! Just look at our English statesmen! And see the state to + which self-government brings everything! Look at London with all its + sanitary questions just in the same state as ten years ago; look at + all our acts of Parliament, one half of a session passed in amending + the mismanagement of the other. For my own part, I really believe + that there is nothing like one mind, one wise and good ruler; and I + verily believe that the President of France is that man. My only + doubt being whether the people are worthy of him, fickle as they + are, like all great masses,--the French people, in particular. By + the way, if a most vilely translated book, called the "Prisoner of + Ham," be extant in French, I should like to possess it. The account + of the escape looks true, and is most interesting. + + I have been exceedingly struck, since I last wrote to you, by some + extracts from Edgar Poe's writings; I mean a book called "The + Readable Library," composed of selections from his works, prose and + verse. The famous ones are, I find, The Maelstrom and The Raven; + without denying their high merits, I prefer that fine poem on The + Bells, quite as fine as Schiller's, and those remarkable bits of + stories on circumstantial evidence. I am lower, dear friend, than + ever, and what is worse, in supporting myself on my hand I have + strained my right side and can hardly turn in bed. But if we cannot + walk round Swallowfield, we can drive, and the very sight of you + will do me good. If Mr. Bentley send me only one copy of that + engraving, it shall be for you. You know I have a copy for you of + the book. There are no words to tell the letters and books I receive + about it, so I suppose it is popular. I have lost, as you know, my + most accomplished and admirable neighbor, Sir Henry Russell, the + worthy successor of the great Lord Clarendon. His eldest daughter is + my favorite young friend, a most lovely creature, the ideal of a + poet. I hope you will see Beranger. Heaven bless you! + + Ever yours, M.R.M. + + Saturday Night. + + Ah, my very dear friend, how can I ever thank you? But I don't want + to thank you. There are some persons (very few, though) to whom it + is a happiness to be indebted, and you are one of them. The books + and the busts are arrived. Poor dear Louis Napoleon with his head + off--Heaven avert the omen! Of course _that_ head can be replaced, I + mean stuck on again upon its proper shoulders. Beranger is a + beautiful old man, just what one fancies him and loves to fancy him. + I hope you saw him. To my mind, he is the very greatest poet now + alive, perhaps the greatest man, the truest and best type of perfect + independence. Thanks a thousand and a thousand times for those + charming busts and for the books. Mrs. Browning had mentioned to me + Mr. Read. If I live to write another book, I shall put him and Mr. + Taylor and Mr. Stoddard together, and try to do justice to Poe. I + have a good right to love America and the Americans. My Mr. Lucas + tells me to go, and says he has a mind to go. I want you to know + John Lucas, not only the finest portrait-painter, but about the very + finest mind that I know in the world. He might be.... for talent and + manner and heart; and, if you like, you shall, when I am dead, have + the portrait he has just taken of me. I make the reserve, instead of + giving it to you now, because it is possible that he might wish (I + know he does) to paint one for himself, and if I be dead before + sitting to him again, the present one would serve him to copy. Mr. + Bentley wanted to purchase it, and many have wanted it, but it shall + be for you. + + Now, my very dear friend, I am afraid that Mr. ---- has said or done + something that would make you rather come here alone. His last + letter to me, after a month's silence, was _odd_. There was no + fixing upon line or word; still it was not like his other letters, + and I suppose the air of ---- is not genial, and yet dear Mr. + Bennoch breathes it often! You must know that I never could have + meant for one instant to impose him upon you as a companion. Only in + the autumn there had been a talk of his joining your party. He knows + Mr. Bennoch.... He has been very kind and attentive to me, and is, I + verily believe, an excellent and true-hearted person; and so I was + willing that, if all fell out well, he should have the pleasure of + your society here,--the rather that I am sometimes so poorly, and + always so helpless now, that one who knows the place might be of + use. But to think that for one moment I would make your time or your + wishes bend to his is out of the question. Come at your own time, as + soon and as often as you can. I should say this to any one going + away three thousand miles off, much more to you, and forgive my + having even hinted at his coming too. I only did it thinking it + might fix you and suit you. In this view I wrote to him yesterday, + to tell him that on Wednesday next there would be a cricket-match at + Bramshill, one of the finest old mansions in England, a Tudor Manor + House, altered by Inigo Jones, and formerly the residence of Prince + Henry, the elder son of James the First. In the grand old park + belonging to that grand old place, there will be on that afternoon a + cricket-match. I thought you would like to see our national game in + a scene so perfectly well adapted to show it to advantage. Being in + Mr. Kingsley's parish, and he very intimate with the owner, it is + most likely, too, that he will be there; so that altogether it + seemed to me something that you and dear Mr. and Mrs. Bennoch might + like to see. My poor little pony could take you from hence; but not + to fetch or carry you, and if the dear Bennochs come, it would be + advisable to let the flymen know the place of destination, because, + Sir William Cope being a new-comer, I am not sure whether he (like + his predecessor, whom I knew) allows horses and carriages to be put + up there. I should like you to look on for half an hour at a + cricket-match in Bramshill Park, and to be with you at a scene so + English and so beautiful. We could dine here afterwards, the Great + Western allowing till a quarter before nine in the evening. Contrive + this if you can, and let me know by return of post, and forgive my + _mal addresse_ about Mr. ----. There certainly has something come + across him,--not about you, but about me; one thing is, I think, his + extreme politics. I always find these violent Radicals very + unwilling to allow in others the unlimited freedom of thought that + they claim for themselves. He can't forgive my love for the + President. Now I must tell you a story I know to be true. A lady of + rank was placed next the Prince a year or two ago. He was very + gentle and courteous, but very silent, and she wanted to make him + talk. At last she remembered that, having been in Switzerland twenty + years before, she had received some kindness from the Queen + Hortense, and had spent a day at Arenenburg. She told him so, + speaking with warm admiration of the Queen. "Ah, madame, vous avez + connu ma mère!" exclaimed Louis Napoleon, turning to her eagerly and + talking of the place and the people as a school-boy talks of home. + She spent some months in Paris, receiving from the Prince every + attention which his position enabled him to show; and when she + thanked him for such kindness, his answer was always: "Ah, madame, + vous avez connu ma mère!" Is it in woman's heart not to love such a + man? And then look at the purchase of the Murillo the other day, and + the thousand really great things that he is doing. Mr. ---- is a + goose. + + I send this letter to the post to-morrow, when I send other + letters,--a vile, puritanical post-office arrangement not permitting + us to send letters in the afternoon, unless we send straight to + Reading (six miles) on purpose,--so perhaps this may cross an answer + from Mr. ---- or from you about Bramshill; perhaps, on the other + hand, I may have to write again. At all events, you will understand + that this is written on Saturday night. God bless you, my very dear + and kind friend. + + Ever faithfully yours, M.R.M. + + May 24, 1852. + + Ah, dearest Mr. Fields, how much too good and kind you are to me + always! ... I wish I were better, that I might go to town and see + more of you; but I am more lame than ever, and having, in my weight + and my shortness and my extreme helplessness, caught at tables and + chairs and dragged myself along that fashion, I have now so strained + the upper part of the body that I cannot turn in bed, and am full of + muscular pains which are worse than the rheumatism and more + disabling, so that I seem to cumber the earth. They say that summer, + when it comes, will do me good. How much more sure that the sight of + you will do me good, and I trust that, when your business will let + you, you will give me that happiness. In the mean while will you + take the trouble to send the enclosed and my answer, if it be fit + and proper and properly addressed? I give you this office, because + really the kindness seems so large and unlimited, that, if the + letter had not come enclosed in one from Mr. Kenyon, one could + hardly have believed it to be serious, and yet I am well used to + kindness, too. I thank over and over again your glorious poets for + their kindness, and tell Mr. Hawthorne I shall prize a letter from + him beyond all the worlds one has to give. I rejoice to hear of the + new work, and can answer for its excellence. + + I trust that the English edition of Dr. Holmes will contain the + "Astraea," and the "Morning Visit," and the "Cambridge Address." I + am not sure, in my secret soul, that I do not prefer him to any + American poet. Besides his inimitable word-painting, the charity is + so large and the scale so fine. How kind in you to like my + book,--some people do like it. I am afraid to tell you what John + Ruskin says of it from Venice, and I get letters, from ten to twenty + a day. You know how little I dreamt of this! Mrs. Trollope has sent + me a most affectionate letter, bemoaning her ill-fortune in missing + you. I thank you for the Galignani edition, and the presidential + kindness, and all your goodness of every sort. I have nothing to + give you but as large a share of my poor affection as I think any + human being has. You know a copy of the book from me has been + waiting for you these three months. Adieu, my dear friend. + + Ever yours, + + M.R.M. + + (July 6, 1852.) Monday Night, or, rather, 2 o'clock Tuesday Morning. + + Having just finished Mr. Hawthorne's book, dear Mr. Fields, I shall + get K---- to put it up and direct it so that it may be ready the + first time Sam has occasion to go to Reading, at which time this + letter will be put in the post; so that when you read this, you may + be assured that the precious volumes are arrived at the Paddington + Station, whence I hope they may be immediately transmitted to you. + If not, send for them. They will have your full direction, carriage + paid. I say this, because the much vaunted Great Western is like all + other railways, most uncertain and irregular, and we have lost a + packet of plants this very week, sent to us, announced by letter and + never arrived. Thank you heartily for the perusal of the book. I + shall not name it in a letter which I mean to enclose to Mr. + Hawthorne, not knowing that you mean to tell him, and having plenty + of other things to say to him besides. To you, and only to you, I + shall speak quite frankly what I think. It is full of beauty and of + power, but I agree with ---- that it would not have made a + reputation as the other two books did, and I have some doubts + whether it will not be a disappointment, but one that will soon be + redeemed by a fresh and happier effort. It seems to me too long, + too slow, and the personages are to my mind ill chosen. Zenobia puts + one in mind of Fanny Wright and Margaret Fuller and other unsexed + authorities, and Hollingsworth will, I fear, recall, to English + people at least, a most horrible man who went about preaching peace. + I heard him lecture once, and shall never forget his presumption, + his ignorance, or his vulgarity. He is said to know many languages. + I can answer for his not knowing his own, for I never, even upon the + platform, the native home of bad English, heard so much in so short + a time. The mesmeric lecturer and the sickly girl are almost equally + disagreeable. In short, the only likeable person in the book is + honest Silas Foster, who alone gives one the notion of a man of + flesh and blood. In my mind, dear Mr. Hawthorne mistakes exceedingly + when he thinks that fiction should be based upon, or rather seen + through, some ideal medium. The greatest fictions of the world are + the truest. Look at the "Vicar of Wakefield," look at the "Simple + Story," look at Scott, look at Jane Austen, greater because truer + than all, look at the best works of your own Cooper. It is precisely + the want of reality in his smaller stories which has delayed Mr. + Hawthorne's fame so long, and will prevent its extension if he do + not resolutely throw himself into truth, which is as great a thing + in my mind in art as in morals, the foundation of all excellence in + both. The fine parts of this book, at least the finest, are the + truest,--that magnificent search for the body, which is as perfect + as the search for the exciseman in Guy Mannering, and the burst of + passion in Eliot's pulpit. The plot, too, is very finely + constructed, and doubtless I have been a too critical reader, + because, from the moment you and I parted, I have been suffering + from fever, and have never left the bed, in which I am now writing. + Don't fancy, dear friend, that you had anything to do with this. The + complaint had fixed itself and would have run its course, even + although your ... society has not roused and excited the good + spirits, which will, I think, fail only with my life. I think I am + going to get better. Love to all. + + Ever most affectionately yours, M.R.M. + + Tuesday. (No date.) + + My Dear Friend: Being fit for nothing but lying in bed and reading + novels, I have just finished Mr. Field's and Mr. Jones's "Adrien," + and as you certainly will not have time to look at it, and may like + to hear my opinion, I will tell it to you. Mr. Field, from the + Preface, is of New York. The thing that has diverted me most is the + love-plot of the book. A young gentleman, whose father came and + settled in America and made a competence there, is third or fourth + cousin to an English lord. He falls in love with a fisherman's + daughter (the story appears to be about fifty years back). This + fisherman's daughter is a most ethereal personage, speaking and + reading Italian, and possessing in the fishing-cottage a pianoforte + and a collection of books; nevertheless, she one day hears her + husband say something about a person being "well born and well + bred," and forthwith goes away from him, in order to set him free + from the misery entailed upon him, as she supposes, by a + disproportionate marriage. Is not this curious in your republic? We + in England certainly should not play such pranks. A man having + married a wife, his wife stays by him. This dilemma is got over by + the fisherman's turning out to be himself fifth or sixth cousin of + another English lord. But, having lived really as a fisherman ever + since his daughter's birth, he knew nothing of his aristocratic + descent. I think this is the most remarkable thing in the book. + There are certain flings at the New England character (the scene is + laid beside the waters of your Bay) which seem to foretell a not + very remote migration on the part of Mr. Jones, though they may come + from his partner; nothing very bad, only such hits as this: "He was + simple, humble, affectionate, three qualities rare anywhere, but + perhaps more rare in that part of the world than anywhere else." For + the rest the book is far inferior to the best even of Mr. James's + recent productions, such as "Henry Smeaton." These two authors speak + of the corpse of a drowned man as beautified by death, and retaining + all the look of life. You remember what Mr. Hawthorne says of the + appearance of his drowned heroine,--which is right? I have had the + most delightful letter possible (you shall see it when you come) + from dear Dr. Holmes, and venture to trouble you with the enclosed + answer. Yesterday, Mr. Harness, who had heard a bad account of me + (for I have been very ill, and, although much better now, I gather + from everybody that I am thought to be breaking down fast), so like + the dear kind old friend that he is, came to see me. It was a great + pleasure. We talked much of you, and I think he will call upon you. + Whether he call or not, do go to see him. He is fully prepared for + you as Mr. Dyce's friend and Mr. Rogers's friend, and my very dear + friend. Do go; you will find him charming, so different from the + author people that Mr. Kenyon collects. I am sure of your liking + each other. Surely by next week I may be well enough to see you. You + and Mrs. W---- would do me nothing but good. Say everything to her, + and to our dear kind friends, the Bennochs. I ought to have written + to them, but I get as much scolded for writing as talking. + + Ever yours, M.R.M. + + (No date.) + + How good and kind you are to me, dearest Mr. Fields! kindest of all, + I think, in writing me those.... One comfort is, that if London lose + you this year I do think you will not suffer many to elapse before + revisiting it. Ah, you will hardly find your poor old friend next + time! Not that I expect to die just now, but there is such a want of + strength, of the power that shakes off disease, which is no good + sign for the constitution. Yesterday I got up for a little while, + for the first time since I saw you; but, having let in too many + people, the fever came on again at night, and I am only just now + shaking off the attack, and feel that I must submit to perfect + quietness for the present. Still the attack was less violent than + the last, and unattended by sickness, so that I am really better and + hope in a week or so to be able to get out with you under the trees, + perhaps as far as Upton. + + One of my yesterday's visitors was a glorious old lady of + seventy-six, who has lived in Paris for the last thirty years, and I + do believe came to England very much for the purpose of seeing me. + She had known my father before his marriage. He had taken her in his + hand (he was always fond of children) one day to see my mother; she + had been present at their wedding, and remembered the old + housekeeper and the pretty nursery-maid and the great dog too, and + had won with great difficulty (she being then eleven years old) the + privilege of having the baby to hold. Her descriptions of all these + things and places were most graphic, and you may imagine how much + she must have been struck with my book when it met her eye in Paris, + and how much I (knowing all about her family) was struck on my part + by all these details, given with the spirit and fire of an + enthusiastic woman of twenty. We had certainly never met. I left + Alresford at three years old. She made an appointment to spend a day + here next year, having with her a daughter, apparently by a first + husband. Also she had the same host of recollections of Louis + Napoleon, remembered the Emperor, as Premier Consul, and La Reine + Hortense as Mlle. de Beauharnais. Her account of the Prince is + favorable. She says that it is a most real popularity, and that, if + anything like durability can ever be predicated of the French, it + will prove a lasting one. I had a letter from Mrs. Browning to-day, + talking of the "Facts of the Times," of which she said some + gentlemen were speaking with the same supreme contempt and disbelief + that I profess for every paragraph in that collection of falsehoods. + For my own part, I hold a wise despotism, like the Prince + President's, the only rule to live under. Only look at the figure + our _soi-disant_ statesmen cut,--Whig and Tory,--and then glance + your eye across the Atlantic to your "own dear people," as Dr. + Holmes says, and their doings in the Presidential line. Apropos to + Dr. Holmes you'll see him read and quoted when--and his doings are + as dead as Henry the Eighth.--has no feeling for finish or polish or + delicacy, and doubtless dismisses Pope and Goldsmith with supreme + contempt. She never mentions that horrid trial, to my great comfort. + Did I tell you that I had been reading Louis Napoleon's most + charming three volumes full? + + Among my visitors yesterday was Miss Percy, the heiress of Guy's + Cliff, one of the richest in England, and, what is odd, the + translator of "Emilie Carlen's Birthright," the only Swedish novel I + have ever got fairly through, because Miss Percy really does her + work well, and I can't read ----'s English. Miss Percy, who, besides + being very clever and agreeable, is also pretty, has refused some + scores of offers, and declares she'll never marry; she has a dread + of being sought for her money..... + + God bless you, dearest, kindest friend. Say everything for me to + your companions. + + Ever most faithfully yours, M.R.M. + + (No date) + + Yes, dearest Mr. Fields, I continue to get better and better, and + shall be delighted to see you and Mr. and Mrs. W---- on Friday. I + even went in to surprise Mr. May on Saturday, so, weather + permitting, we shall get up to Upton together. I want you to see + that relique of Protestant bigotry. No doubt many of my dear + countrymen would play just the same pranks now, if the spirit of the + age would permit; the will is not wanting, witness our courts of + law. + + I have been reading the "Life of Margaret Fuller." What a tragedy + from first to last! She must have been odious in Boston in spite of + her power and her strong sense of duty, with which I always + sympathize; but at New York, where she dwindled from a sibyl to a + "lionne," one begins to like her better, and in England and Paris, + where she was not even that, better still; so that one is prepared + for the deep interest of the last half-volume. Of course her + example must have done much injury to the girls of her train. Of + course, also, she is the Zenobia of dear Mr Hawthorne. One wonders + what her book would have been like. + + Mr. Bennett has sent me the "Nile Notes." We must talk about that, + which I have not read yet, not delighting much in Eastern travels, + or, rather, being tired of them. Ah, how sad it will be when I + cannot say "We will talk"! Surely Mr. Webster does not mean to get + up a dispute with England! That would be an affliction; for what + nations should be friends if ours should not? What our ministers + mean, nobody can tell,--hardly, I suppose, themselves. My hope was + in Mr. Webster. Well, this is for talking. God bless you, dear + friend. + + Ever most affectionately yours, M.R.M. + + August 7, 1852. + + Hurrah! dear and kind friend, I have found the line without any + other person's aid or suggestion. Last night it occurred to me that + it was in some prologue or epilogue, and my little book-room being + very rich in the drama, I have looked through many hundreds of those + bits of rhyme, and at last made a discovery which, if it have no + other good effect, will at least have "emptied my head of Corsica," + as Johnson said to Boswell; for never was the great biographer more + haunted by the thought of Paoli than I by that line. It occurs in an + epilogue by Garrick on quitting the stage, June, 1776, when the + performance was for the benefit of sick and aged actors. + + A veteran see! whose last act on the stage + Entreats your smiles for sickness and for age; + Their cause I plead, plead it in heart and mind, + _A fellow-feeling makes one wondrous kind_. + + Not finding it quoted in Johnson convinced me that it would probably + have been written after the publication of the Dictionary, and + ultimately guided me to the right place. It is singular that + epilogues were just dismissed at the first representation of one of + my plays, "Foscari," and prologues at another, "Rienzi." + + I have but a moment to answer your most kind letter, because I have + been engaged with company, or rather interrupted by company, ever + since I got up, but you will pardon me. Nothing ever did me so much + good as your visit. My only comfort is the hope of your return in + the spring. Then I hope to be well enough to show Mr Hawthorne all + the holes and corners my own self. Tell him so. I am already about + to study the State Trials, and make myself perfect in all that can + assist the romance. It will be a labor of love to do for him the + small and humble part of collecting facts and books, and making + ready the palette for the great painter. + + Talking of _artists_, one was here on Sunday who was going to Upton + yesterday. His object was to sketch every place mentioned in my + book. Many of the places (as those round Taplow) he had taken, and + K---- says he took this house and the stick and Fanchon and probably + herself. I was unluckily gone to take home the dear visitors who + cheer me daily and whom I so wish you to see. + + God bless you all, dear friends. + + Ever most affectionately yours, M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, September 24, 1852 + + My Very Dear Mr. Fields: I am beginning to get very fidgety about + you, and thinking rather too often, not only of the breadth of the + Atlantic, but of its dangers. However I must hear soon, and I write + now because I am expecting a fellow-townsman of yours, Mr. Thompson, + an American artist, who expected to find you still in England, and + who is welcomed, as I suppose all Boston would be ... People do not + love you the less, dear friend, for missing you. + + I write to you this morning, because I have something to say and + something to ask. In the first place, I am better. Mr. Harness, who, + God bless him, left that Temple of Art, the Deepdene, and Mr. Hope's + delightful conversation, to come and take care of me, stayed at + Swallowfield three weeks. He found out a tidy lodging, which he has + retained, and he promises to come back in November; at present he is + again at the Deepdene. Nothing could be so judicious as his way of + going on; he came at two o'clock to my cottage and we drove out + together; then he went to his lodgings to dinner, to give me three + hours of perfect quiet; at eight he and the Russells met here to + tea, and he read Shakespeare (there is no such reader in the world) + till bedtime. Under his treatment no wonder that I improved, but the + low-fever is not far off; doing a little too much, I fell back even + before his departure, and have been worse since. However, on the + whole, I am much better. + + Now to my request. You perhaps remember my speaking to you of a copy + of my "Recollections," which was in course of illustration in the + winter. Mr. Holloway, a great print-seller of Bedford Street, Covent + Garden, has been engaged upon it ever since, and brought me the + first volume to look at on Tuesday. It would have rejoiced the soul + of dear Dr. Holmes. My book is to be set into six or seven or eight + volumes, quarto, as the case may be; and although not unfamiliar + with the luxuries of the library, I could not have believed in the + number and richness of the pearls which have been strung upon so + slender a thread. The rarest and finest portraits, often many of one + person and always the choicest and the best,--ranging from + magnificent heads of the great old poets, from the Charleses and + Cromwells, to Sprat and George Faulkner of Dublin, of whom it was + thought none existed, until this print turned up unexpectedly in a + supplementary volume of Lord Chesterfield; nothing is too odd for + Mr. Holloway. There is a colored print of George the Third,--a full + length which really brings the old king to life again, so striking + is the resemblance, and quantities of theatrical people, Munden and + Elliston and the Kembles. There are two portraits of "glorious John" + in Penruddock. Then the curious old prints of old houses. They have + not only one two hundred years old of Dorrington Castle, but the + actual drawing from which that engraving was made; and they are rich + beyond anything in exquisite drawings of scenery by modern artists + sent on purpose to the different spots mentioned. Besides which + there are all sorts of characteristic autographs (a capital one of + Pope); in short, nothing is wanting that the most unlimited expense + (Mr. Holloway told me that his employer, a great city merchant of + unbounded riches, constantly urged him to spare no expense to + procure everything that money would buy), added to taste, skill, and + experience, could accomplish. Of course the number of proper names + and names of places have been one motive for conferring upon my book + an honor of which I never dreamt; but there is, besides, an + enthusiasm for my writings on the part of Mrs. Dillon, the lady of + the possessor, for whom it is destined as a birthday gift. Now what + I have to ask of you is to procure for Mr. Holloway as many + autographs and portraits as you can of the American writers whom I + have named,--dear Dr. Holmes, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Whittier, + Prescott, Ticknor. If any of them would add a line or two of their + writing to their names, it would be a favor, and if; being about it, + they would send two other plain autographs, for I have heard of two + other copies in course of illustration, and expect to be applied to + by their proprietors every day. Mr. Holloway wrote to some trade + connection in Philadelphia, but probably because he applied to the + wrong place and the wrong person, and because he limited his + correspondent to time, obtained no results. If there be a print of + Professor Longfellow's house, so much the better, or any other + autographs of Americans named in my book. Forgive this trouble, dear + friend. You will probably see the work when you come to London in + the spring, and then you will understand the interest that I take + in it as a great book of art. Also my dear old friend, Lady Morley + (Gibbon's correspondent), who at the age of eighty-three is caught + by new books and is as enthusiastic as a girl, has commissioned me + to inquire about your new authoress, the writer of ----, who she is + and all about her. For my part, I have not finished the book yet, + and never shall. Besides my own utter dislike to its painfulness, + its one-sidedness, and its exaggeration, I observe that the sort of + popularity which it has obtained in England, and probably in + America, is decidedly _bad_, of the sort which cannot and does not + last,--a cry which is always essentially one-sided and commonly + wrong.... + + Ever most faithfully and affectionately yours, + + M.R.M. + + October 5, 1852. + + DEAREST MR. FIELDS: You will think that I persecute you, but I find + that Mr. Dillon, for whom Mr. Holloway is illustrating my + Recollections so splendidly, means to send the volumes to the binder + on the 1st of November. I write therefore to beg, in case of your + not having yet sent off the American autographs and portraits, that + they may be forwarded direct to Mr. Holloway, 25 Bedford Street, + Covent Garden, London. It is very foolish not to wait until all the + materials are collected, but it is meant as an offering to Mrs. + Dillon, and I suppose there is some anniversary in the way. Mr. + Dillon is a great lover and preserver of fine engravings; his + collection, one of the finest private collections in the world, is + estimated at sixty thousand pounds. He is a friend of dear Mr. + Bennoch's, who, when I told him the compliment that had been paid to + my work by a great city man, immediately said it could be nobody but + Mr. Dillon. I have twice seen Mr. Bennoch within the last ten days, + once with Mr. Johnson and Mr. Thompson, your own Boston artist, whom + I liked much, and who gave me the great pleasure of talking of you + and of dear Mr. and Mrs. W----, last time with his own good and + charming wife and ----. Only think of ----'s saying that + Shakespeare, if he had lived now, would have been thought nothing + of, and this rather as a compliment to the age than not! But, if you + remember, he printed amended words to the air of "Drink to me only." + Ah, dear me, I suspect that both William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson + will survive him; don't you? Nevertheless he is better than might be + predicated from that observation. + + All my domestic news is bad enough. My poor pretty pony keeps his + bed in the stable, with a violent attack of influenza, and Sam and + Fanchon spend three parts of their time in nursing him. Moreover we + have had such rains here that the Lodden has overflowed its banks, + and is now covering the water meadows, and almost covering the lower + parts of the lanes. Adieu, dearest friend. + + Ever most faithfully yours, M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, October 13, 1852. + + More than one letter of mine, dearest friend, crossed yours, for + which I cannot sufficiently thank you. Nobody can better understand + than I do, how very, very glad your own people, and all the good + city, must feel to get you back again,--I trust not to keep; for in + spite of sea-sickness, that misery which during the summer I have + contrived to feel on land, I still hope that we shall have you here + again in the spring. I am impatiently waiting the arrival of + portraits and autographs, and if they do not come in time to bind, I + shall charge Mr. Holloway to contrive that they may be pasted with + the copy of my Recollections to which Mr. Dillon is paying so high + and so costly a compliment. Now I must tell you some news. + + First let me say that there is an admirable criticism in one of the + numbers of the Nonconformist, edited by Edward Miall, one of the new + members of Parliament, and certainly the most able of the dissenting + organs, on our favorite poet, Dr. Holmes. Also I have a letter from + Dr. Robert Dickson, of Hertford Street, May Fair, one of the highest + and most fashionable London physicians, respecting my book, liking + Dr. Holmes better than anybody for the very qualities for which he + would himself choose to be preferred, originality and justness of + thought, admirable fineness and propriety of diction, and a power of + painting by words, very rare in any age, and rarest of the rare in + _this_, when vagueness and obscurity mar so much that is high and + pure. I shall keep this letter to _show_ Dr. Holmes, tell him with + my affectionate love. If it were not written on the thickest paper + ever seen, and as huge as it is thick, I would send it; but I'll + keep it for him against he comes to claim it. The description of + spring is, Dr. Dickson says, remarkable for originality and truth. + He thanks me for those poems of Dr. Holmes as if I had written them. + Now be free to tell him all this. Of course you have told Mr. + Hawthorne of the highly eulogistic critique on the "Blithedale + Romance" in the Times, written, I believe, by Mr. Willmott, to whom + I lent the veritable copy received from the author. Another thing + let me say, that I have been reading with the greatest pleasure some + letters on African trees copied from the New York Tribune into + Bentley's Miscellany, and no doubt by Mr. Bayard Taylor. Our chief + London news is that Mrs. Browning's cough came on so violently, in + consequence of the sudden setting in of cold weather, that they are + off for a week or two to Paris, then to Florence, Rome, and Naples, + and back here in the summer. Her father still refuses to open a + letter or to hear her name. Mrs. Southey, suffering also from + chest-complaint, has shut herself up till June. Poor Anne Hatton, + who was betrothed to Thomas Davis, and was supposed to be in a + consumption, is recovering, they say, under the advice of a + clairvoyante. Most likely a broken vessel has healed on the lungs, + or perhaps an abscess. Be what it may, the consequence is happy, for + she is a lovely creature and the only joy of a fond mother. Alfred + Tennyson's boy was christened the other day by the name of Hallam + Tennyson, Mr. Hallam standing to it in person. This is just as it + should be on all sides, only that Arthur Hallam would have been a + prettier name. You know that Arthur Hallam was the lost friend of + the "In Memoriam," and engaged to Tennyson's sister, and that after + his death, and even after her marrying another man, Mr. Hallam makes + her a large allowance. + + We have just escaped a signal misfortune; my dear pretty pony has + been upon the point of death with influenza. Would not you have been + sorry if that pony had died? He has, however, recovered under Sam's + care and skill, and the first symptom of convalescence was his + neighing to Sam through the window. You will have found out that I + too am better. I trust to be stronger when you come again, well + enough to introduce you to Mr. Harness, whom we are expecting here + next month. God bless you, my dear and kind friend. I send this + through dear Mr Bennoch, whom I like better and better; so I do Mrs. + Bennoch, and everybody who knows and loves you. Ever, my dear Mr. + Fields, + + Your faithful and affectionate friend, M.R.M. + + P.S.--October 17. I have kept this letter open till now, and I am + glad I did so. Acting upon the hint you gave of Mr. De Quincey's + kind feeling, I wrote to him, and yesterday I had a charming letter + from his daughter, saying how much her father was gratified by mine, + that he had already written an answer, amounting to a good-sized + pamphlet, but that when it would be finished was doubtful, so she + sent hers as a precursor. + + Swallowfield, November 11, 1852. + + I write, dearest friend, and although the packet which you had the + infinite goodness to send, has not reached me yet, and may not + possibly before my letter goes,--so uncertain is our railway,--yet + I will write because our excellent friend, Mr. Bennoch, says that he + has sent it off.... You will understand that I am even more obliged + by your goodness about Mr. Dillon's book than by any of the thousand + obligations to myself only. Besides my personal interest, as so + great a compliment to my own work, Mr. Dillon appears to be a most + interesting person. He is a friend of Mr. Bennoch's, from whom I had + his history, one most honorable to him, and he has written to me + since I wrote to you and proposes to come and see me. _You_ must see + him when you come to England, and must see his collection of + engravings. Would not dear Dr. Holmes have a sympathy with Mr. + Dillon? Have you such fancies in America? They are not common even + here; but Miss Skerrett (the Queen's factotum) tells me that the + most remarkable book in Windsor Castle is a De Grammont most richly + and expensively illustrated by George the Fourth, who, with all his + sins as a monarch, was the only sovereign since the Stuarts of any + literary taste. + + Here is your packet! O my dear, dear friend, how shall I thank you + half enough! I shall send the parcels to-morrow morning, the very + first thing, to Mr. Holloway. The work is at the binder's, but + fly-leaves have been left for the American packet of which I felt so + sure, although even I could hardly foresee its value. One or two + duplicates I have kept. Tell Mr. Hawthorne that I shall make a dozen + people rich and happy by his autograph, and tell Dr. Holmes I could + not find it in my heart to part with the "Mary" stanza. Never was a + writer who possessed more perfectly the art of doing great things + greatly and small things gracefully. Love to Mr. Hawthorne and to + him. + + Poor Daniel Webster! or rather poor America! Rich as she is, she + cannot afford the loss, the greatest the world has known since our + Sir Robert. But what a death-bed, and what a funeral! How noble an + end of that noble life! I feel it the more, hearing and reading so + much about the Duke's funeral, which by dint of the delay will not + cause the slightest real feeling, but will be attended just like + every show, and yet as a show will be gloomy and poor. How much + better to have laid him simply here at Strathfieldsaye, and left it + as a place of pilgrimage,--as Strathfield will be,--although between + the two men, in my mind, there was no comparison; the one was a + genius, the other mere soldier,--pure physical force measured with + intellect the richest and the proudest. I have twenty letters + speaking of him as one of the greatest among the statesmen of the + age. The Times only refuses to do him justice. But when did the + Times do justice to any one? Look how it talks of our Emperor. + + Your friend Bayard Taylor came to see me a fortnight ago, just + before he sailed on his tour round the world. I told him the first + of Bentley's reprinting his letters from the New York Tribune; he + had not heard a word of it. He seemed an admirable person, and it is + good to have such travellers to follow with one's heart and one's + earnest good wishes. + + Also I have had two packets,--one from Mrs. Sparks, with a nice + letter, and some fresh and glorious autumnal flowers, and a + collection of autumn leaves from your glorious forests. I have + written to thank her. She seems full of heart, and she says that she + drove into Boston on purpose to see you, but missed you. When you do + meet, tell me about her. Also, I have through you, dear friend, a + most interesting book from Mr. Ware. To him, also, I have written, + but tell him how much I feel and prize his kindness, all the more + welcome for coming from a kinsman of dear Mrs. W----. Tell her and + her excellent husband that they cannot think of us oftener or more + warmly than we think of them. O, how I should like to visit you at + Boston! But I should have your malady by the way, and not your + strength to stand it.... + + God bless you, my dear and excellent friend! I seem to have a + thousand things to say to you, but the post is going, and a whole + sheet of paper would not hold my thanks. + + Ever yours, M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, November 25, 1852. + + My Dear Friend: Your most kind and welcome letter arrived to-day, + two days after the papers, for which I thank you much. Still more do + I thank you for that kind and charming letter, and for its + enclosures. The anonymous poem [it was by Dr. T.W. Parsons] is far + finer than anything that has been written on the death of the Duke + of Wellington, as indeed it was a far finer subject. May I inquire + the name of the writer? Mr. Everett's speech also is superb, and how + very much I prefer the Marshfield funeral in its sublime simplicity + to the tawdry pageantry here! I have had fifty letters from persons + who saw the funeral in St. Paul's, and seen as many who saw that or + the procession, and it is strange that the papers have omitted alike + the great successes and the great failures. My young neighbor, a + captain in the Grenadier Guards (the Duke's regiment), saw the + uncovering the car which had been hidden by the drapery, and was to + have been a great effect, and he says it was exactly what is + sometimes seen in a theatre when one scene is drawn up too soon and + the other is not ready. Carpenters and undertaker's men were on all + parts of the car, and the draperies and ornaments were everywhere + but in their places. Again, the procession waited upwards of an hour + at the cathedral door, because the same people had made no provision + for taking the coffin from the car; again, the sunlight was let into + St. Paul's, mingling most discordantly with the gas, and the naked + wood of screens and benches and board beams disfigured the grand + entrance. In three months' interval they had not time! On the other + hand, the strong points were the music, the effect of which is said + to have been unrivalled; the actual performance of the service,--my + friend Dean Milman is renowned for his manner of reading the funeral + service, he officiated at the burial of Mrs. Lockhart (Sir Walter's + favorite daughter),--and none who were present could speak of it + without tears; the clerical part of the procession, which was a real + and visible mourning pageant in its flowing robes of white with + black bands and sashes; the living branches of laurel and cypress + amongst the mere finery; and, above all, the hushed silence of the + people, always most and best impressed by anything that appeals to + the imagination or the heart. + + I suppose you will have seen how England is flooded, and you will + like to hear that this tiny speck has escaped. The Lodden is over + the park, and turns the beautiful water meadows down to + Strathfieldsaye into a no less beautiful lake, two or three times a + week; but then it subsides as quickly as it rises, so there is none + of the lying under water which results in all sorts of pestilential + exhalations, and this cottage is lifted out of every bad influence, + nay, a kind neighbor having had my lane scraped, I walk dry-shod + every afternoon a mile and a half, which is more than I ever + expected to compass again, and for which I am most thankful. But we + have had our own troubles. K---- has lost her father. He was seized + with paralysis and knew nobody, so they desired her not to come, and + Sam went alone to the funeral. After all, _this_ is her home, and + she has pretty well got over her affliction, and the pony is well + again, and strong enough to draw you and me in the spring,--for I am + looking forward to good and happy days again when you shall return + to England. + + Your magnificent present for Mr. Dillon's book was quite in time, + dear friend. I had warned them to leave room, and Mr. Holloway and + the binders contrived it admirably. They are most grateful for your + kindness, and most gratefully shall I receive the promised volumes. + I have not yet got "the pamphlet," and am much afraid it is buried + in what Miss De Quincey calls her "father's chaos"; but I have + charming letters from her, and am heartily glad that I wrote. You + have the way (like Mr. Bennoch) of making friends still better + friends, and bringing together those who, without you, would have + had no intercourse. It is the very finest of all the fine arts. Tell + dear Dr. Holmes that the more I hear of him, the more I feel how + inadequate has been all that I have said to express my own feelings; + and tell President Sparks that his charming wife ought to have + received a long letter from me at the same moment with yourself. Mr. + Hawthorne's new work will be a real treat. Tell me if Mr. Bennoch + has sent you some stanzas on Ireland, which have more of the very + highest qualities of Beranger than I have ever seen in English + verse. We who love him shall have to be very proud of dear Mr. + Bennoch. Tell me, too, if our solution of the line, "A + fellow-feeling makes us wondrous kind," was the first; and why the + new President is at once called General and talked of as a civilian. + The other President goes on nobly, does he not? + + Say everything for me to dear Mr. and Mrs. W---- and all friends. + + Ever yours, M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, December 14, 1852. + + O my very dear friend, how much too kind you are to me, who have + nothing to give you in return but affection and gratitude! Mr. + Bennett brought me your beautiful book on Saturday, and you may + think how heartily we wished that you had been here also. But you + will come this spring, will you not? I earnestly hope nothing will + come in the way of that happiness. Before leaving the subject of our + good little friend, let me say that, talking over our own best + authors and your De Quincey (N.B. The pamphlet has not arrived yet, + I fear it is forever buried in De Quincey's "chaos"),--talking of + these things, we both agreed that there was another author, probably + little known in America, who would be quite worthy of a reprint, + William Hazlitt. Is there any complete edition of his Lectures and + Essays? I should think they would come out well, now that Thackeray + is giving his Lectures. I know that Charles Lamb and Talfourd + thought Hazlitt not only the most brilliant, but the soundest of all + critics. Then his Life of Napoleon is capital, that is, capital for + an English life; the only way really to know the great man is to + read him in the _mémoires_ of his own ministers, lieutenants, and + servants; for _he was_ a hero to his _valet de chambre_, the + greatness was so real that it would bear close looking into. And our + Emperor, I have just had a letter from Osborne, from Marianne + Skerrett, describing the arrival of Count Walewski under a royal + salute to receive the Queen's recognition of Napoleon III. She, + Marianne, says, "How great a man that, is, and how like a fairy tale + the whole story!" She adds, that, seeing much of Louis Philippe, she + never could abide him, he was so cunning and so false, not cunning + enough to hide the falseness! Were not you charmed with the bits of + sentiment and feeling that come out all through our hero's Southern + progress? Always one finds in him traits of a gracious and graceful + nature, far too frequent and too spontaneous to be the effect of + calculation. It is a comfort to find, in spite of our delectable + press, ministers are wise enough to understand that our policy is + peace, and not only peace but cordiality. To quarrel with France + would be almost as great a sin as to quarrel with America. What a + set of fools our great ladies are! I had hoped better things of Lord + Carlisle, but to find that long list at Stafford House in female + parliament assembled, echoing the absurdities of Exeter Hall, + leaving their own duties and the reserve which is the happy + privilege of our sex to dictate to a great nation on a point which + all the world knows to be its chief difficulty, is enough to make + one ashamed of the title of Englishwoman. I know a great many of + these committee ladies, and in most of them I trace that desire to + follow the fashion, and concert with duchesses, which is one of the + besetting sins of the literary circles in London. One name did + surprise me, ----, considering that one of her husband's happiest + bits, in the book of his that will live, was the subscription for + sending flannel waistcoats to the negroes in the West Indies; and + that in this present book a certain Mrs. Jellyby is doing just what + his wife is doing at Stafford House! + + Even if I had not had my earnest thanks to send you, I should have + written this week to beg you to convey a message to Mr. Hawthorne. + Mr. Chorley writes to me, "You will be interested to hear that a + Russian literary man of eminence was so much attracted to the 'House + of the Seven Gables' by the review in the Athenaeum, as to have + translated it into Russian and published it feuilletonwise in a + newspaper." I know you will have the goodness to tell Mr. Hawthorne + this, with my love. Mr. Chorley saw the entrance of the Empereur + into the Tuileries. He looked radiant. The more I read that elegy on + the death of Daniel Webster, the more I find to admire. It is as + grand as a dirge upon an organ. Love to the dear W----s and to Dr. + Holmes. + + Ever, dearest Mr. Fields, most gratefully yours, M.R.M. + +1853 + + Swallowfield, January 5, 1853. + + Your most welcome letter, my very dear friend, arrived to-day, and + I write not only to acknowledge that, and your constant kindness, + but because, if, as I believe, Mr. Bennoch has told you of my + mischance, you will be glad to hear from my own hand that I am + going on well. Last Monday fortnight I was thrown violently from my + own pony-chaise upon the hard road in Lady Russell's park. No bones + were broken, but the nerves of one side were so terribly bruised + and lacerated, and the shock to the system was so great, that even + at the end of ten days Mr. May could not satisfy himself, without a + most minute re-examination, that neither fracture nor dislocation + had taken place, and I am writing to you at this moment with my + left arm bound tightly to my body and no power whatever of raising + either foot from the ground. The only parts of me that have escaped + uninjured are my head and my right hand, and this is much. Moreover + Mr. May says that, although the cure will be tedious, he sees no + cause to doubt my recovering altogether my former condition, so + that we may still hope to drive about together when you come back + to England.... + + I wrote I think, dearest friend, to thank you heartily for the + beautiful and interesting book called "The Homes of American + Authors." How comfortably they are housed, and how glad I am to + find that, owing to Mr. Hawthorne's being so near the new + President, and therefore keeping up the habit of friendship and + intercourse, the want of which habit so frequently brings college + friendship to an end, he is likely to enter into public life. It + will be an excellent thing for his future books,--the fault of all + his writings, in spite of their great beauty, being a want of + reality, of the actual, healthy, every-day life which is a + necessary element in literature. All the great poets have + it,--Homer, Shakespeare, Scott. It will be the very best school for + our pet poet. + + Nobody under the sun has so much right as you have to see Mr. + Dillon's book, which is in six quarto volumes, not one. Our dear + friend Mr. Bennoch knows him, and tells me to-day that Mr. Dillon + has invited him to go and look at it. He has just received it from + the binders. Of course Mr. Bennoch will introduce you. I was so + glad to read what looked like a renewed pledge of your return to + England. + + Mr. Bentley has sent me three several applications for a second + series. At present Mr. May forbids all composition, but I suppose + the thing will be done. I shall introduce some chapters on French + poetry and literature. At this moment I am in full chase of Casimer + Delavigne's _ballads_. He thought so little of them that he + published very few in his Poésies,--one in a note,--and several of + the very finest not at all. They are scattered about here and + there. ---- has reproduced two (which I had) in his Memories; but I + want all that can be found, especially one of which the refrain is, + "Chez l'Ambassadere de France." I was such a fool, when I read it + six or seven years ago, as not to take a copy. Do you think Mr. + Hector Bossange could help me to that, or to any others not printed + in the Memories? ...Of course I shall devote one chapter to _our_ + Emperor. Ah, how much better is such a government as his than one + which every four years causes a sort of moral earthquake; or one + like ours, where whole sessions are passed in squabbling! The loss + of his place has saved Disraeli's life, for everybody said he could + not have survived three months' badgering in the House. A very + intimate friend of his (Mr. Henry Drummond, the very odd, very + clever member for Surrey) says that he had certainly broken a + bloodvessel. One piece of news I have heard to-day from Miss + Goldsmid, that the Jews are certain now to gain their point and be + admitted to the House of Commons; for my part, I hold that every + one has a claim to his civil rights, were he Mahometan or Hindoo, + and I rejoice that poor old Sir Isaac, the real author of the + movement, will probably live to see it accomplished. The thought of + succeeding at last in the pursuit to which he has devoted half his + life has quite revived him. + + And now Heaven bless you, my very dear friend. None of the poems on + Wellington are to be compared to that dirge on Webster. I rejoice + that my article should have pleased his family. The only bit of my + new book that I have written is a paper on Taylor and Stoddard. Say + everything for me to the Ticknors and Nortons and your own people, + the W----s. + + Ever most faithfully and affectionately yours, M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, February 1, 1853. + + Ah, my dear friend! ask Dr. Holmes what these severe bruises and + lacerations of the nerves of the principal joints are, and he will + tell you that they are much more slow and difficult of cure, as well + as more painful, than half a dozen broken bones. It is now above six + weeks since that accident, and although the shoulder is going on + favorably, there is still a total loss of muscular power in the + lower limbs. I am just lifted out of bed and wheeled to the + fireside, and then at night wheeled back and lifted into + bed,--without the power of standing for a moment, or of putting one + foot before the other, or of turning in bed. Mr. May says that warm + weather will probably do much for me, but that till then I must be a + prisoner to my room, for that if rheumatism supervenes upon my + present inability, there will be no chance of getting rid of it. So + "patience and shuffle the cards," as a good man, much in my state, + the contented Marquess, says in Don Quixote.... I assure you I am + not out of spirits; indeed, people are so kind to me that it would + be the basest of all ingratitude if I were not cheerful as well as + thankful. I think that in a letter which you must have received by + this time, I told you how it came about, and thanked you for the + comely book which shows how cosily America lodges my brethren of the + quill. Dr. Holmes ought to have been there, and Dr. Parsons, but + their time will come and must. Nothing gratifies me more than to + find how many strangers, writing to me of my Recollections, mention + Dr. Holmes, classing him sometimes with Thomas Davis, sometimes with + Praed. If I write another series of Recollections, as, when Mr. May + will let me, I suppose I must, I shall certainly include Dr. + Parsons.... + + Has anybody told you the terrible story of that boy, Lord Ockham, + Lord Byron's grandson? I had it from Mr. Noel, Lady Byron's + cousin-german and intimate friend. While his poor mother was dying + her death of martyrdom from an inward cancer,--Mrs. Sartoris + (Adelaide Kemble), who went to sing to her, saw her through the + door, which was left open, crouching on a floor covered with + mattresses, on her hands and knees, the only posture she could + bear,--whilst she with the patience of an angel was enduring her + long agony, her husband, engrossed by her, left this lad of + seventeen to his sister and the governess. It was a dull life, and + he ran away. Mr. Noel (my friend's brother, from whom he had the + story) knew most of the youth, who had been for a long time staying + at his house, and they begged him to undertake the search. Lord + Ockham had sent a carpet-bag containing his gentleman's clothes to + his father, Lord Lovelace, in London; he was therefore disguised, + and from certain things he had said Mr. Noel suspected that he + intended to go to America. Accordingly he went first to Bristol, + then to Liverpool, leaving his description, a sort of written + portrait of him, with the police at both places. At Liverpool he was + found before long, and when Mr. Noel, summoned by the electric + telegraph, reached that town, he found him dressed as a sailor-boy + at a low public-house, surrounded by seamen of both nations, and + enjoying, as much as possible, their sailor yarns. He had given his + money, £36, to the landlord to keep; had desired him to inquire for + a ship where he might be received as cabin-boy; and had entered into + a shrewd bargain for his board, stipulating that he should have over + and above his ordinary rations a pint of beer with his Sunday + dinner. The landlord did not cheat him, but he postponed all + engagements under the expectation--seeing that he was clearly a + gentleman's son--that money would be offered for his recovery. The + worst is that he (Lord Ockham) showed no regret for the sorrow and + disgrace that he had brought upon his family at such a time. He has + two tastes not often seen combined,--the love of money and of low + company. One wonders how he will turn out. He is now in Paris, after + which he is to re-enter in Green's ship (he had served in one + before) for a twelvemonth, and to leave the service or remain in it + as he may decide then. This is perfectly true; Mr. Noel had it from + his brother the very day before he wrote it to me. He says that Lady + Lovelace's funeral was too ostentatious. Escutcheons and silver + coronals everywhere. Lord Lovelace's taste that, and not Lady + Byron's, which is perfectly simple. You know that she was buried in + the same vault with her father, whose coffin and the box containing + his heart were in perfect preservation. Scott's only grandson, too, + is just dead of sheer debauchery. Strange! As if one generation paid + in vice and folly for the genius of the past. By the way, are you + not charmed at the Emperor's marriage? To restore to princes honest + love and healthy preference, instead of the conventional + intermarriages which have brought epilepsy and idiotism and madness + into half the royal families of Christendom! And then the beauty of + that speech, with its fine appeals to the best sympathies of our + common nature! I am proud of him. What a sad, sad catastrophe was + that of young Pierce! I won't call his father general, and I hope he + will leave it off. With us it is a real offence to give any man a + higher rank than belongs to him,--to say captain, for instance, to a + lieutenant,--and that is one of our usages which it would be well to + copy. But we have follies enough, God knows; that duchess address, + with all its tuft-hunting signatures, is a thing to make + Englishwomen ashamed. Well, they caught it deservedly in an address + from American women, written probably by some very clever American + man. No, I have not seen Longfellow's lines on the Duke. One gets + sick of the very name. Henry is exceedingly fond of his little + sister. I remember that when he first saw the snow fall in large + flakes, he would have it that it was a shower of white feathers. + Love to all my dear friends, the W----s, Mrs. Sparks, Dr. Holmes, + Mr. Hawthorne. Ever, dearest friend, most affectionately yours, + + M.R.M. + + (1st March, 1853.) + + The numbers for the election of President of France in favor of + Louis Napoleon were for against 7119791 1119 + + Look through the back of this against the candle, or the fire, or + any light. + + My Very Dear Friend: Having a note to send to Mrs. Sparks, who has + sent me, or rather whose husband has sent me, two answers to Lord + Mahon, which, coming through a country bookseller, have, I suspect, + been some months on the way, I cannot help sending it enclosed to + you, that I may have a chat with you _en passant_,--the last, I + hope, before your arrival. If you have not seen the above curious + instance of figures forming into a word, and that word into a + prophecy, I think it will amuse you, and I want besides to tell you + some of the _on-dits_ about the Empress. A Mr. Huddlestone, the head + of one of our great Catholic houses, is in despair at the marriage. + He had been desperately in love with her for two years in + Spain,--had followed her to Paris,--was called back to England by + his father's illness, and was on the point of crossing the Channel, + after that father's death, to lay himself and £30,000 or £40,000 a + year at her feet, when the Emperor stepped in and carried off the + prize. To comfort himself he has got a portrait of her on horseback, + which a friend of mine saw the other day at his house. Mrs. Browning + writes me from Florence: "I wonder if the Empress pleases you as + well as the Emperor. For my part, I approve altogether, and none the + less that he has offended Austria by the mode of announcement. Every + cut of the whip on the face of Austria is an especial compliment to + me, or so I feel it. Let him heed the democracy, and do his duty to + the world, and use to the utmost his great opportunities. Mr. Cobden + and the peace societies are pleasing me infinitely just now in + making head against the immorality--that's the word--of the English + press. The tone taken up towards France is immoral in the highest + degree, and the invasion cry would be idiotic if it were not + something worse. The Empress, I heard the other day from high + authority, is charming and good at heart. She was brought up at a + respectable school at Clifton, and is very English, which does not + prevent her from shooting with pistols, leaping gates, driving four + in hand, and upsetting the carriage if the frolic requires it,--as + brave as a lion and as true as a dog. Her complexion is like marble, + white, pale, and pure,--the hair light, rather sandy, they say, and + she powders it with gold dust for effect; but there is less physical + and more intellectual beauty than is generally attributed to her. + She is a woman of very decided opinions. I like all that, don't you? + and I like her letter to the press, as everybody must." Besides + this, I have to-day a letter from a friend in Paris, who says that + "everybody feels her charm," and that "the Emperor, when presenting + her at the balcony on the wedding-day, looked radiant with + happiness." My Parisian friend says that young Alexandre Dumas is + amongst the people arrested for libel,--a thorough _mauvais sujet_. + Lamartine is quite ruined, and forced to sell his estates. He was + always, I believe, expensive, like all those French _littérateurs_. + You don't happen to have in Boston--have you?--a copy of "Les + Mémoires de Lally Tollendal"? I think they are different + publications in defence of his father, published, some in London + during the Emigration, some in Paris after the Restoration. What I + want is an account of the retreat from Pondicherie. I'll tell you + why some day here. Mrs. Browning is most curious about your + rappings,--of which I suppose you believe as much as I do of the + Cock Lane Ghost, whose doings, by the way, they much resemble. + + I liked Mrs. Tyler's letter; at least I liked it much better than + the one to which it was an answer, although I hold it one of our + best female privileges to have no act or part in such matters. + + Now you will be sorry to have a very bad account of me. Three weeks + ago frost and snow set in here, and ever since I have been unable to + rise or stand, or put one foot before another, and the pain is much + worse than at first. I suppose rheumatism has supervened upon the + injured nerve. God bless you. Love to all. + + Ever faithfully yours, M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, March 17, 1853 + + My Dear Friend: I cannot enough thank you for your most kind and + charming letter. Your letters, and the thoughts of you, and the hope + that you will coax your partners into the hazardous experiment of + letting you come to England, help to console me under this long + confinement; for here I am at near Easter still a close prisoner + from the consequences of the accident that took place before + Christmas. I have only once left my room, and that only to the + opposite chamber to have this cleaned, and I got such a chill that + it brought back all the pain and increased all the weakness. But + when fine weather--warm, genial, sunny weather--comes, I will get + down in some way or other, and trust myself to that which never + hurts any one, the honest open air. Spring, and even the approach of + spring, has upon me something the effect that England has upon you. + It sets me dreaming,--I see leafy hedges in my dreams, and flowery + banks, and then I long to make the vision a reality. I remember that + Fanchon's father, Flush, who was a famous sporting dog, used, at the + approach of the covering season, to quest in his sleep, doubtless by + the same instinct that works in me. So, as soon as the sun tells the + same story with the primroses I shall make a descent after some + fashion, and no doubt, aided by Sam's stalwart arm, successfully. In + the mean while I have one great pleasure in store, be the weather + what it may; for next Saturday or the Saturday after I shall see + dear Mr. Bennoch. We have not met since November, although he has + written to me again and again. He will take this letter, and I + trouble you with a note to kind Mrs. Sparks, who is about to send + me, or rather who has sent me, some American cracknels, which have + not yet arrived. To-day, too, I had a charming letter from + Lasswade,--not _the_ letter, the pamphlet one, but one full of + kindness from father and daughter, written by Miss Margaret to ask + after me with a reality of interest which one feels at once. It gave + me pleasure in another way too; Mr. De Quincey is of my faith and + delight in the Emperor! Is not that delightful? Also he holds in + great abomination that blackest of iniquities ----, my heresy as to + which nearly cost me an idolator t'other day, a lady from Essex, who + came here to take a house in my neighborhood to be near me. She was + so shocked that, if we had not met afterwards, when I regained my + ground a little by certain congenialities she certainly would have + abjured me forever. Well! no offence to Mrs. ----. I had rather in a + literary question agree with Thomas De Quincey than with her and + Queen Victoria, who, always fond of strong not to say coarse + excitements, is amongst ----'s warm admirers. I knew you would like + the Emperor's marriage. I heard last week from a stiff English lady, + who had been visiting one of the Empress's ladies of honor, that one + day at St. Cloud she shot thirteen brace of partridges; "but," added + the narrator, "she is so sweet and charming a creature that any man + might fall in love with her notwithstanding." To be sure Mr. + Thackeray liked you. How could he help it? Did not he also like Dr. + Holmes? I hope so. How glad I should be to see him in England, and + how glad I shall be to see Mr. Hawthorne! He will find all the best + judges of English writing admiring him to his heart's content, + warmly and discriminatingly; and a consulship in a bustling town + will give him the cheerful reality, the healthy air of every-day + life, which is his only want. Will you tell all these dear friends, + especially Mr. and Mrs. W----, how deeply I feel their affectionate + sympathy, and thank Mr. Whittier and Professor Longfellow over and + over again for their kind condolence? Tell Mr. Whittier how much I + shall prize his book. He has an earnest admirer in Buckingham + Palace, Marianne Skerrett, known as the Queen's Miss Skerrett, the + lady chiefly about her, and the only one to whom she talks of books. + Miss Skerrett is herself a very clever woman, and holds Mr. Whittier + to be not only the greatest, but the _one_ poet of America; which + last assertion the poet himself would, I suspect, be the very first + to deny. Your promise of Dr. Parsons's poem is very delightful to + me. I hold firm to my admiration of those stanzas on Webster. + Nothing written on the Duke came within miles of it, and I have no + doubt that the poem on Dante's bust is equally fine.... Mr. Justice + Talfourd has just printed a new tragedy. He sent it to me from + Oxford, not from Reading, where he had passed four days and never + gave a copy to any mortal, and told me, in a very affectionate + letter which accompanied it, that "it was at present a very private + sin, he having only given eight or ten copies in all." I suppose + that it will be published, for I observe that the "not published" is + written, not printed, and that Moxon's name is on the title-page. It + is called "The Castilian,"--is on the story of a revolt headed by + Don John de Padilla in the early part of Charles the Fifth's reign, + and is more like Ion than either of his other tragedies. I have just + been reading a most interesting little book in manuscript, called + "The Heart of Montrose." It is a versification in three ballads of a + very striking letter in Napier's "Life and Times of Montrose," by + the young lady who calls herself Mary Maynard. It is really a little + book that ought to make a noise, not too long, full of grace and of + interest, and she has adhered to the true story with excellent + taste, that story being a very remarkable union of the romantic and + the domestic. I am afraid that my other young poet, ----, is dying + of consumption; those fine spirits often fall in that way. I have + just corrected my book for a cheaper edition. Mr. Bentley is very + urgent for a second series, and I suppose I must try. I shall get + you to write for me to Mr. Hector Bossange when you come, for come + you must. My eyes begin to feel the effects of this long confinement + to one smoky and dusty room. + + So far had I written, dearest friend, when this day (March 26) + brought me your most kind and welcome letter enclosed in another + from dear Mr. Bennoch. Am I to return Dr. Parsons's? or shall I + keep it till you come to fetch it? Tell the writer how very much I + prize his kindness, none the less that he likes (as I do) my + tragedies, that is, one of them, the best of my poor doings. The + lines on the Duchess are capital, and quite what she deserves; but I + think those the worst who, in so true a spirit of what Carlyle would + call flunkeyism, consent to sign any nonsense that their names may + figure side by side with that of a duchess, and they themselves find + (for once) an admittance to the gilded saloons of Stafford House. + For my part, I well-nigh lost an admirer the other day by taking a + common-sense view of the question. A lady (whose name I never heard + till a week ago) came here to take a house to be near me. (N.B. + There was none to be had.) Well, she was so provoked to find that I + had stopped short of the one hundredth page of ----, and never + intended to read another, that I do think, if we had not discovered + some sympathies to counterbalance that grand difference--As I live, + I have told you that story before! Ah! I am sixty-six, and I get + older every day! So does little Henry, who is at home just now, and + longing to put the clock forward that he may go to America. He is a + boy of great promise, full of sound sense, and as good as good can + be. I suppose that he never in his life told an untruth, or broke a + promise, or disobeyed a command. He is very fond of his little + sister; and not at all jealous either--to the great praise of that + four-footed lady be it said--is Fanchon, who watches over the + cradle, and is as fond of the baby in her way as Henry in his. + + So far from paying me copyright money, all that I ever received from + Mr. B---- was two copies of his edition of "Our Village," one of + which I gave away, and of the other some chance visitor has taken + one of the volumes. I really do think I shall ask him for a copy or + two. How can I ever thank you enough for your infinite kindness in + sending me books! Thank you again and again. Dear Mr. Bennoch has + been making an admirable speech, in moving to present the thanks of + the city to Mr. Layard. How one likes to feel proud of one's + friends! God bless you! + + Ever most faithfully yours, M.R.M. + + Kind Mrs. Sparks's biscuits arrived quite safe. How droll some of + the cookery is in "The Wide, Wide World"! It would try English + stomachs by its over-richness. I wonder you are not all dead, if + such be your _cuisine_. + + Swallowfield, May 3, 1853. + + How shall I thank you enough, dear and kind friend, for the copy of + ---- that arrived here yesterday! Very like; only it wanted what + that great painter, the sun, will never arrive at giving, the actual + look of life which is the one great charm of the human countenance. + Strange that the very source of light should fail in giving that + light of the face, the smile. However, all that can be given by that + branch of art has been given. I never before saw so good a + photographic portrait, and for one that gives more I must wait until + John Lucas, or some American John Lucas, shall coax you into + sitting. I sent you, ten days ago, a batch of notes, and a most + unworthy letter of thanks for one of your parcels of gift-books; and + I write the rather now to tell you I am better than then, and hope + to be in a still better plight before July or August, when a most + welcome letter from Mr. Tuckerman has bidden us to expect you to + officiate as Master of the Ceremonies to Mr. Hawthorne, who, welcome + for himself, will be trebly welcome for such an introducer. + + Now let me say how much I like De Quincey's new volumes. The "Wreck + of a Household" shows great power of narrative, if he would but take + the trouble to be right as to details; the least and lowest part of + the art, that of interesting you in his people, he has. And those + "Last Days of Kant," how affecting they are, and how thoroughly in + every line and in every thought, agree with him or not, (and in all + that relates to Napoleon I differ from him, as in his overestimate + of Wordsworth and of Coleridge), one always feels how thoroughly and + completely he is a gentleman as well as a great writer; and so much + has _that_ to do with my admiration, that I have come to tracing + personal character in books almost as a test of literary merit: + Charles Boner's "Chamois-Hunting," for instance, owes a great part + of its charm to the resolute truth of the writer, and a great + drawback from the attraction of "My Novel" seems to me to be derived + from the _blasé_ feeling, the unclean mind from whence it springs, + felt most when trying after moralities. + + Amongst your bounties I was much amused with the New York magazines, + the curious turning up of a new claimant to the + Louis-the-Seventeenth pretension amongst the Red Indians, and the + rappings and pencil-writings of the new Spiritualists. One should + wonder most at the believers in these two branches of faith, if that + particular class did not always seem to be provided most abundantly + whenever a demand occurs. Only think of Mrs. Browning giving the + most unlimited credence to every "rapping" story which anybody can + tell her! Did I tell you that the work on which she is engaged is a + fictitious autobiography in blank verse, the heroine a woman artist + (I suppose singer or actress), and the tone intensely modern? You + will see that "Colombe's Birthday" has been brought out at the + Haymarket. Mr. Chorley (Robert Browning's most intimate friend) + writes me word that Mrs. Martin (Helen Faucit, at whose persuasion + it was acted) told him that it had gone off "better than she + expected." Have you seen Alexander Smith's book, which is all the + rage just now? I saw some extracts from his poems a year and a half + ago, and the whole book is like a quantity of extracts put together + without any sort of connection, a mass of powerful metaphor with + scarce any lattice-work for the honeysuckles to climb upon. Keats + was too much like this; but then Keats was the first. Now this book, + admitting its merit in a certain way, is but the imitation of a + school, and, in my mind, a bad school. One such poem as that on the + bust of Dante is worth a whole wilderness of these new writers, the + very best of them. Certainly nothing better than those two pages + ever crossed the Atlantic. + + God bless you, dear friend. Say everything for me to dear Mr. and + Mrs. W----, to Dr. Holmes, to Dr. Parsons, to Mr. Whittier, (how + powerful his new volume is!) to Mr. Stoddard, to Mrs. Sparks, to all + my friends. + + Ever most affectionately yours, M.R.M. + + I am writing on the 8th of May, but where is the May of the poets? + Half the morning yesterday it snowed, at night there was ice as + thick as a shilling, and to-day it is absolutely as cold as + Christmas. Of course the leaves refuse to unfold, the nightingales + can hardly be said to sing, even the hateful cuckoo holds his peace. + I am hoping to see dear Mr. Bennoch soon to supply some glow and + warmth. + + Swallowfield, June 4, 1853. + + I write at once, dearest friend, to acknowledge your most kind and + welcome letter. I am better than when I wrote last, and get out + almost every day for a very slow and quiet drive round our lovely + lanes; far more lovely than last year, since the foliage is quite as + thick again, and all the flowery trees, aloes, laburnums, + horse-chestnuts, acacias, honeysuckles, azalias, rhododendrons, + hawthorns, are one mass of blossoms,--literally the leaves are + hardly visible, so that the color, whenever we come upon park, + shrubbery, or plantation, is such as should be seen to be imagined. + In my long life I never knew such a season of flowers; so the wet + winter and the cold spring have their compensation. I get out in + this way with Sam and K---- and the baby, and it gives me exquisite + pleasure, and if you were here the pleasure would be multiplied a + thousand fold by your society; but I do not gain strength in the + least. Attempting to do a little more and take some young people to + the gates of Whiteknights, which, without my presence, would be + closed, proved too far and too rapid a movement, and for two days I + could not stir for excessive soreness all over the body. I am still + lifted down stairs step by step, and it is an operation of such time + (it takes half an hour to get me down that one flight of cottage + stairs), such pain, such fatigue, and such difficulty, that, unless + to get out in the pony-chaise, I do not attempt to leave my room. I + am still lifted into bed, and can neither turn nor move in any way + when there, am wheeled from the stairs to the pony-carriage, cannot + walk three steps, can hardly stand a moment, and in rising from my + chair am sometimes ten minutes, often longer. So you see that I am + very, very feeble and infirm. Still I feel sound at heart and clear + in head, am quite as cheerful as ever, and, except that I get very + much sooner exhausted, enjoy society as much as ever, so you must + come if only to make me well. I do verily believe your coming would + do me more good than anything. + + I was much interested by your account of the poor English stage + coachman. Ah, these are bad days for stage coachmen on both sides + the Atlantic! Do you remember his name? and do you know whether he + drove between London and Reading, or between Reading and + Basingstoke?--a most useless branch railroad between the two latter + places, constructed by the Great Western simply out of spite to the + Southwestern, which I am happy to state has never yet paid its daily + expenses, to say nothing of the cost of construction, and has taken + everything off our road, which before abounded in coaches, carriers, + and conveyances of all sorts. The vile railway does us no earthly + good, we being above four miles from the nearest station, and you + may imagine how much inconvenience the absence of stated + communication with a market town causes to our small family, + especially now that I can neither spare Sam nor the pony to go + twelve miles. You must come to England and come often to see me, + just to prove that there is any good whatever in railways,--a fact I + am often inclined to doubt. + + I shall send this letter to be forwarded to Mr. Bennett, and desire + him to write to you himself. He is, as you say, an "excellent + youth," although it is very generous in me to say so, for I do + believe that you came to see me since he has been. Dear Mr. Bennoch, + with all his multifarious business, has been again and again. God + bless him! ...To return to Mr Bennett. He has been engaged in a + grand battle with the trustees of an old charity school, + principally the vicar. His two brothers helped in the fight. They + won a notable victory. They were quite right in the matter in + dispute and the "excellent youth" came out well in various letters. + His opponent, the vicar, was Senior Wrangler at our Cambridge, the + very highest University honor in England, and tutor to the present + Lord Grey. + + By the way, Mr. ---- wrote to me the other day to ask that I would + let him be here when Mr. Hawthorne comes to see me. I only answered + this request by asking whether he did not intend to come to see _me_ + before that time, for certainly he might come to visit an old + friend, especially a sick one, for her own sake, and not merely to + meet a notability, and I am by no means sure that Mr. Hawthorne + might not prefer to come alone or with dear Mr. Bennoch; at all + events it ought to be left to _his_ choice, and besides I have not + lost the hope of your being the introducer of the great romancer, + and then how little should I want anybody to come between us. Begin + as they may, all my paragraphs slide into that refrain of Pray, pray + come! + + I have written to you about other kindnesses since that note full of + hopes, but I do not think that I did write to thank you for dear Dr. + Holmes's "Lecture on English Poetesses," or rather the analysis of a + lecture which sins only by over-gallantry. Ah, there is a difference + between the sexes, and the difference is the reverse way to that in + which he puts it! Tell him I sent his charming stanzas on Moore to a + leading member of the Irish committee for raising a monument to his + memory, and that they were received with enthusiasm by the Irish + friends of the poet. I have sent them to many persons in England + worthy to be so honored, and the very cleverest woman whom I have + ever known (Miss Goldsmid) wrote to me only yesterday to thank me + for sending her that exquisite poem, adding, "I think the stanza 'If + on his cheek, etc.,' contains one of the most beautiful similes to + be found in the whole domain of poetry." I also told Mrs. Browning + what dear Dr. Holmes said of her. The American poets whom she + prefers are Lowell and Emerson. Now I know something of Lowell and + of Emerson, but I hold that those lines on Dante's bust are amongst + the finest ever written in the language, whether by American or + Englishman; don't you? And what a grand Dead March is the poem on + Webster! ...Also Mrs. Browning believes in spirit-rapping + stories,--all,--and tells me that Robert Owen has been converted by + them to a belief in a future state. Everybody everywhere is turning + tables. The young Russells, who are surcharged with electricity, set + them spinning in ten minutes. In general, you know, it is usual to + take off all articles of metal. They, the other night, took a fancy + to remove their rings and bracelets, and, having done so, the table, + which had paused for a moment, began whirling again as fast as ever + the contrary way. This is a fact, and a curious one. + + I have lent three volumes of your "De Quincey" to my young friend, + James Payn, a poet of very high promise, who has verified the Green + story, and taken the books with him to the Lakes. God grant, my dear + friend, that you may not lose by "Our Village"; that is what I care + for. + + Ever faithfully yours, M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, June 23, 1853. + + Ah, my very dear friend, we shall not see you this summer, I am + sure. For the first time I clearly perceive the obstacle, and I feel + that unless some chance should detain Mr. Ticknor, we must give up + the great happiness of seeing you till next year. I wonder whether + your poor old friend will be alive to greet you then! Well, that is + as God pleases; in the mean time be assured that you have been one + of the chief comforts and blessings of these latter years of my + life, not only in your own friendship and your thousand kindnesses, + but in the kindness and friendship of dear Mr. Bennoch, which, in + the first instance, I mainly owe to you. I am in somewhat better + trim, although the getting out of doors and into the pony-carriage, + from which Mr. May hoped such great things, has hardly answered his + expectations. I am not stronger, and I am so nervous that I can only + bear to be driven, or more ignominiously still to be led, at a + foot's pace through the lanes. I am still unable to stand or walk, + unless supported by Sam's strong hands lifting me up on each side, + still obliged to be lifted into bed, and unable to turn or move when + there, the worst grievance of all. However, I am in as good spirits + as ever, and just at this moment most comfortably seated under the + acacia-tree at the corner of my house,--the beautiful acacia + literally loaded with its snowy chains (the flowering trees this + summer, lilacs, laburnums, rhododendrons, azalias, have been one + mass of blossoms, and none are so graceful as this waving acacia); + on one side a syringa, smelling and looking like an orange-tree; a + jar of roses on the table before me,--fresh-gathered roses, the + pride of Sam's heart; and little Fanchon at my feet, too idle to eat + the biscuits with which I am trying to tempt her,--biscuits from + Boston, sent to me by Mrs. Sparks, whose kindness is really + indefatigable, and which Fanchon ought to like upon that principle + if upon no other, but you know her laziness of old, and she + improves in it every day. Well that is a picture of the Swallowfield + cottage at this moment, and I wish that you and the Bennochs and the + W----s and Mr. Whipple were here to add to its life and comfort. You + must come next year and come in May, that you and dear Mr. Bennoch + may hear the nightingales together. He has never heard them, and + this year they have been faint and feeble (as indeed they were last) + compared with their usual song. Now they are over, and although I + expect him next week, it will be too late. + + Precious fooling that has been at Stafford House! And our ---- who + delights in strong, not to say worse, emotions, whose chief pleasure + it was to see the lions fed in Van Amburgh's time, who went seven + times to see the Ghost in the "Corsican Brothers," and has every + sort of natural curiosity (not to say wonder) brought to her at + Buckingham Palace, was in a state of exceeding misery because she + could not, consistently with her amicable relations with the United + States, receive Mrs. ---- there. (Ah! our dear Emperor has better + taste. Heaven bless him!) From Lord Shaftesbury one looks for + unmitigated cant, but I did expect better things of Lord Carlisle. + How many names that both you and I know went there merely because + the owner of the house was a fashionable Duchess,--the Wilmers + ("though they are my friends"), the P----s and ----! For my part, I + have never read beyond the first one hundred pages, and have a + certain malicious pleasure in so saying. Let me add that almost all + the clever men whom I have seen are of the same faction; they took + up the book and laid it down again. Do you ever reprint French + books, or ever get them translated? By very far the most delightful + work that I have read for many years is Sainte-Beuve's "Causeries du + Lundi," or his weekly feuilletons in the "Constitutionnel." I am + sure they would sell if there be any taste for French literature. It + is so curious, so various, so healthy, so catholic in its biography + and criticism; but it must be well done by some one who writes good + English prose and knows well the literary history of France. Don't + trust women; they, especially the authoresses, are as ignorant as + dirt. Just as I had got to this point, Mr. Willmot came to spend the + evening, and very singularly consulted me about undertaking a series + of English Portraits Littéraires, like Sainte-Beuve's former works. + He will do it well, and I commended him to the charming "Causeries," + and advised him to make that a weekly article, as no doubt he could. + It would only tell the better for the wide diffusion. He does, you + know, the best criticism of The Times. I have most charming letters + from Dr. Parsons and dear Mr. Whittier. His cordiality is + delightful. God bless you. + + Ever yours, M.R.M. + + (No date.) + + Never, my dear friend, did I expect to like so well a man who came + in your place, as I do like Mr. Ticknor. He is an admirable person, + very like his cousin in mind and manners, unmistakably good. It is + delightful to hear him talk of you, and to feel that the sort of + elder brotherhood which a senior partner must exercise in a firm is + in such hands. He was very kind to little Harry, and Harry likes him + _next_ to you. You know he had been stanch in resisting all the + advances of dear Mr ----, who had asked him if he would not come to + him, to which he had responded by a sturdy "no!" He (Mr. Ticknor) + came here on Saturday with the dear Bennochs (N.B. I love him better + than ever), and the Kingsleys met him. Mr. Hawthorne was to have + come, but could not leave Liverpool so soon, so that is a pleasure + to come. He will tell you that all is arranged for printing with + Colburn's successors, Hurst and Blackett, two separate works, the + plays and dramatic scenes forming one, the stories to be headed by a + long tale, of which I have always had the idea in my head, to form + almost a novel. God grant me strength to do myself and my publishers + justice in that story! This whole affair springs from the fancy + which Mr. Bennoch has taken to have the plays printed in a collected + form during my lifetime, for I had always felt that they would be so + printed after my death, so that their coming out now seems to me a + sort of anachronism. The one certain pleasure that I shall derive + from this arrangement will be, having my name and yours joined + together in the American edition, for we reserve the early sheets. + Nothing ever vexed me so much as the other book not being in your + hands. That was Mr. ----'s fault, for, stiff as Bentley is, Mr. + Bennoch would have managed him..... Of a certainty my first strong + interest in American poetry sprang from dear Dr. Holmes's exquisite + little piece of scenery painting, which he delivered where his + father had been educated. You sent me that, and thus made the + friendship between Dr. Holmes and me; and now you are yourself--you, + my dearest American friend--delivering an address at the greatest + American University. It is a great honor, and one.... + + I suppose Mr. Ticknor tells you the book-news? The most striking + work for years is "Haydon's Life." I hope you have reprinted it, for + it is sure, not only of a run, but of a durable success. You know + that the family wanted me to edit the book. I shrank from a task + that required so much knowledge which could only be possessed by one + living in the artist world _now_, to know who was dead and who + alive, and Mr. Tom Taylor has done it admirably. I read the book + twice over, so profound was my interest in it. In his early days, I + used to be a sort of safety-valve to that ardent spirit most like + Benvenuto Cellini both in pen and tongue and person. Our dear Mr. + Bennoch was the providence of his later years. They tell me that + that powerful work has entirely stopped the sale of Moore's Life, + which, all tinsel and tawdry rags, might have been written by a + court newsman or a court milliner. I wonder whether they will print + the other six volumes; for the four out they have given Mrs. Moore + three thousand pounds. A bad account Mr. Tupper gives of ----. Fancy + his conceit! When Mr. Tupper praised a passage in one of his poems, + he said, "If I had known you liked it, I would have omitted that + passage in my new edition," and he has done so by passages praised + by persons of taste, cut them out bodily and left the sentences + before and after to join themselves how they could. What a bad + figure your President and Mr. ---- cut at the opening of your + Exhibition! I am sorry for ----, for, although he has quite + forgotten me since his aunt's book came out, he once stayed three + weeks with us, and I liked him. Well, so many of his countrymen are + over-good to me, that I may well forgive one solitary instance of + forgetfulness! Make my love to all my dear friends at Boston and + Cambridge. Tell Mrs. Sparks how dearly I should have liked to have + been at her side on _the_ Thursday. Tell Dr. Holmes that his kind + approbation of Rienzi is one of my encouragements in this new + edition. I had a long talk about him with Mr. Ticknor, and rejoice + to find him so young. Thank Mr. Whipple again and again for his + kindness. + + Ever yours, M.R.M. + + (No date.) + + My Very Dear Friend: Mr. Hillard (whom I shall be delighted to see + if he come to England and will let me know when he can get + here)--Mr. Hillard has just put into verse my own feelings about + you. It is the one comfort belonging to the hard work of these _two_ + books (for besides the Dramatic Works in two thick volumes, there + are prose stories in two also, and I have one long tale, almost a + novel, to write),--it is the one comfort of this labor that _I_ + shall see our names together on one page. I have just finished a + long gossiping preface of thirty or forty pages to the Dramatic + Works, which is much more an autobiography than the Recollections, + and which I have tried to make as amusing as if it were ill-natured. + _That_ work is dedicated to our dear Mr. Bennoch, another + consolation. I sent the dedication to dear Mr. Ticknor, but as his + letter of adieu did not reach me till two or three days after it was + written, and I am not quite sure that I recollected the number in + Paternoster Row, I shall send it to you here. "To Francis Bennoch, + Esq., who blends in his life great public services with the most + genial private hospitality; who, munificent patron of poet and of + painter, is the first to recognize every talent except his own, + content to be beloved where others claim to be admired; to him, + equally valued as companion and as friend, these volumes are most + respectfully and affectionately inscribed by the author." I write + from memory, but if this be not it, it is very like it, (and I beg + you to believe that my preface is a little better English than this + agglomeration of "its.") + + Mr. Kingsley says that Alfred Tennyson says that Alexander Smith's + poems show fancy, but not imagination; and on my repeating this to + Mrs. Browning, she said it was exactly her impression. For my part I + am struck by the extravagance and the total want of finish and of + constructive power, and I am in hopes that ultimately good will come + out of evil, for Mr. Kingsley has written, he tells me, a paper + called "Alexander Pope and Alexander Smith," and Mr. Willmott, the + powerful critic of The Times, takes the same view, he tells me, and + will doubtless put it into print some day or other, so that the + carrying this bad school to excess will work for good. By the way, + Mr. ----, whose Imogen is so beautiful, sent me the other day a + terrible wild affair in that style, and I wrote him a frank letter, + which my sincere admiration for what he does well gives me some + right to do. He has in him the making of a great poet; but, if he + once take to these obscurities, he is lost. I hope I have not + offended him, for I think it is a real talent, and I feel the + strongest interest in him. My young friend, James Payn, went a + fortnight or three weeks ago to Lasswade and spent an evening with + Mr. De Quincey. He speaks of him just as you do, marvellously fine + in point of conversation, looking like an old beggar, but with the + manners of a prince, "if," adds James Payn, "we may understand by + that all that is intelligent and courteous and charming." (I suppose + he means such manners as our Emperor's.) He began by saying that his + life was a mere misery to him from nerves, and that he could only + render it endurable by a semi-inebriation with opium. (I always + thought he had not left opium off.).... On his return, James Payn + again visited Harriet Martineau, who talked frankly about _the_ + book, exculpating Mr. Atkinson and taking all the blame to herself. + She asked if I had read it, and on finding that I had not, said, "It + was better so." There are fine points about Harriet Martineau. Mrs. + Browning is positively crazy about the spirit-rappings. She believes + every story, European or American, and says our Emperor consults the + mediums, which I disbelieve. + + The above was written yesterday. To-day has brought me a charming + letter from Miss De Quincey. She has been very ill, but is now back + at Lasswade, and longing most earnestly to persuade her father to + return to Grasmere. Will she succeed? She sends me a charming + message from a brother Francis, a young physician settled in India. + She says that her sister told her her father was in bad spirits when + talking to Mr. Payn, which perhaps accounts for his confessing to + the continuing the opium-eating. + + Mr. ---- brought me some proofs of his new volume of poems. I think + that if he will take pains he will be a real poet. But it is so + difficult to get young men to believe that correcting and + re-correcting is necessary, and he is a most charming person, and so + gets spoiled. I spoil him myself, God forgive me! although I advise + him to the best of my power. No signs of Mr. Hawthorne yet! Heaven + bless you, my dear friend. + + Ever faithfully yours, M.R.M. + + October, 1853. + + My Very Dear Friend: I cannot thank you enough for the two charming + books which you have sent me. I enclose a letter for the author of + this very remarkable book of Italian travel, and I have written to + dear Mr. Hawthorne myself. + + Since I wrote to you, dear Mr. Bennoch sent to me to look out what + letters I could find of poor Haydon's. I was half killed by the + operation, all my sins came upon me; for, lulling my conscience by + carelessness about bills and receipts, and by answering almost every + letter the day it comes, I am in other respects utterly careless, + and my great mass of correspondence goes where fate and K---- + decree. We had five great chests and boxes, two huge hampers, + fifteen or sixteen baskets, and more drawers than you would believe + the house could hold, to look over, and at last disinterred + sixty-five. I did not dare read them for fear of the dust, but I + have no doubt they will be most valuable, for his letters were + matchless for talent and spirit. I hope you have reprinted the Life; + if so, of course you will publish the Correspondence. By the way, + it is a curious specimen of the little care our highest people have + for poetry of the ---- school, that Vice-Chancellor Wood, one of the + most accomplished men whom I have ever known, a bosom friend of + Macaulay, was with me last week, and had never heard of Alexander + Smith. + + I continue terribly lame, and with no chance of amendment till the + spring, when you will come and do me good. Besides the lameness, I + am also miserably feeble, ten years older than when you saw me last. + I am working as well as I can, but very slowly. I send you a proof + of the Preface to the Dramatic Works (not knowing whether they have + sent you the sheets, or when they mean to bring it out). The few who + have seen this Introduction like it. It tells the truth about myself + and says no ill of other people. God bless you, dear friend. Say + everything for me to all friends, not forgetting Mr. Ticknor. + + Ever yours, M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, November 8, 1853. + + My Very Dear Friend; Your letters are always delightful to me, even + when they are dated Boston; think what they will be when they are + dated London. In my last I sent you a very rough proof of my Preface + (I think Mr. Hurst means to call it Introduction), which you will + find autobiographical to your heart's content; I hope you will like + it. To-day I enclose the first rough draft of an account of my first + impression of Haydon. Don't print it, please, because I suppose they + mean it for a part of the Correspondence when it shall be published. + I looked out for those sixty-five long letters of Haydon's,--as + long, perhaps, each, as half a dozen of mine to you,--and doubtless + I have many more, but I was almost blinded by the dust in hunting up + those, my eyes having been very tender since I was shut up in a + smoky room for twenty-two weeks last winter. I find now that Messrs. + Longman have postponed the publication of the Correspondence in the + fear that it would injure the sale of the Memoirs, the book having + had a great success here. By the enclosed, which is as true and as + like as I could make it, you will see that he was a very brilliant + and charming person. I believe that next to having been heart-broken + by the committee and the heartlessness of his pupil ----, and + enraged by the passion for that miserable little wretch, Tom Thumb, + that the real cause of his suicide was to get his family provided + for. It succeeded. By one way and another they had £440 a year + between the four; but although the poor father never complained, + you will see by his book what a selfish wretch that ---- was..... + + My tragedies are printed, and the dramatic scenes, forming, with the + preface, two volumes of above four hundred pages each. But I don't + think they are to come out till the prose work, and that is not a + quarter finished. I am always a most slow and laborious writer (that + Preface was written three times over throughout, and many parts of + it five or six), and of course my ill health does not improve my + powers of composition. This wet summer and autumn have been terribly + against me. I am lamer even than when Mr. Ticknor saw me, and + sometimes cannot even dip the pen in the ink without holding it in + my left hand. Thank God my head is spared, and my heart is, I think, + as young as ever. + + I had a letter to-day from Mr. Chorley; he has been staying all the + autumn with Sir William Molesworth, now a Cabinet Minister, but he + complains terribly about his own health, notwithstanding he has a + play coming out at the Olympic, which Mr. Wigan has taken. Mrs. + Kingsley, a most sweet person, has a cough which has forced them to + send her to the sea. You shall be sure to see both him and Mr. + Willmott if I can compass it; but we live, each of us, seven miles + apart, and these country clergymen are so tied to their parish that + they are difficult to catch. However, they both come to see me + whenever they can, and we must contrive it. You will like both in + different ways. Mr. Willmott is one of the most agreeable men in the + world, and Mr. Kingsley is charming. I have another dear friend, not + an author, whom I prefer to either,--Hugh Pearson. He made for + himself a collection of De Quincey, when a lad at Oxford. You would + like him, I think, better than anybody; but he too is a country + clergyman, living eight miles off. Poor Mr. Norton! His letters were + charming. He is connected in my mind with Mrs. Hemans, too, to whom + he was so kind. You must say everything for me to dear Mrs. Sparks. + I seem most ungrateful to her, but I really have little power of + writing letters just now. Did I tell you that Mr. ---- sent me a + poem called ----, which I am very sorry that he ever wrote. It has + shocked Mr. Bennoch even more than it did me. You must get him to + write more poems like ----. A young friend of mine has brought out a + little volume in which there is striking evidence of talent; but + none of these young writers take pains. How very pretty is that + scrap on a country church! Mrs. Browning is at Florence, but is + going to Rome. She says that your countryman, Mr. Story, has made a + charming statuette, I think of Beethoven, or else of Mendelssohn, + which ought to make his reputation. She is crazy about mediums. She + says (but I have not heard it elsewhere) that Thackeray and Dickens + are to winter at Rome, and Alfred Tennyson at Florence. Mrs. + Trollope has quite recovered, and receives as usual. How full of + beauty Mr. Hillard's book is! thank him for it again and again. Did + I tell you that they are going to engrave a portrait of me by + Haydon, now belonging to Mr. Bennoch, for the Dramatic Works? God + bless you, my very dear friend. Say everything for me to Mr. Ticknor + and Dr. Holmes and Dr. Parsons, and all my friends in Boston. Little + Henry grows a very sensible, intelligent boy, and is a great + favorite at his school. He is getting on with French. + + Once more, ever yours, M.R.M. + + +1854. + + (January, 1854.) + + My Beloved Friend: They who correspond with sick people must be + content to receive such letters as are sent from hospitals. For many + weeks I have been wholly shut up in my own room, getting with + exceeding difficulty from the bed to the fireside, quite unable to + stir either in the chair or in the bed, but much less miserable up + than when in bed. The terrible cold of last summer did not allow me + to gain any strength, so that although the fire in my room is kept + up night and day, yet a severe attack of influenza came on and would + have carried me off, had not Mr. May been so much alarmed at the + state of the pulse and the general feebleness as to order me two + tablespoonfuls of champagne in water once a day, and a teaspoonful + of brandy also in water, at night, which undoubtedly saved my life. + It is the only good argument for what is called teetotalism that it + keeps more admirable medicines as medicine; for undoubtedly a + wine-drinker, however moderate, would not have been brought round by + the remedy which did me so much good. Miserably feeble I still am, + and shall continue till May or June (if it please God to spare my + life till then), when, if it be fine weather, Sam will lift me down + stairs and into the pony-chaise, and I may get stronger. Well, in + the midst of the terrible cough, which did not allow me to lie down + in bed, and a weakness difficult to describe, I finished "Atherton." + I did it against orders and against warning, because I had an + impression that I should not live to complete it, and I sent it + yesterday to London to dear Mr. Bennoch, so I suppose you will soon + receive the sheets. Almost every line has been written three times + over, and it is certainly the most cheerful and sunshiny story that + was ever composed in such a state of helplessness, feebleness, and + suffering; for the rheumatic pain in the chest not only rendered the + cough terrible (that, thank God, is nearly gone now), but makes the + position of writing one of misery. God grant you may like this + story! I shall at least say in the Preface that it will give me one + pleasure, that of having in the American title-page the names of + dear friends united with mine. Mind I don't know whether the story + be good or bad. I only answer for its having the youthfulness which + you liked in the preface to the plays. Well, dearest friend, just + when I was at the worst came your letter about the ducks and the + ducks themselves. Never were birds so welcome. My friend, Mr. May, + the cleverest and most admirable person whom I know in this + neighborhood, refuses all fees of any sort, and comes twelve miles + to see me, when torn to pieces by all the great folk round, from + pure friendship. Think how glad I was to have such a dainty to offer + him just when he had all his family gathered about him at Christmas. + I thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me this great + pleasure, infinitely greater than eating it myself would have been. + They were delicious. How very, very good you are to me! + + Has Mrs. Craig written to you to tell you of her marriage? I will + run the risk of repetition and tell you that it is the charming + Margaret De Quincey, who has married the son of a Scotch neighbor. + He has purchased land in Ireland, and they are about to live in + Tipperary,--a district which Irish people tell me is losing its + reputation for being the most disturbed in Ireland, but keeping that + for superior fertility. They are trying to regain a reputation for + literature in Edinburgh. John Ruskin has been giving a series of + lectures on art there, and Mr. Kingsley four lectures on the schools + of Alexandria. + + Nothing out of Parliament has for very long made so strong a + sensation as our dear Mr. Bennoch's evidence on the London + Corporation. Three leading articles in The Times paid him the + highest compliments, and you know what that implies. I have myself + had several letters congratulating me on having such a friend. Ah! + the public qualities make but a part of that fine and genial + character, although I firmly believe that the strength is essential + to the tenderness. I always put you and him together, and it is one + of the compensations of my old age to have acquired such friends. + + Have you seen Matthew Arnold's poems? They have fine bits. The + author is a son of Dr. Arnold. + + God bless you! Say everything for me to my dear American friends, + Drs. Holmes and Parsons, Mr. Longfellow, Mr. Whittier, Mrs. Sparks, + Mr. Taylor, Mr. Whipple, Mr. and Mrs. Willard, and Mr. Ticknor. + Many, very many happy years to them and to you. + + Always most affectionately yours, M.R.M. + + P.S. I enclose some slips to be pasted into books for my different + American friends. If I have sent too many, you will know which to + omit. I must add to the American preface a line expressive of my + pleasure in joining my name to yours. I will send one line here for + fear of its not going. Mr. May says that those ducks were amongst + the few things thoroughly deserving their reputation, holding the + same place, as compared with our wild ducks, that the finest venison + does to common mutton. I cannot tell you how much I thank you for + enabling me to send such a treat to such a friend. You will send a + copy of the prose book or the dramas, according to your own + pleasure, only I should like the two dear doctors to have the plays. + + Swallowfield, January 23, 1854. + + I have always to thank you for some kindness, dearest Mr. Fields, + generally for many. How clever those magazines are, especially Mr. + Lowell's article, and Mr. Bayard Taylor's graceful stanzas! Just now + I have to ask you to forward the enclosed to Mr. Whittier. He sent + me a charming poem on Burns, full of tenderness and humanity, and + the indulgence which the wise and good can so well afford, and which + only the wisest and best can show to their erring brethren. I + rejoice to hear that he is getting well again. I myself am weaker + and more helpless every day, and the rheumatic pain in the chest + increases so rapidly, and makes writing so difficult, even the + writing such a note as this, that I cannot be thankful enough for + having finished "Atherton," for I am sure I could not write it now. + There is some chance of my getting better in the summer, if I can be + got into the air, and that must be by being let down in a chair + through a trap-door, like so much railway luggage, for there is not + the slightest power of helping myself left in me,--nothing, indeed, + but the good spirits which Shakespeare gave to Horatio, and Hamlet + envied him. Dearest Mr. Bennoch has made me a superb present,--two + portraits of our Emperor and his fair wife. He all intellect,--never + was a brow so full of thought; she all sweetness,--such a mouth was + never seen, it seems waiting to smile. The beauty is rather of + expression than of feature, which is exactly what it ought to be.... + + M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, May 2, 1854. + + My Dear Friend: Long before this time, you will, I hope, have + received the sheets of "Atherton." It has met with an enthusiastic + reception from the English press, and certainly the friends who have + written to me on the subject seem to prefer the tale which fills the + first volume to anything that I have done. I hope you will like + it,--I am sure you will not detect in it the gloom of a + sick-chamber. Mr. May holds out hopes that the summer may do me + good. As yet the spring has been most unfavorable to invalids, being + one combined series of east-wind, so that instead of getting better + I am every day weaker than the last, unable to see more than one + person a day, and quite exhausted by half an hour's conversation. I + hope to be a little better before your arrival, dearest friend, + because I must see you; but any stranger--even Mr. Hawthorne--is + quite out of the question. + + You may imagine how kind dear Mr. Bennoch has been all through this + long trial, next after John Ruskin and his admirable father the + kindest of all my friends, and that is saying much. + + God bless you. Love to all my friends, poets, prosers, and the dear + ----, who are that most excellent thing, readers. I wonder if you + ever received a list of people to whom to send one or other of my + works? I wrote such with little words in my own hand, but writing is + so painful and difficult, and I am always so uncertain of your + getting my letters, that I cannot attempt to send another. There was + one for Mrs. Sparks. I am sure of liking Dr. Parsons's book,--quite + sure. Once again, God bless you! Little Henry grows a nice boy. + + Ever most affectionately yours, M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, July 12, 1854. + + Dearest Mr. Fields: Our excellent friend Mr. Bennoch will have told + you from how painful a state of anxiety your most welcome letter + relieved us. You have done quite right, my beloved friend, in + returning to Boston. The voyage, always so trying to you, would, + with your health so deranged, have been most dangerous, and next + year you will find all your friends, except one, as happy to see and + to welcome you. Even if you had arrived now our meeting would have + been limited to minutes. Dr. Parsons will tell you that fresh + feebleness in a person so long tried and so aged (sixty-seven) must + have a speedy termination. May Heaven prolong your valuable life, + dear friend, and grant that you may be as happy yourself as you have + always tried to render others! + + I rejoice to hear what you tell me of "Atherton." Here the + reception has been most warm and cordial. Every page of it was + written three times over, so that I spared no pains, but I was + nearly killed by the terrible haste in which it was finished, and I + do believe that many of the sheets were sent to me without ever + being read in the office. I have corrected one copy for the third + English edition, but I cannot undertake such an effort again, so, if + (as I venture to believe) it be destined to be often reprinted by + you, you must correct it from _that_ edition. I hope you sent a copy + to Mr. Whittier from me. I had hoped you would bring one to Mr. + Hawthorne and Mr. De Quincey, but I must try what I can do with Mr. + Hurst, and must depend on you for assuring these valued friends that + it was not neglect or ingratitude on my part. + + Mr. Boner, my dear and valued friend, wishes you and dear Mr. + Ticknor to print his "Chamois-Hunting" from a second edition which + Chapman and Hall are bringing out. I sent my copy of the work to Mr. + Bennoch when we were expecting you, that you might see it. It is a + really excellent book, full of interest, with admirable plates, + which you could have, and, speaking in your interest, as much as in + his, I firmly believe that it would answer to you in money as well + as in credit to bring it out in America. Also Mrs. Browning (while + in Italy) wrote to me to inquire if you would like to bring out a + new poem by her, and a new work by her husband. I told her that I + could not doubt it, but that she had better write duplicate letters + to London and to Boston. Our poor little boy is here for his + holidays. His excellent mother and step-father have nursed me rather + as if they had been my children than my servants. Everybody has been + most kind. The champagne, which I believe keeps me alive, is dear + Mr. Bennoch's present; but you will understand how ill I am when I + tell you that my breath is so much affected by the slightest + exertion that I cannot bear even to be lifted into bed, but have + spent the last eight nights sitting up, with my feet supported on a + leg-rest. This from exhaustion, not from disease of the lungs. + + Give the enclosed to Dr. Parsons. You know what I have always + thought of his genius. In my mind no poems ever crossed the Atlantic + which approached his stanzas on Dante and on the death of Webster, + and yet you have great poets too. Think how glad and proud I am to + hear of the honor he has done me. I wish you had transcribed the + verses. + + God bless you, my beloved friend! Say everything for me to all my + dear friends, to Dr. Parsons, to Dr. Holmes, to Mr. Whittier, to + Professor Longfellow, to Mr. Taylor, to Mr. Stoddard, to Mrs. + Sparks, and above all to the excellent Mr. Ticknor and the dear + W----s. + + Ever yours, M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, July 28, 1854. + + My Very Dear Friend: This is a sort of postscript to my last, + written instantly on the receipt of yours and sent through Mr. ----. + I hope you received it, for he is so impetuous that I always a + little doubt his care; at least it was when sent through him that + the loss of letters to and fro took place. However, I enjoined him + to be careful this time, and he assured me that he was so. + + The purport of this is to add the name of my friend, Mr. Willmott, + to the authors who wish for the advantage of your firm as their + American publishers. I have begged him to write to you himself, and + I hope he has done so, or that he will do so. But he is staying at + Richmond with sick relatives, and I am not sure. You know his works, + of course. They are becoming more and more popular in England, and + he is writing better and better. The best critical articles in The + Times are by him. He is eminently a scholar, and yet full of + anecdote of the most amusing sort, with a memory like Scott, and a + charming habit of applying his knowledge. His writings become more + and more like his talk, and I am confident that you would find his + works not only most creditable, but most profitable. I would not + recommend you to each other if it were not for your mutual + advantage, so far as my poor judgment goes. On the 25th my Dramatic + Works are to be published here. I hope they have sent you the + sheets. + + I have not heard yet from any American friend, except your + delightful letter and one from Grace Greenwood, but I hope I shall. + I prize the good word of such persons as Drs. Parsons and Holmes and + Professor Longfellow and John Whittier and many others. I am still + very ill. + + The Brownings remain this year in Italy. If it be very hot, they + will go for a month or two to the Baths of Lucca, but their home is + Florence. She has taken a fancy to an American female sculptor,--a + girl of twenty-two,--a pupil of Gibson's, who goes with the rest of + the fraternity of the studio to breakfast and dine at a _café_, and + yet keeps her character. Also she believes in all your rappings. + + God be with you, my very dear friend. I trust you are quite + recovered. + + Always affectionately yours, M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, August 21, 1854. + + My Dear Mr. Fields: Mr. Bayard Taylor having sent me a most + interesting letter, but no address, I trouble you with my reply. + Read it, and you will perhaps understand that I am declining day by + day, and that, humanly speaking, the end is very near. Perhaps there + may yet be time for an answer to this.... + + I believe that one reason for your not quite understanding my + illness is, that you, if you have seen long and great sickness at + all, which is doubtful, have seen it with an utter prostration of + the mind and the spirits,--that your women are languid and + querulous, and never dream of bearing up against bodily evils by an + effort of the mind. Even now, when half an hour's visit is utterly + forbidden, and half that time leaves me panting and exhausted, I + never mention (except forced into it by your evident disbelief) my + own illness either in speaking or writing,--never, except to answer + Mr. May's questions, or to join my beloved friend, Mr. Pearson, in + thanking God for the visitation which I humbly hope was sent in his + mercy to draw me nearer to him; may he grant me grace to use + it!--for the rest, whilst the intelligence and the sympathy are + vouchsafed to me, I will write of others, and give to my friends, as + far as in me lies, the thoughts which would hardly be more worthily + bestowed on my own miserable body. + + You will be sorry to find that the poor Talfourds are likely to be + very poor. A Reading attorney has run away, cheating half the town. + He has carried off £4,000 belonging to Lady Talfourd, and she + herself tells my friend, William Harness (one of her kindest + friends), that that formed the principal part of the Judge's small + savings, and, together with the sum for which he had insured his + life (only £5,000), was all which they had. Now there are five young + people,--his children,--the widow and an adopted niece, seven in + all, accustomed to every sort of luxury and indulgence. The only + glimpse of hope is, that the eldest son held a few briefs on circuit + and went through them creditably; but it takes many years in England + to win a barrister's reputation, and the poorer our young men are + the more sure they are to marry. Add the strange fact that since the + father's death (he having reserved his copyrights) not a single copy + of any of his books has been sold! A fortnight ago I had a great + fright respecting Miss Martineau, which still continues. James Payn, + who is living at the Lakes, and to whom she has been most kind, says + he fears she will be a great pecuniary sufferer by ----. I only hope + that it is a definite sum, and no general security or + partnership,--even that will be bad enough for a woman of her age, + and so hard a worker, who intended to give herself rest; but observe + these are only _fears_. I _know_ nothing. The Brownings are detained + in Italy, she tells me, for want of money, and cannot even get to + Lucca. This is my bad news,--O, and it is very bad that sweet Mrs. + Kingsley must stay two years in Devonshire and cannot come home. I + expect to see him this week. John Ruskin is with his father and + mother in Switzerland, constantly sending me tokens of friendship. + Everybody writes or sends or comes; never was such kindness. The + Bennochs are in Scotland. He sends me charming letters, having, I + believe, at last discovered what every one else has known long. + Remember me to Mr. Ticknor. Say everything to my Athenian friends + all, especially to Dr. Holmes and Dr. Parsons. + + Ever, dear friend, your affectionate M.R.M. + + September 26, 1854. + + My Very Dear Friend: Your most kind and interesting letter has just + arrived, with one from our good friend, Mr. Bennoch, announcing the + receipt of the £50 bill for "Atherton." More welcome even as a sign + of the prosperity of the book in a country where I have so many + friends and which I have always loved so well, than as money, + although in that way it is a far greater comfort than you probably + guess, this very long and very severe illness obliging me to keep a + third maid-servant. I get no sleep,--not on an average an hour a + night,--and require perpetual change of posture to prevent the skin + giving way still more than it does, and forming what we emphatically + call bed-sores, although I sit up night and day, and have no other + relief than the being, to a slight extent, shifted from one position + to another in the chair that I never quit. Besides this, there are + many other expenses. I tell you this, dear friend, that Mr. Ticknor + and yourself may have the satisfaction of knowing that, besides all + that you have done for many years for my gratification, you have + been of substantial use in this emergency. In spite of all this + illness, after being so entirely given over that dear Mr. Pearson, + leaving me a month ago to travel with Arthur Stanley for a month, + took a final leave of me, I have yet revived greatly during these + last three weeks. I owe this, under Providence, to my admirable + friend, Mr. May, who, instead of abandoning the stranded ship, as is + common in these cases, has continued, although six miles off, and + driving four pair of horses a day, ay, and while himself hopeless of + my case, to visit me constantly and to watch every symptom, and + exhaust every resource of his great art, as if his own fame and + fortune depended on the result. One kind but too sanguine friend, + Mr. Bennoch, is rather over-hopeful about this amendment, for I am + still in a state in which the slightest falling back would carry me + off, and in which I can hardly think it possible to weather the + winter. If that incredible contingency should arise, what a + happiness it would be to see you in April! But I must content myself + with the charming little portrait you have sent me, which is your + very self. Thank you for it over and over. Thank you, too, for the + batch of notices on "Atherton.".... + + Dr. Parsons's address is very fine, and makes me still more desire + to see his volume; and the letter from Dr. Holmes is charming, so + clear, so kind, and so good. If I had been a boy, I would have + followed their noble profession. Three such men as Mr. May, Dr. + Parsons, and Dr. Holmes are enough to confirm the predilection that + I have always had for the art of healing. + + I have no good news to tell you of dear Mr. K----. His sweet wife + (Mr. Ticknor will remember her) has been three times at death's door + since he saw her here, and must spend at least two winters more at + Torquay. But I don't believe that he could stay here even if she + were well. Bramshill has fallen into the hands of a Puseyite parson, + who, besides that craze, which is so flagrant as to have made dear + Mr. K---- forbid him his pulpit, is subject to fits of raving + madness,--one of those most dangerous lunatics whom an age (in which + there is a great deal of false humanity) never shuts up until some + terrible crime has been committed. (A celebrated mad-doctor said the + other day of this very man, that he had "homicidal madness.") You + may fancy what such a Squire, opposing him in every way, is to the + rector of the parish. Mr. K---- told me last winter that he was + driving him mad, and I am fully persuaded that he would make a large + sacrifice of income to exchange his parish. To make up for this, he + is working himself to death, and I greatly fear that his excess of + tobacco is almost equal to the opium of Mr. De Quincey. With his + temperament this is full of danger. He was only here for two or + three days to settle a new curate, but he walked over to see me, and + I will take care that he receives your message. His regard for me + is, I really believe, sincere and very warm. Remember that all this + is in strict confidence. The kindness that people show to me is + something surprising. I have not deserved it, but I receive it most + gratefully. It touches one's very heart. Will you say everything for + me to my many kind friends, too many to name? I had a kind letter + from Mrs. Sparks the other day. The poets I cling to while I can + hold a pen. God bless you. + + Ever yours, M.R.M. + + Can you contrive to send a copy of your edition of "Atherton" to Mr. + Hawthorne? Pray, dear friend, do if you can. + + October 12, 1854 + + My Very Dear Friend: I can hardly give you a greater proof of + affection, than in telling you that your letter of yesterday + affected me to tears, and that I thanked God for it last night in my + prayers; so much a mercy does it seem to me to be still beloved by + one whom I have always loved so much. I thank you a thousand times + for that letter and for the book. I enclose you my own letter to + dear Dr. Parsons. Read it before giving it to him. I could not help + being amused at his having appended my name to a poem in some sort + derogating from the fame of the only Frenchman who is worthy to be + named after the present great monarch. I hope I have not done wrong + in confessing my faith. Holding back an opinion is often as much a + falsehood as the actual untruth itself, and so I think it would be + here. Now we have the book, do you remember through whom you sent + the notices? If you do, let me know. You will see by my letter to + Dr. Parsons that ---- dined here yesterday, under K----'s auspices. + He invited himself for three days,--luckily I have Mr. Pearson to + take care of him,--and still more luckily I told him frankly + yesterday that three days would be too much, for I had nearly died + last night of fatigue and exhaustion and their consequences. + To-night I shall leave all to my charming friend. There is nobody + like John Ruskin for refinement and eloquence. You will be glad to + hear that he has asked me for a letter to dear Mr. Bennoch to help + him in his schools of Art,--I mean with advice. This will, I hope, + bring our dear friend out of the set he is in, and into that where I + wish to see him, for John Ruskin must always fill the very highest + position. God bless you all, dear friends! + + Ever most affectionately yours, M.R.M. + + Love to all my friends. + + You have given me a new motive for clinging to life by coming to + England in April. Till this pull-back yesterday, I was better, + although still afraid of being lifted into bed, and with small hope + of getting alive through the winter. God bless you! + + October 18, 1854. + + My Very Dear Friend: Another copy of dear Dr. Parsons's book has + arrived, with a charming, most charming letter from him, and a copy + of your edition of "Atherton." It is very nicely got up indeed, the + portrait the best of any engraving that has been made of me, at + least, any recent engraving. May I have a few copies of that + engraving when you come to England? And if I should be gone, will + you let poor K---- have one? The only thing I lament in the American + "Atherton" is that a passage that I wrote to add to that edition has + been omitted. It was to the purport of my having a peculiar pleasure + in the prospect of that reprint, because few things could be so + gratifying to me as to find my poor name conjoined with those of the + great and liberal publishers, for one of whom I entertain so much + respect and esteem, and for the other so true and so lively an + affection. The little sentence was better turned much, but that was + the meaning. No doubt it was in one of my many missing letters. I + even think I sent it twice,--I should greatly have liked that little + paragraph to be there. May I ask you to give the enclosed to dear + Dr. Parsons? There are noble lines in his book, which gains much by + being known. Dear John Ruskin was here when it arrived, and much + pleased with it on turning over the leaves, and he is the most + fastidious of men. I must give him the copy. His praise is indeed + worth having. I am as when I wrote last. God bless you, beloved + friend. + + Ever yours, M.R.M. + + December 23, 1854. + + Your dear affectionate letter, dearest and kindest friend, would + have given me unmingled pleasure had it conveyed a better account of + your business prospects. Here, from what I can gather, and from the + sure sign of all works of importance being postponed, the trade is + in a similar state of depression, caused, they say, by this war, + which but for the wretched imbecility of our ministers could never + have assumed so alarming an appearance. Whether we shall recover + from it, God only knows. My hope is in Louis Napoleon; but that + America will rally seems certain enough. She has elbow-room, and, + moreover, she is not unused to rapid transitions from high + prosperity to temporary difficulty, and so back again. Moreover, + dear friend, I have faith in you..... God bless you, my dear friend! + May he send to both of you health and happiness and length of days, + and so much of this world's goods as is needful to prevent anxiety + and insure comfort. I have known many rich people in my time, and + the result has convinced me that with great wealth some deep black + shadow is as sure to walk, as it is to follow the bright sunshine. + So I never pray for more than the blessed enough for those whom I + love best. + + And very dearly do I love my American friends,--you best of + all,--but all very dearly, as I have cause. Say this, please, to Dr. + Parsons and Dr. Holmes (admiring their poems is a sort of touchstone + of taste with me, and very, very many stand the test well) and dear + Bayard Taylor, a man soundest and sweetest the nearer one gets to + the kernel, and good, kind John Whittier, who has the fervor of the + poet ingrafted into the tough old Quaker stock, and Mr. Stoddard, + and Mrs. Lippincott, and Mrs. Sparks, and the Philadelphia Poetess, + and dear Mr. and Mrs. W----, and your capital critics and orators. + Remember me to all who think of me; but keep the choicest tenderness + for yourself and your wife. + + Do you know those books which pretend to have been written from one + hundred to two hundred years ago,--"Mary Powell" (Milton's + Courtship), "Cherry and Violet," and the rest? Their fault is that + they are too much alike. The authoress (a Miss Manning) sent me some + of them last winter, with some most interesting letters. Then for + many months I ceased to hear from her, but a few weeks ago she sent + me her new Christmas book,--"The Old Chelsea Bun House,"--and told + me she was dying of a frightful internal complaint. She suffers + martyrdom, but bears it like a saint, and her letters are better + than all the sermons in the world. May God grant me the same + cheerful submission! I try for it and pray that it be granted, but I + have none of the enthusiastic glow of devotion, so real and so + beautiful in Miss Manning. My faith is humble and lowly,--not that I + have the slightest doubt,--but I cannot get her rapturous assurance + of acceptance. My friend, William Harness, got me to employ our kind + little friend, Mr. ----, to procure for him Judge Edmonds's + "Spiritualism." What an odious book it is! there is neither respect + for the dead nor the living. Mrs. Browning believes it all; so does + Bulwer, who is surrounded by mediums who summon his dead daughter. + It is too frightful to talk about. Mr. May and Mr. Pearson both + asked me to send it away, for fear of its seizing upon my nerves. I + get weaker and weaker, and am become a mere skeleton. Ah, dear + friend, come when you may, you will find only a grave at + Swallowfield. Once again, God bless you and yours! + + Ever yours, M, R.M. + + "_BARRY CORNWALL_" +_And Some Of His Friends_. + + * * * * * + + "_All, all are gone, the old familiar faces_." + CHARLES LAMB. + + "_Old Acquaintance, shall the nights + You and I once talked together, + Be forgot like common things?_" + + * * * * * + + "_His thoughts half hid in golden dreams, + Which make thrice fair the songs and streams + Of Air and Earth_." + + * * * * * + + "_Song should breathe of scents and flowers; + Song should like a river flow; + Song should bring back scenes and hours + That we loved,--ah, long ago!_" + BARRY CORNWALL. + + + + +VII. "BARRY CORNWALL" AND SOME OF HIS FRIENDS. + +There is no portrait in my possession more satisfactory than the small +one of Barry Cornwall, made purposely for me in England, from life. It +is a thoroughly honest resemblance. + +I first saw the poet five-and-twenty years ago, in his own house in +London, at No. 13 Upper Harley Street, Cavendish Square. He was then +declining into the vale of years, but his mind was still vigorous and +young. My letter of introduction to him was written by Charles Sumner, +and it proved sufficient for the beginning of a friendship which existed +through a quarter of a century. My last interview with him occurred in +1869. I found him then quite feeble, but full of his old kindness and +geniality. His speech was somewhat difficult to follow, for he had been +slightly paralyzed not long before; but after listening to him for half +an hour, it was easy to understand nearly every word he uttered. He +spoke with warm feeling of Longfellow, who had been in London during +that season, and had called to see his venerable friend before +proceeding to the Continent. "Wasn't it good of him," said the old man, +in his tremulous voice, "to think of _me_ before he had been in town +twenty-four hours?" He also spoke of his dear companion, John Kenyon, at +whose house we had often met in years past, and he called to mind a +breakfast party there, saying with deep feeling, "And you and I are the +only ones now alive of all who came together that happy morning!" + +A few months ago,[*] at the great age of eighty-seven, Bryan Waller +Procter, familiarly and honorably known in English literature for sixty +years past as "Barry Cornwall," calmly "fell on sleep." The schoolmate +of Lord Byron and Sir Robert Peel at Harrow, the friend and companion of +Keats, Lamb, Shelley, Coleridge, Landor, Hunt, Talfourd, and Rogers, the +man to whom Thackeray "affectionately dedicated" his "Vanity Fair," one +of the kindest souls that ever gladdened earth, has now joined the great +majority of England's hallowed sons of song. No poet ever left behind +him more fragrant memories, and he will always be thought of as one whom +his contemporaries loved and honored. No harsh word will ever be spoken +by those who have known him of the author of "Marcian Colonna," +"Mirandola," "The Broken Heart," and those charming lyrics which rank +the poet among the first of his class. His songs will be sung so long as +music wedded to beautiful poetry is a requisition anywhere. His verses +have gone into the Book of Fame, and such pieces as "Touch us gently, +Time," "Send down thy winged Angel, God," "King Death," "The Sea," and +"Belshazzar is King," will long keep his memory green. Who that ever +came habitually into his presence can forget the tones of his voice, the +tenderness in his gray retrospective eyes, or the touch of his +sympathetic hand laid on the shoulder of a friend! The elements were +indeed so kindly mixed in him that no bitterness or rancor or jealousy +had part or lot in his composition. No distinguished person was ever +more ready to help forward the rising and as yet nameless literary man +or woman who asked his counsel and warm-hearted suffrage. His mere +presence was sunshine to a new-comer into the world of letters and +criticism, for he was always quick to encourage, and slow to disparage +anybody. Indeed, to be _human_ only entitled any one who came near him +to receive the gracious bounty of his goodness and courtesy. He made it +the happiness of his life never to miss, whenever opportunity occurred, +the chance of conferring pleasure and gladness on those who needed kind +words and substantial aid. + +[Footnote *: October, 1874.] + +His equals in literature venerated and loved him. Dickens and Thackeray +never ceased to regard him with the deepest feeling, and such men as +Browning and Tennyson and Carlyle and Forster rallied about him to the +last. He was the delight of all those interesting men and women who +habitually gathered around Rogers's famous table in the olden time, for +his manner had in it all the courtesy of genius, without any of that +chance asperity so common in some literary circles. The shyness of a +scholar brooded continually over him and made him reticent, but he was +never silent from ill-humor. His was that true modesty so excellent in +ability, and so rare in celebrities petted for a long time in society. +His was also that happy alchemy of mind which transmutes disagreeable +things into golden and ruby colors like the dawn. His temperament was +the exact reverse of Fuseli's, who complained that "_nature_ put him +out." A beautiful spirit has indeed passed away, and the name of "Barry +Cornwall," beloved in both hemispheres, is now sanctified afresh by the +seal of eternity so recently stamped upon it. + +It was indeed a privilege for a young American, on his first travels +abroad, to have "Barry Cornwall" for his host in London. As I recall the +memorable days and nights of that long-ago period, I wonder at the good +fortune which brought me into such relations with him, and I linger +with profound gratitude over his many acts of unmerited kindness. One of +the most intimate rambles I ever took with him was in 1851, when we +started one morning from a book-shop in Piccadilly, where we met +accidentally. I had been in London only a couple of days, and had not +yet called upon him for lack of time. Several years had elapsed since we +had met, but he began to talk as if we had parted only a few hours +before. At first I thought his mind was impaired by age, and that he had +forgotten how long it was since we had spoken together. I imagined it +possible that he mistook me for some one else; but very soon I found +that his memory was not at fault, for in a few minutes he began to +question me about old friends in America, and to ask for information +concerning the probable sea-sick horrors of an Atlantic voyage. "I +suppose," said he, "knowing your infirmity, you found it hard work to +stand on your immaterial legs, as Hood used to call Lamb's quivering +limbs." Sauntering out into the street, he went on in a quaintly +humorous way to imagine what a rough voyage must be to a real sufferer, +and thus walking gayly along, we came into Leadenhall Street. There he +pointed out the office where his old friend and fellow-magazinist, +"Elia," spent so many years of hard work from ten until four o'clock of +every day. Being in a mood for reminiscence, he described the Wednesday +evenings he used to spend with "Charles and Mary" and their friends +around the old "mahogany-tree" in Russell Street. I remember he tried to +give me an idea of how Lamb looked and dressed, and how he stood bending +forward to welcome his guests as they arrived in his humble lodgings. +Procter thought nothing unimportant that might serve in any way to +illustrate character, and so he seemed to wish that I might get an exact +idea of the charming person both of us prized so ardently and he had +known so intimately. Speaking of Lamb's habits, he said he had never +known his friend to drink immoderately except upon one occasion, and he +observed that "Elia," like Dickens, was a small and delicate eater. With +faltering voice he told me of Lamb's "givings away" to needy, +impoverished friends whose necessities were yet greater than his own. +His secret charities were constant and unfailing, and no one ever +suffered hunger when he was by. He could not endure to see a +fellow-creature in want if he had the means to feed him. Thinking, from +a depression of spirits which Procter in his young manhood was once +laboring under, that perhaps he was in want of money, Lamb looked him +earnestly in the face as they were walking one day in the country +together, and blurted out, in his stammering way, "My dear boy, I have a +hundred-pound note in my desk that I really don't know what to do with: +oblige me by taking it and getting the confounded thing out of my +keeping." "I was in no need of money," said Procter, "and I declined the +gift; but it was hard work to make Lamb believe that I was not in an +impecunious condition." + +Speaking of Lamb's sister Mary, Procter quoted Hazlitt's saying that +"Mary Lamb was the most rational and wisest woman he had ever been +acquainted with." As we went along some of the more retired streets in +the old city, we had also, I remember, much gossip about Coleridge and +his manner of reciting his poetry, especially when "Elia" happened to be +among the listeners, for the philosopher put a high estimate upon Lamb's +critical judgment. The author of "The Ancient Mariner" always had an +excuse for any bad habit to which he was himself addicted, and he told +Procter one day that perhaps snuff was the final cause of the human +nose. In connection with Coleridge we had much reminiscence of such +interesting persons as the Novellos, Martin Burney, Talfourd, and Crabb +Robinson, and a store of anecdotes in which Haydon, Manning, Dyer, and +Godwin figured at full length. In course of conversation I asked my +companion if he thought Lamb had ever been really in love, and he told +me interesting things of Hester Savory, a young Quaker girl of +Pentonville, who inspired the poem embalming the name of Hester forever, +and of Fanny Kelly, the actress with "the divine plain face," who will +always live in one of "Elia's" most exquisite essays. "He had a +_reverence_ for the sex," said Procter, "and there were tender spots in +his heart that time could never entirely cover up or conceal." + +During our walk we stepped into Christ's Hospital, and turned to the +page on its record book where together we read this entry: "October 9, +1782, Charles Lamb, aged seven years, son of John Lamb, scrivener, and +Elizabeth his wife." + +It was a lucky morning when I dropped in to bid "good morrow" to the +poet as I was passing his house one day, for it was then he took from +among his treasures and gave to me an autograph letter addressed to +himself by Charles Lamb in 1829. I found the dear old man alone and in +his library, sitting at his books, with the windows wide open, letting +in the spring odors. Quoting, as I entered, some lines from Wordsworth +embalming May mornings, he began to talk of the older poets who had +worshipped nature with the ardor of lovers, and his eyes lighted up with +pleasure when I happened to remember some almost forgotten stanza from +England's "Helicon." It was an easy transition from the old bards to +"Elia," and he soon went on in his fine enthusiastic way to relate +several anecdotes of his eccentric friend. As I rose to take leave he +said,-- + +"Have I ever given you one of Lamb's letters to carry home to America?" + +"No," I replied, "and you must not part with the least scrap of a note +in 'Elia's' handwriting. Such things are too precious to be risked on a +sea-voyage to another hemisphere." + +"America ought to share with England in these things," he rejoined; and +leading me up to a sort of cabinet in the library, he unlocked a drawer +and got out a package of time-stained papers. "Ah," said he, as he +turned over the golden leaves, "here is something you will like to +handle." I unfolded the sheet, and lo! it was in Keats's handwriting, +the sonnet on first looking into Chapman's Homer. "Keats gave it to me," +said Procter, "many, many years ago," and then he proceeded to read, in +tones tremulous with delight, these undying lines:-- + + "Much have I travelled in the realms of gold, + And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; + Round many Western islands have I been + Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. + Oft of one wide expanse had I been told + That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne; + Yet did I never breathe its pure serene + Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: + Then felt I like some watcher of the skies + When a new planet swims into his ken, + Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes + He stared at the Pacific--and all his men + Looked at each other with a wild surmise-- + Silent, upon a peak in Darien." + +I sat gazing at the man who had looked on Keats in the flush of his +young genius, and wondered at my good fortune. As the living poet folded +up again the faded manuscript of the illustrious dead one, and laid it +reverently in its place, I felt grateful for the honor thus vouchsafed +to a wandering stranger in a foreign land, and wished that other and +worthier votaries of English letters might have been present to share +with me the boon of such an interview. Presently my hospitable friend, +still rummaging among the past, drew out a letter, which was the one, +he said, he had been looking after. "Cram it into your pocket," he +cried, "for I hear ---- coming down stairs, and perhaps she won't let +you carry it off!" The letter is addressed to B.W. Procter, Esq., 10 +Lincoln's Inn, New Square. I give the entire epistle here just as it +stands in the original which Procter handed me that memorable May +morning. He told me that the law question raised in this epistle was a +sheer fabrication of Lamb's, gotten up by him to puzzle his young +correspondent, the conveyancer. The coolness referred to between himself +and Robinson and Talfourd, Procter said, was also a fiction invented by +Lamb to carry out his legal mystification. + + "_Jan'y_ 19, 1829. + + "My Dear Procter,--I am ashamed to have not taken the drift of your + pleasant letter, which I find to have been pure invention. But jokes + are not suspected in Boeotian Enfield. We are plain people, and our + talk is of corn, and cattle, and Waltham markets. Besides I was a + little out of sorts when I received it. The fact is, I am involved + in a case which has fretted me to death, and I have no reliance + except on you to extricate me. I am sure you will give me your best + legal advice, having no professional friend besides but Robinson and + Talfourd, with neither of whom at present I am on the best terms. My + brother's widow left a will, made during the lifetime of my brother, + in which I am named sole Executor, by which she bequeaths forty + acres of arable property, which it seems she held under Covert + Baron, unknown to my Brother, to the heirs of the body of Elizabeth + Dowden, her married daughter by her first husband, in fee simple, + recoverable by fine--invested property, mind, for there is the + difficulty--subject to leet and quit rent--in short, worded in the + most guarded terms, to shut out the property from Isaac Dowden the + husband. Intelligence has just come of the death of this person in + India, where he made a will, entailing this property (which seem'd + entangled enough already) to the heirs of his body, that should not + be born of his wife; for it seems by the Law in India natural + children can recover. They have put the cause into Exchequer Process + here, removed by Certiorari from the Native Courts, and the question + is whether I should as Executor, try the cause here, or again + re-remove to the Supreme Sessions at Bangalore, which I understand I + can, or plead a hearing before the Privy Council here. As it + involves all the little property of Elizabeth Dowden, I am anxious + to take the fittest steps, and what may be the least expensive. For + God's sake assist me, for the case is so embarrassed that it + deprives me of sleep and appetite. M. Burney thinks there is a Case + like it in Chapt. 170 Sect. 5 in Fearn's _Contingent Remainders_. + Pray read it over with him dispassionately, and let me have the + result. The complexity lies in the questionable power of the husband + to alienate in usum enfeoffments whereof he was only collaterally + seized, etc." + +[On the leaf at this place there are some words in another hand.--F.] + + "The above is some of M. Burney's memoranda, which he has left here, + and you may cut out and give him. I had another favour to beg, which + is the beggarliest of beggings. A few lines of verse for a young + friend's Album (six will be enough). M. Burney will tell you who she + is I want 'em for. A girl of gold. Six lines--make 'em eight--signed + Barry C----. They need not be very good, as I chiefly want 'em as a + foil to mine. But I shall be seriously obliged by any refuse scrap. + We are in the last ages of the world, when St. Paul prophesied that + women should be 'headstrong, lovers of their own wills, having + Albums.' I fled hither to escape the Albumean persecution, and had + not been in my new house 24 hours, when the Daughter of the next + house came in with a friend's Album to beg a contribution, and the + following day intimated she had one of her own. Two more have sprung + up since. If I take the wings of the morning and fly unto the + uttermost parts of the earth, there will Albums be. New Holland has + Albums. But the age is to be complied with. M.B. will tell you the + sort of girl I request the ten lines for. Somewhat of a pensive cast + what you admire. The lines may come before the Law question, as that + cannot be determined before Hilary Term, and I wish your deliberate + judgment on that. The other may be flimsy and superficial. And if + you have not burnt your returned letter pray re-send it me as a + monumental token of my stupidity. 'Twas a little unthinking of you + to touch upon a sore subject. Why, by dabbling in those accursed + Annuals I have become a by-word of infamy all over the kingdom. I + have sicken'd decent women for asking me to write in Albums. There + be 'dark jests' abroad, Master Cornwall, and some riddles may live + to be clear'd up. And 'tisn't every saddle is put on the right + steed. And forgeries and false Gospels are not peculiar to the age + following the Apostles. And some tubs don't stand on their right + bottom. Which is all I wish to say in these ticklish Times ---- and + so your servant, + + CHS. LAMB." + +At the age of seventy-seven Procter was invited to print his +recollections of Charles Lamb, and his volume was welcomed in both +hemispheres as a pleasant addition to "Eliana." During the last eighteen +years of Lamb's life Procter knew him most intimately, and his +chronicles of visits to the little gamboge-colored house in Enfield are +charming pencillings of memory. When Lamb and his sister, tired of +housekeeping, went into lodging and boarding with T---- W----, their +sometime next-door neighbor,--who, Lamb said, had one joke and forty +pounds a year, upon which he retired in a green old age,--Procter still +kept up his friendly visits to his old associate. And after the brother +and sister moved to their last earthly retreat in Edmonton, where +Charles died in 1834, Procter still paid them regular visits of love and +kindness. And after Charles's death, when Mary went to live at a house +in St. John's Wood, her unfailing friend kept up his cheering calls +there till she set out "for that unknown and silent shore," on the 20th +of May, in 1847. + +Procter's conversation was full of endless delight to his friends. His +"asides" were sometimes full of exquisite touches. I remember one +evening when Carlyle was present and rattling on against American +institutions, half comic and half serious, Procter, who sat near me, +kept up a constant underbreath of commentary, taking exactly the other +side. Carlyle was full of horse-play over the character of George +Washington, whom he never vouchsafed to call anything but George. He +said our first President was a good surveyor, and knew how to measure +timber, and that was about all. Procter kept whispering to me all the +while Carlyle was discoursing, and going over Washington's fine traits +to the disparagement of everything Carlyle was laying down as gospel. I +was listening to both these distinguished men at the same time, and it +was one of the most curious experiences in conversation I ever happened +to enjoy. + +I was once present when a loud-voiced person of quality, ignorant and +supercilious, was inveighing against the want of taste commonly +exhibited by artists when they chose their wives, saying they almost +always selected inferior women. Procter, sitting next to me, put his +hand on my shoulder, and, with a look expressive of ludicrous pity and +contempt for the idiotic speaker, whispered, "And yet Vandyck married +the daughter of Earl Gower, poor fellow!" The mock solemnity of +Procter's manner was irresistible. It had a wink in it that really +embodied the genius of fun and sarcasm. + +Talking of the ocean with him one day, he revealed this curious fact: +although he is the author of one of the most stirring and popular +sea-songs in the language,-- + + "The sea, the sea, the open sea!"-- + +he said he had rarely been upon the tossing element, having a great fear +of being made ill by it. I think he told me he had never dared to cross +the Channel even, and so had never seen Paris. He said, like many +others, he delighted to gaze upon the waters from a safe place on land, +but had a horror of living on it even for a few hours. I recalled to his +recollection his own lines,-- + + "I'm on the sea! I'm on the sea! + I am where I would ever be,"-- + +and he shook his head, and laughingly declared I must have misquoted his +words, or that Dibdin had written the piece and put "Barry Cornwall's" +signature to it. We had, I remember, a great deal of fun over the +poetical lies, as he called them, which bards in all ages had +perpetrated in their verse, and he told me some stories of English +poets, over which we made merry as we sat together in pleasant Cavendish +Square that summer evening. + +His world-renowned song of "The Sea" he afterward gave me in his own +handwriting, and it is still among my autographic treasures. + +It was Procter who first in my hearing, twenty-five years ago, put such +an estimate on the poetry of Robert Browning that I could not delay any +longer to make acquaintance with his writings. I remember to have been +startled at hearing the man who in his day had known so many poets +declare that Browning was the peer of any one who had written in this +century, and that, on the whole, his genius had not been excelled in his +(Procter's) time. "Mind what I say," insisted Procter; "Browning will +make an enduring name, and add another supremely great poet to England." + +Procter could sometimes be prompted into describing that brilliant set +of men and women who were in the habit of congregating at Lady +Blessington's, and I well recollect his description of young N.P. Willis +as he first appeared in her _salon_. "The young traveller came among +us," said Procter, "enthusiastic, handsome, and good-natured, and took +his place beside D'Orsay, Bulwer, Disraeli, and the other dandies as +naturally as if he had been for years a London man about town. He was +full of fresh talk concerning his own country, and we all admired his +cleverness in compassing so aptly all the little newnesses of the +situation. He was ready on all occasions, a little too ready, some of +the _habitués_ of the _salon_ thought, and they could not understand his +cool and quiet-at-home manners. He became a favorite at first trial, and +laid himself out determined to please and be pleased. His ever kind and +thoughtful attention to others won him troops of friends, and I never +can forget his unwearied goodness to a sick child of mine, with whom, +night after night, he would sit by the bedside and watch, thus relieving +the worn-out family in a way that was very tender and self-sacrificing." + +Of Lady Blessington's tact, kindness, and remarkable beauty Procter +always spoke with ardor, and abated nothing from the popular idea of +that fascinating person. He thought she had done more in her time to +institute good feeling and social intercourse among men of letters than +any other lady in England, and he gave her eminent credit for bringing +forward the rising talent of the metropolis without waiting to be +prompted by a public verdict. As the poet described her to me as she +moved through her exquisite apartments, surrounded by all the luxuries +that naturally connect themselves with one of her commanding position in +literature and art, her radiant and exceptional beauty of person, her +frank and cordial manners, the wit, wisdom, and grace of her speech, I +thought of the fair Giovanna of Naples as painted in "Bianca +Visconti":-- + + "Gods! what a light enveloped her! + .... Her beauty + Was of that order that the universe + Seemed governed by her motion..... + The pomp, the music, the bright sun in heaven, + Seemed glorious by her leave." + +One of the most agreeable men in London literary society during +Procter's time was the companionable and ever kind-hearted John Kenyon. +He was a man compacted of all the best qualities of an incomparable +good-nature. His friends used to call him "the apostle of cheerfulness." +He could not endure a long face under his roof, and declined to see the +dark side of anything. He wrote verses almost like a poet, but no one +surpassed him in genuine admiration for whatever was excellent in +others. No happiness was so great to him as the conferring of happiness +on others, and I am glad to write myself his eternal debtor for much of +my enjoyment in England, for he introduced me to many lifelong +friendships, and he inaugurated for me much of that felicity which +springs from intercourse with men and women whose books are the solace +of our lifelong existence. + +Kenyon was Mrs. Browning's cousin, and in 1856 she dedicates "Aurora +Leigh" to him in these affectionate terms:-- + + "The words 'cousin' and 'friend' are constantly recurring in this + poem, the last pages of which have been finished under the + hospitality of your roof, my own dearest cousin and friend;--cousin + and friend, in a sense of less equality and greater + disinterestedness than Romney's.... I venture to leave in your hands + this book, the most mature of my works, and the one into which my + highest convictions upon Life and Art have entered; that as, through + my various efforts in literature and steps in life, you have + believed in me, borne with me, and been generous to me, far beyond + the common uses of mere relationship or sympathy of mind, so you may + kindly accept, in sight of the public, this poor sign of esteem, + gratitude, and affection from your unforgetting + + "E.B.B." + +How often have I seen Kenyon and Procter chirping together over an old +quarto that had floated down from an early century, or rejoicing +together over a well-worn letter in a family portfolio of treasures! +They were a pair of veteran brothers, and there was never a flaw in +their long and loving intercourse. In a letter which Procter wrote to me +in March, 1857, he thus refers to his old friend, then lately dead: +"Everybody seems to be dying hereabouts,--one of my colleagues, one of +my relations, one of my servants, three of them in one week, the last +one in my own house. And now I seem fit for little else myself. My dear +old friend Kenyon is dead. There never was a man, take him for all in +all, with more amiable, attractive qualities. A kind friend, a good +master, a generous and judicious dispenser of his wealth, honorable, +sweet-tempered, and serene, and genial as a summer's day. It is true +that he has left me a solid mark of his friendship. I did not expect +anything; but if to like a man sincerely deserved such a mark of his +regard, I deserved it. I doubt if he has left one person who really +liked him more than I did. Yes, one--I think one--a woman.... I get old +and weak and stupid. That pleasant journey to Niagara, that dip into +your Indian summer, all such thoughts are over. I shall never see Italy; +I shall never see Paris. My future is before me,--a very limited +landscape, with scarcely one old friend left in it. I see a smallish +room, with a bow-window looking south, a bookcase full of books, three +or four drawings, and a library chair and table (once the property of my +old friend Kenyon--I am writing on the table now), and you have the +greater part of the vision before you. Is this the end of all things? I +believe it is pretty much like most scenes in the fifth act, when the +green (or black) curtain is about to drop and tell you that the play of +_Hamlet_ or of John Smith is over. But wait a little. There will be +another piece, in which John Smith the younger will figure, and quite +eclipse his old, stupid, wrinkled, useless, time-slaughtered parent. The +king is dead,--long live the king!" + +Kenyon was very fond of Americans, Professor Ticknor and Mr. George S. +Hillard being especially dear to him. I remember hearing him say one day +that the "best prepared" young foreigner he had ever met, who had come +to see Europe, was Mr. Hillard. One day at his dinner-table, in the +presence of Mrs. Jameson, Mr. and Mrs. Carlyle, Walter Savage Landor, +Mr. and Mrs. Robert Browning, and the Procters, I heard him declare that +one of the best talkers on any subject that might be started at the +social board was the author of "Six Months in Italy." It was at a +breakfast in Kenyon's house that I first met Walter Savage Landor, whose +writings are full of verbal legacies to posterity. As I entered the room +with Procter, Landor was in the midst of an eloquent harangue on the +high art of portraiture. Procter had been lately sitting to a +daguerreotypist for a picture, and Mrs. Jameson, who was very fond of +the poet, had arranged the camera for that occasion. Landor was holding +the picture in his hand, declaring that it had never been surpassed as a +specimen of that particular art. The grand-looking author of "Pericles +and Aspasia" was standing in the middle of the room when we entered, and +his voice sounded like an explosion of first-class artillery. Seeing +Procter enter, he immediately began to address him compliments in +high-sounding Latin. Poor modest Procter pretended to stop his ears that +he might not listen to Landor's eulogistic phrases. Kenyon came to the +rescue by declaring the breakfast had been waiting half an hour. When we +arrived at the table Landor asked Procter to join him on an expedition +into Spain which he was then contemplating. "No," said Procter, "for I +cannot even 'walk Spanish' and having never crossed the Channel, I do +not intend to begin now." + +"Never crossed the Channel!" roared Landor,--"never saw Napoleon +Bonaparte!" He then began to tell us how the young Corsican looked when +he first saw him, saying that he had the olive complexion and roundness +of face of a Greek girl; that the consul's voice was deep and melodious, +but untruthful in tone. While we were eating breakfast he went on to +describe his Italian travels in early youth, telling us that he once saw +Shelley and Byron meet in the doorway of a hotel in Pisa. Landor had +lived in Italy many years, for he detested the climate of his native +country, and used to say "one could only live comfortably in England who +was rich enough to have a solar system of his own." + +The Prince of Carpi said of Erasmus he was so thin-skinned that a fly +would draw blood from him. The author of the "Imaginary Conversations" +had the same infirmity. A very little thing would disturb him for hours, +and his friends were never sure of his equanimity. I was present once +when a blundering friend trod unwittingly on his favorite prejudice, and +Landor went off instanter like a blaspheming torpedo. There were three +things in the world which received no quarter at his hands, and when in +the slightest degree he scented _hypocrisy_, _pharisaism_, or _tyranny_, +straightway he became furious, and laid about him like a mad giant. + +Procter told me that when Landor got into a passion, his rage was +sometimes uncontrollable. The fiery spirit knew his weakness, but his +anger quite overmastered him in spite of himself. "Keep your temper, +Landor," somebody said to him one day when he was raging. "That is just +what I don't wish to keep," he cried; "I wish to be rid of such an +infamous, ungovernable thing. I don't wish to keep my temper." Whoever +wishes to get a good look at Landor will not seek for it alone in John +Forster's interesting life of the old man, admirable as it is, but will +turn to Dickens's "Bleak House" for side glances at the great author. In +that vivid story Dickens has made his friend Landor sit for the portrait +of Lawrence Boythorn. The very laugh that made the whole house vibrate, +the roundness and fulness of voice, the fury of superlatives, are all +given in Dickens's best manner, and no one who has ever seen Landor for +half an hour could possibly mistake Boythorn for anybody else. Talking +the matter over once with Dickens, he said, "Landor always took that +presentation of himself in hearty good-humor, and seemed rather proud of +the picture." This is Dickens's portrait: "He was not only a very +handsome old gentleman, upright and stalwart, with a massive gray head, +a fine composure of face when silent, a figure that might have become +corpulent but for his being so continually in earnest that he gave it no +rest, and a chin that might have subsided into a double chin but for the +vehement emphasis in which it was constantly required to assist; but he +was such a true gentleman in his manner, so chivalrously polite, his +face was lighted by a smile of so much sweetness and tenderness, and it +seemed so plain that he had nothing to hide, that really I could not +help looking at him with equal pleasure, whether he smilingly conversed +with Ada and me, or was led by Mr. Jarndyce into some great volley of +superlatives, or threw up his head like a bloodhound, and gave out that +tremendous Ha! ha! ha!" + +Landor's energetic gravity, when he was proposing some colossal +impossibility, the observant novelist would naturally seize on, for +Dickens was always on the lookout for exaggerations in human language +and conduct. It was at Procter's table I heard Dickens describe a scene +which transpired after the publication of the "Old Curiosity Shop." It +seems that the first idea of Little Nell occurred to Dickens when he was +on a birthday visit to Landor, then living in Bath. The old man was +residing in lodgings in St. James Square, in that city, and ever after +connected Little Nell with that particular spot. No character in prose +fiction was a greater favorite with Landor, and one day, years after the +story was published, he burst out with a tremendous emphasis, and +declared the one mistake of his life was that he had not purchased the +house in Bath, and then and there burned it to the ground, so that no +meaner association should ever desecrate the birthplace of Little Nell! + +It was Procter's old schoolmaster (Dr. Drury, headmaster of Harrow) who +was the means of introducing Edmund Kean, the great actor, on the London +stage. Procter delighted to recall the many theatrical triumphs of the +eccentric tragedian, and the memoir which he printed of Kean will always +be read with interest. I heard the poet one evening describe the player +most graphically as he appeared in Sir Giles Overreach in 1816 at Drury +Lane, when he produced such an effect on Lord Byron, who sat that night +in a stage-box with Tom Moore. His lordship was so overcome by Kean's +magnificent acting that he fell forward in a convulsive fit, and it was +some time before he regained his wonted composure. Douglas Jerrold said +that Kean's appearance in Shakespeare's Jew was like a chapter out of +Genesis, and all who have seen the incomparable actor speak of his +tiger-like power and infinite grace as unrivalled. + +At Procter's house the best of England's celebrated men and women +assembled, and it was a kind of enchantment to converse with the ladies +one met there. It was indeed a privilege to be received by the hostess +herself, for Mrs. Procter was not only sure to be the most brilliant +person among her guests, but she practised habitually that exquisite +courtesy toward all which renders even a stranger, unwonted to London +drawing-rooms, free from awkwardness and that constraint which are +almost inseparable from a first appearance. + +Among the persons T have seen at that house of urbanity in London I +distinctly recall old Mrs. Montague, the mother of Mrs. Procter. She had +met Robert Burns in Edinburgh when he first came up to that city to +bring out his volume of poems. "I have seen many a handsome man in my +time," said the old lady one day to us at dinner, "but never such a pair +of eyes as young Robbie Burns kept flashing from under his beautiful +brow." Mrs. Montague was much interested in Charles Sumner, and +predicted for him all the eminence of his after-position. With a certain +other American visitor she had no patience, and spoke of him to me as a +"note of interrogation, too curious to be comfortable." + +I distinctly recall Adelaide Procter as I first saw her on one of my +early visits to her father's house. She was a shy, bright girl, and the +poet drew my attention to her as she sat reading in a corner of the +library. Looking at the young maiden, intent on her book, I remembered +that exquisite sonnet in her father's volume, bearing date November, +1825, addressed to the infant just a month after her birth:-- + + Child of my heart! My sweet, beloved First-born! + Thou dove who tidings bring'st of calmer hours! + Thou rainbow who dost shine when all the showers + Are past or passing! Rose which hath no thorn, + No spot, no blemish,--pure and unforlorn, + Untouched, untainted! O my Flower of flowers! + More welcome than to bees are summer bowers, + To stranded seamen life-assuring morn! + Welcome, a thousand welcomes! Care, who clings + Round all, seems loosening now its serpent fold: + New hope springs upward; and the bright world seems + Cast back into a youth of endless springs! + Sweet mother, is it so? or grow I old, + Bewildered in divine Elysian dreams! + +I whispered in the poet's ear my admiration of the sonnet and the +beautiful subject of it as we sat looking at her absorbed in the volume +on her knees. Procter, in response, murmured some words expressive of +his joy at having such a gift from God to gladden his affectionate +heart, and he told me afterward what a comfort Adelaide had always been +to his household. He described to me a visit Wordsworth made to his +house one day, and how gentle the old man's aspect was when he looked at +the children. "He took the hand of my dear Adelaide in his," said +Procter, "and spoke some words to her, the recollection of which helped, +perhaps, with other things, to incline her to poetry." When a little +child "the golden-tressed Adelaide," as the poet calls her in one of +his songs, must often have heard her father read aloud his own poems as +they came fresh from the fount of song, and the impression no doubt +wrought upon her young imagination a spell she could not resist. On a +sensitive mind like hers such a piece as the "Petition to Time" could +not fail of producing its full effect, and no girl of her temperament +would be unmoved by the music of words like these:-- + + "Touch us gently, Time! + Let us glide adown thy stream + Gently, as we sometimes glide + Through a quiet dream. + Humble voyagers are we, + Husband, wife, and children three. + (One is lost, an angel, fled + To the azure overhead.) + + "Touch us gently, Time! + We've not proud nor soaring wings: + _Our_ ambition, _our_ content, + Lie in simple things. + Humble voyagers are we, + O'er Life's dim unsounded sea, + Seeking only some calm clime: + Touch us _gently_, gentle Time!" + +Adelaide Procter's name will always be sweet in the annals of English +poetry. Her place was assured from the time when she made her modest +advent, in 1853, in the columns of Dickens's "Household Words," and +everything she wrote from that period onward until she died gave +evidence of striking and peculiar talent. I have heard Dickens describe +how she first began to proffer contributions to his columns over a +feigned name, that of Miss Mary Berwick; how he came to think that his +unknown correspondent must be a governess; how, as time went on, he +learned to value his new contributor for her self-reliance and +punctuality,--qualities upon which Dickens always placed a high value; +how at last, going to dine one day with his old friends the Procters, he +launched enthusiastically out in praise of Mary Berwick (the writer +herself, Adelaide Procter, sitting at the table); and how the delighted +mother, being in the secret, revealed, with tears of joy, the real name +of the young aspirant. Although Dickens has told the whole story most +feelingly in an introduction to Miss Procter's "Legends and Lyrics," +issued after her death, to hear it from his own lips and sympathetic +heart, as I have done, was, as may be imagined, something better even +than reading his pathetic words on the printed page. + +One of the most interesting ladies in London literary society in the +period of which I am writing was Mrs. Jameson, the dear and honored +friend of Procter and his family. During many years of her later life +she stood in the relation of consoler to her sex in England. Women in +mental anguish needing consolation and counsel fled to her as to a +convent for protection and guidance. Her published writings established +such a claim upon her sympathy in the hearts of her readers that much of +her time for twenty years before she died was spent in helping others, +by correspondence and personal contact, to submit to the sorrows God had +cast upon them. She believed, with Milton, that it is miserable enough +to be blind, but still more miserable not to be able to bear blindness. +Her own earlier life had been darkened by griefs, and she knew from a +deep experience what it was to enter the cloud and stand waiting and +hoping in the shadows. In her instructive and delightful society I spent +many an hour twenty years ago in the houses of Procter and Rogers and +Kenyon. Procter, knowing my admiration of the Kemble family, frequently +led the conversation up to that regal line which included so many men +and women of genius. Mrs. Jameson was never weary of being questioned +as to the legitimate supremacy of Mrs. Siddons and her nieces, Fanny and +Adelaide Kemble. While Rogers talked of Garrick, and Procter of Kean, +she had no enthusiasms that were not bounded in by those fine spirits +whom she had watched and worshipped from her earliest years. + +Now and then in the garden of life we get that special bite out of the +sunny side of a peach. One of my own memorable experiences in that way +came in this wise. I had heard, long before I went abroad, so much of +the singing of the youngest child of the "Olympian dynasty," Adelaide +Kemble, so much of a brief career crowded with triumphs on the lyric +stage, that I longed, if it might be possible, to listen to the "true +daughter of her race." The rest of her family for years had been, as it +were, "nourished on Shakespeare," and achieved greatness in that high +walk of genius; but now came one who could interpret Mozart, Bellini, +and Mercadante, one who could equal what Pasta and Malibran and Persiani +and Grisi had taught the world to understand and worship. "Ah!" said a +friend, "if you could only hear _her_ sing 'Casta Diva'!" "Yes," said +another, "and 'Auld Robin Gray'!" No wonder, I thought, at the universal +enthusiasm for a vocal and lyrical artist who can alternate with equal +power from "Casta Diva" to "Auld Robin Gray." I _must_ hear her! She had +left the stage, after a brief glory upon it, but as Madame Sartoris she +sometimes sang at home to her guests. + +"We are invited to hear some music, this evening," said Procter to me +one day, "and you must go with us." I went, and our hostess was the once +magnificent _prima donna!_ At intervals throughout the evening, with a +voice + + "That crowds and hurries and precipitates + With thick fast warble its delicious notes," + +she poured out her full soul in melody. We all know her now as the +author of that exquisite "Week in a French Country-House," and her +fascinating book somehow always mingles itself in my memory with the +enchanted evening when I heard her sing. As she sat at the piano in all +her majestic beauty, I imagined her a sort of later St. Cecilia, and +could have wished for another Raphael to paint her worthily. Henry +Chorley, who was present on that memorable evening, seemed to be in a +kind of nervous rapture at hearing again the supreme and willing singer. +Procter moved away into a dim corner of the room, and held his tremulous +hand over his eyes. The old poet's sensitive spirit seemed at times to +be going out on the breath of the glorious artist who was thrilling us +all with her power. Mrs. Jameson bent forward to watch every motion of +her idol, looking applause at every noble passage. Another lady, whom I +did not know, was tremulous with excitement, and I could well imagine +what might have taken place when the "impassioned chantress" sang and +enacted Semiramide as I have heard it described. Every one present was +inspired by her fine mien, as well as by her transcendent voice. Mozart, +Rossini, Bellini, Cherubini,--how she flung herself that night, with all +her gifts, into their highest compositions! As she rose and was walking +away from the piano, after singing an air from the "Medea" with a pathos +that no musically uneducated pen like mine can or ought to attempt a +description of, some one intercepted her and whispered a request. Again +she turned, and walked toward the instrument like a queen among her +admiring court. A flash of lightning, followed by a peal of thunder that +jarred the house, stopped her for a moment on her way to the piano. A +sudden summer tempest was gathering, and crash after crash made it +impossible for her to begin. As she stood waiting for the "elemental +fury" to subside, her attitude was quite worthy of the niece of Mrs. +Siddons. When the thunder had grown less frequent, she threw back her +beautiful classic head and touched the keys. The air she had been called +upon to sing was so wild and weird, a dead silence fell upon the room, +and an influence as of terror pervaded the whole assembly. It was a song +by Dessauer, which he had composed for her voice, the words by Tennyson. +No one who was present that evening can forget how she broke the silence +with + + "We were two daughters of one race," + +or how she uttered the words, + + "The wind is roaring in turret and tree." + +It was like a scene in a great tragedy, and then I fully understood the +worship she had won as belonging only to those consummate artists who +have arisen to dignify and ennoble the lyric stage. As we left the house +Procter said, "You are in great luck to-night. I never heard her sing +more divinely." + +The Poet frequently spoke to me of the old days when he was contributing +to the "London Magazine," which fifty years ago was deservedly so +popular in Great Britain. All the "best talent" (to use a modern +advertisement phrase) wrote for it. Carlyle sent his papers on Schiller +to be printed in it; De Quincey's "Confessions of an English +Opium-Eater" appeared in its pages; and the essays of "Elia" came out +first in that potent periodical; Landor, Keats, and John Bowring +contributed to it; and to have printed a prose or poetical article in +the "London" entitled a man to be asked to dine out anywhere in society +in those days. In 1821 the proprietors began to give dinners in Waterloo +Place once a month to their contributors, who, after the cloth was +removed, were expected to talk over the prospects of the magazine, and +lay out the contents for next month. Procter described to me the +authors of his generation as they sat round the old "mahogany-tree" of +that period. "Very social and expansive hours they passed in that +pleasant room half a century ago. Thither came stalwart Allan +Cunningham, with his Scotch face shining with good-nature; Charles Lamb, +'a Diogenes with the heart of a St. John'; Hamilton Reynolds, whose good +temper and vivacity were like condiments at a feast; John Clare, the +peasant-poet, simple as a daisy; Tom Hood, young, silent, and grave, but +who nevertheless now and then shot out a pun that damaged the shaking +sides of the whole company; De Quincey, self-involved and courteous, +rolling out his periods with a pomp and splendor suited, perhaps, to a +high Roman festival; and with these sons of fame gathered certain +nameless folk whose contributions to the great 'London' are now under +the protection of that tremendous power which men call _Oblivion_." + +It was a vivid pleasure to hear Procter describe Edward Irving, the +eccentric preacher, who made such a deep impression on the spirit of his +time. He is now dislimned into space, but he was, according to all his +thoughtful contemporaries, a "son of thunder," a "giant force of +activity." Procter fully indorsed all that Carlyle has so nobly written +of the eloquent man who, dying at forty-two, has stamped his strong +personal vitality on the age in which he lived. + +Procter, in his younger days, was evidently much impressed by that +clever rascal who, under the name of "Janus Weathercock," scintillated +at intervals in the old "London Magazine." Wainwright--for that was his +real name--was so brilliant, he made friends for a time among many of +the first-class contributors to that once famous periodical; but the Ten +Commandments ruined all his prospects for life. A murderer, a forger, a +thief,--in short, a sinner in general,--he came to grief rather early +in his wicked career, and suffered penalties of the law accordingly, but +never to the full extent of his remarkable deserts. I have heard Procter +describe his personal appearance as he came sparkling into the room, +clad in undress military costume. His smart conversation deceived those +about him into the belief that he had been an officer in the dragoons, +that he had spent a large fortune, and now condescended to take a part +in periodical literature with the culture of a gentleman and the grace +of an amateur. How this vapid charlatan in a braided surtout and +prismatic necktie could so long veil his real character from, and retain +the regard of, such men as Procter and Talfourd and Coleridge is +amazing. Lamb calls him the "kind and light-hearted Janus," and thought +he liked him. The contributors often spoke of his guileless nature at +the festal monthly board of the magazine, and no one dreamed that this +gay and mock-smiling London cavalier was about to begin a career so foul +and monstrous that the annals of crime for centuries have no blacker +pages inscribed on them. To secure the means of luxurious living without +labor, and to pamper his dandy tastes, this lounging, lazy _littérateur_ +resolved to become a murderer on a large scale, and accompany his cruel +poisonings with forgeries whenever they were most convenient. His custom +for years was to effect policies of insurance on the lives of his +relations, and then at the proper time administer strychnine to his +victims. The heart sickens at the recital of his brutal crimes. On the +life of a beautiful young girl named Abercrombie this fiendish wretch +effected an insurance at various offices for £18,000 before he sent her +to her account with the rest of his poisoned too-confiding relatives. So +many heavily insured ladies dying in violent convulsions drew attention +to the gentleman who always called to collect the money. But why this +consummate criminal was not brought to justice and hung, my Lord Abinger +never satisfactorily divulged. At last this polished Sybarite, who +boasted that he always drank the richest Montepulciano, who could not +sit long in a room that was not garlanded with flowers, who said he felt +lonely in an apartment without a fine cast of the Venus de' Medici in +it,--this self-indulgent voluptuary at last committed several forgeries +on the Bank of England, and the Old Bailey sessions of July, 1837, +sentenced him to transportation for life. While he was lying in Newgate +prior to his departure, with other convicts, to New South Wales, where +he died, Dickens went with a former acquaintance of the prisoner to see +him. They found him still possessed with a morbid self-esteem and a poor +and empty vanity. All other feelings and interests were overwhelmed by +an excessive idolatry of self, and he claimed (I now quote his own words +to Dickens) a soul whose nutriment is love, and its offspring art, +music, divine song, and still holier philosophy. To the last this +super-refined creature seemed undisturbed by remorse. What place can we +fancy for such a reptile, and what do we learn from such a career? +Talfourd has so wisely summed up the whole case for us that I leave the +dark tragedy with the recital of this solemn sentence from a paper on +the culprit in the "Final Memorials of Charles Lamb": "Wainwright's +vanity, nurtured by selfishness and unchecked by religion, became a +disease, amounting perhaps to monomania, and yielding one lesson to +repay the world for his existence, viz. that there is no state of the +soul so dangerous as that in which the vices of the sensualist are +envenomed by the grovelling intellect of the scorner." + +One of the men best worth meeting in London, under any circumstances, +was Leigh Hunt, but it was a special boon to find him and Procter +together. I remember a day in the summer of 1859 when Procter had a +party of friends at dinner to meet Hawthorne, who was then on a brief +visit to London. Among the guests were the Countess of ----, Kinglake, +the author of "Eothen," Charles Sumner, then on his way to Paris, and +Leigh Hunt, the mercurial qualities of whose blood were even then +perceptible in his manner. + +Adelaide Procter did not reach home in season to begin the dinner with +us, but she came later in the evening, and sat for some time in earnest +talk with Hawthorne. It was a "goodly companie," long to be remembered. +Hunt and Procter were in a mood for gossip over the ruddy port. As the +twilight deepened around the table, which was exquisitely decorated with +flowers, the author of "Rimini" recalled to Procter's recollection other +memorable tables where they used to meet in vanished days with Lamb, +Coleridge, and others of their set long since passed away. As they +talked on in rather low tones, I saw the two old poets take hands more +than once at the mention of dead and beloved names. I recollect they had +a good deal of fine talk over the great singers whose voices had +delighted them in bygone days; speaking with rapture of Pasta, whose +tones in opera they thought incomparably the grandest musical utterances +they had ever heard. Procter's tribute in verse to this + + "Queen and wonder of the enchanted world of sound" + +is one of his best lyrics, and never was singer more divinely +complimented by poet. At the dinner I am describing he declared that she +walked on the stage like an empress, "and when she sang," said he, "I +held my breath." Leigh Hunt, in one of his letters to Procter in 1831, +says: "As to Pasta, I love her, for she makes the ground firm under my +feet, and the sky blue over my head." + +I cannot remember all the good things I heard that day, but some of +them live in my recollection still. Hunt quoted Hartley Coleridge, who +said, "No boy ever imagined himself a poet while he was reading +Shakespeare or Milton." And speaking of Landor's oaths, he said, "They +are so rich, they are really nutritious." Talking of criticism, he said +he did not believe in spiteful imps, but in kindly elves who would "nod +to him and do him courtesies." He laughed at Bishop Berkeley's attempt +to destroy the world in one octavo volume. His doctrine to mankind +always was, "Enlarge your tastes, that you may enlarge your hearts." He +believed in reversing original propensities by education,--as +Spallanzani brought up eagles on bread and milk, and fed doves on raw +meat. "Don't let us demand too much of human nature," was a line in his +creed; and he believed in Hood's advice, that gentleness in a case of +wrong direction is always better than vituperation. + + "Mid light, and by degrees, should be the plan + To cure the dark and erring mind; + But who would rush at a benighted man + And give him two black eyes for being blind?" + +I recollect there was much converse that day on the love of reading in +old age, and Leigh Hunt observed that Sir Robert Walpole, seeing Mr. Fox +busy in the library at Houghton, said to him: "And you can read! Ah, how +I envy you! I totally neglected the _habit_ of reading when I was young, +and now in my old age I cannot read a single page." Hunt himself was a +man who could be "penetrated by a book." It was inspiring to hear him +dilate over "Plutarch's Morals," and quote passages from that delightful +essay on "The Tranquillity of the Soul." He had such reverence for the +wisdom folded up on his library shelves, he declared that the very +perusal of the _backs of his books_ was "a discipline of humanity." +Whenever and wherever I met this charming person, I learned a lesson of +gentleness and patience; for, steeped to the lips in poverty as he was, +he was ever the most cheerful, the most genial companion and friend. He +never left his good-nature outside the family circle, as a Mussulman +leaves his slippers outside a mosque, but he always brought a smiling +face into the house with him. T---- A----, whose fine floating wit has +never yet quite condensed itself into a star, said one day of a Boston +man that he was "east-wind made flesh." Leigh Hunt was exactly the +opposite of this; he was compact of all the spicy breezes that blow. In +his bare cottage at Hammersmith the temperament of his fine spirit +heaped up such riches of fancy that kings, if wise ones, might envy his +magic power. + + "Onward in faith, and leave the rest to Heaven," + +was a line he often quoted. There was about him such a modest fortitude +in want and poverty, such an inborn mental superiority to low and +uncomfortable circumstances, that he rose without effort into a region +encompassed with felicities, untroubled by a care or sorrow. He always +reminded me of that favorite child of the genii who carried an amulet in +his bosom by which all the gold and jewels of the Sultan's halls were no +sooner beheld than they became his own. If he sat down companionless to +a solitary chop, his imagination transformed it straightway into a fine +shoulder of mutton. When he looked out of his dingy old windows on the +four bleak elms in front of his dwelling, he saw, or thought he saw, a +vast forest, and he could hear in the note of one poor sparrow even the +silvery voices of a hundred nightingales. Such a man might often be cold +and hungry, but he had the wit never to be aware of it. + +Hunt's love for Procter was deep and tender, and in one of his notes to +me he says, referring to the meeting my memory has been trying to +describe, "I have reasons for liking our dear friend Procter's wine +beyond what you saw when we dined together at his table the other day." +Procter prefixed a memoir of the life and writings of Ben Jonson to the +great dramatist's works printed by Moxon in 1838. I happen to be the +lucky owner of a copy of this edition that once belonged to Leigh Hunt, +who has enriched it and perfumed the pages, as it were, by his +annotations. The memoir abounds in felicities of expression, and is the +best brief chronicle yet made of rare Ben and his poetry. Leigh Hunt has +filled the margins with his own neat handwriting, and as I turn over the +leaves, thus companioned, I seem to meet those two loving brothers in +modern song, and have again the benefit of their sweet society,--a +society redolent of + + "The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, + And all the sweet serenity of books." + +I shall not soon forget the first morning I walked with Procter and +Kenyon to the famous house No 22 St. James Place, overlooking the Green +Park, to a breakfast with Samuel Rogers. Mixed up with this matutinal +rite was much that belongs to the modern literary and political history +of England. Fox, Burke, Talleyrand, Grattan, Walter Scott, and many +other great ones have sat there and held converse on divers matters with +the banker-poet. For more than half a century the wits and the wise men +honored that unpretending mansion with their presence. On my way thither +for the first time my companions related anecdote after anecdote of the +"ancient bard," as they called our host, telling me also how all his +life long the poet of Memory had been giving substantial aid to poor +authors; how he had befriended Sheridan, and how good he had been to +Campbell in his sorest needs. Intellectual or artistic excellence was a +sure passport to his _salon_, and his door never turned on reluctant +hinges to admit the unfriended man of letters who needed his aid and +counsel. + +We arrived in quite an expectant mood, to find our host already seated +at the head of his table, and his good man Edmund standing behind his +chair. As we entered the room, and I saw Rogers sitting there so +venerable and strange, I was reminded of that line of Wordsworth's, + + "The oldest man he seemed that ever wore gray hair." + +But old as he was, he seemed full of _verve_, vivacity, and decision. +Knowing his homage for Ben Franklin, I had brought to him as a gift from +America an old volume issued by the patriot printer in 1741. He was +delighted with my little present, and began at once to say how much he +thought of Franklin's prose. He considered the style admirable, and +declared that it might be studied now for improvement in the art of +composition. One of the guests that morning was the Rev. Alexander Dyce, +the scholarly editor of Beaumont and Fletcher, and he very soon drew +Rogers out on the subject of Warren Hastings's trial. It seemed ghostly +enough to hear that famous event depicted by one who sat in the great +hall of William Rufus; who day after day had looked on and listened to +the eloquence of Fox and Sheridan; who had heard Edmund Burke raise his +voice till the old arches of Irish oak resounded, and impeach Warren +Hastings, "in the name of both sexes, in the name of every age, in the +name of every rank, as the common enemy and oppressor of all." It +thrilled me to hear Rogers say, "As I walked up Parliament Street with +Mrs. Siddons, after hearing Sheridan's great speech, we both agreed that +never before could human lips have uttered more eloquent words." That +morning Rogers described to us the appearance of Grattan as he first +saw and heard him when he made his first speech in Parliament. "Some of +us were inclined to laugh," said he, "at the orator's Irish brogue when +he began his speech that day, but after he had been on his legs five +minutes nobody dared to laugh any more." Then followed personal +anecdotes of Madame De Stael, the Duke of Wellington, Walter Scott, Tom +Moore, and Sydney Smith, all exquisitely told. Both our host and his +friend Procter had known or entertained most of the celebrities of their +day. Procter soon led the conversation up to matters connected with the +stage, and thinking of John Kemble and Edmund Kean, I ventured to ask +Rogers who of all the great actors he had seen bore away the palm. "I +have looked upon a magnificent procession of them," he said, "in my +time, and I never saw any one superior to _David Garrick_." He then +repeated Hannah More's couplet on receiving as a gift from Mrs. Garrick +the shoe-buckles which once belonged to the great actor:-- + + "Thy buckles, O Garrick, another may use, + but none shall be found who can tread in thy shoes" + +We applauded his memory and his manner of reciting the lines, which +seemed to please him. "How much can sometimes be put into an epigram!" +he said to Procter, and asked him if he remembered the lines about Earl +Grey and the Kaffir war. Procter did not recall them, and Rogers set off +again:-- + + "A dispute has arisen of late at the Cape, + As touching the devil, his color and shape; + While some folks contend that the devil is white, + The others aver that he's black as midnight; + But now't is decided quite right in this way, + And all are convinced that the devil is _Grey_." + +We asked him if he remembered the theatrical excitement in London when +Garrick and his troublesome contemporary, Barry, were playing King Lear +at rival houses, and dividing the final opinion of the critics. "Yes," +said he, "perfectly. I saw both those wonderful actors, and fully agreed +at the time with the admirable epigram that ran like wildfire into every +nook and corner of society." "Did the epigram still live in his memory?" +we asked. The old man seemed looking across the misty valley of time for +a few moments, and then gave it without a pause:-- + + "The town have chosen different ways + To praise their different Lears; + To Barry they give loud applause, + To Garrick only tears. + + "A king! ay, every inch a king, + Such Barry doth appear; + But Garrick's quite another thing,-- + He's every inch _King Lear!_" + +Among other things which Rogers told us that morning, I remember he had +much to say of Byron's _forgetfulness_ as to all manner of things. As an +evidence of his inaccuracy, Rogers related how the noble bard had once +quoted to him some lines on Venice as Southey's, "which he wanted me to +admire," said Rogers; "and as I wrote them myself, I had no hesitation +in doing so. The lines are in my poem on Italy, and begin, + + "'There is a glorious city in the sea.'" + +Samuel Lawrence had recently painted in oils a portrait of Rogers, and +we asked to see it; so Edmund was sent up stairs to get it, and bring it +to the table. Rogers himself wished to compare it with his own face, and +had a looking-glass held before him. We sat by in silence as he regarded +the picture attentively, and waited for his criticism. Soon he burst out +with, "Is my nose so d----y sharp as that?" We all exclaimed, "No! no! +the artist is at fault there, sir." "I thought so," he cried; "he has +painted the face of a dead man, d--n him!" Some one said, "The portrait +is too hard." "I won't be painted as a hard man," rejoined Rogers. "I am +not a hard man, am I, Procter?" asked the old poet. Procter deprecated +with energy such an idea as that. Looking at the portrait again, Rogers +said, with great feeling, "Children would run away from that face, and +they never ran away from me!" Notwithstanding all he had to say against +the portrait, I thought it a wonderful likeness, and a painting of great +value. Moxon, the publisher, who was present, asked for a certain +portfolio of engraved heads which had been made from time to time of +Rogers, and this was brought and opened for our examination of its +contents. Rogers insisted upon looking over the portraits, and he amused +us by his cutting comments on each one as it came out of the portfolio. +"This," said he, holding one up, "is the head of a cunning fellow, and +this the face of a debauched clergyman, and this the visage of a +shameless drunkard!" After a comic discussion of the pictures of +himself, which went on for half an hour, he said, "It is time to change +the topic, and set aside the little man for a very great one. Bring me +my collection of Washington portraits." These were brought in, and he +had much to say of American matters. He remembered being told, when a +boy, by his father one day, that "a fight had recently occurred at a +place called Bunker Hill, in America." He then inquired about Webster +and the monument. He had met Webster in England, and greatly admired +him. Now and then his memory was at fault, and he spoke occasionally of +events as still existing which had happened half a century before. I +remember what a shock it gave me when he asked me if Alexander Hamilton +had printed any new pamphlets lately, and begged me to send him anything +that distinguished man might publish after I got home to America. + +I recollect how delighted I was when Rogers sent me an invitation the +second time to breakfast with him. On that occasion the poet spoke of +being in Paris on a pleasure-tour with Daniel Webster, and he grew +eloquent over the great American orator's genius. He also referred with +enthusiasm to Bryant's poetry, and quoted with deep feeling the first +three verses of "The Future Life." When he pronounced the lines:-- + + "My name on earth was ever in thy prayer, + And must thou never utter it in heaven?" + +his voice trembled, and he faltered out, "I cannot go on: there is +something in that poem which breaks me down, and I must never try again +to recite verses so full of tenderness and undying love." + +For Longfellow's poems, then just published in England, he expressed the +warmest admiration, and thought the author of "Voices of the Night" one +of the most perfect artists in English verse who had ever lived. + +Rogers's reminiscences of Holland House that morning were a series of +delightful pictures painted by an artist who left out none of the +salient features, but gave to everything he touched a graphic reality. +In his narrations the eloquent men, the fine ladies, he had seen there +assembled again around their noble host and hostess, and one listened in +the pleasant breakfast-room in St. James Place to the wit and wisdom of +that brilliant company which met fifty years ago in the great _salon_ of +that princely mansion, which will always be famous in the literary and +political history of England. + +Rogers talked that morning with inimitable finish and grace of +expression. A light seemed to play over his faded features when he +recalled some happy past experience, and his eye would sometimes fill as +he glanced back among his kindred, all now dead save one, his sister, +who also lived to a great age. His head was very fine, and I never +could quite understand the satirical sayings about his personal +appearance which have crept into the literary gossip of his time. He was +by no means the vivacious spectre some of his contemporaries have +represented him, and I never thought of connecting him with that +terrible line in "The Mirror of Magistrates,"-- + + "His withered fist still striking at Death's door." + +His dome of brain was one of the amplest and most perfectly shaped I +ever saw, and his countenance was very far from unpleasant. His +faculties to enjoy had not perished with age. He certainly looked like a +well-seasoned author, but not dropping to pieces yet. His turn of +thought was characteristic, and in the main just, for he loved the best, +and was naturally impatient of what was low and mean in conduct and +intellect. He had always lived in an atmosphere of art, and his +reminiscences of painters and sculptors were never wearisome or dull. He +had a store of pleasant anecdotes of Chantrey, whom he had employed as a +wood-carver long before he became a modeller in clay; and he had also +much to tell us of Sir Joshua Reynolds, whose lectures he had attended, +and whose studio-talk had been familiar to him while he was a young man +and studying art himself as an amateur. It was impossible almost to make +Rogers seem a real being as we used to surround his table during those +mornings and sometimes deep into the afternoons. We were listening to +one who had talked with Boswell about Dr. Johnson; who had sat hours +with Mrs. Piozzi; who read the "Vicar of Wakefield" the day it was +published; who had heard Haydn, the composer, playing at a concert, +"dressed out with a sword"; who had listened to Talleyrand's best +sayings from his own lips; who had seen John Wesley lying dead in his +coffin, "an old man, with the countenance of a little child"; who had +been with Beckford at Fonthill; who had seen Porson slink back into the +dining-room after the company had left it and drain what was left in the +wineglasses; who had crossed the Apennines with Byron; who had seen Beau +Nash in the height of his career dancing minuets at Bath; who had known +Lady Hamilton in her days of beauty, and seen her often with Lord +Nelson; who was in Fox's room when that great man lay dying; and who +could describe Pitt from personal observation, speaking always as if his +mouth was "full of worsted." It was unreal as a dream to sit there in +St. James Place and hear that old man talk by the hour of what one had +been reading about all one's life. One thing, I must confess, somewhat +shocked me,--I was not prepared for the feeble manner in which some of +Rogers's best stories were received by the gentlemen who had gathered at +his table on those Tuesday mornings. But when Procter told me in +explanation afterward that they had all "heard the same anecdotes every +week, perhaps, for half a century from the same lips," I no longer +wondered at the seeming apathy I had witnessed. It was a great treat to +me, however, the talk I heard at Rogers's hospitable table, and my three +visits there cannot be erased from the pleasantest tablets of memory. +There is only one regret connected with them, but that loss still haunts +me. On one of those memorable mornings I was obliged to leave earlier +than the rest of the company on account of an engagement out of London, +and Lady Beecher (formerly Miss O'Neil), the great actress of other +days, came in and read an hour to the old poet and his guests. Procter +told me afterward that among other things she read, at Rogers's request, +the 14th chapter of Isaiah, and that her voice and manner seemed like +inspiration. + +Seeing and talking with Rogers was, indeed, like living in the past: +and one may imagine how weird it seemed to a raw Yankee youth, thus +facing the man who might have shaken hands with Dr. Johnson. I ventured +to ask him one day if he had ever seen the doctor. "No," said he; "but I +went down to Bolt Court in 1782 with the intention of making Dr. +Johnson's acquaintance. I raised the knocker tremblingly, and hearing +the shuffling footsteps as of an old man in the entry, my heart failed +me, and I put down the knocker softly again, and crept back into Fleet +Street without seeing the vision I was not bold enough to encounter." I +thought it was something to have heard the footsteps of old Sam Johnson +stirring about in that ancient entry, and for my own part I was glad to +look upon the man whose ears had been so strangely privileged. + +Rogers drew about him all the musical as well as the literary talent of +London. Grisi and Jenny Lind often came of a morning to sing their best +_arias_ to him when he became too old to attend the opera; and both +Adelaide and Fanny Kemble brought to him frequently the rich tributes of +their genius in art. + +It was my good fortune, through the friendship of Procter, to make the +acquaintance, at Rogers's table, of Leslie, the artist,--a warm friend +of the old poet,--and to be taken round by him and shown all the +principal private galleries in London. He first drew my attention to the +pictures by Constable, and pointed out their quiet beauty to my +uneducated eye, thus instructing me to hate all those intemperate +landscapes and lurid compositions which abound in the shambles of modern +art. In the company of Leslie I saw my first Titians and Vandycks, and +felt, as Northcote says, on my good behavior in the presence of +portraits so lifelike and inspiring. It was Leslie who inoculated me +with a love of Gainsborough, before whose perfect pictures a spectator +involuntarily raises his hat and stands uncovered. (And just here let +me advise every art lover who goes to England to visit the little +Dulwich Gallery, only a few miles from London, and there to spend an +hour or two among the exquisite Gainsboroughs. No small collection in +Europe is better worth a visit, and the place itself in summer-time is +enchanting with greenery.) + +As Rogers's dining-room abounded in only first-rate works of art, Leslie +used to take round the guests and make us admire the Raphaels and +Correggios. Inserted in the walls on each side of the mantel-piece, like +tiles, were several of Turner's original oil and water-color drawings, +which that supreme artist had designed to illustrate Rogers's "Poems" +and "Italy." Long before Ruskin made those sketches world-famous in his +"Modern Painters," I have heard Leslie point out their beauties with as +fine an enthusiasm. He used to say that they purified the whole +atmosphere round St. James Place! + +Procter had a genuine regard for Count d'Orsay, and he pointed him out +to me one day sitting in the window of his club, near Gore House, +looking out on Piccadilly. The count seemed a little past his prime, but +was still the handsomest man in London. Procter described him as a +brilliant person, of special ability, and by no means a mere dandy. + +I first saw Procter's friend, John Forster, the biographer of Goldsmith +and Dickens, in his pleasant rooms, No. 58 Lincoln's Inn Fields. He was +then in his prime, and looked brimful of energy. His age might have been +forty, or a trifle onward from that mile-stone, and his whole manner +announced a determination to assert that nobody need prompt _him_. His +voice rang loud and clear, up stairs and down, everywhere throughout his +premises. When he walked over the uncarpeted floor, you _heard_ him +walk, and he meant you should. When _he_ spoke, nobody required an +ear-trumpet; the deaf never lost a syllable of his manly utterances. +Procter and he were in the same Commission, and were on excellent terms, +the younger officer always regarding the elder with a kind of leonine +deference. + +It was to John Forster these charming lines were addressed by Barry +Cornwall, when the poet sent his old friend a present of Shakespeare's +Works. A more exquisite compliment was never conveyed in verse so modest +and so perfect in simple grace:-- + + "I do not know a man who better reads + Or weighs the great thoughts of the book I send,-- + Better than he whom I have called my friend + For twenty years and upwards. He who feeds + Upon Shakesperian pastures never needs + The humbler food which springs from plains below; + Yet may he love the little flowers that blow, + And him excuse who for their beauty pleads. + + "Take then my Shakespeare to some sylvan nook; + And pray thee, in the name of Days of old, + Good-will and friendship, never bought or sold, + Give me assurance thou wilt always look + With kindness still on Spirits of humbler mould; + Kept firm by resting on that wondrous book, + Wherein the Dream of Life is all unrolled." + +Forster's library was filled with treasures, and he brought to the +dinner-table, the day I was first with him, such rare and costly +manuscripts and annotated volumes to show us, that one's appetite for +"made dishes" was quite taken away. The excellent lady whom he afterward +married was one of the guests, and among the gentlemen present I +remember the brilliant author of "The Bachelor of the Albany," a book +that was then the Novel sensation in London. Forster flew from one topic +to another with admirable skill, and entertained us with anecdotes of +Wellington and Rogers, gilding the time with capital imitations of his +celebrated contemporaries in literature and on the stage. A touch about +Edmund Kean made us all start from our chairs and demand a mimetic +repetition. Forster must have been an excellent private actor, for he +had power and skill quite exceptional in that way. His force carried him +along wherever he chose to go, and when he played "Kitely," his ability +must have been strikingly apparent. After his marriage, and when he +removed from Lincoln's Inn to his fine residence at "Palace-Gate House," +he gave frequent readings, evincing remarkable natural and acquired +talents. For Dickens he had a love amounting to jealousy. He never quite +relished anybody else whom the great novelist had a fondness for, and I +have heard droll stories touching this weakness. For Professor Felton he +had unbounded regard, which had grown up by correspondence and through +report from Dickens. He had never met Felton, and when the professor +arrived in London, Dickens, with his love of fun, arranged a bit of +cajolery, which was never quite forgotten, though wholly forgiven. +Knowing how highly Forster esteemed Felton, through his writings and his +letters, Dickens resolved to take Felton at once to Forster's house and +introduce him as _Professor Stowe_, the _port_ of both these gentlemen +being pretty nearly equal. The Stowes were then in England on their +triumphant tour, and this made the attempt at deception an easy one. So, +Felton being in the secret, he and Dickens proceed to Forster's house +and are shown in. Down comes Forster into the library, and is presented +forthwith to "_Professor Stowe_." "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is at once +referred to, and the talk goes on in that direction for some time. At +last both Dickens and Felton fell into such a paroxysm of laughter at +Forster's dogged determination to be complimentary to the world-renowned +novel, that they could no longer hold out; and Forster, becoming almost +insane with wonder at the hilarious conduct of his two visitors, +Dickens revealed their wickedness, and a right jolty day the happy trio +made of it. + +Talfourd informs us that Forster had become to Charles Lamb as one of +his oldest companions, and that Mary also cherished a strong regard for +him. It is surely a proof of his admirable qualities that the love of so +many of England's best and greatest was secured to him by so lasting a +tenure. To have the friendship of Landor, Dickens, and Procter through +long years; to have Carlyle for a constant votary, and to be mourned by +him with an abiding sorrow,--these are no slight tributes to purity of +purpose. + +Forster had that genuine sympathy with men of letters which entitled him +to be their biographer, and all his works in that department have a +special charm, habitually gained only by a subtle and earnest intellect. + +It is a singular coincidence that the writers of two of the most +brilliant records of travel of their time should have been law students +in Barry Cornwall's office. Kinglake, the author of "Eothen," and +Warburton, the author of "The Crescent and the Cross," were at one +period both engaged as pupils in their profession under the guidance of +Mr. Procter. He frequently spoke with pride of his two law students, and +when Warburton perished at sea, his grief for his brilliant friend was +deep and abiding. Kinglake's later literary fame was always a pleasure +to the historian's old master, and no one in England loved better to +point out the fine passages in the "History of the Invasion of the +Crimea" than the old poet in Weymouth Street. + +"Blackwood" and the "Quarterly Review" railed at Procter and his author +friends for a long period; but how true is the saying of Macaulay, "that +the place of books in the public estimation is fixed, not by what is +written _about_ them, but by what is written in them!" No man was more +decried in his day than Procter's friend, William Hazlitt. The poet had +for the critic a genuine admiration; and I have heard him dilate with a +kind of rapture over the critic's fine sayings, quoting abundant +passages from the essays. Procter would never hear any disparagement of +his friend's ability and keenness. I recall his earnest but restrained +indignation one day, when some person compared Hazlitt with a diffusive +modern writer of notes on the theatre, and I remember with what +contempt, in his sweet forgivable way, the old man spoke of much that +passes nowadays for criticism. He said Hazlitt was exactly the opposite +of Lord Chesterfield, who advised his son, if he could not get at a +thing in a straight line, to try the serpentine one. There were no +crooked pathways in Hazlitt's intellect. His style is brilliant, but +never cloyed with ornamentation. Hazlitt's paper on Gifford was thought +by Procter to be as pungent a bit of writing as had appeared in his day, +and he quoted this paragraph as a sample of its biting justice: "Mr. +Gifford is admirably qualified for the situation he has held for many +years as editor of the 'Quarterly' by a happy combination of defects, +natural and acquired." In one of his letters to me Procter writes, "I +despair of the age that has forgotten to read Hazlitt." + +Procter was a delightful prose writer, as well as a charming poet. +Having met in old magazines and annuals several of his essays and +stories, and admiring their style and spirit, I induced him, after much +persuasion, to collect and publish in America his prose works. The +result was a couple of volumes, which were brought out in Boston in +1853. In them there are perhaps no "thoughts that wander through +eternity," but they abound in fancies which the reader will recognize as +agile + + "Daughters of the earth and sun." + +In them there is nothing loud or painful, and whoever really loves "a +good book," and knows it to be such on trial, will find Barry Cornwall's +"Essays and Tales in Prose" most delectable reading. "Imparadised," as +Milton hath the word, on a summer hillside, or tented by the cool salt +wave, no better afternoon literature can be selected. One will never +meet with distorted metaphor or tawdry rhetoric in Barry's thoughtful +pages, but will find a calm philosophy and a beautiful faith, very +precious and profitable in these days of doubt and insecurity of +intellect. There is a respite and a sympathy in this fine spirit, and so +I commend him heartily in times so full of turmoil and suspicion as +these. One of the stories in the first volume of these prose writings, +called "The Man-Hunter," is quite equal in power to any of the graphic +pieces of a similar character ever written by De Quincey or Dickens, but +the tone in these books is commonly more tender and inclining to +melancholy. What, for instance, could be more heart-moving than these +passages of his on the death of little children? + + "I scarcely know how it is, but the deaths of children seem to me + always less premature than those of elder persons. Not that they are + in fact so; but it is because they themselves have little or no + relation to time or maturity. Life seems a race which they have yet + to run entirely. They have made no progress toward the goal. They + are born--nothing further. But it seems hard, when a man has toiled + high up the steep hill of knowledge, that he should be cast like + Sisyphus, downward in a moment; that he who has worn the day and + wasted the night in gathering the gold of science should be, with + all his wealth of learning, all his accumulations, made bankrupt at + once. What becomes of all the riches of the soul, the piles and + pyramids of precious thoughts which men heap together? Where are + Shakespeare's imagination, Bacon's learning, Galileo's dream? Where + is the sweet fancy of Sidney, the airy spirit of Fletcher, and + Milton's thought severe? Methinks such things should not die and + dissipate, when a hair can live for centuries, and a brick of Egypt + will last three thousand years! I am content to believe that the + mind of man survives (somewhere or other) his clay. + + "I was once present at the death of a little child. I will not pain + the reader by portraying its agonies; but when its breath was gone, + its _life_, (nothing more than a cloud of smoke!) and it lay like a + waxen image before me, I turned my eyes to its moaning mother, and + sighed out my few words of comfort. But I am a beggar in grief. I + can feel and sigh and look kindly, I think; but I have nothing to + give. My tongue deserts me. I know the inutility of too soon + comforting. I know that _I_ should weep were I the loser, and I let + the tears have their way. Sometimes a word or two I can muster: a + 'Sigh no more!' and 'Dear lady, do not grieve!' but further I am + mute and useless." + +I have many letters and kind little notes which Procter used to write me +during the years I knew him best. His tricksy fancies peeped out in his +correspondence, and several of his old friends in England thought no +literary man of his time had a better epistolary style. His neat elegant +chirography on the back of a letter was always a delightful foretaste of +something good inside, and I never received one of his welcome missives +that did not contain, no matter how brief it happened to be, welcome +passages of wit or affectionate interest. + +In one of his early letters to me he says:-- + + "There is no one rising hereabouts in literature. I suppose our + national genius is taking a mechanical turn. And, in truth, it is + much better to make a good steam-engine than to manufacture a bad + poem. 'Building the lofty rhyme' is a good thing, but our present + buildings are of a low order, and seldom reach the Attic. This piece + of wit will scarcely throw you into a fit, I imagine, your risible + muscles being doubtless kept in good order." + +In another he writes:-- + + "I see you have some capital names in the 'Atlantic Monthly.' If + they will only put forth their strength, there is no doubt as to the + result, but the misfortune is that persons who write anonymously + _don't_ put forth their strength, in general. I was a magazine + writer for no less than a dozen years, and I felt that no personal + credit or responsibility attached to my literary trifling, and + although I sometimes did pretty well (for me), yet I never did my + best." + +As I read over again the portfolio of his letters to me, bearing date +from 1848 to 1866, I find many passages of interest, but most of them +are too personal for type. A few extracts, however, I cannot resist +copying. Some of his epistles are enriched with a song or a sonnet, then +just written, and there are also frequent references in them to American +editions of his poetical and prose works, which he collected at the +request of his Boston publishers. + +In June, 1851, he writes:-- + + "I have encountered a good many of your countrymen here lately, but + have been introduced only to a few. I found Mr. Norton, who has + returned to you, and Mr. Dwight, who is still here, I believe, very + intelligent and agreeable. + + "If all Americans were like them and yourself, and if all Englishmen + were like Kenyon and (so far as regards a desire to judge fairly) + myself, I think there would be little or no quarrelling between our + small island and your great continent. + + "Our glass palace is a perpetual theme for small-talk. It usurps the + place of the weather, which is turned adrift, or laid up in ordinary + for future use. Nevertheless it (I mean the palace) is a remarkable + achievement, after all; and I speak sincerely when I say, 'All honor + and glory to Paxton!' If the strings of my poor little lyre were not + rusty and overworn, I think I should try to sing some of my nonsense + verses before his image, and add to the idolatry already existing. + + "If you have hotter weather in America than that which is at present + burning and blistering us here, you are entitled to pity. If it + continue much longer, I shall be held in solution for the remainder + of my days, and shall be remarkable as 'Oxygen, the poet' (reduced + to his natural weakness and simplicity by the hot summer of 1851), + instead of Your very sincere and obliged + + "B.W. PROCTER." + +Here is a brief reference to Judd's remarkable novel, forming part of a +note written to me in 1852:-- + + "Thanks for 'Margaret' (the book, _not_ the woman), that you have + sent me. When will you want it back? and who is the author? There is + a great deal of clever writing in it,--great observation of nature, + and also of character among a certain class of persons. _But_ it is + almost too minute, and for _me_ decidedly too theological. You see + what irreligious people we are here. I shall come over to one of + your camp-meetings and _try_ to be converted. What will they + administer in such a case? brimstone or brandy? I shall try the + latter first." + +Here is a letter bearing date "Thursday night, November 25, 1852," in +which he refers to his own writings, and copies a charming song:-- + + "Your letter, announcing the arrival of the little preface, reached + me last night. I shall look out for the book in about three weeks + hence, as you tell me that they are all printed. You Americans are a + rapid race. When I thought you were in Scotland, lo, you had touched + the soil of Boston; and when I thought you were unpacking my poor + MS., tumbling it out of your great trunk, behold! it is arranged--it + is in the printer's hands--it is _printed_--published--it is--ah! + would I could add, SOLD! That, after all, is the grand triumph in + Boston as well as London. + + "Well, since it is not sold yet, let us be generous and give a few + copies away. Indeed, such is my weakness, that I would sometimes + rather give than sell. In the present instance you will do me the + kindness to send a copy each to Mr. Charles Sumner, Mr. Hillard, Mr. + Norton: but no--my wife requests to be the donor to Mr. Norton, so + you must, if you please, write his name in the first leaf and state + that it comes from '_Mrs_. Procter.' I liked him very much when I + met him in London, and I should wish him to be reminded of his + English acquaintance. + + "I am writing to you at eleven o'clock at night, after a long and + busy day, and I write _now_ rather than wait for a little + inspiration, because the mail, I believe, starts to-morrow. The + unwilling Minerva is at my elbow, and I feel that every sentence I + write, were it pounded ten times in a mortar, would come out again + unleavened and heavy. Braying some people in a mortar, you know, is + but a weary and unprofitable process. + + "You speak of London as a delightful place. I don't know how it may + be in the white-bait season, but at present it is foggy, rainy, + cold, dull. Half of us are unwell and the other half dissatisfied. + Some are apprehensive of an invasion,--not an impossible event; some + writing odes to the Duke of Wellington; and I am putting my good + friend to sleep with the flattest prose that ever dropped from an + English pen. I wish that it were better; I wish that it were even + worse; but it is the most undeniable twaddle. I must go to bed, and + invoke the Muses in the morning. At present, I cannot touch one of + their petticoats. + + "A SLEEPY SONG. + + "Sing! sing me to sleep! + With gentle words, in some sweet slumberous measure, + Such as lone poet on some shady steep + Sings to the silence in his noonday leisure. + + "Sing! as the river sings, + When gently it flows between soft banks of flowers, + And the bee murmurs, and the cuckoo brings + His faint May music, 'tween the golden showers. + + "Sing! O divinest tone! + I sink beneath some wizard's charming wand; + I yield, I move, by soothing breezes blown, + O'er twilight shores, into the Dreaming Land! + + "I read the above to you when you were in London. It will appear in + an Annual edited by Miss Power (Lady Blessington's niece). + + "Friday Morning. + + "The wind blowing down the chimney; the rain sprinkling my windows. + The English Apollo hides his head--you can scarcely see him on the + 'misty mountain-tops' (those brick ones which you remember in + Portland Place). + + "My friend Thackeray is gone to America, and I hope is, by this + time, in the United States. He goes to New York, and afterward I + _suppose_ (but I don't know) to Boston and Philadelphia. Have you + seen _Esmond_? There are parts of it charmingly written. His pathos + is to me very touching. I believe that the best mode of making one's + way to a person's head is--through his heart. + + "I hope that your literary men will like some of my little prose + matters. I know that they will _try_ to like them; but the papers + have been written so long, and all, or almost all, written so + hastily, that I have my misgivings. However, they must take their + chance. + + "Had I leisure to complete something that I began two or three years + ago, and in which I have written a chapter or two, I should reckon + more surely on success; but I shall probably never finish the thing, + although I contemplated only one volume. + + "(If you cannot read this letter apply to the printer's + devil.--Hibernicus.) + + "Farewell. All good be with you. My wife desires to be kindly + remembered by you. + + "Always yours, very sincerely, + + "B.W. PROCTER." + + "P.S.--Can you contrive to send Mr. Willis a copy of the prose book? + If so, pray do." + +In February, 1853, he writes:-- + + "Those famous volumes, the advent of which was some time since + announced by the great transatlantic trumpet, have duly arrived. My + wife is properly grateful for her copy, which, indeed, impresses + both of us with respect for the American skill in binding. Neither + too gay to be gaudy, nor too grave, so as to affect the theological, + it hits that happy medium which agrees with the tastes of most + people and disgusts none. We should flatter ourselves that it is + intended to represent the matter within, but that we are afraid of + incurring the sin of vanity, and the indiscretion of taking + appearances too much upon trust. We suspend our conjectures on this + very interesting subject. The whole getting up of the book is + excellent. + + "For the little scraps of (critical) sugar enclosed in your letter, + due thanks. These will sweeten our imagination for some time to + come. + + "I have been obliged to give all the copies you sent me away. I dare + say you will not grudge me four or five copies more, to be sent at + your convenience, of course. Let me hear from you at the same time. + You can give me one of those frequent quarters of an hour which I + know you now devote to a meditation on 'things in general.' + + "I am glad that you like Thackeray. He is well worth your liking. I + trust to his making both friends and money in America, and to his + _keeping_ both. I am not so sure of the money, however, for he has a + liberal hand. I should have liked to have been at one of the dinners + you speak of. When shall you begin that _bridge_? You seem to be a + long time about it. It will, I dare say, be a bridge of boats, after + all.... + + "I was reading (rather re-reading) the other evening the + introductory chapter to the 'Scarlet Letter.' It is admirably + written. Not having any great sympathy with a custom-house,--nor, + indeed, with Salem, except that it seems to be Hawthorne's + birthplace,--all my attention was concentrated on the _style_, which + seems to me excellent. + + "The most striking book which has been recently published here is + 'Villette,' by the authoress of 'Jane Eyre,' who, as you know, is a + Miss Bronte. The book does not give one the most pleasing notion of + the authoress, perhaps, but it is very clever, graphic, vigorous. It + is 'man's meat,' and not the whipped syllabub, which is _all_ froth, + without any jam at the bottom. The scene of the drama is Brussels. + + "I was sorry to hear of poor Willis. Our critics here were too + severe upon him.... + + "The Frost King (vulg. Jack Frost) has come down upon us with all + his might. Banished from the pleasant shores of Boston, he has come + with his cold scythe and ice pincers to our undefended little + island, and is tyrannizing in every corner and over every part of + every person. Nothing is too great for him, nothing too mean. He + condescends even to lay hold of the nose (an offence for which any + one below the dignity of a King--or a President--would be kicked.) + As for me I have taken refuge in + + "A SONG WITH A MORAL. + + "When the winter bloweth loud, + And the earth is in a shroud, + Frozen rain or sleety snow + Dimming every dream below,-- + There is e'er a spot of green + Whence the heavens may be seen. + + "When our purse is shrinking fast, + And our friend is lost, (the last!) + And the world doth pour its pain, + Sharper than the frozen rain,-- + There is still a spot of green + Whence the heavens may be seen. + + "Let us never meet despair + While the little spot is there; + Winter brighteneth into May, + And sullen night to sunny day,-- + Seek we then the spot of green + Whence the heavens may be seen. + + "I have left myself little space for more small-talk. I must, + therefore, conclude with wishing that your English dreams may + continue bright, and that when they begin to fade you will come and + _relume_ at one of the white-bait dinners of which you used to talk + in such terms of rapture. + + "Have I space to say that I am very truly yours? + + "B.W. PROCTER." + + +A few months later, in the same year (1853), he sits by his open window +in London, on a morning of spring, and sends off the following pleasant +words:-- + + "You also must now be in the first burst and sunshine of spring. + Your spear-grass is showing its points, your succulent grass its + richness, even your little plant [?] (so useful for certain + invalids) is seen here and there; primroses are peeping out in your + neighborhood, and you are looking for cowslips to come. I say + nothing of your hawthorns (from the common May to the classic + Nathaniel), except that I trust they are thriving, and like to put + forth a world of blossoms soon. + + 'With all this wealth, present and future, + The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose,' + + you will doubtless feel disposed to scatter your small coins abroad + on the poor, and, among other things, to forward to your humble + correspondent those copies of B---- C----'s prose works which you + promised I know not how long ago. 'He who gives _speedily_,' they + say, 'gives twice.' I quote, as you see, from the Latins. + + "I have just got the two additional volumes of De Quincey, for + which--thanks! I have not seen Mr. Parker, who brought them, and who + left his card here yesterday, but I have asked if he will come and + breakfast with me on Sunday,--my only certain leisure day. Your De + Quincey is a man of a good deal of reading, and has thought on + divers and sundry matters; but he is evidently so thoroughly well + pleased with the Sieur 'Thomas De Quincey' that his self-sufficiency + spoils even his best works. Then some of his facts are, I hear, + _quasi_ facts only, not unfrequently. He has his moments when he + sleeps, and becomes oblivious of all but the aforesaid 'Thomas,' who + pervades both his sleeping and waking visions. I, like all authors, + am glad to have a little praise now and then (it is my hydromel), + but it must be dispensed by others. I do not think it decent to + manufacture the sweet liquor myself, and I hate a coxcomb, whether + in dress or print. + + "We have little or no literary news here. Our poets are all going + to the poorhouse (except Tennyson), and our prose writers are + piling up their works for the next 5th of November, when there will + be a great bonfire. It is deuced lucky that my immortal (ah! I am De + Quinceying)--I mean my humble--performances were printed in America, + so that they will escape. By the by, are they on foolscap? for I + forgot to caution you on that head. + + "I have been spending a week at Liverpool, where I rejoiced to hear + that Hawthorne's appointment was settled, and that it was a valuable + post; but I hear that it lasts for three years only. This is + melancholy. I hope, however, that he will 'realize' (as you + trans-atlantics say) as much as he can during his consulate, and + that your next President will have the good taste and the good sense + to renew his lease for three years more. + + "I have not seen Mrs. Stowe. I shall probably meet her somewhere or + other when she comes to London. + + "I dare not ask after Mr. Longfellow. He was kind enough to write me + a very agreeable letter some time ago, which I ought to have + answered. I dare say he has forgotten it, but my conscience is a + serpent that gives me a bite or a sting every now and then when I + think of him. The first time I am in fit condition (I mean in point + of brightness) to reply to so famous a correspondent, I shall try + what an English pen and ink will enable me to say. In the mean time, + God be thanked for all things! + + "My wife heard from Thackeray about ten days ago. He speaks + gratefully of the kindness that he has met with in America. Among + other things, it appears that he has seen something of your slaves, + whom he represents as leading a very easy life, and as being fat, + cheerful, and happy. Nevertheless, _I_ (for one) would rather be a + free man,--such is the singularity of my opinions. If my prosings + should ever in the course of the next twenty years require to be + reprinted, pray take note of the above opinion. + + "And now I have no more paper; I have scarcely room left to say that + I hope you are well, and to remind you that for your ten lines of + writing I have sent you back a hundred. Give my best compliments to + all whom I know, personally or otherwise. God be with you! + + "Yours, very sincerely, + + "B.W. PROCTER." + +Procter always seemed to be astounded at the travelling spirit of +Americans, and in his letters he makes frequent reference to our +"national propensity," as he calls it. + + "Half an hour ago," he writes in. July, 1853, "we had three of your + countrymen here to lunch,--countrymen I mean, Hibernically, for two + of them wore petticoats. They are all going to Switzerland, France, + Italy, Egypt, and Syria. What an adventurous race you are, you + Americans! Here the women go merely 'from the blue bed to the + brown,' and think that they have travelled and seen the world. I + myself should not care much to be confined to a circle reaching six + or seven miles round London. There are the fresh winds and wild + thyme on Hampstead Heath, and from Richmond you may survey the + Naiades. Highgate, where Coleridge lived, Enfield, where Charles + Lamb dwelt, are not far off. Turning eastward, there is the river + Lea, in which Izaak Walton fished; and farther on--ha! what do I + see? What are those little fish frisking in the batter (the great + Naval Hospital close by), which fixed the affections of the enamored + American while he resided in London, and have been floating in his + dreams ever since? They are said by the naturalists to be of the + species _Blandamentum album_, and are by vulgar aldermen spoken + carelessly of as _white-bait_. + + "London is full of carriages, full of strangers, full of parties + feasting on strawberries and ices and other things intended to allay + the heat of summer; but the Summer herself (fickle virgin) keeps + back, or has been stopped somewhere or other,--perhaps at the + Liverpool custom-house, where the very brains of men (their books) + are held in durance, as I know to my cost. + + "Thackeray is about to publish a new work in numbers,--a serial, as + the newspapers call it. Thomas Carlyle is publishing (a sixpenny + matter) in favor of the slave-trade. Novelists of all shades are + plying their trades. Husbands are killing their wives in every day's + newspaper. Burglars are peaching against each other; there is no + longer honor among thieves. I am starting for Leicester on a week's + expedition amidst the mad people; and the Emperor of Russia has + crossed the Pruth, and intends to make a tour of Turkey. + + "All this appears to me little better than idle, restless vanity. O + my friend, what a fuss and a pother we are all making, we little + flies who are going round on the great wheel of time! To-day we are + flickering and buzzing about, our little bits of wings glittering in + the sunshine, and to-morrow we are safe enough in the little crevice + at the back of the fireplace, or hid in the folds of the old + curtain, shut up, stiff and torpid, for the long winter. What do you + say to that profound reflection? + + "I struggle against the lassitude which besets me, and strive in + vain to be either sensible or jocose. I had better say farewell." + +On Christmas day, 1854, he writes in rather flagging spirits, induced +by ill health:-- + + "I have owed you a letter for these many months, my good friend. I + am afraid to think _how_ long, lest the interest on the debt should + have exceeded the capital, and be beyond my power to pay. + + "You must be good-natured and excuse me, for I have been ill--very + frequently--and dispirited. A bodily complaint torments me, that has + tormented me for the last two years. I no longer look at the world + through a rose-colored glass. The prospect, I am sorry to say, is + gray, grim, dull, barren, full of withered leaves, without flowers, + or if there be any, all of them trampled down, soiled, discolored, + and without fragrance. You see what a bit of half-smoked glass I am + looking through. At all events, you must see how entirely I am + disabled from returning, except in sober sentences, the lively and + good-natured letters and other things which you have sent me from + America. They were welcome, and I thank you for them now, in a few + words, as you observe, but sincerely. I am somewhat brief, even in + my gratitude. Had I been in braver spirits, I might have spurred my + poor Pegasus, and sent you some lines on the Alma, or the + Inkerman,--bloody battles, but exhibiting marks not to be mistaken + of the old English heroism, which, after all is said about the + enervating effects of luxury, is as grand and manifest as in the + ancient fights which English history talks of so much. Even you, + sternest of republicans, will, I think, be proud of the indomitable + courage of Englishmen, and gladly refer to your old paternity. I, at + least, should be proud of Americans fighting after the same fashion + (and without doubt they _would_ fight thus), just as old people + exult in the brave conduct of their runaway sons. I cannot read of + these later battles without the tears coming into my eyes. It is + said by 'our correspondent' at _New York_ that the folks there + rejoice in the losses and disasters of the allies. This can never be + the case, surely? No one whose opinion is worth a rap can rejoice at + any success of the Czar, whose double-dealing and unscrupulous + greediness must have rendered him an object of loathing to every + well-thinking man. But what have I to do with politics, or you? Our + 'pleasant object and serene employ' are books, books. Let us return + to pacific thoughts. + + "What a number of things have happened since I saw you! I looked for + you in the last spring, little dreaming that so fat and flourishing + a 'Statesman' could be overthrown by a little fever. I had even + begun some doggerel, announcing to you the advent of the + white-bait, which I imagined were likely to be all eaten up in your + absence. My memory is so bad that I cannot recollect half a dozen + lines, probably not one, as it originally stood. + + "I was at Liverpool last June. After two or three attempts I + contrived to seize on the famous Nathaniel Hawthorne. Need I say + that I like him _very_ much? He is very sensible, very genial,--a + little shy, I think (for an American!)--and altogether extremely + agreeable. I wish that I could see more of him, but our orbits are + wide apart. Now and then--once in two years--I diverge into and + cross his circle, but at other times we are separated by a space + amounting to 210 miles. He has three children, and a nice little + wife, who has good-humor engraved on her countenance. + + "As to verse--yes, I have begun a dozen trifling things, which are + in my drawer unfinished; poor rags with ink upon them, none of them, + I am afraid, properly labelled for posterity. I was for six weeks at + Ryde, in the Isle of Wight, this year, but so unwell that I could + not write a line, scarcely read one; sitting out in the sun, eating, + drinking, sleeping, and sometimes (poor soul!) imagining I was + thinking. One Sunday I saw a magnificent steamer go by, and on + placing my eye to the telescope I saw some Stars and Stripes + (streaming from the mast-head) that carried me away to Boston. By + the way, when _will_ you finish the bridge? + + "I hear strange hints of you all quarrelling about the slave + question. Is it so? You are so happy and prosperous in America that + you must be on the lookout for clouds, surely! When you see Emerson, + Longfellow, Sumner, any one I know, pray bespeak for me a kind + thought or word from them." + +Procter was always on the lookout for Hawthorne, whom he greatly +admired. In November, 1855, he says, in a brief letter:-- + + "I have not seen Hawthorne since I wrote to you. He came to London + this summer, but, I am sorry to say, did not inquire for me. As it + turned out, I was absent from town, but sent him (by Mrs. Russell + Sturgis) a letter of introduction to Leigh Hunt, who was very much + pleased with him. Poor Hunt! he is the most genial of men; and, now + that his wife is confined to her bed by rheumatism, is recovering + himself, and, I hope, doing well. He asked to come and see me the + other day. I willingly assented, and when I saw him--grown old and + sad and broken down in health--all my ancient liking for him + revived. + + "You ask me to send you some verse. I accordingly send you a scrap + of recent manufacture, and you will observe that instead of + forwarding my epic on Sevastopol, I select something that is fitter + for these present vernal love days than the blaster of heroic verse:-- + + "SONG. + + "Within the chambers of her breast + Love lives and makes his spicy nest, + Midst downy blooms and fragrant flowers, + And there he dreams away the hours-- + There let him rest! + Some time hence, when the cuckoo sings, + I'll come by night and bind his wings,-- + Bind him that he shall not roam + From his warm white virgin home. + + "Maiden of the summer season, + Angel of the rosy time, + Come, unless some graver reason + Bid thee scorn my rhyme; + Come from thy serener height, + On a golden cloud descending, + Come ere Love hath taken flight, + And let thy stay be like the light, + When its glory hath no ending + In the Northern night!" + +Now and then we get a glimpse of Thackeray in his letters. In one of +them he says:-- + + "Thackeray came a few days ago and read one of his lectures at our + house (that on George the Third), and we asked about a dozen persons + to come and hear it, among the rest, your handsome countrywoman, + Mrs. R---- S----. It was very pleasant, with that agreeable + intermixture of tragedy and comedy that tells so well when + judiciously managed. He will not print them for some time to come, + intending to read them at some of the principal places in England, + and perhaps Scotland. + + "What are you doing in America? You are too happy and independent! + 'O fortunatos Agricolas, sua si bona nôrint!' I am not quite sure of + my Latin (which is rusty from old age), but I am sure of the + sentiment, which is that when people are too happy, they don't know + it, and so take to quarrelling to relieve the monotony of their + blue sky. Some of these days you will split your great kingdom in + two, I suppose, and then-- + + "My wife's mother, Mrs. Basil Montagu, is very ill, and we are + apprehensive of a fatal result, which, in truth, the mere fact of + her age (eighty-two or eighty-three) is enough to warrant. Ah, this + terrible _age_! The young people, I dare say, think that we live too + long. Yet how short it is to look back on life! Why, I saw the house + the other day where I used to play with a wooden sword when I was + five years old! It cannot surely be eighty years ago! What has + occurred since? Why, nothing that is worth putting down on paper. A + few nonsense verses, a flogging or two (richly deserved), and a few + white-bait dinners, and the whole is reckoned up. Let us begin + again." [Here he makes some big letters in a school-boy hand, which + have a very pathetic look on the page.] + +In a letter written in 1856 he gives me a graphic picture of sad times +in India:-- + + "All our anxiety here at present is the Indian mutiny. We ourselves + have great cause for trouble. Our son (the only son I have, indeed) + escaped from Delhi lately. He is now at Meerut. He and four or five + other officers, four women, and a child escaped. The men were + obliged to drop the women a fearful height from the walls of the + fort, amidst showers of bullets. A round shot passed within a yard + of my son, and one of the ladies had a bullet through her shoulder. + They were seven days and seven nights in the jungle, without money + or meat, scarcely any clothes, no shoes. They forded rivers, lay on + the wet ground at night, lapped water from the puddles, and finally + reached Meerut. The lady (the mother of the three other ladies) had + not her wound dressed, or seen, indeed, for upward of a week. Their + feet were full of thorns. My son had nothing but a shirt, a pair of + trousers, and a flannel waistcoat. How they contrived to _live_ I + don't know; I suppose from small gifts of rice, etc., from the + natives. + + "When I find any little thing now that disturbs my serenity, and + which I might in former times have magnified into an evil, I think + of what Europeans suffer from the vengeance of the Indians, and pass + it by in quiet. + + "I received Mr. Hillard's epitaph on my dear kind friend Kenyon. + Thank him in my name for it. There are some copies to be reserved of + a lithograph now in progress (a portrait of Kenyon) for his American + friends. Should it be completed in time, Mr. Sumner will be asked + to take them over. I have put down your name for one of those who + would wish to have this little memento of a good kind man.... + + "I shall never visit America, be assured, or the continent of + Europe, or any distant region. I have reached nearly to the length + of my tether. I have grown old and apathetic and stupid. All I care + for, in the way of personal enjoyment, is quiet, ease,--to have + nothing to do, nothing to think of. My only glance is backward. + There is so little before me that I would rather not look that way." + +In a later letter he again speaks of his son and the war in India:-- + + "My son is _not_ in the list of killed and wounded, thank God! He + was before Delhi, having _volunteered_ thither after his escape. We + trust that he is at present safe, but every mail is pregnant with + bloody tidings, and we do not find ourselves yet in a position to + rejoice securely. What a terrible war this Indian war is! Are all + people of black blood cruel, cowardly, and treacherous? If it were a + case of great oppression on our part, I could understand and + (almost) excuse it; but it is from the _spoiled_ portion of the + Hindostanees that the revengeful mutiny has arisen. One thing is + quite clear, that whatever luxury and refinement have done for our + race (for I include Americans with English), they have not + diminished the courage and endurance and heroism for which I think + we have formerly been famous. We are the same Saxons still. There + has never been fiercer fighting than in some of the battles that + have lately taken place in India. When I look back on the old + history books, and see that _all_ history consists of little else + than the bloody feuds of nation with nation, I almost wonder that + God has not extinguished the cruel, selfish animals that we dignify + with the name of men. No--I cry forgiveness: let the women live, if + they can, without the men. I used the word 'men' only." + +Here is a pleasant paragraph about "Aurora Leigh":-- + + "The most successful book of the season has been Mrs. Browning's + 'Aurora Leigh.' I could wish some things altered, I confess; but as + it is, it is by far (a hundred times over) the finest poem ever + written by a woman. We know little or nothing of Sappho,--nothing to + induce comparison,--and all other wearers of petticoats must + courtesy to the ground." + +In several of his last letters to me there are frequent allusions to +our civil war. Here is an extract from an epistle written in 1861:-- + + "We read with painful attention the accounts of your great quarrel + in America. We know nothing beyond what we are told by the New York + papers, and these are the stories of _one_ of the combatants. I am + afraid that, however you may mend the schism, you will never be so + strong again. I hope, however, that something may arise to terminate + the bloodshed; for, after all, fighting is an unsatisfactory way of + coming at the truth. If you were to stand up at once (and finally) + against the slave-trade, your band of soldiers would have a more + decided _principle_ to fight for. But-- + + "--But I really know little or nothing. I hope that at Boston you + are comparatively peaceful, and I know that you are more + abolitionist than in the more southern countries. + + "There is nothing new doing here in the way of books. The last book + I have seen is called 'Tannhauser,' published by Chapman and + Hall,--a poem under feigned names, but _really_ written by Robert + Lytton and Julian Fane. It is not good enough for the first, but (as + I conjecture) too good for the last. The songs which decide the + contest of the bards are the worst portions of the book. + + "I read some time ago a novel which has not made much noise, but + which is prodigiously clever,--'City and Suburb.' The story hangs in + parts, but it is full of weighty sentences. We have no poet _since_ + Tennyson except Robert Lytton, who, you know, calls himself Owen + Meredith. Poetry in England is assuming a new character, and not a + better character. It has a sort of pre-Raphaelite tendency which + does not suit my aged feelings. I am for Love, or the World well + lost. But I forget that, if I live beyond the 21st of next November, + I shall be _seventy-four_ years of age. I have been obliged to + resign my Commissionership of Lunacy, not being able to bear the + pain of travelling. By this I lose about £900 a year. I am, + therefore, sufficiently poor, even for a poet. Browning, as you + know, has lost his wife. He is coming with his little boy to live in + England. I rejoice at this, for I think that the English should live + in England, especially in their youth, when people learn things that + they never forget afterward." + +Near the close of 1864 he writes:-- + + "Since I last heard from you, nothing except what is melancholy + seems to have taken place. You seem all busy killing each other in + America. Some friends of yours and several friends of mine have + died. Among the last I cannot help placing Nathaniel Hawthorne, for + whom I had a sincere regard.... He was about your best prose writer, + I think, and intermingled with his humor was a great deal of + tenderness. To die so soon! + + "You are so easily affronted in America, if we (English) say + anything about putting an end to your war, that I will not venture + to hint at the subject. Nevertheless, I wish that you were all at + peace again, for your own sakes and for the sake of human nature. I + detest fighting now, although I was a great admirer of fighting in + my youth. My youth? I wonder where it has gone. It has left me with + gray hairs and rheumatism, and plenty of (too many other) + infirmities. I stagger and stumble along, with almost seventy-six + years on my head, upon failing limbs, which no longer enable me to + walk half a mile. I see a great deal, all behind me (the Past), but + the prospect before me is not cheerful. Sometimes I wish that I had + tried harder for what is called Fame, but generally (as now) I care + very little about it. After all,--unless one could be Shakespeare, + which (clearly) is not an easy matter,--of what value is a little + puff of smoke from a review? If we could settle permanently who is + to be the Homer or Shakespeare of our time, it might be worth + something; but we cannot. Is it Jones, or Smith, or ----? Alas! I + get short-sighted on this point, and cannot penetrate the + impenetrable dark. Make my remembrances acceptable to Longfellow, to + Lowell, to Emerson, and to any one else who remembers me. + + "Yours, ever sincerely, + + "B.W. PROCTER." + +And here are a few paragraphs from the last letter I ever received in +Procter's loving hand:-- + + "Although I date this from Weymouth Street, yet I am writing 140 or + 150 miles away from London. Perhaps this temporary retreat from our + great, noisy, turbulent city reminds me that I have been very + unmindful of your letter, received long ago. But I have been busy, + and my writing now is not a simple matter, as it was fifty years + ago. I have great difficulty in forming the letters, and you would + be surprised to learn with what labor _this_ task is performed. Then + I have been incessantly occupied in writing (I refer to the + _mechanical_ part only) the 'Memoir of Charles Lamb.' It is not my + book,--i.e. not my property,--but one which I was hired to write, + and it forms my last earnings. You will have heard of the book + (perhaps seen it) some time since. It has been very well received. I + would not have engaged myself on anything else, but I had great + regard for Charles Lamb, and so (somehow or other) I have contrived + to reach the end. + + "I _have_ already (long ago) written something about Hazlitt, but I + have received more than one application for it, in case I can manage + to complete my essay. As in the case of Lamb, I am really the only + person living who knew much about his daily life. I have not, + however, quite the same incentive to carry me on. Indeed, I am not + certain that I should be able to travel to the real Finis. + + "My wife is very grateful for the copies of my dear Adelaide's poems + which you sent her. She appears surprised to hear that I have not + transmitted her thanks to you before. + + "We get the 'Atlantic Monthly' regularly. I need not tell you how + much better the poetry is than at its commencement. Very good is + 'Released,' in the July number, and several of the stories; but they + are in London, and I cannot particularize them. + + "We were very much pleased with Colonel Holmes, the son of your + friend and contributor. He seems a very intelligent, modest young + man; as little military as need be, and, like Coriolanus, not baring + his wounds (if he has any) for public gaze. When you see Dr. Holmes, + pray tell him how much I and my wife liked his son. + + "We are at the present moment rusticating at Malvern Wells. We are + on the side of a great hill (which you would call small in America), + and our intercourse is only with the flowers and bees and swallows + of the season. Sometimes we encounter a wasp, which I suppose comes + from over seas! + + "The Storys are living two or three miles off, and called upon us a + few days ago. You have not seen _his_ Sibyl, which I think very + fine, and as containing a _very great_ future. But the young poets + generally disappoint us, and are too content with startling us into + admiration of their first works, and then go to sleep. + + "I wish that I had, when younger, made more notes about my + contemporaries; for, being of no faction in politics, it happens + that I have known far more literary men than any other person of my + time. In counting up the names of persons known to me who were, in + some way or other, _connected_ with literature, I reckoned up more + than one hundred. But then I have had more than sixty years to do + this in. My first acquaintance of this sort was Bowles, the poet. + This was about 1805. + + "Although I can scarcely write, I am able to say, in conclusion, + that I am + + "Very sincerely yours, + + "B.W. PROCTER." + +Procter was an ardent student of the works of our older English +dramatists, and he had a special fondness for such writers as Decker, +Marlowe, Heywood, Webster, and Fletcher. Many of his own dramatic scenes +are modelled on that passionate and romantic school. He had great relish +for a good modern novel, too; and I recall the titles of several which +he recommended warmly for my perusal and republication in America. When +I first came to know him, the duties of his office as a Commissioner +obliged him to travel about the kingdom, sometimes on long journeys, and +he told me his pocket companion was a cheap reprint of Emerson's +"Essays," which he found such agreeable reading that he never left home +without it. Longfellow's "Hyperion" was another of his favorite books +during the years he was on duty. + +Among the last agreeable visits I made to the old poet was one with +reference to a proposition of his own to omit several songs and other +short poems from a new issue of his works then in press. I stoutly +opposed the ignoring of certain old favorites of mine, and the poet's +wife joined with me in deciding against the author in his proposal to +cast aside so many beautiful songs,--songs as well worth saving as any +in the volume. Procter argued that, being past seventy, he had now +reached to years of discretion, and that his judgment ought to be +followed without a murmur. I held out firm to the end of our discussion, +and we settled the matter with this compromise: he was to expunge +whatever he chose from the English edition, but I was to have my own way +with the American one. So to this day the American reprint is the only +complete collection of Barry Cornwall's earliest pieces, for I held on +to all the old lyrics, without discarding a single line. + +The poet's figure was short and full, and his voice had a low, veiled +tone habitually in it, which made it sometimes difficult to hear +distinctly what he was saying. When in conversation, he liked to be very +near his listener, and thus stand, as it were, on confidential ground +with him. His turn of thought was cheerful among his friends, and he +proceeded readily into a vein of wit and nimble expression. Verbal +felicity seemed natural to him, and his epithets, evidently unprepared, +were always perfect. He disliked cant and hard ways of judging +character. He praised easily. He had no wish to stand in anybody's shoes +but his own, and he said, "There is no literary vice of a darker shade +than envy." Talleyrand's recipe for perfect happiness was the opposite +to his. He impressed every one who came near him as a born gentleman, +chivalrous and generous in a marked degree, and it was the habit of +those who knew him to have an affection for him. Altering a line of +Pope, this counsel might have been safely tendered to all the authors of +his day,-- + + "Disdain whatever _Procter's mind_ disdains." + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Yesterdays with Authors, by James T. Fields + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK YESTERDAYS WITH AUTHORS *** + +***** This file should be named 12632-8.txt or 12632-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/6/3/12632/ + +Produced by Keren Vergon, David Cortesi and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Fields + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Yesterdays with Authors + +Author: James T. Fields + +Release Date: June 15, 2004 [EBook #12632] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK YESTERDAYS WITH AUTHORS *** + + + + +Produced by Keren Vergon, David Cortesi and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + +</pre> + +<h1>Yesterdays With Authors</h1> +<h3><i>By</i></h3> +<h2>James T. Fields</h2> +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h3><img src="images/titlepage.jpg" alt="Title Page Image"></h3> +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<table border=1 summary=""> + <tr> + <td> + <h3>Preface to the <i>Project Gutenberg</i> Edition</h3> + <p>James Fields at age 14 became a clerk in a bookstore in Boston, + and in a few years became a junior partner in the bookselling firm + of Ticknor, Reed and Fields.</p> + <p>Fields's firm became the publisher for most of the great + American writers of the Nineteenth Century. + In this book, Fields tells how he persuaded a jobless, despondent + Nathaniel Hawthorne to let him print "The Scarlet Letter." + <p>Fields made frequent visits to England, landing American publishing +rights to the works of important British writers, including +the great superstar of the time, Charles Dickens. Dickens accepted +Fields as a personal friend, entertained him at his retreat, Gad's Hill, +and wrote him many amusing notes that are included here. Fields also +socialized with the cream of London literary society, and the book +includes his personal anecdotes of meeting Wordsworth, Thackeray, and +others. He formed a friendship with Mary Russell Mitford (a successful +dramatist and novelist of the day; two of her works are available in +Project Gutenberg editions) and she wrote him long, gossipy letters, +reproduced here. + <p>The firm of Ticknor and Fields, after many mergers and acquisitions, + continues to exist today as Houghton Mifflin Books. The firm's + original store, the Old Corner Bookstore, still exists as a bookstore + at the corner of School and Washington streets in Boston. + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <h6><img class=nolink src="images/fields.jpg" alt="James T. Fields"></h6> + <p class=center>James T. Fields (1817-1881).<br> + <i>Source: Chapters from a Life by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1896)</i> + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name='CONTENTS'></a><h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + + <a href='#I_INTRODUCTORY'><b>I. INTRODUCTORY.</b></a><br /> + <a href='#II_THACKERAY'><b>II. THACKERAY.</b></a><br /> + <a href='#III_HAWTHORNE'><b>III. HAWTHORNE.</b></a><br /> + <a href='#IV_DICKENS'><b>IV. DICKENS.</b></a><br /> + <a href='#V_WORDSWORTH'><b>V. WORDSWORTH.</b></a><br /> + <a href='#VI_MISS_MITFORD'><b>VI. MISS MITFORD.</b></a><br /> + <a href='#VII_BARRY_CORNWALL'><b>VII. "BARRY CORNWALL" AND SOME OF HIS FRIENDS.</b></a><br /> + +<a name='I_INTRODUCTORY'></a> +<hr class=full /> + + <h2>INTRODUCTORY.</h2> +<div class='poem'> + <div class='stanza'> + <span class='i5'>"<i>Some there are,</i><br /></span> + <span><i>By their good works exalted, lofty minds</i><br /></span> + <span><i>And meditative, authors of delight</i><br /></span> + <span><i>And happiness, which to the end of time</i><br /></span> + <span><i>Will live, and spread, and kindle</i>."<br /></span> + <span class='i17'>WORDSWORTH.<br /></span> + </div> +</div> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> + +<h2>I. INTRODUCTORY.</h2> + +<p>Surrounded by the portraits of those I have long counted my friends, I +like to chat with the people about me concerning these pictures, my +companions on the wall, and the men and women they represent. These are +my assembled guests, who dropped in years ago and stayed with me, +without the form of invitation or demand on my time or thought. They are +my eloquent silent partners for life, and I trust they will dwell here +as long as I do. Some of them I have known intimately; several of them +lived in other times; but they are all my friends and associates in a +certain sense.</p> + +<p>To converse with them and of them—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<span>"When to the sessions of sweet silent thought<br /></span> +<span>I summon up remembrance of things past"—<br /></span> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div></div> + +<p>is one of the delights of existence, and I am never tired of answering +questions about them, or gossiping of my own free will as to their +every-day life and manners.</p> + +<p>If I were to call the little collection in this diminutive house a +<i>Gallery of Pictures</i>, in the usual sense of that title, many would +smile and remind me of what Foote said with his characteristic sharpness +of David Garrick, when he joined his brother Peter in the wine trade: +"Davy lived with three quarts of vinegar in the cellar, calling himself +a wine merchant."</p> + +<p>My friends have often heard me in my "garrulous old age" discourse of +things past and gone, and know what they bring down on their heads when +they request me "to run over," as they call it, the faces looking out +upon us from these plain unvarnished frames.</p> + +<p>Let us begin, then, with the little man of Twickenham, for that is his +portrait which hangs over the front fireplace. An original portrait of +Alexander Pope I certainly never expected to possess, and I must relate +how I came by it. Only a year ago I was strolling in my vagabond way up +and down the London streets, and dropped in to see an old +picture-shop,—kept by a man so thoroughly instructed in his calling +that it is always a pleasure to talk with him and examine his collection +of valuables, albeit his treasures are of such preciousness as to make +the humble purse of a commoner seem to shrink into a still smaller +compass from sheer inability to respond when prices are named. At No. 6 +Pall Mall one is apt to find Mr. Graves "clipp'd round about" by +first-rate canvas. When I dropped in upon him that summer morning he had +just returned from the sale of the Marquis of Hastings's effects. The +Marquis, it will be remembered, went wrong, and his debts swallowed up +everything. It was a wretched stormy day when the pictures were sold, +and Mr. Graves secured, at very moderate prices, five original +portraits. All the paintings had suffered more or less decay, and some +of them, with their frames, had fallen to the floor. One of the best +preserved pictures inherited by the late Marquis was a portrait of Pope, +painted from life by Richardson for the Earl of Burlington, and even +that had been allowed to drop out of its oaken frame. Horace Walpole +says, Jonathan Richardson was undoubtedly one of the best painters of a +head that had appeared in England. He was pupil of the celebrated Riley, +the master of Hudson, of whom Sir Joshua took lessons in his art, and it +was Richardson's "Treatise on Painting" which inflamed the mind of +young Reynolds, and stimulated his ambition to become a great painter. +Pope seems to have had a real affection for Richardson, and probably sat +to him for this picture some time during the year 1732. In Pope's +correspondence there is a letter addressed to the painter making an +engagement with him for a several days' sitting, and it is quite +probable that the portrait before us was finished at that time. One can +imagine the painter and the poet chatting together day after day, in +presence of that canvas. During the same year Pope's mother died, at the +great age of ninety-three; and on the evening of June 10th, while she +lay dead in the house, Pope sent off the following heart-touching letter +from Twickenham to his friend the painter:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"As you know you and I mutually desire to see one another, I hoped + that this day our wishes would have met, and brought you hither. And + this for the very reason which possibly might hinder your coming, + that my poor mother is dead. I thank God, her death was as easy as + her life was innocent; and as it cost her not a groan, or even a + sigh, there is yet upon her countenance such an expression of + tranquillity, nay, almost of pleasure, that it is even amiable to + behold it. It would afford the finest image of a saint expired that + ever painting drew; and it would be the greatest obligation which + even that obliging art could ever bestow on a friend, if you could + come and sketch it for me. I am sure, if there be no very prevalent + obstacle, you will leave any common business to do this; and I hope + to see you this evening, as late as you will, or to-morrow morning + as early, before this winter flower is faded. I will defer her + interment till to-morrow night. I know you love me, or I could not + have written this; I could not (at this time) have written at all. + Adieu! May you die as happily!"</p></div> + +<p>Several eminent artists of that day painted the likeness of Pope, and +among them Sir Godfrey Kneller and Jervas, but I like the expression of +this one by Richardson best of all. The mouth, it will be observed, is +very sensitive and the eyes almost painfully so. It is told of the poet, +that when he was a boy "there was great sweetness in his look," and +that his face was plump and pretty, and that he had a very fresh +complexion. Continual study ruined his constitution and changed his +form, it is said. Richardson has skilfully kept out of sight the poor +little decrepit figure, and gives us only the beautiful head of a man of +genius. I scarcely know a face on canvas that expresses the poetical +sense in a higher degree than this one. The likeness must be perfect, +and I can imagine the delight of the Rev. Joseph Spence hobbling into +his presence on the 4th of September, 1735, after "a ragged boy of an +ostler came in with a little scrap of paper not half an inch broad, +which contained the following words: 'Mr. Pope would be very glad to see +Mr. Spence at the Cross Inn just now.'"</p> + +<p>English literature is full of eulogistic mention of Pope. Thackeray is +one of the last great authors who has spoken golden words about the +poet. "Let us always take into account," he says, "that constant +tenderness and fidelity of affection which pervaded and sanctified his +life."</p> + +<p>What pluck and dauntless courage possessed the "gallant little cripple" +of Twickenham! When all the dunces of England were aiming their +poisonous barbs at him, he said, "I had rather die at once, than live in +fear of those rascals." A vast deal that has been written about him is +untrue. No author has been more elaborately slandered on principle, or +more studiously abused through envy. Smarting dullards went about for +years, with an ever-ready microscope, hunting for flaws in his character +that might be injuriously exposed; but to-day his defamers are in bad +repute. Excellence in a fellow-mortal is to many men worse than death; +and great suffering fell upon a host of mediocre writers when Pope +uplifted his sceptre and sat supreme above them all.</p> + +<p>Pope's latest champion is John Ruskin. Open his Lectures on Art, +recently delivered before the University of Oxford, and read passage +number seventy. Let us read it together, as we sit here in the presence +of the sensitive poet.</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I want you to think over the relation of expression to character in + two great masters of the absolute art of language, Virgil and Pope. + You are perhaps surprised at the last named; and indeed you have in + English much higher grasp and melody of language from more + passionate minds, but you have nothing else, in its range, so + perfect. I name, therefore, these two men, because they are the two + most accomplished <i>artists</i>, merely as such, whom I know, in + literature; and because I think you will be afterwards interested in + investigating how the infinite grace in the words of the one, the + severity in those of the other, and the precision in those of both, + arise wholly out of the moral elements of their minds,—out of the + deep tenderness in Virgil which enabled him to write the stories of + Nisus and Lausus, and the serene and just benevolence which placed + Pope, in his theology, two centuries in advance of his time, and + enabled him to sum the law of noble life in two lines which, so far + as I know, are the most complete, the most concise, and the most + lofty expression of moral temper existing in English words:—</p></div> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<span>'Never elated, while one man's oppressed;<br /></span> +<span>Never dejected, while another's blessed.'<br /></span> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>I wish you also to remember these lines of Pope, and to make + yourselves entirely masters of his system of ethics; because, + putting Shakespeare aside as rather the world's than ours, I hold + Pope to be the most perfect representative we have, since Chaucer, + of the true English mind; and I think the Dunciad is the most + absolutely chiselled and monumental work 'exacted' in our country. + You will find, as you study Pope, that he has expressed for you, in + the strictest language and within the briefest limits, every law of + art, of criticism, of economy, of policy, and, finally, of a + benevolence, humble, rational, and resigned, contented with its + allotted share of life, and trusting the problem of its salvation to + Him in whose hands lies that of the universe."</p></div> + +<p>Glance up at the tender eyes of the poet, who seems to have been eagerly +listening while we have been reading Ruskin's beautiful tribute. As he +is so intent upon us, let me gratify still further the honest pride of +"the little nightingale," as they used to call him when he was a child, +and read to you from the "Causeries du Lundi" what that wise French +critic, Sainte-Beuve, has written of his favorite English poet:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"The natural history of Pope is very simple: delicate persons, it + has been said, are unhappy, and he was doubly delicate, delicate of + mind, delicate and infirm of body; he was doubly irritable. But what + grace, what taste, what swiftness to feel, what justness and + perfection in expressing his feeling!... His first masters were + insignificant; he educated himself: at twelve years old he learned + Latin and Greek together, and almost without a master; at fifteen he + resolved to go to London, in order to learn French and Italian + there, by reading the authors. His family, retired from trade, and + Catholic, lived at this time upon an estate in the forest of + Windsor. This desire of his was considered as an odd caprice, for + his health from that time hardly permitted him to move about. He + persisted, and accomplished his project; he learned nearly + everything thus by himself, making his own choice among authors, + getting the grammar quite alone, and his pleasure was to translate + into verse the finest passages he met with among the Latin and Greek + poets. When he was about sixteen years old, he said, his taste was + formed as much as it was later.... If such a thing as literary + temperament exist, it never discovered itself in a manner more + clearly defined and more decided than with Pope. Men ordinarily + become classic by means of the fact and discipline of education; he + was so by vocation, so to speak, and by a natural originality. At + the same time with the poets, he read the best among the critics, + and prepared himself to speak after them.</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Pope had the characteristic sign of literary natures, the faithful + worship of genius.... He said one day to a friend: 'I have always + been particularly struck with this passage of Homer where he + represents to us Priam transported with grief for the loss of + Hector, on the point of breaking out into reproaches and invectives + against the servants who surrounded him and against his sons. It + would be impossible for me to read this passage without weeping over + the disasters of the unfortunate old king.' And then he took the + book, and tried to read aloud the passage, 'Go, wretches, curse of + my life,' but he was interrupted by tears.</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"No example could prove to us better than his to what degree the + faculty of tender, sensitive criticism is an active faculty. We + neither feel nor perceive in this way when there is nothing to give + in return. This taste, this sensibility, so swift and alert, justly + supposes imagination behind it. It is said that Shelley, the first + time he heard the poem of 'Christabel' recited, at a certain + magnificent and terrible passage, took fright and suddenly fainted. + The whole poem of 'Alastor' was to be foreseen in that fainting. + Pope, not less sensitive in his way, could not read through that + passage of the Iliad without bursting into tears. To be a critic to + that degree, is to be a poet."</p></div> + +<p>Thanks, eloquent and judicious scholar, so lately gone from the world of +letters! A love of what is best in art was the habit of Sainte-Beuve's +life, and so he too will be remembered as one who has kept the best +company in literature,—a man who cheerfully did homage to genius, +wherever and whenever it might be found.</p> + +<p>I intend to leave as a legacy to a dear friend of mine an old faded +book, which I hope he will always prize as it deserves. It is a +well-worn, well-read volume, of no value whatever as an <i>edition</i>,—but +<i>it belonged to Abraham Lincoln</i>. It is his copy of "The Poetical Works +of Alexander Pope, Esq., to which is prefixed the life of the author by +Dr. Johnson." It bears the imprint on the title-page of J.J. Woodward, +Philadelphia, and was published in 1839. Our President wrote his own +name in it, and chronicles the fact that it was presented to him "by his +friend N.W. Edwards." In January, 1861, Mr. Lincoln gave the book to a +very dear friend of his, who honored me with it in January, 1867, as a +New-Year's present. As long as I live it will remain among my books, +specially treasured as having been owned and read by one of the noblest +and most sorely tried of men, a hero comparable with any of +Plutarch's,—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<span>"The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man,<br /></span> +<span>Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame,<br /></span> +<span>New birth of our new soil, the first American."<br /></span> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div></div> + +<hr class=full> + +<a name='II_THACKERAY'></a> +<h2>THACKERAY</h2> + +<p><i>What Emerson has said in his fine subtle way of Shakespeare may well be +applied to the author of "Vanity Fair."</i></p> + +<p><i>"One can discern in his ample pictures what forms and humanities pleased +him; his delight in troops of friends, in large hospitality, in cheerful +giving.</i></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><i>"He read the hearts of men and women, their probity, and their second +thought, and wiles; the wiles of innocence, and the transitions by which +virtues and vices slide into their contraries."</i></p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h2>II. THACKERAY.</h2> + +<p>Dear old Thackeray!—as everybody who knew him intimately calls him, now +he is gone. That is his face, looking out upon us, next to Pope's. What +a contrast in bodily appearance those two English men of genius present! +Thackeray's great burly figure, broad-chested, and ample as the day, +seems to overshadow and quite blot out of existence the author of "The +Essay on Man." But what friends they would have been had they lived as +contemporaries under Queen Anne or Queen Victoria! One can imagine the +author of "Pendennis" gently lifting poor little Alexander out of his +"chariot" into the club, and revelling in talk with him all night long. +Pope's high-bred and gentlemanly manner, combined with his extraordinary +sensibility and dread of ridicule, would have modified Thackeray's usual +gigantic fun and sometimes boisterous sarcasm into a rich and strange +adaptability to his little guest. We can imagine them talking together +now, with even a nobler wisdom and ampler charity than were ever +vouchsafed to them when they were busy amid the turmoils of their +crowded literary lives.</p> + +<p>As a reader and lover of all that Thackeray has written and published, +as well as a personal friend, I will relate briefly something of his +literary habits as I can recall them. It is now nearly twenty years +since I first saw him and came to know him familiarly in London. I was +very much in earnest to have him come to America, and read his series +of lectures on "The English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century," and +when I talked the matter over with some of his friends at the little +Garrick Club, they all said he could never be induced to leave London +long enough for such an expedition. Next morning, after this talk at the +Garrick, the elderly damsel of all work announced to me, as I was taking +breakfast at my lodgings, that Mr. <i>Sackville</i> had called to see me, and +was then waiting below. Very soon I heard a heavy tread on the stairs, +and then entered a tall, white-haired stranger, who held out his hand, +bowed profoundly, and with a most comical expression announced himself +as Mr. Sackville. Recognizing at once the face from published portraits, +I knew that my visitor was none other than Thackeray himself, who, +having heard the servant give the wrong name, determined to assume it on +this occasion. For years afterwards, when he would drop in unexpectedly, +both at home and abroad, he delighted to call himself Mr. Sackville, +until a certain Milesian waiter at the Tremont House addressed him as +Mr. Thack<i>uary</i>, when he adopted that name in preference to the other.</p> + +<p>Questions are frequently asked as to the habits of thought and +composition of authors one has happened to know, as if an author's +friends were commonly invited to observe the growth of works he was by +and by to launch from the press. It is not customary for the doors of +the writer's work-shop to be thrown open, and for this reason it is all +the more interesting to notice, when it is possible, how an essay, a +history, a novel, or a poem is conceived, grows up, and is corrected for +publication. One would like very much to be informed how Shakespeare put +together the scenes of Hamlet or Macbeth, whether the subtile thought +accumulated easily on the page before him, or whether he struggled for +it with anxiety and distrust. We know that Milton troubled himself about +little matters of punctuation, and obliged the printer to take special +note of his requirements, scolding him roundly when he neglected his +instructions. We also know that Melanchthon was in his library hard at +work by two or three o'clock in the morning both in summer and winter, +and that Sir William Jones began his studies with the dawn.</p> + +<p>The most popular female writer of America, whose great novel struck a +chord of universal sympathy throughout the civilized world, has habits +of composition peculiarly her own, and unlike those belonging to any +author of whom we have record. She <i>croons</i>, so to speak, over her +writings, and it makes very little difference to her whether there is a +crowd of people about her or whether she is alone during the composition +of her books. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was wholly prepared for the press in a +little wooden house in Maine, from week to week, while the story was +coming out in a Washington newspaper. Most of it was written by the +evening lamp, on a pine table, about which the children of the family +were gathered together conning their various lessons for the next day. +Amid the busy hum of earnest voices, constantly asking questions of the +mother, intent on her world-renowned task, Mrs. Stowe wove together +those thrilling chapters which were destined to find readers in so many +languages throughout the globe. No work of similar importance, so far as +we know, was ever written amid so much that seemed hostile to literary +composition.</p> + +<p>I had the opportunity, both in England and America, of observing the +literary habits of Thackeray, and it always seemed to me that he did his +work with comparative ease, but was somewhat influenced by a custom of +procrastination. Nearly all his stories were written in monthly +instalments for magazines, with the press at his heels. He told me that +when he began a novel he rarely knew how many people were to figure in +it, and, to use his own words, he was always very shaky about their +moral conduct. He said that sometimes, especially if he had been dining +late and did not feel in remarkably good-humor next morning, he was +inclined to make his characters villanously wicked; but if he rose +serene with an unclouded brain, there was no end to the lovely actions +he was willing to make his men and women perform. When he had written a +passage that pleased him very much he could not resist clapping on his +hat and rushing forth to find an acquaintance to whom he might instantly +read his successful composition. Gilbert Wakefield, universally +acknowledged to have been the best Greek scholar of his time, said he +would have turned out a much better one, if he had begun earlier to +study that language; but unfortunately he did not begin till he was +fifteen years of age. Thackeray, in quoting to me this saying of +Wakefield, remarked: "My English would have been very much better if I +had read Fielding before I was ten." This observation was a valuable +hint, on the part of Thackeray, as to whom he considered his master in +art.</p> + +<p>James Hannay paid Thackeray a beautiful compliment when he said: "If he +had had his choice he would rather have been famous as an artist than as +a writer; but it was destined that he should paint in colors which will +never crack and never need restoration." Thackeray's characters are, +indeed, not so much <i>inventions</i> as <i>existences</i>, and we know them as we +know our best friends or our most intimate enemies.</p> + +<p>When I was asked, the other day, which of his books I like best, I gave +the old answer to a similar question. "<i>The last one I read</i>." If I +could possess only <i>one</i> of his works, I think I should choose "Henry +Esmond." To my thinking, it is a marvel in literature, and I have read +it oftener than any of the other works. Perhaps the reason of my +partiality lies somewhat in this little incident. One day, in the snowy +winter of 1852, I met Thackeray sturdily ploughing his way down Beacon +Street with a copy of "Henry Esmond" (the English edition, then just +issued) under his arm. Seeing me some way off, he held aloft the volumes +and began to shout in great glee. When I came up to him he cried out, +"Here is the <i>very</i> best I can do, and I am carrying it to Prescott as a +reward of merit for having given me my first dinner in America. I stand +by this book, and am willing to leave it, when I go, as my card."</p> + +<p>As he wrote from month to month, and liked to put off the inevitable +chapters till the last moment, he was often in great tribulation. I +happened to be one of a large company whom he had invited to a +six-o'clock dinner at Greenwich one summer afternoon, several years ago. +We were all to go down from London, assemble in a particular room at the +hotel, where he was to meet us at six o'clock, <i>sharp</i>. Accordingly we +took steamer and gathered ourselves together in the reception-room at +the appointed time. When the clock struck six, our host had not +fulfilled his part of the contract. His burly figure was yet wanting +among the company assembled. As the guests were nearly all strangers to +each other, and as there was no one present to introduce us, a profound +silence fell upon the room, and we anxiously looked out of the windows, +hoping every moment that Thackeray would arrive. This untoward state of +things went on for one hour, still no Thackeray and no dinner. English +reticence would not allow any remark as to the absence of our host. +Everybody felt serious and a gloom fell upon the assembled party. Still +no Thackeray. The landlord, the butler, and the waiters rushed in and +out the room, shrieking for the master of the feast, who as yet had not +arrived. It was confidentially whispered by a fat gentleman, with a +hungry look, that the dinner was utterly spoiled twenty minutes ago, +when we heard a merry shout in the entry and Thackeray bounced into the +room. He had not changed his morning dress, and ink was still visible +upon his fingers. Clapping his hands and pirouetting briskly on one leg, +he cried out, "Thank Heaven, the last sheet of The Virginians has just +gone to the printer." He made no apology for his late appearance, +introduced nobody, shook hands heartily with everybody, and begged us +all to be seated as quickly as possible. His exquisite delight at +completing his book swept away every other feeling, and we all shared +his pleasure, albeit the dinner was overdone throughout.</p> + +<p>The most finished and elegant of all <i>lecturers</i>, Thackeray often made a +very poor appearance when he attempted to deliver a set speech to a +public assembly. He frequently broke down after the first two or three +sentences. He prepared what he intended to say with great exactness, and +his favorite delusion was that he was about to astonish everybody with a +remarkable effort. It never disturbed him that he commonly made a woful +failure when he attempted speech-making, but he sat down with such cool +serenity if he found that he could not recall what he wished to say, +that his audience could not help joining in and smiling with him when he +came to a stand-still. Once he asked me to travel with him from London +to Manchester to hear a great speech he was going to make at the +founding of the Free Library Institution in that city. All the way down +he was discoursing of certain effects he intended to produce on the +Manchester dons by his eloquent appeals to their pockets. This passage +was to have great influence with the rich merchants, this one with the +clergy, and so on. He said that although Dickens and Bulwer and Sir +James Stephen, all eloquent speakers, were to precede him, he intended +to beat each of them on this special occasion. He insisted that I +should be seated directly in front of him, so that I should have the +full force of his magic eloquence. The occasion was a most brilliant +one; tickets had been in demand at unheard-of prices several weeks +before the day appointed; the great hall, then opened for the first time +to the public, was filled by an audience such as is seldom convened, +even in England. The three speeches which came before Thackeray was +called upon were admirably suited to the occasion, and most eloquently +spoken. Sir John Potter, who presided, then rose, and after some +complimentary allusions to the author of "Vanity Fair," introduced him +to the crowd, who welcomed him with ringing plaudits. As he rose, he +gave me a half-wink from under his spectacles, as if to say: "Now for +it; the others have done very well, but I will show 'em a grace beyond +the reach of their art." He began in a clear and charming manner, and +was absolutely perfect for three minutes. In the middle of a most +earnest and elaborate sentence he suddenly stopped, gave a look of comic +despair at the ceiling, crammed both hands into his trousers' pockets, +and deliberately sat down. Everybody seemed to understand that it was +one of Thackeray's unfinished speeches and there were no signs of +surprise or discontent among his audience. He continued to sit on the +platform in a perfectly composed manner; and when the meeting was over +he said to me, without a sign of discomfiture, "My boy, you have my +profoundest sympathy; this day you have accidentally missed hearing one +of the finest speeches ever composed for delivery by a great British +orator." And I never heard him mention the subject again.</p> + +<p>Thackeray rarely took any exercise, thus living in striking contrast to +the other celebrated novelist of our time, who was remarkable for the +number of hours he daily spent in the open air. It seems to be almost +certain now, from concurrent testimony, gathered from physicians and +those who knew him best in England, that Thackeray's premature death was +hastened by an utter disregard of the natural laws. His vigorous frame +gave ample promise of longevity, but he drew too largely on his brain +and not enough on his legs. <i>High</i> living and high <i>thinking</i>, he used +to say, was the correct reading of the proverb.</p> + +<p>He was a man of the tenderest feelings, very apt to be cajoled into +doing what the world calls foolish things, and constantly performing +feats of unwisdom, which performances he was immoderately laughing at +all the while in his books. No man has impaled snobbery with such a +stinging rapier, but he always accused himself of being a snob, past all +cure. This I make no doubt was one of his exaggerations, but there was a +grain of truth in the remark, which so sharp an observer as himself +could not fail to notice, even though the victim was so near home.</p> + +<p>Thackeray announced to me by letter in the early autumn of 1852 that he +had determined to visit America, and would sail for Boston by the Canada +on the 30th of October. All the necessary arrangements for his lecturing +tour had been made without troubling him with any of the details. He +arrived on a frosty November evening, and went directly to the Tremont +House, where rooms had been engaged for him. I remember his delight in +getting off the sea, and the enthusiasm with which he hailed the +announcement that dinner would be ready shortly. A few friends were +ready to sit down with him, and he seemed greatly to enjoy the novelty +of an American repast. In London he had been very curious in his +inquiries about American oysters, as marvellous stories, which he did +not believe, had been told him of their great size. We +apologized—although we had taken care that the largest specimens to be +procured should startle his unwonted vision when he came to the +table—for what we called the extreme <i>smallness</i> of the oysters, +promising that we would do better next time. Six bloated Falstaffian +bivalves lay before him in their shells. I noticed that he gazed at them +anxiously with fork upraised; then he whispered to me, with a look of +anguish, "How shall I do it?" I described to him the simple process by +which the free-born citizens of America were accustomed to accomplish +such a task. He seemed satisfied that the thing was feasible, selected +the smallest one in the half-dozen (rejecting a large one, "because," he +said, "it resembled the High Priest's servant's ear that Peter cut off") +and then bowed his head as if he were saying grace. All eyes were upon +him to watch the effect of a new sensation in the person of a great +British author. Opening his mouth very wide, he struggled for a moment, +and then all was over. I shall never forget the comic look of despair he +cast upon the other five over-occupied shells. I broke the perfect +stillness by asking him how he felt. "Profoundly grateful," he gasped, +"and as if I had swallowed a little baby." It was many years ago since +we gathered about him on that occasion, but, if my memory serves me, we +had what might be called <i>a pleasant evening</i>. Indeed, I remember much +hilarity, and sounds as of men laughing and singing far into midnight. I +could not deny, if called upon to testify in court, that we had a <i>good +time</i> on that frosty November evening.</p> + +<p>We had many happy days and nights together both in England and America, +but I remember none happier than that evening we passed with him when +the Punch people came to dine at his own table with the silver statuette +of Mr. Punch in full dress looking down upon the hospitable board from +the head of the table. This silver figure always stood in a conspicuous +place when Tom Taylor, Mark Lemon, Shirley Brooks, and the rest of his +jolly companions and life-long cronies were gathered together. If I were +to say here that there were any dull moments on <i>that</i> occasion, I +should not expect to be strictly believed.</p> + +<p>Thackeray's playfulness was a marked peculiarity; a great deal of the +time he seemed like a school-boy, just released from his task. In the +midst of the most serious topic under discussion he was fond of asking +permission to sing a comic song, or he would beg to be allowed to +enliven the occasion by the instant introduction of a brief +double-shuffle. Barry Cornwall told me that when he and Charles Lamb +were once making up a dinner-party together, Charles asked him not to +invite a certain lugubrious friend of theirs. "Because," said Lamb, "he +would cast a damper even over a funeral." I have often contrasted the +habitual qualities of that gloomy friend of theirs with the astounding +spirits of both Thackeray and Dickens. They always seemed to me to be +standing in the sunshine, and to be constantly warning other people out +of cloudland. During Thackeray's first visit to America his jollity knew +no bounds, and it became necessary often to repress him when he was +walking in the street. I well remember his uproarious shouting and +dancing when he was told that the tickets to his first course of +readings were all sold, and when we rode together from his hotel to the +lecture-hall he insisted on thrusting both his long legs out of the +carriage window, in deference, as he said, to his magnanimous +ticket-holders. An instance of his procrastination occurred the evening +of his first public appearance in America. His lecture was advertised to +take place at half past seven, and when he was informed of the hour, he +said he would try and be ready at eight o'clock, but thought it very +doubtful. Horrified at this assertion, I tried to impress upon him the +importance of punctuality on this, the night of his first bow to an +American audience. At a quarter past seven I called for him, and found +him not only unshaved and undressed for the evening, but rapturously +absorbed in making a pen-and-ink drawing to illustrate a passage in +Goethe's Sorrows of Werther, for a lady, which illustration,—a charming +one, by the way, for he was greatly skilled in drawing,—he vowed he +would finish before he would budge an inch in the direction of the (I +omit the adjective) Melodeon. A comical incident occurred just as he was +about leaving the hall, after his first lecture in Boston. A shabby, +ungainly looking man stepped briskly up to him in the anteroom, seized +his hand and announced himself as "proprietor of the Mammoth Rat," and +proposed to exchange season tickets. Thackeray, with the utmost gravity, +exchanged cards and promised to call on the wonderful quadruped next +day.</p> + +<p>Thackeray's motto was 'Avoid performing to-day, if possible, what can be +postponed till to-morrow.' Although he received large sums for his +writings, he managed without much difficulty to keep his expenditures +fully abreast, and often in advance of, his receipts. His pecuniary +object in visiting America the second time was to lay up, as he said, a +"pot of money" for his two daughters, and he left the country with more +than half his lecture engagements unfulfilled. He was to have visited +various cities in the Middle and Western States; but he took up a +newspaper one night, in his hotel in New York, before retiring, saw a +steamer advertised to sail the next morning for England, was seized with +a sudden fit of homesickness, rang the bell for his servant, who packed +up his luggage that night, and the next day he sailed. The first +intimation I had of his departure was a card which he sent by the pilot +of the steamer, with these words upon it: "Good by, Fields; good by, +Mrs. Fields; God bless everybody, says W.M.T." Of course he did not +avail himself of the opportunity afforded him for receiving a very large +sum in America, and he afterwards told me in London, that if Mr. Astor +had offered him half his fortune if he would allow that particular +steamer to sail without him, he should have declined the +well-intentioned but impossible favor, and gone on board.</p> + +<p>No man has left behind him a tenderer regard for his genius and foibles +among his friends than Thackeray. He had a natural love of good which +nothing could wholly blur or destroy. He was a most generous critic of +the writings of his contemporaries, and no one has printed or spoken +warmer praise of Dickens, in one sense his great rival, than he.</p> + +<p>Thackeray was not a voluminous correspondent, but what exquisite letters +he has left in the hands of many of his friends! "Should any letters +arrive," he says in a little missive from Philadelphia, "addressed to +the care of J.T.F. for the ridiculous author of this, that, and the +other, F. is requested to send them to Mercantile Library, Baltimore. My +ghostly enemy will be delighted (or will gnash his teeth with rage) to +hear that the lectures in the capital of Pa. have been very well +attended. No less than 750 people paid at the door on Friday night, and +though last night there was a storm of snow so furious that no +reasonable mortal could face it, 500 (at least) amiable maniacs were in +the lecture-room, and wept over the fate of the last king of these +colonies."</p> + +<p>Almost every day, while he was lecturing in America, he would send off +little notes exquisitely written in point of penmanship, and sometimes +embellished with characteristic pen-drawings. Having attended an +extemporaneous supper festival at "Porter's," he was never tired of +"going again." Here is a scrap of paper holding these few words, +written in 1852.</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Nine o'clock, P.M. Tremont. + +<p> "Arrangements have just been concluded for a meeting <i>somewhere</i> + to-night, which we much desire you should attend. Are you equal to + two nights running of good time?"</p></div> + +<p>Then follows a pen portrait of a friend of his with a cloven foot and a +devil's tail just visible under his cloak Sometimes, to puzzle his +correspondent, he would write in so small a hand that the note could not +be read without the aid of a magnifying-glass. Calligraphy was to him +one of the fine arts, and he once told Dr. John Brown of Edinburgh, that +if all trades failed, he would earn sixpences by writing the Lord's +Prayer and the Creed (not the Athanasian) in the size of that coin. He +greatly delighted in rhyming and lisping notes and billets. Here is one +of them, dated from Baltimore without signature:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Dear F——th! The thanguinary fateth (I don't know what their anger + meanth) brought me your letter of the eighth, yethterday, only the + fifteenth! What blunder cauthed by chill delay (thee Doctor + Johnthon'th noble verthe) Thuth kept my longing thoul away, from all + that motht I love on earth? Thankth for the happy contenth!—thothe + Dithpatched to J.G.K. and Thonth, and that thmall letter you + inclothe from Parith, from my dearetht oneth! I pray each month may + tho increathe my thmall account with J.G. King, that all the thipth + which croth the theath, good tidingth of my girlth may bring!—that + every blething fortune yieldth, I altho pray, may come to path on + Mithter and Mrth. J.T. F——th, and all good friendth in Bothton, + Math.!"</p></div> + +<p>While he was staying at the Clarendon Hotel, in New York, every +morning's mail brought a few lines, sometimes only one line, sometimes +only two words, from him, reporting progress. One day he tells me: +"Immense hawdience last night." Another day he says: "Our shares look +very much up this morning." On the 29th of November, 1852, he writes: +"I find I have a much bigger voice than I knew of, and am not afraid of +anybody." At another time he writes: "I make no doubt you have seen that +admirable paper, the New York Herald, and are aware of the excellent +reception my lectures are having in this city. It was a lucky Friday +when first I set foot in this country. I have nearly saved the fifty +dollars you lent me in Boston." In a letter from Savannah, dated the +19th of March, 1853, in answer to one I had written to him, telling him +that a charming epistle, which accompanied the gift of a silver mug he +had sent to me some time before, had been stolen from me, he says:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"My dear fellow, I remember I asked you in that letter to accept a + silver mug in token of our pleasant days together, and to drink a + health sometimes in it to a sincere friend.... Smith and Elder write + me word they have sent by a Cunard to Boston a packet of paper, + stamped etc. in London. I want it to be taken from the Custom-House, + dooties paid etc., and dispatched to Miss ——, New York. Hold your + tongue, and don't laugh, you rogue. Why shouldn't she have her + paper, and I my pleasure, without your wicked, wicked sneers and + imperence? I'm only a cipher in the young lady's estimation, and why + shouldn't I sigh for her if I like. I hope I shall see you all at + Boston before very long. I always consider Boston as my native + place, you know."</p></div> + +<p>I wish I could recall half the incidents connected with the dear, dear +old Thackeray days, when I saw him so constantly and enjoyed him so +hugely; but, alas! many of them are gone, with much more that is lovely +and would have been of <i>good report</i>, could they be now +remembered;—they are dead as—(Holmes always puts your simile quite +right for you),—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"Dead as the bulrushes round little Moses,<br /></span> +<span class='i5'>On the old banks of the Nile."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But while I sit here quietly, and have no fear of any bad, +unsympathizing listeners who might, if some other subject were up, +frown upon my levity, let me walk through the dusky chambers of my +memory and report what I find there, just as the records turn up, +without regard to method.</p> + +<p>I once made a pilgrimage with Thackeray (at my request, of course, the +visits were planned) to the various houses where his books had been +written; and I remember when we came to Young Street, Kensington, he +said, with mock gravity, "Down on your knees, you rogue, for here +'Vanity Fair' was penned! And I will go down with you, for I have a high +opinion of that little production myself." He was always perfectly +honest in his expressions about his own writings, and it was delightful +to hear him praise them when he could depend on his listeners. A friend +congratulated him once on that touch in "Vanity Fair" in which Becky +"<i>admires</i>" her husband when he is giving Steyne the punishment which +ruins <i>her</i> for life. "Well," he said, "when I wrote the sentence, I +slapped my fist on the table and said, <i>'That</i> is a touch of genius!'"</p> + +<p>He told me he was nearly forty years old before he was recognized in +literature as belonging to a class of writers at all above the ordinary +magazinists of his day. "I turned off far better things then than I do +now," said he, "and I wanted money sadly, (my parents were rich but +respectable, and I had spent my guineas in my youth,) but how little I +got for my work! It makes me laugh," he continued, "at what The Times +pays me now, when I think of the old days, and how much better I wrote +for them then, and got a shilling where I now get ten."</p> + +<p>One day he wanted a little service done for a friend, and I remember his +very quizzical expression, as he said, "Please say the favor asked will +greatly oblige a man of the name of Thackeray, whose only recommendation +is, that he has seen Napoleon and Goethe, and is the owner of Schiller's +sword."</p> + +<p>I think he told me he and Tennyson were at one time intimate; but I +distinctly remember a description he gave me of having heard the poet, +when a young man, storming about in the first rapture of composing his +poem of "Ulysses." One line of it Tennyson greatly revelled in,—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"And see the great Achilles, whom we knew."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"He went through the streets," said Thackeray, "screaming about his +great Achilles, whom we knew," as if we had all made the acquaintance of +that gentleman, and were very proud of it.</p> + +<p>One of the most comical and interesting occasions I remember, in +connection with Thackeray, was going with him to a grand concert given +fifteen or twenty years ago by Madame Sontag. We sat near an entrance +door in the hall, and every one who came in, male and female, Thackeray +pretended to know, and gave each one a name and brief chronicle, as the +presence flitted by. It was in Boston, and as he had been in town only a +day or two, and knew only half a dozen people in it, the biographies +were most amusing. As I happened to know several people who passed, it +was droll enough to hear this great master of character give them their +dues. Mr. Choate moved along in his regal, affluent manner. The large +style of the man, so magnificent and yet so modest, at once arrested +Thackeray's attention, and he forbore to place him in his extemporaneous +catalogue. I remember a pallid, sharp-faced girl fluttering past, and +how Thackeray exulted in the history of this "frail little bit of +porcelain," as he called her. There was something in her manner that +made him hate her, and he insisted she had murdered somebody on her way +to the hall. Altogether this marvellous prelude to the concert made a +deep impression on Thackeray's one listener, into whose ear he whispered +his fatal insinuations. There is one man still living and moving about +the streets I walk in occasionally, whom I never encounter without +almost a shudder, remembering as I do the unerring shaft which Thackeray +sent that night into the unknown man's character.</p> + +<p>One day, many years ago, I saw him chaffing on the sidewalk in London, +in front of the Athenaeum Club, with a monstrous-sized, "copiously +ebriose" cabman, and I judged from the driver's ludicrously careful way +of landing the coin deep down in his breeches-pocket, that Thackeray had +given him a very unusual fare. "Who is your fat friend?" I asked, +crossing over to shake hands with him. "O, that indomitable youth is an +old crony of mine," he replied; and then, quoting Falstaff, "a goodly, +portly man, i' faith, and a corpulent, of a cheerful look, a pleasing +eye, and a most noble <i>carriage</i>." It was the <i>manner</i> of saying this, +then, and there in the London street, the cabman moving slowly off on +his sorry vehicle, with one eye (an eye dewy with gin and water, and a +tear of gratitude, perhaps) on Thackeray, and the great man himself so +jovial and so full of kindness!</p> + +<p>It was a treat to hear him, as I once did, discourse of Shakespeare's +probable life in Stratford among his neighbors. He painted, as he alone +could paint, the great poet sauntering about the lanes without the +slightest show of greatness, having a crack with the farmers, and in +very earnest talk about the crops. "I don't believe," said Thackeray, +"that these village cronies of his ever looked upon him as the mighty +poet,</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>'Sailing with supreme dominion<br /></span> +<span>Through the azure deep of air,'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>but simply as a wholesome, good-natured citizen, with whom it was always +pleasant to have a chat. I can see him now," continued Thackeray, +"leaning over a cottage gate, and tasting good Master Such-a-one's +home-brewed, and inquiring with a real interest after the mistress and +her children." Long before he put it into his lecture, I heard him say +in words to the same effect: "I should like to have been Shakespeare's +shoe-black, just to have lived in his house, just to have worshipped +him, to have run on his errands, and seen that sweet, serene face." To +have heard Thackeray depict, in his own charming manner, and at +considerable length, the imaginary walks and talks of Shakespeare, when +he would return to his home from occasional visits to London, pouring +into the ready ears of his unsophisticated friends and neighbors the +gossip from town which he thought would be likely to interest them, is +something to remember all one's days.</p> + +<p>The enormous circulation achieved by the Cornhill Magazine, when it was +first started with Thackeray for its editor in chief, is a matter of +literary history. The announcement by his publishers that a sale of a +hundred and ten thousand of the first number had been reached made the +editor half delirious with joy, and he ran away to Paris to be rid of +the excitement for a few days. I met him by appointment at his hotel in +the Rue de la Paix, and found him wild with exultation and full of +enthusiasm for excellent George Smith, his publisher. "London," he +exclaimed, "is not big enough to contain me now, and I am obliged to add +Paris to my residence! Great heavens," said he, throwing up his long +arms, "where will this tremendous circulation stop! Who knows but that I +shall have to add Vienna and Rome to my whereabouts? If the worst comes +to the worst, New York, also, may fall into my clutches, and only the +Rocky Mountains may be able to stop my progress!" Those days in Paris +with him were simply tremendous. We dined at all possible and impossible +places together. We walked round and round the glittering court of the +Palais Royal, gazing in at the windows of the jewellers' shops, and all +my efforts were necessary to restrain him from rushing in and ordering a +pocketful of diamonds and "other trifles," as he called them; "for," +said he, "how can I spend the princely income which Smith allows me for +editing the Cornhill, unless I begin instantly somewhere?" If he saw a +group of three or four persons talking together in an excited way, after +the manner of that then riant Parisian people, he would whisper to me +with immense gesticulation: "There, there, you see the news has reached +Paris, and perhaps the number has gone up since my last accounts from +London." His spirits during those few days were colossal, and he told me +that he found it impossible to sleep, "for counting up his subscribers."</p> + +<p>I happened to know personally (and let me modestly add, with some degree +of sympathy) what he suffered editorially, when he had the charge and +responsibility of a magazine. With first-class contributors he got on +very well, he said, but the extortioners and revilers bothered the very +life out of him. He gave me some amusing accounts of his +misunderstandings with the "fair" (as he loved to call them), some of +whom followed him up so closely with their poetical compositions, that +his house (he was then living in Onslow Square) was never free of +interruption. "The darlings demanded," said he, "that I should re-write, +if I could not understand their —— nonsense and put their halting +lines into proper form." "I was so appalled," said he, "when they set +upon me with their 'ipics and their ipecacs,' that you might have +knocked me down with a feather, sir. It was insupportable, and I fled +away into France." As he went on, waxing drolly furious at the +recollection of various editorial scenes, I could not help remembering +Mr. Yellowplush's recommendation, thus characteristically expressed: +"Take my advice, honrabble sir,—listen to a humble footmin: it's +genrally best in poatry to understand puffickly what you mean yourself, +and to igspress your meaning clearly afterwoods,—in the simpler words +the better, p'r'aps."</p> + +<p>He took very great delight in his young daughter's first contributions +to the Cornhill, and I shall always remember how he made me get into a +cab, one day in London, that I might hear, as we rode along, the joyful +news he had to impart, that he had just been reading his daughter's +first paper, which was entitled "Little Scholars." "When I read it," +said he, "I blubbered like a child, it is so good, so simple, and so +honest; and my little girl wrote it, every word of it."</p> + +<p>During his second visit to Boston I was asked to invite him to attend an +evening meeting of a scientific club, which was to be held at the house +of a distinguished member. I was very reluctant to ask him to be +present, for I knew he could be easily bored, and I was fearful that a +prosy essay or geological speech might ensue, and I knew he would be +exasperated with me, even although I were the <i>innocent</i> cause of his +affliction. My worst fears were realized. We had hardly got seated, +before a dull, bilious-looking old gentleman rose, and applied his auger +with such pertinacity that we were all bored nearly to distraction. I +dared not look at Thackeray, but I felt that his eye was upon me. My +distress may be imagined, when he got up quite deliberately from the +prominent place where a chair had been set for him, and made his exit +very noiselessly into a small anteroom leading into the larger room, and +in which no one was sitting. The small apartment was dimly lighted, but +he knew that I knew <i>he</i> was there. Then commenced a series of +pantomimic feats impossible to describe adequately. He threw an +imaginary person (myself, of course) upon the floor, and proceeded to +stab him several times with a paper-folder, which he caught up for the +purpose. After disposing of his victim in this way, he was not +satisfied, for the dull lecture still went on in the other room, and he +fired an imaginary revolver several times at an imaginary head. Still, +the droning speaker proceeded with his frozen subject (it was something +about the Arctic regions, if I remember rightly), and now began the +greatest pantomimic scene of all, namely, murder by poison, after the +manner in which the player king is disposed of in Hamlet. Thackeray had +found a small vial on the mantel-shelf, and out of that he proceeded to +pour the imaginary "juice of cursed hebenon" into the imaginary porches +of somebody's ears. The whole thing was inimitably done, and I hoped +nobody saw it but myself; but years afterwards, a ponderous, fat-witted +young man put the question squarely to me: "What <i>was</i> the matter with +Mr. Thackeray, that night the club met at Mr ——'s house?"</p> + +<p>Overhearing me say one morning something about the vast attractions of +London to a greenhorn like myself, he broke in with, "Yes, but you have +not seen the grandest one yet! Go with me to-day to St. Paul's and hear +the charity children sing." So we went, and I saw the "head cynic of +literature," the "hater of humanity," as a critical dunce in the Times +once called him, hiding his bowed face, wet with tears, while his whole +frame shook with emotion, as the children of poverty rose to pour out +their anthems of praise. Afterwards he wrote in one of his books this +passage, which seems to me perfect in its feeling and tone:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"And yet there is one day in the year when I +think St. Paul's + presents the noblest sight in the whole world; when five thousand + charity children, with cheeks like nosegays, and sweet, fresh + voices, sing the hymn which makes every heart thrill with praise and + happiness. I have seen a hundred grand sights in the + world,—coronations, Parisian splendors, Crystal Palace openings, + Pope's chapels with their processions of long-tailed cardinals and + quavering choirs of fat soprani,—but think in all Christendom there + is no such sight as Charity Children's day. <i>Non Anglei, sed + angeli</i>. As one looks at that beautiful multitude of innocents; as + the first note strikes; indeed one may almost fancy that cherubs are + singing."</p> +</div> + +<p> I parted with Thackeray for the last time in the street, at + midnight, in London, a few months before his death. The Cornhill + Magazine, under his editorship, having proved a very great success, + grand dinners were given every month in honor of the new venture. We + had been sitting late at one of these festivals, and, as it was + getting toward morning, I thought it wise, as far as I was + concerned, to be moving homeward before the sun rose. Seeing my + intention to withdraw, he insisted on driving me in his brougham to + my lodgings. When we reached the outside door of our host, + Thackeray's servant, seeing a stranger with his master, touched his + hat and asked where he should drive us. It was then between one and + two o'clock,—time certainly for all decent diners out to be at + rest. Thackeray put on one of his most quizzical expressions, and + said to John, in answer to his question, "I think we will make a + morning call on the Lord Bishop of London." John knew his master's + quips and cranks too well to suppose he was in earnest, so I gave + him my address, and we went on. When we reached my lodgings the + clocks were striking two, and the early morning air was raw and + piercing. Opposing all my entreaties for leave-taking in the + carriage, he insisted upon getting out on the sidewalk and escorting + me up to my door, saying, with a mock heroic protest to the heavens + above us, "That it would be shameful for a full-blooded Britisher to + leave an unprotected Yankee friend exposed to ruffians, who prowl + about the streets with an eye to plunder." Then giving me a gigantic + embrace, he sang a verse of which he knew me to be very fond; and so + vanished out of my sight the great-hearted author of "Pendennis" and + "Vanity Fair." But I think of him still as moving, in his own + stately way, up and down the crowded thoroughfares of London, + dropping in at the Garrick, or sitting at the window of the + Athenaeum Club, and watching the stupendous tide of life that is + ever moving past in that wonderful city.</p> + +<p> Thackeray was a <i>master</i> in every sense, having as it were, in + himself, a double quantity of being. Robust humor and lofty + sentiment alternated so strangely in him, that sometimes he seemed + like the natural son of Rabelais, and at others he rose up a very + twin brother of the Stratford Seer. There was nothing in him + amorphous and unconsidered. Whatever he chose to do was always + perfectly done. There was a genuine Thackeray flavor in everything + he was willing to say or to write. He detected with unfailing skill + the good or the vile wherever it existed. He had an unerring eye, a + firm understanding, and abounding truth. "Two of his great master + powers," said the chairman at a dinner given to him many years ago + in Edinburgh, "are <i>satire</i> and <i>sympathy</i>." George Brimley + remarked, "That he could not have painted Vanity Fair as he has, + unless Eden had been shining in his inner eye." He had, indeed, an + awful insight, with a world of solemn tenderness and simplicity, in + his composition. Those who heard the same voice that withered the + memory of King George the Fourth repeat "The spacious firmament on + high" have a recollection not easily to be blotted from the mind, + and I have a kind of pity for all who were born so recently as not + to have heard and understood Thackeray's Lectures. But they can read + him, and I beg of them to try and appreciate the tenderer phase of + his genius, as well as the sarcastic one. He teaches many lessons to + young men, and here is one of them, which I quote <i>memoriter</i> from + "Barry Lyndon": "Do you not, as a boy, remember waking of bright + summer mornings and finding your mother looking over you? had not + the gaze of her tender eyes stolen into your senses long before you + woke, and cast over your slumbering spirit a sweet spell of peace, + and love, and fresh-springing joy?" My dear friend, John Brown, of + Edinburgh (whom may God long preserve to both countries where he is + so loved and honored), chronicles this touching incident. "We cannot + resist here recalling one Sunday evening in December, when Thackeray + was walking with two friends along the Dean Road, to the west of + Edinburgh,—one of the noblest outlets to any city. It was a lovely + evening; such a sunset as one never forgets; a rich dark bar of + cloud hovered over the sun, going down behind the Highland hills, + lying bathed in amethystine bloom; between this cloud and the hills + there was a narrow slip of the pure ether, of a tender cowslip + color, lucid, and as if it were the very body of heaven in its + clearness; every object standing out as if etched upon the sky. The + northwest end of Corstorphine Hill, with its trees and rocks, lay in + the heart of this pure radiance; and there a wooden crane, used in + the granary below, was so placed as to assume the figure of a cross; + there it was, unmistakable, lifted up against the crystalline sky. + All three gazed at it silently. As they gazed, Thackeray gave + utterance in a tremulous, gentle, and rapid voice to what all were + feeling, in the word, 'CALVARY!' The friends walked on in silence, + and then turned to other things. All that evening he was very gentle + and serious, speaking, as he seldom did, of divine things,—of + death, of sin, of eternity, of salvation, expressing his simple + faith in God and in his Saviour."</p> + +<p> Thackeray was found dead in his bed on Christmas morning, and he + probably died without pain. His mother and his daughters were + sleeping under the same roof when he passed away alone. Dickens told + me that, looking on him as he lay in his coffin, he wondered that + the figure he had known in life as one of such noble presence could + seem so shrunken and wasted; but there had been years of sorrow, + years of labor, years of pain, in that now exhausted life. It was + his happiest Christmas morning when he heard the Voice calling him + homeward to unbroken rest.</p> + +<hr class=full> +<a name='III_HAWTHORNE'></a> +<h2>HAWTHORNE.</h2> + +<p><i>A hundred years ago Henry Vaughan seems almost to have anticipated + Hawthorne's appearance when he wrote that beautiful line,</i></p> + +<div class='poem'> + <div class='stanza'> + <span>"<i>Feed on the vocal silence of his eye</i>."<br /> + </span> + </div> +</div> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h2> III. HAWTHORNE.</h2> + +<p> I am sitting to-day opposite the likeness of the rarest genius + America has given to literature,—a man who lately sojourned in this + busy world of ours, but during many years of his life</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"Wandered lonely as a cloud,"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p> a man who had, so to speak, a physical affinity with solitude. The + writings of this author have never soiled the public mind with one + unlovely image. His men and women have a magic of their own, and we + shall wait a long time before another arises among us to take his + place. Indeed, it seems probable no one will ever walk precisely the + same round of fiction which he traversed with so free and firm a + step.</p> + +<p> The portrait I am looking at was made by Rowse (an exquisite + drawing), and is a very truthful representation of the head of + Nathaniel Hawthorne. He was several times painted and photographed, + but it was impossible for art to give the light and beauty of his + wonderful eyes. I remember to have heard, in the literary circles of + Great Britain, that, since Burns, no author had appeared there with + a finer face than Hawthorne's. Old Mrs. Basil Montagu told me, many + years ago, that she sat next to Burns at dinner, when he appeared in + society in the first flush of his fame, after the Edinburgh edition + of his poems had been published. She said, among other things, that, + although the company consisted of some of the best bred men of + England, Burns seemed to her the most perfect gentleman among them. + She noticed, particularly, his genuine grace and deferential manner + toward women, and I was interested to hear Mrs. Montagu's brilliant + daughter, when speaking of Hawthorne's advent in English society, + describe him in almost the same terms as I had heard her mother, + years before, describe the Scottish poet. I happened to be in London + with Hawthorne during his consular residence in England, and was + always greatly delighted at the rustle of admiration his personal + appearance excited when he entered a room. His bearing was modestly + grand, and his voice touched the ear like a melody.</p> + +<p> Here is a golden curl which adorned the head of Nathaniel Hawthorne + when he lay a little child in his cradle. It was given to me many + years ago by one near and dear to him. I have two other similar + "blossoms," which I keep pressed in the same book of remembrance. + One is from the head of John Keats, and was given to me by Charles + Cowden Clarke, and the other graced the head of Mary Mitford, and + was sent to me after her death by her friendly physician, who + watched over her last hours. Leigh Hunt says with a fine poetic + emphasis,</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"There seems a love in hair, though it be dead.<br /></span> +<span>It is the gentlest, yet the strongest thread<br /></span> +<span>Of our frail plant,—a blossom from the tree<br /></span> +<span>Surviving the proud trunk;—as though it said,<br /></span> +<span>Patience and Gentleness is Power. In me<br /></span> +<span>Behold affectionate eternity."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p> There is a charming old lady, now living two doors from me, who + dwelt in Salem when Hawthorne was born, and, being his mother's + neighbor at that time (Mrs. Hawthorne then lived in Union Street), + there came a message to her intimating that the baby could be seen + by calling. So my friend tells me she went in, and saw the little + winking thing in its mother's arms. She is very clear as to the + beauty of the infant, even when only a week old, and remembers that + "he was a pleasant child, quite handsome, with golden curls." She + also tells me that Hawthorne's mother was a beautiful woman, with + remarkable eyes, full of sensibility and expression, and that she + was a person of singular purity of mind. Hawthorne's father, whom my + friend knew well, she describes as a warm-hearted and kindly man, + very fond of children. He was somewhat inclined to melancholy, and + of a reticent disposition. He was a great reader, employing all his + leisure time at sea over books.</p> + +<p> Hawthorne's father died when Nathaniel was four years old, and from + that time his uncle Robert Manning took charge of his education, + sending him to the best schools and afterwards to college. When the + lad was about nine years old, while playing bat and ball at school, + he lamed his foot so badly that he used two crutches for more than a + year. His foot ceased to grow like the other, and the doctors of the + town were called in to examine the little lame boy. He was not + perfectly restored till he was twelve years old. His kind-hearted + schoolmaster, Joseph Worcester, the author of the Dictionary, came + every day to the house to hear the boy's lessons, so that he did not + fall behind in his studies. [There is a tradition in the Manning + family that Mr. Worcester was very much interested in Maria Manning + (a sister of Mrs. Hawthorne), who died in 1814, and that this was + one reason of his attention to Nathaniel.] The boy used to lie flat + upon the carpet, and read and study the long days through. Some time + after he had recovered from this lameness he had an illness causing + him to lose the use of his limbs, and he was obliged to seek again + the aid of his old crutches, which were then pieced out at the ends + to make them longer. While a little child, and as soon almost as he + began to read, the authors he most delighted in were Shakespeare, + Milton, Pope, and Thomson. The "Castle of Indolence" was an especial + favorite with him during boyhood. The first book he bought with his + own money was a copy of Spenser's "Faery Queen."</p> + +<p> One who watched him during his childhood tells me, that "when he was + six years old his favorite book was Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress': + and that whenever he went to visit his Grandmother Hawthorne, he + used to take the old family copy to a large chair in a corner of the + room near a window, and read it by the hour, without once speaking. + No one ever thought of asking how much of it he understood. I think + it one of the happiest circumstances of his training, that nothing + was ever explained to him, and that there was no professedly + intellectual person in the family to usurp the place of Providence + and supplement its shortcomings, in order to make him what he was + never intended to be. His mind developed itself; intentional + cultivation might have spoiled it.... He used to invent long + stories, wild and fanciful, and tell where he was going when he grew + up, and of the wonderful adventures he was to meet with, always + ending with, 'And I'm never coming back again,' in quite a solemn + tone, that enjoined upon us the advice to value him the more while + he stayed with us."</p> + +<p> When he could scarcely speak plain, it is recalled by members of the + family that the little fellow would go about the house, repeating + with vehement emphasis and gestures certain stagy lines from + Shakespeare's Richard III., which he had overheard from older + persons about him. One line, in particular, made a great impression + upon him, and he would start up on the most unexpected occasions and + fire off in his loudest tone,</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"Stand back, my Lord, and let the coffin pass."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p> On the 21st of August, 1820, No. 1 of "The Spectator, edited by N. + Hathorne," neatly written in printed letters by the editor's own + hand, appeared. A prospectus was issued the week before, setting + forth that the paper would be published on Wednesdays, "price 12 + cents per annum, payment to be made at the end of the year." Among + the advertisements is the following:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Nathaniel Hathorne proposes to publish by subscription a NEW + EDITION of the MISERIES OF AUTHORS, to which will be added a SEQUEL, + containing FACTS and REMARKS drawn from his own experience."</p></div> + +<p>Six numbers only were published. The following subjects were discussed +by young "Hathorne" in the Spectator,—"On Solitude," "The End of the +Year," "On Industry," "On Benevolence," "On Autumn," "On Wealth," "On +Hope," "On Courage." The poetry on the last page of each number was +evidently written by the editor, except in one instance, when an Address +to the Sun is signed by one of his sisters. In one of the numbers he +apologizes that no deaths of any importance have taken place in the +town. Under the head of Births, he gives the following news, "The lady +of Dr. Winthrop Brown, a son and heir. Mrs. Hathorne's cat, seven +kittens. We hear that both of the above ladies are in a state of +convalescence." One of the literary advertisements reads:—</p> + +"Blank Books made and for sale by N. Hathorne."<br /> + +<p>While Hawthorne was yet a little fellow the family moved to Raymond in +the State of Maine; here his out-of-door life did him great service, for +he grew tall and strong, and became a good shot and an excellent +fisherman. Here also his imagination was first stimulated, the wild +scenery and the primitive manners of the people contributing greatly to +awaken his thought. At seventeen he entered Bowdoin College, and after +his graduation returned again to live in Salem. During his youth he had +an impression that he would die before the age of twenty-five; but the +Mannings, his ever-watchful and kind relations, did everything possible +for the care of his health, and he was tided safely over the period when +he was most delicate. Professor Packard told me that when Hawthorne was +a student at Bowdoin in his freshman year, his Latin compositions showed +such facility that they attracted the special attention of those who +examined them. The Professor also remembers that Hawthorne's English +compositions elicited from Professor Newman (author of the work on +Rhetoric) high commendations.</p> + +<p>When a youth Hawthorne made a journey into New Hampshire with his uncle, +Samuel Manning. They travelled in a two-wheeled chaise, and met with +many adventures which the young man chronicled in his home letters, Some +of the touches in these epistles were very characteristic and amusing, +and showed in those early years his quick observation and descriptive +power. The travellers "put up" at Farmington, in order to rest over +Sunday. Hawthorne writes to a member of the family in Salem: "As we were +wearied with rapid travelling, we found it impossible to attend divine +service, which was, of course, very grievous to us both. In the evening, +however, I went to a Bible class, with a very polite and agreeable +gentleman, whom I afterwards discovered to be a strolling tailor, of +very questionable habits."</p> + +<p>When the travellers arrived in the Shaker village of Canterbury, +Hawthorne at once made the acquaintance of the Community there, and the +account which he sent home was to the effect that the brothers and +sisters led a good and comfortable life, and he wrote: "If it were not +for the ridiculous ceremonies, a man might do a worse thing than to join +them." Indeed, he spoke to them about becoming a member of the Society, +and was evidently much impressed with the thrift and peace of the +establishment.</p> + +<p>This visit in early life to the Shakers is interesting as suggesting to +Hawthorne his beautiful story of "The Canterbury Pilgrims," which is in +his volume of "The Snow-Image, and other Twice-Told Tales."</p> + +<p>A lady of my acquaintance (the identical "Little Annie" of the "Ramble" +in "Twice-Told Tales") recalls the young man "when he returned home +after his collegiate studies." "He was even then," she says, "a most +noticeable person, never going into society, and deeply engaged in +reading everything he could lay his hands on. It was said in those days +that he had read every book in the Athenaeum Library in Salem." This +lady remembers that when she was a child, and before Hawthorne had +printed any of his stories, she used to sit on his knee and lean her +head on his shoulder, while by the hour he would fascinate her with +delightful legends, much more wonderful and beautiful than any she has +ever read since in printed books.</p> + +<p>The traits of the Hawthorne character were stern probity and +truthfulness. Hawthorne's mother had many characteristics in common with +her distinguished son, she also being a reserved and thoughtful person. +Those who knew the family describe the son's affection for her as of the +deepest and tenderest nature, and they remember that when she died his +grief was almost insupportable. The anguish he suffered from her loss is +distinctly recalled by many persons still living, who visited the family +at that time in Salem.</p> + +<p>I first saw Hawthorne when he was about thirty-five years old. He had +then published a collection of his sketches, the now famous "Twice-Told +Tales." Longfellow, ever alert for what is excellent, and eager to do a +brother author opportune and substantial service, at once came before +the public with a generous estimate of the work in the North American +Review; but the choice little volume, the most promising addition to +American literature that had appeared for many years, made little +impression on the public mind. Discerning readers, however, recognized +the supreme beauty in this new writer, and they never afterwards lost +sight of him.</p> + +<p>In 1828 Hawthorne published a short anonymous romance called Fanshawe. I +once asked him about this disowned publication, and he spoke of it with +great disgust, and afterwards he thus referred to the subject in a +letter written to me in 1851: "You make an inquiry about some supposed +former publication of mine. I cannot be sworn to make correct answers as +to all the literary or other follies of my nonage; and I earnestly +recommend you not to brush away the dust that may have gathered over +them. Whatever might do me credit you may be pretty sure I should be +ready enough to bring forward. Anything else it is our mutual interest +to conceal; and so far from assisting your researches in that direction, +I especially enjoin it on you, my dear friend, not to read any +unacknowledged page that you may suppose to be mine."</p> + +<p>When Mr. George Bancroft, then Collector of the Port of Boston, +appointed Hawthorne weigher and gauger in the custom-house, he did a +wise thing, for no public officer ever performed his disagreeable duties +better than our romancer. Here is a tattered little official document +signed by Hawthorne when he was watching over the interests of the +country: it certifies his attendance at the unlading of a brig, then +lying at Long Wharf in Boston. I keep this precious relic side by side +with one of a similar custom-house character, signed <i>Robert Burns</i>.</p> + +<p>I came to know Hawthorne very intimately after the Whigs displaced the +Democratic romancer from office. In my ardent desire to have him +retained in the public service, his salary at that time being his sole +dependence,—not foreseeing that his withdrawal from that sort of +employment would be the best thing for American letters that could +possibly happen,—I called, in his behalf, on several influential +politicians of the day, and well remember the rebuffs I received in my +enthusiasm for the author of the "Twice-Told Tales." One pompous little +gentleman in authority, after hearing my appeal, quite astounded me by +his ignorance of the claims of a literary man on his country. "Yes, +yes," he sarcastically croaked down his public turtle-fed throat, "I see +through it all, I see through it; this Hawthorne is one of them 'ere +visionists, and we don't want no such a man as him round." So the +"visionist" was not allowed to remain in office, and the country was +better served by him in another way. In the winter of 1849, after he had +been ejected from the custom-house, I went down to Salem to see him and +inquire after his health, for we heard he had been suffering from +illness. He was then living in a modest wooden house in Mall Street, if +I remember rightly the location. I found him alone in a chamber over the +sitting-room of the dwelling; and as the day was cold, he was hovering +near a stove. We fell into talk about his future prospects, and he was, +as I feared I should find him, in a very desponding mood. "Now," said I, +"is the time for you to publish, for I know during these years in Salem +you must have got something ready for the press." "Nonsense," said he; +"what heart had I to write anything, when my publishers (M. and Company) +have been so many years trying to sell a small edition of the +'Twice-Told Tales'?" I still pressed upon him the good chances he would +have now with something new. "Who would risk publishing a book for <i>me</i>, +the most unpopular writer in America?" "I would," said I, "and would +start with an edition of two thousand copies of anything you write." +"What madness!" he exclaimed; "your friendship for me gets the better of +your judgment. No, no," he continued; "I have no money to indemnify a +publisher's losses on my account." I looked at my watch and found that +the train would soon be starting for Boston, and I knew there was not +much time to lose in trying to discover what had been his literary work +during these last few years in Salem. I remember that I pressed him to +reveal to me what he had been writing. He shook his head and gave me to +understand he had produced nothing. At that moment I caught sight of a +bureau or set of drawers near where we were sitting; and immediately it +occurred to me that hidden away somewhere in that article of furniture +was a story or stories by the author of the "Twice-Told Tales," and I +became so positive of it that I charged him vehemently with the fact. He +seemed surprised, I thought, but shook his head again; and I rose to +take my leave, begging him not to come into the cold entry, saying I +would come back and see him again in a few days. I was hurrying down the +stairs when he called after me from the chamber, asking me to stop a +moment. Then quickly stepping into the entry with a roll of manuscript +in his hands, he said: "How in Heaven's name did you know this thing was +there? As you have found me out, take what I have written, and tell me, +after you get home and have time to read it, if it is good for anything. +It is either very good or very bad,—I don't know which." On my way up +to Boston I read the germ of "The Scarlet Letter"; before I slept that +night I wrote him a note all aglow with admiration of the marvellous +story he had put into my hands, and told him that I would come again to +Salem the next day and arrange for its publication. I went on in such an +amazing state of excitement when we met again in the little house, that +he would not believe I was really in earnest. He seemed to think I was +beside myself, and laughed sadly at my enthusiasm. However, we soon +arranged for his appearance again before the public with a book.</p> + +<p>This quarto volume before me contains numerous letters, written by him +from 1850 down to the month of his death. The first one refers to "The +Scarlet Letter," and is dated in January, 1850. At my suggestion he had +altered the plan of that story. It was his intention to make "The +Scarlet Letter" one of several short stories, all to be included in one +volume, and to be called</p> + +<span style='margin-left: 1.5em;'>OLD-TIME LEGENDS:</span><br /> +Together With Sketches,<br /> +EXPERIMENTAL AND IDEAL.<br /> + +<p>His first design was to make "The Scarlet Letter" occupy about two +hundred pages in his new book; but I persuaded him, after reading the +first chapters of the story, to elaborate it, and publish it as a +separate work. After it was settled that "The Scarlet Letter" should be +enlarged and printed by itself in a volume he wrote to me:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I am truly glad that you like the Introduction, for I was rather + afraid that it might appear absurd and impertinent to be talking + about myself, when nobody, that I know of, has requested any + information on that subject.</p> + +<p> "As regards the size of the book, I have been thinking a good deal + about it. Considered merely as a matter of taste and beauty, the + form of publication which you recommend seems to me much preferable + to that of the 'Mosses.'</p> + +<p> "In the present case, however, I have some doubts of the expediency, + because, if the book is made up entirely of 'The Scarlet Letter,' it + will be too sombre. I found it impossible to relieve the shadows of + the story with so much light as I would gladly have thrown in. + Keeping so close to its point as the tale does, and no otherwise + than by turning different sides of the same to the reader's eye, it + will weary very many people and disgust some. Is it safe, then, to + stake the fate of the book entirely on this one chance? A hunter + loads his gun with a bullet and several buckshot; and, following his + sagacious example, it was my purpose to conjoin the one long story + with half a dozen shorter ones, so that, failing to kill the public + outright with my biggest and heaviest lump of lead, I might have + other chances with the smaller bits, individually and in the + aggregate. However, I am willing to leave these considerations to + your judgment, and should not be sorry to have you decide for the + separate publication.</p> + +<p> "In this latter event it appears to me that the only proper title + for the book would be 'The Scarlet Letter,' for 'The Custom-House' + is merely introductory,—an entrance-hall to the magnificent edifice + which I throw open to my guests. It would be funny if, seeing the + further passages so dark and dismal, they should all choose to stop + there! If 'The Scarlet Letter' is to be the title, would it not be + well to print it on the title-page in red ink? I am not quite sure + about the good taste of so doing, but it would certainly be piquant + and appropriate, and, I think, attractive to the great gull whom we + are endeavoring to circumvent."</p></div> + +<p>One beautiful summer day, twenty years ago, I found Hawthorne in his +little red cottage at Lenox, surrounded by his happy young family. He +had the look, as somebody said, of a banished lord, and his grand figure +among the hills of Berkshire seemed finer than ever. His boy and girl +were swinging on the gate as we drove up to his door, and with their +sunny curls formed an attractive feature in the landscape. As the +afternoon was cool and delightful, we proposed a drive over to +Pittsfield to see Holmes, who was then living on his ancestral farm. +Hawthorne was in a cheerful condition, and seemed to enjoy the beauty of +the day to the utmost. Next morning we were all invited by Mr. Dudley +Field, then living at Stockbridge, to ascend Monument Mountain. Holmes, +Hawthorne, Duyckinck, Herman Melville, Headley, Sedgwick, Matthews, and +several ladies, were of the party. We scrambled to the top with great +spirit, and when we arrived, Melville, I remember, bestrode a peaked +rock, which ran out like a bowsprit, and pulled and hauled imaginary +ropes for our delectation. Then we all assembled in a shady spot, and +one of the party read to us Bryant's beautiful poem commemorating +Monument Mountain. Then we lunched among the rocks, and somebody +proposed Bryant's health, and "long life to the dear old poet." This was +the most popular toast of the day, and it took, I remember, a +considerable quantity of Heidsieck to do it justice. In the afternoon, +pioneered by Headley, we made our way, with merry shouts and laughter, +through the Ice-Glen. Hawthorne was among the most enterprising of the +merry-makers; and being in the dark much of the time, he ventured to +call out lustily and pretend that certain destruction was inevitable to +all of us. After this extemporaneous jollity, we dined together at Mr. +Dudley Field's in Stockbridge, and Hawthorne rayed out in a sparkling +and unwonted manner. I remember the conversation at table chiefly ran on +the physical differences between the present American and English men, +Hawthorne stoutly taking part in favor of the American. This 5th of +August was a happy day throughout, and I never saw Hawthorne in better +spirits.</p> + +<p>Often and often I have seen him sitting in the chair I am now occupying +by the window, looking out into the twilight. He liked to watch the +vessels dropping down the stream, and nothing pleased him more than to +go on board a newly arrived bark from Down East, as she was just moored +at the wharf. One night we made the acquaintance of a cabin-boy on board +a brig, whom we found off duty and reading a large subscription volume, +which proved, on inquiry, to be a Commentary on the Bible. When +Hawthorne questioned him why he was reading, then and there, that +particular book, he replied with a knowing wink at both of us, "There's +consider'ble her'sy in our place, and I'm a studying up for 'em." He +liked on Sunday to mouse about among the books, and there are few +volumes in this room that he has not handled or read. He knew he could +have unmolested habitation here, whenever he chose to come, and he was +never allowed to be annoyed by intrusion of any kind. He always slept in +the same room,—the one looking on the water; and many a night I have +heard his solemn footsteps over my head, long after the rest of the +house had gone to sleep. Like many other nervous men of genius, he was a +light sleeper, and he liked to be up and about early; but it was only +for a ramble among the books again. One summer morning I found him as +early as four o'clock reading a favorite poem, on Solitude, a piece he +very much admired. That morning I shall not soon forget, for he was in +the vein for autobiographical talk, and he gave me a most interesting +account of his father, the sea-captain, who died of the yellow-fever in +Surinam in 1808, and of his beautiful mother, who dwelt a secluded +mourner ever after the death of her husband. Then he told stories of his +college life, and of his one sole intimate, Franklin Pierce, whom he +loved devotedly his life long.</p> + +<p>In the early period of our acquaintance he much affected the old Boston +Exchange Coffee-House in Devonshire Street, and once I remember to have +found him shut up there before a blazing coal-fire, in the "tumultuous +privacy" of a great snow-storm, reading with apparent interest an +obsolete copy of the "Old Farmer's Almanac," which he had picked up +about the house. He also delighted in the Old Province House, at that +time an inn, kept by one Thomas Waite, whom he has immortalized. After +he was chosen a member of the Saturday Club he came frequently to dinner +with Felton, Longfellow, Holmes, and the rest of his friends, who +assembled once a month to dine together. At the table, on these +occasions, he was rather reticent than conversational, but when he +chose to talk it was observed that the best things said that day came +from him.</p> + +<p>As I turn over his letters, the old days, delightful to recall, come +back again with added interest.</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I sha'n't have the new story," he says in one of them, dated from + Lenox on the 1st of October, 1850, "ready by November, for I am + never good for anything in the literary way till after the first + autumnal frost, which has somewhat such an effect on my imagination + that it does on the foliage here about me,—multiplying and + brightening its hues; though they are likely to be sober and shabby + enough after all.</p> + +<p> "I am beginning to puzzle myself about a title for the book. The + scene of it is in one of those old projecting-stoned houses, + familiar to my eye in Salem; and the story, horrible to say, is a + little less than two hundred years long; though all but thirty or + forty pages of it refer to the present time. I think of such titles + as 'The House of the Seven Gables,' there being that number of + gable-ends to the old shanty; or 'The Seven-Gabled House'; or simply + 'The Seven Gables.' Tell me how these strike you. It appears to me + that the latter is rather the best, and has the great advantage that + it would puzzle the Devil to tell what it means."</p></div> + +<p>A month afterwards he writes further with regard to "The House of the +Seven Gables," concerning the title to which he was still in a +quandary:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"'The Old Pyncheon House: A Romance'; 'The Old Pyncheon Family; or + the House of the Seven Gables: A Romance';—choose between them. I + have rather a distaste to a double title? otherwise, I think I + should prefer the second. Is it any matter under which title it is + announced? If a better should occur hereafter, we can substitute. Of + these two, on the whole, I judge the first to be the better.</p> + +<p> "I write diligently, but not so rapidly as I had hoped. I find the + book requires more care and thought than 'The Scarlet Letter'; also + I have to wait oftener for a mood. 'The Scarlet Letter' being all in + one tone, I had only to get my pitch, and could then go on + interminably. Many passages of this book ought to be finished with + the minuteness of a Dutch picture, in order to give them their + proper effect. Sometimes, when tired of it, it strikes me that the + whole is an absurdity, from beginning to end; but the fact is, in + writing a romance, a man is always, or always ought to be, careering + on the utmost verge of a precipitous absurdity, and the skill lies + in coming as close as possible, without actually tumbling over. My + prevailing idea is, that the book ought to succeed better than 'The + Scarlet Letter,' though I have no idea that it will."</p></div> + +<p>On the 9th of December he was still at work on the new romance, and +writes:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"My desire and prayer is to get through with the business in hand. I + have been in a Slough of Despond for some days past, having written + so fiercely that I came to a stand-still. There are points where a + writer gets bewildered and cannot form any judgment of what he has + done, or tell what to do next. In these cases it is best to keep + quiet."</p></div> + +<p>On the 12th of January, 1851, he is still busy over his new book, and +writes: "My 'House of the Seven Gables' is, so to speak, finished; only +I am hammering away a little on the roof, and doing up a few odd jobs, +that were left incomplete." At the end of the month the manuscript of +his second great romance was put into the hands of the expressman at +Lenox, by Hawthorne himself, to be delivered to me. On the 27th he +writes:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"If you do not soon receive it, you may conclude that it has + miscarried; in which case, I shall not consent to the universe + existing a moment longer. I have no copy of it, except the wildest + scribble of a first draught, so that it could never be restored.</p> + +<p> "It has met with extraordinary success from that portion of the + public to whose judgment it has been submitted, viz. from my wife. I + likewise prefer it to 'The Scarlet Letter'; but an author's opinion + of his book just after completing it is worth little or nothing, he + being then in the hot or cold fit of a fever, and certain to rate it + too high or too low.</p> + +<p> "It has undoubtedly one disadvantage in being brought so close to + the present time; whereby its romantic improbabilities become more + glaring.</p> + +<p> "I deem it indispensable that the proof-sheets should be sent me for + correction. It will cause some delay, no doubt, but probably not + much more than if I lived in Salem. At all events, I don't see how + it can be helped. My autography is sometimes villanously blind; and + it is odd enough that whenever the printers do mistake a word, it is + just the very jewel of a word, worth all the rest of the + dictionary."</p></div> + +<p>I well remember with what anxiety I awaited the arrival of the +expressman with the precious parcel, and with what keen delight I read +every word of the new story before I slept. Here is the original +manuscript, just as it came that day, twenty years ago, fresh from the +author's hand. The printers carefully preserved it for me; and Hawthorne +once made a formal presentation of it, with great mock solemnity, in +this very room where I am now sitting.</p> + +<p>After the book came out he wrote:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I have by no means an inconvenient multitude of friends; but if + they ever do appear a little too numerous, it is when I am making a + list of those to whom presentation copies are to be sent. Please + send one to General Pierce, Horatio Bridge, R.W. Emerson, W.E. + Channing, Longfellow, Hillard, Sumner, Holmes, Lowell, and Thompson + the artist. You will yourself give one to Whipple, whereby I shall + make a saving. I presume you won't put the portrait into the book. + It appears to me an improper accompaniment to a new work. + Nevertheless, if it be ready, I should be glad to have each of these + presentation copies accompanied by a copy of the engraving put + loosely between the leaves. Good by. I must now trudge two miles to + the village, through rain and mud knee-deep, after that accursed + proof-sheet. The book reads very well in proofs, but I don't believe + it will take like the former one. The preliminary chapter was what + gave 'The Scarlet Letter' its vogue."</p></div> + +<p>The engraving he refers to in this letter was made from a portrait by +Mr. C.G. Thompson, and at that time, 1851, was an admirable likeness. On +the 6th of March he writes:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"The package, with my five heads, arrived yesterday afternoon, and + we are truly obliged to you for putting so many at our disposal. + They are admirably done. The children recognized their venerable + sire with great delight. My wife complains somewhat of a want of + cheerfulness in the face; and, to say the truth, it does appear to + be with a bedevilled melancholy; but it will do all the better for + the author of 'The Scarlet Letter.' In the expression there is a + singular resemblance (which I do not remember in Thompson's picture) + to a miniature of my father."</p></div> + +<p>His letters to me, during the summer of 1851, were frequent and +sometimes quite long. "The House of the Seven Gables" was warmly +welcomed, both at home and abroad. On the 23d of May he writes:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Whipple's notices have done more than pleased me, for they have + helped me to see my book. Much of the censure I recognize as just; I + wish I could feel the praise to be so fully deserved. Being better + (which I insist it is) than 'The Scarlet Letter,' I have never + expected it to be so popular (this steel pen makes me write + awfully). —— —— Esq., of Boston, has written to me, complaining + that I have made his grandfather infamous! It seems there was + actually a Pyncheon (or Pynchon, as he spells it) family resident in + Salem, and that their representative, at the period of the + Revolution, was a certain Judge Pynchon, a Tory and a refugee. This + was Mr. ——'s grandfather, and (at least, so he dutifully describes + him) the most exemplary old gentleman in the world. There are + several touches in my account of the Pyncheons which, he says, make + it probable that I had this actual family in my eye, and he + considers himself infinitely wronged and aggrieved, and thinks it + monstrous that the 'virtuous dead' cannot be suffered to rest + quietly in their graves. He further complains that I speak + disrespectfully of the ——'s in Grandfather's Chair. He writes more + in sorrow than in anger, though there is quite enough of the latter + quality to give piquancy to his epistle. The joke of the matter is, + that I never heard of his grandfather, nor knew that any Pyncheons + had ever lived in Salem, but took the name because it suited the + tone of my book, and was as much my property, for fictitious + purposes, as that of Smith. I have pacified him by a very polite and + gentlemanly letter, and if ever you publish any more of the Seven + Gables, I should like to write a brief preface, expressive of my + anguish for this unintentional wrong, and making the best reparation + possible else these wretched old Pyncheons will have no peace in the + other world, nor in this. Furthermore, there is a Rev. Mr. ——, + resident within four miles of me, and a cousin of Mr. ——, who + states that he likewise is highly indignant. Who would have dreamed + of claimants starting up for such an inheritance as the House of the + Seven Gables!</p> + +<p> "I mean, to write, within six weeks or two months next ensuing, a + book of stories made up of classical myths. The subjects are: The + Story of Midas, with his Golden Touch, Pandora's Box, The Adventure + of Hercules in quest of the Golden Apples, Bellerophon and the + Chimera, Baucis and Philemon, Perseus and Medusa; these, I think, + will be enough to make up a volume. As a framework, I shall have a + young college student telling these stories to his cousins and + brothers and sisters, during his vacations, sometimes at the + fireside, sometimes in the woods and dells. Unless I greatly + mistake, these old fictions will work up admirably for the purpose; + and I shall aim at substituting a tone in some degree Gothic or + romantic, or any such tone as may best please myself, instead of the + classic coldness, which is as repellant as the touch of marble.</p> + +<p> "I give you these hints of my plan, because you will perhaps think + it advisable to employ Billings to prepare some illustrations. There + is a good scope in the above subjects for fanciful designs. + Bellerophon and the Chimera, for instance: the Chimera a fantastic + monster with three heads, and Bellerophon fighting him, mounted on + Pegasus; Pandora opening the box; Hercules talking with Atlas, an + enormous giant who holds the sky on his shoulders, or sailing across + the sea in an immense bowl; Perseus transforming a king and all his + subjects to stone, by exhibiting the Gorgon's head. No particular + accuracy in costume need be aimed at. My stories will bear out the + artist in any liberties he may be inclined to take. Billings would + do these things well enough, though his characteristics are grace + and delicacy rather than wildness of fancy. The book, if it comes + out of my mind as I see it now, ought to have pretty wide success + amongst young people; and, of course, I shall purge out all the old + heathen wickedness, and put in a moral wherever practicable. For a + title how would this do: 'A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys'; or, + 'The Wonder-Book of Old Stories'? I prefer the former. Or 'Myths + Modernized for my Children'; that won't do.</p> + +<p> "I need a little change of scene, and meant to have come to Boston + and elsewhere before writing this book; but I cannot leave home at + present."</p></div> + +<p>Throughout the summer Hawthorne was constantly worried by people who +insisted that they, or their families in the present or past +generations, had been deeply wronged in "The House of the Seven Gables." +In a note, received from him on the 5th of June, he says:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I have just received a letter from still another claimant of the + Pyncheon estate. I wonder if ever, and how soon, I shall get a just + estimate of how many jackasses there are in this ridiculous world. + My correspondent, by the way, estimates the number of these Pyncheon + jackasses at about twenty; I am doubtless to by remonstrated with by + each individual. After exchanging shots with all of them, I shall + get you to publish the whole correspondence, in a style to match + that of my other works, and I anticipate a great run for the volume.</p> + +<p> "P.S. My last correspondent demands that another name be + substituted, instead of that of the family; to which I assent, in + case the publishers can be prevailed on to cancel the stereotype + plates. Of course you will consent! Pray do!"</p></div> + +<p>Praise now poured in upon him from all quarters. Hosts of critics, both +in England and America, gallantly came forward to do him service, and +his fame was assured. On the 15th of July he sends me a jubilant letter +from Lenox, from which I will copy several passages:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Mrs. Kemble writes very good accounts from London of the reception + my two romances have met with there. She says they have made a + greater sensation than any book since 'Jane Eyre'; but probably she + is a little or a good deal too emphatic in her representation of the + matter. At any rate, she advises that the sheets of any future book + be sent to Moxon, and such an arrangement made that a copyright may + be secured in England as well as here. Could this be done with the + Wonder-Book? And do you think it would be worth while? I must see + the proof-sheets of this book. It is a cursed bore; for I want to be + done with it from this moment. Can't you arrange it so that two or + three or more sheets may be sent at once, on stated days, and so my + journeys to the village be fewer?</p> + +<p> "That review which you sent me is a remarkable production. There is + praise enough to satisfy a greedier author than myself. I set it + aside, as not being able to estimate how far it is deserved. I can + better judge of the censure, much of which is undoubtedly just; and + I shall profit by it if I can. But, after all, there would be no + great use in attempting it. There are weeds enough in my mind, to be + sure, and I might pluck them up by the handful; but in so doing I + should root up the few flowers along with them. It is also to be + considered, that what one man calls weeds another classifies among + the choicest flowers in the garden. But this reviewer is certainly + a man of sense, and sometimes tickles me under the fifth rib. I beg + you to observe, however, that I do not acknowledge his justice in + cutting and slashing among the characters of the two books at the + rate he does; sparing nobody, I think, except Pearl and Phoebe. Yet + I think he is right as to my tendency as respects individual + character.</p> + +<p> "I am going to begin to enjoy the summer now, and to read foolish + novels, if I can get any, and smoke cigars, and think of nothing at + all; which is equivalent to thinking of all manner of things."</p></div> + +<p>The composition of the "Tanglewood Tales" gave him pleasant employment, +and all his letters, during the period he was writing them, overflow +with evidences of his felicitous mood. He requests that Billings should +pay especial attention to the drawings, and is anxious that the porch of +Tanglewood should be "well supplied with shrubbery." He seemed greatly +pleased that Mary Russell Mitford had fallen in with his books and had +written to me about them. "Her sketches," he said, "long ago as I read +them, are as sweet in my memory as the scent of new hay." On the 18th of +August he writes:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"You are going to publish another thousand of the Seven Gables. I + promised those Pyncheons a preface. What if you insert the + following?</p> + +<p> "(The author is pained to learn that, in selecting a name for the + fictitious inhabitants of a castle in the air, he has wounded the + feelings of more than one respectable descendant of an old Pyncheon + family. He begs leave to say that he intended no reference to any + individual of the name, now or heretofore extant; and further, that, + at the time of writing his book, he was wholly unaware of the + existence of such a family in New England for two hundred years + back, and that whatever he may have since learned of them is + altogether to their credit.)</p> + +<p> "Insert it or not, as you like. I have done with the matter."</p></div> + +<p>I advised him to let the Pyncheons rest as they were, and omit any +addition, either as note or preface, to the romance.</p> + +<p>Near the close of 1851 his health seemed unsettled, and he asked me to +look over certain proofs "carefully," for he did not feel well enough +to manage them himself. In one of his notes, written from Lenox at that +time, he says:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Please God, I mean to look you in the face towards the end of next + week; at all events, within ten days. I have stayed here too long + and too constantly. To tell you a secret, I am sick to death of + Berkshire, and hate to think of spending another winter here. But I + must. The air and climate do not agree with my health at all; and, + for the first time since I was a boy, I have felt languid and + dispirited during almost my whole residence here. O that Providence + would build me the merest little shanty, and mark me out a rood or + two of garden-ground, near the sea-coast. I thank you for the two + volumes of De Quincey. If it were not for your kindness in supplying + me with books now and then, I should quite forget how to read."</p></div> + +<p>Hawthorne was a hearty devourer of books, and in certain moods of mind +it made very little difference what the volume before him happened to +be. An old play or an old newspaper sometimes gave him wondrous great +content, and he would ponder the sleepy, uninteresting sentences as if +they contained immortal mental aliment. He once told me he found such +delight in old advertisements in the newspapers at the Boston Athenaeum, +that he had passed delicious hours among them. At other times he was +very fastidious, and threw aside book after book until he found the +right one. De Quincey was a special favorite with him, and the Sermons +of Laurence Sterne he once commended to me as the best sermons ever +written. In his library was an early copy of Sir Philip Sidney's +"Arcadia," which had floated down to him from a remote ancestry, and +which he had read so industriously for forty years that it was nearly +worn out of its thick leathern cover. Hearing him say once that the old +English State Trials were enchanting reading, and knowing that he did +not possess a copy of those heavy folios, I picked up a set one day in a +bookshop and sent them to him. He often told me that he spent more +hours over them and got more delectation out of them than tongue could +tell, and he said, if five lives were vouchsafed to him, he could employ +them all in writing stories out of those books. He had sketched, in his +mind, several romances founded on the remarkable trials reported in the +ancient volumes; and one day, I remember, he made my blood tingle by +relating some of the situations he intended, if his life was spared, to +weave into future romances. Sir Walter Scott's novels he continued +almost to worship, and was accustomed to read them aloud in his family. +The novels of G.P.R. James, both the early and the later ones, he +insisted were admirable stories, admirably told, and he had high praise +to bestow on the works of Anthony Trollope. "Have you ever read these +novels?" he wrote to me in a letter from England, some time before +Trollope began to be much known in America. "They precisely suit my +taste; solid and substantial, written on the strength of beef and +through the inspiration of ale, and just as real as if some giant had +hewn a great lump out of the earth and put it under a glass case, with +all its inhabitants going about their daily business and not suspecting +that they were made a show of. And these books are as English as a +beefsteak. Have they ever been tried in America? It needs an English +residence to make them thoroughly comprehensible; but still I should +think that the human nature in them would give them success anywhere."</p> + +<p>I have often been asked if all his moods were sombre, and if he was +never jolly sometimes like other people. Indeed he was; and although the +humorous side of Hawthorne was not easily or often discoverable, yet +have I seen him marvellously moved to fun, and no man laughed more +heartily in his way over a good story. Wise and witty H——, in whom +wisdom and wit are so ingrained that age only increases his subtile +spirit, and greatly enhances the power of his cheerful temperament, +always had the talismanic faculty of breaking up that thoughtfully sad +face into mirthful waves; and I remember how Hawthorne writhed with +hilarious delight over Professor L——'s account of a butcher who +remarked that "Idees had got afloat in the public mind with respect to +sassingers." I once told him of a young woman who brought in a +manuscript, and said, as she placed it in my hands, "I don't know what +to do with myself sometimes, I'm so filled with <i>mammoth thoughts</i>." A +series of convulsive efforts to suppress explosive laughter followed, +which I remember to this day.</p> + +<p>He had an inexhaustible store of amusing anecdotes to relate of people +and things he had observed on the road. One day he described to me, in +his inimitable and quietly ludicrous manner, being <i>watched</i>, while on a +visit to a distant city, by a friend who called, and thought he needed a +protector, his health being at that time not so good as usual. "He stuck +by me," said Hawthorne, "as if he were afraid to leave me alone; he +stayed past the dinner hour, and when I began to wonder if he never took +meals himself, he departed and set another man to <i>watch</i> me till he +should return. That man <i>watched</i> me so, in his unwearying kindness, +that when I left the house I forgot half my luggage, and left behind, +among other things, a beautiful pair of slippers. They <i>watched</i> me so, +among them, I swear to you I forgot nearly everything I owned."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Hawthorne is still looking at me in his far-seeing way, as if he were +pondering what was next to be said about him. It would not displease +him, I know, if I were to begin my discursive talk to-day by telling a +little incident connected with a famous American poem.</p> + +<p>Hawthorne dined one day with Longfellow, and brought with him a friend +from Salem. After dinner the friend said: "I have been trying to +persuade Hawthorne to write a story, based upon a legend of Acadie, and +still current there; a legend of a girl who, in the dispersion of the +Acadians, was separated from her lover, and passed her life in waiting +and seeking for him, and only found him dying in a hospital, when both +were old." Longfellow wondered that this legend did not strike the fancy +of Hawthorne, and said to him: "If you have really made up your mind not +to use it for a story, will you give it to me for a poem?" To this +Hawthorne assented, and moreover promised not to treat the subject in +prose till Longfellow had seen what he could do with it in verse. And so +we have "Evangeline" in beautiful hexameters, —a poem that will hold +its place in literature while true affection lasts. Hawthorne rejoiced +in this great success of Longfellow, and loved to count up the editions, +both foreign and American, of this now world-renowned poem.</p> + +<p>I have lately met an early friend of Hawthorne's, older than himself, +who knew him intimately all his life long, and I have learned some +additional facts about his youthful days. Soon after he left college he +wrote some stories which he called "Seven Tales of my Native Land." The +motto which he chose for the title-page was "We are Seven," from +Wordsworth. My informant read the tales in manuscript, and says some of +them were very striking, particularly one or two Witch Stories. As soon +as the little book was well prepared for the press he deliberately threw +it into the fire, and sat by to see its destruction.</p> + +<p>When about fourteen he wrote out for a member of his family a list of +the books he had at that time been reading. The catalogue was a long +one, but my informant remembers that The Waverley Novels, Rousseau's +Works, and The Newgate Calender were among them. Serious remonstrances +were made by the family touching the perusal of this last work, but he +persisted in going through it to the end. He had an objection in his +boyhood to reading much that was called "true and useful." Of history in +general he was not very fond, but he read Froissart with interest, and +Clarendon's History of the Rebellion. He is remembered to have said at +that time "he cared very little for the history of the world before the +fourteenth century." After he left college he read a great deal of +French literature, especially the works of Voltaire and his +contemporaries. He rarely went into the streets during the daytime, +unless there was to be a gathering of the people for some public +purpose, such as a political meeting, a military muster, or a fire. A +great conflagration attracted him in a peculiar manner, and he is +remembered, while a young man in Salem, to have been often seen looking +on, from some dark corner, while the fire was raging. When General +Jackson, of whom he professed himself a partisan, visited Salem in 1833, +he walked out to the boundary of the town to meet him,—not to speak to +him, but only to look at him. When he came home at night he said he +found only a few men and boys collected, not enough people, without the +assistance he rendered, to welcome the General with a good cheer. It is +said that Susan, in the "Village Uncle," one of the "Twice-Told Tales," +is not altogether a creation of his fancy. Her father was a fisherman +living in Salem, and Hawthorne was constantly telling the members of his +family how charming she was, and he always spoke of her as his +"mermaid." He said she had a great deal of what the French call +<i>espièglerie</i>. There was another young beauty, living at that time in +his native town, quite captivating to him, though in a different style +from the mermaid. But if his head and heart were turned in his youth by +these two nymphs in his native town, there was soon a transfer of his +affections to quite another direction. His new passion was a much more +permanent one, for now there dawned upon him so perfect a creature that +he fell in love irrevocably; all his thoughts and all his delights +centred in her, who suddenly became indeed the mistress of his soul. She +filled the measure of his being, and became a part and parcel of his +life. Who was this mysterious young person that had crossed his +boyhood's path and made him hers forever? Whose daughter was she that +could thus enthrall the ardent young man in Salem, who knew as yet so +little of the world and its sirens? She is described by one who met her +long before Hawthorne made her acquaintance as "the prettiest low-born +lass that ever ran on the greensward," and she must have been a radiant +child of beauty, indeed, that girl! She danced like a fairy, she sang +exquisitely, so that every one who knew her seemed amazed at her perfect +way of doing everything she attempted. Who was it that thus summoned all +this witchery, making such a tumult in young Hawthorne's bosom? She was +"daughter to Leontes and Hermione," king and queen of Sicilia, and her +name was Perdita! It was Shakespeare who introduced Hawthorne to his +first real love, and the lover never forgot his mistress. He was +constant ever, and worshipped her through life. Beauty always captivated +him. Where there was beauty he fancied other good gifts must naturally +be in possession. During his childhood homeliness was always repulsive +to him. When a little boy he is remembered to have said to a woman who +wished to be kind to him, "Take her away! She is ugly and fat, and has a +loud voice."</p> + +<p>When quite a young man he applied for a situation under Commodore Wilkes +on the Exploring Expedition, but did not succeed in obtaining an +appointment. He thought this a great misfortune, as he was fond of +travel, and he promised to do all sorts of wonderful things, should he +be allowed to join the voyagers.</p> + +<p>One very odd but characteristic notion of his, when a youth, was, that +he should like a competent income which should neither increase nor +diminish, for then, he said, it would not engross too much of his +attention. Surrey's little poem, "The Means to obtain a Happy Life," +expressed exactly what his idea of happiness was when a lad. When a +school-boy he wrote verses for the newspapers, but he ignored their +existence in after years with a smile of droll disgust. One of his +quatrains lives in the memory of a friend, who repeated it to me +recently:—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<span>"The ocean hath its silent caves,<br /></span> +<span class='i3'>Deep, quiet, and alone;<br /></span> +<span class='i1'>Above them there are troubled waves,<br /></span> +<span class='i3'>Beneath them there are none."<br /></span> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div></div> + +<p>When the Atlantic Cable was first laid, somebody, not knowing the author +of the lines, quoted them to Hawthorne as applicable to the calmness +said to exist in the depths of the ocean. He listened to the verse, and +then laughingly observed, "I know something of the deep sea myself."</p> + +<p>In 1836 he went to Boston, I am told, to edit the "American Magazine of +Useful Knowledge," for which he was to be paid a salary of six hundred +dollars a year. The proprietors soon became insolvent, so that he +received nothing, but he kept on just the same as if he had been paid +regularly. The plan of the work proposed by the publishers of the +magazine admitted no fiction into its pages. The magazine was printed on +coarse paper and was illustrated by engravings painful to look at. There +were no contributors except the editor, and he wrote the whole of every +number. Short biographical sketches of eminent men and historical +narratives filled up its pages. I have examined the columns of this +deceased magazine, and read Hawthorne's narrative of Mrs. Dustan's +captivity. Mrs. Dustan was carried off by the Indians from Haverhill, +and Hawthorne does not much commiserate the hardships she endured, but +reserves his sympathy for her husband, who was <i>not</i> carried into +captivity, and suffered nothing from the Indians, but who, he says, was +a tenderhearted man, and took care of the children during Mrs. D.'s +absence from home, and probably knew that his wife would be more than a +match for a whole tribe of savages.</p> + +<p>When the Rev. Mr. Cheever was knocked down and flogged in the streets of +Salem and then imprisoned, Hawthorne came out of his retreat and visited +him regularly in jail, showing strong sympathy for the man and great +indignation for those who had maltreated him.</p> + +<p>Those early days in Salem,—how interesting the memory of them must be +to the friends who knew and followed the gentle dreamer in his budding +career! When the whisper first came to the timid boy, in that "dismal +chamber in Union Street," that he too possessed the soul of an artist, +there were not many about him to share the divine rapture that must have +filled his proud young heart. Outside of his own little family circle, +doubting and desponding eyes looked upon him, and many a stupid head +wagged in derision as he passed by. But there was always waiting for him +a sweet and honest welcome by the pleasant hearth where his mother and +sisters sat and listened to the beautiful creations of his fresh and +glowing fancy. We can imagine the happy group gathered around the +evening lamp! "Well, my son," says the fond mother, looking up from her +knitting-work, "what have you got for us to-night? It is some time since +you read us a story, and your sisters are as impatient as I am to have a +new one." And then we can hear, or think we hear, the young man begin in +a low and modest tone the story of "Edward Fane's Rosebud," or "The +Seven Vagabonds," or perchance (O tearful, happy evening!) that tender +idyl of "The Gentle Boy!" What a privilege to hear for the first time a +"Twice-Told Tale," before it was even <i>once</i> told to the public! And I +know with what rapture the delighted little audience must have hailed +the advent of every fresh indication that genius, so seldom a visitant +at any fireside, had come down so noiselessly to bless their quiet +hearthstone in the sombre old town. In striking contrast to Hawthorne's +audience nightly convened to listen while he read his charming tales and +essays, I think of poor Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, facing those +hard-eyed critics at the house of Madame Neckar, when as a young man and +entirely unknown he essayed to read his then unpublished story of "Paul +and Virginia." The story was simple and the voice of the poor and +nameless reader trembled. Everybody was unsympathetic and gaped, and at +the end of a quarter of an hour Monsieur de Buffon, who always had a +loud way with him, cried out to Madame Neckar's servant, "Let the horses +be put to my carriage!"</p> + +<p>Hawthorne seems never to have known that raw period in authorship which +is common to most growing writers, when the style is "overlanguaged," +and when it plunges wildly through the "sandy deserts of rhetoric," or +struggles as if it were having a personal difficulty with Ignorance and +his brother Platitude. It was capitally said of Chateaubriand that "he +lived on the summits of syllables," and of another young author that "he +was so dully good, that he made even virtue disreputable." Hawthorne had +no such literary vices to contend with. His looks seemed from the start +to be</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<span>"Commercing with the skies,"<br /></span> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div></div> + +<p>and he marching upward to the goal without impediment. I was struck a +few days ago with the untruth, so far as Hawthorne is concerned, of a +passage in the Preface to Endymion. Keats says: "The imagination of a +boy is healthy, and the mature imagination of a man is healthy; but +there is a space of life between, in which the soul is in a ferment, the +character undecided, the way of life uncertain, the ambition +thick-sighted." Hawthorne's imagination had no middle period of +decadence or doubt, but continued, as it began, in full vigor to the +end.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In 1852 I went to Europe, and while absent had frequent most welcome +letters from the delightful dreamer. He had finished the "Blithedale +Romance" during my wanderings, and I was fortunate enough to arrange for +its publication in London simultaneously with its appearance in Boston. +One of his letters (dated from his new residence in Concord, June 17, +1852) runs thus:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"You have succeeded admirably in regard to the 'Blithedale Romance,' + and have got £150 more than I expected to receive. It will come in + good time, too; for my drafts have been pretty heavy of late, in + consequence of buying an estate!!! and fitting up my house. What a + truant you are from the Corner! I wish, before leaving London, you + would obtain for me copies of any English editions of my writings + not already in my possession. I have Routledge's edition of 'The + Scarlet Letter,' the 'Mosses,' and 'Twice-Told Tales'; Bohn's + editions of 'The House of the Seven Gables,' the 'Snow-Image' and + the 'Wonder-Book,' and Bogue's edition of 'The Scarlet + Letter';—these are all, and I should be glad of the rest. I meant + to have written another 'Wonder-Book' this summer, but another task + has unexpectedly intervened. General Pierce of New Hampshire, the + Democratic nominee for the Presidency, was a college friend of mine, + as you know, and we have been intimate through life. He wishes me to + write his biography, and I have consented to do so; somewhat + reluctantly, however, for Pierce has now reached that altitude when + a man, careful of his personal dignity, will begin to think of + cutting his acquaintance. But I seek nothing from him, and therefore + need not be ashamed to tell the truth of an old friend.... I have + written to Barry Cornwall, and shall probably enclose the letter + along with this. I don't more than half believe what you tell me of + my reputation in England, and am only so far credulous on the + strength of the £200, and shall have a somewhat stronger sense of + this latter reality when I finger the cash. Do come home in season + to preside over the publication of the Romance."</p></div> + +<p>He had christened his estate The Wayside, and in a postscript to the +above letter he begs me to consider the name and tell him how I like it.</p> + +<p>Another letter, evidently foreshadowing a foreign appointment from the +newly elected President, contains this passage:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Do make some inquiries about Portugal; as, for instance, in what + part of the world it lies, and whether it is an empire, a kingdom, + or a republic. Also, and more particularly, the expenses of living + there, and whether the Minister would be likely to be much pestered + with his own countrymen. Also, any other information about foreign + countries would be acceptable to an inquiring mind."</p></div> + +<p>When I returned from abroad I found him getting matters in readiness to +leave the country for a consulship in Liverpool. He seemed happy at the +thought of flitting, but I wondered if he could possibly be as contented +across the water as he was in Concord. I remember walking with him to +the Old Manse, a mile or so distant from The Wayside, his new residence, +and talking over England and his proposed absence of several years. We +strolled round the house, where he spent the first years of his married +life, and he pointed from the outside to the windows, out of which he +had looked and seen supernatural and other visions. We walked up and +down the avenue, the memory of which he has embalmed in the "Mosses," +and he discoursed most pleasantly of all that had befallen him since he +led a lonely, secluded life in Salem. It was a sleepy, warm afternoon, +and he proposed that we should wander up the banks of the river and lie +down and watch the clouds float above and in the quiet stream. I recall +his lounging, easy air as he tolled me along until we came to a spot +secluded, and ofttimes sacred to his wayward thoughts. He bade me lie +down on the grass and hear the birds sing. As we steeped ourselves in +the delicious idleness, he began to murmur some half-forgotten lines +from Thomson's "Seasons," which he said had been favorites of his from +boyhood. While we lay there, hidden in the grass, we heard approaching +footsteps, and Hawthorne hurriedly whispered, "Duck! or we shall be +interrupted by somebody." The solemnity of his manner, and the thought +of the down-flat position in which we had both placed ourselves to avoid +being seen, threw me into a foolish, semi-hysterical fit of laughter, +and when he nudged me, and again whispered more lugubriously than ever, +"Heaven help me, Mr. —— is close upon us!" I felt convinced that if +the thing went further, suffocation, in my case at least, must ensue.</p> + +<p>He kept me constantly informed, after he went to Liverpool, of how he +was passing his time; and his charming "English Note-Books" reveal the +fact that he was never idle. There were touches, however, in his private +letters which escaped daily record in his journal, and I remember how +delightful it was, after he landed in Europe, to get his frequent +missives. In one of the first he gives me an account of a dinner where +he was obliged to make a speech. He says:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I tickled up John Bull's self-conceit (which is very easily done) + with a few sentences of most outrageous flattery, and sat down in a + general puddle of good feeling." In another he says: "I have taken a + house in Rock Park, on the Cheshire side of the Mersey, and am as + snug as a bug in a rug. Next year you must come and see how I live. + Give my regards to everybody, and my love to half a dozen.... I wish + you would call on Mr. Savage, the antiquarian, if you know him, and + ask whether he can inform me what part of England the original + William Hawthorne came from. He came over, I think in 1634.... It + would really be a great obligation if he could answer the above + query. Or, if the fact is not within his own knowledge, he might + perhaps indicate some place where such information might be obtained + here in England. I presume there are records still extant somewhere + of all the passengers by those early ships, with their English + localities annexed to their names. Of all things, I should like to + find a gravestone in one of these old churchyards with my own name + upon it, although, for myself, I should wish to be buried in + America. The graves are too horribly damp here."</p></div> + +<p>The hedgerows of England, the grassy meadows, and the picturesque old +cottages delighted him, and he was never tired of writing to me about +them. While wandering over the country, he was often deeply touched by +meeting among the wild-flowers many of his old New England +favorites,—bluebells, crocuses, primroses, foxglove, and other flowers +which are cultivated in out gardens, and which had long been familiar to +him in America.</p> + +<p>I can imagine him, in his quiet, musing way, strolling through the +daisied fields on a Sunday morning and hearing the distant church-bells +chiming to service. His religion was deep and broad, but it was irksome +for him to be fastened in by a pew-door, and I doubt if he often heard +an English sermon. He very rarely described himself as <i>inside</i> a +church, but he liked to wander among the graves in the churchyards and +read the epitaphs on the moss-grown slabs. He liked better to meet and +have a talk with the <i>sexton</i> than with the <i>rector</i>.</p> + +<p>He was constantly demanding longer letters from home; and nothing gave +him more pleasure than, monthly news from "The Saturday Club," and +detailed accounts of what was going forward in literature. One of his +letters dated in January, 1854, starts off thus:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I wish your epistolary propensities were stronger than they are. + All your letters to me since I left America might be squeezed into + one.... I send Ticknor a big cheese, which I long ago promised him, + and my advice is, that he keep it in the shop, and daily, between + eleven and one o'clock, distribute slices of it to your half-starved + authors, together with crackers and something to drink.... I thank + you for the books you send me, and more especially for Mrs. Mowatt's + Autobiography, which seems to me an admirable book. Of all things I + delight in autobiographies; and I hardly ever read one that + interested me so much. She must be a remarkable woman, and I cannot + but lament my ill fortune in never having seen her on the stage or + elsewhere.... I count strongly upon your promise to be with us in + May. Can't you bring Whipple with you?"</p></div> + +<p>One of his favorite resorts in Liverpool was the boarding-house of good +Mrs. Blodgett, in Duke Street, a house where many Americans have found +delectable quarters, after being tossed on the stormy Atlantic. "I have +never known a better woman," Hawthorne used to say, "and her motherly +kindness to me and mine I can never forget." Hundreds of American +travellers will bear witness to the excellence of that beautiful old +lady, who presided with such dignity and sweetness over her hospitable +mansion.</p> + +<p>On the 13th of April, 1854, Hawthorne wrote to me this characteristic +letter from the consular office in Liverpool:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I am very glad that the 'Mosses' have come into the hands of our + firm; and I return the copy sent me, after a careful revision. When + I wrote those dreamy sketches, I little thought that I should ever + preface an edition for the press amidst the bustling life of a + Liverpool consulate. Upon my honor, I am not quite sure that I + entirely comprehend my own meaning, in some of these blasted + allegories; but I remember that I always had a meaning, or at least + thought I had. I am a good deal changed since those times; and, to + tell you the truth, my past self is not very much to my taste, as I + see myself in this book. Yet certainly there is more in it than the + public generally gave me credit for at the time it was written.</p> + +<p> "But I don't think myself worthy of very much more credit than I + got. It has been a very disagreeable task to read the book. The + story of 'Rappacini's Daughter' was published in the Democratic + Review, about the year 1844; and it was prefaced by some remarks on + the celebrated French author (a certain M. de l'Aubépine), from + whose works it was translated. I left out this preface when the + story was republished; but I wish you would turn to it in the + Democratic, and see whether it is worth while to insert it in the + new edition. I leave it altogether to your judgment.</p> + +<p> "A young poet named —— has called on me, and has sent me some + copies of his works to be transmitted to America. It seems to me + there is good in him; and he is recognized by Tennyson, by Carlyle, + by Kingsley, and others of the best people here. He writes me that + this edition of his poems is nearly exhausted, and that Routledge is + going to publish another enlarged and in better style.</p> + +<p> "Perhaps it might be well for you to take him up in America. At all + events, try to bring him into notice; and some day or other you may + be glad to have helped a famous poet in his obscurity. The poor + fellow has left a good post in the customs to cultivate literature + in London!</p> + +<p> "We shall begin to look for you now by every steamer from Boston. + You must make up your mind to spend a good while with us before + going to see your London friends.</p> + +<p> "Did you read the article on your friend De Quincey in the last + Westminster? It was written by Mr. —— of this city, who was in + America a year or two ago. The article is pretty well, but does + nothing like adequate justice to De Quincey; and in fact no + Englishman cares a pin for him. We are ten times as good readers and + critics as they.</p> + +<p> "Is not Whipple coming here soon?"</p></div> + +<p>Hawthorne's first visit to London afforded him great pleasure, but he +kept out of the way of literary people as much as possible. He +introduced himself to nobody, except Mr. ——, whose assistance he +needed, in order to be identified at the bank. He wrote to me from 24 +George Street, Hanover Square, and told me he delighted in London, and +wished he could spend a year there. He enjoyed floating about, in a sort +of unknown way, among the rotund and rubicund figures made jolly with +ale and port-wine. He was greatly amused at being told (his informants +meaning to be complimentary) "that he would never be taken for anything +but an Englishman." He called Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade," +just printed at that time, "a broken-kneed gallop of a poem." He +writes:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"John Bull is in high spirits just now at the taking of Sebastopol. + What an absurd personage John is! I find that my liking for him + grows stronger the more I see of him, but that my admiration and + respect have constantly decreased."</p></div> + +<p>One of his most intimate friends (a man unlike that individual of whom +it was said that he was the friend of everybody that did not need a +friend) was Francis Bennoch, a merchant of Wood Street, Cheapside, +London, the gentleman to whom Mrs. Hawthorne dedicated the English +Note-Books. Hawthorne's letters abounded in warm expressions of +affection for the man whose noble hospitality and deep interest made his +residence in England full of happiness. Bennoch was indeed like a +brother to him, sympathizing warmly in all his literary projects, and +giving him the benefit of his excellent judgment while he was sojourning +among strangers. Bennoch's record may be found in Tom Taylor's admirable +life of poor Haydon, the artist. All literary and artistic people who +have had the good fortune to enjoy his friendship have loved him. I +happen to know of his bountiful kindness to Miss Mitford and Hawthorne +and poor old Jerdan, for these hospitalities happened in my time; but he +began to befriend all who needed friendship long before I knew him. His +name ought never to be omitted from the literary annals of England; nor +that of his wife either, for she has always made her delightful fireside +warm and comforting to her husband's friends.</p> + +<p>Many and many a happy time Bennoch, Hawthorne, and myself have had +together on British soil. I remember we went once to dine at a great +house in the country, years ago, where it was understood there would be +no dinner speeches. The banquet was in honor of some society,—I have +quite forgotten what,—but it was a jocose and not a serious club. The +gentleman who gave it, Sir ——, was a most kind and genial person, and +gathered about him on this occasion some of the brightest and best from +London. All the way down in the train Hawthorne was rejoicing that this +was to be a dinner without speech-making; "for," said he, "nothing would +tempt me to go if toasts and such confounded deviltry were to be the +order of the day." So we rattled along, without a fear of any impending +cloud of oratory. The entertainment was a most exquisite one, about +twenty gentlemen sitting down at the beautifully ornamented table. +Hawthorne was in uncommonly good spirits, and, having the seat of honor +at the right of his host, was pretty keenly scrutinized by his British +brethren of the quill. He had, of course, banished all thought of +speech-making, and his knees never smote together once, as he told me +afterwards. But it became evident to my mind that Hawthorne's health was +to be proposed with all the honors. I glanced at him across the table, +and saw that he was unsuspicious of any movement against his quiet +serenity. Suddenly and without warning our host rapped the mahogany, and +began a set speech of welcome to the "distinguished American romancer." +It was a very honest and a very hearty speech, but I dared not look at +Hawthorne. I expected every moment to see him glide out of the room, or +sink down out of sight from his chair. The tortures I suffered on +Hawthorne's account, on that occasion, I will not attempt to describe +now. I knew nothing would have induced the shy man of letters to go down +to Brighton, if he had known he was to be spoken at in that manner. I +imagined his face a deep crimson, and his hands trembling with nervous +horror; but judge of my surprise, when he rose to reply with so calm a +voice and so composed a manner, that, in all my experience of +dinner-speaking, I never witnessed such a case of apparent ease. +(Easy-Chair C —— himself, one of the best makers of after-dinner or +any other speeches of our day, according to Charles Dickens,—no +inadequate judge, all will allow,—never surpassed in eloquent effect +this speech by Hawthorne.) There was no hesitation, no sign of lack of +preparation, but he went on for about ten minutes in such a masterly +manner, that I declare it was one of the most successful efforts of the +kind ever made. Everybody was delighted, and, when he sat down, a wild +and unanimous shout of applause rattled the glasses on the table. The +meaning of his singular composure on that occasion I could never get him +satisfactorily to explain, and the only remark I ever heard him make, in +any way connected with this marvellous exhibition of coolness, was +simply, "What a confounded fool I was to go down to that speech-making +dinner!"</p> + +<p>During all those long years, while Hawthorne was absent in Europe, he +was anything but an idle man. On the contrary, he was an eminently busy +one, in the best sense of that term; and if his life had been prolonged, +the public would have been a rich gainer for his residence abroad. His +brain teemed with romances, and once I remember he told me he had no +less than five stories, well thought out, any one of which he could +finish and publish whenever he chose to. There was one subject for a +work of imagination that seems to have haunted him for years, and he has +mentioned it twice in his journal. This was the subsequent life of the +young man whom Jesus, looking on, "loved," and whom he bade to sell all +that he had and give to the poor, and take up his cross and follow him. +"Something very deep and beautiful might be made out of this," Hawthorne +said, "for the young man went away sorrowful, and is not recorded to +have done what he was bidden to do."</p> + +<p>One of the most difficult matters he had to manage while in England was +the publication of Miss Bacon's singular book on Shakespeare. The poor +lady, after he had agreed to see the work through the press, broke off +all correspondence with him in a storm of wrath, accusing him of +pusillanimity in not avowing full faith in her theory; so that, as he +told me, so far as her good-will was concerned, he had not gained much +by taking the responsibility of her book upon his shoulders. It was a +heavy weight for him to bear in more senses than one, for he paid out of +his own pocket the expenses of publication.</p> + +<p>I find in his letters constant references to the kindness with which he +was treated in London. He spoke of Mrs. S.C. Hall as "one of the best +and warmest-hearted women in the world." Leigh Hunt, in his way, pleased +and satisfied him more than almost any man he had seen in England. "As +for other literary men," he says in one of his letters, "I doubt whether +London can muster so good a dinner-party as that which assembles every +month at the marble palace in School Street."</p> + +<p>All sorts of adventures befell him during his stay in Europe, even to +that of having his house robbed, and his causing the thieves to be tried +and sentenced to transportation. In the summer-time he travelled about +the country in England and pitched his tent wherever fancy prompted. One +autumn afternoon in September he writes to me from Leamington:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I received your letter only this morning, at this cleanest and + prettiest of English towns, where we are going to spend a week or + two before taking our departure for Paris. We are acquainted with + Leamington already, having resided here two summers ago; and the + country round about is unadulterated England, rich in old castles, + manor-houses, churches, and thatched cottages, and as green as + Paradise itself. I only wish I had a house here, and that you could + come and be my guest in it; but I am a poor wayside vagabond, and + only find shelter for a night or so, and then trudge onward again. + My wife and children and myself are familiar with all kinds of + lodgement and modes of living, but we have forgotten what home + is,—at least the children have, poor things! I doubt whether they + will ever feel inclined to live long in one place. The worst of it + is, I have outgrown my house in Concord, and feel no inclination to + return to it.</p> + +<p> "We spent seven weeks in Manchester, and went most diligently to the + Art Exhibition; and I really begin to be sensible of the rudiments + of a taste in pictures."</p></div> + +<p>It was during one of his rambles with Alexander Ireland through the +Manchester Exhibition rooms that Hawthorne saw Tennyson wandering about. +I have always thought it unfortunate that these two men of genius could +not have been introduced on that occasion. Hawthorne was too shy to seek +an introduction, and Tennyson was not aware that the American author was +present. Hawthorne records in his journal that he gazed at Tennyson with +all his eyes, "and rejoiced more in him than in all the other wonders of +the Exhibition." When I afterwards told Tennyson that the author whose +"Twice-Told Tales" he happened to be then reading at Farringford had met +him at Manchester, but did not make himself known, the Laureate said in +his frank and hearty manner: "Why didn't he come up and let me shake +hands with him? I am sure I should have been glad to meet a man like +Hawthorne anywhere."</p> + +<p>At the close of 1857 Hawthorne writes to me that he hears nothing of the +appointment of his successor in the consulate, since he had sent in his +resignation. "Somebody may turn up any day," he says, "with a new +commission in his pocket." He was meanwhile getting ready for Italy, and +he writes, "I expect shortly to be released from durance."</p> + +<p>In his last letter before leaving England for the Continent he says:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I made up a huge package the other day, consisting of seven closely + written volumes of journal, kept by me since my arrival in England, + and filled with sketches of places and men and manners, many of + which would doubtless be very delightful to the public. I think I + shall seal them up, with directions in my will to have them opened + and published a century hence; and your firm shall have the refusal + of them then.</p> + +<p> "Remember me to everybody, for I love all my friends at least as + well as ever."</p></div> + +<p>Released from the cares of office, and having nothing to distract his +attention, his life on the Continent opened full of delightful +excitement. His pecuniary situation was such as to enable him to live +very comfortably in a country where, at that time, prices were moderate.</p> + +<p>In a letter dated from a villa near Florence on the 3d of September, +1858, he thus describes in a charming manner his way of life in Italy:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I am afraid I have stayed away too long, and am forgotten by + everybody. You have piled up the dusty remnants of my editions, I + suppose, in that chamber over the shop, where you once took me to + smoke a cigar, and have crossed my name out of your list of authors, + without so much as asking whether I am dead or alive. But I like it + well enough, nevertheless. It is pleasant to feel at last that I am + really away from America,—a satisfaction that I never enjoyed as + long as I stayed in Liverpool, where it seemed to me that the + quintessence of nasal and hand-shaking Yankeedom was continually + filtered and sublimated through my consulate, on the way outward and + homeward. I first got acquainted with my own countrymen there. At + Rome, too, it was not much better. But here in Florence, and in the + summer-time, and in this secluded villa, I have escaped out of all + my old tracks, and am really remote.</p> + +<p> "I like my present residence immensely. The house stands on a hill, + overlooking Florence, and is big enough to quarter a regiment; + insomuch that each member of the family, including servants, has a + separate suite of apartments, and there are vast wildernesses of + upper rooms into which we have never yet sent exploring expeditions.</p> + +<p> "At one end of the house there is a moss-grown tower, haunted by + owls and by the ghost of a monk, who was confined there in the + thirteenth century, previous to being burned at the stake in the + principal square of Florence. I hire this villa, tower and all, at + twenty-eight dollars a month; but I mean to take it away bodily and + clap it into a romance, which I have in my head ready to be written + out.</p> + +<p> "Speaking of romances, I have planned two, one or both of which I + could have ready for the press in a few months if I were either in + England or America. But I find this Italian atmosphere not favorable + to the close toil of composition, although it is a very good air to + dream in. I must breathe the fogs of old England or the east-winds + of Massachusetts, in order to put me into working trim. + Nevertheless, I shall endeavor to be busy during the coming winter + at Rome, but there will be so much to distract my thoughts that I + have little hope of seriously accomplishing anything. It is a pity; + for I have really a plethora of ideas, and should feel relieved by + discharging some of them upon the public.</p> + +<p> "We shall continue here till the end of this month, and shall then + return to Rome, where I have already taken a house for six months. + In the middle of April we intend to start for home by the way of + Geneva and Paris; and, after spending a few weeks in England, shall + embark for Boston in July or the beginning of August. After so long + an absence (more than five years already, which will be six before + you see me at the old Corner), it is not altogether delightful to + think of returning. Everybody will be changed, and I myself, no + doubt, as much as anybody. Ticknor and you, I suppose, were both + upset in the late religious earthquake, and when I inquire for you + the clerks will direct me to the 'Business Men's Conference.' It + won't do. I shall be forced to come back again and take refuge in a + London lodging. London is like the grave in one respect,—any man + can make himself at home there; and whenever a man finds himself + homeless elsewhere, he had better either die or go to London.</p> + +<p> "Speaking of the grave reminds me of old age and other disagreeable + matters; and I would remark that one grows old in Italy twice or + three times as fast as in other countries. I have three gray hairs + now for one that I brought from England, and I shall look venerable + indeed by next summer, when I return.</p> + +<p> "Remember me affectionately to all my friends. Whoever has a + kindness for me may be assured that I have twice as much for him."</p></div> + +<p>Hawthorne's second visit to Rome, in the winter of 1859, was not a +fortunate one. His own health was excellent during his sojourn there, +but several members of his family fell ill, and he became very nervous +and longed to get away. In one of his letters he says:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I bitterly detest Rome, and shall rejoice to bid it farewell + forever; and I fully acquiesce in all the mischief and ruin that has + happened to it, from Nero's conflagration downward. In fact, I wish + the very site had been obliterated before I ever saw it."</p></div> + +<p>He found solace, however, during the series of domestic troubles +(continued illness in his family) that befell, in writing memoranda for +"The Marble Faun." He thus announces to me the beginning of the new +romance:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I take some credit to myself for having sternly shut myself up for + an hour or two almost every day, and come to close grips with a + romance which I have been trying to tear out of my mind. As for my + success, I can't say much; indeed, I don't know what to say at all. + I only know that I have produced what seems to be a larger amount of + scribble than either of my former romances, and that portions of it + interested me a good deal while I was writing them; but I have had + so many interruptions, from things to see and things to suffer, that + the story has developed itself in a very imperfect way, and will + have to be revised hereafter. I could finish it for the press in the + time that I am to remain here (till the 15th of April), but my brain + is tired of it just now; and, besides, there are many objects that I + shall regret not seeing hereafter, though I care very little about + seeing them now; so I shall throw aside the romance, and take it up + again next August at The Wayside."</p></div> + +<p>He decided to be back in England early in the summer, and to sail for +home in July. He writes to me from Rome:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I shall go home, I fear, with a heavy heart, not expecting to be + very well contented there.... If I were but a hundred times richer + than I am, how very comfortable I could be! I consider it a great + piece of good fortune that I have had experience of the discomforts + and miseries of Italy, and did not go directly home from England. + Anything will seem like Paradise after a Roman winter.</p> + +<p> "If I had but a house fit to live in, I should be greatly more + reconciled to coming home; but I am really at a loss to imagine how + we are to squeeze ourselves into that little old cottage of mine. We + had outgrown it before we came away, and most of us are twice as big + now as we were then.</p> + +<p> "I have an attachment to the place, and should be sorry to give it + up; but I shall half ruin myself if I try to enlarge the house, and + quite if I build another. So what is to be done? Pray have some + plan for me before I get back; not that I think you can possibly hit + on anything that will suit me.... I shall return by way of Venice + and Geneva, spend two or three weeks or more in Paris, and sail for + home, as I said, in July. It would be an exceeding delight to me to + meet you or Ticknor in England, or anywhere else. At any rate, it + will cheer my heart to see you all and the old Corner itself, when I + touch my dear native soil again."</p></div> + +<p>I went abroad again in 1859, and found Hawthorne back in England, +working away diligently at "The Marble Faun." While travelling on the +Continent, during the autumn I had constant letters from him, giving +accounts of his progress on the new romance. He says: "I get along more +slowly than I expected.... If I mistake not, it will have some good +chapters." Writing on the 10th of October he tells me:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"The romance is almost finished, a great heap of manuscript being + already accumulated, and only a few concluding chapters remaining + behind. If hard pushed, I could have it ready for the press in a + fortnight; but unless the publishers [Smith and Elder were to bring + out the work in England] are in a hurry, I shall be somewhat longer + about it. I have found far more work to do upon it than I + anticipated. To confess the truth, I admire it exceedingly at + intervals, but am liable to cold fits, during which I think it the + most infernal nonsense. You ask for the title. I have not yet fixed + upon one, but here are some that have occurred to me; neither of + them exactly meets my idea: 'Monte Beni; or, The Faun. A Romance.' + 'The Romance of a Faun.' 'The Faun of Monte Beni.' 'Monte Beni: a + Romance.' 'Miriam: a Romance.' 'Hilda: a Romance.' 'Donatello: a + Romance.' 'The Faun: a Romance.' 'Marble and Man: a Romance.' When + you have read the work (which I especially wish you to do before it + goes to press), you will be able to select one of them, or imagine + something better. There is an objection in my mind to an Italian + name, though perhaps Monte Beni might do. Neither do I wish, if I + can help it, to make the fantastic aspect of the book too prominent + by putting the Faun into the title-page."</p></div> + +<p>Hawthorne wrote so intensely on his new story, that he was quite worn +down before he finished it. To recruit his strength he went to Redcar, +where the bracing air of the German Ocean soon counteracted the ill +effect of overwork. "The Marble Faun" was in the London printing-office +in November, and he seemed very glad to have it off his hands. His +letters to me at this time (I was still on the Continent) were jubilant +with hope. He was living in Leamington, and was constantly writing to me +that I should find the next two months more comfortable in England than +anywhere else. On the 17th he writes:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"The Italian spring commences in February, which is certainly an + advantage, especially as from February to May is the most + disagreeable portion of the English year. But it is always summer by + a bright coal-fire. We find nothing to complain of in the climate of + Leamington. To be sure, we cannot always see our hands before us for + fog; but I like fog, and do not care about seeing my hand before me. + We have thought of staying here till after Christmas and then going + somewhere else,—perhaps to Bath, perhaps to Devonshire. But all + this is uncertain. Leamington is not so desirable a residence in + winter as in summer; its great charm consisting in the many + delightful walks and drives, and in its neighborhood to interesting + places. I have quite finished the book (some time ago) and have sent + it to Smith and Elder, who tell me it is in the printer's hands, but + I have received no proof-sheets. They wrote to request another title + instead of the 'Romance of Monte Beni,' and I sent them their choice + of a dozen. I don't know what they have chosen; neither do I + understand their objection to the above. Perhaps they don't like the + book at all; but I shall not trouble myself about that, as long as + they publish it and pay me my £600. For my part, I think it much my + best romance; but I can see some points where it is open to assault. + If it could have appeared first in America, it would have been a + safe thing....</p> + +<p> "I mean to spend the rest of my abode in England in blessed + idleness: and as for my journal, in the first place I have not got + it here; secondly, there is nothing in it that will do to publish."</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Hawthorne was, indeed, a consummate artist, and I do not remember a +single slovenly passage in all his acknowledged writings. It was a +privilege, and one that I can never sufficiently estimate, to have +known him personally through so many years. He was unlike any other +author I have met, and there were qualities in his nature so sweet and +commendable, that, through all his shy reserve, they sometimes asserted +themselves in a marked and conspicuous manner. I have known rude people, +who were jostling him in a crowd, give way at the sound of his low and +almost irresolute voice, so potent was the gentle spell of command that +seemed born of his genius.</p> + +<p>Although he was apt to keep aloof from his kind, and did not hesitate +frequently to announce by his manner that</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class='i18'>"Solitude to him<br /></span> +<span>Was blithe society, who filled the air<br /></span> +<span>With gladness and involuntary songs,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I ever found him, like Milton's Raphael, an "affable" angel, and +inclined to converse on whatever was human and good in life.</p> + +<p>Here are some more extracts from the letters he wrote to me while he was +engaged on "The Marble Faun." On the 11th of February, 1860, he writes +from Leamington in England (I was then in Italy):—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I received your letter from Florence, and conclude that you are now + in Rome, and probably enjoying the Carnival,—a tame description of + which, by the by, I have introduced into my Romance.</p> + +<p> "I thank you most heartily for your kind wishes in favor of the + forthcoming work, and sincerely join my own prayers to yours in its + behalf, but without much confidence of a good result. My own opinion + is, that I am not really a popular writer, and that what popularity + I have gained is chiefly accidental, and owing to other causes than + my own kind or degree of merit. Possibly I may (or may not) deserve + something better than popularity; but looking at all my productions, + and especially this latter one, with a cold or critical eye, I can + see that they do not make their appeal to the popular mind. It is + odd enough, moreover, that my own individual taste is for quite + another class of works than those which I myself am able to write. + If I were to meet with such books as mine, by another writer, I + don't believe I should be able to get through them.</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<div class='blkquot'><p>"To return to my own moonshiny Romance; its fate will soon +be settled, for Smith and Elder mean to publish on the 28th of this +month. Poor Ticknor will have a tight scratch to get his edition +out contemporaneously; they having sent him the third volume +only a week ago. I think, however, there will be no danger of +piracy in America. Perhaps nobody will think it worth stealing. +Give my best regards to William Story, and look well at his Cleopatra, +for you will meet her again in one of the chapters which I wrote +with most pleasure. If he does not find himself famous henceforth, +the fault will be none of mine. I, at least, have done my duty by +him, whatever delinquency there may be on the part of other critics.</p> + +<p>"Smith and Elder persist in calling the book 'Transformation,' which +gives one the idea of Harlequin in a pantomime; but I have strictly +enjoined upon Ticknor to call it 'The Marble Faun; a Romance of Monte +Beni.'"</p></div> + +<p>In one of his letters written at this period, referring to his design of +going home, he says:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I shall not have been absent seven years till the 5th of July next, + and I scorn to touch Yankee soil sooner than that.... As regards + going home I alternate between a longing and a dread."</p></div> + +<p>Returning to London from the Continent, in April, I found this letter, +written from Bath, awaiting my arrival:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"You are welcome back. I really began to fear that you had been + assassinated among the Apennines or killed in that outbreak at Rome. + I have taken passages for all of us in the steamer which sails the + 16th of June. Your berths are Nos. 19 and 20. I engaged them with + the understanding that you might go earlier or later, if you chose; + but I would advise you to go on the 16th; in the first place, + because the state-rooms for our party are the most eligible in the + ship; secondly, because we shall otherwise mutually lose the + pleasure of each other's company. Besides, I consider it my duty, + towards Ticknor and towards Boston, and America at large, to take + you into custody and bring you home; for I know you will never come + except upon compulsion. Let me know at once whether I am to use + force.</p> + +<p> "The book (The Marble Faun) has done better than I thought it + would; for you will have discovered, by this time, that it is an + audacious attempt to impose a tissue of absurdities upon the public + by the mere art of style of narrative. I hardly hoped that it would + go down with John Bull; but then it is always my best point of + writing, to undertake such a task, and I really put what strength I + have into many parts of this book.</p> + +<p> "The English critics generally (with two or three unimportant + exceptions) have been sufficiently favorable, and the review in the + Times awarded the highest praise of all. At home, too, the notices + have been very kind, so far as they have come under my eye. Lowell + had a good one in the Atlantic Monthly, and Hillard an excellent one + in the Courier; and yesterday I received a sheet of the May number + of the Atlantic containing a really keen and profound article by + Whipple, in which he goes over all my works, and recognizes that + element of unpopularity which (as nobody knows better than myself) + pervades them all. I agree with almost all he says, except that I am + conscious of not deserving nearly so much praise. When I get home, I + will try to write a more genial book; but the Devil himself always + seems to get into my inkstand, and I can only exorcise him by + pensful at a time.</p> + +<p> "I am coming to London very soon, and mean to spend a fortnight of + next month there. I have been quite homesick through this past + dreary winter. Did you ever spend a winter in England? If not, + reserve your ultimate conclusion about the country until you have + done so."</p></div> + +<p>We met in London early in May, and, as our lodgings were not far apart, +we were frequently together. I recall many pleasant dinners with him and +mutual friends in various charming seaside and country-side places. We +used to take a run down to Greenwich or Blackwall once or twice a week, +and a trip to Richmond was always grateful to him. Bennoch was +constantly planning a day's happiness for his friend, and the hours at +that pleasant season of the year were not long enough for our delights. +In London we strolled along the Strand, day after day, now diving into +Bolt Court, in pursuit of Johnson's whereabouts, and now stumbling +around the Temple, where Goldsmith at one time had his quarters. +Hawthorne was never weary of standing on London Bridge, and watching +the steamers plying up and down the Thames. I was much amused by his +manner towards importunate and sometimes impudent beggars, scores of +whom would attack us even in the shortest walk. He had a mild way of +making a severe and cutting remark, which used to remind me of a little +incident which Charlotte Cushman once related to me. She said a man in +the gallery of a theatre (I think she was on the stage at the time) made +such a disturbance that the play could not proceed. Cries of "Throw him +over" arose from all parts of the house, and the noise became furious. +All was tumultuous chaos until a sweet and gentle female voice was heard +in the pit, exclaiming, "No! I pray you don't throw him over! I beg of +you, dear friends, don't throw him over, but—<i>kill him where he is</i>."</p> + +<p>One of our most royal times was at a parting dinner at the house of +Barry Cornwall. Among the notables present were Kinglake and Leigh Hunt. +Our kind-hearted host and his admirable wife greatly delighted in +Hawthorne, and they made this occasion a most grateful one to him. I +remember when we went up to the drawing-room to join the ladies after +dinner, the two dear old poets, Leigh Hunt and Barry Cornwall, mounted +the stairs with their arms round each other in a very tender and loving +way. Hawthorne often referred to this scene as one he would not have +missed for a great deal.</p> + +<p>His renewed intercourse with Motley in England gave him peculiar +pleasure, and his genius found an ardent admirer in the eminent +historian. He did not go much, into society at that time, but there were +a few houses in London where he always seemed happy.</p> + +<p>I met him one night at a great evening-party, looking on from a nook a +little removed from the full glare of the <i>soirée</i>. Soon, however, it +was whispered about that the famous American romance-writer was in the +room, and an enthusiastic English lady, a genuine admirer and +intelligent reader of his books, ran for her album and attacked him for +"a few words and his name at the end." He looked dismally perplexed, and +turning to me said imploringly in a whisper, "For pity's sake, what +shall I write? I can't think of a word to add to my name. Help me to +something." Thinking him partly in fun, I said, "Write an original +couplet,—this one, for instance,—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>'When this you see,<br /></span> +<span>Remember me,'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and to my amazement he stepped forward at once to the table, wrote the +foolish lines I had suggested, and, shutting the book, handed it very +contentedly to the happy lady.</p> + +<p>We sailed from England together in the month of June, as we had +previously arranged, and our voyage home was, to say the least, an +unusual one. We had calm summer, moonlight weather, with no storms. Mrs. +Stowe was on board, and in her own cheery and delightful way she +enlivened the passage with some capital stories of her early life.</p> + +<p>When we arrived at Queenstown, the captain announced to us that, as the +ship would wait there six hours, we might go ashore and see something of +our Irish friends. So we chartered several jaunting-cars, after much +tribulation and delay in arranging terms with the drivers thereof, and +started off on a merry exploring expedition. I remember there was a good +deal of racing up and down the hills of Queenstown, much shouting and +laughing, and crowds of beggars howling after us for pence and beer. The +Irish jaunting-car is a peculiar institution, and we all sat with our +legs dangling over the road in a "dim and perilous way." Occasionally a +horse would give out, for the animals were sad specimens, poorly fed +and wofully driven. We were almost devoured by the ragamuffins that ran +beside our wheels, and I remember the "sad civility" with which +Hawthorne regarded their clamors. We had provided ourselves before +starting with much small coin, which, however, gave out during our first +mile. Hawthorne attempted to explain our inability further to supply +their demands, having, as he said to them, nothing less than a sovereign +in his pocket, when a voice from the crowd shouted, "Bedad, your honor, +I can change that for ye"; and the knave actually did it on the spot.</p> + +<p>Hawthorne's love for the sea amounted to a passionate worship; and while +I (the worst sailor probably on this planet) was longing, spite of the +good company on board, to reach land as soon as possible, Hawthorne was +constantly saying in his quiet, earnest way, "I should like to sail on +and on forever, and never touch the shore again." He liked to stand +alone in the bows of the ship and see the sun go down, and he was never +tired of walking the deck at midnight. I used to watch his dark, +solitary figure under the stars, pacing up and down some unfrequented +part of the vessel, musing and half melancholy. Sometimes he would lie +down beside me and commiserate my unquiet condition. Seasickness, he +declared, he could not understand, and was constantly recommending most +extraordinary dishes and drinks, "all made out of the <i>artist's</i> brain," +which he said were sovereign remedies for nautical illness. I remember +to this day some of the preparations which, in his revelry of fancy, he +would advise me to take, a farrago of good things almost rivalling +"Oberon's Feast," spread out so daintily in Herrick's "Hesperides." He +thought, at first, if I could bear a few roc's eggs beaten up by a +mermaid on a dolphin's back, I might be benefited. He decided that a +gruel made from a sheaf of Robin Hood's arrows would be strengthening. +When suffering pain, "a right gude willie-waught," or a stiff cup of +hemlock of the Socrates brand, before retiring, he considered very good. +He said he had heard recommended a dose of salts distilled from the +tears of Niobe, but he didn't approve of that remedy. He observed that +he had a high opinion of hearty food, such as potted owl with Minerva +sauce, airy tongues of sirens, stewed ibis, livers of Roman Capitol +geese, the wings of a Phoenix not too much done, love-lorn nightingales +cooked briskly over Aladdin's lamp, chicken-pies made of fowls raised by +Mrs. Carey, Nautilus chowder, and the like. Fruit, by all means, should +always be taken by an uneasy victim at sea, especially Atalanta pippins +and purple grapes raised by Bacchus & Co. Examining my garments one day +as I lay on deck, he thought I was not warmly enough clad, and he +recommended, before I took another voyage, that I should fit myself out +in Liverpool with a good warm shirt from the shop of Nessus & Co. in +Bold Street, where I could also find stout seven-league boots to keep +out the damp. He knew another shop, he said, where I could buy +raven-down stockings, and sable clouds with a silver lining, most warm +and comfortable for a sea voyage.</p> + +<p>His own appetite was excellent, and day after day he used to come on +deck after dinner and describe to me what he had eaten. Of course his +accounts were always exaggerations, for my amusement. I remember one +night he gave me a running catalogue of what food he had partaken during +the day, and the sum total was convulsing from its absurdity. Among the +viands he had consumed, I remember he stated there were "several yards +of steak," and a "whole warrenful of Welsh rabbits." The "divine spirit +of Humor" was upon him during many of those days at sea, and he revelled +in it like a careless child.</p> + +<p>That was a voyage, indeed, long to be remembered, and I shall ever look +back upon it as the most satisfactory "sea turn" I ever happened to +experience. I have sailed many a weary, watery mile since then, but +<i>Hawthorne</i> was not on board!</p> + +<p>The summer after his arrival home he spent quietly in Concord, at the +Wayside, and illness in his family made him at times unusually sad. In +one of his notes to me he says:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I am continually reminded nowadays of a response which I once heard + a drunken sailor make to a pious gentleman, who asked him how he + felt, 'Pretty d—d miserable, thank God!' It very well expresses my + thorough discomfort and forced acquiescence."</p></div> + +<p>Occasionally he wrote requesting me to make a change, here and there, in +the new edition of his works then passing through the press. On the 23d +of September, 1860, he writes:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Please to append the following note to the foot of the page, at the + commencement of the story called 'Dr. Heidegger's Experiment,' in + the 'Twice-Told Tales': 'In an English Review, not long since, I + have been accused of plagiarizing the idea of this story from a + chapter in one of the novels of Alexandra Dumas. There has + undoubtedly been a plagiarism, on one side or the other; but as my + story was written a good deal more than twenty years ago, and as the + novel is of considerably more recent date, I take pleasure in + thinking that M. Dumas has done me the honor to appropriate one of + the fanciful conceptions of my earlier days. He is heartily welcome + to it; nor is it the only instance, by many, in which the great + French romancer has exercised the privilege of commanding genius by + confiscating the intellectual property of less famous people to his + own use and behoof.'"</p></div> + +<p>Hawthorne was a diligent reader of the Bible, and when sometimes, in my +ignorant way, I would question, in a proof-sheet, his use of a word, he +would almost always refer me to the Bible as his authority. It was a +great pleasure to hear him talk about the Book of Job, and his voice +would be tremulous with feeling, as he sometimes quoted a touching +passage from the New Testament. In one of his letters he says to me:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Did not I suggest to you, last summer, the publication of the Bible + in ten or twelve 12mo volumes? I think it would have great success, + and, at least (but, as a publisher, I suppose this is the very + smallest of your cares), it would result in the salvation of a great + many souls, who will never find their way to heaven, if left to + learn it from the inconvenient editions of the Scriptures now in + use. It is very singular that this form of publishing the Bible in a + single bulky or closely printed volume should be so long continued. + It was first adopted, I suppose, as being the universal mode of + publication at the time when the Bible was translated. Shakespeare, + and the other old dramatists and poets, were first published in the + same form; but all of them have long since been broken into dozens + and scores of portable and readable volumes; and why not the Bible?"</p></div> + +<p>During this period, after his return from Europe, I saw him frequently +at the Wayside, in Concord. He now seemed happy in the dwelling he had +put in order for the calm and comfort of his middle and later life. He +had added a tower to his house, in which he could be safe from +intrusion, and where he could muse and write. Never was poet or romancer +more fitly shrined. Drummond at Hawthornden, Scott at Abbotsford, +Dickens at Gad's Hill, Irving at Sunnyside, were not more appropriately +sheltered. Shut up in his tower, he could escape from the tumult of +life, and be alone with only the birds and the bees in concert outside +his casement. The view from this apartment, on every side, was lovely, +and Hawthorne enjoyed the charming prospect as I have known, few men to +enjoy nature.</p> + +<p>His favorite walk lay near his house,—indeed it was part of his own +grounds,—a little hillside, where he had worn a foot-path, and where he +might be found in good weather, when not employed in the tower. While +walking to and fro on this bit of rising ground he meditated and +composed innumerable romances that were never written, as well as some +that were. Here he, first announced to me his plan of "The Dolliver +Romance," and, from what he told me of his design of the story as it +existed in his mind, I thought it would have been the greatest of his +books. An enchanting memory is left of that morning when he laid out the +whole story before me as he intended to write it. The plot was a grand +one, and I tried to tell him how much I was impressed by it. Very soon +after our interview, he wrote to me:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"In compliance with your exhortations, I have begun to think + seriously of that story, not, as yet, with a pen in my hand, but + trudging to and fro on my hilltop.... I don't mean to let you see + the first chapters till I have written the final sentence of the + story. Indeed, the first chapters of a story ought always to be the + last written.... If you want me to write a good book, send me a good + pen; not a gold one, for they seldom suit me; but a pen flexible and + capacious of ink, and that will not grow stiff and rheumatic the + moment I get attached to it. I never met with a good pen in my + life."</p></div> + +<p>Time went on, the war broke out, and he had not the heart to go on with +his new Romance. During the month of April, 1862, he made a visit to +Washington with his friend Ticknor, to whom he was greatly attached. +While on this visit to the capital he sat to Leutze for a portrait. He +took a special fancy to the artist, and, while he was sitting to him, +wrote a long letter to me. Here is an extract from it:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I stay here only while Leutze finishes a portrait, which I think + will be the best ever painted of the same unworthy subject. One + charm it must needs have,—an aspect of immortal jollity and + well-to-doness; for Leutze, when the sitting begins, gives me a + first-rate cigar, and when he sees me getting tired, he brings out a + bottle of splendid champagne; and we quaffed and smoked yesterday, + in a blessed state of mutual good-will, for three hours and a half, + during which the picture made a really miraculous progress. Leutze + is the best of fellows."</p></div> + +<p>In the same letter he thus describes the sinking of the Cumberland, and +I know of nothing finer in its way:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I see in a newspaper that Holmes is going to write a song on the + sinking of the Cumberland; and feeling it to be a subject of + national importance, it occurs to me that he might like to know her + present condition. She lies with her three masts sticking up out of + the water, and careened over, the water being nearly on a level with + her maintop,—I mean that first landing-place from the deck of the + vessel, after climbing the shrouds. The rigging does not appear at + all damaged. There is a tattered bit of a pennant, about a foot and + a half long, fluttering from the tip-top of one of the masts; but + the flag, the ensign of the ship (which never was struck, thank + God), is under water, so as to be quite invisible, being attached to + the gaff, I think they call it, of the mizzen-mast; and though this + bald description makes nothing of it, I never saw anything so + gloriously forlorn as those three masts. I did not think it was in + me to be so moved by any spectacle of the kind. Bodies still + occasionally float up from it. The Secretary of the Navy says she + shall lie there till she goes to pieces, but I suppose by and by + they will sell her to some Yankee for the value of her old iron.</p> + +<p> "P.S. My hair really is not so white as this photograph, which I + enclose, makes me. The sun seems to take an infernal pleasure in + making me venerable,—as if I were as old as himself."</p></div> + +<p>Hawthorne has rested so long in the twilight of impersonality, that I +hesitate sometimes to reveal the man even to his warmest admirers. This +very day Sainte-Beuve has made me feel a fresh reluctance in unveiling +my friend, and there seems almost a reproof in these words, from the +eloquent French author:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"We know nothing or nearly nothing of the life of La Bruyère, and + this obscurity adds, it has been remarked, to the effect of his + work, and, it may be said, to the piquant happiness of his destiny. + If there was not a single line of his unique book, which from the + first instant of its publication did not appear and remain in the + clear light, so, on the other hand, there was not one individual + detail regarding the author which was well known. Every ray of the + century fell upon each page of the book and the face of the man who + held it open in his hand was veiled from our sight."</p></div> + +<p>Beautifully said, as usual with Sainte-Beuve, but I venture, +notwithstanding such eloquent warning, to proceed.</p> + +<p>After his return home from Washington Hawthorne sent to me, during the +month of May, an article for the Atlantic Monthly, which he entitled +"Chiefly about War-Matters." The paper, excellently well done +throughout, of course, contained a personal description of President +Lincoln, which I thought, considered as a portrait of a living man, and +drawn by Hawthorne, it would not be wise or tasteful to print. The +office of an editor is a disagreeable one sometimes, and the case of +Hawthorne on Lincoln disturbed me not a little. After reading the +manuscript, I wrote to the author, and asked his permission to omit his +description of the President's personal appearance. As usual,—for he +was the kindest and sweetest of contributors, the most good-natured and +the most amenable man to advise I ever knew,—he consented to my +proposal, and allowed me to print the article with the alterations. If +any one will turn to the paper in the Atlantic Monthly (it is in the +number for July, 1862), it will be observed there are several notes; all +of these were written by Hawthorne himself. He complied with my request +without a murmur, but he always thought I was wrong in my decision. He +said the whole description of the interview and the President's personal +appearance were, to his mind, the only parts of the article worth +publishing. "What a terrible thing," he complained, "it is to try to let +off a little bit of truth into this miserable humbug of a world!" +President Lincoln is dead, and as Hawthorne once wrote to me, "Upon my +honor, it seems to me the passage omitted has an historical value," I +will copy here verbatim what I advised my friend, both on his own +account and the President's, not to print nine years ago. Hawthorne and +his party had gone into the President's room, annexed, as he says, as +supernumeraries to a deputation from a Massachusetts whip-factory, with +a present of a splendid whip to the Chief Magistrate:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"By and by there was a little stir on the staircase and in the + passage way, and in lounged a tall, loose-jointed figure, of an + exaggerated Yankee port and demeanor, whom (as being about the + homeliest man I ever saw, yet by no means repulsive or disagreeable) + it was impossible not to recognize as Uncle Abe.</p> + +<p> "Unquestionably, Western man though he be, and Kentuckian by birth, + President Lincoln is the essential representative of all Yankees, + and the veritable specimen, physically, of what the world seems + determined to regard as our characteristic qualities. It is the + strangest and yet the fittest thing in the jumble of human + vicissitudes, that he, out of so many millions, unlooked for, + unselected by any intelligible process that could be based upon his + genuine qualities, unknown to those who chose him, and unsuspected + of what endowments may adapt him for his tremendous responsibility, + should have found the way open for him to fling his lank personality + into the chair of state,—where, I presume, it was his first impulse + to throw his legs on the council-table, and tell the Cabinet + Ministers a story. There is no describing his lengthy awkwardness, + nor the uncouthness of his movement; and yet it seemed as if I had + been in the habit of seeing him daily, and had shaken hands with him + a thousand times in some village street; so true was he to the + aspect of the pattern American, though with a certain extravagance + which, possibly, I exaggerated still further by the delighted + eagerness with which I took it in. If put to guess his calling and + livelihood, I should have taken him for a country schoolmaster as + soon as anything else. He was dressed in a rusty black frock-coat + and pantaloons, unbrushed, and worn so faithfully that the suit had + adapted itself to the curves and angularities of his figure, and had + grown to be an outer skin of the man. He had shabby slippers on his + feet. His hair was black, still unmixed with gray, stiff, somewhat + bushy, and had apparently been acquainted with neither brush nor + comb that morning, after the disarrangement of the pillow; and as to + a nightcap, Uncle Abe probably knows nothing of such effeminacies. + His complexion is dark and sallow, betokening, I fear, an + insalubrious atmosphere around the White House; he has thick black + eyebrows and an impending brow; his nose is large, and the lines + about his mouth are very strongly defined.</p> + +<p> "The whole physiognomy is as coarse a one as you would meet anywhere + in the length and breadth of the States; but, withal, it is + redeemed, illuminated, softened, and brightened by a kindly though + serious look out of his eyes, and an expression of homely sagacity, + that seems weighted with rich results of village experience. A great + deal of native sense; no bookish cultivation, no refinement; honest + at heart, and thoroughly so, and yet, in some sort, sly,—at least, + endowed with a sort of tact and wisdom that are akin to craft, and + would impel him, I think, to take an antagonist in flank, rather + than to make a bull-run at him right in front. But, on the whole, I + liked this sallow, queer, sagacious visage, with the homely human + sympathies that warmed it; and, for my small share in the matter, + would as lief have Uncle Abe for a ruler as any man whom it would + have been practicable to put in his place.</p> + +<p> "Immediately on his entrance the President accosted our member of + Congress, who had us in charge, and, with a comical twist of his + face, made some jocular remark about the length of his breakfast. He + then greeted us all round, not waiting for an introduction, but + shaking and squeezing everybody's hand with the utmost cordiality, + whether the individual's name was announced to him or not. His + manner towards us was wholly without pretence, but yet had a kind of + natural dignity, quite sufficient to keep the forwardest of us from + clapping him on the shoulder and asking for a story. A mutual + acquaintance being established, our leader took the whip out of its + case, and began to read the address of presentation. The whip was an + exceedingly long one, its handle wrought in ivory (by some artist in + the Massachusetts State Prison, I believe), and ornamented with a + medallion of the President, and other equally beautiful devices; and + along its whole length there was a succession of golden bands and + ferrules. The address was shorter than the whip, but equally well + made, consisting chiefly of an explanatory description of these + artistic designs, and closing with a hint that the gift was a + suggestive and emblematic one, and that the President would + recognize the use to which such an instrument should be put.</p> + +<p> "This suggestion gave Uncle Abe rather a delicate task in his reply, + because, slight as the matter seemed, it apparently called for some + declaration, or intimation, or faint foreshadowing of policy in + reference to the conduct of the war, and the final treatment of the + Rebels. But the President's Yankee aptness and not-to-be-caughtness + stood him in good stead, and he jerked or wiggled himself out of + the dilemma with an uncouth dexterity that was entirely in + character; although, without his gesticulation of eye and + mouth,—and especially the flourish of the whip, with which he + imagined himself touching up a pair of fat horses,—I doubt whether + his words would be worth recording, even if I could remember them. + The gist of the reply was, that he accepted the whip as an emblem of + peace, not punishment; and, this great affair over, we retired out + of the presence in high good-humor, only regretting that we could + not have seen the President sit down and fold up his legs (which is + said to be a most extraordinary spectacle), or have heard him tell + one of those delectable stories for which he is so celebrated. A + good many of them are afloat upon the common talk of Washington, and + are certainly the aptest, pithiest, and funniest little things + imaginable; though, to be sure, they smack of the frontier freedom, + and would not always bear repetition in a drawing-room, or on the + immaculate page of the Atlantic."</p></div> + +<p>So runs the passage which caused some good-natured discussion nine years +ago, between the contributor and the editor. Perhaps I was squeamish not +to have been, willing to print this matter at that time. Some persons, +no doubt, will adopt that opinion, but as both President and author have +long ago met on the other side of criticism and magazines, we will leave +the subject to their decision, they being most interested in the +transaction. I did what seemed best in 1862. In 1871 "circumstances have +changed" with both parties, and I venture to-day what I hardly dared +then.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Whenever I look at Hawthorne's portrait, and that is pretty often, some +new trait or anecdote or reminiscence comes up and clamors to be made +known to those who feel an interest in it. But time and eternity call +loudly for mortal gossip to be brief, and I must hasten to my last +session over that child of genius, who first saw the light on the 4th of +July, 1804.</p> + +<p>One of his favorite books was Lockhart's Life of Sir Walter Scott, and +in 1862 I dedicated to him the Household Edition of that work. When he +received the first volume, he wrote to me a letter of which I am so +proud that I keep it among my best treasures.</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I am exceedingly gratified by the dedication. I do not deserve so + high an honor; but if you think me worthy, it is enough to make the + compliment in the highest degree acceptable, no matter who may + dispute my title to it. I care more for your good opinion than for + that of a host of critics, and have an excellent reason for so + doing; inasmuch as my literary success, whatever it has been or may + be, is the result of my connection with you. Somehow or other you + smote the rock of public sympathy on my behalf, and a stream gushed + forth in sufficient quantity to quench my thirst though not to drown + me. I think no author can ever have had publisher that he valued so + much as I do mine."</p></div> + +<p>He began in 1862 to send me some articles from his English Journal for +the Atlantic magazine, which he afterwards collected into a volume and +called "Our Old Home." On forwarding one for December of that year he +says:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I hope you will like it, for the subject seemed interesting to me + when I was on the spot, but I always feel a singular despondency and + heaviness of heart in reopening those old journals now. However, if + I can make readable sketches out of them, it is no matter."</p></div> + +<p>In the same letter he tells me he has been re-reading Scott's Life, and +he suggests some additions to the concluding volume. He says:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"If the last volume is not already printed and stereotyped, I think + you ought to insert in it an explanation of all that is left + mysterious in the former volumes,—the name and family of the lady + he was in love with, etc. It is desirable, too, to know what have + been the fortunes and final catastrophes of his family and intimate + friends since his death, down to as recent a period as the death of + Lockhart. All such matter would make your edition more valuable; and + I see no reason why you should be bound by the deference to living + connections of the family that may prevent the English publishers + from inserting these particulars. We stand in the light of + posterity to them, and have the privileges of posterity.... I + should be glad to know something of the personal character and life + of his eldest son, and whether (as I have heard) he was ashamed of + his father for being a literary man. In short, fifty pages devoted + to such elucidation would make the edition unique. Do come and see + us before the leaves fall."</p></div> + +<p>While he was engaged in copying out and rewriting his papers on England +for the magazine he was despondent about their reception by the public. +Speaking of them, one day, to me, he said: "We must remember that there +is a good deal of intellectual ice mingled with this wine of memory." He +was sometimes so dispirited during the war that he was obliged to +postpone his contributions for sheer lack of spirit to go on. Near the +close of the year 1862 he writes:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I am delighted at what you tell me about the kind appreciation of + my articles, for I feel rather gloomy about them myself. I am really + much encouraged by what you say; not but what I am sensible that you + mollify me with a good deal of soft soap, but it is skilfully + applied and effects all you intend it should.... I cannot come to + Boston to spend more than a day, just at present. It would suit me + better to come for a visit when the spring of next year is a little + advanced, and if you renew your hospitable proposition then, I shall + probably be glad to accept it; though I have now been a hermit so + long, that the thought affects me somewhat as it would to invite a + lobster or a crab to step out of his shell."</p></div> + +<p>He continued, during the early months of 1863, to send now and then an +article for the magazine from his English Note-Books. On the 22d of +February he writes:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Here is another article. I wish it would not be so wretchedly long, + but there are many things which I shall find no opportunity to say + unless I say them now; so the article grows under my hand, and one + part of it seems just about as well worth printing as another. + Heaven sees fit to visit me with an unshakable conviction that all + this series of articles is good for nothing; but that is none of my + business, provided the public and you are of a different opinion. If + you think any part of it can be left out with advantage, you are + quite at liberty to do so. Probably I have not put Leigh Hunt quite + high enough for your sentiments respecting him; but no more genuine + characterization and criticism (so far as the writer's purpose to be + true goes) was ever done. It is very slight. I might have made more + of it, but should not have improved it.</p> + +<p> "I mean to write two more of these articles, and then hold my hand. + I intend to come to Boston before the end of this week, if the + weather is good. It must be nearly or quite six months since I was + there! I wonder how many people there are in the world who would + keep their nerves in tolerably good order through such a length of + nearly solitary imprisonment?"</p></div> + +<p>I advised him to begin to put the series in order for a volume, and to +preface the book with his "Consular Experiences." On the 18th of April +he writes:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I don't think the public will bear any more of this sort of + thing.... I had a letter from ——, the other day, in which he sends + me the enclosed verses, and I think he would like to have them + published in the Atlantic. Do it if you like, I pretend to no + judgment in poetry. He also sent this epithalamium by Mrs. ——, and + I doubt not the good lady will be pleased to see it copied into one + of our American newspapers with a few laudatory remarks. Can't you + do it in the Transcript, and send her a copy? You cannot imagine how + a little praise jollifies us poor authors to the marrow of our + bones. Consider, if you had not been a publisher, you would + certainly have been one of our wretched tribe, and therefore ought + to have a fellow-feeling for us. Let Michael Angelo write the + remarks, if you have not the time."</p></div> + +<p>("Michael Angelo" was a clever little Irish-boy who had the care of my +room. Hawthorne conceived a fancy for the lad, and liked to hear stories +of his smart replies to persistent authors who called during my absence +with unpromising-looking manuscripts.) On the 30th of April he writes:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I send the article with which the volume is to commence, and you + can begin printing it whenever you like. I can think of no better + title than this, 'Our Old Home; a Series of English Sketches, by,' + etc. I submit to your judgment whether it would not be well to print + these 'Consular Experiences' in the volume without depriving them + of any freshness they may have by previous publication in the + magazine?</p> + +<p> "The article has some of the features that attract the curiosity of + the foolish public, being made up of personal narrative and gossip, + with a few pungencies of personal satire, which will not be the less + effective because the reader can scarcely find out who was the + individual meant. I am not without hope of drawing down upon myself + a good deal of critical severity on this score, and would gladly + incur more of it if I could do so without seriously deserving + censure.</p> + +<p> "The story of the Doctor of Divinity, I think, will prove a good + card in this way. It is every bit true (like the other anecdotes), + only not told so darkly as it might have been for the reverend + gentleman. I do not believe there is any danger of his identity + being ascertained, and do not care whether it is or no, as it could + only be done by the impertinent researches of other people. It seems + to me quite essential to have some novelty in the collected volume, + and, if possible, something that may excite a little discussion and + remark. But decide for yourself and me; and if you conclude not to + publish it in the magazine, I think I can concoct another article in + season for the August number, if you wish. After the publication of + the volume, it seems to me the public had better have no more of + them.</p> + +<p> "J—— has been telling us a mythical story of your intending to + walk with him from Cambridge to Concord. We should be delighted to + see you, though more for our own sakes than yours, for our aspect + here is still a little winterish. When you come, let it be on + Saturday, and stay till Monday. I am hungry to talk with you."</p></div> + +<p>I was enchanted, of course, with the "Consular Experiences," and find +from his letters, written at that time, that he was made specially happy +by the encomiums I could not help sending upon that inimitable sketch. +When the "Old Home" was nearly all in type, he began to think about a +dedication to the book. On the 3d of May he writes:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I am of three minds about dedicating the volume. First, it seems + due to Frank Pierce (as he put me into the position where I made all + those profound observations of English scenery, life, and character) + to inscribe it to him with a few pages of friendly and explanatory + talk, which also would be very gratifying to my own lifelong + affection for him.</p> + +<p> "Secondly, I want to say something to Bennoch to show him that I am + thoroughly mindful of all his hospitality and kindness; and I + suppose he might be pleased to see his name at the head of a book of + mine.</p> + +<p> "Thirdly, I am not convinced that it is worth while to inscribe it + to anybody. We will see hereafter."</p></div> + +<p>The book moved on slowly through the press, and he seemed more than +commonly nervous about the proof-sheets. On the 28th of May he says in a +note to me:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"In a proof-sheet of 'Our Old Home' which I sent you to-day (page + 43, or 4, or 5 or thereabout) I corrected a line thus, 'possessing a + happy faculty of seeing my own interest.' Now as the public interest + was my sole and individual object while I held office, I think that + as a matter of scanty justice to myself, the line ought to stand + thus, 'possessing a happy faculty of seeing my own interest and the + public's.' Even then, you see, I only give myself credit for half + the disinterestedness I really felt. Pray, by all means, have it + altered as above, even if the page is stereotyped; which it can't + have been, as the proof is now in the Concord post-office, and you + will have it at the same time with this.</p> + +<p> "We are getting into full leaf here, and your walk with J—-might + come off any time."</p></div> + +<p>An arrangement was made with the liberal house of Smith and Elder, of +London, to bring out "Our Old Home" on the same day of its publication +in Boston. On the 1st of July Hawthorne wrote to me from the Wayside as +follows:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I am delighted with Smith and Elder, or rather with you; for it is + you that squeeze the English sovereigns out of the poor devils. On + my own behalf I never could have thought of asking more than £50, + and should hardly have expected to get £10; I look upon the £180 as + the only trustworthy funds I have, our own money being of such a + gaseous consistency. By the time I can draw for it, I expect it will + be worth at least fifteen hundred dollars.</p> + +<p> "I shall think over the prefatory matter for 'Our Old Home' to-day, + and will write it to-morrow. It requires some little thought and + policy in order to say nothing amiss at this time; for I intend to + dedicate the book to Frank Pierce, come what may. It shall reach you + on Friday morning.</p> + +<p> "We find —— a comfortable and desirable guest to have in the + house. My wife likes her hugely, and for my part, I had no idea that + there was such a sensible woman of letters in the world. She is just + as healthy-minded as if she had never touched a pen. I am glad she + had a pleasant time, and hope she will come back.</p> + +<p> "I mean to come to Boston whenever I can be sure of a cool day.</p> + +<p> "What a prodigious length of time you stayed among the mountains!</p> + +<p> "You ought not to assume such liberties of absence without the + consent of your friends, which I hardly think you would get. I, at + least, want you always within attainable distance, even though I + never see you. Why can't you come and stay a day or two with us, and + drink some spruce beer?"</p></div> + +<p>Those were troublous days, full of war gloom and general despondency. +The North was naturally suspicious of all public men, who did not bear a +conspicuous part in helping to put down the Rebellion. General Pierce +had been President of the United States, and was not identified, to say +the least, with the great party which favored the vigorous prosecution +of the war. Hawthorne proposed to dedicate his new book to a very dear +friend, indeed, but in doing so he would draw public attention in a +marked way to an unpopular name. Several of Hawthorne's friends, on +learning that he intended to inscribe his book to Franklin Pierce, came +to me and begged that I would, if possible, help Hawthorne to see that +he ought not to do anything to jeopardize the currency of his new +volume. Accordingly I wrote to him, just what many of his friends had +said to me, and this is his reply to my letter, which bears date the +18th of July, 1863:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I thank you for your note of the 15th instant, and have delayed my + reply thus long in order to ponder deeply on your advice, smoke + cigars over it, and see what it might be possible for me to do + towards taking it. I find that it would be a piece of poltroonery in + me to withdraw either the dedication or the dedicatory letter. My + long and intimate personal relations with Pierce render the + dedication altogether proper, especially as regards this book, + which would have had no existence without his kindness; and if he is + so exceedingly unpopular that his name is enough to sink the volume, + there is so much the more need that an old friend should stand by + him. I cannot, merely on account of pecuniary profit or literary + reputation, go back from what I have deliberately felt and thought + it right to do; and if I were to tear out the dedication, I should + never look at the volume again without remorse and shame. As for the + literary public, it must accept my book precisely as I think fit to + give it, or let it alone.</p> + +<p> "Nevertheless, I have no fancy for making myself a martyr when it is + honorably and conscientiously possible to avoid it; and I always + measure out my heroism very accurately according to the exigencies + of the occasion, and should be the last man in the world to throw + away a bit of it needlessly. So I have looked over the concluding + paragraph and have amended it in such a way that, while doing what I + know to be justice to my friend, it contains not a word that ought + to be objectionable to any set of readers. If the public of the + North see fit to ostracize me for this, I can only say that I would + gladly sacrifice a thousand or two of dollars rather than retain the + good-will of such a herd of dolts and mean-spirited scoundrels. I + enclose the rewritten paragraph, and shall wish to see a proof of + that and the whole dedication.</p> + +<p> "I had a call from an Englishman yesterday, and kept him to dinner; + not the threatened ——, but a Mr. ——, introduced by ——. He says + he knows you, and he seems to be a very good fellow. I have strong + hopes that he will never come back here again, for J—— took him on + a walk of several miles, whereby they both caught a most tremendous + ducking, and the poor Englishman was frightened half to death by the + thunder.... On the other page is the list of presentation people, + and it amounts to twenty-four, which your liberality and kindness + allow me. As likely as not I have forgotten two or three, and I held + my pen suspended over one or two of the names, doubting whether they + deserved of me so especial a favor as a portion of my heart and + brain. I have few friends. Some authors, I should think, would + require half the edition for private distribution."</p></div> + +<p>"Our Old Home" was published in the autumn of 1863, and although it was +everywhere welcomed, in England the strictures were applied with a +liberal hand. On the 18th of October he writes to me:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"You sent me the 'Reader' with a notice of the book, and I have + received one or two others, one of them from Bennoch. The English + critics seem to think me very bitter against their countrymen, and + it is, perhaps, natural that they should, because their self-conceit + can accept nothing short of indiscriminate adulation; but I really + think that Americans have more cause than they to complain of me. + Looking over the volume, I am rather surprised to find that whenever + I draw a comparison between the two people, I almost invariably cast + the balance against ourselves. It is not a good nor a weighty book, + nor does it deserve any great amount either of praise or censure. I + don't care about seeing any more notices of it."</p></div> + +<p>Meantime the "Dolliver Romance," which had been laid aside on account of +the exciting scenes through which we were then passing, and which +unfitted him for the composition of a work of the imagination, made +little progress. In a note written to me at this time he says:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I can't tell you when to expect an instalment of the Romance, if + ever. There is something preternatural in my reluctance to begin. I + linger at the threshold, and have a perception of very disagreeable + phantasms to be encountered if I enter. I wish God had given me the + faculty of writing a sunshiny book."</p></div> + +<p>I invited him to come to Boston and have a cheerful week among his old +friends, and threw in as an inducement a hint that he should hear the +great organ in the Music Hall. I also suggested that we could talk over +the new Romance together, if he would gladden us all by coming to the +city. Instead of coming, he sent this reply:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I thank you for your kind invitation to hear the grand instrument; + but it offers me no inducement additional to what I should always + have for a visit to your abode. I have no ear for an organ or a + jewsharp, nor for any instrument between the two; so you had better + invite a worthier guest, and I will come another time.</p> + +<p> "I don't see much probability of my having the first chapter of the + Romance ready so soon as you want it. There are two or three + chapters ready to be written, but I am not yet robust enough to + begin, and I feel as if I should never carry it through.</p> + +<p> "Besides, I want to prefix a little sketch of Thoreau to it, + because, from a tradition which he told me about this house of mine, + I got the idea of a deathless man, which is now taking a shape very + different from the original one. It seems the duty of a live + literary man to perpetuate the memory of a dead one, when there is + such fair opportunity as in this case: but how Thoreau would scorn + me for thinking that <i>I</i> could perpetuate him! And I don't think so.</p> + +<p> "I can think of no title for the unborn Romance. Always heretofore I + have waited till it was quite complete before attempting to name it, + and I fear I shall have to do so now. I wish you or Mrs. Fields + would suggest one. Perhaps you may snatch a title out of the + infinite void that will miraculously suit the book, and give me a + needful impetus to write it.</p> + +<p> "I want a great deal of money..... I wonder how people manage to + live economically. I seem to spend little or nothing, and yet it + will get very far beyond the second thousand, for the present + year.... If it were not for these troublesome necessities, I doubt + whether you would ever see so much as the first chapter of the new + Romance.</p> + +<p> "Those verses entitled 'Weariness,' in the last magazine, seem to me + profoundly touching. I too am weary, and begin to look ahead for the + Wayside Inn."</p></div> + +<p>I had frequent accounts of his ill health and changed appearance, but I +supposed he would rally again soon, and become hale and strong before +the winter fairly set in. But the shadows even then were about his +pathway, and Allan Cunningham's lines, which he once quoted to me, must +often have occurred to him,—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"Cauld's the snaw at my head,<br /></span> +<span>And cauld at my feet,<br /></span> +<span>And the finger o' death's at my een,<br /></span> +<span>Closing them to sleep."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>We had arranged together that the "Dolliver Romance" should be first +published in the magazine, in monthly instalments, and we decided to +begin in the January number of 1864. On the 8th of November came a long +letter from him:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I foresee that there is little probability of my getting the first + chapter ready by the 15th, although I have a resolute purpose to + write it by the end of the month. It will be in time for the + February number, if it turns out fit for publication at all. As to + the title, we must defer settling that till the book is fully + written, and meanwhile I see nothing better than to call the series + of articles 'Fragments of a Romance.' This will leave me to exercise + greater freedom as to the mechanism of the story than I otherwise + can, and without which I shall probably get entangled in my own + plot. When the work is completed in the magazine, I can fill up the + gaps and make straight the crookednesses, and christen it with a + fresh title. In this untried experiment of a serial work I desire + not to pledge myself, or promise the public more than I may + confidently expect to achieve. As regards the sketch of Thoreau, I + am not ready to write it yet, but will mix him up with the life of + The Wayside, and produce an autobiographical preface for the + finished Romance. If the public like that sort of stuff, I too find + it pleasant and easy writing, and can supply a new chapter of it for + every new volume, and that, moreover, without infringing upon my + proper privacy. An old Quaker wrote me, the other day, that he had + been reading my Introduction to the 'Mosses' and the 'Scarlet + Letter,' and felt as if he knew me better than his best friend; but + I think he considerably overestimates the extent of his intimacy + with me.</p> + +<p> "I received several private letters and printed notices of 'Our Old + Home' from England. It is laughable to see the innocent wonder with + which they regard my criticisms, accounting for them by jaundice, + insanity, jealousy, hatred, on my part, and never admitting the + least suspicion that there may be a particle of truth in them. The + monstrosity of their self-conceit is such that anything short of + unlimited admiration impresses them as malicious caricature. But + they do me great injustice in supposing that I hate them. I would as + soon hate my own people.</p> + +<p> "Tell Ticknor that I want a hundred dollars more, and I suppose I + shall keep on wanting more and more till the end of my days. If I + subside into the almshouse before my intellectual faculties are + quite extinguished, it strikes me that I would make a very pretty + book out of it; and, seriously, if I alone were concerned, I should + not have any great objection to winding up there."</p></div> + +<p>On the 14th of November came a pleasant little note from him, which +seemed to have been written in better spirits than he had shown of +late. Photographs of himself always amused him greatly, and in the +little note I refer to there is this pleasant passage:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Here is the photograph,—a grandfatherly old figure enough; and I + suppose that is the reason why you select it.</p> + +<p> "I am much in want of <i>cartes de visite</i> to distribute on my own + account, and am tired and disgusted with all the undesirable + likenesses as yet presented of me. Don't you think I might sell my + head to some photographer who would be willing to return me the + value in small change; that is to say, in a dozen or two of cards?"</p></div> + +<p>The first part of Chapter I. of "The Dolliver Romance" came to me from +the Wayside on the 1st of December. Hawthorne was very anxious to see it +in type as soon as possible, in order that he might compose the rest in +a similar strain, and so conclude the preliminary phase of Dr. Dolliver. +He was constantly imploring me to send him a good pen, complaining all +the while that everything had failed him in that line. In one of his +notes begging me to hunt him up something that he could write with, he +says:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Nobody ever suffered more from pens than I have, and I am glad that + my labor with the abominable little tool is drawing to a close."</p></div> + +<p>In the month of December Hawthorne attended the funeral of Mrs. Franklin +Pierce, and, after the ceremony, came to stay with us. He seemed ill and +more nervous than usual. He said he found General Pierce greatly needing +his companionship, for he was overwhelmed with grief at the loss of his +wife. I well remember the sadness of Hawthorne's face when he told us he +felt obliged to look on the dead. "It was," said he, "like a carven +image laid in its richly embossed enclosure, and there was a remote +expression about it as if the whole had nothing to do with things +present." He told us, as an instance of the ever-constant courtesy of +his friend General Pierce, that while they were standing at the grave, +the General, though completely overcome with his own sorrow, turned and +drew up the collar of Hawthorne's coat to shield him from the bitter +cold.</p> + +<p>The same day, as the sunset deepened and we sat together, Hawthorne +began to talk in an autobiographical vein, and gave us the story of his +early life, of which I have already written somewhat. He said at an +early age he accompanied his mother and sister to the township in Maine, +which his grandfather had purchased. That, he continued, was the +happiest period of his life, and it lasted through several years, when +he was sent to school in Salem. "I lived in Maine," he said, "like a +bird of the air, so perfect was the freedom I enjoyed. But it was there +I first got my cursed habits of solitude." During the moonlight nights +of winter he would skate until midnight all alone upon Sebago Lake, with +the deep shadows of the icy hills on either hand. When he found himself +far away from his home and weary with the exertion of skating, he would +sometimes take refuge in a log-cabin, where half a tree would be burning +on the broad hearth. He would sit in the ample chimney and look at the +stars through the great aperture through which the flames went roaring +up. "Ah," he said, "how well I recall the summer days also, when, with +my gun, I roamed at will through the woods of Maine. How sad middle life +looks to people of erratic temperaments. Everything is beautiful in +youth, for all things are allowed to it then."</p> + +<p>The early home of the Hawthornes in Maine must have been a lonely +dwelling-place indeed. A year ago (May 12, 1870) the old place was +visited by one who had a true feeling for Hawthorne's genius, and who +thus graphically described the spot.</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"A little way off the main-travelled road in the town of Raymond + there stood an old house which has much in common with houses of its + day, but which is distinguished from them by the more evident marks + of neglect and decay. Its unpainted walls are deeply stained by + time. Cornice and window-ledge and threshold are fast falling with + the weight of years. The fences were long since removed from all the + enclosures, the garden-wall is broken down, and the garden itself is + now grown up to pines whose shadows fall dark and heavy upon the old + and mossy roof; fitting roof-trees for such a mansion, planted there + by the hands of Nature herself, as if she could not realize that her + darling child was ever to go out from his early home. The highway + once passed its door, but the location of the road has been changed; + and now the old house stands solitarily apart from the busy world. + Longer than I can remember, and I have never learned how long, this + house has stood untenanted and wholly unused, except, for a few + years, as a place of public worship; but, for myself, and for all + who know its earlier history, it will ever have the deepest + interest, for it was <i>the early home of Nathaniel Hawthorne</i>.</p> + +<p> "Often have I, when passing through that town, turned aside to study + the features of that landscape, and to reflect upon the influence + which his surroundings had upon the development of this author's + genius. A few rods to the north runs a little mill-stream, its + sloping bank once covered with grass, now so worn and washed by the + rains as to show but little except yellow sand. Less than half a + mile to the west, this stream empties into an arm of Sebago Lake. + Doubtless, at the time the house was built, the forest was so much + cut away in that direction as to bring into view the waters of the + lake, for a mill was built upon the brook about half-way down the + valley, and it is reasonable to suppose that a clearing was made + from the mill to the landing upon the shore of the pond; but the + pines have so far regained their old dominion as completely to shut + out the whole prospect in that direction. Indeed, the site affords + but a limited survey, except to the northwest. Across a narrow + valley in that direction lie open fields and dark pine-covered + slopes. Beyond these rise long ranges of forest-crowned hills, while + in the far distance every hue of rock and tree, of field and grove, + melts into the soft blue of Mount Washington. The spot must ever + have had the utter loneliness of the pine forests upon the borders + of our northern lakes. The deep silence and dark shadows of the old + woods must have filled the imagination of a youth possessing + Hawthorne's sensibility with images which later years could not + dispel.</p> + +<p> "To this place came the widowed mother of Hawthorne in company with + her brother, an original proprietor and one of the early settlers of + the town of Raymond. This house was built for her, and here she + lived with her son for several years in the most complete seclusion. + Perhaps she strove to conceal here a grief which she could not + forget. In what way, and to what extent, the surroundings of his + boyhood operated in moulding the character and developing the genius + of that gifted author, I leave to the reader to determine. I have + tried simply to draw a faithful picture of his early home."</p></div> + +<p>On the 15th of December Hawthorne wrote to me:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I have not yet had courage to read the Dolliver proof-sheet, but + will set about it soon, though with terrible reluctance, such as I + never felt before.... I am most grateful to you for protecting me + from that visitation of the elephant and his cub. If you happen to + see Mr. —— of L——, a young man who was here last summer, pray + tell him anything that your conscience will let you, to induce him + to spare me another visit, which I know he intended. I really am not + well and cannot be disturbed by strangers without more suffering + than it is worth while to endure. I thank Mrs. P—— and yourself + for your kind hospitality, past and prospective. I never come to see + you without feeling the better for it, but I must not test so + precious a remedy too often."</p></div> + +<p>The new year found him incapacitated from writing much on the Romance. +On the 17th of January, 1864, he says:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I am not quite up to writing yet, but shall make an effort as soon + as I see any hope of success. You ought to be thankful that (like + most other broken-down authors) I do not pester you with decrepit + pages, and insist upon your accepting them as full of the old spirit + and vigor. That trouble, perhaps, still awaits you, after I shall + have reached a further stage of decay. Seriously, my mind has, for + the present, lost its temper and its fine edge, and I have an + instinct that I had better keep quiet. Perhaps I shall have a new + spirit of vigor, if I wait quietly for it; perhaps not."</p></div> + +<p>The end of February found him in a mood which is best indicated in this +letter, which he addressed to me on the 25th of the month:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I hardly know what to say to the public about this abortive + Romance, though I know pretty well what the case will be. I shall + never finish it. Yet it is not quite pleasant for an author to + announce himself, or to be announced, as finally broken down as to + his literary faculty. It is a pity that I let you put this work in + your programme for the year, for I had always a presentiment that it + would fail us at the pinch. Say to the public what you think best, + and as little as possible; for example: 'We regret that Mr. + Hawthorne's Romance, announced for this magazine some months ago, + still lies upon the author's writing-table, he having been + interrupted in his labor upon it by an impaired state of health'; + or, 'We are sorry to hear (but know not whether the public will + share our grief) that Mr. Hawthorne is out of health and is thereby + prevented, for the present, from proceeding with another of his + promised (or threatened) Romances, intended for this magazine'; or, + 'Mr. Hawthorne's brain is addled at last, and, much to our + satisfaction, he tells us that he cannot possibly go on with the + Romance announced on the cover of the January magazine. We consider + him finally shelved, and shall take early occasion to bury him under + a heavy article, carefully summing up his merits (such as they were) + and his demerits, what few of them can be touched upon in our + limited space'; or, 'We shall commence the publication of Mr. + Hawthorne's Romance as soon as that gentleman chooses to forward it. + We are quite at a loss how to account for this delay in the + fulfilment of his contract; especially as he has already been most + liberally paid for the first number.' Say anything you like, in + short, though I really don't believe that the public will care what + you say or whether you say anything. If you choose, you may publish + the first chapter as an insulated fragment, and charge me with the + overpayment. I cannot finish it unless a great change comes over me; + and if I make too great an effort to do so, it will be my death; not + that I should care much for that, if I could fight the battle + through and win it, thus ending a life of much smoulder and scanty + fire in a blaze of glory. But I should smother myself in mud of my + own making. I mean to come to Boston soon, not for a week but for a + single day, and then I can talk about my sanitary prospects more + freely than I choose to write. I am not low-spirited, nor fanciful, + nor freakish, but look what seem to be realities in the face, and am + ready to take whatever may come. If I could but go to England now, I + think that the sea voyage and the 'Old Home' might set me all right.</p> + +<p> "This letter is for your own eye, and I wish especially that no echo + of it may come back in your notes to me.</p> + +<p> "P.S. Give my kindest regards to Mrs. F——, and tell her that one + of my choicest ideal places is her drawing-room, and therefore I + seldom visit it."</p></div> + +<p>On Monday, the 28th of March, Hawthorne came to town and made my house +his first station on a journey to the South for health. I was greatly +shocked at his invalid appearance, and he seemed quite deaf. The light +in his eye was beautiful as ever, but his limbs seemed shrunken and his +usual stalwart vigor utterly gone. He said to me with a pathetic voice, +"Why does Nature treat us like little children! I think we could bear it +all if we knew our fate; at least it would not make much difference to +me now what became of me." Toward night he brightened up a little, and +his delicious wit flashed out, at intervals, as of old; but he was +evidently broken and dispirited about his health. Looking out on the bay +that was sparkling in the moonlight, he said he thought the moon rather +lost something of its charm for him as he grew older. He spoke with +great delight of a little story, called "Pet Marjorie," and said he had +read it carefully through twice, every word of it. He had much to say +about England, and observed, among other things, that "the extent over +which her dominions are spread leads her to fancy herself stronger than +she really is; but she is not to-day a powerful empire; she is much like +a squash-vine, which runs over a whole garden, but, if you cut it at the +root, it is at once destroyed." At breakfast, next morning, he spoke of +his kind neighbors in Concord, and said Alcott was one of the most +excellent men he had ever known. "It is impossible to quarrel with him, +for he would take all your harsh words like a saint."</p> + +<p>He left us shortly after this for a journey to Washington, with his +friend Mr. Ticknor. The travellers spent several days in New York, and +then proceeded to Philadelphia. Hawthorne wrote to me from the +Continental Hotel, dating his letter "Saturday evening," announcing the +severe illness of his companion. He did not seem to anticipate a fatal +result, but on Sunday morning the news came that Mr. Ticknor was dead. +Hawthorne returned at once to Boston, and stayed here over night. He was +in a very excited and nervous state, and talked incessantly of the sad +scenes he had just been passing through. We sat late together, +conversing of the friend we had lost, and I am sure he hardly closed his +eyes that night. In the morning he went back to his own home in Concord.</p> + +<p>His health, from that time, seemed to give way rapidly, and in the +middle of May his friend, General Pierce, proposed that they should go +among the New Hampshire hills together and meet the spring there.</p> + +<p>The first letter we received from Mrs. Hawthorne +<a name='FNanchor_*_1'></a> +<a href='#Footnote_*_1'>[*]</a> after her husband's +return to Concord in April gave us great anxiety. It was dated "Monday +eve," and here are some extracts from it:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I have just sent Mr. Hawthorne to bed, and +so have a moment to + speak to you. Generally it has been late and I have not liked to + disturb him by sitting up after him, and so I could not write since + he returned, though I wished very much to tell you about him, ever + since he came home. He came back unlooked for that day; and when I + heard a step on the piazza, I was lying on a couch and feeling quite + indisposed. But as soon as I saw him I was frightened out of all + knowledge of myself,—so haggard, so white, so deeply scored with + pain and fatigue was the face, so much more ill he looked than I + ever saw him before. He had walked from the station because he saw + no carriage there, and his brow was streaming with a perfect rain, + so great had been the effort to walk so far.... He needed much to + get home to me, where he could fling off all care of himself and + give way to his feelings, pent up and kept back for so long, + especially since his watch and ward of most excellent, kind Mr. + Ticknor. It relieved him somewhat to break down as he spoke of that + scene.... But he was so weak and weary he could not sit up much, and + lay on the couch nearly all the time in a kind of uneasy somnolency, + not wishing to be read to even, not able to attend or fix his + thoughts at all. On Saturday he unfortunately took cold, and, after + a most restless night, was seized early in the morning with a very + bad stiff neck, which was acutely painful all Sunday. Sunday night, + however, a compress of linen wrung in cold water cured him, with + belladonna. But he slept also most of this morning.... He could as + easily build London as go to the Shakespeare dinner. It tires him so + much to get entirely through his toilet in the morning, that he has + to lie down a long time after it. To-day he walked out on the + grounds, and could not stay ten minutes, because I would not let him + sit down in the wind, and he could not bear any longer exercise. He + has more than lost all he gained by the journey, by the sad event. + From being the nursed and cared for,—early to bed and late to + rise,—led, as it were, by the ever-ready hand of kind Mr. Ticknor, + to become the nurse and night-watcher with all the responsibilities, + with his mighty power of sympathy and his vast apprehension of + suffering in others, and to see death for the first time in a state + so weak as his,—the death also of so valued a friend,—as Mr. + Hawthorne says himself, 'it told upon him' fearfully. There are + lines ploughed on his brow which never were there before.... I have + been up and alert ever since his return, but one day I was obliged, + when he was busy, to run off and lie down for fear I should drop + before his eyes. My head was in such an agony I could not endure it + another moment. But I am well now. I have wrestled and won, and now + I think I shall not fail again. Your most generous kindness of + hospitality I heartily thank you for, but Mr. Hawthorne says he + cannot leave home. He wants rest, and he says when the wind is + <i>warm</i> he shall feel well. This cold wind ruins him. I wish he were + in Cuba or on some isle in the Gulf Stream. But I must say I could + not think him able to go anywhere, unless I could go with him. He is + too weak to take care of himself. I do not like to have him go up + and down stairs alone. I have read to him all the afternoon and + evening and after he walked in the morning to-day. I do nothing but + sit with him, ready to do or not to do, just as he wishes. The + wheels of my small <i>ménage</i> are all stopped. He is my world and all + the business of it. He has not smiled since he came home till + to-day, and I made him laugh with Thackeray's humor in reading to + him; but a smile looks strange on a face that once shone like a + thousand suns with smiles. The light for the time has gone out of + his eyes, entirely. An infinite weariness films them quite. I thank + Heaven that summer and not winter approaches."</p></div> +<a name='Footnote_*_1'></a> +<hr class=full> +<div class='note'> + <p> <a href='#FNanchor_*_1'>[*]</a> + As I write this paragraph, my friend, the Reverend James + Freeman Clarke, puts into my hand the following note, which Hawthorne + sent to him nearly thirty years ago:—</p> + <div class='blkquot'>54 PINCKNEY STREET, Friday, July 8, 1842. + <p>MY DEAR SIR,—Though personally a stranger to you, I am about to + request of you the greatest favor which I can receive from any man. + I am to be married to Miss Sophia Peabody; and it is our mutual + desire that you should perform the ceremony. Unless it should be + decidedly a rainy day, a carriage will call for you at half past + eleven o'clock in the forenoon.</p> + <p>Very respectfully yours,</p> + <p> <span style='margin-left: 3.5em;'>NATH. HAWTHORNE.</span></p> + <p> Rev. JAMES F. CLARKE, Chestnut Street.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<hr class=full> + +<p>On Friday evening of the same week Mrs. Hawthorne sent off another +despatch to us:—</p> +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>"Mr. Hawthorne has been miserably ill for two or three days, so that I +could not find a moment to speak to you. I am most anxious to have him +leave Concord again, and General Pierce's plan is admirable, now that +the General is well himself. I think the serene jog-trot in a private +carriage into country places, by trout-streams and to old farm-houses, +away from care and news, will be very restorative. The boy associations +with the General will refresh him. They will fish, and muse, and rest, +and saunter upon horses' feet, and be in the air all the time in fine +weather. I am quite content, though I wish I could go for a few <i>petits +sions</i>. But General Pierce has been a most tender, constant nurse for +many years, and knows how to take care of the sick. And his love for Mr. +Hawthorne is the strongest passion of his soul, now his wife is +departed. They will go to the Isles of Shoals together probably, before +their return.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Hawthorne cannot walk ten minutes now without wishing to sit down, +as I think I told you, so that he cannot take sufficient air except in a +carriage. And his horror of hotels and rail-cars is immense, and human +beings beset him in cities. He is indeed very weak. I hardly know what +takes away his strength. I now am obliged to superintend my workman, who +is arranging the grounds. Whenever my husband lies down (which is sadly +often) I rush out of doors to see what the gardener is about.</p> + +<p>"I cannot feel rested till Mr. Hawthorne is better, but I get along. I +shall go to town when he is safe in the care of General Pierce."</p> +</div> + +<p>On Saturday this communication from Mrs. Hawthorne reached us:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"General Pierce wrote yesterday to say he wished to meet Mr. + Hawthorne in Boston on Wednesday, and go from thence on their way.</p> + +<p> "Mr. Hawthorne is much weaker. I find, than he has been before at + any time, and I shall go down with him, having a great many things + to do in Boston; but I am sure he is not fit to be left by himself, + for his steps are so uncertain, and his eyes are very uncertain too. + Dear Mr. Fields, I am very anxious about him, and I write now to say + that he absolutely refuses to see a physician officially, and so I + wish to know whether Dr. Holmes could not see him in some ingenious + way on Wednesday as a friend; but with his experienced, acute + observation, to look at him also as a physician, to note how he is + and what he judges of him comparatively since he last saw him. It + almost deprives me of my wits to see him growing weaker with no aid. + He seems quite bilious, and has a restlessness that is infinite. His + look is more distressed and harassed than before; and he has so + little rest, that he is getting worn out. I hope immensely in regard + of this sauntering journey with General Pierce.</p> + +<p> "I feel as if I ought not to speak to you of anything when you are + so busy and weary and bereaved. But yet in such a sad emergency as + this, I am sure your generous, kind heart will not refuse me any + help you can render.... I wish Dr. Holmes would feel his pulse; I do + not know how to judge of it, but it seems to me irregular."</p></div> + +<p>His friend, Dr. O.W. Holmes, in compliance with Mrs. Hawthorne's desire, +expressed in this letter to me, saw the invalid, and thus describes his +appearance in an article full of tenderness and feeling which was +published in the "Atlantic Monthly" for July, 1864:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Late in the afternoon of the day before he left Boston on his last + journey I called upon him at the hotel where he was staying. He had + gone out but a moment before. Looking along the street, I saw a form + at some distance in advance which could only be his,—but how + changed from his former port and figure! There was no mistaking the + long iron-gray locks, the carriage of the head, and the general look + of the natural outlines and movement; but he seemed to have shrunken + in all his dimensions, and faltered along with an uncertain, feeble + step, as if every movement were an effort. I joined him, and we + walked together half an hour, during which time I learned so much + of his state of mind and body as could be got at without worrying + him with suggestive questions,—my object being to form an opinion + of his condition, as I had been requested to do, and to give him + some hints that might be useful to him on his journey.</p> + +<p> "His aspect, medically considered, was very unfavorable. There were + persistent local symptoms, referred especially to the + stomach,—'boring pain,' distension, difficult digestion, with great + wasting of flesh and strength. He was very gentle, very willing to + answer questions, very docile to such counsel as I offered him, but + evidently had no hope of recovering his health. He spoke as if his + work were done, and he should write no more.</p> + +<p> "With all his obvious depression, there was no failing noticeable in + his conversational powers. There was the same backwardness and + hesitancy which in his best days it was hard for him to overcome, so + that talking with him was almost like love-making, and his shy, + beautiful soul had to be wooed from its bashful prudency like an + unschooled maiden. The calm despondency with which he spoke about + himself confirmed the unfavorable opinion suggested by his look and + history."</p></div> + +<p>I saw Hawthorne alive, for the last time, the day he started on this his +last mortal journey. His speech and his gait indicated severe illness, +and I had great misgivings about the jaunt he was proposing to take so +early in the season. His tones were more subdued than ever, and he +scarcely spoke above a whisper. He was very affectionate in parting, and +I followed him to the door, looking after him as he went up School +Street. I noticed that he faltered from weakness, and I should have +taken my hat and joined him to offer my arm, but I knew he did not wish +to <i>seem</i> ill, and I feared he might be troubled at my anxiety. Fearing +to disturb him, I followed him with my eyes only, and watched him till +he turned the corner and passed out of sight.</p> + +<p>On the morning of the 19th of May, 1864, a telegram, signed by Franklin +Pierce, stunned us all. It announced the death of Hawthorne. In the +afternoon of the same day came this letter to me:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Pemigewasset House, Plymouth, N.H., Thursday morning, 5 o'clock + +<p> "My Dear Sir,—The telegraph has communicated to you the fact of our + dear friend Hawthorne's death. My friend Colonel Hibbard, who bears + this note, was a friend of H——, and will tell you more than I am + able to write.</p> + +<p> "I enclose herewith a note which I commenced last evening to dear + Mrs. Hawthorne. O, how will she bear this shock! Dear mother—dear + children—</p> + +<p> "When I met Hawthorne in Boston a week ago, it was apparent that he + was much more feeble and more seriously diseased than I had supposed + him to be. We came from Centre Harbor yesterday afternoon, and I + thought he was on the whole brighter than he was the day before. + Through the week he had been inclined to somnolency during the day, + but restless at night. He retired last night soon after nine + o'clock, and soon fell into a quiet slumber. In less than half an + hour changed his position, but continued to sleep. I left the door + open between his bedroom and mine,—our beds being opposite to each + other,—and was asleep myself before eleven o'clock. The light + continued to burn in my room. At two o'clock, I went to H——'s + bedside; he was apparently in a sound sleep, and I did not place my + hand upon him. At four o'clock I went into his room again, and, as + his position was unchanged, I placed my hand upon him and found that + life was extinct. I sent, however, immediately for a physician, and + called Judge Bell and Colonel Hibbard, who occupied rooms upon the + same floor and near me. He lies upon his side, his position so + perfectly natural and easy, his eyes closed, that it is difficult to + realize, while looking upon his noble face, that this is death. He + must have passed from natural slumber to that from which there is no + waking without the slightest movement.</p> + +<p> "I cannot write to dear Mrs. Hawthorne, and you must exercise your + judgment with regard to sending this and the unfinished note, + enclosed, to her.</p> + +<p> "Your friend,</p> + +<p> "FRANKLIN PIERCE."</p></div> + +<p>Hawthorne's lifelong desire that the end might be a sudden one was +gratified. Often and often he has said to me, "What a blessing to go +quickly!" So the same swift angel that came as a messenger to Allston, +Irving, Prescott, Macaulay, Thackeray, and Dickens was commissioned to +touch his forehead, also, and beckon him away.</p> + +<p>The room in which death fell upon him,</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class='i15'>"Like a shadow thrown<br /></span> +<span>Softly and lightly from a passing cloud,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>looks toward the east; and standing in it, as I have frequently done, +since he passed out silently into the skies, it is easy to imagine the +scene on that spring morning which President Pierce so feelingly +describes in his letter.</p> + +<p>On the 24th of May we carried Hawthorne through the blossoming orchards +of Concord, and laid him down under a group of pines, on a hillside, +overlooking historic fields. All the way from the village church to the +grave the birds kept up a perpetual melody. The sun shone brightly, and +the air was sweet and pleasant, as if death had never entered the world. +Longfellow and Emerson, Channing and Hoar, Agassiz and Lowell, Greene +and Whipple, Alcott and Clarke, Holmes and Hillard, and other friends +whom he loved, walked slowly by his side that beautiful spring morning. +The companion of his youth and his manhood, for whom he would willingly, +at any time, have given up his own life, Franklin Pierce, was there +among the rest, and scattered flowers into the grave. The unfinished +Romance, which had cost him so much anxiety, the last literary work on +which he had ever been engaged, was laid on his coffin.</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"Ah! who shall lift that wand of magic power,<br /></span> +<span class='i3'>And the lost clew regain?<br /></span> +<span>The unfinished window in Aladdin's tower<br /></span> +<span class='i3'>Unfinished must remain."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Longfellow's beautiful poem will always be associated with the memory of +Hawthorne, and most fitting was it that his fellow-student, whom he so +loved and honored, should sing his requiem.</p> + + + +<hr class=full> +<a name='IV_DICKENS'></a> +<h2>DICKENS</h2> + +<div class='poem'> + <div class='stanza'> + <span>"<i>O friend with heart as gentle for distress,</i><br /></span> + <span class='i1'><i>As resolute with wise true thoughts to bind</i><br /></span> + <span class='i2'><i>The happiest with the unhappiest of our kind</i>/"<br /></span> + </div> + <div class='stanza'> + <span class='i28'>John Forster.<br /></span> + </div> +</div> + +<p><i>"All men are to an unspeakable degree brothers, each man's life a +strange emblem of every man's; and Human Portraits, faithfully drawn, +are of all pictures the welcomest on human walls."</i>—Carlyle.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h2>IV. DICKENS.</h2> +<p>I observe my favorite chair is placed to-day where the portraits of +Charles Dickens are easiest seen, and I take the hint accordingly. Those +are likenesses of him from the age of twenty-eight down to the year when +he passed through "the golden gate," as that wise mystic William Blake +calls death. One would hardly believe these pictures represented the +same man! See what a beautiful young person Maclise represents in this +early likeness of the great author, and then contrast the face with that +worn one in the photograph of 1869. The same man, but how different in +aspect! I sometimes think, while looking at those two portraits, I must +have known two individuals bearing the same name, at various periods of +my own life. Let me speak to-day of the younger Dickens. How well I +recall the bleak winter evening in 1842 when I first saw the handsome, +glowing face of the young man who was even then famous over half the +globe! He came bounding into the Tremont House, fresh from the steamer +that had brought him to our shores, and his cheery voice rang through +the hall, as he gave a quick glance at the new scenes opening upon him +in a strange land on first arriving at a Transatlantic hotel. "Here we +are!" he shouted, as the lights burst upon the merry party just entering +the house, and several gentlemen came forward to greet him. Ah, how +happy and buoyant he was then! Young, handsome, almost worshipped for +his genius, belted round by such troops of friends as rarely ever man +had, coming to a new country to make new conquests of fame and +honor,—surely it was a sight long to be remembered and never wholly to +be forgotten. The splendor of his endowments and the personal interest +he had won to himself called forth all the enthusiasm of old and young +America, and I am glad to have been among the first to witness his +arrival. You ask me what was his appearance as he ran, or rather flew, +up the steps of the hotel, and sprang into the hall. He seemed all on +fire with curiosity, and alive as I never saw mortal before. From top to +toe every fibre of his body was unrestrained and alert. What vigor, what +keenness, what freshness of spirit, possessed him! He laughed all over, +and did not care who heard him! He seemed like the Emperor of +Cheerfulness on a cruise of pleasure, determined to conquer a realm or +two of fun every hour of his overflowing existence. That night impressed +itself on my memory for all time, so far as I am concerned with things +sublunary. It was Dickens, the true "Boz," in flesh and blood, who stood +before us at last, and with my companions, three or four lads of my own +age, I determined to sit up late that night. None of us then, of course, +had the honor of an acquaintance with the delightful stranger, and I +little thought that I should afterwards come to know him in the beaten +way of friendship, and live with him day after day in years far distant; +that I should ever be so near to him that he would reveal to me his joys +and his sorrows, and thus that I should learn the story of his life from +his own lips.</p> + +<p>About midnight on that eventful landing, "Boz,"—everybody called him +"Boz" in those days,—having finished his supper, came down into the +office of the hotel, and, joining the young Earl of M——, his +fellow-voyager, sallied out for a first look at Boston streets. It was +a stinging night, and the moon was at the full. Every object stood out +sharp and glittering, and "Boz," muffled up in a shaggy fur coat, ran +over the shining frozen snow, wisely keeping the middle of the street +for the most part. We boys followed cautiously behind, but near enough +not to lose any of the fun. Of course the two gentlemen soon lost their +way on emerging into Washington from Tremont Street. Dickens kept up one +continual shout of uproarious laughter as he went rapidly forward, +reading the signs on the shops, and observing the "architecture" of the +new country into which he had dropped as if from the clouds. When the +two arrived opposite the "Old South Church" Dickens screamed. To this +day I could never tell why. Was it because of its fancied resemblance to +St. Paul's or the Abbey? I declare firmly, the mystery of that shout is +still a mystery to me!</p> + +<p>The great event of Boz's first visit to Boston was the dinner of welcome +tendered to him by the young men of the city. It is idle to attempt much +talk about the banquet given on that Monday night in February, +twenty-nine years ago. Papanti's Hall (where many of us learned to +dance, under the guidance of that master of legs, now happily still +among us and pursuing the same highly useful calling which he practised +in 1842) was the scene of that festivity. It was a glorious episode in +all our lives, and whoever was not there has suffered a loss not easy to +estimate. We younger members of that dinner-party sat in the seventh +heaven of happiness, and were translated into other spheres. +Accidentally, of course, I had a seat just in front of the honored +guest; saw him take a pinch of snuff out of Washington Allston's box, +and heard him joke with old President Quincy. Was there ever such a +night before in our staid city? Did ever mortal preside with such +felicitous success as did Mr. Quincy? How he went on with his delicious +compliments to our guest! How he revelled in quotations from "Pickwick" +and "Oliver Twist" and "The Curiosity Shop"! And how admirably he closed +his speech of welcome, calling up the young author amid a perfect volley +of applause! "Health, Happiness, and a Hearty Welcome to Charles +Dickens." I can see and hear Mr. Quincy now, as he spoke the words. Were +ever heard such cheers before? And when Dickens stood up at last to +answer for himself, so fresh and so handsome, with his beautiful eyes +moist with feeling, and his whole frame aglow with excitement, how we +did hurrah, we young fellows! Trust me, it <i>was</i> a great night; and we +must have made a mighty noise at our end of the table, for I remember +frequent messages came down to us from the "Chair," begging that we +would hold up a little and moderate if possible the rapture of our +applause.</p> + +<p>After Dickens left Boston he went on his American travels, gathering up +materials, as he journeyed, for his "American Notes." He was accompanied +as far as New York by a very dear friend, to whom he afterwards +addressed several most interesting letters. For that friend he always +had the warmest enthusiasm; and when he came the second time to America, +there was no one of his old companions whom he missed more. Let us read +some of these letters written by Dickens nearly thirty years ago. The +friend to whom they were addressed was also an intimate and dear +associate of mine, and his children have kindly placed at my disposal +the whole correspondence. Here is the first letter, time-stained, but +preserved with religious care.</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Fuller's Hotel, Washington, Monday, March 14, 1842. + +<p> My Dear Felton: I was more delighted than I can possibly tell you to + receive (last Saturday night) your welcome letter. We and the + oysters missed you terribly in New York. You carried away with you + more than half the delight and pleasure of my New World; and I + heartily wish you could bring it back again.</p> + +<p> There are very interesting men in this place,—highly interesting, + of course,—but it's not a comfortable place; is it? If spittle + could wait at table we should be nobly attended, but as that + property has not been imparted to it in the present state of + mechanical science, we are rather lonely and orphan-like, in respect + of "being looked arter." A blithe black was introduced on our + arrival, as our peculiar and especial attendant. He is the only + gentleman in the town who has a peculiar delicacy in intruding upon + my valuable time. It usually takes seven rings and a threatening + message from —— to produce him; and when he comes he goes to fetch + something, and, forgetting it by the way, comes back no more.</p> + +<p> We have been in great distress, really in distress, at the + non-arrival of the Caledonia. You may conceive what our joy was, + when, while we were dining out yesterday, H. arrived with the joyful + intelligence of her safety. The very news of her having really + arrived seemed to diminish the distance between ourselves and home, + by one half at least.</p> + +<p> And this morning (though we have not yet received our heap of + despatches, for which we are looking eagerly forward to this night's + mail),—this morning there reached us unexpectedly, through the + government bag (Heaven knows how they came there), two of our many + and long-looked-for letters, wherein was a circumstantial account of + the whole conduct and behavior of our pets; with marvellous + narrations of Charley's precocity at a Twelfth Night juvenile party + at Macready's; and tremendous predictions of the governess, dimly + suggesting his having got out of pot-hooks and hangers, and darkly + insinuating the possibility of his writing us a letter before long; + and many other workings of the same prophetic spirit, in reference + to him and his sisters, very gladdening to their mother's heart, and + not at all depressing to their father's. There was, also, the + doctor's report, which was a clean bill; and the nurse's report, + which was perfectly electrifying; showing as it did how Master + Walter had been weaned, and had cut a double tooth, and done many + other extraordinary things, quite worthy of his high descent. In + short, we were made very happy and grateful; and felt as if the + prodigal father and mother had got home again.</p> + +<p> What do you think of this incendiary card being left at my door last + night? "General G. sends compliments to Mr. Dickens, and called with + two literary ladies. As the two L.L.'s are ambitious of the honor of + a personal introduction to Mr. D., General G requests the honor of + an appointment for to-morrow." I draw a veil over my sufferings. + They are sacred.</p> + +<p> We have altered our route, and don't mean to go to Charleston, for I + want to see the West, and have taken it into my head that as I am + not obliged to go to Charleston, and don't exactly know why I should + go there, I need do no violence to my own inclinations. My route is + of Mr. Clay's designing, and I think it a very good one. We go on + Wednesday night to Richmond in Virginia. On Monday we return to + Baltimore for two days. On Thursday morning we start for Pittsburg, + and so go by the Ohio to Cincinnati, Louisville, Kentucky, + Lexington, St. Louis; and either down the Lakes to Buffalo, or back + to Philadelphia, and by New York to that place, where we shall stay + a week, and then make a hasty trip into Canada. We shall be in + Buffalo, please Heaven, on the 30th of April. If I don't find a + letter from you in the care of the postmaster at that place, I'll + never write to you from England.</p> + +<p> But if I <i>do</i> find one, my right hand shall forget its cunning, + before I forget to be your truthful and constant correspondent; not, + dear Felton, because I promised it, nor because I have a natural + tendency to correspond (which is far from being the case), nor + because I am truly grateful to you for, and have been made truly + proud by, that affectionate and elegant tribute which —— sent me, + but because you are a man after my own heart, and I love you <i>well</i>. + And for the love I bear you, and the pleasure with which I shall + always think of you, and the glow I shall feel when I see your + handwriting in my own home, I hereby enter into a solemn league, and + covenant to write as many letters to you as you write to me, at + least. Amen.</p> + +<p> Come to England! Come to England! Our oysters are small I know; they + are said by Americans to be coppery, but our hearts are of the + largest size. We are thought to excel in shrimps, to be far from + despicable in point of lobsters, and in periwinkles are considered + to challenge the universe. Our oysters, small though they be, are + not devoid of the refreshing influence which that species of fish is + supposed to exercise in these latitudes. Try them and compare.</p> + +<p> Affectionately yours,</p> + +<p> CHARLES DICKENS.</p></div> + +<p>His next letter is dated from Niagara, and I know every one will relish +his allusion to oysters with wet feet, and his reference to the +squeezing of a Quaker.</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Clifton House, Niagara Falls, 29th April, 1842. + +<p> My Dear Felton: Before I go any farther, let me explain to you what + these great enclosures portend, lest—supposing them part and parcel + of my letter, and asking to be read—you shall fall into fits, from + which recovery might be doubtful.</p> + +<p> They are, as you will see, four copies of the same thing. The nature + of the document you will discover at a glance. As I hoped and + believed, the best of the British brotherhood took fire at my being + attacked because I spoke my mind and theirs on the subject of an + international copyright; and with all good speed, and hearty private + letters, transmitted to me this small parcel of gauntlets for + immediate casting down.</p> + +<p> Now my first idea was, publicity being the object, to send one copy + to you for a Boston newspaper, another to Bryant for his paper, a + third to the New York Herald (because of its large circulation), and + a fourth to a highly respectable journal at Washington (the property + of a gentleman, and a fine fellow named Seaton, whom I knew there), + which I think is called the Intelligencer. Then the Knickerbocker + stepped into my mind, and then it occurred to me that possibly the + North American Review might be the best organ after all, because + indisputably the most respectable and honorable, and the most + concerned in the rights of literature.</p> + +<p> Whether to limit its publication to one journal, or to extend it to + several, is a question so very difficult of decision to a stranger, + that I have finally resolved to send these papers to you, and ask + you (mindful of the conversation we had on this head one day, in + that renowned oyster-cellar) to resolve the point for me. You need + feel no weighty sense of responsibility, my dear Felton, for + whatever you do is <i>sure</i> to please me. If you see Sumner, take him + into our councils. The only two things to be borne in mind are, + first, that if they be published in several quarters, they must be + published in all <i>simultaneously</i>; secondly, that I hold them in + trust, to put them before the people.</p> + +<p> I fear this is imposing a heavy tax upon your friendship; and I + don't fear it the less, by reason of being well assured that it is + one you will most readily pay. I shall be in Montreal about the 11th + of May. Will you write to me there, to the care of the Earl of + Mulgrave, and tell me what you have done?</p> + +<p> So much for that. Bisness first, pleasure artervards, as King + Richard the Third said ven he stabbed the tother king in the Tower, + afore he murdered the babbies.</p> + +<p> I have long suspected that oysters have a rheumatic tendency. Their + feet are always wet; and so much damp company in a man's inside + cannot contribute to his peace. But whatever the cause of your + indisposition, we are truly grieved and pained to hear of it, and + should be more so, but that we hope from your account of that + farewell dinner, that you are all right again. I <i>did</i> receive + Longfellow's note. Sumner I have not yet heard from; for which + reason I am constantly bringing telescopes to bear on the ferryboat, + in hopes to see him coming over, accompanied by a modest + portmanteau.</p> + +<p> To say anything about this wonderful place would be sheer nonsense. + It far exceeds my most sanguine expectations, though the impression + on my mind has been, from the first, nothing but beauty and peace. I + haven't drunk the water. Bearing in mind your caution, I have + devoted myself to beer, whereof there is an exceedingly pretty fall + in this house.</p> + +<p> One of the noble hearts who sat for the Cheeryble brothers is dead. + If I had been in England, I would certainly have gone into mourning + for the loss of such a glorious life. His brother is not expected to + survive him. I am told that it appears from a memorandum found among + the papers of the deceased, that in his lifetime he gave away in + charity £600,000, or three millions of dollars!</p> + +<p> What do you say to my <i>acting</i> at the Montreal Theatre? I am an old + hand at such matters, and am going to join the officers of the + garrison in a public representation for the benefit of a local + charity. We shall have a good house, they say. I am going to enact + one Mr. Snobbington in a funny farce called A Good Night's Rest. I + shall want a flaxen wig and eyebrows; and my nightly rest is broken + by visions of there being no such commodities in Canada. I wake in + the dead of night in a cold perspiration, surrounded by imaginary + barbers, all denying the existence or possibility of obtaining such + articles. If —— had a flaxen head, I would certainly have it + shaved and get a wig and eyebrows out of him, for a small pecuniary + compensation.</p> + +<p> By the by, if you could only have seen the man at Harrisburg, + crushing a friendly Quaker in the parlor door! It was the greatest + sight I ever saw. I had told him not to admit anybody whatever, + forgetting that I had previously given this honest Quaker a special + invitation to come. The Quaker would not be denied, and H. was + stanch. When I came upon them, the Quaker was black in the face, and + H. was administering the final squeeze. The Quaker was still rubbing + his waistcoat with an expression of acute inward suffering, when I + left the town. I have been looking for his death in the newspapers + almost daily.</p> + +<p> Do you know one General G.? He is a weazen-faced warrior, and in his + dotage. I had him for a fellow-passenger on board a steamboat. I had + also a statistical colonel with me, outside the coach from + Cincinnati to Columbus. A New England poet buzzed about me on the + Ohio, like a gigantic bee. A mesmeric doctor, of an impossibly great + age, gave me pamphlets at Louisville. I have suffered much, very + much.</p> + +<p> If I could get beyond New York to see anybody, it would be (as you + know) to see <i>you</i>. But I do not expect to reach the "Carlton" until + the last day of May, and then we are going with the Coldens + somewhere on the banks of the North River for a couple of days. So + you see we shall not have much leisure for our voyaging + preparations.</p> + +<p> You and Dr. Howe (to whom my love) MUST come to New York. On the 6th + of June, you must engage yourselves to dine with us at the + "Carlton"; and if we don't make a merry evening of it, the fault + shall not be in us.</p> + +<p> Mrs. Dickens unites with me in best regards to Mrs. Felton and your + little daughter, and I am always, my dear Felton,</p> + +<p> Affectionately your friend,</p> + +<p> CHARLES DICKENS.</p> + +<p> P.S. I saw a good deal of Walker at Cincinnati. I like him very + much. We took to him mightily at first, because he resembled you in + face and figure, we thought. You will be glad to hear that our news + from home is cheering from first to last, all well, happy, and + loving. My friend Forster says in his last letter that he "wants to + know you," and looks forward to Longfellow.</p></div> + +<p>When Dickens arrived in Montreal he had, it seems, a busy time of it, +and I have often heard of his capital acting in private theatricals +while in that city.</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Montreal, Saturday, 21st May, 1842. + +<p> My Dear Felton: I was delighted to receive your letter yesterday, + and was well pleased with its contents. I anticipated objection to + Carlyle's letter. I called particular attention to it for three + reasons. Firstly, because he boldly <i>said</i> what all the others + <i>think</i>, and therefore deserved to be manfully supported. Secondly, + because it is my deliberate opinion that I have been assailed on + this subject in a manner in which no man with any pretensions to + public respect or with the remotest right to express an opinion on + a subject of universal literary interest would be assailed in any + other country.....</p> + +<p> I really cannot sufficiently thank you, dear Felton, for your warm + and hearty interest in these proceedings. But it would be idle to + pursue that theme, so let it pass.</p> + +<p> The wig and whiskers are in a state of the highest preservation. The + play comes off next Wednesday night, the 25th. What would I give to + see you in the front row of the centre box, your spectacles gleaming + not unlike those of my dear friend Pickwick, your face radiant with + as broad a grin as a staid professor may indulge in, and your very + coat, waistcoat, and shoulders expressive of what we should take + together when the performance was over! I would give something (not + so much, but still a good round sum) if you could only stumble into + that very dark and dusty theatre in the daytime (at any minute + between twelve and three), and see me with my coat off, the stage + manager and universal director, urging impracticable ladies and + impossible gentlemen on to the very confines of insanity, shouting + and driving about, in my own person, to an extent which would + justify any philanthropic stranger in clapping me into a + strait-waistcoat without further inquiry, endeavoring to goad H. + into some dim and faint understanding of a prompter's duties, and + struggling in such a vortex of noise, dirt, bustle, confusion, and + inextricable entanglement of speech and action as you would grow + giddy in contemplating. We perform A Roland for an Oliver, A good + Night's Rest, and Deaf as a Post. This kind of voluntary hard labor + used to be my great delight. The <i>furor</i> has come strong upon me + again, and I begin to be once more of opinion that nature intended + me for the lessee of a national theatre, and that pen, ink, and + paper have spoiled a manager.</p> + +<p> O, how I look forward across that rolling water to home and its + small tenantry! How I busy myself in thinking how my books look, and + where the tables are, and in what positions the chairs stand + relatively to the other furniture; and whether we shall get there in + the night, or in the morning, or in the afternoon; and whether we + shall be able to surprise them, or whether they will be too sharply + looking out for us; and what our pets will say; and how they'll + look, and who will be the first to come and shake hands, and so + forth! If I could but tell you how I have set my heart on rushing + into Forster's study (he is my great friend, and writes at the + bottom of all his letters, "My love to Felton"), and into Maclise's + painting-room, and into Macready's managerial ditto, without a + moment's warning, and how I picture every little trait and + circumstance of our arrival to myself, down to the very color of the + bow on the cook's cap, you would almost think I had changed places + with my eldest son, and was still in pantaloons of the thinnest + texture. I left all these things—God only knows what a love I have + for them—as coolly and calmly as any animated cucumber; but when I + come upon them again I shall have lost all power of self-restraint, + and shall as certainly make a fool of myself (in the popular meaning + of that expression) as ever Grimaldi did in his way, or George III. + in his.</p> + +<p> And not the less so, dear Felton, for having found some warm hearts, + and left some instalments of earnest and sincere affection, behind + me on this continent. And whenever I turn my mental telescope + hitherward, trust me that one of the first figures it will descry + will wear spectacles so like yours that the maker couldn't tell the + difference, and shall address a Greek class in such an exact + imitation of your voice, that the very students hearing it should + cry, "That's he! Three cheers. Hoo-ray-ay-ay-ay-ay!"</p> + +<p> About those joints of yours, I think you are mistaken. They <i>can't</i> + be stiff. At the worst they merely want the air of New York, which, + being impregnated with the flavor of last year's oysters, has a + surprising effect in rendering the human frame supple and flexible + in all cases of rust.</p> + +<p> A terrible idea occurred to me as I wrote those words. The + oyster-cellars,—what do they do when oysters are not in season? Is + pickled salmon vended there? Do they sell crabs, shrimps, winkles, + herrings? The oyster-openers,—what do <i>they</i> do? Do they commit + suicide in despair, or wrench open tight drawers and cupboards and + hermetically sealed bottles for practice? Perhaps they are dentists + out of the oyster season. Who knows?</p> + +<p> Affectionately yours,</p> + +<p> CHARLES DICKENS.</p></div> + +<p>Dickens always greatly rejoiced in the theatre; and, having seen him act +with the Amateur Company of the Guild of Literature and Art, I can well +imagine the delight his impersonations in Montreal must have occasioned. +I have seen him play Sir Charles Coldstream, in the comedy of Used Up, +with such perfection that all other performers in the same part have +seemed dull by comparison. Even Matthews, superb artist as he is, could +not rival Dickens in the character of Sir Charles. Once I saw Dickens, +Mark Lemon, and Wilkie Collins on the stage together. The play was +called Mrs. Nightingale's Diary (a farce in one act, the joint +production of Dickens and Mark Lemon), and Dickens played six characters +in the piece. Never have I seen such wonderful changes of face and form +as he gave us that night. He was alternately a rattling lawyer of the +Middle Temple, a boots, an eccentric pedestrian and cold-water drinker, +a deaf sexton, an invalid captain, and an old woman. What fun it was, to +be sure, and how we roared over the performance! Here is the playbill +which I held in my hand nineteen years ago, while the great writer was +proving himself to be as pre-eminent an actor as he was an author. One +can see by reading the bill that Dickens was manager of the company, and +that it was under his direction that the plays were produced. Observe +the clear evidence of his hand in the very wording of the bill:—</p> + +<span style='margin-left: 4.5em;'>"On Wednesday evening, September 1, 1852.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 10em;'>"THE AMATEUR COMPANY</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 14em;'>OF THE</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 8.5em;'>GUILD OF LITERATURE AND ART;</span><br /> +<br /> +To encourage Life Assurance and other provident habits among Authors<br /> +and Artists; to render such assistance to both as shall never<br /> +compromise their independence; and to found a new Institution where<br /> +honorable rest from arduous labors shall still be associated with<br /> +the discharge of congenial duties;<br /> +<br /> +"Will have the honor of presenting," etc., etc.,<br /> + +<p>But let us go on with the letters. Here is the first one to his friend +after Dickens arrived home again in England. It is delightful, through +and through.</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>London, 1 Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regent's Park, Sunday, July + 31, 1842.</p> + +<p> My Dear Felton: Of all the monstrous and incalculable amount of + occupation that ever beset one unfortunate man, mine has been the + most stupendous since I came home. The dinners I have had to eat, + the places I have had to go to, the letters I have had to answer, + the sea of business and of pleasure in which I have been plunged, + not even the genius of an —— or the pen of a —— could describe.</p> + +<p> Wherefore I indite a monstrously short and wildly uninteresting + epistle to the American Dando, but perhaps you don't know who Dando + was. He was an oyster-eater, my dear Felton. He used to go into + oyster-shops, without a farthing of money, and stand at the counter + eating natives, until the man who opened them grew pale, cast down + his knife, staggered backward, struck his white forehead with his + open hand, and cried, "You are Dando!!!" He has been known to eat + twenty dozen at one sitting, and would have eaten forty, if the + truth had not flashed upon the shopkeeper. For these offences he was + constantly committed to the House of Correction. During his last + imprisonment he was taken ill, got worse and worse, and at last + began knocking violent double-knocks at Death's door. The doctor + stood beside his bed, with his fingers on his pulse. "He is going," + says the doctor. "I see it in his eye. There is only one thing that + would keep life in him for another hour, and that is—oysters." They + were immediately brought. Dando swallowed eight, and feebly took a + ninth. He held it in his mouth and looked round the bed strangely. + "Not a bad one, is it?" says the doctor. The patient shook his head, + rubbed his trembling hand upon his stomach, bolted the oyster, and + fell back—dead. They buried him in the prison yard, and paved his + grave with oyster-shells.</p> + +<p> We are all well and hearty, and have already begun to wonder what + time next year you and Mrs. Felton and Dr. Howe will come across the + briny sea together. To-morrow we go to the seaside for two months. I + am looking out for news of Longfellow, and shall be delighted when I + know that he is on his way to London and this house.</p> + +<p> I am bent upon striking at the piratical newspapers with the + sharpest edge I can put upon my small axe, and hope in the next + session of Parliament to stop their entrance into Canada. For the + first time within the memory of man, the professors of English + literature seem disposed to act together on this question. It is a + good thing to aggravate a scoundrel, if one can do nothing else, and + I think we can make them smart a little in this way....</p> + +<p> I wish you had been at Greenwich the other day, where a party of + friends gave me a private dinner; public ones I have refused. C. was + perfectly wild at the reunion, and, after singing all manner of + marine songs, wound up the entertainment by coming home (six miles) + in a little open phaeton of mine, <i>on his head</i>, to the mingled + delight and indignation of the metropolitan police. We were very + jovial indeed; and I assure you that I drank your health with + fearful vigor and energy.</p> + +<p> On board that ship coming home I established a club, called the + United Vagabonds, to the large amusement of the rest of the + passengers. This holy brotherhood committed all kinds of + absurdities, and dined always, with a variety of solemn forms, at + one end of the table, below the mast, away from all the rest. The + captain being ill when we were three or four days out, I produced my + medicine-chest and recovered him. We had a few more sick men after + that, and I went round "the wards" every day in great state, + accompanied by two Vagabonds, habited as Ben Allen and Bob Sawyer, + bearing enormous rolls of plaster and huge pairs of scissors. We + were really very merry all the way, breakfasted in one party at + Liverpool, shook hands, and parted most cordially....</p> + +<p> Affectionately</p> + +<p> Your faithful friend,</p> + +<p> C.D.</p> + +<p> P.S. I have looked over my journal, and have decided to produce my + American trip in two volumes. I have written about half the first + since I came home, and hope to be out in October. This is "exclusive + news," to be communicated to any friends to whom you may like to + intrust it, my dear F.</p></div> + +<p>What a capital epistolary pen Dickens held! He seems never to have +written the shortest note without something piquant in it; and when he +attempted a <i>letter</i>, he always made it entertaining from sheer force of +habit.</p> + +<p>When I think of this man, and all the lasting good and abounding +pleasure he has brought into the world, I wonder at the superstition +that dares to arraign him. A sound philosopher once said: "He that +thinks any innocent pastime foolish has either to grow wiser, or is past +the ability to do so"; and I have always counted it an impudent fiction +that playfulness is inconsistent with greatness. Many men and women have +died of Dignity, but the disease which sent them to the tomb was not +contracted from Charles Dickens. Not long ago, I met in the street a +bleak old character, full of dogmatism, egotism, and rheumatism, who +complained that Dickens had "too much exuberant sociality" in his books +for <i>him</i>, and he wondered how any one could get through Pickwick. My +solemn friend evidently preferred the dropping-down-deadness of manner, +which he had been accustomed to find in Hervey's "Meditations," and +other kindred authors, where it always seems to be urged that life would +be endurable but for its pleasures. A person once commended to my +acquaintance an individual whom he described as "a fine, pompous, +gentlemanly man," and I thought it prudent, under the circumstances, to +decline the proffered introduction.</p> + +<p>But I will proceed with those outbursts of bright-heartedness vouchsafed +to us in Dickens's letters. To me these epistles are good as fresh +"Uncommercials," or unpublished "Sketches by Boz."</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>1 Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regent's Park, London, 1st + September, 1842.</p> + +<p> My Dear Felton: Of course that letter in the papers was as foul a + forgery as ever felon swung for.... I have not contradicted it + publicly, nor shall I. When I tilt at such wringings out of the + dirtiest mortality, I shall be another man—indeed, almost the + creature they would make me.</p> + +<p> I gave your message to Forster, who sends a despatch-box full of + kind remembrances in return. He is in a great state of delight with + the first volume of my American book (which I have just finished), + and swears loudly by it. It is <i>True</i>, and Honorable I know, and I + shall hope to send it you, complete, by the first steamer in + November.</p> + +<p> Your description of the porter and the carpet-bags prepares me for a + first-rate facetious novel, brimful of the richest humor, on which I + have no doubt you are engaged. What is it called? Sometimes I + imagine the title-page thus:—</p></div> + +<span style='margin-left: 3.5em;'>OYSTERS</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 4.5em;'>IN</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>EVERY STYLE</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 4.5em;'>or</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 3em;'>OPENINGS</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 4.5em;'>OF</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 4em;'>LIFE</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 4.5em;'>by</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 2.5em;'>YOUNG DANDO.</span><br /> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>As to the man putting the luggage on his head, as a sort of sign, I + adopt it from this hour.</p> + +<p> I date this from London, where I have come, as a good, profligate, + graceless bachelor, for a day or two; leaving my wife and babbies at + the seaside.... Heavens! if you were but here at this minute! A + piece of salmon and a steak are cooking in the kitchen; it's a very + wet day, and I have had a fire lighted; the wine sparkles on a + side-table; the room looks the more snug from being the only + undismantled one in the house; plates are warming for Forster and + Maclise, whose knock I am momentarily expecting; that groom I told + you of, who never comes into the house, except when we are all out + of town, is walking about in his shirt-sleeves without the smallest + consciousness of impropriety; a great mound of proofs are waiting to + be read aloud, after dinner. With what a shout I would clap you down + into the easiest chair, my genial Felton, if you would but appear, + and order you a pair of slippers instantly!</p> + +<p> Since I have written this, the aforesaid groom—a very small man (as + the fashion is) with fiery-red hair (as the fashion is <i>not</i>)—has + looked very hard at me and fluttered about me at the same time, like + a giant butterfly. After a pause, he says, in a Sam Wellerish kind + of way: "I vent to the club this mornin', sir. There vorn't no + letters, sir." "Very good. Topping." "How's missis, sir?" "Pretty + well, Topping." "Glad to hear it, sir. My missis ain't wery well, + sir." "No!" "No, sir, she's a goin', sir, to have a hincrease wery + soon, and it makes her rather nervous, sir; and ven a young voman + gets at all down at sich a time, sir, she goes down wery deep, sir." + To this sentiment I reply affirmatively, and then he adds, as he + stirs the fire (as if he were thinking out loud), "Wot a mystery it + is! Wot a go is natur'!" With which scrap of philosophy, he + gradually gets nearer to the door, and so fades out of the room. + This same man asked me one day, soon after I came home, what Sir + John Wilson was. This is a friend of mine, who took our house and + servants, and everything as it stood, during our absence in America. + I told him an officer. "A wot, sir?" "An officer." And then, for + fear he should think I meant a police-officer, I added, "An officer + in the army." "I beg your pardon, sir," he said, touching his hat, + "but the club as I always drove him to wos the United Servants."</p> + +<p> The real name of this club is the United Service, but I have no + doubt he thought it was a high-life-below-stairs kind of resort, and + that this gentleman was a retired butler or superannuated footman.</p> + +<p> There's the knock, and the Great Western sails, or steams rather, + to-morrow. Write soon again, dear Felton, and ever believe me, ...</p> + +<p> Your affectionate friend,</p> + +<p> CHARLES DICKENS.</p> + +<p> P.S. All good angels prosper Dr. Howe. He, at least, will not like + me the less, I hope, for what I shall say of Laura. +</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>London, 1 Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regent's Park, 31st + December, 1842.</p> + +<p> My Dear Felton: Many and many happy New Years to you and yours! As + many happy children as may be quite convenient (no more)! and as + many happy meetings between them and our children, and between you + and us, as the kind fates in their utmost kindness shall favorably + decree!</p> + +<p> The American book (to begin with that) has been a most complete and + thorough-going success. Four large editions have now been sold <i>and + paid for</i>, and it has won golden opinions from all sorts of men, + except our friend in F——, who is a miserable creature; a + disappointed man in great poverty, to whom I have ever been most + kind and considerate (I need scarcely say that); and another friend + in B——, no less a person than an illustrious gentleman named ——, + who wrote a story called ——. They have done no harm, and have + fallen short of their mark, which, of course, was to annoy me. Now I + am perfectly free from any diseased curiosity in such respects, and + whenever I hear of a notice of this kind, I never read it; whereby I + always conceive (don't you?) that I get the victory. With regard to + your slave-owners, they may cry, till they are as black in the face + as their own slaves, that Dickens lies. Dickens does not write for + their satisfaction, and Dickens will not explain for their comfort. + Dickens has the name and date of every newspaper in which every one + of those advertisements appeared, as they know perfectly well; but + Dickens does not choose to give them, and will not at any time + between this and the day of judgment....</p> + +<p> I have been hard at work on my new book, of which the first number + has just appeared. The Paul Joneses who pursue happiness and profit + at other men's cost will no doubt enable you to read it, almost as + soon as you receive this. I hope you will like it. And I + particularly commend, my dear Felton, one Mr. Pecksniff and his + daughters to your tender regards. I have a kind of liking for them + myself.</p> + +<p> Blessed star of morning, such a trip as we had into Cornwall, just + after Longfellow went away! The "we" means Forster, Maclise, + Stanfield (the renowned marine painter), and the Inimitable Boz. We + went down into Devonshire by the railroad, and there we hired an + open carriage from an innkeeper, patriotic in all Pickwick matters, + and went on with post horses. Sometimes we travelled all night, + sometimes all day, sometimes both. I kept the joint-stock purse, + ordered all the dinners, paid all the turnpikes, conducted facetious + conversations with the post boys, and regulated the pace at which we + travelled. Stanfield (an old sailor) consulted an enormous map on + all disputed points of wayfaring; and referred, moreover, to a + pocket-compass and other scientific instruments. The luggage was in + Forster's department; and Maclise, having nothing particular to do, + sang songs. Heavens! If you could have seen the necks of + bottles—distracting in their immense varieties of shape—peering + out of the carriage pockets! If you could have witnessed the deep + devotion of the post-boys, the wild attachment of the hostlers, the + maniac glee of the waiters. If you could have followed us into the + earthy old churches we visited, and into the strange caverns on the + gloomy sea-shore, and down into the depths of mines, and up to the + tops of giddy heights where the unspeakably green water was roaring, + I don't know how many hundred feet below! If you could have seen but + one gleam of the bright fires by which we sat in the big rooms of + ancient inns at night, until long after the small hours had come and + gone, or smelt but one steam of the HOT punch (not white, dear + Felton, like that amazing compound I sent you a taste of, but a + rich, genial, glowing brown) which came in every evening in a huge + broad china bowl! I never laughed in my life as I did on this + journey. It would have done you good to hear me. I was choking and + gasping and bursting the buckle off the back of my stock, all the + way. And Stanfield (who is very much of your figure and temperament, + but fifteen years older) got into such apoplectic entanglements + that we were often obliged to beat him on the back with portmanteaus + before we could recover him. Seriously, I do believe there never was + such a trip. And they made such sketches, those two men, in the most + romantic of our halting-places, that you would have sworn we had the + Spirit of Beauty with us, as well as the Spirit of Fun. But stop + till you come to England,—I say no more.</p> + +<p> The actuary of the national debt couldn't calculate the number of + children who are coming here on Twelfth Night, in honor of Charley's + birthday, for which occasion I have provided a magic lantern and + divers other tremendous engines of that nature. But the best of it + is that Forster and I have purchased between us the entire stock in + trade of a conjurer, the practice and display whereof is intrusted + to me. And O my dear eyes, Felton, if you could see me conjuring the + company's watches into impossible tea-caddies, and causing pieces of + money to fly, and burning pocket-handkerchiefs without hurting 'em, + and practising in my own room, without anybody to admire, you would + never forget as long as you live. In those tricks which require a + confederate, I am assisted (by reason of his imperturbable + good-humor) by Stanfield, who always does his part exactly the wrong + way, to the unspeakable delight of all beholders. We come out on a + small scale, to-night, at Forster's, where we see the old year out + and the new one in. Particulars of shall be forwarded in my next.</p> + +<p> I have quite made up my mind that F—— really believes he <i>does</i> + know you personally, and has all his life. He talks to me about you + with such gravity that I am afraid to grin, and feel it necessary to + look quite serious. Sometimes he <i>tells</i> me things about you, + doesn't ask me, you know, so that I am occasionally perplexed beyond + all telling, and begin to think it was he, and not I, who went to + America. It's the queerest thing in the world.</p> + +<p> The book I was to have given Longfellow for you is not worth sending + by itself, being only a Barnaby. But I will look up some manuscript + for you (I think I have that of the American Notes complete), and + will try to make the parcel better worth its long conveyance. With + regard to Maclise's pictures, you certainly are quite right in your + impression of them; but he is "such a discursive devil" (as he says + about himself), and flies off at such odd tangents, that I feel it + difficult to convey to you any general notion of his purpose. I will + try to do so when I write again. I want very much to know about —— + and that charming girl..... Give me full particulars. Will you + remember me cordially to Sumner, and say I thank him for his + welcome letter? The like to Hillard, with many regards to himself + and his wife, with whom I had one night a little conversation which + I shall not readily forget. The like to Washington Allston, and all + friends who care for me and have outlived my book.... Always, my + dear Felton,</p> + +<p> With true regard and affection, yours,</p> + +<p> CHARLES DICKENS.</p></div> + +<p>Here is a letter that seems to me something tremendous in its fun and +pathos:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p> 1 Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regent's Park, London, 2d March, + 1843.</p> + +<p> My Dear Felton: I don't know where to begin, but plunge headlong + with a terrible splash into this letter, on the chance of turning up + somewhere.</p> + +<p> Hurrah! Up like a cork again, with the "North American Review" in my + hand. Like you, my dear ——, and I can say no more in praise of it, + though I go on to the end of the sheet. You cannot think how much + notice it has attracted here. Brougham called the other day, with + the number (thinking I might not have seen it), and I being out at + the time, he left a note, speaking of it, and of the writer, in + terms that warmed my heart. Lord Ashburton (one of whose people + wrote a notice in the "Edinburgh," which they have since publicly + contradicted) also wrote to me about it in just the same strain. And + many others have done the like.</p> + +<p> I am in great health and spirits and powdering away at Chuzzlewit, + with all manner of facetiousness rising up before me as I go on. As + to news, I have really none, saving that —— (who never took any + exercise in his life) has been laid up with rheumatism for weeks + past, but is now, I hope, getting better. My little captain, as I + call him,—he who took me out, I mean, and with whom I had that + adventure of the cork soles,—has been in London too, and seeing all + the lions under my escort. Good heavens! I wish you could have seen + certain other mahogany-faced men (also captains) who used to call + here for him in the morning, and bear him off to docks and rivers + and all sorts of queer places, whence he always returned late at + night, with rum-and-water tear-drops in his eyes, and a complication + of punchy smells in his mouth! He was better than a comedy to us, + having marvellous ways of tying his pocket-handkerchief round his + neck at dinner-time in a kind of jolly embarrassment, and then + forgetting what he had done with it; also of singing songs to wrong + tunes, and calling land objects by sea names, and never knowing + what o'clock it was, but taking midnight for seven in the evening; + with many other sailor oddities, all full of honesty, manliness, and + good temper. We took him to Drury Lane Theatre to see Much Ado About + Nothing. But I never could find out what he meant by turning round, + after he had watched the first two scenes with great attention, and + inquiring "whether it was a Polish piece." ...</p> + +<p> On the 4th of April I am going to preside at a public dinner for the + benefit of the printers; and if you were a guest at that table, + wouldn't I smite you on the shoulder, harder than ever I rapped the + well-beloved back of Washington Irving at the City Hotel in New + York!</p> + +<p> You were asking me—I love to say asking, as if we could talk + together—about Maclise. He is such a discursive fellow, and so + eccentric in his might, that on a mental review of his pictures I + can hardly tell you of them as leading to any one strong purpose. + But the annual Exhibition of the Royal Academy comes off in May, and + then I will endeavor to give you some notion of him. He is a + tremendous creature, and might do anything. But, like all tremendous + creatures, he takes his own way, and flies off at unexpected + breaches in the conventional wall.</p> + +<p> You know H——'s Book, I daresay. Ah! I saw a scene of mingled + comicality and seriousness at his funeral some weeks ago, which has + choked me at dinner-time ever since. C—— and I went as mourners; + and as he lived, poor fellow, five miles out of town, I drove C—— + down. It was such a day as I hope, for the credit of nature, is + seldom seen in any parts but these,—muddy, foggy, wet, dark, cold, + and unutterably wretched in every possible respect. Now, C—— has + enormous whiskers, which straggle all down his throat in such + weather, and stick out in front of him, like a partially unravelled + bird's-nest; so that he looks queer enough at the best, but when he + is very wet, and in a state between jollity (he is always very jolly + with me) and the deepest gravity (going to a funeral, you know), it + is utterly impossible to resist him; especially as he makes the + strangest remarks the mind of man can conceive, without any + intention of being funny, but rather meaning to be philosophical. I + really cried with an irresistible sense of his comicality all the + way; but when he was dressed out in a black cloak and a very long + black hat-band by an undertaker (who, as he whispered me with tears + in his eyes—for he had known H—— many years—was "a character, + and he would like to sketch him"), I thought I should have been + obliged to go away. However, we went into a little parlor where the + funeral party was, and God knows it was miserable enough, for the + widow and children were crying bitterly in one corner, and the other + mourners—mere people of ceremony, who cared no more for the dead + man than the hearse did—were talking quite coolly and carelessly + together in another; and the contrast was as painful and distressing + as anything I ever saw. There was an independent clergyman present, + with his bands on and a Bible under his arm, who, as soon as we were + seated, addressed —— thus, in a loud, emphatic voice: "Mr. C——, + have you seen a paragraph respecting our departed friend, which has + gone the round of the morning papers?" "Yes, sir," says C——, "I + have," looking very hard at me the while, for he had told me with + some pride coming down that it was his composition. "Oh!" said the + clergyman. "Then you will agree with me, Mr. C——, that it is not + only an insult to me, who am the servant of the Almighty, but an + insult to the Almighty, whose servant I am." "How is that, sir?" + said C——. "It is stated, Mr. C——, in that paragraph," says the + minister, "that when Mr. H—— failed in business as a bookseller, + he was persuaded by <i>me</i> to try the pulpit, which is false, + incorrect, unchristian, in a manner blasphemous, and in all respects + contemptible. Let us pray." With which, my dear Felton, and in the + same breath, I give you my word, he knelt down, as we all did, and + began a very miserable jumble of an extemporary prayer. I was really + penetrated with sorrow for the family, but when C—— (upon his + knees, and sobbing for the loss of an old friend) whispered me, + "that if that wasn't a clergyman, and it wasn't a funeral, he'd have + punched his head," I felt as if nothing but convulsions could + possibly relieve me.....</p> + +<p> Faithfully always, my dear Felton,</p> + +<p> C.D.</p></div> + +<p>Was there ever such a genial, jovial creature as this master of humor! +When we read his friendly epistles, we cannot help wishing he had +written letters only, as when we read his novels we grudge the time he +employed on anything else.</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Broadstairs, Kent, 1st September, 1843. + +<p> My Dear Felton: If I thought it in the nature of things that you and + I could ever agree on paper, touching a certain Chuzzlewitian + question whereupon F—— tells me you have remarks to make, I should + immediately walk into the same, tooth and nail. But as I don't, I + won't. Contenting myself with this prediction, that one of these + years and days, you will write or say to me, "My dear Dickens, you + were right, though rough, and did a world of good, though you got + most thoroughly hated for it." To which I shall reply, "My dear + Felton, I looked a long way off and not immediately under my nose." + ... At which sentiment you will laugh, and I shall laugh; and then + (for I foresee this will all happen in my land) we shall call for + another pot of porter and two or three dozen of oysters.</p> + +<p> Now don't you in your own heart and soul quarrel with me for this + long silence? Not half so much as I quarrel with myself, I know; but + if you could read half the letters I write to you in imagination, + you would swear by me for the best of correspondents. The truth is, + that when I have done my morning's work, down goes my pen, and from + that minute I feel it a positive impossibility to take it up again, + until imaginary butchers and bakers wave me to my desk. I walk about + brimful of letters, facetious descriptions, touching morsels, and + pathetic friendships, but can't for the soul of me uncork myself. + The post-office is my rock ahead. My average number of letters that + <i>must</i> be written every day is, at the least, a dozen. And you could + no more know what I was writing to you spiritually, from the perusal + of the bodily thirteenth, than you could tell from my hat what was + going on in my head, or could read my heart on the surface of my + flannel waistcoat.</p> + +<p> This is a little fishing-place; intensely quiet; built on a cliff + whereon—in the centre of a tiny semicircular bay—our house stands; + the sea rolling and dashing under the windows. Seven miles out are + the Goodwin Sands, (you've heard of the Goodwin Sands?) whence + floating lights perpetually wink after dark, as if they were + carrying on intrigues with the servants. Also there is a big + lighthouse called the North Foreland on a hill behind the village, a + severe parsonic light, which reproves the young and giddy floaters, + and stares grimly out upon the sea. Under the cliff are rare good + sands, where all the children assemble every morning and throw up + impossible fortifications, which the sea throws down again at high + water. Old gentlemen and ancient ladies flirt after their own manner + in two reading-rooms and on a great many scattered seats in the open + air. Other old gentlemen look all day through telescopes and never + see anything. In a bay-window in a one pair sits from nine o'clock + to one a gentleman with rather long hair and no neckcloth, who + writes and grins as if he thought he were very funny indeed. His + name is Boz. At one he disappears, and presently emerges from a + bathing-machine, and may be seen—a kind of salmon-colored + porpoise—splashing about in the ocean. After that he may be seen + in another bay-window on the ground-floor, eating a strong lunch; + after that, walking a dozen miles or so, or lying on his back in the + sand reading a book. Nobody bothers him unless they know he is + disposed to be talked to; and I am told he is very comfortable + indeed. He's as brown as a berry, and they <i>do</i> say is a small + fortune to the innkeeper who sells beer and cold punch. But this is + mere rumor. Sometimes he goes up to London (eighty miles, or so, + away), and then I'm told there is a sound in Lincoln Inn Fields at + night, as of men laughing, together with a clinking of knives and + forks and wine-glasses.</p> + +<p> I never shall have been so near you since we parted aboard the + George Washington as next Tuesday. Forster, Maclise, and I, and + perhaps Stanfield, are then going aboard the Cunard steamer at + Liverpool, to bid Macready good by, and bring his wife away. It will + be a very hard parting. You will see and know him of course. We gave + him a splendid dinner last Saturday at Richmond, whereat I presided + with my accustomed grace. He is one of the noblest fellows in the + world, and I would give a great deal that you and I should sit + beside each other to see him play Virginius, Lear, or Werner, which + I take to be, every way, the greatest piece of exquisite perfection + that his lofty art is capable of attaining. His Macbeth, especially + the last act, is a tremendous reality; but so indeed is almost + everything he does. You recollect, perhaps, that he was the guardian + of our children while we were away. I love him dearly....</p> + +<p> You asked me, long ago, about Maclise. He is such a wayward fellow + in his subjects, that it would be next to impossible to write such + an article as you were thinking of about him. I wish you could form + an idea of his genius. One of these days a book will come out, + "Moore's Irish Melodies," entirely illustrated by him, on every + page. <i>When</i> it comes, I'll send it to you. You will have some + notion of him then. He is in great favor with the queen, and paints + secret pictures for her to put upon her husband's table on the + morning of his birthday, and the like. But if he has a care, he will + leave his mark on more enduring things than palace walls.</p> + +<p> And so L—— is married. I remember <i>her</i> well, and could draw her + portrait, in words, to the life. A very beautiful and gentle + creature, and a proper love for a poet. My cordial remembrances and + congratulations. Do they live in the house where we breakfasted?....</p> + +<p> I very often dream I am in America again; but, strange to say, I + never dream of you. I am always endeavoring to get home in disguise, + and have a dreary sense of the distance. <i>Apropos</i> of dreams, is it + not a strange thing if writers of fiction never dream of their own + creations; recollecting, I suppose, even in their dreams, that they + have no real existence? <i>I</i> never dreamed of any of my own + characters, and I feel it so impossible that I would wager Scott + never did of his, real as they are. I had a good piece of absurdity + in my head a night or two ago. I dreamed that somebody was dead. I + don't know who, but it's not to the purpose. It was a private + gentleman, and a particular friend; and I was greatly overcome when + the news was broken to me (very delicately) by a gentleman in a + cocked hat, top boots, and a sheet. Nothing else. "Good God!" I + said, "is he dead?" "He is as dead, sir," rejoined the gentleman, + "as a door-nail. But we must all die, Mr. Dickens; sooner or later, + my dear sir." "Ah!" I said. "Yes, to be sure. Very true. But what + did he die of?" The gentleman burst into a flood of tears, and said, + in a voice broken by emotion: "He christened his youngest child, + sir, with a toasting-fork." I never in my life was so affected as at + his having fallen a victim to this complaint. It carried a + conviction to my mind that he never could have recovered. I knew + that it was the most interesting and fatal malady in the world; and + I wrung the gentleman's hand in a convulsion of respectful + admiration, for I felt that this explanation did equal honor to his + head and heart!</p> + +<p> What do you think of Mrs. Gamp? And how do you like the undertaker? + I have a fancy that they are in your way. O heaven! such green woods + as I was rambling among down in Yorkshire, when I was getting that + done last July! For days and weeks we never saw the sky but through + green boughs; and all day long I cantered over such soft moss and + turf, that the horse's feet scarcely made a sound upon it. We have + some friends in that part of the country (close to Castle Howard, + where Lord Morpeth's father dwells in state, <i>in</i> his park indeed), + who are the jolliest of the jolly, keeping a big old country house, + with an ale cellar something larger than a reasonable church, and + everything like Goldsmith's bear dances, "in a concatenation + accordingly." Just the place for you, Felton! We performed some + madnesses there in the way of forfeits, picnics, rustic games, + inspections of ancient monasteries at midnight, when the moon was + shining, that would have gone to your heart, and, as Mr. Weller + says, "come out on the other side." ...</p> + +<p> Write soon, my dear Felton; and if I write to you less often than I + would, believe that my affectionate heart is with you always. Loves + and regards to all friends, from yours ever and ever,</p> + +<p> CHARLES DICKENS.</p></div> + +<p>These letters grow better and better as we get on. Ah me! and to think +we shall have no more from that delightful pen!</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Devonshire Terrace, London, January 2, 1844. + +<p> My Very Dear Felton: You are a prophet, and had best retire from + business straightway. Yesterday morning, New Year's day, when I + walked into my little workroom after breakfast, and was looking out + of window at the snow in the garden,—not seeing it particularly + well in consequence of some staggering suggestions of last night, + whereby I was beset,—the postman came to the door with a knock, for + which I denounced him from my heart. Seeing your hand upon the cover + of a letter which he brought, I immediately blessed him, presented + him with a glass of whiskey, inquired after his family (they are all + well), and opened the despatch with a moist and oystery twinkle in + my eye. And on the very day from which the new year dates, I read + your New Year congratulations as punctually as if you lived in the + next house. Why don't you?</p> + +<p> Now, if instantly on the receipt of this you will send a free and + independent citizen down to the Cunard wharf at Boston, you will + find that Captain Hewett, of the Britannia steamship (my ship), has + a small parcel for Professor Felton of Cambridge; and in that parcel + you will find a Christmas Carol in prose; being a short story of + Christmas by Charles Dickens. Over which Christmas Carol Charles + Dickens wept and laughed and wept again, and excited himself in a + most extraordinary manner in the composition; and thinking whereof + he walked about the black streets of London, fifteen and twenty + miles, many a night when all the sober folks had gone to bed.... Its + success is most prodigious. And by every post all manner of + strangers write all manner of letters to him about their homes and + hearths, and how this same Carol is read aloud there, and kept on a + little shelf by itself. Indeed, it is the greatest success, as I am + told, that this ruffian and rascal has ever achieved.</p> + +<p> Forster is out again; and if he don't go in again, after the manner + in which we have been keeping Christmas, he must be very strong + indeed. Such dinings, such dancings, such conjurings, such + blindman's-buffings, such theatre-goings, such kissings-out of old + years and kissings-in of new ones, never took place in these parts + before. To keep the Chuzzlewit going, and do this little book, the + Carol, in the odd times between two parts of it, was, as you may + suppose, pretty tight work. But when it was done I broke out like a + madman. And if you could have seen me at a children's party at + Macready's the other night, going down a country dance with Mrs. + M., you would have thought I was a country gentleman of independent + property, residing on a tiptop farm, with the wind blowing straight + in my face every day....</p> + +<p> Your friend, Mr. P——, dined with us one day (I don't know whether + I told you this before), and pleased us very much. Mr. C—— has + dined here once, and spent an evening here. I have not seen him + lately, though he has called twice or thrice; for K——being unwell + and I busy, we have not been visible at our accustomed seasons. I + wonder whether H—— has fallen in your way. Poor H——! He was a + good fellow, and has the most grateful heart I ever met with. Our + journeyings seem to be a dream now. Talking of dreams, strange + thoughts of Italy and France, and maybe Germany, are springing up + within me as the Chuzzlewit clears off. It's a secret I have hardly + breathed to any one, but I "think" of leaving England for a year, + next midsummer, bag and baggage, little ones and all,—then coming + out with <i>such</i> a story, Felton, all at once, no parts, + sledge-hammer blow.</p> + +<p> I send you a Manchester paper, as you desire. The report is not + exactly done, but very well done, notwithstanding. It was a very + splendid sight, I assure you, and an awful-looking audience. I am + going to preside at a similar meeting at Liverpool on the 26th of + next month, and on my way home I may be obliged to preside at + another at Birmingham. I will send you papers, if the reports be at + all like the real thing.</p> + +<p> I wrote to Prescott about his book, with which I was perfectly + charmed. I think his descriptions masterly, his style brilliant, his + purpose manly and gallant always. The introductory account of Aztec + civilization impressed me exactly as it impressed you. From + beginning to end, the whole history is enchanting and full of + genius. I only wonder that, having such an opportunity of + illustrating the doctrine of visible judgments, he never remarks, + when Cortes and his men tumble the idols down the temple steps and + call upon the people to take notice that their gods are powerless to + help themselves, that possibly if some intelligent native had + tumbled down the image of the Virgin or patron saint after them + nothing very remarkable might have ensued in consequence.</p> + +<p> Of course you like Macready. Your name's Felton. I wish you could + see him play Lear. It is stupendously terrible. But I suppose he + would be slow to act it with the Boston company.</p> + +<p> Hearty remembrances to Sumner, Longfellow, Prescott, and all whom + you know I love to remember. Countless happy years to you and + yours, my dear Felton, and some instalment of them, however slight, + in England, in the loving company of</p> + +<p> THE PROSCRIBED ONE.</p> + +<p> O, breathe not his name.</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Here is a portfolio of Dickens's letters, written to me from time to +time during the past ten years. As long ago as the spring of 1858 I +began to press him very hard to come to America and give us a course of +readings from his works. At that time I had never heard him read in +public, but the fame of his wonderful performances rendered me eager to +have my own country share in the enjoyment of them. Being in London in +the summer of 1859, and dining with him one day in his town residence, +Tavistock House, Tavistock Square, we had much talk in a corner of his +library about coming to America. I thought him over-sensitive with +regard to his reception here, and I tried to remove any obstructions +that might exist in his mind at that time against a second visit across +the Atlantic. I followed up our conversation with a note setting forth +the certainty of his success among his Transatlantic friends, and urging +him to decide on a visit during the year. He replied to me, dating from +"Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent."</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I write to you from my little Kentish country house, on the very + spot where Falstaff ran away.</p> + +<p> "I cannot tell you how very much obliged to you I feel for your kind + suggestion, and for the perfectly frank and unaffected manner in + which it is conveyed to me.</p> + +<p> "It touches, I will admit to you frankly, a chord that has several + times sounded in my breast, since I began my readings. I should very + much like to read in America. But the idea is a mere dream as yet. + Several strong reasons would make the journey difficult to me, + and—even were they overcome—I would never make it, unless I had + great general reason to believe that the American people really + wanted to hear me.</p> + +<p> "Through the whole of this autumn I shall be reading in various + parts of England, Ireland, and Scotland. I mention this, in + reference to the closing paragraph of your esteemed favor.</p> + +<p> "Allow me once again to thank you most heartily, and to remain,</p> + +<p> "Gratefully and faithfully yours,</p> + +<p> "CHARLES DICKENS."</p></div> + +<p>Early in the month of July, 1859, I spent a day with him in his +beautiful country retreat in Kent. He drove me about the leafy lanes in +his basket wagon, pointing out the lovely spots belonging to his +friends, and ending with a visit to the ruins of Rochester Castle. We +climbed up the time-worn walls and leaned out of the ivied windows, +looking into the various apartments below. I remember how vividly he +reproduced a probable scene in the great old banqueting-room, and how +graphically he imagined the life of <i>ennui</i> and every-day tediousness +that went on in those lazy old times. I recall his fancy picture of the +dogs stretched out before the fire, sleeping and snoring with their +masters. That day he seemed to revel in the past, and I stood by, +listening almost with awe to his impressive voice, as he spoke out whole +chapters of a romance destined never to be written. On our way back to +Gad's Hill Place, he stopped in the road, I remember, to have a crack +with a gentleman who he told me was a son of Sydney Smith. The only +other guest at his table that day was Wilkie Collins; and after dinner +we three went out and lay down on the grass, while Dickens showed off a +raven that was hopping about, and told anecdotes of the bird and of his +many predecessors. We also talked about his visiting America, I putting +as many spokes as possible into that favorite wheel of mine. A day or +two after I returned to London I received this note from him:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"...Only to say that I heartily enjoyed our day, and shall long + remember it. Also that I have been perpetually repeating the —— + experience (of a more tremendous sort in the way of ghastly + comicality, experience there is none) on the grass, on my back. + Also, that I have not forgotten Cobbett. Also, that I shall trouble + you at greater length when the mysterious oracle, of New York, + pronounces.</p> + +<p> "Wilkie Collins begs me to report that he declines pale horse, and + all other horse exercise—and all exercise, except eating, drinking, + smoking, and sleeping—in the dog days.</p> + +<p> "With united kind regards, believe me always cordially yours,</p> + +<p> "CHARLES DICKENS."</p></div> + +<p>An agent had come out from New York with offers to induce him to arrange +for a speedy visit to America, and Dickens was then waiting to see the +man who had been announced as on his way to him. He was evidently giving +the subject serious consideration, for on the 20th of July he sends me +this note:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"As I have not yet heard from Mr. —— of New York, I begin to think + it likely (or, rather, I begin to think it more likely than I + thought it before) that he has not backers good and sufficient, and + that his 'mission' will go off. It is possible that I may hear from + him before the month is out, and I shall not make any reading + arrangements until it has come to a close; but I do not regard it as + being very probable that the said —— will appear satisfactorily, + either in the flesh or the spirit.</p> + +<p> "Now, considering that it would be August before I could move in the + matter, that it would be indispensably necessary to choose some + business connection and have some business arrangements made in + America, and that I am inclined to think it would not be easy to + originate and complete all the necessary preparations for beginning + in October, I want your kind advice on the following points:—</p> + +<p> "1. Suppose I postponed the idea for a year.</p> + +<p> "2. Suppose I postponed it until after Christmas.</p> + +<p> "3. Suppose I sent some trusty person out to America <i>now</i>, to + negotiate with some sound, responsible, trustworthy man of business + in New York, accustomed to public undertakings of such a nature; my + negotiator being fully empowered to conclude any arrangements with + him that might appear, on consultation, best.</p> + +<p> "Have you any idea of any such person to whom you could recommend + me? Or of any such agent here? I only want to see my way distinctly, + and to have it prepared before me, out in the States. Now, I will + make no apology for troubling you, because I thoroughly rely on your + interest and kindness.</p> + +<p> "I am at Gad's Hill, except on Tuesdays and the greater part of + Wednesdays.</p> + +<p> "With kind regards, very faithfully yours,</p> + +<p> "CHARLES DICKENS."</p></div> + +<p>Various notes passed between us after this, during my stay in London in +1859. On the 6th of August he writes:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I have considered the subject in every way, and have consulted with + the few friends to whom I ever refer my doubts, and whose judgment + is in the main excellent. I have (this is between ourselves) come to + the conclusion <i>that I will not go now</i>.</p> + +<p> "A year hence I may revive the matter, and your presence in America + will then be a great encouragement and assistance to me. I shall see + you (at least I count upon doing so) at my house in town before you + turn your face towards the locked-up house; and we will then, + reversing Macbeth, 'proceed further in this business.' ...</p> + +<p> "Believe me always (and here I forever renounce 'Mr.,' as having + anything whatever to do with our communication, and as being a mere + preposterous interloper),</p> + +<p> "Faithfully yours,</p> + +<p> "CHARLES DICKENS."</p></div> + +<p>When I arrived in Rome, early in 1860, one of the first letters I +received from London was from him. The project of coming to America was +constantly before him, and he wrote to me that he should have a great +deal to say when I came back to England in the spring; but the plan fell +through, and he gave up all hope of crossing the water again. However, I +did not let the matter rest; and when I returned home I did not cease, +year after year, to keep the subject open in my communications with him. +He kept a watchful eye on what was going forward in America, both in +literature and politics. During the war, of course, both of us gave up +our correspondence about the readings. He was actively engaged all over +Great Britain in giving his marvellous entertainments, and there +certainly was no occasion for his travelling elsewhere. In October, +1862, I sent him the proof-sheets of an article, that was soon to appear +in the Atlantic Monthly, on "Blind Tom," and on receipt of it he sent me +a letter, from which this is an extract:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I have read that affecting paper you have had the kindness to send + me, with strong interest and emotion. You may readily suppose that I + have been most glad and ready to avail myself of your permission to + print it. I have placed it in our Number made up to-day, which will + be published on the 18th of this month,—well before you,—as you + desire.</p> + +<p> "Think of reading in America? Lord bless you, I think of reading in + the deepest depth of the lowest crater in the Moon, on my way there!</p> + +<p> "There is no sun-picture of my Falstaff House as yet; but it shall + be done, and you shall have it. It has been much improved internally + since you saw it....</p> + +<p> "I expect Macready at Gad's Hill on Saturday. You know that his + second wife (an excellent one) presented him lately with a little + boy? I was staying with him for a day or two last winter, and, + seizing an umbrella when he had the audacity to tell me he was + growing old, made at him with Macduff's defiance. Upon which he fell + into the old fierce guard, with the desperation of thirty years ago.</p> + +<p> "Kind remembrances to all friends who kindly remember me.</p> + +<p> "Ever heartily yours,</p> + +<p> "CHARLES DICKENS."</p></div> + +<p>Every time I had occasion to write to him after the war, I stirred up +the subject of the readings. On the 2d of May, 1866, he says:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Your letter is an excessively difficult one to answer, because I + really do not know that any sum of money that could be laid down + would induce me to cross the Atlantic to read. Nor do I think it + likely that any one on your side of the great water can be prepared + to understand the state of the case. For example, I am now just + finishing a series of thirty readings. The crowds attending them + have been so astounding, and the relish for them has so far outgone + all previous experience, that if I were to set myself the task, 'I + will make such or such a sum of money by devoting myself to readings + for a certain time,' I should have to go no further than Bond + Street or Regent Street, to have it secured to me in a day. + Therefore, if a specific offer, and a very large one indeed, were + made to me from America, I should naturally ask myself, 'Why go + through this wear and tear, merely to pluck fruit that grows on + every bough at home?' It is a delightful sensation to move a new + people; but I have but to go to Paris, and I find the brightest + people in the world quite ready for me. I say thus much in a sort of + desperate endeavor to explain myself to you. I can put no price upon + fifty readings in America, because I do not know that any possible + price could pay me for them. And I really cannot say to any one + disposed towards the enterprise, 'Tempt me,' because I have too + strong a misgiving that he cannot in the nature of things do it.</p> + +<p> "This is the plain truth. If any distinct proposal be submitted to + me, I will give it a distinct answer. But the chances are a round + thousand to one that the answer will be no, and therefore I feel + bound to make the declaration beforehand.</p> + +<p> "....This place has been greatly improved since you were here, and + we should be heartily glad if you and she could see it.</p> + +<p> "Faithfully yours ever,</p> + +<p> "CHARLES DICKENS."</p></div> + +<p>On the 16th of October he writes:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Although I perpetually see in the papers that I am coming out with + a new serial, I assure you I know no more of it at present. I am + <i>not</i> writing (except for Christmas number of 'All the Year Round'), + and am going to begin, in the middle of January, a series of + forty-two readings. Those will probably occupy me until Easter. + Early in the summer I hope to get to work upon a story that I have + in my mind. But in what form it will appear I do not yet know, + because when the time comes I shall have to take many circumstances + into consideration.....</p> + +<p> "A faint outline of a castle in the air always dimly hovers between + me and Rochester, in the great hall of which I see myself reading to + American audiences. But my domestic surroundings must change before + the castle takes tangible form. And perhaps <i>I</i> may change first, + and establish a castle in the other world. So no more at present.</p> + +<p> "Believe me ever faithfully yours,</p> + +<p> "CHARLES DICKENS."</p></div> + +<p>In June, 1867, things begin to look more promising, and I find in one +of his letters, dated the 3d of that month, some good news, as +follows:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I cannot receive your pleasantest of notes, without assuring you of + the interest and gratification that <i>I</i> feel on <i>my</i> side in our + alliance. And now I am going to add a piece of intelligence that I + hope may not be disagreeable.</p> + +<p> "I am trying hard so to free myself, as to be able to come over to + read this next winter! Whether I may succeed in this endeavor or no + I cannot yet say, but I am trying HARD. So in the mean time don't + contradict the rumor. In the course of a few mails I hope to be able + to give you positive and definite information on the subject.</p> + +<p> "My daughter (whom I shall not bring if I come) will answer for + herself by and by. Understand that I am really endeavoring tooth and + nail to make my way personally to the American public, and that no + light obstacles will turn me aside, now that my hand is in.</p> + +<p> "My dear Fields, faithfully yours always,</p> + +<p> "CHARLES DICKENS."</p></div> + +<p>This was followed up by another letter, dated the 13th, in which he +says:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I have this morning resolved to send out to Boston, in the first + week in August, Mr. Dolby, the secretary and manager of my readings. + He is profoundly versed in the business of those delightful + intellectual feasts (!), and will come straight to Ticknor and + Fields, and will hold solemn council with them, and will then go to + New York, Philadelphia, Hartford, Washington, etc., etc., and see + the rooms for himself, and make his estimates. He will then + telegraph to me: 'I see my way to such and such results. Shall I go + on?' If I reply, 'Yes,' I shall stand committed to begin reading in + America with the month of December. If I reply, 'No,' it will be + because I do not clearly see the game to be worth so large a candle. + In either case he will come back to me.</p> + +<p> "He is the brother of Madame Sainton Dolby, the celebrated singer. I + have absolute trust in him and a great regard for him. He goes with + me everywhere when I read, and manages for me to perfection.</p> + +<p> "We mean to keep all this STRICTLY SECRET, as I beg of you to do, + until I finally decide for or against. I am beleaguered by every + kind of speculator in such things on your side of the water; and it + is very likely that they would take the rooms over our heads,—to + charge me heavily for them,—or would set on foot unheard-of + devices for buying up the tickets, etc., etc., if the probabilities + oozed out. This is exactly how the case stands now, and I confide it + to you within a couple of hours after having so far resolved. Dolby + quite understands that <i>he</i> is to confide in you, similarly, without + a particle of reserve.</p> + +<p> "Ever faithfully yours,</p> + +<p> "CHARLES DICKENS."</p></div> + +<p>On the 12th of July he says:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Our letters will be crossing one another rarely! I have received + your cordial answer to my first notion of coming out; but there has + not yet been time for me to hear again....</p> + +<p> "With kindest regard to 'both your houses,' public and private,</p> + +<p> "Ever faithfully yours,</p> + +<p> "CHARLES DICKENS."</p></div> + +<p>He had engaged to write for "Our Young Folks" "A Holiday Romance," and +the following note, dated the 25th of July, refers to the story:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Your note of the 12th is like a cordial of the best sort. I have + taken it accordingly.</p> + +<p> "Dolby sails in the Java on Saturday, the 3d of next month, and will + come direct to you. You will find him a frank and capital fellow. He + is perfectly acquainted with his business and with his chief, and + may be trusted without a grain of reserve.</p> + +<p> "I hope the Americans will see the joke of 'Holiday Romance.' The + writing seems to me so like children's, that dull folks (on <i>any</i> + side of <i>any</i> water) might perhaps rate it accordingly! I should + like to be beside you when you read it, and particularly when you + read the Pirate's story. It made me laugh to that extent that my + people here thought I was out of my wits, until I gave it to them to + read, when they did likewise.</p> + +<p> "Ever cordially yours,</p> + +<p> "CHARLES DICKENS."</p></div> + +<p>On the 3d of September he breaks out in this wise, Dolby having arrived +out and made all arrangements for the readings:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Your cheering letter of the 21st of August arrived here this + morning. A thousand thanks for it. I begin to think (nautically) + that I 'head west'ard.' You shall hear from me fully and finally as + soon as Dolby shall have reported personally.</p> + +<p> "The other day I received a letter from Mr. —— of New York (who + came over in the winning yacht, and described the voyage in the + Times), saying he would much like to see me. I made an appointment + in London, and observed that when he <i>did</i> see me he was obviously + astonished. While I was sensible that the magnificence of my + appearance would fully account for his being overcome, I + nevertheless angled for the cause of his surprise. He then told me + that there was a paragraph going round the papers, to the effect + that I was 'in a critical state of health.' I asked him if he was + sure it wasn't 'cricketing' state of health? To which he replied, + Quite. I then asked him down here to dinner, and he was again + staggered by finding me in sporting training; also much amused.</p> + +<p> "Yesterday's and to-day's post bring me this unaccountable paragraph + from hosts of uneasy friends, with the enormous and wonderful + addition that 'eminent surgeons' are sending me to America for + 'cessation from literary labor'!!! So I have written a quiet line to + the Times, certifying to my own state of health, and have also + begged Dixon to do the like in the Athenaeum. I mention the matter + to you, in order that you may contradict, from me, if the nonsense + should reach America unaccompanied by the truth. But I suppose that + the New York Herald will probably have got the latter from Mr. —— + aforesaid.....</p> + +<p> "Charles Reade and Wilkie Collins are here; and the joke of the time + is to feel my pulse when I appear at table, and also to inveigle + innocent messengers to come over to the summer-house, where I write + (the place is quite changed since you were here, and a tunnel under + the high road connects this shrubbery with the front garden), to + ask, with their compliments, how I find myself <i>now</i>.</p> + +<p> "If I come to America this next November, even you can hardly + imagine with what interest I shall try Copperfield on an American + audience, or, if they give me their heart, how freely and fully I + shall give them mine. We will ask Dolby then whether he ever heard + it before.</p> + +<p> "I cannot thank you enough for your invaluable help to Dolby. He + writes that at every turn and moment the sense and knowledge and + tact of Mr. Osgood are inestimable to him.</p> + +<p> "Ever, my dear Fields, faithfully yours,</p> + +<p> "CHARLES DICKENS."</p></div> + +<p>Here is a little note dated the 3d of October:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I cannot tell you how much I thank you for your kind little letter, + which is like a pleasant voice coming across the Atlantic, with + that domestic welcome in it which has no substitute on earth. If + you knew how strongly I am inclined to allow myself the pleasure of + staying at your house, you would look upon me as a kind of ancient + Roman (which, I trust in Heaven, I am not) for having the courage to + say no. But if I gave myself that gratification in the beginning, I + could scarcely hope to get on in the hard 'reading' life, without + offending some kindly disposed and hospitable American friend + afterwards; whereas if I observe my English principle on such + occasions, of having no abiding-place but an hotel, and stick to it + from the first, I may perhaps count on being consistently + uncomfortable.</p> + +<p> "The nightly exertion necessitates meals at odd hours, silence and + rest at impossible times of the day, a general Spartan behavior so + utterly inconsistent with my nature, that if you were to give me a + happy inch, I should take an ell, and frightfully disappoint you in + public. I don't want to do that, if I can help it, and so I will be + good in spite of myself.</p> + +<p> "Ever your affectionate friend,</p> + +<p> "CHARLES DICKENS."</p></div> + +<p>A ridiculous paragraph in the papers following close on the public +announcement that Dickens was coming to America in November, drew from +him this letter to me, dated also early in October:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I hope the telegraph clerks did not mutilate out of recognition or + reasonable guess the words I added to Dolby's last telegram to + Boston. 'Tribune London correspondent totally false.' Not only is + there not a word of truth in the pretended conversation, but it is + so absurdly unlike me that I cannot suppose it to be even invented + by any one who ever heard me exchange a word with mortal creature. + For twenty years I am perfectly certain that I have never made any + other allusion to the republication of my books in America than the + good-humored remark, 'that if there had been international copyright + between England and the States, I should have been a man of very + large fortune, instead of a man of moderate savings, always + supporting a very expensive public position.' Nor have I ever been + such a fool as to charge the absence of international copyright upon + individuals. Nor have I ever been so ungenerous as to disguise or + suppress the fact that I have received handsome sums for advance + sheets. When I was in the States, I said what I had to say on the + question, and there an end. I am absolutely certain that I have + never since expressed myself, even with soreness, on the subject. + Reverting to the preposterous fabrication of the London + correspondent, the statement that I ever talked about 'these + fellows' who republished my books, or pretended to know (what I + don't know at this instant) who made how much out of them, or ever + talked of their sending me 'conscience money,' is as grossly and + completely false as the statement that I ever said anything to the + effect that I could not be expected to have an interest in the + American people. And nothing can by any possibility be falser than + that. Again and again in these pages (All the Year Round) I have + expressed my interest in them. You will see it in the 'Child's + History of England.' You will see it in the last Preface to + 'American Notes.' Every American who has ever spoken with me in + London, Paris, or where not, knows whether I have frankly said, 'You + could have no better introduction to me than your country.' And for + years and years when I have been asked about reading in America, my + invariable reply has been, 'I have so many friends there, and + constantly receive so many earnest letters from personally unknown + readers there, that, but for domestic reasons, I would go + to-morrow.' I think I must, in the confidential intercourse between + you and me, have written you to this effect more than once.</p> + +<p> "The statement of the London correspondent from beginning to end is + false. It is false in the letter and false in the spirit. He may + have been misinformed, and the statement may not have originated + with him. With whomsoever it originated, it never originated with + me, and consequently is false. More than enough about it.</p> + +<p> "As I hope to see you so soon, my dear Fields, and as I am busily at + work on the Christmas number, I will not make this a longer letter + than I can help. I thank you most heartily for your proffered + hospitality, and need not tell you that if I went to any friend's + house in America, I would go to yours. But the readings are very + hard work, and I think I cannot do better than observe the rule on + that side of the Atlantic which I observe on this,—of never, under + such circumstances, going to a friend's house, but always staying at + a hotel. I am able to observe it here, by being consistent and never + breaking it. If I am equally consistent there, I can (I hope) offend + no one.</p> + +<p> "Dolby sends his love to you and all his friends (as I do), and is + girding up his loins vigorously.</p> + +<p> "Ever, my dear Fields, heartily and affectionately yours,</p> + +<p> "CHARLES DICKENS."</p></div> + +<p>Before sailing in November he sent off this note to me from the office +of All the Year Round:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>"I received your more than acceptable letter yesterday morning, and +consequently am able to send you this line of acknowledgment by the next +mail. Please God we will have that walk among the autumn leaves, before +the readings set in.</p> + +<p>"You may have heard from Dolby that a gorgeous repast is to be given to +me to-morrow, and that it is expected to be a notable demonstration. I +shall try, in what I say, to state my American case exactly. I have a +strong hope and belief that within the compass of a couple of minutes or +so I can put it, with perfect truthfulness, in the light that my +American friends would be best pleased to see me place it in. Either so, +or my instinct is at fault.</p> + +<p>"My daughters and their aunt unite with me in kindest loves. As I write, +a shrill prolongation of the message comes in from the next room, 'Tell +them to take care of you-u-u!'</p> + +<p>"Tell Longfellow, with my love, that I am charged by Forster (who has +been very ill of diffused gout and bronchitis) with a copy of his Sir +John Eliot.</p> + +<p>"I will bring you out the early proof of the Christmas number. We +publish it here on the 12th of December. I am planning it (No +Thoroughfare) out into a play for Wilkie Collins to manipulate after I +sail, and have arranged for Fechter to go to the Adelphi Theatre and +play a Swiss in it. It will be brought out the day after Christmas day.</p> + +<p>"Here, at Boston Wharf, and everywhere else,</p> + +<p>"Yours heartily and affectionately,</p> + +<p>"C.D."</p> +</div> + +<p>On a blustering evening in November, 1867, Dickens arrived in Boston +Harbor, on his second visit to America. A few of his friends, under the +guidance of the Collector of the port, steamed down in the custom-house +boat to welcome him. It was pitch dark before we sighted the Cuba and +ran alongside. The great steamer stopped for a few minutes to take us on +board, and Dickens's cheery voice greeted me before I had time to +distinguish him on the deck of the vessel. The news of the excitement +the sale of the tickets to his readings had occasioned had been earned +to him by the pilot, twenty miles out. He was in capital spirits over +the cheerful account that all was going on so well, and I thought he +never looked in better health. The voyage had been a good one, and the +ten days' rest on shipboard had strengthened him amazingly he said. As +we were told that a crowd had assembled in East Boston, we took him in +our little tug and landed him safely at Long Wharf in Boston, where +carriages were in waiting. Rooms had been taken for him at the Parker +House, and in half an hour after he had reached the hotel he was sitting +down to dinner with half a dozen friends, quite prepared, he said, to +give the first reading in America that very night, if desirable. +Assurances that the kindest feelings towards him existed everywhere put +him in great spirits, and he seemed happy to be among us. On Sunday he +visited the School Ship and said a few words of encouragement and +counsel to the boys. He began his long walks at once, and girded himself +up for the hard winter's work before him. Steadily refusing all +invitations to go out during the weeks he was reading, he only went into +one other house besides the Parker, habitually, during his stay in +Boston. Every one who was present remembers the delighted crowds that +assembled nightly in the Tremont Temple, and no one who heard Dickens, +during that eventful month of December, will forget the sensation +produced by the great author, actor, and reader. Hazlitt says of Kean's +Othello, "The tone of voice in which he delivered the beautiful +apostrophe 'Then, O, farewell,' struck on the heart like the swelling +notes of some divine music, like the sound of years of departed +happiness." There were thrills of pathos in Dickens's readings (of David +Copperfield, for instance) which Kean himself never surpassed in +dramatic effect.</p> + +<p>He went from Boston to New York, carrying with him a severe catarrh +contracted in our climate. In reality much of the time during his +reading in Boston he was quite ill from the effects of the disease, but +he fought courageously against its effects, and always came up, on the +night of the reading, all right. Several times I feared he would be +obliged to postpone the readings, and I am sure almost any one else +would have felt compelled to do so; but he declared no man had a right +to break an engagement with the public, if he were able to be out of +bed. His spirit was wonderful, and, although he lost all appetite and +could partake of very little food, he was always cheerful and ready for +his work when the evening came round. Every morning his table was +covered with invitations to dinners and all sorts of entertainments, but +he said, "I came for hard work, and I must try to fulfil the +expectations of the American public." He did accept a dinner which was +tendered to him by some of his literary friends in Boston; but the day +before it was to come off he was so ill he felt obliged to ask that the +banquet might be given up. The strain upon his strength and nerves was +very great during all the months he remained in the country, and only a +man of iron will could have accomplished all he did. And here let me +say, that although he was accustomed to talk and write a great deal +about eating and drinking, I have rarely seen a man eat and drink less. +He liked to dilate in imagination over the brewing of a bowl of punch, +but I always noticed that when the punch was ready, he drank less of it +than any one who might be present. It was the sentiment of the thing and +not the thing itself that engaged his attention. He liked to have a +little supper every night after a reading, and have three or four +friends round the table with him, but he only pecked at the viands as a +bird might do, and I scarcely saw him eat a hearty meal during his whole +stay in the country. Both at Parker's Hotel in Boston, and at the +Westminster in New York, everything was arranged by the proprietors for +his comfort and happiness, and tempting dishes to pique his invalid +appetite were sent up at different hours of the day, with the hope that +he might be induced to try unwonted things and get up again the habit of +eating more; but the influenza, that seized him with such masterful +powder, held the strong man down till he left the country.</p> + +<p>One of the first letters I had from him, after he had begun his reading +tour, was dated from the Westminster Hotel in New York, on the 15th of +January, 1868.</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>My Dear Fields: On coming back from Philadelphia just now (three + o'clock) I was welcomed by your cordial letter. It was a delightful + welcome and did me a world of good.</p> + +<p> The cold remains just as it was (beastly), and where it was (in my + head). We have left off referring to the hateful subject, except in + emphatic sniffs on my part, convulsive wheezes, and resounding + sneezes.</p> + +<p> The Philadelphia audience ready and bright. I think they understood + the Carol better than Copperfield, but they were bright and + responsive as to both.—They also highly appreciated your friend Mr. + Jack Hopkins. A most excellent hotel there, and everything + satisfactory. While on the subject of satisfaction, I know you will + be pleased to hear that a long run is confidently expected for the + No Thoroughfare drama. Although the piece is well cast and well + played, my letters tell me that Fechter is so remarkably fine as to + play down the whole company. The Times, in its account of it, said + that "Mr. Fechter" (in the Swiss mountain scene, and in the Swiss + Hotel) "was practically alone upon the stage." It is splendidly got + up, and the Mountain Pass (I planned it with the scene-painter) was + loudly cheered by the whole house. Of course I knew that Fechter + would tear himself to pieces rather than fall short, but I was not + prepared for his contriving to get the pity and sympathy of the + audience out of his passionate love for Marguerite.</p> + +<p> My dear fellow, you cannot miss me more than I miss you and yours. + And Heaven knows how gladly I would substitute Boston for Chicago, + Detroit, and Co.! But the tour is fast shaping itself out into its + last details, and we must remember that there is a clear fortnight + in Boston, not counting the four Farewells. I look forward to that + fortnight as a radiant landing-place in the series....</p> + +<p> Rash youth! No presumptuous hand should try to make the punch, + except in the presence of the hoary sage who pens these lines. With + <i>him</i> on the spot to perceive and avert impending failure, with + timely words of wisdom to arrest the erring hand and curb the + straying judgment, and, with such gentle expressions of + encouragement as his stern experience may justify, to cheer the + aspirant with faint hopes of future excellence,—with these + conditions observed, the daring mind may scale the heights of sugar + and contemplate the depths of lemon. Otherwise not.</p> + +<p> Dolby is at Washington, and will return in the night. —— is on + guard. He made a most brilliant appearance before the Philadelphia + public, and looked hard at them. The mastery of his eye diverted + their attention from his boots: charming in themselves, but + (unfortunately) two left ones.</p> + +<p> I send my hearty and enduring love. Your kindness to the British + Wanderer is deeply inscribed in his heart.</p> + +<p> When I think of L——'s story about Dr. Webster, I feel like the + lady in Nickleby who "has had a sensation of alternate cold and + biling water running down her back ever since."</p> + +<p> Ever, my dear Fields, your affectionate friend,</p> + +<p> C.D.</p></div> + +<p>His birthday, 7th of February, was spent in Washington, and on the 9th +of the month he sent this little note from Baltimore:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Baltimore, Sunday, February 9, 1868. + +<p> My Dear Fields: I thank you heartily for your pleasant note (I can + scarcely tell you <i>how</i> pleasant it was to receive the same) and for + the beautiful flowers that you sent me on my birthday. For + which—and much more—my loving thanks to both.</p> + +<p> In consequence of the Washington papers having referred to the + august 7th of this month, my room was on that day a blooming garden. + Nor were flowers alone represented there. The silversmith, the + goldsmith, the landscape-painter, all sent in their contributions. + After the reading was done at night, the whole audience rose; and it + was spontaneous, hearty, and affecting.</p> + +<p> I was very much surprised by the President's face and manner. It is, + in its way, one of the most remarkable faces I have ever seen. Not + imaginative, but very powerful in its firmness (or perhaps + obstinacy), strength of will, and steadiness of purpose. There is a + reticence in it too, curiously at variance with that first + unfortunate speech of his. A man not to be turned or trifled with. A + man (I should say) who must be killed to be got out of the way. His + manners, perfectly composed. We looked at one another pretty hard. + There was an air of chronic anxiety upon him. But not a crease or a + ruffle in his dress, and his papers were as composed as himself. + (Mr. Thornton was going in to deliver his credentials, immediately + afterwards.)</p> + +<p> This day fortnight will find me, please God, in my "native Boston." + I wish I were there to-day.</p> + +<p> Ever, my dear Fields, your affectionate friend,</p> + +<p> CHARLES DICKENS, <i>Chairman Missionary Society.</i></p></div> + +<p>When he returned to Boston in the latter part of the month, after his +fatiguing campaign in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, +he seemed far from well, and one afternoon sent round from the Parker +House to me this little note, explaining why he could not go out on our +accustomed walk.</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>I have been terrifying Dolby out of his wits, by setting in for a + paroxysm of sneezing, and it would be madness in me, with such a + cold, and on such a night, and with to-morrow's reading before me, + to go out. I need not add that I shall be heartily glad to see you + if you have time. Many thanks for the Life and Letters of Wilder + Dwight. I shall "save up" that book, to read on the passage home. + After turning over the leaves, I have shut it up and put it away; + for I am a great reader at sea, and wish to reserve the interest + that I find awaiting me in the personal following of the sad war. + Good God, when one stands among the hearths that war has broken, + what an awful consideration it is that such a tremendous evil <i>must</i> + be sometimes!</p> + +<p> Ever affectionately yours,</p> + +<p> CHARLES DICKENS.</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>I will dispose here of the question often asked me by correspondents, +and lately renewed in many epistles, <i>"Was Charles Dickens a believer in +our Saviour's life and teachings?"</i> Persons addressing to me such +inquiries must be profoundly ignorant of the works of the great author, +whom they endeavor by implication to place among the "Unbelievers." If +anywhere, out of the Bible, God's goodness and mercy are solemnly +commended to the world's attention, it is in the pages of Dickens. I had +supposed that these written words of his, which have been so extensively +copied both in Europe and America, from his last will and testament, +dated the 12th of May, 1869, would forever remain an emphatic testimony +to his Christian faith:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I commit my soul to the mercy of God, through our Lord and Saviour + Jesus Christ, and I exhort my dear children humbly to try to guide + themselves by the teachings of the New Testament."</p></div> + +<p>I wish it were in my power to bring to the knowledge of all who doubt +the Christian character of Charles Dickens certain other memorable words +of his, written years ago, with reference to Christmas. They are not as +familiar as many beautiful things from the same pen on the same subject, +for the paper which enshrines them has not as yet been collected among +his authorized works. Listen to these loving words in which the +Christian writer has embodied the life of his Saviour:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Hark! the Waits are playing, and they break my childish sleep! What + images do I associate with the Christmas music as I see them set + forth on the Christmas tree? Known before all others, keeping far + apart from all the others, they gather round my little bed. An + angel, speaking to a group of shepherds in a field; some travellers, + with eyes uplifted, following a star; a baby in a manger; a child in + a spacious temple, talking with grave men; a solemn figure with a + mild and beautiful face, raising a dead girl by the hand; again, + near a city gate, calling back the son of a widow, on his bier, to + life; a crowd of people looking through the opened roof of a chamber + where he site, and letting down a sick person on a bed, with ropes; + the same in a tempest, walking on the water to a ship; again, on a + sea-shore, teaching a great multitude; again, with a child upon his + knee, and other children round; again, restoring sight to the blind, + speech to the dumb, hearing to the deaf, health to the sick, + strength to the lame, knowledge to the ignorant; again, dying upon a + cross, watched by armed soldiers, a thick darkness coming on, the + earth beginning to shake, and only one voice heard,—'Forgive them, + for they know not what they do!'"</p></div> + +<p>The writer of these pages begs to say here, most respectfully and +emphatically, that he will not feel himself bound, in future, to reply +to any inquiries, from however well-meaning correspondents, as to +whether Charles Dickens was an "Unbeliever," or a "Unitarian," or an +"Episcopalian," or whether "he ever went to church in his life," or +"used improper language," or "drank enough to hurt him." He was human, +very human, but he was no scoffer or doubter. His religion was of the +heart, and his faith beyond questioning. He taught the world, said Dean +Stanley over his new-made grave in Westminster Abbey, great lessons of +"the eternal value of generosity, of purity, of kindness, and of +unselfishness," and by his fruits he shall be known of all men.</p> + +<p>Let me commend to the attention of my numerous nameless correspondents, +who have attempted to soil the moral character of Dickens, the following +little incident, related to me by himself, during a summer-evening walk +among the Kentish meadows, a few months before he died. I will try to +tell the story, if possible, as simply and naturally as he told it to +me.</p> + +<p>"I chanced to be travelling some years ago," he said, "in a railroad +carriage between Liverpool and London. Beside myself there were two +ladies and a gentleman occupying the carriage. We happened to be all +strangers to each other, but I noticed at once that a clergyman was of +the party. I was occupied with a ponderous article in the 'Times,' when +the sound of my own name drew my attention to the fact that a +conversation was going forward among the three other persons in the +carriage with reference to myself and my books. One of the ladies was +perusing 'Bleak House,' then lately published, and the clergyman had +commenced a conversation with the ladies by asking what book they were +reading. On being told the author's name and the title of the book, he +expressed himself greatly grieved that any lady in England should be +willing to take up the writings of so vile a character as Charles +Dickens. Both the ladies showed great surprise at the low estimate the +clergyman put upon an author whom they had been accustomed to read, to +say the least, with a certain degree of pleasure. They were evidently +much shocked at what the man said of the immoral tendency of these +books, which they seemed never before to have suspected; but when he +attacked the author's private character, and told monstrous stories of +his immoralities in every direction, the volume was shut up and +consigned to the dark pockets of a travelling bag. I listened in wonder +and astonishment, behind my newspaper, to stories of myself, which if +they had been true would have consigned any man to a prison for life. +After my fictitious biographer had occupied himself for nearly an hour +with the eloquent recital of my delinquencies and crimes, I very quietly +joined in the conversation. Of course I began by modestly doubting some +statements which I had just heard, touching the author of 'Bleak House,' +and other unimportant works of a similar character. The man stared at +me, and evidently considered my appearance on the conversational stage +an intrusion and an impertinence. 'You seem to speak,' I said, 'from +personal knowledge of Mr. Dickens. Are you acquainted with him?' He +rather evaded the question, but, following him up closely, I compelled +him to say that he had been talking, not from his own knowledge of the +author in question; but he said he knew for a certainty that every +statement he had made was a true one. I then became more earnest in my +inquiries for proofs, which he arrogantly declined giving. The ladies +sat by in silence, listening intently to what was going forward. An +author they had been accustomed to read for amusement had been traduced +for the first time in their hearing, and they were waiting to learn +what I had to say in refutation of the clergyman's charges. I was taking +up his vile stories, one by one, and stamping them as false in every +particular, when the man grew furious, and asked me if I knew Dickens +personally. I replied, 'Perfectly well; no man knows him better than I +do; and all your stories about him from beginning to end, to these +ladies, are unmitigated lies.' The man became livid with rage, and asked +for my card. 'You shall have it,' I said, and, coolly taking out +one, I presented it to him without bowing. We were just then nearing the +station in London, so that I was spared a longer interview with my +<i>truthful</i> companion; but, if I were to live a hundred years, I should +not forget the abject condition into which the narrator of my crimes was +instantly plunged. His face turned white as his cravat, and his lips +refused to utter words. He seemed like a wilted vegetable, and as if his +legs belonged to somebody else. The ladies became aware of the situation +at once, and, bidding them 'good day,' I stepped smilingly out of the +carriage. Before I could get away from the station the man had mustered +up strength sufficient to follow me, and his apologies were so nauseous +and craven, that I pitied him from my soul. I left him with this +caution, 'Before you make charges against the character of any man +again, about whom you know nothing, and of whose works you are utterly +ignorant, study to be a seeker after Truth, and avoid Lying as you would +eternal perdition.'"</p> + +<p>I never ceased to wonder at Dickens's indomitable cheerfulness, even +when he was suffering from ill health, and could not sleep more than two +or three hours out of the twenty-four. He made it a point never to +inflict on another what he might be painfully enduring himself, and I +have seen him, with what must have been a great effort, arrange a merry +meeting for some friends, when I knew that almost any one else under +similar circumstances would have sought relief in bed.</p> + +<p>One evening at a little dinner given by himself to half a dozen friends +in Boston, he came out very strong. His influenza lifted a little, as he +said afterwards, and he took advantage of the lull. Only his own pen +could possibly give an idea of that hilarious night, and I will merely +attempt a brief reference to it. As soon as we were seated at the table, +I read in his lustrous eye, and heard in his jovial voice, that all +solemn forms were to be dispensed with on that occasion, and that +merriment might be confidently expected. To the end of the feast there +was no let up to his magnificent cheerfulness and humor. J—— B——, +ex-minister plenipotentiary as he was, went in for nonsense, and he, I +am sure, will not soon forget how undignified we all were, and what +screams of laughter went up from his own uncontrollable throat. Among +other tomfooleries, we had an imitation of scenes at an English +hustings, Dickens bringing on his candidate (his friend D——), and I +opposing him with mine (the ex-minister). Of course there was nothing +spoken in the speeches worth remembering, but it was Dickens's <i>manner</i> +that carried off the whole thing. D—— necessarily now wears his hair +so widely parted in the middle that only two little capillary scraps are +left, just over his ears, to show what kind of thatch once covered his +jolly cranium. Dickens pretended that <i>his</i> candidate was superior to +the other, <i>because</i> he had no hair; and that mine, being profusely +supplied with that commodity was in consequence disqualified in a marked +degree for an election. His speech, for volubility and nonsense, was +nearly fatal to us all. We roared and writhed in agonies of laughter, +and the candidates themselves were literally choking and crying with the +humor of the thing. But the fun culminated when I tried to get a hearing +in behalf of my man, and Dickens drowned all my attempts to be heard +with imitative jeers of a boisterous election mob. He seemed to have as +many voices that night as the human throat is capable of, and the +repeated interrupting shouts, among others, of a pretended husky old man +bawling out at intervals, "Three cheers for the bald 'un!" "Down vith +the hairy aristocracy!" "Up vith the little shiny chap on top!" and +other similar outbursts, I can never forget. At last, in sheer +exhaustion, we all gave in, and agreed to break up and thus save our +lives, if it were not already too late to make the attempt.</p> + +<p>The extent and variety of Dickens's tones were wonderful. Once he +described to me in an inimitable way a scene he witnessed many years ago +at a London theatre, and I am certain no professional ventriloquist +could have reproduced it better. I could never persuade him to repeat +the description in presence of others; but he did it for me several +times during our walks into the country, where he was, of course, +unobserved. His recital of the incident was irresistibly droll, and no +words of mine can give the <i>situation</i> even, as he gave it. He said he +was once sitting in the pit of a London theatre, when two men came in +and took places directly in front of him. Both were evidently strangers +from the country, and not very familiar with the stage. One of them was +stone deaf, and relied entirely upon his friend to keep him informed of +the dialogue and story of the play as it went on, by having bawled into +his ear, word for word, as near as possible what the actors and +actresses were saying. The man who could hear became intensely +interested in the play, and kept close watch of the stage. The deaf man +also shared in the progressive action of the drama, and rated his friend +soundly, in a loud voice, if a stitch in the story of the play were +inadvertently dropped. Dickens gave the two voices of these two +spectators with his best comic and dramatic power. Notwithstanding the +roars of the audience, for the scene in the pit grew immensely funny to +them as it went on, the deaf man and his friend were too much interested +in the main business of the evening to observe that they were noticed. +One bawled louder, and the other, with his elevated ear-trumpet, +listened more intently than ever. At length the scene culminated in a +most unexpected manner. "Now," screamed the hearing man to the deaf one, +"they are going to elope!" "<i>Who</i> is going to elope?" asked the deaf +man, in a loud, vehement tone. "Why, them two, the young man in the red +coat and the girl in a white gown, that's a talking together now, and +just going off the stage!" "Well, then, you must have missed telling me +something they've said before," roared the other in an enraged and +stentorian voice; "for there was nothing in their conduct all the +evening, as you have been representing it to me, that would warrant them +in such a proceeding!" At which the audience could not bear it any +longer, and screamed their delight till the curtain fell.</p> + +<p>Dickens was always planning something to interest and amuse his friends, +and when in America he taught us several games arranged by himself, +which we played again and again, he taking part as our instructor. While +he was travelling from point to point, he was cogitating fresh charades +to be acted when we should again meet. It was at Baltimore that he first +conceived the idea of a walking-match, which should take place on his +return to Boston, and he drew up a set of humorous "articles," which he +sent to me with this injunction, "Keep them in a place of profound +safety, for attested execution, until my arrival in Boston." He went +into this matter of the walking-match with as much earnest directness as +if he were planning a new novel. The articles, as prepared by himself, +are thus drawn up:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Articles of agreement entered into at Baltimore, in the United + States of America, this third day of February in the year of our + Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, between ——, + British subject, <i>alias</i> the Man of Ross, and ——, American + citizen, <i>alias</i> the Boston Bantam.</p> + +<p> "Whereas, some Bounce having arisen between the above men in + reference to feats of pedestrianism and agility, they have agreed to + settle their differences and prove who is the better man, by means + of a walking-match for two hats a side and the glory of their + respective countries; and whereas they agree that the said match + shall come off, whatsoever the weather, on the Mill Dam Road outside + Boston, on Saturday, the 29th day of this present month; and whereas + they agree that the personal attendants on themselves during the + whole walk, and also the umpires and starters and declarers of + victory in the match shall be —— of Boston, known in sporting + circles as Massachusetts Jemmy, and Charles Dickens of Falstaff's + Gad's Hill, whose surprising performances (without the least + variation) on that truly national instrument, the American catarrh, + have won for him the well-merited title of the Gad's Hill Gasper:—</p> + +<p> "1. The men are to be started, on the day appointed, by + Massachusetts Jemmy and The Gasper.</p> + +<p> "2. Jemmy and The Gasper are, on some previous day, to walk out at + the rate of not less than four miles an hour by the Gasper's watch, + for one hour and a half. At the expiration of that one hour and a + half they are to carefully note the place at which they halt. On the + match's coming off they are to station themselves in the middle of + the road, at that precise point, and the men (keeping clear of them + and of each other) are to turn round them, right shoulder inward, + and walk back to the starting-point. The man declared by them to + pass the starting-point first is to be the victor and the winner of + the match.</p> + +<p> "3. No jostling or fouling allowed.</p> + +<p> "4. All cautions or orders issued to the men by the umpires, + starters, and declarers of victory to be considered final and + admitting of no appeal.</p> + +<p> "5. A sporting narrative of the match to be written by The Gasper + within one week after its coming off, and the same to be duly + printed (at the expense of the subscribers to these articles) on a + broadside. The said broadside to be framed and glazed, and one copy + of the same to be carefully preserved by each of the subscribers to + these articles.</p> + +<p> "6. The men to show on the evening of the day of walking, at six + o'clock precisely, at the Parker House, Boston, when and where a + dinner will be given them by The Gasper. The Gasper to occupy the + chair, faced by Massachusetts Jemmy. The latter promptly and + formally to invite, as soon as may be after the date of these + presents, the following guests to honor the said dinner with their + presence; that is to say [here follow the names of a few of his + friends, whom he wished to be invited].</p> + +<p> "Now, lastly. In token of their accepting the trusts and offices by + these articles conferred upon them, these articles are solemnly and + formally signed by Massachusetts Jemmy and by the Gad's Hill Gasper, + as well as by the men themselves.</p> + +<p> "Signed by the Man of Ross, otherwise ——.</p> + +<p> "Signed by the Boston Bantam, otherwise ——.</p> + +<p> "Signed by Massachusetts Jemmy, otherwise ——.</p> + +<p> "Signed by the Gad's Hill Gasper, otherwise Charles Dickens.</p> + +<p> "Witness to the signatures, ——."</p></div> + +<p>When he returned to Boston from Baltimore, he proposed that I should +accompany him over the walking-ground "at the rate of not less than four +miles an hour, for one hour and a half." I shall not soon forget the +tremendous pace at which he travelled that day. I have seen a great many +walkers, but never one with whom I found it such hard work to keep up. +Of course his object was to stretch out the space as far as possible for +our friends to travel on the appointed day. With watch in hand, Dickens +strode on over the Mill Dam toward Newton Centre. When we reached the +turning-point, and had established the extreme limit, we both felt that +we had given the men who were to walk in the match excellent good +measure. All along the road people had stared at us, wondering, I +suppose, why two men on such a blustering day should be pegging away in +the middle of the road as if life depended on the speed they were +getting over the ground. We had walked together many a mile before this, +but never at such a rate as on this day. I had never seen his full power +tested before, and I could not but feel great admiration for his +walking pluck. We were both greatly heated, and, seeing a little shop by +the roadside, we went in for refreshments. A few sickly-looking oranges +were all we could obtain to quench our thirst, and we seized those and +sat down on the shop door-steps, tired and panting. After a few minutes' +rest we started again and walked back to town. Thirteen miles' stretch +on a brisk winter day did neither of us any harm, and Dickens was in +great spirits over the match that was so soon to come off. We agreed to +walk over the ground again on the appointed day, keeping company with +our respective men. Here is the account that Dickens himself drew up, of +that day's achievement, for the broadside.</p> + +THE SPORTING NARRATIVE.<br /> +<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 4em;'>THE MEN.</span><br /> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"The Boston Bantam (<i>alias</i> Bright Chanticleer) is a young bird, + though too old to be caught with chaff. He comes of a thorough game + breed, and has a clear though modest crow. He pulls down the scale + at ten stone and a half and add a pound or two. His previous + performances in the pedestrian line have not been numerous. He once + achieved a neat little match against time in two left boots at + Philadelphia; but this must be considered as a pedestrian + eccentricity, and cannot be accepted by the rigid chronicler as high + art. The old mower with the scythe and hour-glass has not yet laid + his mauley heavily on the Bantam's frontispiece, but he has had a + grip at the Bantam's top feathers, and in plucking out a handful was + very near making him like the great Napoleon Bonaparte (with the + exception of the victualling department), when the ancient one found + himself too much occupied to carry out the idea, and gave it up. The + Man of Ross (<i>alias</i> old Alick Pope, <i>alias</i> + Allourpraises-whyshouldlords, etc.) is a thought and a half too + fleshy, and, if he accidentally sat down upon his baby, would do it + to the tune of fourteen stone. This popular codger is of the + rubicund and jovial sort, and has long been known as a piscatorial + pedestrian on the banks of the Wye. But Izaak Walton hadn't + pace,—look at his book and you'll find it slow,—and when that + article comes in question, the fishing-rod may prove to some of his + disciples a rod in pickle. Howbeit, the Man of Ross is a lively + ambler, and has a smart stride of his own.</p> + +<p> THE TRAINING.</p> + +<p> "If vigorous attention to diet could have brought both men up to the + post in tip-top feather, their condition would have left nothing to + be desired. But both might have had more daily practice in the + poetry of motion. Their breathings were confined to an occasional + Baltimore burst under the guidance of The Gasper, and to an amicable + toddle between themselves at Washington.</p> + +<p> THE COURSE.</p> + +<p> "Six miles and a half, good measure, from the first tree on the Mill + Dam Road, lies the little village (with no refreshments in it but + five oranges and a bottle of blacking) of Newton Centre. Here + Massachusetts Jemmy and The Gasper had established the + turning-point. The road comprehended every variety of inconvenience + to test the mettle of the men, and nearly the whole of it was + covered with snow.</p> + +<p> THE START</p> + +<p> was effected beautifully. The men taking their stand in exact line + at the starting-post, the first tree aforesaid, received from The + Gasper the warning, "Are you ready?" and then the signal, "One, two, + three. Go!" They got away exactly together, and at a spinning speed, + waited on by Massachusetts Jemmy and the Gasper.</p> + +<p> THE RACE.</p> + +<p> "In the teeth of an intensely cold and bitter wind, before which the + snow flew fast and furious across the road from right to left, the + Bantam slightly led. But the Man responded to the challenge, and + soon breasted him. For the first three miles each led by a yard or + so alternately; but the walking was very even. On four miles being + called by The Gasper the men were side by side; and then ensued one + of the best periods of the race, the same splitting pace being held + by both through a heavy snow-wreath and up a dragging hill. At this + point it was anybody's game, a dollar on Rossius and two + half-dollars on the member of the feathery tribe. When five miles + were called, the men were still shoulder to shoulder. At about six + miles The Gasper put on a tremendous spirt to leave the men behind + and establish himself at the turning-point at the entrance of the + village. He afterwards declared that he received a mental + knock-downer on taking his station and facing about, to find Bright + Chanticleer close in upon him, and Rossius steaming up like a + locomotive. The Bantam rounded first; Rossius rounded wide; and from + that moment the Bantam steadily shot ahead. Though both were + breathed at the town, the Bantam quickly got his bellows into + obedient condition, and blew away like an orderly blacksmith in full + work. The forcing-pumps of Rossius likewise proved themselves tough + and true, and warranted first-rate, but he fell off in pace; whereas + the Bantam pegged away with his little drumsticks, as if he saw his + wives and a peck of barley waiting for him at the family perch. + Continually gaining upon him of Ross, Chanticleer gradually drew + ahead within a very few yards of half a mile, finally doing the + whole distance in two hours and forty-eight minutes. Ross had ceased + to compete three miles short of the winning-post, but bravely walked + it out and came in seven minutes later.</p> + +<p> REMARKS.</p> + +<p> "The difficulties under which this plucky match was walked can only + be appreciated by those who were on the ground. To the excessive + rigor of the icy blast and the depth and state of the snow must be + added the constant scattering of the latter into the air and into + the eyes of the men, while heads of hair, beards, eyelashes, and + eyebrows were frozen into icicles. To breathe at all, in such a + rarefied and disturbed atmosphere, was not easy; but to breathe up + to the required mark was genuine, slogging, ding-dong, hard labor. + That both competitors were game to the backbone, doing what they did + under such conditions, was evident to all; but to his gameness the + courageous Bantam added unexpected endurance and (like the sailor's + watch that did three hours to the cathedral clock's one) unexpected + powers of going when wound up. The knowing eye could not fail to + detect considerable disparity between the lads; Chanticleer being, + as Mrs. Cratchit said of Tiny Tim, 'very light to carry,' and + Rossius promising fair to attain the rotundity of the Anonymous Cove + in the Epigram:—</p></div> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>And when he walks the streets the paviors cry,<br /></span> +<span>"God bless you, sir!"—and lay their rammers by.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The dinner at the Parker House, after the fatigues of the day, was a +brilliant success. The Great International Walking-Match was over; +America had won, and England was nowhere. The victor and the vanquished +were the heroes of the occasion, for both had shown great powers of +endurance and done their work in capital time. We had no set speeches at +the table, for we had voted eloquence a bore before we sat down. David +Copperfield, Hyperion, Hosea Biglow, the Autocrat, and the Bad Boy were +present, and there was no need of set speeches. The ladies present, +being all daughters of America, smiled upon the champion, and we had a +great, good time. The banquet provided by Dickens was profusely +decorated with flowers, arranged by himself. The master of the feast was +in his best mood, albeit his country had lost; and we all declared, when +we bade him good night, that none of us had ever enjoyed a festival +more.</p> + +<p>Soon after this Dickens started on his reading travels again, and I +received from him frequent letters from various parts of the country. On +the 8th of March, 1868, he writes from a Western city:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Sunday, 8th March, 1868. + +<p> My Dear Fields: We came here yesterday most comfortably in a + "drawing-room car," of which (Rule Britannia!) we bought exclusive + possession. —— is rather a depressing feather in the eagle's wing, + when considered on a Sunday and in a thaw. Its hotel is likewise a + dreary institution. But I have an impression that we must be in the + wrong one, and buoy myself up with a devout belief in the other, + over the way. The awakening to consciousness this morning on a + lop-sided bedstead facing nowhere, in a room holding nothing but + sour dust, was more terrible than the being afraid to go to bed last + night. To keep ourselves up we played whist (double dummy) until + neither of us could bear to speak to the other any more. We had + previously supped on a tough old nightmare named buffalo.</p> + +<p> What do you think of a "Fowl de poulet"? or a "Paettie de Shay"? or + "Celary"? or "Murange with cream"? Because all these delicacies are + in the printed bill of fare! If Mrs. Fields would like the recipe, + how to make a "Paettie de Shay," telegraph instantly, and the recipe + shall be purchased. We asked the Irish waiter what this dish was, + and he said it was "the Frinch name the steward giv' to oyster + pattie." It is usually washed down, I believe, with "Movseaux," or + "Table Madeira," or "Abasinthe," or "Curraco," all of which drinks + are on the wine list. I mean to drink my love to —— after dinner + in Movseaux. Your ruggeder nature shall be pledged in Abasinthe.</p> + +<p> Ever affectionately,</p> + +<p> CHARLES DICKENS.</p></div> + +<p>On the 19th of March he writes from Albany:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Albany, 19th March, 1868. + +<p> My Dear ——: I should have answered your kind and welcome note + before now, but that we have been in difficulties. After creeping + through water for miles upon miles, our train gave it up as a bad + job between Rochester and this place, and stranded us, early on + Tuesday afternoon, at Utica. There we remained all night, and at six + o'clock yesterday morning were ordered up to get ready for starting + again. Then we were countermanded. Then we were once more told to + get ready. Then we were told to stay where we were. At last we got + off at eight o'clock, and after paddling through the flood until + half past three, got landed here,—to the great relief of our minds + as well as bodies, for the tickets were all sold out for last night. + We had all sorts of adventures by the way, among which two of the + most notable were:—</p> + +<p> 1. Picking up two trains out of the water, in which the passengers + had been composedly sitting all night, until relief should arrive.</p> + +<p> 2. Unpacking and releasing into the open country a great train of + cattle and sheep that had been in the water I don't know how long, + and that had begun in their imprisonment to eat each other. I never + could have realized the strong and dismal expressions of which the + faces of sheep are capable, had I not seen the haggard countenances + of this unfortunate flock as they were tumbled out of their dens and + picked themselves up and made off, leaping wildly (many with broken + legs) over a great mound of thawing snow, and over the worried body + of a deceased companion. Their misery was so very human that I was + sorry to recognize several intimate acquaintances conducting + themselves in this forlornly gymnastic manner.</p> + +<p> As there is no question that our friendship began in some previous + state of existence many years ago, I am now going to make bold to + mention a discovery we have made concerning Springfield. We find + that by remaining there next Saturday and Sunday, instead of coming + on to Boston, we shall save several hours' travel, and much wear and + tear of our baggage and camp-followers. Ticknor reports the + Springfield hotel excellent. Now will you and Fields come and pass + Sunday with us there? It will be delightful, if you can. If you + cannot, will you defer our Boston dinner until the following Sunday? + Send me a hopeful word to Springfield (Massasoit House) in reply, + please.</p> + +<p> Lowell's delightful note enclosed with thanks. <i>Do</i> make a trial for + Springfield. We saw Professor White at Syracuse, and went out for a + ride with him. Queer quarters at Utica, and nothing particular to + eat; but the people so very anxious to please, that it was better + than the best cuisine. I made a jug of punch (in the bedroom + pitcher), and we drank our love to you and Fields. Dolby had more + than his share, under pretence of devoted enthusiasm. Ever + affectionately yours,</p> + +<p> CHARLES DICKENS.</p></div> + +<p>His readings everywhere were crowned with enthusiastic success, and if +his strength had been equal to his will, he could have stayed in America +another year, and occupied every night of it with his wonderful +impersonations. I regretted extremely that he felt obliged to give up +visiting the West. Invitations which greatly pleased him came day after +day from the principal cities and towns, but his friends soon discovered +that his health would not allow him to extend his travels beyond +Washington.</p> + +<p>He sailed for home on the 19th of April, 1868, and we shook hands with +him on the deck of the Russia as the good ship turned her prow toward +England. He was in great spirits at the thought of so soon again seeing +Gad's Hill, and the prospect of a rest after all his toilsome days and +nights in America. While at sea he wrote the following letter to me:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Aboard The Russia, Bound For Liverpool, Sunday, 26th April, 1868. + +<p> My Dear Fields: In order that you may have the earliest intelligence + of me, I begin this note to-day in my small cabin, purposing (if it + should prove practicable) to post it at Queenstown for the return + steamer.</p> + +<p> We are already past the Banks of Newfoundland, although our course + was seventy miles to the south, with the view of avoiding ice seen + by Judkins in the Scotia on his passage out to New York. The Russia + is a magnificent ship, and has dashed along bravely. We had made + more than thirteen hundred and odd miles at, noon to-day. The wind, + after being a little capricious, rather threatens at the present + time to turn against us, but our run is already eighty miles ahead + of the Russia's last run in this direction,—a very fast one. ...To + all whom it may concern, report the Russia in the highest terms. She + rolls more easily than the other Cunard Screws, is kept in perfect + order, and is most carefully looked after in all departments. We + have had nothing approaching to heavy weather; still, one can speak + to the trim of the ship. Her captain, a gentleman; bright, polite, + good-natured, and vigilant.....</p> + +<p> As to me, I am greatly better, I hope. I have got on my right boot + to-day for the first time; the "true American" seems to be turning + faithless at last; and I made a Gad's Hill breakfast this morning, + as a further advance on having otherwise eaten and drunk all day + ever since Wednesday.</p> + +<p> You will see Anthony Trollope, I dare say. What was my amazement to + see him with these eyes come aboard in the mail tender just before + we started! He had come out in the Scotia just in time to dash off + again in said tender to shake hands with me, knowing me to be aboard + here. It was most heartily done. He is on a special mission of + convention with the United States post-office.</p> + +<p> We have been picturing your movements, and have duly checked off + your journey home, and have talked about you continually. But I have + thought about, you both, even much, much more. You will never know + how I love you both; or what you have been to me in America, and + will always be to me everywhere; or how fervently I thank you.</p> + +<p> All the working of the ship seems to be done on my forehead. It is + scrubbed and holystoned (my head—not the deck) at three every + morning. It is scraped and swabbed all day. Eight pairs of heavy + boots are now clattering on it, getting the ship under sail again. + Legions of ropes'-ends are flopped upon it as I write, and I must + leave off with Dolby's love.</p> + +<p> Thursday, 30th.</p> + +<p> Soon after I left off as above we had a gale of wind, which blew all + night. For a few hours on the evening side of midnight there was no + getting from this cabin of mine to the saloon, or <i>vice versa,</i> so + heavily did the sea break over the decks. The ship, however, made + nothing of it, and we were all right again by Monday afternoon. + Except for a few hours yesterday (when we had a very light head + wind), the weather has been constantly favorable, and we are now + bowling away at a great rate, with a fresh breeze filling all our + sails. We expect to be at Queenstown between midnight and three in + the morning.</p> + +<p> I hope, my dear Fields, you may find this legible, but I rather + doubt it; for there is motion enough on the ship to render writing + to a landsman, however accustomed to pen and ink, rather a difficult + achievement. Besides which, I slide away gracefully from the paper, + whenever I want to be particularly expressive.....</p> + +<p> ——, sitting opposite to me at breakfast, always has the following + items: A large dish of porridge, into which he casts slices of + butter and a quantity of sugar. Two cups of tea. A steak. Irish + stew. Chutnee, and marmalade. Another deputation of two has + solicited a reading to-night. Illustrious novelist has + unconditionally and absolutely declined.</p> + +<p> More love, and more to that, from your ever affectionate friend,</p> + +<p> C.D.</p></div> + +<p>His first letter from home gave us all great pleasure, for it announced +his complete recovery from the severe influenza that had fastened itself +upon him so many months before. Among his earliest notes I find these +paragraphs:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I have found it so extremely difficult to write about America + (though never so briefly) without appearing to blow trumpets on the + one hand, or to be inconsistent with my avowed determination <i>not</i> + to write about it on the other, that I have taken the simple course + enclosed. The number will be published on the 6th of June. It + appears to me to be the most modest and manly course, and to derive + some graceful significance from its title.....</p> + +<p> "Thank my dear —— for me for her delightful letter received on the + 16th. I will write to her very soon, and tell her about the dogs. I + would write by this post, but that Wills's absence (in Sussex, and + getting no better there as yet) so overwhelms me with business that + I can scarcely get through it.</p> + +<p> "Miss me? Ah, my dear fellow, but how do I miss <i>you!</i> We talk about + you both at Gad's Hill every day of our lives. And I never see the + place looking very pretty indeed, or hear the birds sing all day + long and the nightingales all night, without restlessly wishing that + you were both there.</p> + +<p> "With best love, and truest and most enduring regard, ever, my dear + Fields,</p> + +<p> "Your most affectionate,</p> + +<p> "C.D."</p> + +<p> ".... I hope you will receive by Saturday's Cunard a case + containing:</p> + +<p> 1. A trifling supply of the pen-knibs that suited your hand. 2. A + do. of unfailing medicine for cockroaches. 3. Mrs. Gamp, for ——.</p> + +<p> "The case is addressed to you at Bleecker Street, New York. If it + should be delayed for the knibs (or nibs) promised to-morrow, and + should be too late for the Cunard packet, it will in that case come + by the next following Inman steamer.</p> + +<p> "Everything here looks lovely, and I find it (you will be surprised + to hear) really a pretty place! I have seen No Thoroughfare twice. + Excellent things in it; but it drags, to my thinking. It is, + however, a great success in the country, and is now getting up with + great force in Paris. Fechter is ill, and was ordered off to + Brighton yesterday. Wills is ill too, and banished into Sussex for + perfect rest. Otherwise, thank God, I find everything well and + thriving. You and my dear Mrs. F—— are constantly in my mind. + Procter greatly better...."</p></div> + +<p>On the 25th of May he sent off the following from Gad's Hill:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>My Dear ——: As you ask me about the dogs, I begin with them. When + I came down first, I came to Gravesend, five miles off. The two + Newfoundland dogs coming to meet me, with the usual carriage and the + usual driver, and beholding me coming in my usual dress out at the + usual door, it struck me that their recollection of my having been + absent for any unusual time was at once cancelled. They behaved + (they are both young dogs) exactly in their usual manner; coming + behind the basket phaeton as we trotted along, and lifting their + heads to have their ears pulled,—a special attention which they + receive from no one else. But when I drove into the stable-yard, + Linda (the St. Bernard) was greatly excited; weeping profusely, and + throwing herself on her back that she might caress my foot with her + great fore-paws. M——'s little dog too, Mrs. Bouncer, barked in the + greatest agitation on being called down and asked by M——, "Who is + this?" and tore round and round me, like the dog in the Faust + outlines. You must know that all the farmers turned out on the road + in their market-chaises to say, "Welcome home, sir!" that all the + houses along the road were dressed with flags; and that our + servants, to cut out the rest, had dressed this house so, that every + brick of it was hidden. They had asked M——'s permission to "ring + the alarm-bell (!) when master drove up"; but M——, having some + slight idea that that compliment might awaken master's sense of the + ludicrous, had recommended bell abstinence. But on Sunday, the + village choir (which includes the bell-ringers) made amends. After + some unusually brief pious reflection in the crowns of their hats at + the end of the sermon, the ringers bolted out and rang like mad + until I got home. (There had been a conspiracy among the villagers + to take the horse out, if I had come to our own station, and draw me + here. M—— and G—— had got wind of it and warned me.)</p> + +<p> Divers birds sing here all day, and the nightingales all night. The + place is lovely, and in perfect order. I have put five mirrors in + the Swiss Chalet (where I write), and they reflect and refract in + all kinds of ways the leaves that are quivering at the windows, and + he great fields of waving corn, and the sail-dotted river. My room + is up among the branches of the trees; and the birds and the + butterflies fly in and out, and the green branches shoot in, at the + open windows, and the lights and shadows of the clouds come and go + with the rest of the company. The scent of the flowers, and indeed + of everything that is growing for miles and miles, is most + delicious.</p> + +<p> Dolby (who sends a world of messages) found his wife much better + than he expected, and the children (wonderful to relate!) perfect. + The little girl winds up her prayers every night with a special + commendation to Heaven of me and the pony,—as if I must mount him + to get there! I dine with Dolby (I was going to write "him," but + found it would look as if I were going to dine with the pony) at + Greenwich this very day, and if your ears do not burn from six to + nine this evening, then the Atlantic is a non-conductor. We are + already settling—think of this!—the details of my farewell course + of readings. I am brown beyond relief, and cause the greatest + disappointment in all quarters by looking so well. It is really + wonderful what those fine days at sea did for me! My doctor was + quite broken down in spirits when he saw me, for the first time + since my return, last Saturday. "Good Lord!" he said, recoiling; + "seven years younger!"</p> + +<p> It is time I should explain the otherwise inexplicable enclosure. + Will you tell Fields, with my love, (I suppose he hasn't used <i>all</i> + the pens yet?) that I think there is in Tremont Street a set of my + books, sent out by Chapman, not arrived when I departed. Such set of + the immortal works of our illustrious, etc., is designed for the + gentleman to whom the enclosure is addressed. If T., F., & Co. will + kindly forward the set (carriage paid) with the enclosure to ——'s + address, I will invoke new blessings on their heads, and will get + Dolby's little daughter to mention them nightly.</p> + +<p> "No Thoroughfare" is very shortly coming out in Paris, where it is + now in active rehearsal. It is still playing here, but without + Fechter, who has been very ill. The doctor's dismissal of him to + Paris, however, and his getting better there, enables him to get up + the play there. He and Wilkie missed so many pieces of stage effect + here, that, unless I am quite satisfied with his report, I shall go + over and try my stage-managerial hand at the Vaudeville Theatre. I + particularly want the drugging and attempted robbing in the bedroom + scene at the Swiss inn to be done to the sound of a waterfall rising + and falling with the wind. Although in the very opening of that + scene they speak of the waterfall and listen to it, nobody thought + of its mysterious music. I could make it, with a good stage + carpenter, in an hour. Is it not a curious thing that they want to + make me a governor of the Foundling Hospital, because, since the + Christmas number, they have had such an amazing access of visitors + and money?</p> + +<p> My dear love to Fields once again. Same to you and him from M—— + and G——. I cannot tell you both how I miss you, or how overjoyed I + should be to see you here.</p> + +<p> Ever, my dear ——, your most affectionate friend,</p> + +<p> C.D.</p></div> + +<p>Excellent accounts of his health and spirits continued to come from +Gad's Hill, and his letters were full of plans for the future. On the +7th of July he writes from Gad's Hill as usual:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Gad's Hill Place, Tuesday, 7th July, 1868. + +<p> My Dear Fields: I have delayed writing to you (and ——, to whom my + love) until I should have seen Longfellow. When he was in London the + first time he came and went without reporting himself, and left me + in a state of unspeakable discomfiture. Indeed, I should not have + believed in his having been here at all, if Mrs. Procter had not + told me of his calling to see Procter. However, on his return he + wrote to me from the Langham Hotel, and I went up to town to see + him, and to make an appointment for his coming here. He, the girls, + and —— came down last Saturday night, and stayed until Monday + forenoon. I showed them all the neighboring country that could be + shown in so short a time, and they finished off with a tour of + inspection of the kitchens, pantry, wine-cellar, pickles, sauces, + servants' sitting-room, general household stores, and even the + Cellar Book, of this illustrious establishment. Forster and Kent + (the latter wrote certain verses to Longfellow, which have been + published in the "Times," and which I sent to D——) came down for a + day, and I hope we all had a really "good time." I turned out a + couple of postilions in the old red jacket of the old red royal + Dover road, for our ride; and it was like a holiday ride in England + fifty years ago. Of course we went to look at the old houses in + Rochester, and the old cathedral, and the old castle, and the house + for the six poor travellers who, "not being rogues or proctors, + shall have lodging, entertainment, and four pence each."</p> + +<p> Nothing can surpass the respect paid to Longfellow here, from the + Queen downward. He is everywhere received and courted, and finds (as + I told him he would, when we talked of it in Boston) the workingmen + at least as well acquainted with his books as the classes socially + above them.....</p> + +<p> Last Thursday I attended, as sponsor, the christening of Dolby's son + and heir,—a most jolly baby, who held on tight by the rector's left + whisker while the service was performed. What time, too, his little + sister, connecting me with the pony, trotted up and down the centre + isle, noisily driving herself as that celebrated animal, so that it + went very hard with the sponsorial dignity.</p> + +<p> —— is not yet recovered from that concussion of the brain, and I + have all his work to do. This may account for my not being able to + devise a Christmas number, but I seem to have left my invention in + America. In case you should find it, please send it over. I am going + up to town to-day to dine with Longfellow. And now, my dear Fields, + you know all about me and mine.</p> + +<p> You are enjoying your holiday? and are still thinking sometimes of + our Boston days, as I do? and are maturing schemes for coming here + next summer? A satisfactory reply to the last question is + particularly entreated.</p> + +<p> I am delighted to find you both so well pleased with the Blind Book + scheme. I said nothing of it to you when we were together, though I + had made up my mind, because I wanted to come upon you with that + little burst from a distance. It seemed something like meeting + again when I remitted the money and thought of your talking of it.</p> + +<p> The dryness of the weather is amazing. All the ponds and surface + wells about here are waterless, and the poor people suffer greatly. + The people of this village have only one spring to resort to, and it + is a couple of miles from many cottages. I do not let the great dogs + swim in the canal, because the people have to drink of it. But when + they get into the Medway, it is hard to get them out again. The + other day Bumble (the son, Newfoundland dog) got into difficulties + among some floating timber, and became frightened. Don (the father) + was standing by me, shaking off the wet and looking on carelessly, + when all of a sudden he perceived something amiss, and went in with + a bound and brought Bumble out by the ear. The scientific way in + which he towed him along was charming.</p> + +<p> Ever your loving</p> + +<p> C.D.</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>During the summer of 1868 constant messages and letters came from +Dickens across the seas, containing pleasant references to his visit in +America, and giving charming accounts of his way of life at home. Here +is a letter announcing the fact that he had decided to close forever his +appearance in the reading-desk:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Liverpool, Friday, October 30, 1868. + +<p> My Dear ——: I ought to have written to you long ago. But I have + begun my one hundred and third Farewell Readings, and have been so + busy and so fatigued that my hands have been quite full. Here are + Dolby and I again leading the kind of life that you know so well. We + stop next week (except in London) for the month of November, on + account of the elections, and then go on again, with a short holiday + at Christmas. We have been doing wonders, and the crowds that pour + in upon us in London are beyond all precedent or means of providing + for. I have serious thoughts of doing the murder from Oliver Twist; + but it is so horrible, that I am going to try it on a dozen people + in my London hall one night next month, privately, and see what + effect it makes.</p> + +<p> My reason for abandoning the Christmas number was, that I became + weary of having my own writing swamped by that of other people. This + reminds me of the Ghost story. I don't think so well of it my dear + Fields, as you do. It seems to me to be too obviously founded on + Bill Jones (in Monk Lewis's Tales of Terror), and there is also a + remembrance in it of another Sea-Ghost story entitled, I think, + "Stand from Under," and written by I don't know whom. <i>Stand from + under</i> is the cry from aloft when anything is going to be sent down + on deck, and the ghost is aloft on a yard....</p> + +<p> You know all about public affairs, Irish churches, and party + squabbles. A vast amount of electioneering is going on about here; + but it has not hurt us; though Gladstone has been making speeches, + north, east, south, and west of us. I hear that C——is on his way + here in the Russia. Gad's Hill must be thrown open.....</p> + +<p> Your most affectionate</p> + +<p> CHARLES DICKENS.</p></div> + +<p>We had often talked together of the addition to his <i>répertoire</i> of some +scenes from "Oliver Twist," and the following letter explains itself:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Glasgow, Wednesday, December 16, 1868. + +<p> Mr Dear ——: ...And first, as you are curious about the Oliver + murder, I will tell you about that trial of the same at which you + <i>ought</i> to have assisted. There were about a hundred people present + in all. I have changed my stage. Besides that back screen which you + know so well, there are two large screens of the same color, set + off, one on either side, like the "wings" at a theatre. And besides + those again, we have a quantity of curtains of the same color, with + which to close in any width of room from wall to wall. Consequently, + the figure is now completely isolated, and the slightest action + becomes much more important. This was used for the first time on the + occasion. But behind the stage—the orchestra being very large and + built for the accommodation of a numerous chorus—there was ready, + on the level of the platform, a very long table, beautifully + lighted, with a large staff of men ready to open oysters and set + champagne corks flying. Directly I had done, the screens being + whisked off by my people, there was disclosed one of the prettiest + banquets you can imagine; and when all the people came up, and the + gay dresses of the ladies were lighted by those powerful lights of + mine, the scene was exquisitely pretty; the hall being newly + decorated, and very elegantly; and the whole looking like a great + bed of flowers and diamonds.</p> + +<p> Now, you must know that all this company were, before the wine went + round, unmistakably pale, and had horror-stricken faces. Next + morning, Harness (Fields knows—Rev. William—did an edition of + Shakespeare—old friend of the Kembles and Mrs. Siddons), writing to + me about it, and saying it was "a most amazing and terrific thing," + added, "but I am bound to tell you that I had an almost irresistible + impulse upon me to <i>scream</i>, and that, if any one had cried out, I + am certain I should have followed." He had no idea that on the night + P——, the great ladies' doctor, had taken me aside and said, "My + dear Dickens, you may rely upon it that if only one woman cries out + when you murder the girl, there will be a contagion of hysteria all + over this place." It is impossible to soften it without spoiling it, + and you may suppose that I am rather anxious to discover how it goes + on the 5th of January!!! We are afraid to announce it elsewhere, + without knowing, except that I have thought it pretty safe to put it + up once in Dublin. I asked Mrs. K——, the famous actress, who was + at the experiment: "What do <i>you</i> say? Do it, or not?" "Why, of + course, do it," she replied. "Having got at such an effect as that, + it must be done. But," rolling her large black eyes very slowly, and + speaking very distinctly, "the public have been looking out for a + sensation these last fifty years or so, and by Heaven they have got + it!" With which words, and a long breath and a long stare, she + became speechless. Again, you may suppose that I am a little + anxious! I had previously tried it, merely sitting over the fire in + a chair, upon two ladies separately, one of whom was G——. They had + both said, "O, good gracious! if you are going to do <i>that</i>, it + ought to be seen; but it's awful." So once again you may suppose I + am a little anxious!...</p> + +<p> Not a day passes but Dolby and I talk about you both, and recall + where we were at the corresponding time of last year. My old + likening of Boston to Edinburgh has been constantly revived within + these last ten days. There is a certain remarkable similarity of + tone between the two places. The audiences are curiously alike, + except that the Edinburgh audience has a quicker sense of humor and + is a little more genial. No disparagement to Boston in this, because + I consider an Edinburgh audience perfect.</p> + +<p> I trust, my dear Eugenius, that you have recognized yourself in a + certain Uncommercial, and also some small reference to a name rather + dear to you? As an instance of how strangely something comic springs + up in the midst of the direst misery, look to a succeeding + Uncommercial, called "A Small Star in the East," published to-day, + by the by. I have described, with <i>exactness</i>, the poor places into + which I went, and how the people behaved, and what they said. I was + wretched, looking on; and yet the boiler-maker and the poor man with + the legs filled me with a sense of drollery not to be kept down by + any pressure.</p> + +<p> The atmosphere of this place, compounded of mists from the highlands + and smoke from the town factories, is crushing my eyebrows as I + write, and it rains as it never does rain anywhere else, and always + does rain here. It is a dreadful place, though much improved and + possessing a deal of public spirit. Improvement is beginning to + knock the old town of Edinburgh about, here and there; but the + Canongate and the most picturesque of the horrible courts and wynds + are not to be easily spoiled, or made fit for the poor wretches who + people them to live in. Edinburgh is so changed as to its + notabilities, that I had the only three men left of the Wilson and + Jeffrey time to dine with me there, last Saturday.</p> + +<p> I read here to-night and to-morrow, go back to Edinburgh on Friday + morning, read there on Saturday morning, and start southward by the + mail that same night. After the great experiment of the 5th,—that + is to say, on the morning of the 6th,—we are off to Belfast and + Dublin. On every alternate Tuesday I am due in London, from + wheresoever I may be, to read at St. James's Hall.</p> + +<p> I think you will find "Fatal Zero" (by Percy Fitzgerald) a very + curious analysis of a mind, as the story advances. A new beginner in + A.Y.R. (Hon. Mrs. Clifford, Kinglake's sister), who wrote a story in + the series just finished, called "The Abbot's Pool," has just sent + me another story. I have a strong impression that, with care, she + will step into Mrs. Graskell's vacant place. W—— is no better, and + I have work enough even in that direction.</p> + +<p> God bless the woman with the black mittens, for making me laugh so + this morning! I take her to be a kind of public-spirited Mrs. + Sparsit, and as such take her to my bosom. God bless you both, my + dear friends, in this Christmas and New Year time, and in all times, + seasons, and places, and send you to Gad's Hill with the next + flowers!</p> + +<p> Ever your most affectionate</p> + +<p> C.D.</p></div> + +<p>All who witnessed the reading of Dickens in the "Oliver Twist" murder +scene unite in testifying to the wonderful effect he produced in it. Old +theatrical <i>habitués</i> have told me that, since the days of Edmund Kean +and Cooper, no mimetic representation had been superior to it. I became +so much interested in all I heard about it, that I resolved early in the +year 1869 to step across the water (it is only a stride of three +thousand miles) and see it done. The following is Dickens's reply to my +announcement of the intended voyage:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>A.Y.R. Office, London, Monday, February 15, 1869. + +<p> My Dear Fields: Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah! It is a remarkable instance + of magnetic sympathy that before I received your joyfully welcomed + announcement of your probable visit to England, I was waiting for + the enclosed card to be printed, that I might send you a clear + statement of my Readings. I felt almost convinced that you would + arrive before the Farewells were over. What do you say to <i>that</i>?</p> + +<p> The final course of Four Readings in a week, mentioned in the + enclosed card, is arranged to come off, on</p> + +<p> Monday, June 7th;</p> + +<p> Tuesday, June 8th;</p> + +<p> Thursday, June 10th; and</p> + +<p> Friday, June 11th: last night of all.</p> + +<p> We hoped to have finished in May, but cannot clear the country off + in sufficient time. I shall probably be about the Lancashire towns + in that month. There are to be three morning murders in London not + yet announced, but they will be extra the London nights I send you, + and will in no wise interfere with them. We are doing most + amazingly. In the country the people usually collapse with the + murder, and don't fully revive in time for the final piece; in + London, where they are much quicker, they are equal to both. It is + very hard work; but I have never for a moment lost voice or been + unwell; except that my foot occasionally gives me a twinge. We shall + have in London on the 2d of March, for the second murder night, + probably the greatest assemblage of notabilities of all sorts ever + packed together. D—— continues steady in his allegiance to the + Stars and Stripes, sends his kindest regard, and is immensely + excited by the prospect of seeing you. Gad's Hill is all ablaze on + the subject. We are having such wonderfully warm weather that I fear + we shall have a backward spring there. You'll excuse east-winds, + won't you, if they shake the flowers roughly when you first set foot + on the lawn? I have only seen it once since Christmas, and that was + from last Saturday to Monday, when I went there for my birthday, and + had the Forsters and Wilkie to keep it. I had had ——'s letter + four days before, and drank to you both most heartily and lovingly.</p> + +<p> I was with M—— a week or two ago. He is quite surprisingly infirm + and aged. Could not possibly get on without his second wife to take + care of him, which she does to perfection. I went to Cheltenham + expressly to do the murder for him, and we put him in the front row, + where he sat grimly staring at me. After it was over, he thus + delivered himself, on my laughing it off and giving him some wine: + "No, Dickens—er—er—I will NOT," with sudden emphasis, —"er—have + it—er—put aside. In my—er—best times—er—you remember them, my + dear boy—er—gone, gone! —no,"—with great emphasis again,—"it + comes to this—er —TWO MACBETHS!" with extraordinary energy. After + which he stood (with his glass in his hand and his old square jaw of + its old fierce form) looking defiantly at Dolby as if Dolby had + contradicted him; and then trailed off into a weak pale likeness of + himself as if his whole appearance had been some clever optical + illusion.</p> + +<p> I am away to Scotland on Wednesday next, the 17th, to finish there. + Ireland is already disposed of, and Manchester and Liverpool will + follow within six weeks. "Like lights in a theatre, they are being + snuffed out fast," as Carlyle says of the guillotined in his + Revolution. I suppose I shall be glad when they are all snuffed out. + Anyhow, I think so now.</p> + +<p> The N——s have a very pretty house at Kensington. He has quite + recovered, and is positively getting fat. I dined with them last + Friday at F——'s, having (marvellous to relate!) a spare day in + London. The warm weather has greatly spared F——'s bronchitis; but + I fear that he is quite unable to bear cold, or even changes of + temperature, and that he will suffer exceedingly if east-winds + obtain. One would say they must at last, for it has been blowing a + tempest from the south and southwest for weeks and weeks.</p> + +<p> The safe arrival of my boy's ship in Australia has been telegraphed + home, but I have not yet heard from him. His post will be due a week + or so hence in London. My next boy is doing very well, I hope, at + Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Of my seafaring boy's luck in getting a + death-vacancy of First Lieutenant, aboard a new ship-of-war on the + South American Station, I heard from a friend, a captain in the + Navy, when I was at Bath the other day; though we have not yet heard + it from himself. Bath (setting aside remembrances of Roderick Random + and Humphrey Clinker) looked, I fancied, just as if a cemetery-full + of old people had somehow made a successful rise against death, + carried the place by assault, and built a city with their + gravestones; in which they were trying to look alive, but with very + indifferent success.</p> + +<p> C—— is no better, and no worse. M—— and G—— send all manner of + loves, and have already represented to me that the red-jacketed + post-boys must be turned out for a summer expedition to Canterbury, + and that there must be lunches among the cornfields, walks in Cobham + Park, and a thousand other expeditions. Pray give our pretty M—— + to understand that a great deal will be expected of her, and that + she will have to look her very best, to look as I have drawn her. If + your Irish people turn up at Gad's at the same time, as they + probably will, they shall be entertained in the yard, with muzzled + dogs. I foresee that they will come over, haymaking and hopping, and + will recognize their beautiful vagabonds at a glance.</p> + +<p> I wish Reverdy Johnson would dine in private and hold his tongue. He + overdoes the thing. C—— is trying to get the Pope to subscribe, + and to run over to take the chair at his next dinner, on which + occasion Victor Emmanuel is to propose C——'s health, and may all + differences among friends be referred to him. With much love always, + and in high rapture at the thought of seeing you both here,</p> + +<p> Ever your most affectionate</p> + +<p> C.D.</p></div> + +<p>A few weeks later, while on his reading tour, he sent off the +following:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool, Friday, April 9, 1869. + +<p> My Dear Fields: The faithful Russia will bring this out to you, as a + sort of warrant to take you into loving custody and bring you back + on her return trip.</p> + +<p> I have been "reading" here all this week, and finish here for good + to-night. To-morrow the Mayor, Corporation, and citizens give me a + farewell dinner in St. George's Hall. Six hundred and fifty are to + dine, and a mighty show of beauty is to be mustered besides. N—— + had a great desire to see the sight, and so I suggested him as a + friend to be invited. He is over at Manchester now on a visit, and + will come here at midday to-morrow, and go back to London with us on + Sunday afternoon. On Tuesday I read in London, and on Wednesday + start off again. To-night is No. 68 out of one hundred. I am very + tired of it, but I could have no such good fillip as you among the + audience, and that will carry me on gayly to the end. So please to + look sharp in the matter of landing on the bosom of the used-up, + worn-out, and rotten old Parient. I rather think that when the 12th + of June shall have shaken off these shackles, there <i>will</i> be borage + on the lawn at Gad's. Your heart's desire in that matter, and in the + minor particulars of Cobham Park, Rochester Castle, and Canterbury + shall be fulfilled, please God! The red jackets shall turn out again + upon the turnpike road, and picnics among the cherry-orchards and + hop-gardens shall be heard of in Kent. Then, too, shall the + Uncommercial resuscitate (being at present nightly murdered by Mr. + W. Sikes) and uplift his voice again.</p> + +<p> The chief officer of the Russia (a capital fellow) was at the + Reading last night, and Dolby specially charged him with the care of + you and yours. We shall be on the borders of Wales, and probably + about Hereford, when you arrive. Dolby has insane projects of + getting over here to meet you; so amiably hopeful and obviously + impracticable, that I encourage him to the utmost. The regular + little captain of the Russia, Cook, is just now changed into the + Cuba, whence arise disputes of seniority, etc. I wish he had been + with you, for I liked him very much when I was his passenger. I like + to think of your being in <i>my</i> ship!</p> + +<p> —— and —— have been taking it by turns to be "on the point of + death," and have been complimenting one another greatly on the + fineness of the point attained. My people got a very good impression + of ——, and thought her a sincere and earnest little woman.</p> + +<p> The Russia hauls out into the stream to-day, and I fear her people + may be too busy to come to us to-night. But if any of them do, they + shall have the warmest of welcomes for your sake. (By the by, a very + good party of seamen from the Queen's ship Donegal, lying in the + Mersey, have been told off to decorate St. George's Hall with the + ship's bunting. They were all hanging on aloft upside down, holding + to the gigantically high roof by nothing, this morning, in the most + wonderfully cheerful manner.)</p> + +<p> My son Charley has come for the dinner, and Chappell (my Proprietor, + as—isn't it Wemmick?—says) is coming to-day, and Lord Dufferin + (Mrs. Norton's nephew) is to come and make <i>the</i> speech. I don't + envy the feelings of my noble friend when he sees the hall. + Seriously, it is less adapted to speaking than Westminster Abbey, + and is as large....</p> + +<p> I hope you will see Fechter in a really clever piece by Wilkie. Also + you will see the Academy Exhibition, which will be a very good one; + and also we will, please God, see everything and more, and + everything else after that. I begin to doubt and fear on the subject + of your having a horror of me after seeing the murder. I don't + think a hand moved while I was doing it last night, or an eye looked + away. And there was a fixed expression of horror of me, all over the + theatre, which could not have been surpassed if I had been going to + be hanged to that red velvet table. It is quite a new sensation to + be execrated with that unanimity; and I hope it will remain so!</p> + +<p> [Is it lawful—would that woman in the black gaiters, green veil, + and spectacles, hold it so—to send my love to the pretty M——?]</p> + +<p> Pack up, my dear Fields, and be quick.</p> + +<p> Ever your most affectionate</p> + +<p> C.D.</p></div> + +<p>It will be remembered that Dickens broke down entirely during the month +of April, being completely worn out with hard work in the Readings. He +described to me with graphic earnestness, when we met in May, all the +incidents connected with the final crisis, and I shall never forget how +he imitated himself during that last Reading, when he nearly fell before +the audience. It was a terrible blow to his constitution, and only a man +of the greatest strength and will could have survived it. When we +arrived in Queenstown, this note was sent on board our steamer.</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Loving welcome to England. Hurrah! + +<p> Office Of All The Year Round, Wednesday, May 5, 1869.</p> + +<p> My Dear ——: I fear you will have been uneasy about me, and will + have heard distorted accounts of the stoppage of my Readings. It is + a measure of precaution, and not of cure. I was too tired and too + jarred by the railway fast express, travelling night and day. No + half-measure could be taken; and rest being medically considered + essential, we stopped. I became, thank God, myself again, almost as + soon as I could rest! I am good for all country pleasures with you, + and am looking forward to Gad's, Rochester Castle, Cobham Park, red + jackets, and Canterbury. When you come to London we shall probably + be staying at our hotel. You will learn, here, where to find us. I + yearn to be with you both again!</p> + +<p> Love to M——.</p> + +<p> Ever your affectionate C.D.</p> + +<p> I hope this will be put into your hands on board, in Queenstown + Harbor.</p></div> + +<p>We met in London a few days after this, and I found him in capital +spirits, with such a protracted list of things we were to do together, +that, had I followed out the prescribed programme, it would have taken +many more months of absence from home than I had proposed to myself. We +began our long rambles among the thoroughfares that had undergone +important changes since I was last in London, taking in the noble Thames +embankments, which I had never seen, and the improvements in the city +markets. Dickens had moved up to London for the purpose of showing us +about, and had taken rooms only a few streets off from our hotel. Here +are two specimens of the welcome little notes which I constantly found +on my breakfast-table:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Office Of All The Year Round, London, Wednesday, May 19, 1869. + +<p> My Dear Fields: Suppose we give the weather a longer chance, and say + Monday instead of Friday. I think we must be safer with that + precaution. If Monday will suit you, I propose that we meet here + that day,—your ladies and you and I,—and cast ourselves on the + stony-hearted streets. If it be bright for St. Paul's, good; if not, + we can take some other lion that roars in dull weather. We will dine + here at six, and meet here at half past two. So IF you should want + to go elsewhere after dinner, it can be done, notwithstanding. Let + me know in a line what you say.</p> + +<p> O the delight of a cold bath this morning, after those + lodging-houses! And a mild sniffler of punch, on getting into the + hotel last night, I found what my friend Mr. Wegg calls, "Mellering, + sir, very mellering."</p> + +<p> With kindest regards, ever affectionately,</p> + +<p> CHARLES DICKENS.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Office Of All The Year Round, London, Tuesday, May 25, 1869. + +<p> My Dear Fields: First, you leave Charing Cross Station, by North + Kent railway, on Wednesday, June 2d, at 2.10 for Higham Station, the + next station beyond Gravesend. Now, bring your lofty mind back to + the previous Saturday, next Saturday. There is only one way of + combining Windsor and Richmond. That way will leave us but two hours + and a half at Windsor. This would not be long enough to enable us to + see the inside of the castle, but would admit of our seeing the + outside, the Long Walk, etc. I will assume that such a survey will + suffice. That taken for granted, meet me at Waterloo Terminus (Loop + Line for Windsor) at 10.35, on Saturday morning.</p> + +<p> The rendezvous for Monday evening will be <i>here at half past eight</i>. + As I don't know Mr. Eytinge's number in Guildford Street, will you + kindly undertake to let him know that we are going out with the + great Detective? And will you also give him the time and place for + Gad's?</p> + +<p> I shall be here on Friday for a few hours; meantime at Gad's + aforesaid.</p> + +<p> With love to the ladies, ever faithfully,</p> + +<p> C.D.</p></div> + +<p>During my stay in England in that summer of 1869, I made many excursions +with Dickens both around the city and into the country. Among the most +memorable of these London rambles was a visit to the General +Post-Office, by arrangement with the authorities there, a stroll among +the cheap theatres and lodging-houses for the poor, a visit to +Furnival's Inn and the very room in it where "Pickwick" was written, and +a walk through the thieves' quarter. Two of these expeditions were made +on two consecutive nights, under the protection of police detailed for +the service. On one of these nights we also visited the lock-up houses, +watch-houses, and opium-eating establishments. It was in one of the +horrid opium-dens that he gathered the incidents which he has related in +the opening pages of "Edwin Drood." In a miserable court we found the +haggard old woman blowing at a kind of pipe made of an old penny +ink-bottle. The identical words which Dickens puts into the mouth of +this wretched creature in "Edwin Drood" we heard her croon as we leaned +over the tattered bed on which she was lying. There was something +hideous in the way this woman kept repeating, "Ye'll pay up according, +deary, won't ye?" and the Chinamen and Lascars made +never-to-be-forgotten pictures in the scene. I watched Dickens intently +as he went among these outcasts of London, and saw with what deep +sympathy he encountered the sad and suffering in their horrid abodes. At +the door of one of the penny lodging-houses (it was growing toward +morning, and the raw air almost cut one to the bone), I saw him snatch a +little child out of its poor drunken mother's arms, and bear it in, +filthy as it was, that it might be warmed and cared for. I noticed that +whenever he entered one of these wretched rooms he had a word of cheer +for its inmates, and that when he left the apartment he always had a +pleasant "Good night" or "God bless you" to bestow upon them. I do not +think his person was ever recognized in any of these haunts, except in +one instance. As we entered a low room in the worst alley we had yet +visited, in which were huddled together some forty or fifty +half-starved-looking wretches, I noticed a man among the crowd +whispering to another and pointing out Dickens. Both men regarded him +with marked interest all the time he remained in the room, and tried to +get as near him, without observation, as possible. As he turned to go +out, one of these men pressed forward and said, "Good night, sir," with +much feeling, in reply to Dickens's parting word.</p> + +<p>Among other places, we went, a little past midnight, into one of the +Casual Wards, which were so graphically described, some years ago, in an +English magazine, by a gentleman who, as a pretended tramp, went in on a +reporting expedition. We walked through an avenue of poor tired sleeping +forms, all lying flat on the floor, and not one of them raised a head to +look at us as we moved thoughtfully up the aisle of sorrowful humanity. +I think we counted sixty or seventy prostrate beings, who had come in +for a night's shelter, and had lain down worn out with fatigue and +hunger. There was one pale young face to which I whispered Dickens's +attention, and he stood over it with a look of sympathizing interest not +to be easily forgotten. There was much ghastly comicality mingled with +the horror in several of the places we visited on those two nights. We +were standing in a room half filled with people of both sexes, whom the +police accompanying us knew to be thieves. Many of these abandoned +persons had served out their terms in jail or prison, and would probably +be again sentenced under the law. They were all silent and sullen as we +entered the room, until an old woman spoke up with a strong, beery +voice: "Good evening, gentlemen. We are all wery poor, but strictly +honest." At which cheerful apocryphal statement, all the inmates of the +room burst into boisterous laughter, and began pelting the imaginative +female with epithets uncomplimentary and unsavory. Dickens's quick eye +never for a moment ceased to study all these scenes of vice and gloom, +and he told me afterwards that, bad as the whole thing was, it had +improved infinitely since he first began to study character in those +regions of crime and woe.</p> + +<p>Between eleven and twelve o'clock on one of the evenings I have +mentioned we were taken by Dickens's favorite Detective W—— into a +sort of lock-up house, where persons are brought from the streets who +have been engaged in brawls, or detected in the act of thieving, or who +have, in short, committed any offence against the laws. Here they are +examined for commitment by a sort of presiding officer, who sits all +night for that purpose. We looked into some of the cells, and found them +nearly filled with wretched-looking objects who had been brought in that +night. To this establishment are also brought lost children who are +picked up in the streets by the police,—children who have wandered away +from their homes, and are not old enough to tell the magistrate where +they live. It was well on toward morning, and we were sitting in +conversation with one of the officers, when the ponderous door opened +and one of these small wanderers was brought in. She was the queerest +little figure I ever beheld, and she walked in, holding the police +officer by the hand as solemnly and as quietly if she were attending her +own obsequies. She was between four and five years old, and had on what +was evidently her mother's bonnet,—an enormous production, resembling a +sort of coal-scuttle, manufactured after the fashion of ten or fifteen +years ago. The child had, no doubt, caught up this wonderful head-gear +in the absence of her parent, and had gone forth in quest of adventure. +The officer reported that he had discovered her in the middle of the +street, moving ponderingly along, without any regard to the horses and +vehicles all about her. When asked where she lived, she mentioned a +street which only existed in her own imagination, and she knew only her +Christian name. When she was interrogated by the proper authorities, +without the slightest apparent discomposure she replied in a steady +voice, as she thought proper, to their questions. The magistrate +inadvertently repeated a question as to the number of her brothers and +sisters, and the child snapped out, "I told ye wunst; can't ye hear?" +When asked if she would like anything, she gayly answered, "Candy, cake +and <i>candy</i>." A messenger was sent out to procure these commodities, +which she instantly seized on their arrival and began to devour. She +showed no signs of fear, until one of the officers untied the huge +bonnet and took it off, when she tearfully insisted upon being put into +it again. I was greatly impressed by the ingenious efforts of the +excellent men in the room to learn from the child where she lived, and +who her parents were. Dickens sat looking at the little figure with +profound interest, and soon came forward and asked permission to speak +with the child. Of course his request was granted, and I don't know when +I have enjoyed a conversation more. She made some very smart answers, +which convulsed us all with laughter as we stood looking on; and the +creator of "little Nell" and "Paul Dombey" gave her up in despair. He +was so much interested in the little vagrant, that he sent a messenger +next morning to learn if the rightful owner of the bonnet had been +found. Report came back, on a duly printed form, setting forth that the +anxious father and mother had applied for the child at three o'clock in +the morning, and had borne her away in triumph to her home.</p> + +<p>It was a warm summer afternoon towards the close of the day, when +Dickens went with us to visit the London Post-Office. He said: "I know +nothing which could give a stranger a better idea of the size of London +than that great institution. The hurry and rush of letters! men up to +their chin in letters! nothing but letters everywhere! the air full of +letters!—suddenly the clock strikes; not a person is to be seen, <i>nor</i> +a letter: only one man with a lantern peering about and putting one +drop-letter into a box." For two hours we went from room to room, with +him as our guide, up stairs and down stairs, observing the myriad clerks +at their various avocations, with letters for the North Pole, for the +South Pole, for Egypt and Alaska, Darien and the next street.</p> + +<p>The "Blind Man," as he was called, appeared to afford Dickens as much +amusement as if he saw his work then for the first time; but this was +one of the qualities of his genius; there was inexhaustibility and +freshness in everything to which he turned his attention. The ingenuity +and loving care shown by the "Blind Man" in deciphering or guessing at +the apparently inexplicable addresses on letters and parcels excited his +admiration. "What a lesson to all of us," he could not help saying, "to +be careful in preparing our letters for the mail!" His own were always +directed with such exquisite care, however, that had he been brother to +the "Blind Man," and considered it his special work in life to teach +others how to save that officer trouble, he could hardly have done +better.</p> + +<p>Leaving the hurry and bustle of the Post-Office behind us, we strolled +out into the streets of London. It was past eight o'clock, but the +beauty of the soft June sunset was only then overspreading the misty +heavens. Every sound of traffic had died out of those turbulent +thoroughfares; now and then a belated figure would hurry past us and +disappear, or perhaps in turning the corner would linger to "take a good +look" at Charles Dickens. But even these stragglers soon dispersed, +leaving us alone in the light of day and the sweet living air to +heighten the sensation of a dream. We came through White Friars to the +Temple, and thence into the Temple Garden, where our very voices echoed. +Dickens pointed up to Talfourd's room, and recalled with tenderness the +merry hours they had passed together in the old place. Of course we +hunted out Goldsmith's abode, and Dr. Johnson's, saw the site of the +Earl of Essex's palace, and the steps by which he was wont to descend to +the river, now so far removed. But most interesting of all to us there +was "Pip's" room, to which Dickens led us, and the staircase where the +convict stumbled up in the dark, and the chimney nearest the river +where, although less exposed than in "Pip's" days, we could well +understand how "the wind shook the house that night like discharges of +cannon, or breakings of a sea." We looked in at the dark old staircase, +so dark on that night when "the lamps were blown out, and the lamps on +the bridges and the shore were shuddering," then went on to take a peep, +half shuddering ourselves, at the narrow street where "Pip" by and by +found a lodging for the convict. Nothing dark could long survive in our +minds on that June night, when the whole scene was so like the airy work +of imagination. Past the Temple, past the garden to the river, mistily +fair, with a few boats moving upon its surface, the convict's story was +forgotten, and we only knew this was Dickens's home, where he had lived +and written, lying in the calm light of its fairest mood.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Dickens had timed our visit to his country house in Kent, and arranged +that we should appear at Gad's Hill with the nightingales. Arriving at +the Higham station on a bright June day in 1869, we found his stout +little pony ready to take us up the hill; and before we had proceeded +far on the road, the master himself came out to welcome us on the way. +He looked brown and hearty, and told us he had passed a breezy morning +writing in the châlet. We had parted from him only a few days before in +London, but I thought the country air had already begun to exert its +strengthening influence,—a process he said which commonly set in the +moment he reached his garden gate.</p> + +<p>It was ten years since I had seen Gad's Hill Place, and I observed at +once what extensive improvements had been made during that period. +Dickens had increased his estate by adding quite a large tract of land +on the opposite side of the road, and a beautiful meadow at the back of +the house. He had connected the front lawn, by a passageway running +under the road, with beautifully wooded grounds, on which was erected +the Swiss châlet, a present from Fechter. The old house, too, had been +greatly improved, and there was an air of assured comfort and ease about +the charming establishment. No one could surpass Dickens as a host; and +as there were certain household rules (hours for meals, recreation, +etc.), he at once announced them, so that visitors never lost any time +"wondering" when this or that was to happen.</p> + +<p>Lunch over, we were taken round to see the dogs, and Dickens gave us a +rapid biographical account of each as we made acquaintance with the +whole colony. One old fellow, who had grown superannuated and nearly +blind, raised himself up and laid his great black head against Dickens's +breast as if he loved him. All were spoken to with pleasant words of +greeting, and the whole troop seemed wild with joy over the master's +visit. "Linda" put up her shaggy paw to be shaken at parting; and as we +left the dog-houses, our host told us some amusing anecdotes of his +favorite friends.</p> + +<p>Dickens's admiration of Hogarth was unbounded, and he had hung the +staircase leading up from the hall of his house with fine old +impressions of the great master's best works. Observing our immediate +interest in these pictures, he seemed greatly pleased, and proceeded at +once to point out in his graphic way what had struck his own fancy most +in Hogarth's genius. He had made a study of the painter's <i>thought</i> as +displayed in these works, and his talk about the artist was delightful. +He used to say he never came down the stairs without pausing with new +wonder over the fertility of the mind that had conceived and the hand +that had executed these powerful pictures of human life; and I cannot +forget with what fervid energy and feeling he repeated one day, as we +were standing together on the stairs in front of the Hogarth pictures, +Dr. Johnson's epitaph, on the painter:—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"The hand of him here torpid lies,<br /></span> +<span>That drew the essential form of grace;<br /></span> +<span>Here closed in death the attentive eyes<br /></span> +<span>That saw the manners in the face."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Every day we had out-of-door games, such as "Bowls," "Aunt Sally," and +the like, Dickens leading off with great spirit and fun. Billiards came +after dinner, and during the evening we had charades and dancing. There +was no end to the new divertisements our kind host was in the habit of +proposing, so that constant cheerfulness reigned at Gad's Hill. He went +into his work-room, as he called it, soon after breakfast, and wrote +till twelve o'clock; then he came out, ready for a long walk. The +country about Gad's Hill is admirably adapted for pedestrian exercise, +and we went forth every day, rain or shine, for a stretcher. Twelve, +fifteen, even twenty miles were not too much for Dickens, and many a +long tramp we have had over the hop-country together. Chatham, +Rochester, Cobham Park, Maidstone,—anywhere, out under the open sky and +into the free air! Then Dickens was at his best, and talked. Swinging +his blackthorn stick, his lithe figure sprang forward over the ground, +and it took a practised pair of legs to keep alongside of his voice. In +these expeditions I heard from his own lips delightful reminiscences of +his early days in the region we were then traversing, and charming +narratives of incidents connected with the writing of his books.</p> + +<p>Dickens's association with Gad's Hill, the city of Rochester, the road +to Canterbury, and the old cathedral town itself, dates back to his +earliest years. In "David Copperfield," the most autobiographic of all +his books, we find him, a little boy, (so small, that the landlady is +called to peer over the counter and catch a glimpse of the tiny lad who +possesses such "a spirit,") trudging over the old Kent Road to Dover. "I +see myself," he writes, "as evening closes in, coming over the bridge at +Rochester, footsore and tired, and eating bread that I had bought for +supper. One or two little houses, with the notice, 'Lodgings for +Travellers' hanging out, had tempted me; but I was afraid of spending +the few pence I had, and was even more afraid of the vicious looks of +the trampers I had met or overtaken. I sought no shelter, therefore, but +the sky; and toiling into Chatham,—which in that night's aspect is a +mere dream of chalk, and drawbridges, and mastless ships in a muddy +river, roofed like Noah's arks,—crept, at last, upon a sort of +grass-grown battery overhanging a lane, where a sentry was walking to +and fro. Here I lay down near a cannon; and, happy in the society of the +sentry's footsteps, though he knew no more of my being above him than +the boys at Salem House had known of my lying by the wall, slept soundly +until morning," Thus early he noticed "the trampers" which infest the +old Dover Road, and observed them in their numberless gypsy-like +variety; thus early he looked lovingly on Gad's Hill Place, and wished +it might be his own, if he ever grew up to be a man. His earliest +memories were filled with pictures of the endless hop-grounds and +orchards, and the little child "thought it all extremely beautiful!"</p> + +<p>Through the long years of his short life he was always consistent in his +love for Kent and the old surroundings. When the after days came and +while travelling abroad, how vividly the childish love returned! As he +passed rapidly over the road on his way to France he once wrote: "Midway +between Gravesend and Rochester the widening river was bearing the +ships, white-sailed or black-smoked, out to sea, when I noticed by the +wayside a very queer small boy.</p> + +<p>"'Halloa!' said I to the very queer small boy, 'where do you live?'</p> + +<p>"'At Chatham,' says he.</p> + +<p>"'What do you do there?' said I.</p> + +<p>"'I go to school,' says he.</p> + +<p>"I took him up in a moment, and we went on. Presently the very queer +small boy says, 'This is Gad's Hill we are coming to, where Falstaff +went out to rob those travellers, and ran away.'</p> + +<p>"'You know something about Falstaff, eh?' said I.</p> + +<p>"'All about him,' said the very queer small boy. 'I am old (I am nine) +and I read all sorts of books. But <i>do</i> let us stop at the top of the +hill, and look at the house there, if you please!'</p> + +<p>"'You admire that house,' said I.</p> + +<p>"'Bless you, sir,' said the very queer small boy, 'when I was not more +than half as old as nine, it used to be a treat for me to be brought to +look at it. And now I am nine, I come by myself to look at it. And ever +since I can recollect, my father, seeing me so fond of it, has often +said to me, "If you were to be very persevering and were to work hard, +you might some day come to live in it." Though that's impossible!' said +the very queer small boy, drawing a low breath, and now staring at the +house out of window with all his might. I was rather annoyed to be told +this by the very queer small boy; for that house happens to be <i>my</i> +house, and I have reason to believe that what he said was true."</p> + +<p>What stay-at-home is there who does not know the Bull Inn at Rochester, +from which Mr. Tupman and Mr. Jingle attended the ball, Mr. Jingle +wearing Mr. Winkle's coat? or who has not seen in fancy the +"gypsy-tramp," the "show-tramp," the "cheap jack," the "tramp-children," +and the "Irish hoppers" all passing over "the Kentish Road, bordered" in +their favorite resting-place "on either side by a wood, and having on +one hand, between the road-dust and the trees, a skirting patch of +grass? Wild-flowers grow in abundance on this spot, and it lies high and +airy, with the distant river stealing steadily away to the ocean, like a +man's life."</p> + +<p>Sitting in the beautiful châlet during his later years and watching +this same river stealing away like his own life, he never could find a +harsh word for the tramps, and many and many a one has gone over the +road rejoicing because of some kindness received from his hands. Every +precaution was taken to protect a house exposed as his was to these wild +rovers, several dogs being kept in the stable-yard, and the large outer +gates locked. But he seldom made an excursion in any direction without +finding some opportunity to benefit them. One of these many kindnesses +came to the public ear during the last summer of his life. He was +dressing in his own bedroom in the morning, when he saw two Savoyards +and two bears come up to the Falstaff Inn opposite. While he was +watching the odd company, two English bullies joined the little party +and insisted upon taking the muzzles off the bears in order to have a +dance with them. "At once," said Dickens, "I saw there would be trouble, +and I watched the scene with the greatest anxiety. In a moment I saw how +things were going, and without delay I found myself at the gate. I +called the gardener by the way, but he managed to hold himself at safe +distance behind the fence. I put the Savoyards instantly in a secure +position, asked the bullies what they were at, forced them to muzzle the +bears again, under threat of sending for the police, and ended the whole +affair in so short a time that I was not missed from the house. +Unfortunately, while I was covered with dust and blood, for the bears +had already attacked one of the men when I arrived, I heard a carriage +roll by. I thought nothing of it at the time, but the report in the +foreign journals which startled and shocked my friends so much came +probably from the occupants of that vehicle. Unhappily, in my desire to +save the men, I entirely forgot the dogs, and ordered the bears to be +carried into the stable-yard until the scuffle should be over, when a +tremendous tumult arose between the bears and the dogs. Fortunately we +were able to separate them without injury, and the whole was so soon +over that it was hard to make the family believe, when I came in to +breakfast, that anything of the kind had gone forward." It was the +newspaper report, causing anxiety to some absent friends, which led, on +inquiry, to this rehearsal of the incident.</p> + +<p>Who does not know Cobham Park? Has Dickens not invited us there in the +old days to meet Mr. Pickwick, who pronounced it +"delightful!—thoroughly delightful," while "the skin of his expressive +countenance was rapidly peeling off with exposure to the sun"? Has he +not invited the world to enjoy the loveliness of its solitudes with him, +and peopled its haunts for us again and again?</p> + +<p>Our first <i>real</i> visit to Cobham Park was on a summer morning when +Dickens walked out with us from his own gate, and, strolling quietly +along the road, turned at length into what seemed a rural wooded +pathway. At first we did not associate the spot in its spring freshness +with that morning after Christmas when he had supped with the "Seven +Poor Travellers," and lain awake all night with thinking of them; and +after parting in the morning with a kindly shake of the hand all round, +started to walk through Cobham woods on his way towards London. Then on +his lonely road, "the mists began to rise in the most beautiful manner +and the sun to shine; and as I went on," he writes, "through the bracing +air, seeing the hoar frost sparkle everywhere, I felt as if all nature +shared in the joy of the great Birthday. Going through the woods, the +softness of my tread upon the mossy ground and among the brown leaves +enhanced the Christmas sacredness by which I felt surrounded. As the +whitened stems environed me, I thought how the Founder of the time had +never raised his benignant hand, save to bless and heal, except in the +case of one unconscious tree."</p> + +<p>Now we found ourselves on the same ground, surrounded by the full beauty +of the summer-time. The hand of Art conspiring with Nature had planted +rhododendrons, as if in their native soil beneath the forest-trees. They +were in one universal flame of blossoms, as far as the eye could see. +Lord and Lady D——, the kindest and most hospitable of neighbors, were +absent; there was not a living figure beside ourselves to break the +solitude, and we wandered on and on with the wild birds for companions +as in our native wildernesses. By and by we came near Cobham Hall, with +its fine lawns and far-sweeping landscape, and workmen and gardeners and +a general air of summer luxury. But to-day we were to go past the hall +and lunch on a green slope under the trees, (was it <i>just</i> the spot +where Mr. Pickwick tried the cold punch and found it satisfactory? I +never liked to ask!) and after making the old woods ring with the +clatter and clink of our noontide meal, mingled with floods of laughter, +were to come to the village, and to the very inn from which the +disconsolate Mr. Tupman wrote to Mr. Pickwick, after his adventure with +Miss Wardle. There is the old sign, and here we are at the Leather +Bottle, Cobham, Kent. "There's no doubt whatever about that." Dickens's +modesty would not allow him to go in, so we made the most of an outside +study of the quaint old place as we strolled by; also of the cottages +whose inmates were evidently no strangers to our party, but were cared +for by them as English cottagers are so often looked after by the kindly +ladies in their neighborhood. And there was the old churchyard, "where +the dead had been quietly buried 'in the sure and certain hope' which +Christmas-time inspired." There too were the children, whom, seeing at +their play, he could not but be loving, remembering who had loved them! +One party of urchins swinging on a gate reminded us vividly of Collins, +the painter. Here was his composition to the life. Every lover of rural +scenery must recall the little fellow on the top of a five-barred gate +in the picture Collins painted, known widely by the fine engraving made +of it at the time. And there too were the blossoming gardens, which now +shone in their new garments of resurrection. The stillness of midsummer +noon crept over everything as we lingered in the sun and shadow of the +old village. Slowly circling the hall, we came upon an avenue of +lime-trees leading up to a stately doorway in the distance. The path was +overgrown, birds and squirrels were hopping unconcernedly over the +ground, and the gates and chains were rusty with disuse. "This avenue," +said Dickens, as we leaned upon the wall and looked into its cool +shadows, "is never crossed except to bear the dead body of the lord of +the hall to its last resting-place; a remnant of superstition, and one +which Lord and Lady D—— would be glad to do away with, but the +villagers would never hear of such a thing, and would consider it +certain death to any person who should go or come through this entrance. +It would be a highly unpopular movement for the present occupants to +attempt to uproot this absurd idea, and they have given up all thoughts +of it for the time."</p> + +<p>It was on a subsequent visit to Cobham village that we explored the +"College," an old foundation of the reign of Edward III. for the aged +poor of both sexes. Each occupant of the various small apartments was +sitting at his or her door, which opened on a grassy enclosure with +arches like an abandoned cloister of some old cathedral. Such a motley +society, brought together under such unnatural circumstances, would of +course interest Dickens. He seemed to take a profound pleasure in +wandering about the place, which was evidently filled with the +associations of former visits in his own mind. He was usually possessed +by a childlike eagerness to go to any spot which he had made up his mind +it was best to visit, and quick to come away, but he lingered long about +this leafy old haunt on that Sunday afternoon.</p> + +<p>Of Cobham Hall itself much might be written without conveying an +adequate idea of its peculiar interest to this generation. The terraces, +and lawns, and cedar-trees, and deer-park, the names of Edward III. and +Elizabeth, the famous old Cobhams and their long line of distinguished +descendants, their invaluable pictures and historic chapel, have all +been the common property of the past and of the present. But the air of +comfort and hospitality diffused about the place by the present owners +belongs exclusively to our time, and a little Swiss châlet removed from +Gad's Hill, standing not far from the great house, will always connect +the name of Charles Dickens with the place he loved so well. The châlet +has been transferred thither as a tribute from the Dickens family to the +kindness of their friends and former neighbors. We could not fail, +during our visit, to think of the connection his name would always have +with Cobham Hall, though he was then still by our side, and the little +châlet yet remained embowered in its own green trees overlooking the +sail-dotted Medway as it flowed towards the Thames.</p> + +<p>The old city of Rochester, to which we have already referred as being +particularly well known to all Mr. Pickwick's admirers, is within +walking distance from Gad's Hill Place, and was the object of daily +visits from its occupants. The ancient castle, one of the best ruins in +England, as Dickens loved to say, because less has been done to it, +rises with rugged walls precipitously from the river. It is wholly +unrestored; just enough care has been bestowed to prevent its utter +destruction, but otherwise it stands as it has stood and crumbled from +year to year. We climbed painfully up to the highest steep of its +loftiest tower, and looked down on the wonderful scene spread out in the +glory of a summer sunset. Below, a clear trickling stream flowed and +tinkled as it has done since the rope was first lowered in the year 800 +to bring the bucket up over the worn stones which still remain to attest +the fact. How happy Dickens was in the beauty of that scene! What +delight he took in rebuilding the old place, with every legend of which +he proved himself familiar, and repeopling it out of the storehouse of +his fancy. "Here was the kitchen, and there the dining-hall! How +frightfully dark they must have been in those days, with such small +slits for windows, and the fireplaces without chimneys! There were the +galleries; this is one of the four towers; the others, you will +understand, corresponded with this; and now, if you're not dizzy, we +will come out on the battlements for the view!" Up we went, of course, +following our cheery leader until we stood among the topmost +wall-flowers, which were waving yellow and sweet in the sunset air. East +and west, north and south, our eyes traversed the beautiful garden land +of Kent, the land beloved of poets through the centuries. Below lay the +city of Rochester on one hand, and in the heart of it an old inn where a +carrier was even then getting out, or putting in, horses and wagon for +the night. A procession, with banners and music, was moving slowly by +the tavern, and the quaint costumes in which the men were dressed +suggested days long past, when far other scenes were going forward in +this locality. It was almost like a pageant marching out of antiquity +for our delectation. Our master of ceremonies revelled that day in +repeopling the queer old streets down into which we were looking from +our charming elevation. His delightful fancy seemed especially alert on +that occasion, and we lived over again with him many a chapter in the +history of Rochester, full of interest to those of us who had come from +a land where all is new and comparatively barren of romance.</p> + +<p>Below, on the other side, was the river Medway, from whose depths the +castle once rose steeply. Now the <i>débris</i> and perhaps also a slight +swerving of the river from its old course have left a rough margin, over +which it would not be difficult to make an ascent. Rochester Bridge, +too, is here, and the "windy hills" in the distance; and again, on the +other hand, Chatham, and beyond, the Thames, with the sunset tingeing +the many-colored sails. We were not easily persuaded to descend from our +picturesque vantage-ground; but the master's hand led us gently on from +point to point, until we found ourselves, before we were aware, on the +grassy slope outside the castle wall. Besides, there was the cathedral +to be visited, and the tomb of Richard Watts, "with the effigy of worthy +Master Richard starting out of it like a ship's figurehead."</p> + +<p>After seeing the cathedral, we went along the silent High Street, past +queer Elizabethan houses with endless gables and fences and +lattice-windows, until we came to Watts's Charity, the house of +entertainment for six poor travellers. The establishment is so familiar +to all lovers of Dickens through his description of it in the article +entitled "Seven Poor Travellers" among his "Uncommercial" papers, that +little is left to be said on that subject; except perhaps that no +autobiographic sketch ever gave a more faithful picture, a closer +portrait, than is there conveyed.</p> + +<p>Dickens's fancy for Rochester, and his numberless associations with it, +have left traces of that city in almost everything he wrote. From the +time when Mr. Snodgrass first discovered the castle ruin from Rochester +Bridge, to the last chapter of Edwin Drood, we observe hints of the +city's quaintness or silence; the unending pavements, which go on and +on till the wisest head would be puzzled to know where Rochester ends +and where Chatham begins, the disposition of Father Time to have his own +unimpeded way therein, and of the gray cathedral towers which loom up in +the background of many a sketch and tale. Rochester, too, is on the way +to Canterbury, Dickens's best loved cathedral, the home of Agnes +Wickfield, the sunny spot in the life and memory of David Copperfield. +David was particularly small, as we are told, when he first saw +Canterbury, but he was already familiar with Roderick Random, Peregrine +Pickle, Humphrey Clinker, Tom Jones, The Vicar of Wakefield, Don +Quixote, Gil Blas, and Robinson Crusoe, who came out, as he says, a +glorious host, to keep him company. Naturally, the calm old place, the +green nooks, the beauty of the cathedral, possessed a better chance with +him than with many others, and surely no one could have loved them more. +In the later years of his life the crowning-point of the summer holidays +was "a pilgrimage to Canterbury."</p> + +<p>The sun shone merrily through the day when he chose to carry us thither. +Early in the morning the whole house was astir; large hampers were +packed, ladies and gentlemen were clad in gay midsummer attire, and, +soon after breakfast, huge carriages with four horses, and postilions +with red coats and top-boots, after the fashion of the olden time, were +drawn up before the door. Presently we were moving lightly over the +road, the hop-vines dancing on the poles on either side, the orchards +looking invitingly cool, the oast-houses fanning with their wide arms, +the river glowing from time to time through the landscape. We made such +a clatter passing through Rochester, that all the main street turned out +to see the carriages, and, being obliged to stop the horses a moment, a +shopkeeper, desirous of discovering Dickens among the party, hit upon +the wrong man, and confused an humble individual among the company by +calling a crowd, pointing him out as Dickens, and making him the mark of +eager eyes. This incident seemed very odd to us in a place he knew so +well. On we clattered, leaving the echoing street behind us, on and on +for many a mile, until noon, when, finding a green wood and clear stream +by the roadside, we encamped under the shadow of the trees in a retired +spot for lunch. Again we went on, through quaint towns and lonely roads, +until we came to Canterbury, in the yellow afternoon. The bells for +service were ringing as we drove under the stone archway into the +soundless streets. The whole town seemed to be enjoying a simultaneous +nap, from which it was aroused by our horses' hoofs. Out the people ran, +at this signal, into the highway, and we were glad to descend at some +distance from the centre of the city, thus leaving the excitement behind +us. We had been exposed to the hot rays of the sun all day, and the +change into the shadow of the cathedral was refreshing. Service was +going forward as we entered; we sat down, therefore, and joined our +voices with those of the choristers. Dickens, with tireless observation, +noted how sleepy and inane were the faces of many of the singers, to +whom this beautiful service was but a sickening monotony of repetition. +The words, too, were gabbled over in a manner anything but impressive. +He was such a downright enemy to form, as substituted for religion, that +any dash of untruth or unreality was abhorrent to him. When the last +sounds died away in the cathedral we came out again into the cloisters, +and sauntered about until the shadows fell over the beautiful enclosure. +We were hospitably entreated, and listened to many an historical tale of +tomb and stone and grassy nook; but under all we were listening to the +heart of our companion, who had so often wandered thither in his +solitude, and was now rereading the stories these urns had prepared for +him.</p> + +<p>During one of his winter visits, he says (in "Copperfield"):—</p> + +<p>"Coming into Canterbury, I loitered through the old streets with a sober +pleasure that calmed my spirits and eased my heart. There were the old +signs, the old names over the shops, the old people serving in them. It +appeared so long since I had been a school-boy there, that I wondered +the place was so little changed, until I reflected how little I was +changed myself. Strange to say, that quiet influence which was +inseparable in my mind from Agnes seemed to pervade even the city where +she dwelt. The venerable cathedral towers, and the old jackdaws and +rooks, whose airy voices made them more retired than perfect silence +would have done; the battered gateways, once stuck full with statues, +long thrown down and crumbled away, like the reverential pilgrims who +had gazed upon them; the still nooks, where the ivied growth of +centuries crept over gabled ends and ruined walls; the ancient houses; +the pastoral landscape of field, orchard, and garden;—everywhere, in +everything, I felt the same serene air, the same calm, thoughtful, +softening spirit."</p> + +<p>Walking away and leaving Canterbury behind us forever, we came again +into the voiceless streets, past a "very old house bulging out over the +road, ... quite spotless in its cleanliness, the old-fashioned brass +knocker on the low, arched door ornamented with carved garlands of fruit +and flowers, twinkling like a star," the very house, perhaps, "with +angles and corners and carvings and mouldings," where David Copperfield +was sent to school. We were turned off with a laughing reply, when we +ventured to accuse this particular house of being <i>the one</i>, and were +told there were several that "would do"; which was quite true, for +nothing could be more quaint, more satisfactory to all, from the lovers +of Chaucer to the lovers of Dickens, than this same city of Canterbury. +The sun had set as we rattled noisily out of the ancient place that +afternoon, and along the high road, which was quite novel in its evening +aspect. There was no lingering now; on and on we went, the postilions +flying up and down on the backs of their huge horses, their red coats +glancing in the occasional gleams of wayside lamps, fire-flies making +the orchards shine, the sunset lighting up vast clouds that lay across +the western sky, and the whole scene filled with evening stillness. When +we stopped to change horses, the quiet was almost oppressive. Soon after +nine we espied the welcome lantern of Gad's Hill Place and the open +gates. And so ended Dickens's last pilgrimage to Canterbury.</p> + +<p>There was another interesting spot near Gad's Hill which was one of +Dickens's haunts, and this was the "Druid-stone," as it is called, at +Maidstone. This is within walking distance of his house, along the +breezy hillside road, which we remember blossomy and wavy in the summer +season, with open spaces in the hedges where one may look over wide +hilly slopes, and at times come upon strange cuts down into the chalk +which pervades this district. We turned into a lane from the dusty road, +and, following our leader over a barred gate, came into wide grassy +fields full of summer's bloom and glory. A short walk farther brought us +to the Druid-stone, which Dickens thought to be, from the fitness of its +position, simply a vantage-ground chosen by priests,—whether Druid or +Christian of course it would be impossible to say,—from which to +address a multitude. The rock served as a kind of background and +sounding-board, while the beautiful sloping of the sward upward from the +speaker made it an excellent position for out-of-door discourses. On +this day it was only a blooming solitude, the birds had done all the +talking, until we arrived. It was a fine afternoon haunt, and one +worthy of a visit, apart from the associations which make the place +dear.</p> + +<p>One of the weirdest neighborhoods to Gad's Hill, and one of those most +closely associated with Dickens, is the village of Cooling. A cloudy day +proved well enough for Cooling; indeed, was undoubtedly chosen by the +adroit master of hospitalities as being a fitting sky to show the dark +landscape of "Great Expectations." The pony-carriage went thither to +accompany the walking party and carry the baskets; the whole way, as we +remember, leading on among narrow lanes, where heavy carriages were +seldom seen. We are told in the novel, "On every rail and gate, wet lay +clammy, and the marsh mist was so thick that the wooden finger on the +post directing people to our village—a direction which they never +accepted, for they never came there—was invisible to me until I was +close under it." The lanes certainly wore that aspect of never being +accepted as a way of travel; but this was a delightful recommendation to +our walk, for summer kept her own way there, and grass and wild-flowers +were abundant. It was already noon, and low clouds and mists were lying +about the earth and sky as we approached a forlorn little village on the +edge of the wide marshes described in the opening of the novel. This was +Cooling, and passing by the few cottages, the decayed rectory, and +straggling buildings, we came at length to the churchyard. It took but a +short time to make us feel at home there, with the marshes on one hand, +the low wall over which Pip saw the convict climb before he dared to run +away; "the five little stone lozenges, each about a foot and a half +long, ... sacred to the memory of five little brothers, ...to which I +had been indebted for a belief that they all had been born on their +backs, with their hands in their trousers pockets, and had never taken +them out in this state of existence";—all these points, combined with +the general dreariness of the landscape, the far-stretching marshes, and +the distant sea-line, soon revealed to us that this was Pip's country, +and we might momently expect to see the convict's head, or to hear the +clank of his chain, over that low wall.</p> + +<p>We were in the churchyard now, having left the pony within eye-shot, and +taken the baskets along with us, and were standing on one of those very +lozenges, somewhat grass-grown by this time, and deciphering the +inscriptions. On tiptoe we could get a wide view of the marsh, with, the +wind sweeping in a lonely limitless way through the tall grasses. +Presently hearing Dickens's cheery call, we turned to see what he was +doing. He had chosen a good flat gravestone in one corner (the corner +farthest from the marsh and Pip's little brothers and the expected +convict), had spread a wide napkin thereupon after the fashion of a +domestic dinner-table, and was rapidly transferring the contents of the +hampers to that point. The horrible whimsicality of trying to eat and +make merry under these deplorable circumstances, the tragic-comic +character of the scene, appeared to take him by surprise. He at once +threw himself into it (as he says in "Copperfield" he was wont to do +with anything to which he had laid his hand) with fantastic eagerness. +Having spread the table after the most approved style, he suddenly +disappeared behind the wall for a moment, transformed himself by the aid +of a towel and napkin into a first-class head-waiter, reappeared, laid a +row of plates along the top of the wall, as at a bar-room or +eating-house, again retreated to the other side with some provisions, +and, making the gentlemen of the party stand up to the wall, went +through the whole play with most entire gravity. When we had wound up +with a good laugh, and were again seated together on the grass around +the table, we espied two wretched figures, not the convicts this time, +although we might have easily persuaded ourselves so, but only tramps +gazing at us over the wall from the marsh side as they approached, and +finally sitting down, just outside the churchyard gate. They looked +wretchedly hungry and miserable, and Dickens said at once, starting up, +"Come, let us offer them a glass of wine and something good for lunch." +He was about to carry them himself, when what he considered a happy +thought seemed to strike him. "<i>You</i> shall carry it to them," he cried, +turning to one of the ladies; "it will be less like a charity and more +like a kindness if one of you should speak to the poor souls!" This was +so much in character for him, who stopped always to choose the most +delicate way of doing a kind deed, that the memory of this little +incident remains, while much, alas! of his wit and wisdom have vanished +beyond the power of reproducing. We feasted on the satisfaction the +tramps took in their lunch, long after our own was concluded; and, +seeing them well off on their road again, took up our own way to Gad's +Hill Place. How comfortable it looked on our return; how beautifully the +afternoon gleams of sunshine shone upon the holly-trees by the porch; +how we turned away from the door and went into the playground, where we +bowled on the green turf, until the tall maid in her spotless cap was +seen bringing the five-o'clock tea thitherward; how the dews and the +setting sun warned us at last we must prepare for dinner; and how +Dickens played longer and harder than any one of the company, scorning +the idea of going in to tea at that hour, and beating his ball instead, +quite the youngest of the company up to the last moment!—all this +returns with vivid distinctness as I write these inadequate words.</p> + +<p>Many days and weeks passed over after those June days were ended before +we were to see Dickens again. Our meeting then was at the station in +London, on our way to Gad's Hill once more. He was always early at a +railway station, he said, if only to save himself the unnecessary and +wasteful excitement hurry commonly produces; and so he came to meet us +with a cheery manner, as if care were shut up in some desk or closet he +had left behind, and he were ready to make the day a gay one, whatever +the sun might say to it. A small roll of manuscript in his hand led him +soon to confess that a new story was already begun; but this +communication was made in the utmost confidence, as if to account for +any otherwise unexplainable absences, physically or mentally, from our +society, which might occur. But there were no gaps during that autumn +afternoon of return to Gad's Hill. He told us how summer had brought him +no vacation this year, and only two days of recreation. One of those, he +said, was spent with his family at "Rosherville Gardens," "the place," +as a huge advertisement informed us, "to spend a happy day." His +curiosity with regard to all entertainments for the people, he said to +us, carried him thither, and he seemed to have been amused and rewarded +by his visit. The previous Sunday had found him in London; he was +anxious to reach Gad's Hill before the afternoon, but in order to +accomplish this he must walk nine miles to a way station, which he did. +Coming to the little village, he inquired where the station was, and, +being shown in the wrong direction, walked calmly down a narrow road +which did not lead there at all. "On I went," he said, "in the perfect +sunshine, over yellow leaves, without even a wandering breeze to break +the silence, when suddenly I came upon three or four antique wooden +houses standing under trees on the borders of a lovely stream, and, a +little farther, upon an ancient doorway to a grand hall, perhaps the +home of some bishop of the olden time. The road came to an end there, +and I was obliged to retrace my steps; but anything more entirely +peaceful and beautiful in its aspect on that autumnal day than this +retreat, forgotten by the world, I almost never saw." He was eager, too, +to describe for our entertainment one of the yearly cricket-matches +among the villagers at Gad's Hill which had just come off. Some of the +toasts at the supper afterward were as old as the time of Queen Anne. +For instance,—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"More pigs,<br /></span> +<span>Fewer parsons";<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>delivered with all seriousness; a later one was, "May the walls of old +England never be covered with French polish!"</p> + +<p>Once more we recall a morning at Gad's Hill, a soft white haze over +everything, and the yellow sun burning through. The birds were singing, +and beauty and calm pervaded the whole scene. We strayed through Cobham +Park and saw the lovely vistas through the autumnal haze; once more we +reclined in the cool châlet in the afternoon, and watched the vessels +going and coming upon the ever-moving river. Suddenly all has vanished; +and now, neither spring nor autumn, nor flowers nor birds, nor dawn nor +sunset, nor the ever-moving river, can be the same to any of us again. +We have all drifted down upon the river of Time, and one has already +sailed out into the illimitable ocean.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>On a pleasant Sunday morning in October, 1869, as I sat looking out on +the beautiful landscape from my chamber window at Gad's Hill, a servant +tapped at my door and gave me a summons from Dickens, written in his +drollest manner on a sheet of paper, bidding me descend into his study +on business of great importance. That day I heard from the author's lips +the first chapters of "Edwin Drood" the concluding lines of which +initial pages were then scarcely dry from the pen. The story is +unfinished, and he who read that autumn morning with such vigor of voice +and dramatic power is in his grave. This private reading took place in +the little room where the great novelist for many years had been +accustomed to write, and in the house where on a pleasant evening in the +following June he died. The spot is one of the loveliest in Kent, and +must always be remembered as the last residence of Charles Dickens. He +used to declare his firm belief that Shakespeare was specially fond of +Kent, and that the poet chose Gad's Hill and Rochester for the scenery +of his plays from intimate personal knowledge of their localities. He +said he had no manner of doubt but that one of Shakespeare's haunts was +the old inn at Rochester, and that this conviction came forcibly upon +him one night as he was walking that way, and discovered Charles's Wain +over the chimney just as Shakespeare has described it, in words put into +the mouth of the carrier in King Henry IV. There is no prettier place +than Gad's Hill in all England for the earliest and latest flowers, and +Dickens chose it, when he had arrived at the fulness of his fame and +prosperity, as the home in which he most wished to spend the remainder +of his days. When a boy, he would often pass the house with his father +and frequently said to him, "If ever I have a dwelling of my own, Gad's +Hill Place is the house I mean to buy." In that beautiful retreat he had +for many years been accustomed to welcome his friends, and find +relaxation from the crowded life of London. On the lawn playing at +bowls, in the Swiss summer-house charmingly shaded by green leaves, he +always seemed the best part of summer, beautiful as the season is in the +delightful region where he lived.</p> + +<p>There he could be most thoroughly enjoyed, for he never seemed so +cheerfully at home anywhere else. At his own table, surrounded by his +family, and a few guests, old acquaintances from town,—among them +sometimes Forster, Carlyle, Reade, Collins, Layard, Maclise, Stone, +Macready, Talfourd,—he was always the choicest and liveliest companion. +He was not what is called in society a professed talker, but he was +something far better and rarer.</p> + +<p>In his own inimitable manner he would frequently relate to me, if +prompted, stories of his youthful days, when he was toiling on the +London Morning Chronicle, passing sleepless hours as a reporter on the +road in a post-chaise, driving day and night from point to point to take +down the speeches of Shiel or O'Connell. He liked to describe the +post-boys, who were accustomed to hurry him over the road that he might +reach London in advance of his rival reporters, while, by the aid of a +lantern, he was writing out for the press, as he flew over the ground, +the words he had taken down in short-hand. Those were his days of severe +training, when in rain and sleet and cold he dashed along, scarcely able +to keep the blinding mud out of his tired eyes; and he imputed much of +his ability for steady hard work to his practice as a reporter, kept at +his grinding business, and determined if possible to earn seven guineas +a week. A large sheet was started at this period of his life, in which +all the important speeches of Parliament were to be reported <i>verbatim</i> +for future reference. Dickens was engaged on this gigantic journal. Mr. +Stanley (afterwards Lord Derby) had spoken at great length on the +condition of Ireland. It was a long and eloquent speech, occupying many +hours in the delivery. Eight reporters were sent in to do the work. Each +one was required to report three quarters of an hour, then to retire, +write out his portion, and to be succeeded by the next. Young Dickens +was detailed to lead off with the first part. It also fell to his lot, +when the time came round, to report the closing portions of the speech. +On Saturday the whole was given to the press, and Dickens ran down to +the country for a Sunday's rest. Sunday morning had scarcely dawned, +when his father, who was a man of immense energy, made his appearance in +his son's sleeping-room. Mr. Stanley was so dissatisfied with what he +found in print, except the beginning and ending of his speech (just what +Dickens had reported) that he sent immediately to the office and +obtained the sheets of those parts of the report. He there found the +name of the reporter, which, according to custom, was written on the +margin. Then he requested that the young man bearing the name of Dickens +should be immediately sent for. Dickens's father, all aglow with the +prospect of probable promotion in the office, went immediately to his +son's stopping-place in the country and brought him back to London. In +telling the story, Dickens said: "I remember perfectly to this day the +aspect of the room I was shown into, and the two persons in it, Mr. +Stanley and his father. Both gentlemen were extremely courteous to me, +but I noted their evident surprise at the appearance of so young a man. +While we spoke together, I had taken a seat extended to me in the middle +of the room. Mr. Stanley told me he wished to go over the whole speech +and have it written out by me, and if I were ready he would begin now. +Where would I like to sit? I told him I was very well where I was, and +we could begin immediately. He tried to induce me to sit at a desk, but +at that time in the House of Commons there was nothing but one's knees +to write upon, and I had formed the habit of doing my work in that way. +Without further pause he began and went rapidly on, hour after hour, to +the end, often becoming very much excited and frequently bringing down +his hand with great violence upon the desk near which he stood."</p> + +<p>I have before me, as I write, an unpublished autograph letter of young +Dickens, which he sent off to his employer in November, 1835, while he +was on a reporting expedition for the Morning Chronicle. At that early +stage of his career he seems to have had that unfailing accuracy of +statement so marked in after years when he became famous. The letter was +given to me several years ago by one of Dickens's brother reporters. +Thus it runs:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>George And Pelican, Newbury, Sunday Morning. + +<p> Dear Fraser: In conjunction with The Herald we have arranged for a + Horse Express from Marlborough to London on Tuesday night, to go the + whole distance at the rate of thirteen miles an hour, for six + guineas: half has been paid, but, to insure despatch, the remainder + is withheld until the boy arrives at the office, when he will + produce a paper with a copy of the agreement on one side, and an + order for three guineas (signed by myself) on the other. Will you + take care that it is duly honored? A Boy from The Herald will be in + waiting at our office for their copy; and Lyons begs me to remind + you most strongly that it is an indispensable part of our agreement + <i>that he should not be detained one instant</i>.</p> + +<p> We go to Bristol to-day, and if we are equally fortunate in laying + the chaise-horses, I hope the packet will reach town by seven. As + all the papers have arranged to leave Bristol the moment Russell is + down, we have determined on adopting the same plan,—one of us will + go to Marlborough in the chaise with one Herald man, and the other + remain at Bristol with the second Herald man to conclude the account + for the next day. The Times has ordered a chaise and four the whole + distance, so there is every probability of our beating them hollow. + From all we hear, we think the Herald, relying on the packet + reaching town early, intends publishing the report in their first + Edition. This is however, of course, mere speculation on our parts, + as we have no direct means of ascertaining their intention.</p> + +<p> I think I have now given you all needful information. I have only in + conclusion to impress upon you the necessity of having all the + compositors ready, at a very early hour, for if Russell be down by + half past eight, we hope to have his speech in town at six.</p> + +<p> Believe me (for self and Beard) very truly yours,</p> + +<p> Charles Dickens.</p> + +<p> Nov., 1835.</p> + +<p> Thomas Fraser, Esq., Morning Chronicle Office.</p></div> + +<p>No writer ever lived whose method was more exact, whose industry was +more constant, and whose punctuality was more marked, than those of +Charles Dickens. He never shirked labor, mental or bodily. He rarely +declined, if the object were a good one, taking the chair at a public +meeting, or accepting a charitable trust. Many widows and orphans of +deceased literary men have for years been benefited by his wise +trusteeship or counsel, and he spent a great portion of his time +personally looking after the property of the poor whose interests were +under his control. He was, as has been intimated, one of the most +industrious of men, and marvellous stories are told (not by himself) of +what he has accomplished in a given time in literary and social matters. +His studies were all from nature and life, and his habits of observation +were untiring. If he contemplated writing "Hard Times," he arranged with +the master of Astley's circus to spend many hours behind the scenes with +the riders and among the horses; and if the composition of the "Tale of +Two Cities" were occupying his thoughts, he could banish himself to +France for two years to prepare for that great work. Hogarth pencilled +on his thumb-nail a striking face in a crowd that he wished to preserve; +Dickens with his transcendent memory chronicled in his mind whatever of +interest met his eye or reached his ear, any time or anywhere. Speaking +of memory one day, he said the memory of children was prodigious; it was +a mistake to fancy children ever forgot anything. When he was +delineating the character of Mrs. Pipchin, he had in his mind an old +lodging-house keeper in an English watering-place where he was living +with his father and mother when he was but two years old. After the book +was written he sent it to his sister, who wrote back at once: "Good +heavens! what does this mean? you have painted our lodging-house keeper, +and you were but two years old at that time!" Characters and incidents +crowded the chambers of his brain, all ready for use when occasion +required. No subject of human interest was ever indifferent to him, and +never a day went by that did not afford him some suggestion to be +utilized in the future.</p> + +<p>His favorite mode of exercise was walking; and when in America, scarcely +a day passed, no matter what the weather, that he did not accomplish his +eight or ten miles. It was on these expeditions that he liked to recount +to the companion of his rambles stories and incidents of his early life; +and when he was in the mood, his fun and humor knew no bounds. He would +then frequently discuss the numerous characters in his delightful books, +and would act out, on the road, dramatic situations, where Nickleby or +Copperfield or Swiveller would play distinguished parts. I remember he +said, on one of these occasions, that during the composition of his +first stories he could never entirely dismiss the characters about whom +he happened to be writing; that while the "Old Curiosity Shop" was in +process of composition Little Nell followed him about everywhere; that +while he was writing "Oliver Twist" Fagin the Jew would never let him +rest, even in his most retired moments; that at midnight and in the +morning, on the sea and on the land, Tiny Tim and Little Bob Cratchit +were ever tugging at his coat-sleeve, as if impatient for him to get +back to his desk and continue the story of their lives. But he said +after he had published several books, and saw what serious demands his +characters were accustomed to make for the constant attention of his +already overtasked brain, he resolved that the phantom individuals +should no longer intrude on his hours of recreation and rest, but that +when he closed the door of his study he would shut them all in, and only +meet them again when he came back to resume his task. That force of will +with which he was so pre-eminently endowed enabled him to ignore these +manifold existences till he chose to renew their acquaintance. He said, +also, that when the children of his brain had once been launched, free +and clear of him, into the world, they would sometimes turn up in the +most unexpected manner to look their father in the face.</p> + +<p>Sometimes he would pull my arm while we were walking together and +whisper, "Let us avoid Mr. Pumblechook, who is crossing the street to +meet us"; or, "Mr. Micawber is coming; let us turn down this alley to +get out of his way." He always seemed to enjoy the fun of his comic +people, and had unceasing mirth over Mr. Pickwick's misadventures. In +answer one day to a question, prompted by psychological curiosity, if he +ever dreamed of any of his characters, his reply was, "Never; and I am +convinced that no writer (judging from my own experience, which cannot +be altogether singular, but must be a type of the experience of others) +has ever dreamed of the creatures of his own imagination. It would," he +went on to say, "be like a man's dreaming of meeting himself, which is +clearly an impossibility. Things exterior to one's self must always be +the basis of dreams." The growing up of characters in his mind never +lost for him a sense of the marvellous. "What an unfathomable mystery +there is in it all!" he said one day. Taking up a wineglass, he +continued: "Suppose I choose to call this a <i>character</i>, fancy it a man, +endue it with certain qualities; and soon the fine filmy webs of +thought, almost impalpable, coming from every direction, we know not +whence, spin and weave about it, until it assumes form and beauty, and +becomes instinct with life."</p> + +<p>In society Dickens rarely referred to the traits and characteristics of +people he had known; but during a long walk in the country he delighted +to recall and describe the peculiarities, eccentric and otherwise, of +dead and gone as well as living friends. Then Sydney Smith and Jeffrey +and Christopher North and Talfourd and Hood and Rogers seemed to live +over again in his vivid reproductions, made so impressive by his +marvellous memory and imagination. As he walked rapidly along the road, +he appeared to enjoy the keen zest of his companion in the numerous +impersonations with which he was indulging him.</p> + +<p>He always had much to say of animals as well as of men, and there were +certain dogs and horses he had met and known intimately which it was +specially interesting to him to remember and picture. There was a +particular dog in Washington which he was never tired of delineating. +The first night Dickens read in the Capital this dog attracted his +attention. "He came into the hall by himself," said he, "got a good +place before the reading began, and paid strict attention throughout. He +came the second night, and was ignominiously shown out by one of the +check-takers. On the third night he appeared again with another dog, +which he had evidently promised to pass in free; but you see," continued +Dickens, "upon the imposition being unmasked, the other dog apologized +by a howl and withdrew. His intentions, no doubt, were of the best, but +he afterwards rose to explain outside, with such inconvenient eloquence +to the reader and his audience, that they were obliged to put him down +stairs."</p> + +<p>He was such a firm believer in the mental faculties of animals, that it +would have gone hard with a companion with whom he was talking, if a +doubt were thrown, however inadvertently, on the mental intelligence of +any four-footed friend that chanced to be at the time the subject of +conversation. All animals which he took under his especial patronage +seemed to have a marked affection for him. Quite a colony of dogs has +always been a feature at Gad's Hill.</p> + +<p>In many walks and talks with Dickens, his conversation, now, alas! so +imperfectly recalled, frequently ran on the habits of birds, the raven, +of course, interesting him particularly. He always liked to have a raven +hopping about his grounds, and whoever has read the new Preface to +"Barnaby Rudge" must remember several of his old friends in that line. +He had quite a fund of canary-bird anecdotes, and the pert ways of birds +that picked up worms for a living afforded him infinite amusement. He +would give a capital imitation of the way a robin-redbreast cocks his +head on one side preliminary to a dash forward in the direction of a +wriggling victim. There is a small grave at Gad's Hill to which Dickens +would occasionally take a friend, and it was quite a privilege to stand +with him beside the burial-place of little Dick, the family's favorite +canary.</p> + +<p>What a treat it was to go with him to the London Zoölogical Gardens, a +place he greatly delighted in at all times! He knew the zoölogical +address of every animal, bird, and fish of any distinction; and he +could, without the slightest hesitation, on entering the grounds, +proceed straightway to the celebrities of claw or foot or fin. The +delight he took in the hippopotamus family was most exhilarating. He +entered familiarly into conversation with the huge, unwieldy creatures, +and they seemed to understand him. Indeed, he spoke to all the +unphilological inhabitants with a directness and tact which went home to +them at once. He chaffed with the monkeys, coaxed the tigers, and +bamboozled the snakes, with a dexterity unapproachable. All the keepers +knew him, he was such a loyal visitor, and I noticed they came up to him +in a friendly way, with the feeling that they had a sympathetic listener +always in Charles Dickens.</p> + +<p>There were certain books of which Dickens liked to talk during his walks +Among his especial favorites were the writings of Cobbett, DeQuincey, +the Lectures on Moral Philosophy by Sydney Smith, and Carlyle's French +Revolution. Of this latter Dickens said it was the book of all others +which he read perpetually and of which he never tired,—the book which +always appeared more imaginative in proportion to the fresh imagination +he brought to it, a book for inexhaustibleness to be placed before every +other book. When writing the "Tale of Two Cities," he asked Carlyle if +he might see one of the works to which he referred in his history; +whereupon Carlyle packed up and sent down to Gad's Hill <i>all</i> his +reference volumes, and Dickens read them faithfully. But the more he +read the more he was astonished to find how the facts had passed through +the alembic of Carlyle's brain and had come out and fitted themselves, +each as a part of one great whole, making a compact result, +indestructible and unrivalled; and he always found himself turning away +from the books of reference, and re-reading with increased wonder this +marvellous new growth. There were certain books particularly hateful to +him, and of which he never spoke except in terms of most ludicrous +raillery. Mr. Barlow, in "Sandford and Merton," he said was the favorite +enemy of his boyhood and his first experience of a bore. He had an +almost supernatural hatred for Barlow, "because he was so very +<i>instructive</i>, and always hinting doubts with regard to the veracity of +'Sindbad the Sailor,' and had no belief whatever in 'The Wonderful Lamp' +or 'The Enchanted Horse.'" Dickens rattling his mental cane over the +head of Mr. Barlow was as much better than any play as can be well +imagined. He gloried in many of Hood's poems, especially in that biting +Ode to Rae Wilson, and he would gesticulate with a fine fervor the +lines,</p> + +<div class='poem'> + <div class='stanza'> + <span>"...the hypocrites who ope Heaven's door<br /></span> + <span class='i2'>Obsequious to the sinful man of riches,—<br /></span> + <span>But put the wicked, naked, bare-legged poor<br /></span> + <span class='i2'>In parish <i>stocks</i> instead of <i>breeches</i>."<br /></span> + </div> +</div> + +<p>One of his favorite books was Pepys's Diary, the curious discovery of +the key to which, and the odd characteristics of its writer, were a +never-failing source of interest and amusement to him. The vision of +Pepys hanging round the door of the theatre, hoping for an invitation to +go in, not being able to keep away in spite of a promise he had made to +himself that he would spend no more money foolishly, delighted him. +Speaking one day of Gray, the author of the Elegy, he said: "No poet +ever came walking down to posterity with so <i>small</i> a book under his +arm." He preferred Smollett to Fielding, putting "Peregrine Pickle" +above "Tom Jones." Of the best novels by his contemporaries he always +spoke with warm commendation, and "Griffith Gaunt" he thought a +production of very high merit. He was "hospitable to the thought" of all +writers who were really in earnest, but at the first exhibition of +floundering or inexactness he became an unbeliever. People with +dislocated understandings he had no tolerance for.</p> +<p>He was passionately fond of the theatre, loved the lights and music and +flowers, and the happy faces of the audience; he was accustomed to say +that his love of the theatre never failed, and, no matter how dull the +play, he was always careful while he sat in the box to make no sound +which could hurt the feelings of the actors, or show any lack of +attention. His genuine enthusiasm for Mr. Fechter's acting was most +interesting. He loved to describe seeing him first, quite by accident, +in Paris, having strolled into a little theatre there one night. "He was +making love to a woman," Dickens said, "and he so elevated her as well +as himself by the sentiment in which he enveloped her, that they trod in +a purer ether, and in another sphere, quite lifted out of the present. +'By heavens!' I said to myself, 'a man who can do this can do +anything.' I never saw two people more purely and instantly elevated by +the power of love. The manner, also," he continued, "in which he presses +the hem of the dress of Lucy in the Bride of Lammermoor is something +wonderful. The man has genius in him which is unmistakable." +</p> +<p> +Life behind the scenes was always a fascinating study to Dickens. "One +of the oddest sights a green-room can present," he said one day, "is +when they are collecting children for a pantomime. For this purpose the +prompter calls together all the women in the ballet, and begins giving +out their names in order, while they press about him eager for the +chance of increasing their poor pay by the extra pittance their children +will receive. 'Mrs. Johnson, how many?' 'Two, sir.' 'What ages?' 'Seven +and ten.' 'Mrs. B., how many?' and so on, until the required number is +made up. The people who go upon the stage, however poor their pay or +hard their lot, love it too well ever to adopt another vocation of their +free-will. A mother will frequently be in the wardrobe, children in the +pantomime, elder sisters in the ballet, etc." +</p> +<hr> +<p> +Dickens's habits as a speaker differed from those of most orators. He +gave no thought to the composition of the speech he was to make till the +day before he was to deliver it. No matter whether the effort was to be +a long or a short one, he never wrote down a word of what he was going +to say; but when the proper time arrived for him to consider his +subject, he took a walk into the country and the thing was done. When he +returned he was all ready for his task. +</p> +<p> +He liked to talk about the audiences that came to hear him read, and he +gave the palm to his Parisian one, saying it was the quickest to catch +his meaning. Although he said there were many always present in his room +in Paris who did not fully understand English, yet the French eye is so +quick to detect expression that it never failed instantly to understand +what he meant by a look or an act. "Thus, for instance," he said, "when +I was impersonating Steerforth in 'David Copperfield,' and gave that +peculiar grip of the hand to Emily's lover, the French audience burst +into cheers and rounds of applause." He said with reference to the +preparation of his readings, that it was three months' hard labor to get +up one of his own stories for public recitation, and he thought he had +greatly improved his presentation of the "Christmas Carol" while in this +country. He considered the storm scene in "David Copperfield" one of the +most effective of his readings. The character of Jack Hopkins in "Bob +Sawyer's Party" he took great delight in representing, and as Jack was a +prime favorite of mine, he brought him forward whenever the occasion +prompted. He always spoke of Hopkins as my particular friend, and he was +constantly quoting him, taking on the peculiar voice and turn of the +head which he gave Jack in the public reading. +It gave him a natural pleasure when he heard quotations from his own +books introduced without effort into conversation. He did not always +remember, when his own words were quoted, that he was himself the author +of them, and appeared astounded at the memory of others in this regard. +He said Mr. Secretary Stanton had a most extraordinary knowledge of his +books and a power of taking the text up at any point, which he supposed +to belong to only one person, and that person not himself. +</p><p> + +It was said of Garrick that he was the <i>cheerfullest</i> man of his age. +This can be as truly said of Charles Dickens. In his presence there was +perpetual sunshine, and gloom was banished as having no sort of +relationship with him. No man suffered more keenly or sympathized more +fully than he did with want and misery; but his motto was, "Don't stand +and cry; press forward and help remove the difficulty." The speed with +which he was accustomed to make the deed follow his yet speedier +sympathy was seen pleasantly on the day of his visit to the School-ship +in Boston Harbor. He said, previously to going on board that ship, +nothing would tempt him to make a speech, for he should always be +obliged to do it on similar occasions, if he broke through his rule so +early in his reading tour. But Judge Russell had no sooner finished his +simple talk, to which the boys listened, as they always do, with eager +faces, than Dickens rose as if he could not help it, and with a few +words so magnetized them that they wore their hearts in their eyes as if +they meant to keep the words forever. An enthusiastic critic once said +of John Ruskin, "that he could discover the Apocalypse in a daisy." As +noble a discovery may be claimed for Dickens. He found all the fair +humanities blooming in the lowliest hovel. He never <i>put on</i> the good +Samaritan: that character was native to him. Once while in this country, +on a bitter, freezing afternoon,--night coming down in a drifting +snow-storm,--he was returning with me from a long walk in the country. +The wind and baffling sleet were so furious that the street in which we +happened to be fighting our way was quite deserted; it was almost +impossible to see across it, the air was so thick with the tempest; all +conversation between us had ceased, for it was only possible to breast +the storm by devoting our whole energies to keeping on our feet; we +seemed to be walking in a different atmosphere from any we had ever +before encountered. All at once I missed Dickens from my side. What had +become of him? Had he gone down in the drift, utterly exhausted, and was +the snow burying him out of sight? Very soon the sound of his cheery +voice was heard on the other side of the way. With great difficulty, +over the piled-up snow, I struggled across the street, and there found +him lifting up, almost by main force, a blind old man who had got +bewildered by the storm, and had fallen down unnoticed, quite unable to +proceed. Dickens, a long distance away from him, with that tender, +sensitive, and penetrating vision, ever on the alert for suffering in +any form, had rushed at once to the rescue, comprehending at a glance +the situation of the sightless man. To help him to his feet and aid him +homeward in the most natural and simple way afforded Dickens such a +pleasure as only the benevolent by intuition can understand. +</p><p> +Throughout his life Dickens was continually receiving tributes from +those he had benefited, either by his books or by his friendship. There +is an odd and very pretty story (vouched for here as true) connected +with the influence he so widely exerted. In the winter of 1869, soon +after he came up to London to reside for a few months, he received a +letter from a man telling him that he had begun life in the most humble +way possible, and that he considered he owed his subsequent great +success and such education as he had given himself entirely to the +encouragement and cheering influence he had derived from Dickens's +books, of which he had been a constant reader from his childhood. He had +been made a partner in his master's business, and when the head of the +house died, the other day, it was found he had left the whole of his +large property to this man. As soon as he came into possession of this +fortune, his mind turned to Dickens, whom he looked upon as his +benefactor and teacher, and his first desire was to tender him some +testimonial of gratitude and veneration. He then begged Dickens to +accept a large sum of money. Dickens declined to receive the money, but +his unknown friend sent him instead two silver table ornaments of great +intrinsic value bearing this inscription: "To Charles Dickens, from one +who has been cheered and stimulated by his writings, and held the author +amongst his first Remembrances when he became prosperous." One of these +silver ornaments was supported by three figures, representing three +seasons. In the original design there were, of course, four, but the +donor was so averse to associating the idea of Winter in any sense with +Dickens that he caused the workman to alter the design and leave only +the <i>cheerful</i> seasons. No event in the great author's career was ever +more gratifying and pleasant to him. +</p><p> + +His friendly notes were exquisitely turned, and are among his most +charming compositions. They abound in felicities only like himself. In +1860 he wrote to me while I was sojourning in Italy: "I should like to +have a walk through Rome with you this bright morning (for it really +<i>is</i> bright in London), and convey you over some favorite ground of +mine. I used to go up the street of Tombs, past the tomb of Cecilia +Metella, away out upon the wild campagna, and by the old Appian Road +(easily tracked out among the ruins and primroses), to Albano. There, at +a very dirty inn, I used to have a very dirty lunch, generally with the +family's dirty linen lying in a corner, and inveigle some very dirty +Vetturino in sheep-skin to take me back to Rome." +</p><p> + +In a little note in answer to one I had written consulting him about the +purchase of some old furniture in London he wrote: "There is a chair +(without a bottom) at a shop near the office, which I think would suit +you. It cannot stand of itself, but will almost seat somebody, if you +put it in a corner, and prop one leg up with two wedges and cut another +leg off, The proprietor asks £20, but says he admires literature and +would take £18. He is of republican principles and I think would take +£17 19<i>s</i>. 6<i>d</i>. from a cousin; shall I secure this prize? It is very +ugly and wormy, and it is related, but without proof, that on one +occasion Washington declined to sit down in it." +</p><p> +Here are the last two missives I ever received from his dear, kind +hand:— +<div class='blkquot'> +<p> + 5 Hyde Park Place, London, W., Friday, January 14, 1870. +<p> + My Dear Fields: We live here (opposite the Marble Arch) in a + charming house until the 1st of June, and then return to Gad's. The + Conservatory is completed, and is a brilliant success;--but an + expensive one! +<p> + I read this afternoon at three,--a beastly proceeding which I + particularly hate,--and again this day week at three. These morning + readings particularly disturb me at my book-work; nevertheless I + hope, please God, to lose no way on their account. An evening + reading once a week is nothing. By the by, I recommenced last + Tuesday evening with the greatest brilliancy. +<p> + I should be quite ashamed of not having written to you and my dear + Mrs. Fields before now, if I didn't know that you will both + understand how occupied I am, and how naturally, when I put my + papers away for the day, I get up and fly. I have a large room here, + with three fine windows, overlooking the Park,--unsurpassable for + airiness and cheerfulness. +<p> + You saw the announcement of the death of poor dear Harness. The + circumstances are curious. He wrote to his old friend the Dean of + Battle saying he would come to visit him on that day (the day of his + death). The Dean wrote back: "Come next day, instead, as we are + obliged to go out to dinner, and you will be alone." Harness told + his sister a little impatiently that he <i>must</i> go on the first-named + day,--that he had made up his mind to go, and MUST. He had been + getting himself ready for dinner, and came to a part of the + staircase whence two doors opened,--one, upon another level passage; + one, upon a flight of stone steps. He opened the wrong door, fell + down the steps, injured himself very severely, and died in a few + hours. +<p> + + You will know--<i>I</i> don't--what Fechter's success is in America at + the time of this present writing. In his farewell performances at + the Princess's he acted very finely. I thought the three first acts + of his Hamlet very much better than I had ever thought them + before,--and I always thought very highly of them. We gave him a + foaming stirrup cup at Gad's Hill. Forster (who has been ill with + his bronchitis again) thinks No. 2 of the new book (Edwin Drood) a + clincher,--I mean that word (as his own expression) for <i>Clincher</i>. + There is a curious interest steadily working up to No. 5, which + requires a great deal of art and self-denial. I think also, apart + from character and picturesqueness, that the young people are placed + in a very novel situation. So I hope--at Nos. 5 and 6 the story will + turn upon an interest suspended until the end. +<p> + I can't believe it, and don't, and won't, but they say Harry's + twenty-first birthday is next Sunday. I have entered him at the + Temple just now; and if he don't get a fellowship at Trinity Hall + when his time comes, I shall be disappointed, if in the present + disappointed state of existence. +<p> + I hope you may have met with the little touch of Radicalism I gave + them at Birmingham in the words of Buckle? With pride I observe that + it makes the regular political traders, of all sorts, perfectly mad. + Sich was my intentions, as a grateful acknowledgment of having been + misrepresented. +<p> + I think Mrs. ----'s prose very admirable, but I don't believe it! + No, I do <i>not</i>. My conviction is that those Islanders get + frightfully bored by the Islands, and wish they had never set eyes + upon them! +<p> + Charley Collins has done a charming cover for the monthly part of + the new book. At the very earnest representations of Millais (and + after having seen a great number of his drawings) I am going to + engage with a new man; retaining, of course, C.C.'s cover aforesaid. + K---- has made some more capital portraits, and is always improving. +<p> + My dear Mrs. Fields, if "He" (made proud by chairs and bloated by + pictures) does not give you my dear love, let us conspire against + him when you find him out, and exclude him from all future + confidences. Until then +<p> + Ever affectionately yours and his, +<p> + C.D. +</div> +<div class='blkquot'> +<p> + 5 Hyde Park Place, London, W., Monday, April 18, 1870. +<p> + My dear Fields: I have been hard at work all day until post time, + and have only leisure to acknowledge the receipt, the day before + yesterday, of your note containing such good news of Fechter; and to + assure you of my undiminished regard and affection. +<p> + We have been doing wonders with No. 1 of Edwin Drood. <i>It has very, + very far outstripped every one of its predecessors.</i> +<p> + Ever your affectionate friend, +<p> + Charles Dickens +</div> +<p> +Bright colors were a constant delight to him; and the gay hues of +flowers were those most welcome to his eye. When the rhododendrons were +in bloom in Cobham Park, the seat of his friend and neighbor, Lord +Darnley, he always counted on taking his guests there to enjoy the +magnificent show. He delighted to turn out for the delectation of his +Transatlantic cousins a couple of postilions in the old red jackets of +the old red royal Dover road, making the ride as much as possible like a +holiday drive in England fifty years ago. +<p> + +When in the mood for humorous characterization, Dickens's hilarity was +most amazing. To hear him tell a ghost story with a very florid +imitation of a very pallid ghost, or hear him sing an old-time stage +song, such as he used to enjoy in his youth at a cheap London theatre, +to see him imitate a lion in a menagerie-cage, or the clown in a +pantomime when he flops and folds himself up like a jack-knife, or to +join with him in some mirthful game of his own composing, was to become +acquainted with one of the most delightful and original companions in +the world. +<p> + +On one occasion, during a walk with me, he chose to run into the wildest +of vagaries about <i>conversation</i>. The ludicrous vein he indulged in +during that two hours' stretch can never be forgotten. Among other +things, he said he had often thought how restricted one's conversation +must become when one was visiting a man who was to be hanged in half an +hour. He went on in a most surprising manner to imagine all sorts of +difficulties in the way of becoming interesting to the poor fellow. +"Suppose," said he, "it should be a rainy morning while you are making +the call, you could not possibly indulge in the remark, 'We shall have +fine weather to-morrow, sir,' for what would that be to him? For my +part, I think," said he, "I should confine my observations to the days +of Julius Caesar or King Alfred." +<p> + +At another time when speaking of what was constantly said about him in +certain newspapers, he observed: "I notice that about once in every +seven years I become the victim of a paragraph disease. It breaks out in +England, travels to India by the overland route, gets to America per +Cunard line, strikes the base of the Rocky Mountains, and, rebounding +back to Europe, mostly perishes on the steppes of Russia from inanition +and extreme cold." When he felt he was not under observation, and that +tomfoolery would not be frowned upon or gazed at with astonishment, he +gave himself up without reserve to healthy amusement and strengthening +mirth. It was his mission to make people happy. Words of good cheer were +native to his lips, and he was always doing what he could to lighten the +lot of all who came into his beautiful presence. His talk was simple, +natural, and direct, never dropping into circumlocution nor elocution. +Now that he is gone, whoever has known him intimately for any +considerable period of time will linger over his tender regard for, and +his engaging manner with, children; his cheery "Good Day" to poor people +he happened to be passing in the road; his trustful and earnest "Please +God," when he was promising himself any special pleasure, like rejoining +an old friend or returning again to scenes he loved. At such times his +voice had an irresistible pathos in it, and his smile diffused a +sensation like music. When he came into the presence of squalid or +degraded persons, such as one sometimes encounters in almshouses or +prisons, he had such soothing words to scatter here and there, that +those who had been "most hurt by the archers" listened gladly, and loved +him without knowing who it was that found it in his heart to speak so +kindly to them. +<p> +Oftentimes during long walks in the streets and by-ways of London, or +through the pleasant Kentish lanes, or among the localities he has +rendered forever famous in his books, I have recalled the sweet words +in which Shakespeare has embalmed one of the characters in Love's +Labor's Lost:-- +<div class='poem'> +<div class='stanza'> +<span>"A merrier man,<br /></span> +<span> Within the limit of becoming mirth,<br /></span> +<span> I never spent an hour's talk withal:<br /></span> +<span> His eye begets occasion for his wit;<br /></span> +<span> For every object that the one doth catch<br /></span> +<span> The other turns to a mirth-moving jest,<br /></span> +<span> Which his fair tongue, conceit's expositor,<br /></span> +<span> Delivers in such apt and gracious words<br /></span> +<span> That aged ears play truant at his tales,<br /></span> +<span> And younger hearings are quite ravished;<br /></span> +<span> So sweet and voluble is his discourse."<br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Twenty years ago Daniel Webster said that Dickens had already done more +to ameliorate the condition of the English poor than all the statesmen +Great Britain had sent into Parliament. During the unceasing demands +upon his time and thought, he found opportunities of visiting personally +those haunts of suffering in London which needed the keen eye and +sympathetic heart to bring them before the public for relief. Whoever +has accompanied him, as I have, on his midnight walks into the cheap +lodging-houses provided for London's lowest poor, cannot have failed to +learn lessons never to be forgotten. Newgate and Smithfield were lifted +out of their abominations by his eloquent pen, and many a hospital is +to-day all the better charity for having been visited and watched by +Charles Dickens. To use his own words, through his whole life he did +what he could "to lighten the lot of those rejected ones whom the world +has too long forgotten and too often misused."</p> + +<p>These inadequate, and, of necessity, hastily written, records must stand +for what they are worth as personal recollections of the great author +who has made so many millions happy by his inestimable genius and +sympathy. His life will no doubt be written out in full by some +competent hand in England; but however numerous the volumes of his +biography, the half can hardly be told of the good deeds he has +accomplished for his fellow-men.</p> + +<p>And who could ever tell, if those volumes were written, of the subtle +qualities of insight and sympathy which rendered him capable of +friendship above most men,—which enabled him to reinstate its ideal, +and made his presence a perpetual joy, and separation from him an +ineffaceable sorrow?</p> + + + +<hr class=full> +<a name='V_WORDSWORTH'></a> +<h2>WORDSWORTH.</h2> + +<p><i>"His mind is, as it were, coeval with the primary forms of things; his +imagination holds immediately from nature, and 'owes no allegiance' but +'to the elements.' ....He sees all things in himself."</i>—Hazlitt.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h2>V. WORDSWORTH.</h2> + +<p>That portrait looking down so calmly from the wall is an original +picture of the poet Wordsworth, drawn in crayon a few years before he +died. He went up to London on purpose to sit for it, at the request of +Moxon, his publisher, and his friends in England always considered it a +perfect likeness of the poet. After the head was engraved, the artist's +family disposed of the drawing, and through the watchful kindness of my +dear old friend, Mary Russell Mitford, the portrait came across the +Atlantic to this house. Miss Mitford said America ought to have on view +such a perfect representation of the great poet, and she used all her +successful influence in my behalf. So there the picture hangs for +anybody's inspection at any hour of the day.</p> + +<p>I once made a pilgrimage to the small market-town of Hawkshead, in the +valley of Esthwaite, where Wordsworth went to school in his ninth year. +The thoughtful boy was lodged in the house of Dame Anne Tyson in 1788; +and I had the good fortune to meet a lady in the village street who +conducted me at once to the room which the lad occupied while he was a +scholar under the Rev. William Taylor, whom he loved and venerated so +much. I went into the chamber which he afterwards described in The +Prelude, where he</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"Had lain awake on summer nights to watch<br /></span> +<span>The moon in splendor couched among the leaves<br /></span> +<span>Of a tall ash, that near our cottage stood";<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and I visited many of the beautiful spots which tradition points out as +the favorite haunts of his childhood.</p> + +<p>It was true Lake-country weather when I knocked at Wordsworth's cottage +door, three years before he died, and found myself shaking hands with +the poet at the threshold. His daughter Dora had been dead only a few +months, and the sorrow that had so recently fallen upon the house was +still dominant there. I thought there was something prophet-like in the +tones of his voice, as well as in his whole appearance, and there was a +noble tranquillity about him that almost awed one, at first, into +silence. As the day was cold and wet, he proposed we should sit down +together in the only room in the house where there was a fire, and he +led the way to what seemed a common sitting or dining room. It was a +plain apartment, the rafters visible, and no attempt at decoration +noticeable. Mrs. Wordsworth sat knitting at the fireside, and she rose +with a sweet expression of courtesy and welcome as we entered the +apartment. As I had just left Paris, which was in a state of commotion, +Wordsworth was eager in his inquiries about the state of things on the +other side of the Channel. As our talk ran in the direction of French +revolutions, he soon became eloquent and vehement, as one can easily +imagine, on such a theme. There was a deep and solemn meaning in all he +had to say about France, which I recall now with added interest. The +subject deeply moved him, of course, and he sat looking into the fire, +discoursing in a low monotone, sometimes quite forgetful that he was not +alone and soliloquizing. I noticed that Mrs. Wordsworth listened as if +she were hearing him speak for the first time in her life, and the work +on which she was engaged lay idle in her lap, while she watched intently +every movement of her husband's face. I also was absorbed in the man and +in his speech. I thought of the long years he had lived in communion +with nature in that lonely but lovely region. The story of his life was +familiar to me, and I sat as if under the influence of a spell. Soon he +turned and plied me with questions about the prominent men in Paris whom +I had recently seen and heard in the Chamber of Deputies. "How did +Guizot bear himself? What part was De Tocqueville taking in the fray? +Had I noticed George Lafayette especially?" America did not seem to +concern him much, and I waited for him to introduce the subject, if he +chose to do so. He seemed pleased that a youth from a far-away country +should find his way to Rydal cottage to worship at the shrine of an old +poet.</p> + +<p>By and by we fell into talk about those who had been his friends and +neighbors among the hills in former years. "And so," he said, "you read +Charles Lamb in America?" "Yes," I replied, "and <i>love</i> him too." "Do +you hear that, Mary?" he eagerly inquired, turning round to Mrs. +Wordsworth. "Yes, William, and no wonder, for he was one to be loved +everywhere," she quickly answered. Then we spoke of Hazlitt, whom he +ranked very high as a prose-writer; and when I quoted a fine passage +from Hazlitt's essay on Jeremy Taylor, he seemed pleased at my +remembrance of it.</p> + +<p>He asked about Inman, the American artist, who had painted his portrait, +having been sent on a special mission to Rydal by Professor Henry Reed +of Philadelphia, to procure the likeness. The painter's daughter, who +accompanied her father, made a marked impression on Wordsworth, and both +he and his wife joined in the question, "Are all the girls in America as +pretty as she?" I thought it an honor Mary Inman might well be proud of +to be so complimented by the old bard. In speaking of Henry Reed, his +manner was affectionate and tender.</p> + +<p>Now and then I stole a glance at the gentle lady, the poet's wife, as +she sat knitting silently by the fireside. This, then, was the Mary whom +in 1802 he had brought home to be his loving companion through so many +years. I could not help remembering too, as we all sat there together, +that when children they had "practised reading and spelling under the +same old dame at Penrith," and that they had always been lovers. There +sat the woman, now gray-haired and bent, to whom the poet had addressed +those undying poems, "She was a phantom of delight," "Let other bards of +angels sing," "Yes, thou art fair," and "O, dearer far than life and +light are dear." I recalled, too, the "Lines written after Thirty-six +Years of Wedded Life," commemorating her whose</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"Morn into noon did pass, noon into eve,<br /></span> +<span>And the old day was welcome as the young,<br /></span> +<span>As welcome, and as beautiful,—in sooth<br /></span> +<span>More beautiful, as being a thing more holy."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>When she raised her eyes to his, which I noticed she did frequently, +they seemed overflowing with tenderness.</p> + +<p>When I rose to go, for I felt that I must not intrude longer on one for +whom I had such reverence, Wordsworth said, "I must show you my library, +and some tributes that have been sent to me from the friends of my +verse." His son John now came in, and we all proceeded to a large room +in front of the house, containing his books. Seeing that I had an +interest in such things, he seemed to take a real pleasure in showing me +the presentation copies of works by distinguished authors. We read +together, from many a well-worn old volume, notes in the handwriting of +Coleridge and Charles Lamb. I thought he did not praise easily those +whose names are indissolubly connected with his own in the history of +literature. It was languid praise, at least, and I observed he hesitated +for mild terms which he could apply to names almost as great as his own. +I believe a duplicate of the portrait which Inman had painted for Reed +hung in the room; at any rate a picture of himself was there, and he +seemed to regard it with veneration as we stood before it. As we moved +about the apartment, Mrs. Wordsworth quietly followed us, and listened +as eagerly as I did to everything her husband had to say. Her spare +little figure flitted about noiselessly, pausing as we paused, and +always walking slowly behind us as we went from object to object in the +room. John Wordsworth, too, seemed deeply interested to watch and listen +to his father. "And now," said Wordsworth, "I must show you one of my +latest presents." Leading us up to a corner of the room, we all stood +before a beautiful statuette which a young sculptor had just sent to +him, illustrating a passage in "The Excursion." Turning to me, +Wordsworth asked, "Do you know the meaning of this figure?" I saw at a +glance that it was</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract<br /></span> +<span>Of inland ground, applying to his ear<br /></span> +<span>The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and I quoted the lines. My recollection of the words pleased the old +man; and as we stood there in front of the figure he began to recite the +whole passage from "The Excursion," and it sounded very grand from the +poet's own lips. He repeated some fifty lines, and I could not help +thinking afterwards, when I came to hear Tennyson read his own poetry, +that the younger Laureate had caught something of the strange, +mysterious tone of the elder bard. It was a sort of chant, deep and +earnest, which conveyed the impression that the reciter had the highest +opinion of the poetry.</p> + +<p>Although it was raining still, Wordsworth proposed to show me Lady +Fleming's grounds, and some other spots of interest near his cottage. +Our walk was a wet one; but as he did not seem incommoded by it, I was +only too glad to hold the umbrella over his venerable head. As we went +on, he added now and then a sonnet to the scenery, telling me precisely +the circumstances under which it had been composed. It is many years +since my memorable walk with the author of "The Excursion," but I can +call up his figure and the very tones of his voice so vividly that I +enjoy my interview over again any time I choose. He was then nearly +eighty, but he seemed hale and quite as able to walk up and down the +hills as ever. He always led back the conversation that day to his own +writings, and it seemed the most natural thing in the world for him to +do so. All his most celebrated poems seemed to live in his memory, and +it was easy to start him off by quoting the first line of any of his +pieces. Speaking of the vastness of London, he quoted the whole of his +sonnet describing the great city, as seen in the morning from +Westminster Bridge. When I parted with him at the foot of Rydal Hill, he +gave me messages to Rogers and other friends of his whom I was to see in +London. As we were shaking hands I said, "How glad your many readers in +America would be to see you on our side of the water!" "Ah," he replied, +"I shall never see your country,—that is impossible now; but" (laying +his hand on his son's shoulder) "John shall go, please God, some day." I +watched the aged man as he went slowly up the hill, and saw him +disappear through the little gate that led to his cottage door. The ode +on "Intimations of Immortality" kept sounding in my brain as I came down +the road, long after he had left me.</p> + +<p>Since I sat, a little child, in "a woman's school," Wordsworth's poems +had been familiar to me. Here is my first school-book, with a name +written on the cover by dear old "Marm Sloper," setting forth that the +owner thereof is "aged 5." As I went musing along in Westmoreland that +rainy morning, so many years ago, little figures seemed to accompany +me, and childish voices filled the air as I trudged through the wet +grass. My small ghostly companions seemed to carry in their little hands +quaint-looking dog's-eared books, some of them covered with cloth of +various colors. None of these phantom children looked to be over six +years old, and all were bareheaded, and some of the girls wore +old-fashioned pinafores. They were the schoolmates of my childhood, and +many of them must have come out of their graves to run by my side that +morning in Rydal. I had not thought of them for years. Little Emily +R—— read from her book with a chirping lisp:—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"O, what's the matter? what's the matter?<br /></span> +<span>What is't that ails young Harry Gill?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Mary B—— began:—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"Oft I had heard of Lucy Grey";<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Nancy C—— piped up:—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"'How many are you, then,' said I,<br /></span> +<span>'If there are two in heaven?'<br /></span> +<span>The little maiden did reply,<br /></span> +<span>'O Master! we are seven.'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Among the group I seemed to recognize poor pale little Charley F——, +who they told me years ago was laid in St. John's Churchyard after they +took him out of the pond, near the mill-stream, that terrible Saturday +afternoon. He too read from his well-worn, green-baize-covered book,—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"The dew was falling fast, the stars began to blink."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Other white-headed little urchins trotted along <i>very near</i> me all the +way, and kept saying over and over their "spirit ditties of no tone" +till I reached the village inn, and sat down as if in a dream of +long-past years.</p> + +<p>Two years ago I stood by Wordsworth's grave in the churchyard at +Grasmere, and my companion wove a chaplet of flowers and placed it on +the headstone. Afterwards we went into the old church and sat down in +the poet's pew. "They are all dead and gone now," sighed the gray-headed +sexton; "but I can remember when the seats used to be filled by the +family from Rydal Mount. Now they are all outside there in yon grass."</p> + + + +<hr class=full> +<a name='VI_MISS_MITFORD'></a> +<h2>MISS MITFORD.</h2> + +<div class='poem'> + <div class='stanza'> + <span><i>"I care not, Fortune, what you me deny:</i><br /></span> + <span><i>You cannot rob me of free Nature's grace;</i><br /></span> + <span><i>You cannot shut the windows of the sky,</i><br /></span> + <span><i>Through which Aurora shows her brightening face;</i><br /></span> + <span><i>You cannot bar my constant feet to trace</i><br /></span> + <span><i>The woods and lawns, by living streams at eve:</i><br /></span> + <span><i>Let health my nerves and finer fibres brace,</i><br /></span> + <span><i>And I their toys to the great children leave:</i><br /></span> + <span><i>Of fancy, reason, virtue, naught can me bereave."</i><br /></span> + </div> + <div class='stanza'> + <span class='i4'>THOMSON.<br /></span> + </div> +</div> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h2>VI. MISS MITFORD.</h2> + +<p>That portrait hanging near Wordsworth's is next to seeing Mary Russell +Mitford herself as I first saw her, twenty-three years ago, in her +geranium-planted cottage at Three-Mile Cross. She sat to John Lucas for +the picture in her serene old age, and the likeness is faultless. She +had proposed to herself to leave the portrait, as it was her own +property, to me in her will; but as I happened to be in England during +the latter part of her life, she altered her determination, and gave it +to me from her own hands.</p> + +<p>Sydney Smith said of a certain quarrelsome person, that his very face +was a breach of the peace. The face of that portrait opposite to us is a +very different one from Sydney's fighter. Everything that belongs to the +beauty of old age one will find recorded in that charming countenance. +Serene cheerfulness most abounds, and that is a quality as rare as it is +commendable. It will be observed that the dress of Miss Mitford in the +picture before us is quaint and somewhat antiquated even for the time +when it was painted, but a pleasant face is never out of fashion.</p> + +<p>An observer of how old age is neglected in America said to me the other +day, "It seems an impertinence to be alive after sixty on this side of +the globe"; and I have often thought how much we lose by not cultivating +fine old-fashioned ladies and gentlemen. Our aged relatives and friends +seem to be tucked away, nowadays, into neglected corners, as though it +were the correct thing to give them a long preparation for still +narrower quarters. For my own part, comely and debonair old age is most +attractive; and when I see the "thick silver-white hair lying on a +serious and weather-worn face, like moonlight on a stout old tower," I +have a strong tendency to lift my hat, whether I know the person or not.</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace<br /></span> +<span>As I have seen in an autumnal face."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It was a fortunate hour for me when kind-hearted John Kenyon said, as I +was leaving his hospitable door in London one summer midnight in 1847, +"You must know my friend, Miss Mitford. She lives directly on the line +of your route to Oxford, and you must call with my card and make her +acquaintance." I had lately been talking with Wordsworth and Christopher +North and old Samuel Rogers, but my hunger at that time to stand face to +face with the distinguished persons in English literature was not +satisfied. So it was during my first "tourification" in England that I +came to know Miss Mitford. The day selected for my call at her cottage +door happened to be a perfect one on which to begin an acquaintance with +the lady of "Our Village." She was then living at Three-Mile Cross, +having removed there from Bertram House in 1820. The cottage where I +found her was situated on the high road between Basingstoke and Reading; +and the village street on which she was then living contained the +public-house and several small shops near by. There was also close at +hand the village pond full of ducks and geese, and I noticed several +young rogues on their way to school were occupied in worrying their +feathered friends. The windows of the cottage were filled with flowers, +and cowslips and violets were plentifully scattered about the little +garden. Miss Mitford liked to have one dog, at least, at her heels, and +this day her pet seemed to be constantly under foot. I remember the room +into which I was shown was sanded, and a quaint old clock behind the +door was marking off the hour in small but very loud pieces. The +cheerful old lady called to me from the head of the stairs to come up +into her sitting-room. I sat down by the open window to converse with +her, and it was pleasant to see how the village children, as they went +by, stopped to bow and curtsey. One curly-headed urchin made bold to +take off his well-worn cap, and wait to be recognized as "little +Johnny". "No great scholar," said the kind-hearted old lady to me, "but +a sad rogue among our flock of geese. Only yesterday the young marauder +was detected by my maid with a plump gosling stuffed half-way into his +pocket!" While she was thus discoursing of Johnny's peccadilloes, the +little fellow looked up with a knowing expression, and very soon caught +in his cap a gingerbread dog, which the old lady threw to him from the +window. "I wish he loved his book as well as he relishes sweetcake," +sighed she, as the boy kicked up his heels and disappeared down the +lane.</p> + +<p>Her conversation that afternoon, full of anecdote, ran on in a perpetual +flow of good-humor, and I was shocked, on looking at my watch, to find I +had stayed so long, and had barely time to reach the railway-station in +season to arrive at Oxford that night. We parted with the mutual +determination and understanding to keep our friendship warm by +correspondence, and I promised never to come to England again without +finding my way to Three-Mile Cross.</p> + +<p>During the conversation that day, Miss Mitford had many inquiries to +make concerning her American friends, Miss Catherine Sedgwick, Daniel +Webster, and Dr. Chancing. Her voice had a peculiar ringing sweetness in +it, rippling out sometimes like a beautiful chime of silver bells; and +when she told a comic story, hitting off some one of her acquaintances, +she joined in with the laugh at the end with great heartiness and +<i>naïveté</i>. When listening to anything that interested her, she had a way +of coming into the narrative with "Dear me, dear me, dear me," three +times repeated, which it was very pleasant to hear.</p> + +<p>From that summer day our friendship continued, and during other visits +to England I saw her frequently, driving about the country with her in +her pony-chaise, and spending many happy hours in the new cottage which +she afterwards occupied at Swallowfield. Her health had broken down +years before, from too constant attendance on her invalid parents, and +she was never certain of a well day. When her father died, in 1842, +shamefully in debt (for he had squandered two fortunes not exactly his +own, and was always one of the most improvident of men, belonging to +that class of impecunious individuals who seem to have been born +insolvent), she said, "Everybody shall be paid, if I sell the gown off +my back or pledge my little pension." And putting her shoulder to the +domestic wheel, she never nagged for an instant, or gave way to +despondency.</p> + +<p>She was always cheerful, and her talk is delightful to remember. From +girlhood she had known and had been intimate with most of the prominent +writers of her time, and her observations and reminiscences were so +shrewd and pertinent that I have scarcely known her equal.</p> + +<p>Carlyle tells us "nothing so lifts a man from all his mean +imprisonments, were it but for moments, as true admiration"; and Miss +Mitford admired to such an extent that she must have been lifted in this +way nearly all her lifetime. Indeed she erred, if she erred at all, on +this side, and overpraised and over-admired everything and everybody +whom she regarded. When she spoke of Beranger or Dumas or Hazlitt or +Holmes, she exhausted every term of worship and panegyric. Louis +Napoleon was one of her most potent crazes, and I fully believe, if she +had been alive during the days of his downfall, she would have died of +grief. When she talked of Munden and Bannister and Fawcett and Emery, +those delightful old actors for whom she had had such an exquisite +relish, she said they had made comedy to her a living art full of +laughter and tears. How often have I heard her describe John Kemble, +Mrs. Siddons, Miss O'Neil, and Edmund Kean, as they were wont to +electrify the town in her girlhood! With what gusto she reproduced +Elliston, who was one of her prime favorites, and tried to make me, +through her representation of him, feel what a spirit there was in the +man. Although she had been prostrated by the hard work and increasing +anxieties of forty years of authorship, when I saw her she was as fresh +and independent as a skylark. She was a good hater as well as a good +praiser, and she left nothing worth saving in an obnoxious reputation.</p> + +<p>I well remember, one autumn evening, when half a dozen friends were +sitting in her library after dinner, talking with her of Tom Taylor's +Life of Haydon, then lately published, how graphically she described to +us the eccentric painter, whose genius she was among the foremost to +recognize. The flavor of her discourse I cannot reproduce; but I was too +much interested in what she was saying to forget the main incidents she +drew for our edification, during those pleasant hours now far away in +the past.</p> + +<p>"I am a terrible forgetter of dates," she used to say, when any one +asked her of the <i>time when</i>; but for the <i>manner how</i> she was never at +a loss. "Poor Haydon!" she began. "He was an old friend of mine, and I +am indebted to Sir William Elford, one of my dear father's +correspondents during my girlhood, for a suggestion which sent me to +look at a picture then on exhibition in London, and thus was brought +about my knowledge of the painter's existence. He, Sir William, had +taken a fancy to me, and I became his child-correspondent. Few things +contribute more to that indirect after-education, which is worth all the +formal lessons of the school-room a thousand times told, than such +good-humored condescension from a clever man of the world to a girl +almost young enough to be his granddaughter. I owe much to that +correspondence, and, amongst other debts, the acquaintance of Haydon. +Sir William's own letters were most charming,—full of old-fashioned +courtesy, of quaint humor, and of pleasant and genial criticism on +literature and on art. An amateur-painter himself, painting interested +him particularly, and he often spoke much and warmly of the young man +from Plymouth, whose picture of the 'Judgment of Solomon' was then on +exhibition in London. 'You must see it,' said he, 'even if you come to +town on purpose.'"—The reader of Haydon's Life will remember that Sir +William Elford, in conjunction with a Plymouth banker named Tingecombe, +ultimately purchased the picture. The poor artist was overwhelmed with +astonishment and joy when he walked into the exhibition-room and read +the label, "Sold," which had been attached to his picture that morning +before he arrived. "My first impulse," he says in his Autobiography, +"was gratitude to God."</p> + +<p>"It so happened," continued Miss Mitford, "that I merely passed through +London that season, and, being detained by some of the thousand and one +nothings which are so apt to detain women in the great city, I arrived +at the exhibition, in company with a still younger friend, so near the +period of closing, that more punctual visitors were moving out, and the +doorkeeper actually turned us and our money back. I persisted, however, +assuring him that I only wished to look at one picture, and promising +not to detain him long. Whether my entreaties would have carried the +point or not, I cannot tell; but half a crown did; so we stood +admiringly before the 'Judgment of Solomon.' I am no great judge of +painting; but that picture impressed me then, as it does now, as +excellent in composition, in color, and in that great quality of telling +a story which appeals at once to every mind. Our delight was sincerely +felt, and most enthusiastically expressed, as we kept gazing at the +picture, and seemed, unaccountably to us at first, to give much pleasure +to the only gentleman who had remained in the room,—a young and very +distinguished-looking person, who had watched with evident amusement our +negotiation with the doorkeeper. Beyond indicating the best position to +look at the picture, he had no conversation with us; but I soon surmised +that we were seeing the painter, as well as his painting; and when, two +or three years afterwards, a friend took me by appointment to view the +'Entry into Jerusalem,' Haydon's next great picture, then near its +completion, I found I had not been mistaken.</p> + +<p>"Haydon was, at that period, a remarkable person to look at and listen +to. Perhaps your American word <i>bright</i> expresses better than any other +his appearance and manner. His figure, short, slight, elastic, and +vigorous, looked still more light and youthful from the little +sailor's-jacket and snowy trousers which formed his painting costume. +His complexion was clear and healthful. His forehead, broad and high, +out of all proportion to the lower part of his face, gave an +unmistakable character of intellect to the finely placed head. Indeed, +he liked to observe that the gods of the Greek sculptors owed much of +their elevation to being similarly out of drawing! The lower features +were terse, succinct, and powerful,—from the bold, decided jaw, to the +large, firm, ugly, good-humored mouth. His very spectacles aided the +general expression; they had a look of the man. But how shall I attempt +to tell you of his brilliant conversation, of his rapid, energetic +manner, of his quick turns of thought, as he flew on from topic to +topic, dashing his brush here and there upon the canvas? Slow and quiet +persons were a good deal startled by this suddenness and mobility. He +left such people far behind, mentally and bodily. But his talk was so +rich and varied, so earnest and glowing, his anecdotes so racy, his +perception of character so shrewd, and the whole tone so spontaneous and +natural, that the want of repose was rather recalled afterwards than +felt at the time. The alloy to this charm was a slight coarseness of +voice and accent, which contrasted somewhat strangely with his constant +courtesy and high breeding. Perhaps this was characteristic. A defect of +some sort pervades his pictures. Their great want is equality and +congruity,—that perfect union of qualities which we call <i>taste</i>. His +apartment, especially at that period when he lived in his painting-room, +was in itself a study of the most picturesque kind. Besides the great +picture itself, for which there seemed hardly space between the walls, +it was crowded with casts, lay figures, arms, tripods, vases, draperies, +and costumes of all ages, weapons of all nations, books in all tongues. +These cumbered the floor; whilst around hung smaller pictures, sketches, +and drawings, replete with originality and force. With chalk he could do +what he chose. I remember he once drew for me a head of hair with nine +of his sweeping, vigorous strokes! Among the studies I remarked that day +in his apartment was one of a mother who had just lost her only +child,—a most masterly rendering of an unspeakable grief. A sonnet, +which I could not help writing on this sketch, gave rise to our long +correspondence, and to a friendship which never flagged. Everybody feels +that his life, as told by Mr. Taylor, with its terrible catastrophe, is +a stern lesson to young artists, an awful warning that cannot be set +aside. Let us not forget that amongst his many faults are qualities +which hold out a bright example. His devotion to his noble art, his +conscientious pursuit of every study connected with it, his unwearied +industry, his love of beauty and of excellence, his warm family +affection, his patriotism, his courage, and his piety, will not easily +be surpassed. Thinking of them, let us speak tenderly of the ardent +spirit whose violence would have been softened by better fortune, and +who, if more successful, would have been more gentle and more humble."</p> + +<p>And so with her vigilant and appreciative eye she saw, and thus in her +own charming way she talked of, the man whose name, says Taylor, as a +popularizer of art, stands without a rival among his brethren.</p> + +<p>She loathed mere dandies, and there were no epithets too hot for her +contempts in that direction. Old beaux she heartily despised, and, +speaking of one whom she had known, I remember she quoted with a fine +scorn this appropriate passage from Dickens: "Ancient, dandified men, +those crippled <i>invalides</i> from the campaign of vanity, where the only +powder was hair-powder, and the only bullets fancy balls."</p> + +<p>There was no half-way with her, and she never could have said with M—— +S——, when a certain visitor left the room one day after a call, "If we +did not <i>love</i> our dear friend Mr. —— so much, shouldn't we hate him +tremendously!" Her neighbor, John Ruskin, she thought as eloquent a +prose-writer as Jeremy Taylor, and I have heard her go on in her fine +way, giving preferences to certain modern poems far above the works of +the great masters of song. Pascal says that "the heart has reasons that +reason does not know"; and Miss Mitford was a charming exemplification +of this wise saying.</p> + +<p>Her dogs and her geraniums were her great glories. She used to write me +long letters about Fanchon, a dog whose personal acquaintance I had +made some time before, while on a visit to her cottage. Every virtue +under heaven she attributed to that canine individual; and I was obliged +to allow in my return letters, that, since our planet began to spin, +nothing comparable to Fanchon had ever run on four legs. I had also +known Flush, the ancestor of Fanchon, intimately, and had been +accustomed to hear wonderful things of that dog; but Fanchon had graces +and genius unique. Miss Mitford would have joined with Hamerton in his +gratitude for canine companionship, when he says, "I humbly thank Divine +Providence for having invented dogs, and I regard that man with +wondering pity who can lead a dogless life."</p> + +<p>Her fondness for rural life, one may well imagine, was almost +unparalleled. I have often been with her among the wooded lanes of her +pretty country, listening for the nightingales, and on such occasions +she would discourse so eloquently of the sights and sounds about us, +that her talk seemed to me "far above singing." She had fallen in love +with nature when a little child, and had studied the landscape till she +knew familiarly every flower and leaf which grows on English soil. She +delighted in rural vagabonds of every sort, especially in gypsies; and +as they flourished in her part of the country, she knew all their ways, +and had charming stories to tell of their pranks and thievings. She +called them "the commoners of nature"; and once I remember she pointed +out to me on the road a villanous-looking youth on whom she smiled as we +passed, as if he had been Virtue itself in footpad disguise. She knew +all the literature of rural life, and her memory was stored with +delightful eulogies of forests and meadows. When she repeated or read +aloud the poetry she loved, her accents were</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"Like flowers' voices, if they could but speak."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>She <i>understood</i> how to enjoy rural occupations and rural existence, +and she had no patience with her friend Charles Lamb, who preferred the +town. Walter Savage Landor addressed these lines to her a few months +before she died, and they seem to me very perfect and lovely in their +application:—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"The hay is carried; and the hours<br /></span> +<span>Snatch, as they pass, the linden flow'rs;<br /></span> +<span>And children leap to pluck a spray<br /></span> +<span>Bent earthward, and then run away.<br /></span> +<span>Park-keeper! catch me those grave thieves<br /></span> +<span>About whose frocks the fragrant leaves,<br /></span> +<span>Sticking and fluttering here and there,<br /></span> +<span>No false nor faltering witness bear.<br /></span> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<span class='i2'>"I never view such scenes as these<br /></span> +<span>In grassy meadow girt with trees,<br /></span> +<span>But comes a thought of her who now<br /></span> +<span>Sits with serenely patient brow<br /></span> +<span>Amid deep sufferings: none hath told<br /></span> +<span>More pleasant tales to young and old.<br /></span> +<span>Fondest was she of Father Thames,<br /></span> +<span>But rambled to Hellenic streams;<br /></span> +<span>Nor even there could any tell<br /></span> +<span>The country's purer charms so well<br /></span> +<span>As Mary Mitford.<br /></span> +<span class='i19'>Verse! go forth<br /></span> +<span>And breathe o'er gentle breasts her worth.<br /></span> +<span>Needless the task ... but should she see<br /></span> +<span>One hearty wish from you and me,<br /></span> +<span>A moment's pain it may assuage,—<br /></span> +<span>A rose-leaf on the couch of Age."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And Harriet Martineau pays her respects to my friend in this wise: "Miss +Mitford's descriptions of scenery, brutes, and human beings have such +singular merit, that she may be regarded as the founder of a new style; +and if the freshness wore off with time, there was much more than a +compensation in the fine spirit of resignation and cheerfulness which +breathed through everything she wrote, and endeared her as a suffering +friend to thousands who formerly regarded her only as a most +entertaining stranger."</p> + +<p>What lovely drives about England I have enjoyed with Miss Mitford as my +companion and guide! We used to arrange with her trusty Sam for a day +now and then in the open air. He would have everything in readiness at +the appointed hour, and be at his post with that careful, kind-hearted +little maid, the "hemmer of flounces," all prepared to give the old lady +a fair start on her day's expedition. Both those excellent servants +delighted to make their mistress happy, and she greatly rejoiced in +their devotion and care. Perhaps we had made our plans to visit Upton +Court, a charming old house where Pope's Arabella Fermor had passed many +years of her married life. On the way thither we would talk over "The +Rape of the Lock" and the heroine, Belinda, who was no other than +Arabella herself. Arriving on the lawn in front of the decaying mansion, +we would stop in the shade of a gigantic oak, and gossip about the times +of Queen Elizabeth, for it was then the old house was built, no doubt.</p> + +<p>Once I remember Miss Mitford carried me on a pilgrimage to a grand old +village church with a tower half covered with ivy. We came to it through +laurel hedges, and passed on the way a magnificent cedar of Lebanon. It +was a superb pile, rich in painted glass windows and carved oak +ornaments. Here Miss Mitford ordered the man to stop, and, turning to me +with great enthusiasm, said, "This is Shiplake Church, where Alfred +Tennyson was married!" Then we rode on a little farther, and she called +my attention to some of the finest wych-elms I had ever seen.</p> + +<p>Another day we drove along the valley of the Loddon, and she pointed out +the Duke of Wellington's seat of Strathfieldsaye. As our pony trotted +leisurely over the charming road, she told many amusing stories of the +Duke's economical habits, and she rated him soundly for his money-saving +propensities. The furniture in the house she said was a disgrace to the +great man, and she described a certain old carpet that had done service +so many years in the establishment that no one could tell what the +original colors were.</p> + +<p>But the mansion most dear to her in that neighborhood was the residence +of her kind friends the Russells of Swallowfield Park. It is indeed a +beautiful old place, full of historical and literary associations, for +there Lord Clarendon wrote his story of the Great Rebellion. Miss +Mitford never ceased to be thankful that her declining years were +passing in the society of such neighbors as the Russells. If she were +unusually ill, they were the first to know of it and come at once to her +aid. Little attentions, so grateful to old age, they were always on the +alert to offer; and she frequently told me that their affectionate +kindness had helped her over the dark places of life more than once, +where without their succor she must have dropped by the way.</p> + +<p>As a letter-writer, Miss Mitford has rarely been surpassed. Her "Life, +as told by herself in Letters to her Friends," is admirably done in +every particular. Few letters in the English language are superior to +hers, and I think they, will come to be regarded as among the choicest +specimens of epistolary literature. When her friend, the Rev. William +Harness, was about to collect from Miss Mitford's correspondents, for +publication, the letters she had written to them, he applied to me among +others. I was obliged to withhold the correspondence for a reason that +existed then; but I am no longer restrained from printing it now. Miss +Mitford's first letter to me was written in 1847, and her last one came +only a few weeks before she died, in 1855. I am inclined to think that +her correspondence, so full of point in allusions, so full of anecdote +and recollections, will be considered among her finest writings. Her +criticisms, not always the wisest, were always piquant and readable. She +had such a charming humor, and her style was so delightful, that her +friendly notes had a relish about them quite their own. In reading some +of them here collected one will see that she overrated my little +services as she did those of many of her personal friends. I shall have +hard work to place the dates properly, for the good lady rarely took the +trouble to put either month or year at the head of her paper.</p> + +<p>She began her correspondence with me before I left England after making +her acquaintance, and, true to the instincts of her kind heart, the +object of her first letter was to press upon my notice the poems of a +young friend of hers, and she was constantly saying good words for +unfledged authors who were struggling forward to gain recognition. No +one ever lent such a helping hand as she did to the young writers of her +country.</p> + +<p>The recognition which America, very early in the career of Miss Mitford, +awarded her, she never forgot, and she used to say, "It takes ten years +to make a literary reputation in England, but America is wiser and +bolder, and dares say at once, 'This is fine.'"</p> + +<p>Sweetness of temper and brightness of mind, her never-failing +characteristics, accompanied her to the last; and she passed on in her +usual cheerful and affectionate mood, her sympathies uncontracted by +age, narrow fortune, and pain.</p> + +<p>A plain substantial cross marks the spot in the old churchyard at +Swallowfield, where, according to her own wish, Mary Mitford lies +sleeping. It is proposed to erect a memorial in the old parish church to +her memory, and her admirers in England have determined, if a sufficient +sum can be raised, to build what shall be known as "The Mitford Aisle," +to afford accommodation for the poor people who are not able to pay for +seats. Several of Miss Mitford's American friends will join in this +beautiful object, and a tablet will be put up in the old church +commemorating the fact that England and America united in the tribute.</p> + +<h3>LETTERS, 1848-1849.</h3> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Three-mile Cross, December 4, 1848. + +<p> Dear Mr. Fields: My silence has been caused by severe illness. For + more than a twelvemonth my health has been so impaired as to leave + me a very poor creature, almost incapable of any exertion at all + times, and frequently suffering severe pain besides. So that I have + to entreat the friends who are good enough to care for me never to + be displeased if a long time elapses between my letters. My + correspondents being so numerous, and I myself so utterly alone, + without any one even to fold or seal a letter, that the very + physical part of the task sometimes becomes more fatiguing than I + can bear. I am not, generally speaking, confined to my room, or even + to the house; but the loss of power is so great that after the short + drive or shorter walk which my very skilful medical adviser orders, + I am too often compelled to retire immediately to bed, and I have + not once been well enough to go out of an evening during the year + 1848. Before its expiration I shall have completed my sixty-first + year; but it is not age that has so prostrated me, but the hard work + and increasing anxiety of thirty years of authorship, during which + my poor labors were all that my dear father and mother had to look + to, besides which for the greater part of that time I was constantly + called upon to attend to the sick-bed, first of one aged parent and + then of another. Few women could stand this, and I have only to be + intensely thankful that the power of exertion did not fail until the + necessity of such exertion was removed. Now my poor life is (beyond + mere friendly feeling) of value to no one. I have, too, many + alleviations,—in the general kindness of the neighborhood, the + particular goodness of many admirable friends, the affectionate + attention of a most attached and intelligent old servant, and above + all in my continued interest in books and delight in reading. I love + poetry and people as well at sixty as I did at sixteen, and can + never be sufficiently grateful to God for having permitted me to + retain the two joy-giving faculties of admiration and sympathy, by + which we are enabled to escape from the consciousness of our own + infirmities into the great works of all ages and the joys and + sorrows of our immediate friends. Among the books which I have been + reading with the greatest interest is the Life of Dr. Channing, and + I can hardly tell you the glow of gratification with which I found + my own name mentioned, as one of the writers in whose works that + great man had taken pleasure. The approbation of Dr. Channing is + something worth toiling for. I know no individual suffrage that + could have given me more delight. Besides this selfish pleasure and + the intense interest with which I followed that admirable thinker + through the whole course of his pure and blameless life, I have + derived another and a different satisfaction from that work,—I mean + from its reception in England. I know nothing that shows a greater + improvement in liberality in the least liberal part of the English + public, a greater sweeping away of prejudice whether national or + sectarian, than the manner in which even the High Church and Tory + party have spoken of Dr. Channing. They really seem to cast aside + their usual intolerance in his case, and to look upon a Unitarian + with feelings of Christian fellowship. God grant that this spirit + may continue! Is American literature rich in native biography? Just + have the goodness to mention to me any lives of Americans, whether + illustrious or not, that are graphic, minute, and outspoken. I + delight in French memoirs and English lives, especially such as are + either autobiography or made out by diaries and letters; and + America, a young country with manners as picturesque and unhackneyed + as the scenery, ought to be full of such works. We have had two + volumes lately that will interest your countrymen: Mr. Milnes's Life + of John Keats, that wonderful youth whose early death was, I think, + the greatest loss that English poetry ever experienced. Some of the + letters are very striking as developments on character, and the + richness of diction in the poetical fragments is exquisite. Mrs. + Browning is still at Florence with her husband. She sees more + Americans than English.</p> + +<p> Books here are sadly depreciated. Mr. Dyce's admirable edition of + Beaumont and Fletcher, brought out two years ago at £6 12<i>s.</i> is now + offered at £2 17<i>s.</i></p> + +<p> Adieu, dear Mr. Fields; forgive my seeming neglect, and believe me + always most faithfully yours,</p> + +<p> M.R. MITFORD.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>(No date, 1849.) + +<p> Dear Mr. Fields: I cannot tell you how vexed I am at this mistake + about letters, which must have made you think me careless of your + correspondence and ungrateful for your kindness. The same thing has + happened to me before, I may say often, with American letters,—with + Professor Norton, Mrs. Sigourney, the Sedgwicks,—in short I always + feel an insecurity in writing to America which I never experience in + corresponding with friends on the Continent; France, Germany, + Italy, even Poland and Russia, are comparatively certain. Whether it + be the agents in London who lose letters, or some fault in the + post-office, I cannot tell, but I have twenty times experienced the + vexation, and it casts a certain discouragement over one's + communications. However, I hope that this letter will reach you, and + that you will be assured that the fault does not lie at my door.</p> + +<p> During the last year or two my health has been declining much, and I + am just now thinking of taking a journey to Paris. My friend, Henry + Chorley of the Athenaeum, the first musical critic of Europe, is + going thither next month to assist at the production of Meyerbeer's + Prophète at the French Opera, and another friend will accompany me + and my little maid to take care of us; so that I have just hopes + that the excursion, erenow much facilitated by railways, may do me + good. I have always been a great admirer of the great Emperor, and + to see the heir of Napoleon at the Elysée seems to me a real piece + of poetical justice. I know many of his friends in England, who all + speak of him most highly; one of them says, "He is the very + impersonation of calm and simple honesty." I hope the nation will be + true to him, but, as Mirabeau says. "there are no such words as + 'jamais' or 'toujours' with the French public."</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>10th of June, 1849. + +<p> I have been waiting to answer your most kind and interesting letter, + dear Mr. Fields, until I could announce to you a publication that + Mr. Colburn has been meditating and pressing me for, but which, + chiefly I believe from my own fault in not going to town, and not + liking to give him or Mr. Shoberl the trouble of coming here, is now + probably adjourned to the autumn. The fact is that I have been and + still am very poorly. We are stricken in our vanities, and the only + things that I recollect having ever been immoderately proud of—my + garden and my personal activity—have both now turned into causes of + shame and pity; the garden, declining from one bad gardener to + worse, has become a ploughed field,—and I myself, from a severe + attack of rheumatism, and since then a terrible fright in a + pony-chaise, am now little better than a cripple. However, if there + be punishment here below, there are likewise + consolations,—everybody is kind to me; I retain the vivid love of + reading, which is one of the highest pleasures of life; and very + interesting persons come to see me sometimes, from both sides of the + water,—witness, dear Mr. Fields, our present correspondence. One + such person arrived yesterday in the shape of Doctor ——, who has + been working musical miracles in Scotland, (think of making singing + teachers of children of four or five years of age!) and is now on + his way to Paris, where, having been during seven years one of the + editors of the National, he will find most of his colleagues of the + newspaper filling the highest posts in the government. What is the + American opinion of that great experiment; or, rather, what is + yours? I wish it success from the bottom of my heart, but I am a, + little afraid, from their total want of political economy (we have + not a school-girl so ignorant of the commonest principles of demand + and supply as the whole of the countrymen of Turgot from the + executive government downwards), and from a certain warlike tendency + which seems to me to pierce through all their declarations of peace. + We hear the flourish of trumpets through all the fine phrases of the + orators, and indeed it is difficult to imagine what they will do + with their <i>soi-disant ouvriers</i>,—workmen who have lost the habit + of labor,—unless they make soldiers of them. In the mean time some + friends of mine are about to accompany your countryman Mr. Elihu + Burritt as a deputation, and doubtless M. de Lamartine will give + them as eloquent an answer as heart can desire,—no doubt he will + keep peace if he can,—but the government have certainly not + hitherto shown firmness or vigor enough to make one rely upon them, + if the question becomes pressing and personal. In Italy matters seem + to be very promising. We have here one of the Silvio Pellico + exiles,—Count Carpinetta,—whose story is quite a romance. He is + just returned from Turin, where he was received with enthusiasm, + might have been returned as Deputy for two places, and did recover + some of his property, confiscated years ago by the Austrians. It + does one's heart good to see a piece of poetical justice transferred + to real life. <i>Apropos</i> of public events, all London is talking of + the prediction of an old theological writer of the name of Fleming, + who in or about the year 1700 prophesied a revolution in France in + 1794 (only one year wrong), and the fall of papacy in 1848 at all + events.</p> + +<p> Ever yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>(No date, 1849) + +<p> DEAR MR. FIELDS: I must have seemed very ungrateful in being so long + silent. But your magnificent present of books, beautiful in every + sense of the word, has come dropping in volume by volume, and only + arrived complete (Mr. Longfellow's striking book being the last) + about a fortnight ago, and then it found me keeping my room, as I am + still doing, with a tremendous attack of neuralgia on the left side + of the face. I am getting better now by dint of blisters and tonic + medicine; but I can answer for that disease well deserving its bad + eminence of "painful." It is however, blessed be God! more + manageable than it used to be; and my medical friend, a man of + singular skill, promises me a cure.</p> + +<p> I have seen things of Longfellow's as fine as anything in Campbell + or Coleridge or Tennyson or Hood. After all, our great lyrical poets + are great only for half a volume. Look at Gray and Collins, at your + own edition of the man whom one song immortalized, at Gerald + Griffin, whom you perhaps do not know, and at Wordsworth, who, + greatest of the great for about a hundred pages, is drowned in the + flood of his own wordiness in his longer works. To be sure, there + are giants who are rich to overflowing through a whole shelf of + books,—Shakespeare, the mutual ancestor of Englishmen and + Americans, above all,—and I think the much that they did, and did + well, will be the great hold on posterity of Scott and of Byron. + Have you happened to see Bulwer's King Arthur? It astonished me very + much. I had a full persuasion that, with great merit in a certain + way, he would never be a poet. Indeed, he is beginning poetry just + at the age when Scott, Southey, and a host of others, left it off. + But he is a strange person, full of the powerful quality called + <i>will</i>, and has produced a work which, although it is not at all in + the fashionable vein and has made little noise, has yet + extraordinary merit. When I say that it is more like Ariosto than + any other English poem that I know, I certainly give it no mean + praise.</p> + +<p> Everybody is impatient for Mr. George Ticknor's work. The subject + seems to me full of interest. Lord Holland made a charming book of + Lope de Vega years ago, and Mr. Ticknor, with equal qualifications + and a much wider field, will hardly fail of delighting England and + America. Will you remember me to him most gratefully and + respectfully? He is a man whom no one can forget. As to Mr. + Prescott, I know no author now, except perhaps Mr. Macaulay, whose + works command so much attention and give so much delight. I am + ashamed to send you so little news, but I live in the country and + see few people. The day I caught my terrible Tic I spent with the + great capitalist, Mr. Goldsmidt, and Mr. Cobden and his pretty wife. + He is a very different person from what one expects,—graceful, + tasteful, playful, simple, and refined, and looking absolutely + young. I suspect that much of his power springs from his genial + character. I heard last week from Mrs. Browning; she and her husband + are at the Baths of Lucca. Mr. Kenyon's graceful book is out, and I + must not forget to tell you that "Our Village" has been printed by + Mr. Bohn in two volumes, which include the whole five. It is + beautifully got up and very cheap, that is to say, for 3 <i>s.</i> 6 <i>d.</i> + a volume. Did Mr. Whittier send his works, or do I owe them wholly + to your kindness? If he sent them, I will write by the first + opportunity. Say everything for me to your young friend, and believe + me ever, dear Mr. F—— most faithfully and gratefully yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<h3>1850.</h3> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>(No date.) + +<p> I have to thank you very earnestly, dear Mr. Fields, for two very + interesting books. The "Leaves from Margaret Smith's Journal" are, I + suppose, a sort of Lady Willoughby's Diary, so well executed that + they read like one of the imitations of Defoe,—his "Memoirs of a + Cavalier," for instance, which always seemed to me quite as true as + if they had been actually written seventy years before. Thank you + over and over again for these admirable books and for your great + kindness and attention. What a perfectly American name Peabody is! + And how strange it is that there should be in the United States so + many persons of English descent whose names have entirely + disappeared from the land of their fathers. Did you get my last + unworthy letter? I hope you did. It would at all events show that + there was on my part no intentional neglect, that I certainly had + written in reply to the last letter that I received, although + doubtless a letter had been lost on one side or the other. I live so + entirely in the quiet country that I have little to tell you that + can be interesting. Two things indeed, not generally known, I may + mention: that Stanfield Hall, the scene of the horrible murder of + which you have doubtless read, was the actual birthplace of Amy + Robsart,—of whose tragic end, by the way, there is at last an + authentic account, both in the new edition of Pepys and the first + volume of the "Romance of the Peerage"; and that a friend of mine + saw the other day in the window of a London bookseller a copy of + Hume, ticketed "An Excellent Introduction to Macaulay." The great + man was much amused at this practical compliment, as well he might + be. I have been reading the autobiographies of Lamartine and + Chateaubriand, as well as Raphael, which, although not avowed, is of + course and most certainly a continuation of "Les Confiances." What + strange beings these Frenchmen are! Here is M. de Lamartine at + sixty, poet, orator, historian, and statesman, writing the stories + of two ladies—one of them married—who died for love of him! Think + if Mr. Macaulay should announce himself as a lady-killer, and put + the details not merely into a book, but into a feuilleton!</p> + +<p> The Brownings are living quite quietly at Florence, seeing, I + suspect, more Americans than English. Mrs. Trollope has lost her + only remaining daughter; arrived in England only time enough to see + her die.</p> + +<p> Adieu, dear Mr. Fields; say everything for me to Mr. and Mrs. + Ticknor, and Mr. and Mrs. Norton. How much I should like to see you!</p> + +<p> Ever faithfully yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>(February, 1850.) + +<p> You will have thought me either dead or dying, my dear Mr. Fields, + for ungrateful I hope you could not think me to such a friend as + yourself, but in truth I have been in too much trouble and anxiety + to write. This is the story: I live alone, and my servants become, + as they are in France, and ought, I think, always to be, really and + truly part of my family. A most sensible young woman, my own maid, + who waits upon me and walks out with me, (we have another to do the + drudgery of our cottage,) has a little fatherless boy who is the pet + of the house. I wonder whether you saw him during the glimpse we had + of you! He is a fair-haired child of six years old, singularly quick + in intellect, and as bright in mind and heart and temper as a + fountain in the sun. He is at school in Reading, and, the small-pox + raging there like a pestilence, they sent him home to us to be out + of the way. The very next week my man-servant was seized with it, + after vaccination of course. Our medical friend advised me to send + him away, but that was, in my view of things, out of the question; + so we did the best we could,—my own maid, who is a perfect Sister + of Charity in all cases of illness, sitting up with him for seven + nights following, for one or two were requisite during the delirium, + and we could not get a nurse for love or money, and when he became + better, then, as we had dreaded, our poor little boy was struck + down. However, it has pleased God to spare him, and, after a long + struggle, he is safe from the disorder and almost restored to his + former health. But we are still under a sort of quarantine, for, + although people pretend to believe in vaccination, they avoid the + house as if the plague were in it, and stop their carriages at the + end of the village and send inquiries and cards, and in my mind they + are right. To say nothing of Reading, there have been above thirty + severe cases, after vaccination, in our immediate neighborhood, five + of them fatal. I had been inoculated after the old style, my maid + had had the small-pox the natural way and the only one who escaped + was a young girl who had been vaccinated three times, the last two + years ago. Forgive this long story; it was necessary to excuse my + most unthankful silence, and may serve as an illustration of the way + a disease, supposed to be all but exterminated, is making head again + in England.</p> + +<p> Thank you a thousand and a thousand times for your most delightful + books. Mr. Whipple's Lectures are magnificent, and your own Boston + Book could not, I think, be beaten by a London Book, certainly not + approached by the collected works of any other British + city,—Edinburgh, for example.</p> + +<p> Mr. Bennett is most grateful for your kindness, and Mrs. Browning + will be no less enchanted at the honor done her husband. It is most + creditable to America that they think more of our thoughtful poets + than the English do themselves.</p> + +<p> Two female friends of mine—Mrs. Acton Tindal, a young beauty as + well as a woman of genius, and a Miss Julia Day, whom I have never + seen, but whose verses show extraordinary purity of thought, + feeling, and expression—have been putting forth books. Julia Day's + second series she has done me the honor to inscribe to me, + notwithstanding which I venture to say how very much I admire it, + and so I think would you. Henry Chorley is going to be a happy man. + All his life long he has been dying to have a play acted, and now he + has one coming out at the Surrey Theatre, over Blackfriars Bridge. + He lives much among fine people, and likes the notion of a Faubourg + audience. Perhaps he is right. I am not at all afraid of the play, + which is very beautiful,—a blank-verse comedy full of truth and + feeling. I don't know if you know Henry Chorley. He is the friend of + Robert Browning, and the especial favorite of John Kenyon, and has + always been a sort of adopted nephew of mine. Poor Mrs. Hemans loved + him well; so did a very different person, Lady Blessington,—so that + altogether you may fancy him a very likeable person; but he is much + more,—generous, unselfish, loyal, and as true as steel, worth all + his writings a thousand times over. If my house be in such condition + as to allow of my getting to London to see "Old Love and New + Fortune," I shall consult with Mr. Lucas about the time of sitting + to him for a portrait, as I have promised to do; for, although there + be several extant, not one is passably like. John Lucas is a man of + so much taste that he will make a real old woman's picture of it, + just with my every-day look and dress.</p> + +<p> Will you make my most grateful thanks to Mr. Whipple, and also to + the author of "Greenwood Leaves," which I read with great pleasure, + and say all that is kindest and most respectful for me to Mr. and + Mrs. George Ticknor. I shall indeed expect great delight from his + book.</p> + +<p> Ever, dear Mr. Fields, most gratefully yours,</p> + +<p> M.R.M.</p> + +<p> We have had a Mr. Richmond here, lecturing and so forth. Do you know + him? I can fancy what Mr. Webster would be on the Hungarian + question. To hear Mr. Cobden talk of it was like the sound of a + trumpet.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Three-mile Cross, November 25, 1850. + +<p> I have been waiting day after day, dear Mr. Fields, to send you two + books,—one new, the other old,—one by my friend, Mr. Bennett; the + other a volume [her Dramatic Poems] long out of print in England, + and never, I think, known in America. I had great difficulty in + procuring the shabby copy which I send you, but I think you will + like it because it is mine, and comes to you from friend to friend, + and because there is more of myself, that is, of my own inner + feelings and fancies, than one ever ventures to put into prose. Mr. + Bennett's volume, which is from himself as well as from me, I am + sure you will like; most thoroughly would like each other if ever + you met. He has the poet's heart and the poet's mind, large, + truthful, generous, and full of true refinement, delightful as a + companion, and invaluable as a man.</p> + +<p> After eight years' absolute cessation of composition, Henry Chorley, + of the Athenaeum, coaxed me last summer into writing for a Lady's + Journal, which he was editing for Messrs. Bradbury and Evans, + certain Readings of Poetry, old and new, which will, I suppose, form + two or three separate volumes when collected, buried as they now are + amongst all the trash and crochet-work and millinery. They will be + quite as good as MS., and, indeed, every paper will be enlarged and + above as many again added. One pleasure will be the doing what + justice I can to certain American poets,—Mr. Whittier, for + instance, whose "Massachusetts to Virginia" is amongst the finest + things ever written. I gave one copy to a most intelligent Quaker + lady, and have another in the house at this moment for Mrs. Walter, + widow and mother of the two John Walters, father and son, so well + known as proprietors of the Times. I shall cause my book to be + immediately forwarded to you, but I don't think it will be ready for + a twelvemonth. There is a good deal in it of my own prose, and it + takes a wider range than usual of poetry, including much that has + never appeared in any of the specimen books. Of course, dear friend, + this is strictly between you and me, because it would greatly damage + the work to have the few fragments that have appeared as yet brought + forward without revision and completion in their present detached + and crude form.</p> + +<p> This England of ours is all alight and aflame with Protestant + indignation against popery; the Church of England being likely to + rekindle the fires of 1780, by way of vindicating the right of + private judgment. I, who hold perfect freedom of thought and of + conscience the most precious of all possessions, have of course my + own hatred to these things. Cardinal Wiseman has taken advantage of + the attack to put forth one of the most brilliant appeals that has + appeared in my time; of course you will see it in America.</p> + +<p> Professor Longfellow has won a station in England such as no + American poet ever held before, and assuredly he deserves it. Except + Beranger and Tennyson, I do not know any living man who has written + things so beautiful. I think I like his Nuremburg best of all. Mr. + Ticknor's great work, too, has won golden opinions, especially from + those whose applause is fame; and I foresee that day by day our + literature will become more mingled with rich, bright novelties from + America, not reflections of European brightness, but gems all + colored with your own skies and woods and waters. Lord Carlisle, the + most accomplished of our ministers and the most amiable of our + nobles, is giving this very week to the Leeds Mechanics' Institute a + lecture on his travels in the United States, and another on the + poetry of Pope.</p> + +<p> May I ask you to transmit the accompanying letter to Mrs. H——? She + has sent to me for titles and dates, and fifty things in which I can + give her little help; but what I do know about my works I have sent + her. Only, as, except that I believe her to live in Philadelphia, I + really am as ignorant of her address as I am of the year which + brought forth the first volume of "Our Village," I am compelled to + go to you for help in forwarding my reply.</p> + +<p> Ever, my dear Mr. Fields, most gratefully and faithfully yours,</p> + +<p> M.R. MITFORD.</p> + +<p> Is not Louis Napoleon the most graceful of our European chiefs? I + have always had a weakness for the Emperor, and am delighted to find + the heir of his name turning out so well.</p></div> + +<h3>1851.</h3> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>February 10, 1851 + +<p> I cannot tell you, my dear Mr. Fields, how much I thank you for your + most kind letter and parcel, which, after sending three or four + emissaries all over London to seek, (Mr. —— having ignored the + matter to my first messenger,) was at last sent to me by the Great + Western Railway,—I suspect by the aforesaid Mr. ——, because, + although the name of the London bookseller was dashed out, a + <i>long-tailed</i> letter was left just where the "p" would come in ——, + and as neither Bonn's nor Whittaker's name boasts such a grace, I + suspect that, in spite of his assurance, the packet was in the + Strand, and neither in Ave Maria Lane nor in Henrietta Street, to + both houses I sent. Thank you a thousand times for all your + kindness. The orations are very striking. But I was delighted with + Dr. Holmes's poems for their individuality. How charming a person he + must be! And how truly the portrait represents the mind, the lofty + brow full of thought, and the wrinkle of humor in the eye! (Between + ourselves, I always have a little doubt of genius where there is no + humor; certainly in the very highest poetry the two go + together,—Scott, Shakespeare, Fletcher, Burns.) Another charming + thing in Dr. Holmes is, that every succeeding poem is better than + the last. Is he a widower, or a bachelor, or a married man? At all + events, he is a true poet, and I like him all the better for being a + physician,—the one truly noble profession. There are noble men in + all professions, but in medicine only are the great mass, almost the + whole, generous, liberal, self-denying, living to advance science + and to help mankind. If I had been a man I should certainly have + followed that profession. I rejoice to hear of another Romance by + the author of "The Scarlet Letter." That is a real work of genius. + Have you seen "Alton Locke"? No novel has made so much noise for a + long time; but it is, like "The Saint's Tragedy," inconclusive. + Between ourselves, I suspect that the latter part was written with + the fear of the Bishop before his eyes (the author, Mr. Kingsley, is + a clergyman of the Church of England), which makes the one volume + almost a contradiction of the others. Mrs. Browning is still at + Florence, where she sees scarcely any English, a few Italians, and + many Americans.</p> + +<p> Ever most gratefully yours.</p> + +<p> M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>(No date.) + +<p> Dear Mr. Fields: I sent you a packet last week, but I have just + received your two charming books, and I cannot suffer a post to + pass without thanking you for them. Mr. Whittier's volume is quite + what might have been expected from the greatest of Quaker writers, + the worthy compeer of Longfellow, and will give me other extracts to + go with "From Massachusetts to Virginia" and "Cassandra Southwick" + in my own book, where one of my pleasures will be trying to do + justice to American poetry, and Dr. Holmes's fine "Astraea." We have + nothing like that nowadays in England. Nobody writes now in the + glorious resonant metre of Dryden, and very few ever did write as + Dr. Holmes does. I see there is another volume of his poetry, but + the name was new to me. How much I owe to you, my dear Mr. Fields! + That great romance, "The Scarlet Letter," and these fine poets,—for + true poetry, not at all imitative, is rare in England, common as + elegant imitative verse may be,—and that charming edition of Robert + Browning. Shall you republish his wife's new edition? I cannot tell + you how much I thank you. I read an extract from the Times, + containing a report of Lord Carlisle's lecture on America, chiefly + because he and Dr. Holmes say the same thing touching the slavish + regard to opinion which prevails in America. Lord Carlisle is by + many degrees the most accomplished of our nobles. Another + accomplished and cultivated nobleman, a friend of my own, we have + just lost,—Lord Nugent,—liberal, too, against the views of his + family.</p> + +<p> You must make my earnest and very sincere congratulations to your + friend. In publishing Gray, he shows the refinement of taste to be + expected in your companion. I went over all his haunts two years + ago, and have commemorated them in the book you will see by and + by,—the book that is to be,—and there I have put on record the + bride-cake, and the finding by you on my table your own edition of + Motherwell. You are not angry, are you? If your father and mother in + law ever come again to England, I shall rejoice to see them, and + shall be sure to do so, if they will drop me a line. God bless you, + dear Mr. Fields.</p> + +<p> Ever faithfully and gratefully yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Three-mile Cross, July 20, 1851. + +<p> You will have thought me most ungrateful, dear Mr. Fields, in being + so long your debtor for a most kind and charming letter; but first I + waited for the "House of the Seven Gables," and then when it + arrived, only a week ago; I waited to read it a second time. At + sixty-four life gets too short to allow us to read every book once + and again; but it is not so with Mr. Hawthorne's. The first time one + sketches them (to borrow Dr. Holmes's excellent word), and cannot + put them down for the vivid interest; the next, one lingers over the + beauty with a calmer enjoyment. Very beautiful this book is! I thank + you for it again and again. The legendary part is all the better for + being vague and dim and shadowy, all pervading, yet never tangible; + and the living people have a charm about them which is as lifelike + and real as the legendary folks are ghostly and remote. Phoebe, for + instance, is a creation which, not to speak it profanely, is almost + Shakespearian. I know no modern heroine to compare with her, except + it be Eugene Sue's Rigolette, who shines forth amidst the iniquities + of "Les Mystères de Paris" like some rich, bright, fresh cottage + rose thrown by evil chance upon a dunghill. Tell me, please, about + Mr. Hawthorne, as you were so good as to do about that charming + person, Dr. Holmes. Is he young? I think he is, and I hope so for + the sake of books to come. And is he of any profession? Does he + depend altogether upon literature, as too many writers do here? At + all events, he is one of the glories of your most glorious part of + great America. Tell me, too, what is become of Mr. Cooper, that + other great novelist? I think I heard from you, or from some other + Transatlantic friend, that he was less genial and less beloved than + so many other of your notabilities have been. Indeed, one sees that + in many of his recent works; but I have been reading many of his + earlier books again, with ever-increased admiration, especially I + should say "The Pioneers"; and one cannot help hoping that the mind + that has given so much pleasure to so many readers will adjust + itself so as to admit of its own happiness,—for very clearly the + discomfort was his own fault, and he is too clever a person for one + not to wish him well.</p> + +<p> I think that the most distinguished of our own <i>young</i> writers are, + the one a dear friend of mine, John Ruskin; the other, one who will + shortly be so near a neighbor that we must know each other. It is + quite wonderful that we don't now, for we are only twelve miles + apart, and have scores of friends in common. This last is the Rev. + Charles Kingsley, author of "Alton Locke" and "Yeast" and "The + Saint's Tragedy." All these books are full of world-wide truths, and + yet, taken as a whole, they are unsatisfactory and inconclusive, + knocking down without building up. Perhaps that is the fault of the + social system that he lays bare, perhaps of the organization of the + man, perhaps a little of both. You will have heard probably that he, + with other benevolent persons, established a sort of socialist + community (Christian socialism) for journeymen tailors, he himself + being their chaplain. The evil was very great, for of twenty-one + thousand of that class in London, fifteen thousand were ill-paid + and only half-employed. For a while, that is, as long as the + subscription lasted, all went well; but I fear this week that the + money has come to an end, and so very likely will the experiment. + Have you republished "Alton Locke" in America? It has one character, + an old Scotchman, equal to anything in Scott. The writer is still + quite a young man, but out of health. I have heard (but this is + between ourselves) that ——'s brain is suffering,—the terrible + malady by which so many of our great mental laborers (Scott and + Southey, above all) have fallen. Dr. Buckland is now dying of it. I + am afraid —— may be so lost to the world and his friends, not + merely because his health is going, but because certain + peculiarities have come to my knowledge which look like it. A + brother clergyman saw him the other day, upon a common near his own + house, spouting, singing, and reciting verse at the top of his voice + at one o'clock in the morning. Upon inquiring what was the matter, + the poet said that he never went to bed till two or three o'clock, + and frequently went out in that way to exercise his lungs. My + informant, an orderly person of a very different stamp, set him down + for mad at once; but he is much beloved among his parishioners, and + if the escapade above mentioned do not indicate disease of the + brain, I can only say it would be good for the country if we had + more madmen of the same sort. As to John Ruskin, I would not answer + for quiet people not taking him for crazy too. He is an enthusiast + in art, often right, often wrong,—"in the right very stark, in the + wrong very sturdy,"—bigoted, perverse, provoking, as ever man was; + but good and kind and charming beyond the common lot of mortals. + There are some pages of his prose that seem to me more eloquent than + anything out of Jeremy Taylor, and I should think a selection of his + works would answer to reprint. Their sale here is something + wonderful, considering their dearness, in this age of cheap + literature, and the want of attraction in the subject, although the + illustrations of the "Stones of Venice," executed by himself from + his own drawings, are almost as exquisite as the writings. By the + way, he does not say what I heard the other day from another friend, + just returned from the city of the sea, that Taglioni has purchased + four of the finest palaces, and is restoring them with great taste, + by way of investment, intending to let them to Russian and English + noblemen. She was a very graceful dancer once, was Taglioni; but + still it rather depoetizes the place, which of all others was + richest in associations.</p> + +<p> Mrs. Browning has got as near to England as Paris, and holds out + enough of hope of coming to London to keep me from visiting it until + I know her decision. I have not seen the great Exhibition, and, + unless she arrives, most probably shall not see it. My lameness, + which has now lasted five months, is the reason I give to myself for + not going, chairs being only admitted for an hour or two on Saturday + mornings. But I suspect that my curiosity has hardly reached the + fever-heat needful to encounter the crowd and the fatigue. It is + amusing to find how people are cooling down about it. We always were + a nation of idolaters, and always had the trick of avenging + ourselves upon our poor idols for the sin of our own idolatry. Many + an overrated, and then underrated, poet can bear witness to this. I + remember when my friend Mr. Milnes was called <i>the</i> poet, although + Scott and Byron were in their glory, and Wordsworth had written all + of his works that will live. We make gods of wood and stone, and + then we knock them to pieces; and so figuratively, if not literally, + shall we do by the Exhibition. Next month I am going to move to a + cottage at Swallowfield,—so called, I suppose, because those + migratory birds meet by millions every autumn in the park there, now + belonging to some friends of mine, and still famous as the place + where Lord Clarendon wrote his history. That place is still almost a + palace; mine an humble but very prettily placed cottage. O, how + proud and glad I should be, if ever I could receive Mr. and Mrs. + Fields within its walls for more than a poor hour! I shall have + tired you with this long letter, but you have made me reckon you + among my friends,—ay, one of the best and kindest,—and must take + the consequence.</p> + +<p> Ever yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Swallowfield, Saturday Night. + +<p> I write you two notes at once, my dear friend, whilst the + recollection of your conversation is still in my head and the + feeling of your kindness warm on my heart. To write, to thank you + for a visit which has given me so much pleasure, is an impulse not + to be resisted. Pray tell Mr. and Mrs. Bennoch how delighted I am to + make their acquaintance and how earnestly I hope we may meet often. + They are charming people.</p> + +<p> Another motive that I had for writing at once is to tell you that + the more I think of the title of the forthcoming book, the less I + like it; and I care more for it, now that you are concerned in the + matter, than I did before. "Personal Reminiscences" sounds like a + bad title for an autobiography. Now this is nothing of the sort. It + is literally a book made up of favorite scraps of poetry and prose; + the bits of my own writing are partly critical, and partly have + been interwoven to please Henry Chorley and give something of + novelty, and as it were individuality, to a mere selection, to take + off the dryness and triteness of extracts, and give the pen + something to say in the work as well as the scissors. Still, it is a + book founded on other books, and since it pleased Mr. Bentley to + object to "Readings of Poetry," because he said nobody in England + bought poetry, why "Recollections of Books," as suggested by Mr. + Bennett, approved by me, and as I believed (till this very day) + adopted by Mr. Bentley, seemed to meet exactly the truth of the + case, and to be quite concession enough to the exigencies of the + trade. By the other title we exposed ourselves, in my mind, to all + manner of danger. I shall write this by this same post to Mr. + Bennett, and get the announcement changed, if possible; for it seems + to me a trick of the worst sort. I shall write a list of the + subjects, and I only wish that I had duplicates, and I would send + you the articles, for I am most uncomfortable at the notion of your + being taken in to purchase a book that may, through this misnomer, + lose its reputation in England; for of course it will be attacked as + an unworthy attempt to make it pass for what it is not....</p> + +<p> Now if you dislike it, or if Mr. Bentley keep that odious title, + why, give it up at once. Don't pray, pray lose money by me. It would + grieve me far more than it would you. A good many of these are about + books quite forgotten, as the "Pleader's Guide" (an exquisite + pleasantry), "Holcroft's Memoirs," and "Richardson's + Correspondence." Much on Darley and the Irish Poets, unknown in + England; and I think myself that the book will contain, as in the + last article, much exquisite poetry and curious prose, as in the + forgotten murder (of Toole, the author's uncle) in the State Trials. + But it should be called by its right name, as everything should in + this world. God bless you!</p> + +<p> Ever faithfully yours,</p> + +<p> M.R.M.</p> + +<p> P.S. First will come the Preface, then the story of the book + (without Henry Chorley's name; it is to be dedicated to him), + noticing the coincidence of "Our Village" having first appeared in + the Lady's Magazine, and saying something like what I wrote to you + last night. I think this will take off the danger of provoking + apprehension on one side and disappointment on the other; because + after all, although anecdote be not the style of the book, it does + contain some.</p> + +<p> May I put in the story of Washington's ghost? without your name, of + course; it would be very interesting, and I am ten times more + desirous of making the book as good as I can, since I have reason to + believe you will be interested in it. Pray, forgive me for having + worried you last night and now again. I am a terribly nervous + person, and hate and dread literary scrapes, or indeed disputes of + any sort. But I ought not to have worried you. Just tell me if you + think this sort of preface will take the sting from the title, for I + dare say Mr. Bentley won't change it.</p> + +<p> Adieu, dear friend. All peace and comfort to you in your journey; + amusement you are sure of. I write also to dear Mr. Bennett, whom I + fear I have also worried.</p> + +<p> Ever most faithfully yours,</p> + +<p> M.R.M.</p></div> + +<h3>1852.</h3> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>January 5. + +<p> Mr. Bennoch has just had the very great kindness, dear Mr. Fields, + to let me know of your safe arrival at Genoa, and of your enjoyment + of your journey. Thank God for it! We heard so much about commotions + in the South of France that I had become fidgety about you, the + rather that it is the best who go, and that I for one cannot afford + to lose you.</p> + +<p> Now let me thank you for all your munificence,—that beautiful + Longfellow with the hundred illustrations, and that other book of + Professor Longfellow's, beautiful in another way, the "Golden + Legend." I hope I shall be only one among the multitude who think + this the greatest and best thing he has done yet, so racy, so full + of character, of what the French call local color, so, in its best + and highest sense, original. Moreover, I like the happy ending. Then + those charming volumes of De Quincey and Sprague and Grace + Greenwood. (Is that her real name?) And dear Mr. Hawthorne, and the + two new poets, who, if also young poets, will be fresh glories for + America. How can I thank you enough for all these enjoyments? And + you must come back to England, and add to my obligations by giving + me as much as you can of your company in the merry month of May. I + have fallen in with Mr. Kingsley, and a most charming person he is, + certainly the least like an Englishman of letters, and the most like + an accomplished, high-toned English gentleman, that I have ever met + with. You must know Mr. Kingsley. He is very young too, really + young, for it is characteristic of our "young poets" that they + generally turn out middle-aged and very often elderly. My book is + out at last, hurried through the press in a fortnight,—a process + which half killed me, and has left the volumes, no doubt, full of + errata,—and you, I mean your house, have not got it. I am keeping a + copy for you personally. People say that they like it. I think you + will, because it will remind you of this pretty country, and of an + old Englishwoman who loves you well. Mrs. Browning was delighted + with your visit. She is a Bonapartiste; so am I. I always adored the + Emperor, and I think his nephew is a great man, full of ability, + energy, and courage, who put an end to an untenable situation and + got quit of a set of unrepresenting representatives. The Times + newspaper, right as it seems to me about Kossuth, is dangerously + wrong about Louis Napoleon, since it is trying to stimulate the + nation to a war for which France is more than prepared, is ready, + and England is not. London might be taken with far less trouble and + fewer men than it took to accomplish the <i>coup d'état</i>. Ah! I + suspect very different politics will enclose this wee bit notie, if + dear Mr. Bennoch contrives to fold it up in a letter of his own; but + to agree to differ is part of the privileges of friendship; besides, + I think you and I generally agree.</p> + +<p> Ever yours,</p> + +<p> M.R.M.</p> + +<p> P.S. All this time I have not said a word of "The Wonder Book." + Thanks again and again. Who was the Mr. Blackstone mentioned in "The + Scarlet Letter" as riding like a myth in New England History, and + what his arms? A grandson of Judge Blackstone, a friend of mine, + wishes to know.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>(March, 1852.) + +<p> I can never enough thank you, dearest Mr. Fields, for your kind + recollection of me in such a place as the Eternal City. But you + never forget any whom you make happy in your friendship, for that is + the word; and therefore here in Europe or across the Atlantic, you + will always remain.... Your anecdote of the —— is most + characteristic. I am very much afraid that he is only a poet, and + although I fear the last person in the world to deny that that is + much, I think that to be a really great man needs something more. I + am sure that you would not have sympathized with Wordsworth. I do + hope that you will see Beranger when in Paris. He is the one man in + France (always excepting Louis Napoleon, to whom I confess the + interest that all women feel in strength and courage) whom I should + earnestly desire to know well. In the first place, I think him by + far the greatest of living poets, the one who unites most completely + those two rare things, impulse and finish. In the next, I admire + his admirable independence and consistency, and his generous feeling + for fallen greatness. Ah, what a truth he told, when he said that + Napoleon was the greatest poet of modern days! I should like to have + the description of Beranger from your lips. Mrs. Browning ... has + made acquaintance with Madame Sand, of whom her account is most + striking and interesting. But George Sand is George Sand, and + Beranger is Beranger.</p> + +<p> Thank you, dear friend, for your kind interest in my book. It has + found far more favor than I expected, and I think, ever since the + week after its publication, I have received a dozen of letters daily + about it, from friends and strangers,—mostly strangers,—some of + very high accomplishments, who will certainly be friends. This is + encouragement to write again, and we will have a talk about it when + you come. I should like your advice. One thing is certain, that this + work has succeeded, and that the people who like it best are + precisely those whom one wishes to like it best, the lovers of + literature. Amongst other things, I have received countless volumes + of poetry and prose,—one little volume of poetry written under the + name of Mary Maynard, of the greatest beauty, with the vividness and + picturesqueness of the new school, combined with infinite + correctness and clearness, that rarest of all merits nowadays. Her + real name I don't know, she has only thought it right to tell me + that Mary Maynard was not the true appellation (this is between + ourselves). Her own family know nothing of the publication, which + seems to have been suggested by her and my friend, John Ruskin. Of + course, she must have her probation, but I know of no young writer + so likely to rival your new American school. I sent your gift-books + of Hawthorne, yesterday, to the Walters of Bearwood, who had never + heard of them! Tell him that I have had the honor of poking him into + the den of the Times, the only civilized place in England where they + were barbarous enough not to be acquainted with "The Scarlet + Letter." I wonder what they'll think of it. It will make them stare. + They come to see me, for it is full two months since I have been in + the pony-chaise. I was low, if you remember, when you were here, but + thought myself getting better, was getting better. About Christmas, + very damp weather came on, or rather very wet weather, and the damp + seized my knee and ankles and brought back such an attack of + rheumatism that I cannot stand upright, walk quite double, and am + often obliged to be lifted from step to step up stairs. My medical + adviser (a very clever man) says that I shall get much better when + warm weather comes, but for weeks and weeks we have had east-winds + and frost. No violets, no primroses, no token of spring. A little + flock of ewes and lambs, with a pretty boy commonly holding a lamb + in his arms, who drives his flock to water at the pond opposite my + window, is the only thing that gives token of the season. I am quite + mortified at this on your account, for April, in general a month of + great beauty here, will be as desolate as winter. Nevertheless you + must come and see me, you and Mr. and Mrs. Bennoch, and perhaps you + can continue to stay a day or two, or to come more than once. I want + to see as much of you as I can, and I must change much, if I be in + any condition to go to London, even upon the only condition on which + I ever do go, that is, into lodgings, for I never stay anywhere; and + if I were to go, even to one dear and warm-hearted friend, I should + affront the very many other friends whose invitations I have refused + for so many years. I hope to get at Mr. Kingsley; but I have seen + little of him this winter. We are five miles asunder; his wife has + been ill; and my fear of an open carriage, or rather the medical + injunction not to enter one, has been a most insuperable objection. + We are, as we both said, summer neighbors. However, I will try that + you should see him. He is well worth knowing. Thank you about Mr. + Blackstone. He is worth knowing too, in a different way, a very + learned and very clever man (you will find half Dr. Arnold's letters + addressed to him), as full of crotchets as an egg is full of meat, + fond of disputing and contradicting, a clergyman living in the house + where Mrs. Trollope <i>was raised</i>, and very kind after his own + fashion. One thing that I should especially like would be that you + should see your first nightingale amongst our woody lanes. To be + sure, these winds can never last till then. Mr. —— is coming here + on Sunday. He always brings rain or snow, and that will change the + weather. You are a person who ought to bring sunshine, and I suppose + you do more than metaphorically; for I remember that both times I + have had the happiness to see you—a summer day and a winter + day—were glorious. Heaven bless you, dear friend! May all the + pleasure ... return upon your own head! Even my little world is + charmed at the prospect of seeing you again. If you come to Reading + by the Great Western you could return later and make a longer day, + and yet be no longer from home.</p> + +<p> Ever faithfully yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Swallowfield, April 27, 1852. + +<p> How can I thank you half enough, dearest Mr. Fields, for all your + goodness! To write to me the very day after reaching Paris, to think + of me so kindly! It is what I never can repay. I write now not to + trouble you for another letter, but to remind you that, as soon as + possible after your return to England, I hope to see you and Mr. and + Mrs. Bennoch here. Heaven grant the spring may come to meet you! At + present I am writing in an east-wind, which has continued two months + and gives no sign of cessation. Professor Airy says it will continue + five weeks longer. Not a drop of rain has fallen in all that time. + We have frosts every night, the hedges are as bare as at Christmas, + flowers forget to blow, or if they put forth miserable, infrequent, + reluctant blossoms, have no heart, and I have only once heard the + nightingale in this place where they abound, and not yet seen a + swallow in the spot which takes name from their gatherings. It + follows, of course, that the rheumatism, covered by a glut of wet + weather, just upon the coming in of the new year, is fifty times + increased by the bitter season,—a season which has no parallel in + my recollection. I can hardly sit down when standing, or rise from + my chair without assistance, walk quite double, and am lifted up + stairs step by step by my man-servant. I thought, two years ago, I + could walk fifteen or sixteen miles a day! O, I was too proud of my + activity! I am sure we are smitten in our vanities. However, you + will bring the summer, which is, they say, to do me good; and even + if that should fail, it will do me some good to see you, that is + quite certain. Thank you for telling me about the Galignani, and + about the kind American reception of my book; some one sent me a New + York paper (the Tribune, I think), full of kindness, and I do assure + you that to be so heartily greeted by my kinsmen across the Atlantic + is very precious to me. From the first American has there come + nothing but good-will. However, the general kindness here has taken + me quite by surprise. The only fault found was with the title, + which, as you know, was no doing of mine; and the number of private + letters, books, verses, (commendatory verses, as the old poets have + it), and tributes of all sorts, and from all manner of persons, that + I receive every day is something quite astonishing.</p> + +<p> Our great portrait-painter, John Lucas, certainly the first painter + of female portraits now alive, has been down here to take a portrait + for engraving. He has been most successful. It is looking better, I + suppose, than I ever do look; but not better than under certain + circumstances—listening to a favorite friend, for example—I + perhaps might look. The picture is to go to-morrow into the + engraver's hands, and I hope the print will be completed before your + departure; also they are engraving, or are about to engrave, a + miniature taken of me when I was a little girl between three and + four years old. They are to be placed side by side, the young child + and the old withered woman, —— a skull and cross-bones could + hardly be a more significant <i>memento mori</i>! I have lost my near + neighbor and most accomplished friend, Sir Henry Russell, and many + other friends, for Death has been very busy this winter, and Mr. + Ware is gone! He had sent me his "Zenobia," "from the author," and + for that very reason, I suppose, some one had stolen it; but I had + replaced both that and the letters from Rome, and sent them to Mr. + Kingsley as models for his "Hypatia." He has them still. He had + never heard of them till I named them to him. They seem to me very + fine and classical, just like the best translations from some great + Latin writer. And I have been most struck with Edgar Poe, who has + been republished, prose and poetry, in a shilling volume called + "Readable Books." What a deplorable history it was!—I mean his + own,—the most unredeemed vice that I have met with in the annals of + genius. But he was a very remarkable writer, and must have a niche + if I write again; so must your two poets, Stoddard and Taylor. I am + very sorry you missed Mrs. Trollope; she is a most remarkable woman, + and you would have liked her, I am sure, for her warm heart and her + many accomplishments. I had a sure way to Beranger, one of my dear + friends being a dear friend of his; but on inquiring for him last + week, that friend also is gone to heaven. Do pick up for me all you + can about Louis Napoleon, my one real abiding enthusiasm,—the + enthusiasm of my whole life,—for it began with the Emperor and has + passed quite undiminished to the present great, bold, and able ruler + of France. Mrs. Browning shares it, I think; only she calls herself + cool, which I don't; and another still more remarkable + co-religionist in the L.N. faith is old Lady Shirley (of Alderley), + the writer of that most interesting letter to Gibbon, dated 1792, + published by her father, Lord Sheffield, in his edition of the great + historian's posthumous works. She is eighty-two now, and as active + and vigorous in body and mind, as sixty years ago.</p> + +<p> Make my most affectionate love to my friend in the Avenue des Champs + Elysées, and believe me ever, my dear Mr. Fields, most gratefully + and affectionately yours,</p> + +<p> M.R.M. +</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>(No date) + +<p> Ah, my dearest Mr. Fields, how inimitably good and kind you are to + me! Your account of Rachel is most delightful, the rather that it + confirms a preconceived notion which two of my friends had taken + pains to change. Henry Chorley, not only by his own opinion, but by + that of Scribe, who told him that there was no comparison between + her and Viardot. Now if Viardot, even in that one famous part of + Fides, excels Rachel, she must be much the finer actress, having the + horrible drawback of the music to get over. My other friend told me + a story of her, in the modern play of Virginie; she declared that + when in her father's arms she pointed to the butcher's knife, + telling him what to do, and completely reversing that loveliest + story; but I hold to your version of her genius, even admitting that + she did commit the Virginie iniquity, which would be intensely + characteristic of her calling,—all actors and actresses having a + desire to play the whole play themselves, speaking every speech, + producing every effect in their own person. No doubt she is a great + actress, and still more assuredly is Louis Napoleon a great man, a + man of genius, which includes in my mind both sensibility and charm. + There are little bits of his writing from Ham, one where he speaks + of "le repos de ma prison," another long and most eloquent passage + on exile, which ends (I forget the exact words) with a sentiment + full of truth and sensibility. He is speaking of the treatment shown + to an exile in a foreign land, of the mistiness and coldness of + some, of the blandness and smoothness of others, and he goes on to + say, "He must be a man of ten thousand who behaves to an exile just + as he would behave to another person." If I could trust you to + perform a commission for me, and let me pay you the money you spent + upon it, I would ask you to bring me a cheap but comprehensive life + of him, with his works and speeches, and a portrait as like him as + possible. I asked an English friend to do this for me, and fancy his + sending me a book dated on the outside 1847!!!! Did I ever tell you + a pretty story of him, when he was in England after Strasburg and + before Boulogne, and which I know to be true? He spent a twelvemonth + at Leamington, living in the quietest manner. One of the principal + persons there is Mr. Hampden, a descendant of John Hampden, and the + elder brother of the Bishop. Mr. Hampden, himself a very liberal and + accomplished man, made a point of showing every attention in his + power to the Prince, and they soon became very intimate. There was + in the town an old officer of the Emperor's Polish Legion who, + compelled to leave France after Waterloo, had taken refuge in + England, and, having the national talent for languages, maintained + himself by teaching French, Italian, and German in different + families. The old exile and the young one found each other out, and + the language master was soon an habitual guest at the Prince's + table, and treated by him with the most affectionate attention. At + last Louis Napoleon wearied of a country town and repaired to + London; but before he went he called on Mr. Hampden to take leave. + After warm thanks for all the pleasure he had experienced in his + society, he said: "I am about to prove to you my entire reliance + upon your unfailing kindness by leaving you a legacy. I want to ask + you to transfer to my poor old friend the goodness you have lavished + upon me. His health is failing, his means are small. Will you call + upon him sometimes? and will you see that those lodging-house people + do not neglect him? and will you, above all, do for him what he will + not do for himself, draw upon me for what may be wanting for his + needs or for his comforts?" Mr. Hampden promised. The prophecy + proved true; the poor old man grew worse and worse, and finally + died. Mr. Hampden, as he had promised, replaced the Prince in his + kind attentions to his old friend, and finally defrayed the charges + of his illness and of his funeral. "I would willingly have paid them + myself," said he, "but I knew that that would have offended and + grieved the Prince, so I honestly divided the expenses with him, and + I found that full provision had been made at his banker's to answer + my drafts to a much larger amount." Now I have full faith in such a + nature. Let me add that he never forgot Mr. Hampden's kindness, + sending him his different brochures and the kindest messages, both + from Ham and the Elysée. If one did not not admire Louis Napoleon, I + should like to know upon whom one could, as a public man, fix one's + admiration! Just look at our English statesmen! And see the state to + which self-government brings everything! Look at London with all its + sanitary questions just in the same state as ten years ago; look at + all our acts of Parliament, one half of a session passed in amending + the mismanagement of the other. For my own part, I really believe + that there is nothing like one mind, one wise and good ruler; and I + verily believe that the President of France is that man. My only + doubt being whether the people are worthy of him, fickle as they + are, like all great masses,—the French people, in particular. By + the way, if a most vilely translated book, called the "Prisoner of + Ham," be extant in French, I should like to possess it. The account + of the escape looks true, and is most interesting.</p> + +<p> I have been exceedingly struck, since I last wrote to you, by some + extracts from Edgar Poe's writings; I mean a book called "The + Readable Library," composed of selections from his works, prose and + verse. The famous ones are, I find, The Maelstrom and The Raven; + without denying their high merits, I prefer that fine poem on The + Bells, quite as fine as Schiller's, and those remarkable bits of + stories on circumstantial evidence. I am lower, dear friend, than + ever, and what is worse, in supporting myself on my hand I have + strained my right side and can hardly turn in bed. But if we cannot + walk round Swallowfield, we can drive, and the very sight of you + will do me good. If Mr. Bentley send me only one copy of that + engraving, it shall be for you. You know I have a copy for you of + the book. There are no words to tell the letters and books I receive + about it, so I suppose it is popular. I have lost, as you know, my + most accomplished and admirable neighbor, Sir Henry Russell, the + worthy successor of the great Lord Clarendon. His eldest daughter is + my favorite young friend, a most lovely creature, the ideal of a + poet. I hope you will see Beranger. Heaven bless you!</p> + +<p> Ever yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Saturday Night. + +<p> Ah, my very dear friend, how can I ever thank you? But I don't want + to thank you. There are some persons (very few, though) to whom it + is a happiness to be indebted, and you are one of them. The books + and the busts are arrived. Poor dear Louis Napoleon with his head + off—Heaven avert the omen! Of course <i>that</i> head can be replaced, I + mean stuck on again upon its proper shoulders. Beranger is a + beautiful old man, just what one fancies him and loves to fancy him. + I hope you saw him. To my mind, he is the very greatest poet now + alive, perhaps the greatest man, the truest and best type of perfect + independence. Thanks a thousand and a thousand times for those + charming busts and for the books. Mrs. Browning had mentioned to me + Mr. Read. If I live to write another book, I shall put him and Mr. + Taylor and Mr. Stoddard together, and try to do justice to Poe. I + have a good right to love America and the Americans. My Mr. Lucas + tells me to go, and says he has a mind to go. I want you to know + John Lucas, not only the finest portrait-painter, but about the very + finest mind that I know in the world. He might be.... for talent and + manner and heart; and, if you like, you shall, when I am dead, have + the portrait he has just taken of me. I make the reserve, instead of + giving it to you now, because it is possible that he might wish (I + know he does) to paint one for himself, and if I be dead before + sitting to him again, the present one would serve him to copy. Mr. + Bentley wanted to purchase it, and many have wanted it, but it shall + be for you.</p> + +<p> Now, my very dear friend, I am afraid that Mr. —— has said or done + something that would make you rather come here alone. His last + letter to me, after a month's silence, was <i>odd</i>. There was no + fixing upon line or word; still it was not like his other letters, + and I suppose the air of —— is not genial, and yet dear Mr. + Bennoch breathes it often! You must know that I never could have + meant for one instant to impose him upon you as a companion. Only in + the autumn there had been a talk of his joining your party. He knows + Mr. Bennoch.... He has been very kind and attentive to me, and is, I + verily believe, an excellent and true-hearted person; and so I was + willing that, if all fell out well, he should have the pleasure of + your society here,—the rather that I am sometimes so poorly, and + always so helpless now, that one who knows the place might be of + use. But to think that for one moment I would make your time or your + wishes bend to his is out of the question. Come at your own time, as + soon and as often as you can. I should say this to any one going + away three thousand miles off, much more to you, and forgive my + having even hinted at his coming too. I only did it thinking it + might fix you and suit you. In this view I wrote to him yesterday, + to tell him that on Wednesday next there would be a cricket-match at + Bramshill, one of the finest old mansions in England, a Tudor Manor + House, altered by Inigo Jones, and formerly the residence of Prince + Henry, the elder son of James the First. In the grand old park + belonging to that grand old place, there will be on that afternoon a + cricket-match. I thought you would like to see our national game in + a scene so perfectly well adapted to show it to advantage. Being in + Mr. Kingsley's parish, and he very intimate with the owner, it is + most likely, too, that he will be there; so that altogether it + seemed to me something that you and dear Mr. and Mrs. Bennoch might + like to see. My poor little pony could take you from hence; but not + to fetch or carry you, and if the dear Bennochs come, it would be + advisable to let the flymen know the place of destination, because, + Sir William Cope being a new-comer, I am not sure whether he (like + his predecessor, whom I knew) allows horses and carriages to be put + up there. I should like you to look on for half an hour at a + cricket-match in Bramshill Park, and to be with you at a scene so + English and so beautiful. We could dine here afterwards, the Great + Western allowing till a quarter before nine in the evening. Contrive + this if you can, and let me know by return of post, and forgive my + <i>mal addresse</i> about Mr. ——. There certainly has something come + across him,—not about you, but about me; one thing is, I think, his + extreme politics. I always find these violent Radicals very + unwilling to allow in others the unlimited freedom of thought that + they claim for themselves. He can't forgive my love for the + President. Now I must tell you a story I know to be true. A lady of + rank was placed next the Prince a year or two ago. He was very + gentle and courteous, but very silent, and she wanted to make him + talk. At last she remembered that, having been in Switzerland twenty + years before, she had received some kindness from the Queen + Hortense, and had spent a day at Arenenburg. She told him so, + speaking with warm admiration of the Queen. "Ah, madame, vous avez + connu ma mère!" exclaimed Louis Napoleon, turning to her eagerly and + talking of the place and the people as a school-boy talks of home. + She spent some months in Paris, receiving from the Prince every + attention which his position enabled him to show; and when she + thanked him for such kindness, his answer was always: "Ah, madame, + vous avez connu ma mère!" Is it in woman's heart not to love such a + man? And then look at the purchase of the Murillo the other day, and + the thousand really great things that he is doing. Mr. —— is a + goose.</p> + +<p> I send this letter to the post to-morrow, when I send other + letters,—a vile, puritanical post-office arrangement not permitting + us to send letters in the afternoon, unless we send straight to + Reading (six miles) on purpose,—so perhaps this may cross an answer + from Mr. —— or from you about Bramshill; perhaps, on the other + hand, I may have to write again. At all events, you will understand + that this is written on Saturday night. God bless you, my very dear + and kind friend.</p> + +<p> Ever faithfully yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>May 24, 1852. + +<p> Ah, dearest Mr. Fields, how much too good and kind you are to me + always! ... I wish I were better, that I might go to town and see + more of you; but I am more lame than ever, and having, in my weight + and my shortness and my extreme helplessness, caught at tables and + chairs and dragged myself along that fashion, I have now so strained + the upper part of the body that I cannot turn in bed, and am full of + muscular pains which are worse than the rheumatism and more + disabling, so that I seem to cumber the earth. They say that summer, + when it comes, will do me good. How much more sure that the sight of + you will do me good, and I trust that, when your business will let + you, you will give me that happiness. In the mean while will you + take the trouble to send the enclosed and my answer, if it be fit + and proper and properly addressed? I give you this office, because + really the kindness seems so large and unlimited, that, if the + letter had not come enclosed in one from Mr. Kenyon, one could + hardly have believed it to be serious, and yet I am well used to + kindness, too. I thank over and over again your glorious poets for + their kindness, and tell Mr. Hawthorne I shall prize a letter from + him beyond all the worlds one has to give. I rejoice to hear of the + new work, and can answer for its excellence.</p> + +<p> I trust that the English edition of Dr. Holmes will contain the + "Astraea," and the "Morning Visit," and the "Cambridge Address." I + am not sure, in my secret soul, that I do not prefer him to any + American poet. Besides his inimitable word-painting, the charity is + so large and the scale so fine. How kind in you to like my + book,—some people do like it. I am afraid to tell you what John + Ruskin says of it from Venice, and I get letters, from ten to twenty + a day. You know how little I dreamt of this! Mrs. Trollope has sent + me a most affectionate letter, bemoaning her ill-fortune in missing + you. I thank you for the Galignani edition, and the presidential + kindness, and all your goodness of every sort. I have nothing to + give you but as large a share of my poor affection as I think any + human being has. You know a copy of the book from me has been + waiting for you these three months. Adieu, my dear friend.</p> + +<p> Ever yours,</p> + +<p> M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>(July 6, 1852.) Monday Night, or, rather, 2 o'clock Tuesday Morning. + +<p> Having just finished Mr. Hawthorne's book, dear Mr. Fields, I shall + get K—— to put it up and direct it so that it may be ready the + first time Sam has occasion to go to Reading, at which time this + letter will be put in the post; so that when you read this, you may + be assured that the precious volumes are arrived at the Paddington + Station, whence I hope they may be immediately transmitted to you. + If not, send for them. They will have your full direction, carriage + paid. I say this, because the much vaunted Great Western is like all + other railways, most uncertain and irregular, and we have lost a + packet of plants this very week, sent to us, announced by letter and + never arrived. Thank you heartily for the perusal of the book. I + shall not name it in a letter which I mean to enclose to Mr. + Hawthorne, not knowing that you mean to tell him, and having plenty + of other things to say to him besides. To you, and only to you, I + shall speak quite frankly what I think. It is full of beauty and of + power, but I agree with —— that it would not have made a + reputation as the other two books did, and I have some doubts + whether it will not be a disappointment, but one that will soon be + redeemed by a fresh and happier effort. It seems to me too long, + too slow, and the personages are to my mind ill chosen. Zenobia puts + one in mind of Fanny Wright and Margaret Fuller and other unsexed + authorities, and Hollingsworth will, I fear, recall, to English + people at least, a most horrible man who went about preaching peace. + I heard him lecture once, and shall never forget his presumption, + his ignorance, or his vulgarity. He is said to know many languages. + I can answer for his not knowing his own, for I never, even upon the + platform, the native home of bad English, heard so much in so short + a time. The mesmeric lecturer and the sickly girl are almost equally + disagreeable. In short, the only likeable person in the book is + honest Silas Foster, who alone gives one the notion of a man of + flesh and blood. In my mind, dear Mr. Hawthorne mistakes exceedingly + when he thinks that fiction should be based upon, or rather seen + through, some ideal medium. The greatest fictions of the world are + the truest. Look at the "Vicar of Wakefield," look at the "Simple + Story," look at Scott, look at Jane Austen, greater because truer + than all, look at the best works of your own Cooper. It is precisely + the want of reality in his smaller stories which has delayed Mr. + Hawthorne's fame so long, and will prevent its extension if he do + not resolutely throw himself into truth, which is as great a thing + in my mind in art as in morals, the foundation of all excellence in + both. The fine parts of this book, at least the finest, are the + truest,—that magnificent search for the body, which is as perfect + as the search for the exciseman in Guy Mannering, and the burst of + passion in Eliot's pulpit. The plot, too, is very finely + constructed, and doubtless I have been a too critical reader, + because, from the moment you and I parted, I have been suffering + from fever, and have never left the bed, in which I am now writing. + Don't fancy, dear friend, that you had anything to do with this. The + complaint had fixed itself and would have run its course, even + although your ... society has not roused and excited the good + spirits, which will, I think, fail only with my life. I think I am + going to get better. Love to all.</p> + +<p> Ever most affectionately yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Tuesday. (No date.) + +<p> My Dear Friend: Being fit for nothing but lying in bed and reading + novels, I have just finished Mr. Field's and Mr. Jones's "Adrien," + and as you certainly will not have time to look at it, and may like + to hear my opinion, I will tell it to you. Mr. Field, from the + Preface, is of New York. The thing that has diverted me most is the + love-plot of the book. A young gentleman, whose father came and + settled in America and made a competence there, is third or fourth + cousin to an English lord. He falls in love with a fisherman's + daughter (the story appears to be about fifty years back). This + fisherman's daughter is a most ethereal personage, speaking and + reading Italian, and possessing in the fishing-cottage a pianoforte + and a collection of books; nevertheless, she one day hears her + husband say something about a person being "well born and well + bred," and forthwith goes away from him, in order to set him free + from the misery entailed upon him, as she supposes, by a + disproportionate marriage. Is not this curious in your republic? We + in England certainly should not play such pranks. A man having + married a wife, his wife stays by him. This dilemma is got over by + the fisherman's turning out to be himself fifth or sixth cousin of + another English lord. But, having lived really as a fisherman ever + since his daughter's birth, he knew nothing of his aristocratic + descent. I think this is the most remarkable thing in the book. + There are certain flings at the New England character (the scene is + laid beside the waters of your Bay) which seem to foretell a not + very remote migration on the part of Mr. Jones, though they may come + from his partner; nothing very bad, only such hits as this: "He was + simple, humble, affectionate, three qualities rare anywhere, but + perhaps more rare in that part of the world than anywhere else." For + the rest the book is far inferior to the best even of Mr. James's + recent productions, such as "Henry Smeaton." These two authors speak + of the corpse of a drowned man as beautified by death, and retaining + all the look of life. You remember what Mr. Hawthorne says of the + appearance of his drowned heroine,—which is right? I have had the + most delightful letter possible (you shall see it when you come) + from dear Dr. Holmes, and venture to trouble you with the enclosed + answer. Yesterday, Mr. Harness, who had heard a bad account of me + (for I have been very ill, and, although much better now, I gather + from everybody that I am thought to be breaking down fast), so like + the dear kind old friend that he is, came to see me. It was a great + pleasure. We talked much of you, and I think he will call upon you. + Whether he call or not, do go to see him. He is fully prepared for + you as Mr. Dyce's friend and Mr. Rogers's friend, and my very dear + friend. Do go; you will find him charming, so different from the + author people that Mr. Kenyon collects. I am sure of your liking + each other. Surely by next week I may be well enough to see you. You + and Mrs. W—— would do me nothing but good. Say everything to her, + and to our dear kind friends, the Bennochs. I ought to have written + to them, but I get as much scolded for writing as talking.</p> + +<p> Ever yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>(No date.) + +<p> How good and kind you are to me, dearest Mr. Fields! kindest of all, + I think, in writing me those.... One comfort is, that if London lose + you this year I do think you will not suffer many to elapse before + revisiting it. Ah, you will hardly find your poor old friend next + time! Not that I expect to die just now, but there is such a want of + strength, of the power that shakes off disease, which is no good + sign for the constitution. Yesterday I got up for a little while, + for the first time since I saw you; but, having let in too many + people, the fever came on again at night, and I am only just now + shaking off the attack, and feel that I must submit to perfect + quietness for the present. Still the attack was less violent than + the last, and unattended by sickness, so that I am really better and + hope in a week or so to be able to get out with you under the trees, + perhaps as far as Upton.</p> + +<p> One of my yesterday's visitors was a glorious old lady of + seventy-six, who has lived in Paris for the last thirty years, and I + do believe came to England very much for the purpose of seeing me. + She had known my father before his marriage. He had taken her in his + hand (he was always fond of children) one day to see my mother; she + had been present at their wedding, and remembered the old + housekeeper and the pretty nursery-maid and the great dog too, and + had won with great difficulty (she being then eleven years old) the + privilege of having the baby to hold. Her descriptions of all these + things and places were most graphic, and you may imagine how much + she must have been struck with my book when it met her eye in Paris, + and how much I (knowing all about her family) was struck on my part + by all these details, given with the spirit and fire of an + enthusiastic woman of twenty. We had certainly never met. I left + Alresford at three years old. She made an appointment to spend a day + here next year, having with her a daughter, apparently by a first + husband. Also she had the same host of recollections of Louis + Napoleon, remembered the Emperor, as Premier Consul, and La Reine + Hortense as Mlle. de Beauharnais. Her account of the Prince is + favorable. She says that it is a most real popularity, and that, if + anything like durability can ever be predicated of the French, it + will prove a lasting one. I had a letter from Mrs. Browning to-day, + talking of the "Facts of the Times," of which she said some + gentlemen were speaking with the same supreme contempt and disbelief + that I profess for every paragraph in that collection of falsehoods. + For my own part, I hold a wise despotism, like the Prince + President's, the only rule to live under. Only look at the figure + our <i>soi-disant</i> statesmen cut,—Whig and Tory,—and then glance + your eye across the Atlantic to your "own dear people," as Dr. + Holmes says, and their doings in the Presidential line. Apropos to + Dr. Holmes you'll see him read and quoted when—and his doings are + as dead as Henry the Eighth.—has no feeling for finish or polish or + delicacy, and doubtless dismisses Pope and Goldsmith with supreme + contempt. She never mentions that horrid trial, to my great comfort. + Did I tell you that I had been reading Louis Napoleon's most + charming three volumes full?</p> + +<p> Among my visitors yesterday was Miss Percy, the heiress of Guy's + Cliff, one of the richest in England, and, what is odd, the + translator of "Emilie Carlen's Birthright," the only Swedish novel I + have ever got fairly through, because Miss Percy really does her + work well, and I can't read ——'s English. Miss Percy, who, besides + being very clever and agreeable, is also pretty, has refused some + scores of offers, and declares she'll never marry; she has a dread + of being sought for her money.....</p> + +<p> God bless you, dearest, kindest friend. Say everything for me to + your companions.</p> + +<p> Ever most faithfully yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>(No date) + +<p> Yes, dearest Mr. Fields, I continue to get better and better, and + shall be delighted to see you and Mr. and Mrs. W—— on Friday. I + even went in to surprise Mr. May on Saturday, so, weather + permitting, we shall get up to Upton together. I want you to see + that relique of Protestant bigotry. No doubt many of my dear + countrymen would play just the same pranks now, if the spirit of the + age would permit; the will is not wanting, witness our courts of + law.</p> + +<p> I have been reading the "Life of Margaret Fuller." What a tragedy + from first to last! She must have been odious in Boston in spite of + her power and her strong sense of duty, with which I always + sympathize; but at New York, where she dwindled from a sibyl to a + "lionne," one begins to like her better, and in England and Paris, + where she was not even that, better still; so that one is prepared + for the deep interest of the last half-volume. Of course her + example must have done much injury to the girls of her train. Of + course, also, she is the Zenobia of dear Mr Hawthorne. One wonders + what her book would have been like.</p> + +<p> Mr. Bennett has sent me the "Nile Notes." We must talk about that, + which I have not read yet, not delighting much in Eastern travels, + or, rather, being tired of them. Ah, how sad it will be when I + cannot say "We will talk"! Surely Mr. Webster does not mean to get + up a dispute with England! That would be an affliction; for what + nations should be friends if ours should not? What our ministers + mean, nobody can tell,—hardly, I suppose, themselves. My hope was + in Mr. Webster. Well, this is for talking. God bless you, dear + friend.</p> + +<p> Ever most affectionately yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>August 7, 1852. + +<p> Hurrah! dear and kind friend, I have found the line without any + other person's aid or suggestion. Last night it occurred to me that + it was in some prologue or epilogue, and my little book-room being + very rich in the drama, I have looked through many hundreds of those + bits of rhyme, and at last made a discovery which, if it have no + other good effect, will at least have "emptied my head of Corsica," + as Johnson said to Boswell; for never was the great biographer more + haunted by the thought of Paoli than I by that line. It occurs in an + epilogue by Garrick on quitting the stage, June, 1776, when the + performance was for the benefit of sick and aged actors.</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>A veteran see! whose last act on the stage<br /></span> +<span>Entreats your smiles for sickness and for age;<br /></span> +<span>Their cause I plead, plead it in heart and mind,<br /></span> +<span><i>A fellow-feeling makes one wondrous kind</i>.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p> Not finding it quoted in Johnson convinced me that it would probably + have been written after the publication of the Dictionary, and + ultimately guided me to the right place. It is singular that + epilogues were just dismissed at the first representation of one of + my plays, "Foscari," and prologues at another, "Rienzi."</p> + +<p> I have but a moment to answer your most kind letter, because I have + been engaged with company, or rather interrupted by company, ever + since I got up, but you will pardon me. Nothing ever did me so much + good as your visit. My only comfort is the hope of your return in + the spring. Then I hope to be well enough to show Mr Hawthorne all + the holes and corners my own self. Tell him so. I am already about + to study the State Trials, and make myself perfect in all that can + assist the romance. It will be a labor of love to do for him the + small and humble part of collecting facts and books, and making + ready the palette for the great painter.</p> + +<p> Talking of <i>artists</i>, one was here on Sunday who was going to Upton + yesterday. His object was to sketch every place mentioned in my + book. Many of the places (as those round Taplow) he had taken, and + K—— says he took this house and the stick and Fanchon and probably + herself. I was unluckily gone to take home the dear visitors who + cheer me daily and whom I so wish you to see.</p> + +<p> God bless you all, dear friends.</p> + +<p> Ever most affectionately yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Swallowfield, September 24, 1852 + +<p> My Very Dear Mr. Fields: I am beginning to get very fidgety about + you, and thinking rather too often, not only of the breadth of the + Atlantic, but of its dangers. However I must hear soon, and I write + now because I am expecting a fellow-townsman of yours, Mr. Thompson, + an American artist, who expected to find you still in England, and + who is welcomed, as I suppose all Boston would be ... People do not + love you the less, dear friend, for missing you.</p> + +<p> I write to you this morning, because I have something to say and + something to ask. In the first place, I am better. Mr. Harness, who, + God bless him, left that Temple of Art, the Deepdene, and Mr. Hope's + delightful conversation, to come and take care of me, stayed at + Swallowfield three weeks. He found out a tidy lodging, which he has + retained, and he promises to come back in November; at present he is + again at the Deepdene. Nothing could be so judicious as his way of + going on; he came at two o'clock to my cottage and we drove out + together; then he went to his lodgings to dinner, to give me three + hours of perfect quiet; at eight he and the Russells met here to + tea, and he read Shakespeare (there is no such reader in the world) + till bedtime. Under his treatment no wonder that I improved, but the + low-fever is not far off; doing a little too much, I fell back even + before his departure, and have been worse since. However, on the + whole, I am much better.</p> + +<p> Now to my request. You perhaps remember my speaking to you of a copy + of my "Recollections," which was in course of illustration in the + winter. Mr. Holloway, a great print-seller of Bedford Street, Covent + Garden, has been engaged upon it ever since, and brought me the + first volume to look at on Tuesday. It would have rejoiced the soul + of dear Dr. Holmes. My book is to be set into six or seven or eight + volumes, quarto, as the case may be; and although not unfamiliar + with the luxuries of the library, I could not have believed in the + number and richness of the pearls which have been strung upon so + slender a thread. The rarest and finest portraits, often many of one + person and always the choicest and the best,—ranging from + magnificent heads of the great old poets, from the Charleses and + Cromwells, to Sprat and George Faulkner of Dublin, of whom it was + thought none existed, until this print turned up unexpectedly in a + supplementary volume of Lord Chesterfield; nothing is too odd for + Mr. Holloway. There is a colored print of George the Third,—a full + length which really brings the old king to life again, so striking + is the resemblance, and quantities of theatrical people, Munden and + Elliston and the Kembles. There are two portraits of "glorious John" + in Penruddock. Then the curious old prints of old houses. They have + not only one two hundred years old of Dorrington Castle, but the + actual drawing from which that engraving was made; and they are rich + beyond anything in exquisite drawings of scenery by modern artists + sent on purpose to the different spots mentioned. Besides which + there are all sorts of characteristic autographs (a capital one of + Pope); in short, nothing is wanting that the most unlimited expense + (Mr. Holloway told me that his employer, a great city merchant of + unbounded riches, constantly urged him to spare no expense to + procure everything that money would buy), added to taste, skill, and + experience, could accomplish. Of course the number of proper names + and names of places have been one motive for conferring upon my book + an honor of which I never dreamt; but there is, besides, an + enthusiasm for my writings on the part of Mrs. Dillon, the lady of + the possessor, for whom it is destined as a birthday gift. Now what + I have to ask of you is to procure for Mr. Holloway as many + autographs and portraits as you can of the American writers whom I + have named,—dear Dr. Holmes, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Whittier, + Prescott, Ticknor. If any of them would add a line or two of their + writing to their names, it would be a favor, and if; being about it, + they would send two other plain autographs, for I have heard of two + other copies in course of illustration, and expect to be applied to + by their proprietors every day. Mr. Holloway wrote to some trade + connection in Philadelphia, but probably because he applied to the + wrong place and the wrong person, and because he limited his + correspondent to time, obtained no results. If there be a print of + Professor Longfellow's house, so much the better, or any other + autographs of Americans named in my book. Forgive this trouble, dear + friend. You will probably see the work when you come to London in + the spring, and then you will understand the interest that I take + in it as a great book of art. Also my dear old friend, Lady Morley + (Gibbon's correspondent), who at the age of eighty-three is caught + by new books and is as enthusiastic as a girl, has commissioned me + to inquire about your new authoress, the writer of ——, who she is + and all about her. For my part, I have not finished the book yet, + and never shall. Besides my own utter dislike to its painfulness, + its one-sidedness, and its exaggeration, I observe that the sort of + popularity which it has obtained in England, and probably in + America, is decidedly <i>bad</i>, of the sort which cannot and does not + last,—a cry which is always essentially one-sided and commonly + wrong....</p> + +<p> Ever most faithfully and affectionately yours,</p> + +<p> M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>October 5, 1852. + +<p> DEAREST MR. FIELDS: You will think that I persecute you, but I find + that Mr. Dillon, for whom Mr. Holloway is illustrating my + Recollections so splendidly, means to send the volumes to the binder + on the 1st of November. I write therefore to beg, in case of your + not having yet sent off the American autographs and portraits, that + they may be forwarded direct to Mr. Holloway, 25 Bedford Street, + Covent Garden, London. It is very foolish not to wait until all the + materials are collected, but it is meant as an offering to Mrs. + Dillon, and I suppose there is some anniversary in the way. Mr. + Dillon is a great lover and preserver of fine engravings; his + collection, one of the finest private collections in the world, is + estimated at sixty thousand pounds. He is a friend of dear Mr. + Bennoch's, who, when I told him the compliment that had been paid to + my work by a great city man, immediately said it could be nobody but + Mr. Dillon. I have twice seen Mr. Bennoch within the last ten days, + once with Mr. Johnson and Mr. Thompson, your own Boston artist, whom + I liked much, and who gave me the great pleasure of talking of you + and of dear Mr. and Mrs. W——, last time with his own good and + charming wife and ——. Only think of ——'s saying that + Shakespeare, if he had lived now, would have been thought nothing + of, and this rather as a compliment to the age than not! But, if you + remember, he printed amended words to the air of "Drink to me only." + Ah, dear me, I suspect that both William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson + will survive him; don't you? Nevertheless he is better than might be + predicated from that observation.</p> + +<p> All my domestic news is bad enough. My poor pretty pony keeps his + bed in the stable, with a violent attack of influenza, and Sam and + Fanchon spend three parts of their time in nursing him. Moreover we + have had such rains here that the Lodden has overflowed its banks, + and is now covering the water meadows, and almost covering the lower + parts of the lanes. Adieu, dearest friend.</p> + +<p> Ever most faithfully yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Swallowfield, October 13, 1852. + +<p> More than one letter of mine, dearest friend, crossed yours, for + which I cannot sufficiently thank you. Nobody can better understand + than I do, how very, very glad your own people, and all the good + city, must feel to get you back again,—I trust not to keep; for in + spite of sea-sickness, that misery which during the summer I have + contrived to feel on land, I still hope that we shall have you here + again in the spring. I am impatiently waiting the arrival of + portraits and autographs, and if they do not come in time to bind, I + shall charge Mr. Holloway to contrive that they may be pasted with + the copy of my Recollections to which Mr. Dillon is paying so high + and so costly a compliment. Now I must tell you some news.</p> + +<p> First let me say that there is an admirable criticism in one of the + numbers of the Nonconformist, edited by Edward Miall, one of the new + members of Parliament, and certainly the most able of the dissenting + organs, on our favorite poet, Dr. Holmes. Also I have a letter from + Dr. Robert Dickson, of Hertford Street, May Fair, one of the highest + and most fashionable London physicians, respecting my book, liking + Dr. Holmes better than anybody for the very qualities for which he + would himself choose to be preferred, originality and justness of + thought, admirable fineness and propriety of diction, and a power of + painting by words, very rare in any age, and rarest of the rare in + <i>this</i>, when vagueness and obscurity mar so much that is high and + pure. I shall keep this letter to <i>show</i> Dr. Holmes, tell him with + my affectionate love. If it were not written on the thickest paper + ever seen, and as huge as it is thick, I would send it; but I'll + keep it for him against he comes to claim it. The description of + spring is, Dr. Dickson says, remarkable for originality and truth. + He thanks me for those poems of Dr. Holmes as if I had written them. + Now be free to tell him all this. Of course you have told Mr. + Hawthorne of the highly eulogistic critique on the "Blithedale + Romance" in the Times, written, I believe, by Mr. Willmott, to whom + I lent the veritable copy received from the author. Another thing + let me say, that I have been reading with the greatest pleasure some + letters on African trees copied from the New York Tribune into + Bentley's Miscellany, and no doubt by Mr. Bayard Taylor. Our chief + London news is that Mrs. Browning's cough came on so violently, in + consequence of the sudden setting in of cold weather, that they are + off for a week or two to Paris, then to Florence, Rome, and Naples, + and back here in the summer. Her father still refuses to open a + letter or to hear her name. Mrs. Southey, suffering also from + chest-complaint, has shut herself up till June. Poor Anne Hatton, + who was betrothed to Thomas Davis, and was supposed to be in a + consumption, is recovering, they say, under the advice of a + clairvoyante. Most likely a broken vessel has healed on the lungs, + or perhaps an abscess. Be what it may, the consequence is happy, for + she is a lovely creature and the only joy of a fond mother. Alfred + Tennyson's boy was christened the other day by the name of Hallam + Tennyson, Mr. Hallam standing to it in person. This is just as it + should be on all sides, only that Arthur Hallam would have been a + prettier name. You know that Arthur Hallam was the lost friend of + the "In Memoriam," and engaged to Tennyson's sister, and that after + his death, and even after her marrying another man, Mr. Hallam makes + her a large allowance.</p> + +<p> We have just escaped a signal misfortune; my dear pretty pony has + been upon the point of death with influenza. Would not you have been + sorry if that pony had died? He has, however, recovered under Sam's + care and skill, and the first symptom of convalescence was his + neighing to Sam through the window. You will have found out that I + too am better. I trust to be stronger when you come again, well + enough to introduce you to Mr. Harness, whom we are expecting here + next month. God bless you, my dear and kind friend. I send this + through dear Mr Bennoch, whom I like better and better; so I do Mrs. + Bennoch, and everybody who knows and loves you. Ever, my dear Mr. + Fields,</p> + +<p> Your faithful and affectionate friend, M.R.M.</p> + +<p> P.S.—October 17. I have kept this letter open till now, and I am + glad I did so. Acting upon the hint you gave of Mr. De Quincey's + kind feeling, I wrote to him, and yesterday I had a charming letter + from his daughter, saying how much her father was gratified by mine, + that he had already written an answer, amounting to a good-sized + pamphlet, but that when it would be finished was doubtful, so she + sent hers as a precursor.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Swallowfield, November 11, 1852. + +<p> I write, dearest friend, and although the packet which you had the + infinite goodness to send, has not reached me yet, and may not + possibly before my letter goes,—so uncertain is our railway,—yet + I will write because our excellent friend, Mr. Bennoch, says that he + has sent it off.... You will understand that I am even more obliged + by your goodness about Mr. Dillon's book than by any of the thousand + obligations to myself only. Besides my personal interest, as so + great a compliment to my own work, Mr. Dillon appears to be a most + interesting person. He is a friend of Mr. Bennoch's, from whom I had + his history, one most honorable to him, and he has written to me + since I wrote to you and proposes to come and see me. <i>You</i> must see + him when you come to England, and must see his collection of + engravings. Would not dear Dr. Holmes have a sympathy with Mr. + Dillon? Have you such fancies in America? They are not common even + here; but Miss Skerrett (the Queen's factotum) tells me that the + most remarkable book in Windsor Castle is a De Grammont most richly + and expensively illustrated by George the Fourth, who, with all his + sins as a monarch, was the only sovereign since the Stuarts of any + literary taste.</p> + +<p> Here is your packet! O my dear, dear friend, how shall I thank you + half enough! I shall send the parcels to-morrow morning, the very + first thing, to Mr. Holloway. The work is at the binder's, but + fly-leaves have been left for the American packet of which I felt so + sure, although even I could hardly foresee its value. One or two + duplicates I have kept. Tell Mr. Hawthorne that I shall make a dozen + people rich and happy by his autograph, and tell Dr. Holmes I could + not find it in my heart to part with the "Mary" stanza. Never was a + writer who possessed more perfectly the art of doing great things + greatly and small things gracefully. Love to Mr. Hawthorne and to + him.</p> + +<p> Poor Daniel Webster! or rather poor America! Rich as she is, she + cannot afford the loss, the greatest the world has known since our + Sir Robert. But what a death-bed, and what a funeral! How noble an + end of that noble life! I feel it the more, hearing and reading so + much about the Duke's funeral, which by dint of the delay will not + cause the slightest real feeling, but will be attended just like + every show, and yet as a show will be gloomy and poor. How much + better to have laid him simply here at Strathfieldsaye, and left it + as a place of pilgrimage,—as Strathfield will be,—although between + the two men, in my mind, there was no comparison; the one was a + genius, the other mere soldier,—pure physical force measured with + intellect the richest and the proudest. I have twenty letters + speaking of him as one of the greatest among the statesmen of the + age. The Times only refuses to do him justice. But when did the + Times do justice to any one? Look how it talks of our Emperor.</p> + +<p> Your friend Bayard Taylor came to see me a fortnight ago, just + before he sailed on his tour round the world. I told him the first + of Bentley's reprinting his letters from the New York Tribune; he + had not heard a word of it. He seemed an admirable person, and it is + good to have such travellers to follow with one's heart and one's + earnest good wishes.</p> + +<p> Also I have had two packets,—one from Mrs. Sparks, with a nice + letter, and some fresh and glorious autumnal flowers, and a + collection of autumn leaves from your glorious forests. I have + written to thank her. She seems full of heart, and she says that she + drove into Boston on purpose to see you, but missed you. When you do + meet, tell me about her. Also, I have through you, dear friend, a + most interesting book from Mr. Ware. To him, also, I have written, + but tell him how much I feel and prize his kindness, all the more + welcome for coming from a kinsman of dear Mrs. W——. Tell her and + her excellent husband that they cannot think of us oftener or more + warmly than we think of them. O, how I should like to visit you at + Boston! But I should have your malady by the way, and not your + strength to stand it....</p> + +<p> God bless you, my dear and excellent friend! I seem to have a + thousand things to say to you, but the post is going, and a whole + sheet of paper would not hold my thanks.</p> + +<p> Ever yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Swallowfield, November 25, 1852. + +<p> My Dear Friend: Your most kind and welcome letter arrived to-day, + two days after the papers, for which I thank you much. Still more do + I thank you for that kind and charming letter, and for its + enclosures. The anonymous poem [it was by Dr. T.W. Parsons] is far + finer than anything that has been written on the death of the Duke + of Wellington, as indeed it was a far finer subject. May I inquire + the name of the writer? Mr. Everett's speech also is superb, and how + very much I prefer the Marshfield funeral in its sublime simplicity + to the tawdry pageantry here! I have had fifty letters from persons + who saw the funeral in St. Paul's, and seen as many who saw that or + the procession, and it is strange that the papers have omitted alike + the great successes and the great failures. My young neighbor, a + captain in the Grenadier Guards (the Duke's regiment), saw the + uncovering the car which had been hidden by the drapery, and was to + have been a great effect, and he says it was exactly what is + sometimes seen in a theatre when one scene is drawn up too soon and + the other is not ready. Carpenters and undertaker's men were on all + parts of the car, and the draperies and ornaments were everywhere + but in their places. Again, the procession waited upwards of an hour + at the cathedral door, because the same people had made no provision + for taking the coffin from the car; again, the sunlight was let into + St. Paul's, mingling most discordantly with the gas, and the naked + wood of screens and benches and board beams disfigured the grand + entrance. In three months' interval they had not time! On the other + hand, the strong points were the music, the effect of which is said + to have been unrivalled; the actual performance of the service,—my + friend Dean Milman is renowned for his manner of reading the funeral + service, he officiated at the burial of Mrs. Lockhart (Sir Walter's + favorite daughter),—and none who were present could speak of it + without tears; the clerical part of the procession, which was a real + and visible mourning pageant in its flowing robes of white with + black bands and sashes; the living branches of laurel and cypress + amongst the mere finery; and, above all, the hushed silence of the + people, always most and best impressed by anything that appeals to + the imagination or the heart.</p> + +<p> I suppose you will have seen how England is flooded, and you will + like to hear that this tiny speck has escaped. The Lodden is over + the park, and turns the beautiful water meadows down to + Strathfieldsaye into a no less beautiful lake, two or three times a + week; but then it subsides as quickly as it rises, so there is none + of the lying under water which results in all sorts of pestilential + exhalations, and this cottage is lifted out of every bad influence, + nay, a kind neighbor having had my lane scraped, I walk dry-shod + every afternoon a mile and a half, which is more than I ever + expected to compass again, and for which I am most thankful. But we + have had our own troubles. K—— has lost her father. He was seized + with paralysis and knew nobody, so they desired her not to come, and + Sam went alone to the funeral. After all, <i>this</i> is her home, and + she has pretty well got over her affliction, and the pony is well + again, and strong enough to draw you and me in the spring,—for I am + looking forward to good and happy days again when you shall return + to England.</p> + +<p> Your magnificent present for Mr. Dillon's book was quite in time, + dear friend. I had warned them to leave room, and Mr. Holloway and + the binders contrived it admirably. They are most grateful for your + kindness, and most gratefully shall I receive the promised volumes. + I have not yet got "the pamphlet," and am much afraid it is buried + in what Miss De Quincey calls her "father's chaos"; but I have + charming letters from her, and am heartily glad that I wrote. You + have the way (like Mr. Bennoch) of making friends still better + friends, and bringing together those who, without you, would have + had no intercourse. It is the very finest of all the fine arts. Tell + dear Dr. Holmes that the more I hear of him, the more I feel how + inadequate has been all that I have said to express my own feelings; + and tell President Sparks that his charming wife ought to have + received a long letter from me at the same moment with yourself. Mr. + Hawthorne's new work will be a real treat. Tell me if Mr. Bennoch + has sent you some stanzas on Ireland, which have more of the very + highest qualities of Beranger than I have ever seen in English + verse. We who love him shall have to be very proud of dear Mr. + Bennoch. Tell me, too, if our solution of the line, "A + fellow-feeling makes us wondrous kind," was the first; and why the + new President is at once called General and talked of as a civilian. + The other President goes on nobly, does he not?</p> + +<p> Say everything for me to dear Mr. and Mrs. W—— and all friends.</p> + +<p> Ever yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Swallowfield, December 14, 1852. + +<p> O my very dear friend, how much too kind you are to me, who have + nothing to give you in return but affection and gratitude! Mr. + Bennett brought me your beautiful book on Saturday, and you may + think how heartily we wished that you had been here also. But you + will come this spring, will you not? I earnestly hope nothing will + come in the way of that happiness. Before leaving the subject of our + good little friend, let me say that, talking over our own best + authors and your De Quincey (N.B. The pamphlet has not arrived yet, + I fear it is forever buried in De Quincey's "chaos"),—talking of + these things, we both agreed that there was another author, probably + little known in America, who would be quite worthy of a reprint, + William Hazlitt. Is there any complete edition of his Lectures and + Essays? I should think they would come out well, now that Thackeray + is giving his Lectures. I know that Charles Lamb and Talfourd + thought Hazlitt not only the most brilliant, but the soundest of all + critics. Then his Life of Napoleon is capital, that is, capital for + an English life; the only way really to know the great man is to + read him in the <i>mémoires</i> of his own ministers, lieutenants, and + servants; for <i>he was</i> a hero to his <i>valet de chambre</i>, the + greatness was so real that it would bear close looking into. And our + Emperor, I have just had a letter from Osborne, from Marianne + Skerrett, describing the arrival of Count Walewski under a royal + salute to receive the Queen's recognition of Napoleon III. She, + Marianne, says, "How great a man that, is, and how like a fairy tale + the whole story!" She adds, that, seeing much of Louis Philippe, she + never could abide him, he was so cunning and so false, not cunning + enough to hide the falseness! Were not you charmed with the bits of + sentiment and feeling that come out all through our hero's Southern + progress? Always one finds in him traits of a gracious and graceful + nature, far too frequent and too spontaneous to be the effect of + calculation. It is a comfort to find, in spite of our delectable + press, ministers are wise enough to understand that our policy is + peace, and not only peace but cordiality. To quarrel with France + would be almost as great a sin as to quarrel with America. What a + set of fools our great ladies are! I had hoped better things of Lord + Carlisle, but to find that long list at Stafford House in female + parliament assembled, echoing the absurdities of Exeter Hall, + leaving their own duties and the reserve which is the happy + privilege of our sex to dictate to a great nation on a point which + all the world knows to be its chief difficulty, is enough to make + one ashamed of the title of Englishwoman. I know a great many of + these committee ladies, and in most of them I trace that desire to + follow the fashion, and concert with duchesses, which is one of the + besetting sins of the literary circles in London. One name did + surprise me, ——, considering that one of her husband's happiest + bits, in the book of his that will live, was the subscription for + sending flannel waistcoats to the negroes in the West Indies; and + that in this present book a certain Mrs. Jellyby is doing just what + his wife is doing at Stafford House!</p> + +<p> Even if I had not had my earnest thanks to send you, I should have + written this week to beg you to convey a message to Mr. Hawthorne. + Mr. Chorley writes to me, "You will be interested to hear that a + Russian literary man of eminence was so much attracted to the 'House + of the Seven Gables' by the review in the Athenaeum, as to have + translated it into Russian and published it feuilletonwise in a + newspaper." I know you will have the goodness to tell Mr. Hawthorne + this, with my love. Mr. Chorley saw the entrance of the Empereur + into the Tuileries. He looked radiant. The more I read that elegy on + the death of Daniel Webster, the more I find to admire. It is as + grand as a dirge upon an organ. Love to the dear W——s and to Dr. + Holmes.</p> + +<p> Ever, dearest Mr. Fields, most gratefully yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<h3>1853</h3> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Swallowfield, January 5, 1853. + +<p>Your most welcome letter, my very dear friend, arrived to-day, and I +write not only to acknowledge that, and your constant kindness, but +because, if, as I believe, Mr. Bennoch has told you of my mischance, you +will be glad to hear from my own hand that I am going on well. Last +Monday fortnight I was thrown violently from my own pony-chaise upon the +hard road in Lady Russell's park. No bones were broken, but the nerves +of one side were so terribly bruised and lacerated, and the shock to the +system was so great, that even at the end of ten days Mr. May could not +satisfy himself, without a most minute re-examination, that neither +fracture nor dislocation had taken place, and I am writing to you at +this moment with my left arm bound tightly to my body and no power +whatever of raising either foot from the ground. The only parts of me +that have escaped uninjured are my head and my right hand, and this is +much. Moreover Mr. May says that, although the cure will be tedious, he +sees no cause to doubt my recovering altogether my former condition, so +that we may still hope to drive about together when you come back to +England....</p> + +<p>I wrote I think, dearest friend, to thank you heartily for the beautiful +and interesting book called "The Homes of American Authors." How +comfortably they are housed, and how glad I am to find that, owing to +Mr. Hawthorne's being so near the new President, and therefore keeping +up the habit of friendship and intercourse, the want of which habit so +frequently brings college friendship to an end, he is likely to enter +into public life. It will be an excellent thing for his future +books,—the fault of all his writings, in spite of their great beauty, +being a want of reality, of the actual, healthy, every-day life which is +a necessary element in literature. All the great poets have it,—Homer, +Shakespeare, Scott. It will be the very best school for our pet poet.</p> + +<p>Nobody under the sun has so much right as you have to see Mr. Dillon's +book, which is in six quarto volumes, not one. Our dear friend Mr. +Bennoch knows him, and tells me to-day that Mr. Dillon has invited him +to go and look at it. He has just received it from the binders. Of +course Mr. Bennoch will introduce you. I was so glad to read what looked +like a renewed pledge of your return to England.</p> + +<p>Mr. Bentley has sent me three several applications for a second series. +At present Mr. May forbids all composition, but I suppose the thing +will be done. I shall introduce some chapters on French poetry and +literature. At this moment I am in full chase of Casimer Delavigne's +<i>ballads</i>. He thought so little of them that he published very few in +his Poésies,—one in a note,—and several of the very finest not at all. +They are scattered about here and there. —— has reproduced two (which +I had) in his Memories; but I want all that can be found, especially one +of which the refrain is, "Chez l'Ambassadere de France." I was such a +fool, when I read it six or seven years ago, as not to take a copy. Do +you think Mr. Hector Bossange could help me to that, or to any others +not printed in the Memories? ...Of course I shall devote one chapter to +<i>our</i> Emperor. Ah, how much better is such a government as his than one +which every four years causes a sort of moral earthquake; or one like +ours, where whole sessions are passed in squabbling! The loss of his +place has saved Disraeli's life, for everybody said he could not have +survived three months' badgering in the House. A very intimate friend of +his (Mr. Henry Drummond, the very odd, very clever member for Surrey) +says that he had certainly broken a bloodvessel. One piece of news I +have heard to-day from Miss Goldsmid, that the Jews are certain now to +gain their point and be admitted to the House of Commons; for my part, I +hold that every one has a claim to his civil rights, were he Mahometan +or Hindoo, and I rejoice that poor old Sir Isaac, the real author of the +movement, will probably live to see it accomplished. The thought of +succeeding at last in the pursuit to which he has devoted half his life +has quite revived him.</p> + +<p>And now Heaven bless you, my very dear friend. None of the poems on +Wellington are to be compared to that dirge on Webster. I rejoice that +my article should have pleased his family. The only bit of my new book +that I have written is a paper on Taylor and Stoddard. Say everything +for me to the Ticknors and Nortons and your own people, the W——s.</p> + +<p>Ever most faithfully and affectionately yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Swallowfield, February 1, 1853. + +<p> Ah, my dear friend! ask Dr. Holmes what these severe bruises and + lacerations of the nerves of the principal joints are, and he will + tell you that they are much more slow and difficult of cure, as well + as more painful, than half a dozen broken bones. It is now above six + weeks since that accident, and although the shoulder is going on + favorably, there is still a total loss of muscular power in the + lower limbs. I am just lifted out of bed and wheeled to the + fireside, and then at night wheeled back and lifted into + bed,—without the power of standing for a moment, or of putting one + foot before the other, or of turning in bed. Mr. May says that warm + weather will probably do much for me, but that till then I must be a + prisoner to my room, for that if rheumatism supervenes upon my + present inability, there will be no chance of getting rid of it. So + "patience and shuffle the cards," as a good man, much in my state, + the contented Marquess, says in Don Quixote.... I assure you I am + not out of spirits; indeed, people are so kind to me that it would + be the basest of all ingratitude if I were not cheerful as well as + thankful. I think that in a letter which you must have received by + this time, I told you how it came about, and thanked you for the + comely book which shows how cosily America lodges my brethren of the + quill. Dr. Holmes ought to have been there, and Dr. Parsons, but + their time will come and must. Nothing gratifies me more than to + find how many strangers, writing to me of my Recollections, mention + Dr. Holmes, classing him sometimes with Thomas Davis, sometimes with + Praed. If I write another series of Recollections, as, when Mr. May + will let me, I suppose I must, I shall certainly include Dr. + Parsons....</p> + +<p> Has anybody told you the terrible story of that boy, Lord Ockham, + Lord Byron's grandson? I had it from Mr. Noel, Lady Byron's + cousin-german and intimate friend. While his poor mother was dying + her death of martyrdom from an inward cancer,—Mrs. Sartoris + (Adelaide Kemble), who went to sing to her, saw her through the + door, which was left open, crouching on a floor covered with + mattresses, on her hands and knees, the only posture she could + bear,—whilst she with the patience of an angel was enduring her + long agony, her husband, engrossed by her, left this lad of + seventeen to his sister and the governess. It was a dull life, and + he ran away. Mr. Noel (my friend's brother, from whom he had the + story) knew most of the youth, who had been for a long time staying + at his house, and they begged him to undertake the search. Lord + Ockham had sent a carpet-bag containing his gentleman's clothes to + his father, Lord Lovelace, in London; he was therefore disguised, + and from certain things he had said Mr. Noel suspected that he + intended to go to America. Accordingly he went first to Bristol, + then to Liverpool, leaving his description, a sort of written + portrait of him, with the police at both places. At Liverpool he was + found before long, and when Mr. Noel, summoned by the electric + telegraph, reached that town, he found him dressed as a sailor-boy + at a low public-house, surrounded by seamen of both nations, and + enjoying, as much as possible, their sailor yarns. He had given his + money, £36, to the landlord to keep; had desired him to inquire for + a ship where he might be received as cabin-boy; and had entered into + a shrewd bargain for his board, stipulating that he should have over + and above his ordinary rations a pint of beer with his Sunday + dinner. The landlord did not cheat him, but he postponed all + engagements under the expectation—seeing that he was clearly a + gentleman's son—that money would be offered for his recovery. The + worst is that he (Lord Ockham) showed no regret for the sorrow and + disgrace that he had brought upon his family at such a time. He has + two tastes not often seen combined,—the love of money and of low + company. One wonders how he will turn out. He is now in Paris, after + which he is to re-enter in Green's ship (he had served in one + before) for a twelvemonth, and to leave the service or remain in it + as he may decide then. This is perfectly true; Mr. Noel had it from + his brother the very day before he wrote it to me. He says that Lady + Lovelace's funeral was too ostentatious. Escutcheons and silver + coronals everywhere. Lord Lovelace's taste that, and not Lady + Byron's, which is perfectly simple. You know that she was buried in + the same vault with her father, whose coffin and the box containing + his heart were in perfect preservation. Scott's only grandson, too, + is just dead of sheer debauchery. Strange! As if one generation paid + in vice and folly for the genius of the past. By the way, are you + not charmed at the Emperor's marriage? To restore to princes honest + love and healthy preference, instead of the conventional + intermarriages which have brought epilepsy and idiotism and madness + into half the royal families of Christendom! And then the beauty of + that speech, with its fine appeals to the best sympathies of our + common nature! I am proud of him. What a sad, sad catastrophe was + that of young Pierce! I won't call his father general, and I hope he + will leave it off. With us it is a real offence to give any man a + higher rank than belongs to him,—to say captain, for instance, to a + lieutenant,—and that is one of our usages which it would be well to + copy. But we have follies enough, God knows; that duchess address, + with all its tuft-hunting signatures, is a thing to make + Englishwomen ashamed. Well, they caught it deservedly in an address + from American women, written probably by some very clever American + man. No, I have not seen Longfellow's lines on the Duke. One gets + sick of the very name. Henry is exceedingly fond of his little + sister. I remember that when he first saw the snow fall in large + flakes, he would have it that it was a shower of white feathers. + Love to all my dear friends, the W——s, Mrs. Sparks, Dr. Holmes, + Mr. Hawthorne. Ever, dearest friend, most affectionately yours,</p> + +<p> M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>(1st March, 1853.) + +<p> The numbers for the election of President of France in favor of + Louis Napoleon were for against 7119791 1119</p> + +<p> Look through the back of this against the candle, or the fire, or + any light.</p> + +<p> My Very Dear Friend: Having a note to send to Mrs. Sparks, who has + sent me, or rather whose husband has sent me, two answers to Lord + Mahon, which, coming through a country bookseller, have, I suspect, + been some months on the way, I cannot help sending it enclosed to + you, that I may have a chat with you <i>en passant</i>,—the last, I + hope, before your arrival. If you have not seen the above curious + instance of figures forming into a word, and that word into a + prophecy, I think it will amuse you, and I want besides to tell you + some of the <i>on-dits</i> about the Empress. A Mr. Huddlestone, the head + of one of our great Catholic houses, is in despair at the marriage. + He had been desperately in love with her for two years in + Spain,—had followed her to Paris,—was called back to England by + his father's illness, and was on the point of crossing the Channel, + after that father's death, to lay himself and £30,000 or £40,000 a + year at her feet, when the Emperor stepped in and carried off the + prize. To comfort himself he has got a portrait of her on horseback, + which a friend of mine saw the other day at his house. Mrs. Browning + writes me from Florence: "I wonder if the Empress pleases you as + well as the Emperor. For my part, I approve altogether, and none the + less that he has offended Austria by the mode of announcement. Every + cut of the whip on the face of Austria is an especial compliment to + me, or so I feel it. Let him heed the democracy, and do his duty to + the world, and use to the utmost his great opportunities. Mr. Cobden + and the peace societies are pleasing me infinitely just now in + making head against the immorality—that's the word—of the English + press. The tone taken up towards France is immoral in the highest + degree, and the invasion cry would be idiotic if it were not + something worse. The Empress, I heard the other day from high + authority, is charming and good at heart. She was brought up at a + respectable school at Clifton, and is very English, which does not + prevent her from shooting with pistols, leaping gates, driving four + in hand, and upsetting the carriage if the frolic requires it,—as + brave as a lion and as true as a dog. Her complexion is like marble, + white, pale, and pure,—the hair light, rather sandy, they say, and + she powders it with gold dust for effect; but there is less physical + and more intellectual beauty than is generally attributed to her. + She is a woman of very decided opinions. I like all that, don't you? + and I like her letter to the press, as everybody must." Besides + this, I have to-day a letter from a friend in Paris, who says that + "everybody feels her charm," and that "the Emperor, when presenting + her at the balcony on the wedding-day, looked radiant with + happiness." My Parisian friend says that young Alexandre Dumas is + amongst the people arrested for libel,—a thorough <i>mauvais sujet</i>. + Lamartine is quite ruined, and forced to sell his estates. He was + always, I believe, expensive, like all those French <i>littérateurs</i>. + You don't happen to have in Boston—have you?—a copy of "Les + Mémoires de Lally Tollendal"? I think they are different + publications in defence of his father, published, some in London + during the Emigration, some in Paris after the Restoration. What I + want is an account of the retreat from Pondicherie. I'll tell you + why some day here. Mrs. Browning is most curious about your + rappings,—of which I suppose you believe as much as I do of the + Cock Lane Ghost, whose doings, by the way, they much resemble.</p> + +<p> I liked Mrs. Tyler's letter; at least I liked it much better than + the one to which it was an answer, although I hold it one of our + best female privileges to have no act or part in such matters.</p> + +<p> Now you will be sorry to have a very bad account of me. Three weeks + ago frost and snow set in here, and ever since I have been unable to + rise or stand, or put one foot before another, and the pain is much + worse than at first. I suppose rheumatism has supervened upon the + injured nerve. God bless you. Love to all.</p> + +<p> Ever faithfully yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Swallowfield, March 17, 1853 + +<p> My Dear Friend: I cannot enough thank you for your most kind and + charming letter. Your letters, and the thoughts of you, and the hope + that you will coax your partners into the hazardous experiment of + letting you come to England, help to console me under this long + confinement; for here I am at near Easter still a close prisoner + from the consequences of the accident that took place before + Christmas. I have only once left my room, and that only to the + opposite chamber to have this cleaned, and I got such a chill that + it brought back all the pain and increased all the weakness. But + when fine weather—warm, genial, sunny weather—comes, I will get + down in some way or other, and trust myself to that which never + hurts any one, the honest open air. Spring, and even the approach of + spring, has upon me something the effect that England has upon you. + It sets me dreaming,—I see leafy hedges in my dreams, and flowery + banks, and then I long to make the vision a reality. I remember that + Fanchon's father, Flush, who was a famous sporting dog, used, at the + approach of the covering season, to quest in his sleep, doubtless by + the same instinct that works in me. So, as soon as the sun tells the + same story with the primroses I shall make a descent after some + fashion, and no doubt, aided by Sam's stalwart arm, successfully. In + the mean while I have one great pleasure in store, be the weather + what it may; for next Saturday or the Saturday after I shall see + dear Mr. Bennoch. We have not met since November, although he has + written to me again and again. He will take this letter, and I + trouble you with a note to kind Mrs. Sparks, who is about to send + me, or rather who has sent me, some American cracknels, which have + not yet arrived. To-day, too, I had a charming letter from + Lasswade,—not <i>the</i> letter, the pamphlet one, but one full of + kindness from father and daughter, written by Miss Margaret to ask + after me with a reality of interest which one feels at once. It gave + me pleasure in another way too; Mr. De Quincey is of my faith and + delight in the Emperor! Is not that delightful? Also he holds in + great abomination that blackest of iniquities ——, my heresy as to + which nearly cost me an idolator t'other day, a lady from Essex, who + came here to take a house in my neighborhood to be near me. She was + so shocked that, if we had not met afterwards, when I regained my + ground a little by certain congenialities she certainly would have + abjured me forever. Well! no offence to Mrs. ——. I had rather in a + literary question agree with Thomas De Quincey than with her and + Queen Victoria, who, always fond of strong not to say coarse + excitements, is amongst ——'s warm admirers. I knew you would like + the Emperor's marriage. I heard last week from a stiff English lady, + who had been visiting one of the Empress's ladies of honor, that one + day at St. Cloud she shot thirteen brace of partridges; "but," added + the narrator, "she is so sweet and charming a creature that any man + might fall in love with her notwithstanding." To be sure Mr. + Thackeray liked you. How could he help it? Did not he also like Dr. + Holmes? I hope so. How glad I should be to see him in England, and + how glad I shall be to see Mr. Hawthorne! He will find all the best + judges of English writing admiring him to his heart's content, + warmly and discriminatingly; and a consulship in a bustling town + will give him the cheerful reality, the healthy air of every-day + life, which is his only want. Will you tell all these dear friends, + especially Mr. and Mrs. W——, how deeply I feel their affectionate + sympathy, and thank Mr. Whittier and Professor Longfellow over and + over again for their kind condolence? Tell Mr. Whittier how much I + shall prize his book. He has an earnest admirer in Buckingham + Palace, Marianne Skerrett, known as the Queen's Miss Skerrett, the + lady chiefly about her, and the only one to whom she talks of books. + Miss Skerrett is herself a very clever woman, and holds Mr. Whittier + to be not only the greatest, but the <i>one</i> poet of America; which + last assertion the poet himself would, I suspect, be the very first + to deny. Your promise of Dr. Parsons's poem is very delightful to + me. I hold firm to my admiration of those stanzas on Webster. + Nothing written on the Duke came within miles of it, and I have no + doubt that the poem on Dante's bust is equally fine.... Mr. Justice + Talfourd has just printed a new tragedy. He sent it to me from + Oxford, not from Reading, where he had passed four days and never + gave a copy to any mortal, and told me, in a very affectionate + letter which accompanied it, that "it was at present a very private + sin, he having only given eight or ten copies in all." I suppose + that it will be published, for I observe that the "not published" is + written, not printed, and that Moxon's name is on the title-page. It + is called "The Castilian,"—is on the story of a revolt headed by + Don John de Padilla in the early part of Charles the Fifth's reign, + and is more like Ion than either of his other tragedies. I have just + been reading a most interesting little book in manuscript, called + "The Heart of Montrose." It is a versification in three ballads of a + very striking letter in Napier's "Life and Times of Montrose," by + the young lady who calls herself Mary Maynard. It is really a little + book that ought to make a noise, not too long, full of grace and of + interest, and she has adhered to the true story with excellent + taste, that story being a very remarkable union of the romantic and + the domestic. I am afraid that my other young poet, ——, is dying + of consumption; those fine spirits often fall in that way. I have + just corrected my book for a cheaper edition. Mr. Bentley is very + urgent for a second series, and I suppose I must try. I shall get + you to write for me to Mr. Hector Bossange when you come, for come + you must. My eyes begin to feel the effects of this long confinement + to one smoky and dusty room.</p> + +<p> So far had I written, dearest friend, when this day (March 26) + brought me your most kind and welcome letter enclosed in another + from dear Mr. Bennoch. Am I to return Dr. Parsons's? or shall I + keep it till you come to fetch it? Tell the writer how very much I + prize his kindness, none the less that he likes (as I do) my + tragedies, that is, one of them, the best of my poor doings. The + lines on the Duchess are capital, and quite what she deserves; but I + think those the worst who, in so true a spirit of what Carlyle would + call flunkeyism, consent to sign any nonsense that their names may + figure side by side with that of a duchess, and they themselves find + (for once) an admittance to the gilded saloons of Stafford House. + For my part, I well-nigh lost an admirer the other day by taking a + common-sense view of the question. A lady (whose name I never heard + till a week ago) came here to take a house to be near me. (N.B. + There was none to be had.) Well, she was so provoked to find that I + had stopped short of the one hundredth page of ——, and never + intended to read another, that I do think, if we had not discovered + some sympathies to counterbalance that grand difference—As I live, + I have told you that story before! Ah! I am sixty-six, and I get + older every day! So does little Henry, who is at home just now, and + longing to put the clock forward that he may go to America. He is a + boy of great promise, full of sound sense, and as good as good can + be. I suppose that he never in his life told an untruth, or broke a + promise, or disobeyed a command. He is very fond of his little + sister; and not at all jealous either—to the great praise of that + four-footed lady be it said—is Fanchon, who watches over the + cradle, and is as fond of the baby in her way as Henry in his.</p> + +<p> So far from paying me copyright money, all that I ever received from + Mr. B—— was two copies of his edition of "Our Village," one of + which I gave away, and of the other some chance visitor has taken + one of the volumes. I really do think I shall ask him for a copy or + two. How can I ever thank you enough for your infinite kindness in + sending me books! Thank you again and again. Dear Mr. Bennoch has + been making an admirable speech, in moving to present the thanks of + the city to Mr. Layard. How one likes to feel proud of one's + friends! God bless you!</p> + +<p> Ever most faithfully yours, M.R.M.</p> + +<p> Kind Mrs. Sparks's biscuits arrived quite safe. How droll some of + the cookery is in "The Wide, Wide World"! It would try English + stomachs by its over-richness. I wonder you are not all dead, if + such be your <i>cuisine</i>.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Swallowfield, May 3, 1853. + +<p> How shall I thank you enough, dear and kind friend, for the copy of + —— that arrived here yesterday! Very like; only it wanted what + that great painter, the sun, will never arrive at giving, the actual + look of life which is the one great charm of the human countenance. + Strange that the very source of light should fail in giving that + light of the face, the smile. However, all that can be given by that + branch of art has been given. I never before saw so good a + photographic portrait, and for one that gives more I must wait until + John Lucas, or some American John Lucas, shall coax you into + sitting. I sent you, ten days ago, a batch of notes, and a most + unworthy letter of thanks for one of your parcels of gift-books; and + I write the rather now to tell you I am better than then, and hope + to be in a still better plight before July or August, when a most + welcome letter from Mr. Tuckerman has bidden us to expect you to + officiate as Master of the Ceremonies to Mr. Hawthorne, who, welcome + for himself, will be trebly welcome for such an introducer.</p> + +<p> Now let me say how much I like De Quincey's new volumes. The "Wreck + of a Household" shows great power of narrative, if he would but take + the trouble to be right as to details; the least and lowest part of + the art, that of interesting you in his people, he has. And those + "Last Days of Kant," how affecting they are, and how thoroughly in + every line and in every thought, agree with him or not, (and in all + that relates to Napoleon I differ from him, as in his overestimate + of Wordsworth and of Coleridge), one always feels how thoroughly and + completely he is a gentleman as well as a great writer; and so much + has <i>that</i> to do with my admiration, that I have come to tracing + personal character in books almost as a test of literary merit: + Charles Boner's "Chamois-Hunting," for instance, owes a great part + of its charm to the resolute truth of the writer, and a great + drawback from the attraction of "My Novel" seems to me to be derived + from the <i>blasé</i> feeling, the unclean mind from whence it springs, + felt most when trying after moralities.</p> + +<p> Amongst your bounties I was much amused with the New York magazines, + the curious turning up of a new claimant to the + Louis-the-Seventeenth pretension amongst the Red Indians, and the + rappings and pencil-writings of the new Spiritualists. One should + wonder most at the believers in these two branches of faith, if that + particular class did not always seem to be provided most abundantly + whenever a demand occurs. Only think of Mrs. Browning giving the + most unlimited credence to every "rapping" story which anybody can + tell her! Did I tell you that the work on which she is engaged is a + fictitious autobiography in blank verse, the heroine a woman artist + (I suppose singer or actress), and the tone intensely modern? You + will see that "Colombe's Birthday" has been brought out at the + Haymarket. Mr. Chorley (Robert Browning's most intimate friend) + writes me word that Mrs. Martin (Helen Faucit, at whose persuasion + it was acted) told him that it had gone off "better than she + expected." Have you seen Alexander Smith's book, which is all the + rage just now? I saw some extracts from his poems a year and a half + ago, and the whole book is like a quantity of extracts put together + without any sort of connection, a mass of powerful metaphor with + scarce any lattice-work for the honeysuckles to climb upon. Keats + was too much like this; but then Keats was the first. Now this book, + admitting its merit in a certain way, is but the imitation of a + school, and, in my mind, a bad school. One such poem as that on the + bust of Dante is worth a whole wilderness of these new writers, the + very best of them. Certainly nothing better than those two pages + ever crossed the Atlantic.</p> + +<p> God bless you, dear friend. Say everything for me to dear Mr. and + Mrs. W——, to Dr. Holmes, to Dr. Parsons, to Mr. Whittier, (how + powerful his new volume is!) to Mr. Stoddard, to Mrs. Sparks, to all + my friends.</p> + +<p> Ever most affectionately yours, M.R.M.</p> + +<p> I am writing on the 8th of May, but where is the May of the poets? + Half the morning yesterday it snowed, at night there was ice as + thick as a shilling, and to-day it is absolutely as cold as + Christmas. Of course the leaves refuse to unfold, the nightingales + can hardly be said to sing, even the hateful cuckoo holds his peace. + I am hoping to see dear Mr. Bennoch soon to supply some glow and + warmth.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Swallowfield, June 4, 1853. + +<p> I write at once, dearest friend, to acknowledge your most kind and + welcome letter. I am better than when I wrote last, and get out + almost every day for a very slow and quiet drive round our lovely + lanes; far more lovely than last year, since the foliage is quite as + thick again, and all the flowery trees, aloes, laburnums, + horse-chestnuts, acacias, honeysuckles, azalias, rhododendrons, + hawthorns, are one mass of blossoms,—literally the leaves are + hardly visible, so that the color, whenever we come upon park, + shrubbery, or plantation, is such as should be seen to be imagined. + In my long life I never knew such a season of flowers; so the wet + winter and the cold spring have their compensation. I get out in + this way with Sam and K—— and the baby, and it gives me exquisite + pleasure, and if you were here the pleasure would be multiplied a + thousand fold by your society; but I do not gain strength in the + least. Attempting to do a little more and take some young people to + the gates of Whiteknights, which, without my presence, would be + closed, proved too far and too rapid a movement, and for two days I + could not stir for excessive soreness all over the body. I am still + lifted down stairs step by step, and it is an operation of such time + (it takes half an hour to get me down that one flight of cottage + stairs), such pain, such fatigue, and such difficulty, that, unless + to get out in the pony-chaise, I do not attempt to leave my room. I + am still lifted into bed, and can neither turn nor move in any way + when there, am wheeled from the stairs to the pony-carriage, cannot + walk three steps, can hardly stand a moment, and in rising from my + chair am sometimes ten minutes, often longer. So you see that I am + very, very feeble and infirm. Still I feel sound at heart and clear + in head, am quite as cheerful as ever, and, except that I get very + much sooner exhausted, enjoy society as much as ever, so you must + come if only to make me well. I do verily believe your coming would + do me more good than anything.</p> + +<p> I was much interested by your account of the poor English stage + coachman. Ah, these are bad days for stage coachmen on both sides + the Atlantic! Do you remember his name? and do you know whether he + drove between London and Reading, or between Reading and + Basingstoke?—a most useless branch railroad between the two latter + places, constructed by the Great Western simply out of spite to the + Southwestern, which I am happy to state has never yet paid its daily + expenses, to say nothing of the cost of construction, and has taken + everything off our road, which before abounded in coaches, carriers, + and conveyances of all sorts. The vile railway does us no earthly + good, we being above four miles from the nearest station, and you + may imagine how much inconvenience the absence of stated + communication with a market town causes to our small family, + especially now that I can neither spare Sam nor the pony to go + twelve miles. You must come to England and come often to see me, + just to prove that there is any good whatever in railways,—a fact I + am often inclined to doubt.</p> + +<p> I shall send this letter to be forwarded to Mr. Bennett, and desire + him to write to you himself. He is, as you say, an "excellent + youth," although it is very generous in me to say so, for I do + believe that you came to see me since he has been. Dear Mr. Bennoch, + with all his multifarious business, has been again and again. God + bless him! ...To return to Mr Bennett. He has been engaged in a + grand battle with the trustees of an old charity school, + principally the vicar. His two brothers helped in the fight. They + won a notable victory. They were quite right in the matter in + dispute and the "excellent youth" came out well in various letters. + His opponent, the vicar, was Senior Wrangler at our Cambridge, the + very highest University honor in England, and tutor to the present + Lord Grey.</p> + +<p> By the way, Mr. —— wrote to me the other day to ask that I would + let him be here when Mr. Hawthorne comes to see me. I only answered + this request by asking whether he did not intend to come to see <i>me</i> + before that time, for certainly he might come to visit an old + friend, especially a sick one, for her own sake, and not merely to + meet a notability, and I am by no means sure that Mr. Hawthorne + might not prefer to come alone or with dear Mr. Bennoch; at all + events it ought to be left to <i>his</i> choice, and besides I have not + lost the hope of your being the introducer of the great romancer, + and then how little should I want anybody to come between us. Begin + as they may, all my paragraphs slide into that refrain of Pray, pray + come!</p> + +<p> I have written to you about other kindnesses since that note full of + hopes, but I do not think that I did write to thank you for dear Dr. + Holmes's "Lecture on English Poetesses," or rather the analysis of a + lecture which sins only by over-gallantry. Ah, there is a difference + between the sexes, and the difference is the reverse way to that in + which he puts it! Tell him I sent his charming stanzas on Moore to a + leading member of the Irish committee for raising a monument to his + memory, and that they were received with enthusiasm by the Irish + friends of the poet. I have sent them to many persons in England + worthy to be so honored, and the very cleverest woman whom I have + ever known (Miss Goldsmid) wrote to me only yesterday to thank me + for sending her that exquisite poem, adding, "I think the stanza 'If + on his cheek, etc.,' contains one of the most beautiful similes to + be found in the whole domain of poetry." I also told Mrs. Browning + what dear Dr. Holmes said of her. The American poets whom she + prefers are Lowell and Emerson. Now I know something of Lowell and + of Emerson, but I hold that those lines on Dante's bust are amongst + the finest ever written in the language, whether by American or + Englishman; don't you? And what a grand Dead March is the poem on + Webster! ...Also Mrs. Browning believes in spirit-rapping + stories,—all,—and tells me that Robert Owen has been converted by + them to a belief in a future state. Everybody everywhere is turning + tables. The young Russells, who are surcharged with electricity, set + them spinning in ten minutes. In general, you know, it is usual to + take off all articles of metal. They, the other night, took a fancy + to remove their rings and bracelets, and, having done so, the table, + which had paused for a moment, began whirling again as fast as ever + the contrary way. This is a fact, and a curious one.</p> + +<p> I have lent three volumes of your "De Quincey" to my young friend, + James Payn, a poet of very high promise, who has verified the Green + story, and taken the books with him to the Lakes. God grant, my dear + friend, that you may not lose by "Our Village"; that is what I care + for.</p> + +<p> Ever faithfully yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Swallowfield, June 23, 1853. + +<p> Ah, my very dear friend, we shall not see you this summer, I am + sure. For the first time I clearly perceive the obstacle, and I feel + that unless some chance should detain Mr. Ticknor, we must give up + the great happiness of seeing you till next year. I wonder whether + your poor old friend will be alive to greet you then! Well, that is + as God pleases; in the mean time be assured that you have been one + of the chief comforts and blessings of these latter years of my + life, not only in your own friendship and your thousand kindnesses, + but in the kindness and friendship of dear Mr. Bennoch, which, in + the first instance, I mainly owe to you. I am in somewhat better + trim, although the getting out of doors and into the pony-carriage, + from which Mr. May hoped such great things, has hardly answered his + expectations. I am not stronger, and I am so nervous that I can only + bear to be driven, or more ignominiously still to be led, at a + foot's pace through the lanes. I am still unable to stand or walk, + unless supported by Sam's strong hands lifting me up on each side, + still obliged to be lifted into bed, and unable to turn or move when + there, the worst grievance of all. However, I am in as good spirits + as ever, and just at this moment most comfortably seated under the + acacia-tree at the corner of my house,—the beautiful acacia + literally loaded with its snowy chains (the flowering trees this + summer, lilacs, laburnums, rhododendrons, azalias, have been one + mass of blossoms, and none are so graceful as this waving acacia); + on one side a syringa, smelling and looking like an orange-tree; a + jar of roses on the table before me,—fresh-gathered roses, the + pride of Sam's heart; and little Fanchon at my feet, too idle to eat + the biscuits with which I am trying to tempt her,—biscuits from + Boston, sent to me by Mrs. Sparks, whose kindness is really + indefatigable, and which Fanchon ought to like upon that principle + if upon no other, but you know her laziness of old, and she + improves in it every day. Well that is a picture of the Swallowfield + cottage at this moment, and I wish that you and the Bennochs and the + W——s and Mr. Whipple were here to add to its life and comfort. You + must come next year and come in May, that you and dear Mr. Bennoch + may hear the nightingales together. He has never heard them, and + this year they have been faint and feeble (as indeed they were last) + compared with their usual song. Now they are over, and although I + expect him next week, it will be too late.</p> + +<p> Precious fooling that has been at Stafford House! And our —— who + delights in strong, not to say worse, emotions, whose chief pleasure + it was to see the lions fed in Van Amburgh's time, who went seven + times to see the Ghost in the "Corsican Brothers," and has every + sort of natural curiosity (not to say wonder) brought to her at + Buckingham Palace, was in a state of exceeding misery because she + could not, consistently with her amicable relations with the United + States, receive Mrs. —— there. (Ah! our dear Emperor has better + taste. Heaven bless him!) From Lord Shaftesbury one looks for + unmitigated cant, but I did expect better things of Lord Carlisle. + How many names that both you and I know went there merely because + the owner of the house was a fashionable Duchess,—the Wilmers + ("though they are my friends"), the P——s and ——! For my part, I + have never read beyond the first one hundred pages, and have a + certain malicious pleasure in so saying. Let me add that almost all + the clever men whom I have seen are of the same faction; they took + up the book and laid it down again. Do you ever reprint French + books, or ever get them translated? By very far the most delightful + work that I have read for many years is Sainte-Beuve's "Causeries du + Lundi," or his weekly feuilletons in the "Constitutionnel." I am + sure they would sell if there be any taste for French literature. It + is so curious, so various, so healthy, so catholic in its biography + and criticism; but it must be well done by some one who writes good + English prose and knows well the literary history of France. Don't + trust women; they, especially the authoresses, are as ignorant as + dirt. Just as I had got to this point, Mr. Willmot came to spend the + evening, and very singularly consulted me about undertaking a series + of English Portraits Littéraires, like Sainte-Beuve's former works. + He will do it well, and I commended him to the charming "Causeries," + and advised him to make that a weekly article, as no doubt he could. + It would only tell the better for the wide diffusion. He does, you + know, the best criticism of The Times. I have most charming letters + from Dr. Parsons and dear Mr. Whittier. His cordiality is + delightful. God bless you.</p> + +<p> Ever yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>(No date.) + +<p> Never, my dear friend, did I expect to like so well a man who came + in your place, as I do like Mr. Ticknor. He is an admirable person, + very like his cousin in mind and manners, unmistakably good. It is + delightful to hear him talk of you, and to feel that the sort of + elder brotherhood which a senior partner must exercise in a firm is + in such hands. He was very kind to little Harry, and Harry likes him + <i>next</i> to you. You know he had been stanch in resisting all the + advances of dear Mr ——, who had asked him if he would not come to + him, to which he had responded by a sturdy "no!" He (Mr. Ticknor) + came here on Saturday with the dear Bennochs (N.B. I love him better + than ever), and the Kingsleys met him. Mr. Hawthorne was to have + come, but could not leave Liverpool so soon, so that is a pleasure + to come. He will tell you that all is arranged for printing with + Colburn's successors, Hurst and Blackett, two separate works, the + plays and dramatic scenes forming one, the stories to be headed by a + long tale, of which I have always had the idea in my head, to form + almost a novel. God grant me strength to do myself and my publishers + justice in that story! This whole affair springs from the fancy + which Mr. Bennoch has taken to have the plays printed in a collected + form during my lifetime, for I had always felt that they would be so + printed after my death, so that their coming out now seems to me a + sort of anachronism. The one certain pleasure that I shall derive + from this arrangement will be, having my name and yours joined + together in the American edition, for we reserve the early sheets. + Nothing ever vexed me so much as the other book not being in your + hands. That was Mr. ——'s fault, for, stiff as Bentley is, Mr. + Bennoch would have managed him..... Of a certainty my first strong + interest in American poetry sprang from dear Dr. Holmes's exquisite + little piece of scenery painting, which he delivered where his + father had been educated. You sent me that, and thus made the + friendship between Dr. Holmes and me; and now you are yourself—you, + my dearest American friend—delivering an address at the greatest + American University. It is a great honor, and one....</p> + +<p> I suppose Mr. Ticknor tells you the book-news? The most striking + work for years is "Haydon's Life." I hope you have reprinted it, for + it is sure, not only of a run, but of a durable success. You know + that the family wanted me to edit the book. I shrank from a task + that required so much knowledge which could only be possessed by one + living in the artist world <i>now</i>, to know who was dead and who + alive, and Mr. Tom Taylor has done it admirably. I read the book + twice over, so profound was my interest in it. In his early days, I + used to be a sort of safety-valve to that ardent spirit most like + Benvenuto Cellini both in pen and tongue and person. Our dear Mr. + Bennoch was the providence of his later years. They tell me that + that powerful work has entirely stopped the sale of Moore's Life, + which, all tinsel and tawdry rags, might have been written by a + court newsman or a court milliner. I wonder whether they will print + the other six volumes; for the four out they have given Mrs. Moore + three thousand pounds. A bad account Mr. Tupper gives of ——. Fancy + his conceit! When Mr. Tupper praised a passage in one of his poems, + he said, "If I had known you liked it, I would have omitted that + passage in my new edition," and he has done so by passages praised + by persons of taste, cut them out bodily and left the sentences + before and after to join themselves how they could. What a bad + figure your President and Mr. —— cut at the opening of your + Exhibition! I am sorry for ——, for, although he has quite + forgotten me since his aunt's book came out, he once stayed three + weeks with us, and I liked him. Well, so many of his countrymen are + over-good to me, that I may well forgive one solitary instance of + forgetfulness! Make my love to all my dear friends at Boston and + Cambridge. Tell Mrs. Sparks how dearly I should have liked to have + been at her side on <i>the</i> Thursday. Tell Dr. Holmes that his kind + approbation of Rienzi is one of my encouragements in this new + edition. I had a long talk about him with Mr. Ticknor, and rejoice + to find him so young. Thank Mr. Whipple again and again for his + kindness.</p> + +<p> Ever yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>(No date.) + +<p> My Very Dear Friend: Mr. Hillard (whom I shall be delighted to see + if he come to England and will let me know when he can get + here)—Mr. Hillard has just put into verse my own feelings about + you. It is the one comfort belonging to the hard work of these <i>two</i> + books (for besides the Dramatic Works in two thick volumes, there + are prose stories in two also, and I have one long tale, almost a + novel, to write),—it is the one comfort of this labor that <i>I</i> + shall see our names together on one page. I have just finished a + long gossiping preface of thirty or forty pages to the Dramatic + Works, which is much more an autobiography than the Recollections, + and which I have tried to make as amusing as if it were ill-natured. + <i>That</i> work is dedicated to our dear Mr. Bennoch, another + consolation. I sent the dedication to dear Mr. Ticknor, but as his + letter of adieu did not reach me till two or three days after it was + written, and I am not quite sure that I recollected the number in + Paternoster Row, I shall send it to you here. "To Francis Bennoch, + Esq., who blends in his life great public services with the most + genial private hospitality; who, munificent patron of poet and of + painter, is the first to recognize every talent except his own, + content to be beloved where others claim to be admired; to him, + equally valued as companion and as friend, these volumes are most + respectfully and affectionately inscribed by the author." I write + from memory, but if this be not it, it is very like it, (and I beg + you to believe that my preface is a little better English than this + agglomeration of "its.")</p> + +<p> Mr. Kingsley says that Alfred Tennyson says that Alexander Smith's + poems show fancy, but not imagination; and on my repeating this to + Mrs. Browning, she said it was exactly her impression. For my part I + am struck by the extravagance and the total want of finish and of + constructive power, and I am in hopes that ultimately good will come + out of evil, for Mr. Kingsley has written, he tells me, a paper + called "Alexander Pope and Alexander Smith," and Mr. Willmott, the + powerful critic of The Times, takes the same view, he tells me, and + will doubtless put it into print some day or other, so that the + carrying this bad school to excess will work for good. By the way, + Mr. ——, whose Imogen is so beautiful, sent me the other day a + terrible wild affair in that style, and I wrote him a frank letter, + which my sincere admiration for what he does well gives me some + right to do. He has in him the making of a great poet; but, if he + once take to these obscurities, he is lost. I hope I have not + offended him, for I think it is a real talent, and I feel the + strongest interest in him. My young friend, James Payn, went a + fortnight or three weeks ago to Lasswade and spent an evening with + Mr. De Quincey. He speaks of him just as you do, marvellously fine + in point of conversation, looking like an old beggar, but with the + manners of a prince, "if," adds James Payn, "we may understand by + that all that is intelligent and courteous and charming." (I suppose + he means such manners as our Emperor's.) He began by saying that his + life was a mere misery to him from nerves, and that he could only + render it endurable by a semi-inebriation with opium. (I always + thought he had not left opium off.).... On his return, James Payn + again visited Harriet Martineau, who talked frankly about <i>the</i> + book, exculpating Mr. Atkinson and taking all the blame to herself. + She asked if I had read it, and on finding that I had not, said, "It + was better so." There are fine points about Harriet Martineau. Mrs. + Browning is positively crazy about the spirit-rappings. She believes + every story, European or American, and says our Emperor consults the + mediums, which I disbelieve.</p> + +<p> The above was written yesterday. To-day has brought me a charming + letter from Miss De Quincey. She has been very ill, but is now back + at Lasswade, and longing most earnestly to persuade her father to + return to Grasmere. Will she succeed? She sends me a charming + message from a brother Francis, a young physician settled in India. + She says that her sister told her her father was in bad spirits when + talking to Mr. Payn, which perhaps accounts for his confessing to + the continuing the opium-eating.</p> + +<p> Mr. —— brought me some proofs of his new volume of poems. I think + that if he will take pains he will be a real poet. But it is so + difficult to get young men to believe that correcting and + re-correcting is necessary, and he is a most charming person, and so + gets spoiled. I spoil him myself, God forgive me! although I advise + him to the best of my power. No signs of Mr. Hawthorne yet! Heaven + bless you, my dear friend.</p> + +<p> Ever faithfully yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>October, 1853. + +<p> My Very Dear Friend: I cannot thank you enough for the two charming + books which you have sent me. I enclose a letter for the author of + this very remarkable book of Italian travel, and I have written to + dear Mr. Hawthorne myself.</p> + +<p> Since I wrote to you, dear Mr. Bennoch sent to me to look out what + letters I could find of poor Haydon's. I was half killed by the + operation, all my sins came upon me; for, lulling my conscience by + carelessness about bills and receipts, and by answering almost every + letter the day it comes, I am in other respects utterly careless, + and my great mass of correspondence goes where fate and K—— + decree. We had five great chests and boxes, two huge hampers, + fifteen or sixteen baskets, and more drawers than you would believe + the house could hold, to look over, and at last disinterred + sixty-five. I did not dare read them for fear of the dust, but I + have no doubt they will be most valuable, for his letters were + matchless for talent and spirit. I hope you have reprinted the Life; + if so, of course you will publish the Correspondence. By the way, + it is a curious specimen of the little care our highest people have + for poetry of the —— school, that Vice-Chancellor Wood, one of the + most accomplished men whom I have ever known, a bosom friend of + Macaulay, was with me last week, and had never heard of Alexander + Smith.</p> + +<p> I continue terribly lame, and with no chance of amendment till the + spring, when you will come and do me good. Besides the lameness, I + am also miserably feeble, ten years older than when you saw me last. + I am working as well as I can, but very slowly. I send you a proof + of the Preface to the Dramatic Works (not knowing whether they have + sent you the sheets, or when they mean to bring it out). The few who + have seen this Introduction like it. It tells the truth about myself + and says no ill of other people. God bless you, dear friend. Say + everything for me to all friends, not forgetting Mr. Ticknor.</p> + +<p> Ever yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Swallowfield, November 8, 1853. + +<p> My Very Dear Friend; Your letters are always delightful to me, even + when they are dated Boston; think what they will be when they are + dated London. In my last I sent you a very rough proof of my Preface + (I think Mr. Hurst means to call it Introduction), which you will + find autobiographical to your heart's content; I hope you will like + it. To-day I enclose the first rough draft of an account of my first + impression of Haydon. Don't print it, please, because I suppose they + mean it for a part of the Correspondence when it shall be published. + I looked out for those sixty-five long letters of Haydon's,—as + long, perhaps, each, as half a dozen of mine to you,—and doubtless + I have many more, but I was almost blinded by the dust in hunting up + those, my eyes having been very tender since I was shut up in a + smoky room for twenty-two weeks last winter. I find now that Messrs. + Longman have postponed the publication of the Correspondence in the + fear that it would injure the sale of the Memoirs, the book having + had a great success here. By the enclosed, which is as true and as + like as I could make it, you will see that he was a very brilliant + and charming person. I believe that next to having been heart-broken + by the committee and the heartlessness of his pupil ——, and + enraged by the passion for that miserable little wretch, Tom Thumb, + that the real cause of his suicide was to get his family provided + for. It succeeded. By one way and another they had £440 a year + between the four; but although the poor father never complained, + you will see by his book what a selfish wretch that —— was.....</p> + +<p> My tragedies are printed, and the dramatic scenes, forming, with the + preface, two volumes of above four hundred pages each. But I don't + think they are to come out till the prose work, and that is not a + quarter finished. I am always a most slow and laborious writer (that + Preface was written three times over throughout, and many parts of + it five or six), and of course my ill health does not improve my + powers of composition. This wet summer and autumn have been terribly + against me. I am lamer even than when Mr. Ticknor saw me, and + sometimes cannot even dip the pen in the ink without holding it in + my left hand. Thank God my head is spared, and my heart is, I think, + as young as ever.</p> + +<p> I had a letter to-day from Mr. Chorley; he has been staying all the + autumn with Sir William Molesworth, now a Cabinet Minister, but he + complains terribly about his own health, notwithstanding he has a + play coming out at the Olympic, which Mr. Wigan has taken. Mrs. + Kingsley, a most sweet person, has a cough which has forced them to + send her to the sea. You shall be sure to see both him and Mr. + Willmott if I can compass it; but we live, each of us, seven miles + apart, and these country clergymen are so tied to their parish that + they are difficult to catch. However, they both come to see me + whenever they can, and we must contrive it. You will like both in + different ways. Mr. Willmott is one of the most agreeable men in the + world, and Mr. Kingsley is charming. I have another dear friend, not + an author, whom I prefer to either,—Hugh Pearson. He made for + himself a collection of De Quincey, when a lad at Oxford. You would + like him, I think, better than anybody; but he too is a country + clergyman, living eight miles off. Poor Mr. Norton! His letters were + charming. He is connected in my mind with Mrs. Hemans, too, to whom + he was so kind. You must say everything for me to dear Mrs. Sparks. + I seem most ungrateful to her, but I really have little power of + writing letters just now. Did I tell you that Mr. —— sent me a + poem called ——, which I am very sorry that he ever wrote. It has + shocked Mr. Bennoch even more than it did me. You must get him to + write more poems like ——. A young friend of mine has brought out a + little volume in which there is striking evidence of talent; but + none of these young writers take pains. How very pretty is that + scrap on a country church! Mrs. Browning is at Florence, but is + going to Rome. She says that your countryman, Mr. Story, has made a + charming statuette, I think of Beethoven, or else of Mendelssohn, + which ought to make his reputation. She is crazy about mediums. She + says (but I have not heard it elsewhere) that Thackeray and Dickens + are to winter at Rome, and Alfred Tennyson at Florence. Mrs. + Trollope has quite recovered, and receives as usual. How full of + beauty Mr. Hillard's book is! thank him for it again and again. Did + I tell you that they are going to engrave a portrait of me by + Haydon, now belonging to Mr. Bennoch, for the Dramatic Works? God + bless you, my very dear friend. Say everything for me to Mr. Ticknor + and Dr. Holmes and Dr. Parsons, and all my friends in Boston. Little + Henry grows a very sensible, intelligent boy, and is a great + favorite at his school. He is getting on with French.</p> + +<p> Once more, ever yours, M.R.M.</p></div> +<br /> + +<h3>1854.</h3> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>(January, 1854.) + +<p> My Beloved Friend: They who correspond with sick people must be + content to receive such letters as are sent from hospitals. For many + weeks I have been wholly shut up in my own room, getting with + exceeding difficulty from the bed to the fireside, quite unable to + stir either in the chair or in the bed, but much less miserable up + than when in bed. The terrible cold of last summer did not allow me + to gain any strength, so that although the fire in my room is kept + up night and day, yet a severe attack of influenza came on and would + have carried me off, had not Mr. May been so much alarmed at the + state of the pulse and the general feebleness as to order me two + tablespoonfuls of champagne in water once a day, and a teaspoonful + of brandy also in water, at night, which undoubtedly saved my life. + It is the only good argument for what is called teetotalism that it + keeps more admirable medicines as medicine; for undoubtedly a + wine-drinker, however moderate, would not have been brought round by + the remedy which did me so much good. Miserably feeble I still am, + and shall continue till May or June (if it please God to spare my + life till then), when, if it be fine weather, Sam will lift me down + stairs and into the pony-chaise, and I may get stronger. Well, in + the midst of the terrible cough, which did not allow me to lie down + in bed, and a weakness difficult to describe, I finished "Atherton." + I did it against orders and against warning, because I had an + impression that I should not live to complete it, and I sent it + yesterday to London to dear Mr. Bennoch, so I suppose you will soon + receive the sheets. Almost every line has been written three times + over, and it is certainly the most cheerful and sunshiny story that + was ever composed in such a state of helplessness, feebleness, and + suffering; for the rheumatic pain in the chest not only rendered the + cough terrible (that, thank God, is nearly gone now), but makes the + position of writing one of misery. God grant you may like this + story! I shall at least say in the Preface that it will give me one + pleasure, that of having in the American title-page the names of + dear friends united with mine. Mind I don't know whether the story + be good or bad. I only answer for its having the youthfulness which + you liked in the preface to the plays. Well, dearest friend, just + when I was at the worst came your letter about the ducks and the + ducks themselves. Never were birds so welcome. My friend, Mr. May, + the cleverest and most admirable person whom I know in this + neighborhood, refuses all fees of any sort, and comes twelve miles + to see me, when torn to pieces by all the great folk round, from + pure friendship. Think how glad I was to have such a dainty to offer + him just when he had all his family gathered about him at Christmas. + I thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me this great + pleasure, infinitely greater than eating it myself would have been. + They were delicious. How very, very good you are to me!</p> + +<p> Has Mrs. Craig written to you to tell you of her marriage? I will + run the risk of repetition and tell you that it is the charming + Margaret De Quincey, who has married the son of a Scotch neighbor. + He has purchased land in Ireland, and they are about to live in + Tipperary,—a district which Irish people tell me is losing its + reputation for being the most disturbed in Ireland, but keeping that + for superior fertility. They are trying to regain a reputation for + literature in Edinburgh. John Ruskin has been giving a series of + lectures on art there, and Mr. Kingsley four lectures on the schools + of Alexandria.</p> + +<p> Nothing out of Parliament has for very long made so strong a + sensation as our dear Mr. Bennoch's evidence on the London + Corporation. Three leading articles in The Times paid him the + highest compliments, and you know what that implies. I have myself + had several letters congratulating me on having such a friend. Ah! + the public qualities make but a part of that fine and genial + character, although I firmly believe that the strength is essential + to the tenderness. I always put you and him together, and it is one + of the compensations of my old age to have acquired such friends.</p> + +<p> Have you seen Matthew Arnold's poems? They have fine bits. The + author is a son of Dr. Arnold.</p> + +<p> God bless you! Say everything for me to my dear American friends, + Drs. Holmes and Parsons, Mr. Longfellow, Mr. Whittier, Mrs. Sparks, + Mr. Taylor, Mr. Whipple, Mr. and Mrs. Willard, and Mr. Ticknor. + Many, very many happy years to them and to you.</p> + +<p> Always most affectionately yours, M.R.M.</p> + +<p> P.S. I enclose some slips to be pasted into books for my different + American friends. If I have sent too many, you will know which to + omit. I must add to the American preface a line expressive of my + pleasure in joining my name to yours. I will send one line here for + fear of its not going. Mr. May says that those ducks were amongst + the few things thoroughly deserving their reputation, holding the + same place, as compared with our wild ducks, that the finest venison + does to common mutton. I cannot tell you how much I thank you for + enabling me to send such a treat to such a friend. You will send a + copy of the prose book or the dramas, according to your own + pleasure, only I should like the two dear doctors to have the plays.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Swallowfield, January 23, 1854. + +<p> I have always to thank you for some kindness, dearest Mr. Fields, + generally for many. How clever those magazines are, especially Mr. + Lowell's article, and Mr. Bayard Taylor's graceful stanzas! Just now + I have to ask you to forward the enclosed to Mr. Whittier. He sent + me a charming poem on Burns, full of tenderness and humanity, and + the indulgence which the wise and good can so well afford, and which + only the wisest and best can show to their erring brethren. I + rejoice to hear that he is getting well again. I myself am weaker + and more helpless every day, and the rheumatic pain in the chest + increases so rapidly, and makes writing so difficult, even the + writing such a note as this, that I cannot be thankful enough for + having finished "Atherton," for I am sure I could not write it now. + There is some chance of my getting better in the summer, if I can be + got into the air, and that must be by being let down in a chair + through a trap-door, like so much railway luggage, for there is not + the slightest power of helping myself left in me,—nothing, indeed, + but the good spirits which Shakespeare gave to Horatio, and Hamlet + envied him. Dearest Mr. Bennoch has made me a superb present,—two + portraits of our Emperor and his fair wife. He all intellect,—never + was a brow so full of thought; she all sweetness,—such a mouth was + never seen, it seems waiting to smile. The beauty is rather of + expression than of feature, which is exactly what it ought to be....</p> + +<p> M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Swallowfield, May 2, 1854. + +<p> My Dear Friend: Long before this time, you will, I hope, have + received the sheets of "Atherton." It has met with an enthusiastic + reception from the English press, and certainly the friends who have + written to me on the subject seem to prefer the tale which fills the + first volume to anything that I have done. I hope you will like + it,—I am sure you will not detect in it the gloom of a + sick-chamber. Mr. May holds out hopes that the summer may do me + good. As yet the spring has been most unfavorable to invalids, being + one combined series of east-wind, so that instead of getting better + I am every day weaker than the last, unable to see more than one + person a day, and quite exhausted by half an hour's conversation. I + hope to be a little better before your arrival, dearest friend, + because I must see you; but any stranger—even Mr. Hawthorne—is + quite out of the question.</p> + +<p> You may imagine how kind dear Mr. Bennoch has been all through this + long trial, next after John Ruskin and his admirable father the + kindest of all my friends, and that is saying much.</p> + +<p> God bless you. Love to all my friends, poets, prosers, and the dear + ——, who are that most excellent thing, readers. I wonder if you + ever received a list of people to whom to send one or other of my + works? I wrote such with little words in my own hand, but writing is + so painful and difficult, and I am always so uncertain of your + getting my letters, that I cannot attempt to send another. There was + one for Mrs. Sparks. I am sure of liking Dr. Parsons's book,—quite + sure. Once again, God bless you! Little Henry grows a nice boy.</p> + +<p> Ever most affectionately yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Swallowfield, July 12, 1854. + +<p> Dearest Mr. Fields: Our excellent friend Mr. Bennoch will have told + you from how painful a state of anxiety your most welcome letter + relieved us. You have done quite right, my beloved friend, in + returning to Boston. The voyage, always so trying to you, would, + with your health so deranged, have been most dangerous, and next + year you will find all your friends, except one, as happy to see and + to welcome you. Even if you had arrived now our meeting would have + been limited to minutes. Dr. Parsons will tell you that fresh + feebleness in a person so long tried and so aged (sixty-seven) must + have a speedy termination. May Heaven prolong your valuable life, + dear friend, and grant that you may be as happy yourself as you have + always tried to render others!</p> + +<p> I rejoice to hear what you tell me of "Atherton." Here the + reception has been most warm and cordial. Every page of it was + written three times over, so that I spared no pains, but I was + nearly killed by the terrible haste in which it was finished, and I + do believe that many of the sheets were sent to me without ever + being read in the office. I have corrected one copy for the third + English edition, but I cannot undertake such an effort again, so, if + (as I venture to believe) it be destined to be often reprinted by + you, you must correct it from <i>that</i> edition. I hope you sent a copy + to Mr. Whittier from me. I had hoped you would bring one to Mr. + Hawthorne and Mr. De Quincey, but I must try what I can do with Mr. + Hurst, and must depend on you for assuring these valued friends that + it was not neglect or ingratitude on my part.</p> + +<p> Mr. Boner, my dear and valued friend, wishes you and dear Mr. + Ticknor to print his "Chamois-Hunting" from a second edition which + Chapman and Hall are bringing out. I sent my copy of the work to Mr. + Bennoch when we were expecting you, that you might see it. It is a + really excellent book, full of interest, with admirable plates, + which you could have, and, speaking in your interest, as much as in + his, I firmly believe that it would answer to you in money as well + as in credit to bring it out in America. Also Mrs. Browning (while + in Italy) wrote to me to inquire if you would like to bring out a + new poem by her, and a new work by her husband. I told her that I + could not doubt it, but that she had better write duplicate letters + to London and to Boston. Our poor little boy is here for his + holidays. His excellent mother and step-father have nursed me rather + as if they had been my children than my servants. Everybody has been + most kind. The champagne, which I believe keeps me alive, is dear + Mr. Bennoch's present; but you will understand how ill I am when I + tell you that my breath is so much affected by the slightest + exertion that I cannot bear even to be lifted into bed, but have + spent the last eight nights sitting up, with my feet supported on a + leg-rest. This from exhaustion, not from disease of the lungs.</p> + +<p> Give the enclosed to Dr. Parsons. You know what I have always + thought of his genius. In my mind no poems ever crossed the Atlantic + which approached his stanzas on Dante and on the death of Webster, + and yet you have great poets too. Think how glad and proud I am to + hear of the honor he has done me. I wish you had transcribed the + verses.</p> + +<p> God bless you, my beloved friend! Say everything for me to all my + dear friends, to Dr. Parsons, to Dr. Holmes, to Mr. Whittier, to + Professor Longfellow, to Mr. Taylor, to Mr. Stoddard, to Mrs. + Sparks, and above all to the excellent Mr. Ticknor and the dear + W——s.</p> + +<p> Ever yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Swallowfield, July 28, 1854. + +<p> My Very Dear Friend: This is a sort of postscript to my last, + written instantly on the receipt of yours and sent through Mr. ——. + I hope you received it, for he is so impetuous that I always a + little doubt his care; at least it was when sent through him that + the loss of letters to and fro took place. However, I enjoined him + to be careful this time, and he assured me that he was so.</p> + +<p> The purport of this is to add the name of my friend, Mr. Willmott, + to the authors who wish for the advantage of your firm as their + American publishers. I have begged him to write to you himself, and + I hope he has done so, or that he will do so. But he is staying at + Richmond with sick relatives, and I am not sure. You know his works, + of course. They are becoming more and more popular in England, and + he is writing better and better. The best critical articles in The + Times are by him. He is eminently a scholar, and yet full of + anecdote of the most amusing sort, with a memory like Scott, and a + charming habit of applying his knowledge. His writings become more + and more like his talk, and I am confident that you would find his + works not only most creditable, but most profitable. I would not + recommend you to each other if it were not for your mutual + advantage, so far as my poor judgment goes. On the 25th my Dramatic + Works are to be published here. I hope they have sent you the + sheets.</p> + +<p> I have not heard yet from any American friend, except your + delightful letter and one from Grace Greenwood, but I hope I shall. + I prize the good word of such persons as Drs. Parsons and Holmes and + Professor Longfellow and John Whittier and many others. I am still + very ill.</p> + +<p> The Brownings remain this year in Italy. If it be very hot, they + will go for a month or two to the Baths of Lucca, but their home is + Florence. She has taken a fancy to an American female sculptor,—a + girl of twenty-two,—a pupil of Gibson's, who goes with the rest of + the fraternity of the studio to breakfast and dine at a <i>café</i>, and + yet keeps her character. Also she believes in all your rappings.</p> + +<p> God be with you, my very dear friend. I trust you are quite + recovered.</p> + +<p> Always affectionately yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>Swallowfield, August 21, 1854. + +<p> My Dear Mr. Fields: Mr. Bayard Taylor having sent me a most + interesting letter, but no address, I trouble you with my reply. + Read it, and you will perhaps understand that I am declining day by + day, and that, humanly speaking, the end is very near. Perhaps there + may yet be time for an answer to this....</p> + +<p> I believe that one reason for your not quite understanding my + illness is, that you, if you have seen long and great sickness at + all, which is doubtful, have seen it with an utter prostration of + the mind and the spirits,—that your women are languid and + querulous, and never dream of bearing up against bodily evils by an + effort of the mind. Even now, when half an hour's visit is utterly + forbidden, and half that time leaves me panting and exhausted, I + never mention (except forced into it by your evident disbelief) my + own illness either in speaking or writing,—never, except to answer + Mr. May's questions, or to join my beloved friend, Mr. Pearson, in + thanking God for the visitation which I humbly hope was sent in his + mercy to draw me nearer to him; may he grant me grace to use + it!—for the rest, whilst the intelligence and the sympathy are + vouchsafed to me, I will write of others, and give to my friends, as + far as in me lies, the thoughts which would hardly be more worthily + bestowed on my own miserable body.</p> + +<p> You will be sorry to find that the poor Talfourds are likely to be + very poor. A Reading attorney has run away, cheating half the town. + He has carried off £4,000 belonging to Lady Talfourd, and she + herself tells my friend, William Harness (one of her kindest + friends), that that formed the principal part of the Judge's small + savings, and, together with the sum for which he had insured his + life (only £5,000), was all which they had. Now there are five young + people,—his children,—the widow and an adopted niece, seven in + all, accustomed to every sort of luxury and indulgence. The only + glimpse of hope is, that the eldest son held a few briefs on circuit + and went through them creditably; but it takes many years in England + to win a barrister's reputation, and the poorer our young men are + the more sure they are to marry. Add the strange fact that since the + father's death (he having reserved his copyrights) not a single copy + of any of his books has been sold! A fortnight ago I had a great + fright respecting Miss Martineau, which still continues. James Payn, + who is living at the Lakes, and to whom she has been most kind, says + he fears she will be a great pecuniary sufferer by ——. I only hope + that it is a definite sum, and no general security or + partnership,—even that will be bad enough for a woman of her age, + and so hard a worker, who intended to give herself rest; but observe + these are only <i>fears</i>. I <i>know</i> nothing. The Brownings are detained + in Italy, she tells me, for want of money, and cannot even get to + Lucca. This is my bad news,—O, and it is very bad that sweet Mrs. + Kingsley must stay two years in Devonshire and cannot come home. I + expect to see him this week. John Ruskin is with his father and + mother in Switzerland, constantly sending me tokens of friendship. + Everybody writes or sends or comes; never was such kindness. The + Bennochs are in Scotland. He sends me charming letters, having, I + believe, at last discovered what every one else has known long. + Remember me to Mr. Ticknor. Say everything to my Athenian friends + all, especially to Dr. Holmes and Dr. Parsons.</p> + +<p> Ever, dear friend, your affectionate M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>September 26, 1854. + +<p> My Very Dear Friend: Your most kind and interesting letter has just + arrived, with one from our good friend, Mr. Bennoch, announcing the + receipt of the £50 bill for "Atherton." More welcome even as a sign + of the prosperity of the book in a country where I have so many + friends and which I have always loved so well, than as money, + although in that way it is a far greater comfort than you probably + guess, this very long and very severe illness obliging me to keep a + third maid-servant. I get no sleep,—not on an average an hour a + night,—and require perpetual change of posture to prevent the skin + giving way still more than it does, and forming what we emphatically + call bed-sores, although I sit up night and day, and have no other + relief than the being, to a slight extent, shifted from one position + to another in the chair that I never quit. Besides this, there are + many other expenses. I tell you this, dear friend, that Mr. Ticknor + and yourself may have the satisfaction of knowing that, besides all + that you have done for many years for my gratification, you have + been of substantial use in this emergency. In spite of all this + illness, after being so entirely given over that dear Mr. Pearson, + leaving me a month ago to travel with Arthur Stanley for a month, + took a final leave of me, I have yet revived greatly during these + last three weeks. I owe this, under Providence, to my admirable + friend, Mr. May, who, instead of abandoning the stranded ship, as is + common in these cases, has continued, although six miles off, and + driving four pair of horses a day, ay, and while himself hopeless of + my case, to visit me constantly and to watch every symptom, and + exhaust every resource of his great art, as if his own fame and + fortune depended on the result. One kind but too sanguine friend, + Mr. Bennoch, is rather over-hopeful about this amendment, for I am + still in a state in which the slightest falling back would carry me + off, and in which I can hardly think it possible to weather the + winter. If that incredible contingency should arise, what a + happiness it would be to see you in April! But I must content myself + with the charming little portrait you have sent me, which is your + very self. Thank you for it over and over. Thank you, too, for the + batch of notices on "Atherton."....</p> + +<p> Dr. Parsons's address is very fine, and makes me still more desire + to see his volume; and the letter from Dr. Holmes is charming, so + clear, so kind, and so good. If I had been a boy, I would have + followed their noble profession. Three such men as Mr. May, Dr. + Parsons, and Dr. Holmes are enough to confirm the predilection that + I have always had for the art of healing.</p> + +<p> I have no good news to tell you of dear Mr. K——. His sweet wife + (Mr. Ticknor will remember her) has been three times at death's door + since he saw her here, and must spend at least two winters more at + Torquay. But I don't believe that he could stay here even if she + were well. Bramshill has fallen into the hands of a Puseyite parson, + who, besides that craze, which is so flagrant as to have made dear + Mr. K—— forbid him his pulpit, is subject to fits of raving + madness,—one of those most dangerous lunatics whom an age (in which + there is a great deal of false humanity) never shuts up until some + terrible crime has been committed. (A celebrated mad-doctor said the + other day of this very man, that he had "homicidal madness.") You + may fancy what such a Squire, opposing him in every way, is to the + rector of the parish. Mr. K—— told me last winter that he was + driving him mad, and I am fully persuaded that he would make a large + sacrifice of income to exchange his parish. To make up for this, he + is working himself to death, and I greatly fear that his excess of + tobacco is almost equal to the opium of Mr. De Quincey. With his + temperament this is full of danger. He was only here for two or + three days to settle a new curate, but he walked over to see me, and + I will take care that he receives your message. His regard for me + is, I really believe, sincere and very warm. Remember that all this + is in strict confidence. The kindness that people show to me is + something surprising. I have not deserved it, but I receive it most + gratefully. It touches one's very heart. Will you say everything for + me to my many kind friends, too many to name? I had a kind letter + from Mrs. Sparks the other day. The poets I cling to while I can + hold a pen. God bless you.</p> + +<p> Ever yours, M.R.M.</p> + +<p> Can you contrive to send a copy of your edition of "Atherton" to Mr. + Hawthorne? Pray, dear friend, do if you can.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>October 12, 1854 + +<p> My Very Dear Friend: I can hardly give you a greater proof of + affection, than in telling you that your letter of yesterday + affected me to tears, and that I thanked God for it last night in my + prayers; so much a mercy does it seem to me to be still beloved by + one whom I have always loved so much. I thank you a thousand times + for that letter and for the book. I enclose you my own letter to + dear Dr. Parsons. Read it before giving it to him. I could not help + being amused at his having appended my name to a poem in some sort + derogating from the fame of the only Frenchman who is worthy to be + named after the present great monarch. I hope I have not done wrong + in confessing my faith. Holding back an opinion is often as much a + falsehood as the actual untruth itself, and so I think it would be + here. Now we have the book, do you remember through whom you sent + the notices? If you do, let me know. You will see by my letter to + Dr. Parsons that —— dined here yesterday, under K——'s auspices. + He invited himself for three days,—luckily I have Mr. Pearson to + take care of him,—and still more luckily I told him frankly + yesterday that three days would be too much, for I had nearly died + last night of fatigue and exhaustion and their consequences. + To-night I shall leave all to my charming friend. There is nobody + like John Ruskin for refinement and eloquence. You will be glad to + hear that he has asked me for a letter to dear Mr. Bennoch to help + him in his schools of Art,—I mean with advice. This will, I hope, + bring our dear friend out of the set he is in, and into that where I + wish to see him, for John Ruskin must always fill the very highest + position. God bless you all, dear friends!</p> + +<p> Ever most affectionately yours, M.R.M.</p> + +<p> Love to all my friends.</p> + +<p> You have given me a new motive for clinging to life by coming to + England in April. Till this pull-back yesterday, I was better, + although still afraid of being lifted into bed, and with small hope + of getting alive through the winter. God bless you!</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>October 18, 1854. + +<p> My Very Dear Friend: Another copy of dear Dr. Parsons's book has + arrived, with a charming, most charming letter from him, and a copy + of your edition of "Atherton." It is very nicely got up indeed, the + portrait the best of any engraving that has been made of me, at + least, any recent engraving. May I have a few copies of that + engraving when you come to England? And if I should be gone, will + you let poor K—— have one? The only thing I lament in the American + "Atherton" is that a passage that I wrote to add to that edition has + been omitted. It was to the purport of my having a peculiar pleasure + in the prospect of that reprint, because few things could be so + gratifying to me as to find my poor name conjoined with those of the + great and liberal publishers, for one of whom I entertain so much + respect and esteem, and for the other so true and so lively an + affection. The little sentence was better turned much, but that was + the meaning. No doubt it was in one of my many missing letters. I + even think I sent it twice,—I should greatly have liked that little + paragraph to be there. May I ask you to give the enclosed to dear + Dr. Parsons? There are noble lines in his book, which gains much by + being known. Dear John Ruskin was here when it arrived, and much + pleased with it on turning over the leaves, and he is the most + fastidious of men. I must give him the copy. His praise is indeed + worth having. I am as when I wrote last. God bless you, beloved + friend.</p> + +<p> Ever yours, M.R.M.</p></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>December 23, 1854. + +<p> Your dear affectionate letter, dearest and kindest friend, would + have given me unmingled pleasure had it conveyed a better account of + your business prospects. Here, from what I can gather, and from the + sure sign of all works of importance being postponed, the trade is + in a similar state of depression, caused, they say, by this war, + which but for the wretched imbecility of our ministers could never + have assumed so alarming an appearance. Whether we shall recover + from it, God only knows. My hope is in Louis Napoleon; but that + America will rally seems certain enough. She has elbow-room, and, + moreover, she is not unused to rapid transitions from high + prosperity to temporary difficulty, and so back again. Moreover, + dear friend, I have faith in you..... God bless you, my dear friend! + May he send to both of you health and happiness and length of days, + and so much of this world's goods as is needful to prevent anxiety + and insure comfort. I have known many rich people in my time, and + the result has convinced me that with great wealth some deep black + shadow is as sure to walk, as it is to follow the bright sunshine. + So I never pray for more than the blessed enough for those whom I + love best.</p> + +<p> And very dearly do I love my American friends,—you best of + all,—but all very dearly, as I have cause. Say this, please, to Dr. + Parsons and Dr. Holmes (admiring their poems is a sort of touchstone + of taste with me, and very, very many stand the test well) and dear + Bayard Taylor, a man soundest and sweetest the nearer one gets to + the kernel, and good, kind John Whittier, who has the fervor of the + poet ingrafted into the tough old Quaker stock, and Mr. Stoddard, + and Mrs. Lippincott, and Mrs. Sparks, and the Philadelphia Poetess, + and dear Mr. and Mrs. W——, and your capital critics and orators. + Remember me to all who think of me; but keep the choicest tenderness + for yourself and your wife.</p> + +<p> Do you know those books which pretend to have been written from one + hundred to two hundred years ago,—"Mary Powell" (Milton's + Courtship), "Cherry and Violet," and the rest? Their fault is that + they are too much alike. The authoress (a Miss Manning) sent me some + of them last winter, with some most interesting letters. Then for + many months I ceased to hear from her, but a few weeks ago she sent + me her new Christmas book,—"The Old Chelsea Bun House,"—and told + me she was dying of a frightful internal complaint. She suffers + martyrdom, but bears it like a saint, and her letters are better + than all the sermons in the world. May God grant me the same + cheerful submission! I try for it and pray that it be granted, but I + have none of the enthusiastic glow of devotion, so real and so + beautiful in Miss Manning. My faith is humble and lowly,—not that I + have the slightest doubt,—but I cannot get her rapturous assurance + of acceptance. My friend, William Harness, got me to employ our kind + little friend, Mr. ——, to procure for him Judge Edmonds's + "Spiritualism." What an odious book it is! there is neither respect + for the dead nor the living. Mrs. Browning believes it all; so does + Bulwer, who is surrounded by mediums who summon his dead daughter. + It is too frightful to talk about. Mr. May and Mr. Pearson both + asked me to send it away, for fear of its seizing upon my nerves. I + get weaker and weaker, and am become a mere skeleton. Ah, dear + friend, come when you may, you will find only a grave at + Swallowfield. Once again, God bless you and yours!</p> + +<p> Ever yours, M, R.M.</p></div> + +<hr class=full> +<a name='VII_BARRY_CORNWALL'></a> +<h2>"BARRY CORNWALL"<br /> +<i>And Some Of His Friends</i>.</h2> + +<div class='poem'> + <div class='stanza'> + <span>"<i>All, all are gone, the old familiar faces</i>."<br /></span> + <span class='i17'>CHARLES LAMB.<br /></span> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='poem'> + <div class='stanza'> + <span>"<i>Old Acquaintance, shall the nights</i><br /></span> + <span class='i3'><i>You and I once talked together,</i><br /></span> + <span class='i1'><i>Be forgot like common things?</i>"<br /></span> + </div> + <hr style='width: 45%;' /> + <div class='stanza'> + <span>"<i>His thoughts half hid in golden dreams,</i><br /></span> + <span class='i1'><i>Which make thrice fair the songs and streams</i><br /></span> + <span class='i1'><i>Of Air and Earth</i>."<br /></span> + </div> + <hr style='width: 45%;' /> + <div class='stanza'> + <span>"<i>Song should breathe of scents and flowers;</i><br /></span> + <span class='i3'><i>Song should like a river flow;</i><br /></span> + <span class='i1'><i>Song should bring back scenes and hours</i><br /></span> + <span class='i3'><i>That we loved,—ah, long ago!</i>"<br /></span> + <span class='i17'>BARRY CORNWALL.<br /></span> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h2>VII. "BARRY CORNWALL" AND SOME OF HIS FRIENDS.</h2> + +<p>There is no portrait in my possession more satisfactory than the small +one of Barry Cornwall, made purposely for me in England, from life. It +is a thoroughly honest resemblance.</p> + +<p>I first saw the poet five-and-twenty years ago, in his own house in +London, at No. 13 Upper Harley Street, Cavendish Square. He was then +declining into the vale of years, but his mind was still vigorous and +young. My letter of introduction to him was written by Charles Sumner, +and it proved sufficient for the beginning of a friendship which existed +through a quarter of a century. My last interview with him occurred in +1869. I found him then quite feeble, but full of his old kindness and +geniality. His speech was somewhat difficult to follow, for he had been +slightly paralyzed not long before; but after listening to him for half +an hour, it was easy to understand nearly every word he uttered. He +spoke with warm feeling of Longfellow, who had been in London during +that season, and had called to see his venerable friend before +proceeding to the Continent. "Wasn't it good of him," said the old man, +in his tremulous voice, "to think of <i>me</i> before he had been in town +twenty-four hours?" He also spoke of his dear companion, John Kenyon, at +whose house we had often met in years past, and he called to mind a +breakfast party there, saying with deep feeling, "And you and I are the +only ones now alive of all who came together that happy morning!"</p> + +<p>A few months ago,<a name='FNanchor_*_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_*_2'>[*]</a> at the great age of eighty-seven, Bryan Waller +Procter, familiarly and honorably known in English literature for sixty +years past as "Barry Cornwall," calmly "fell on sleep." The schoolmate +of Lord Byron and Sir Robert Peel at Harrow, the friend and companion of +Keats, Lamb, Shelley, Coleridge, Landor, Hunt, Talfourd, and Rogers, the +man to whom Thackeray "affectionately dedicated" his "Vanity Fair," one +of the kindest souls that ever gladdened earth, has now joined the great +majority of England's hallowed sons of song. No poet ever left behind +him more fragrant memories, and he will always be thought of as one whom +his contemporaries loved and honored. No harsh word will ever be spoken +by those who have known him of the author of "Marcian Colonna," +"Mirandola," "The Broken Heart," and those charming lyrics which rank +the poet among the first of his class. His songs will be sung so long as +music wedded to beautiful poetry is a requisition anywhere. His verses +have gone into the Book of Fame, and such pieces as "Touch us gently, +Time," "Send down thy winged Angel, God," "King Death," "The Sea," and +"Belshazzar is King," will long keep his memory green. Who that ever +came habitually into his presence can forget the tones of his voice, the +tenderness in his gray retrospective eyes, or the touch of his +sympathetic hand laid on the shoulder of a friend! The elements were +indeed so kindly mixed in him that no bitterness or rancor or jealousy +had part or lot in his composition. No distinguished person was ever +more ready to help forward the rising and as yet nameless literary man +or woman who asked his counsel and warm-hearted suffrage. His mere +presence was sunshine to a new-comer into the world of letters and +criticism, for he was always quick to encourage, and slow to disparage +anybody. Indeed, to be <i>human</i> only entitled any one who came near him +to receive the gracious bounty of his goodness and courtesy. He made it +the happiness of his life never to miss, whenever opportunity occurred, +the chance of conferring pleasure and gladness on those who needed kind +words and substantial aid.</p> +<a name='Footnote_*_2'></a> +<hr class=full> +<div class='note'> +<p><a href='#FNanchor_*_2'>[*]</a> + October, 1874.</p></div> +<hr class=full> +<p>His equals in literature venerated and loved him. Dickens and Thackeray +never ceased to regard him with the deepest feeling, and such men as +Browning and Tennyson and Carlyle and Forster rallied about him to the +last. He was the delight of all those interesting men and women who +habitually gathered around Rogers's famous table in the olden time, for +his manner had in it all the courtesy of genius, without any of that +chance asperity so common in some literary circles. The shyness of a +scholar brooded continually over him and made him reticent, but he was +never silent from ill-humor. His was that true modesty so excellent in +ability, and so rare in celebrities petted for a long time in society. +His was also that happy alchemy of mind which transmutes disagreeable +things into golden and ruby colors like the dawn. His temperament was +the exact reverse of Fuseli's, who complained that "<i>nature</i> put him +out." A beautiful spirit has indeed passed away, and the name of "Barry +Cornwall," beloved in both hemispheres, is now sanctified afresh by the +seal of eternity so recently stamped upon it.</p> + +<p>It was indeed a privilege for a young American, on his first travels +abroad, to have "Barry Cornwall" for his host in London. As I recall the +memorable days and nights of that long-ago period, I wonder at the good +fortune which brought me into such relations with him, and I linger +with profound gratitude over his many acts of unmerited kindness. One of +the most intimate rambles I ever took with him was in 1851, when we +started one morning from a book-shop in Piccadilly, where we met +accidentally. I had been in London only a couple of days, and had not +yet called upon him for lack of time. Several years had elapsed since we +had met, but he began to talk as if we had parted only a few hours +before. At first I thought his mind was impaired by age, and that he had +forgotten how long it was since we had spoken together. I imagined it +possible that he mistook me for some one else; but very soon I found +that his memory was not at fault, for in a few minutes he began to +question me about old friends in America, and to ask for information +concerning the probable sea-sick horrors of an Atlantic voyage. "I +suppose," said he, "knowing your infirmity, you found it hard work to +stand on your immaterial legs, as Hood used to call Lamb's quivering +limbs." Sauntering out into the street, he went on in a quaintly +humorous way to imagine what a rough voyage must be to a real sufferer, +and thus walking gayly along, we came into Leadenhall Street. There he +pointed out the office where his old friend and fellow-magazinist, +"Elia," spent so many years of hard work from ten until four o'clock of +every day. Being in a mood for reminiscence, he described the Wednesday +evenings he used to spend with "Charles and Mary" and their friends +around the old "mahogany-tree" in Russell Street. I remember he tried to +give me an idea of how Lamb looked and dressed, and how he stood bending +forward to welcome his guests as they arrived in his humble lodgings. +Procter thought nothing unimportant that might serve in any way to +illustrate character, and so he seemed to wish that I might get an exact +idea of the charming person both of us prized so ardently and he had +known so intimately. Speaking of Lamb's habits, he said he had never +known his friend to drink immoderately except upon one occasion, and he +observed that "Elia," like Dickens, was a small and delicate eater. With +faltering voice he told me of Lamb's "givings away" to needy, +impoverished friends whose necessities were yet greater than his own. +His secret charities were constant and unfailing, and no one ever +suffered hunger when he was by. He could not endure to see a +fellow-creature in want if he had the means to feed him. Thinking, from +a depression of spirits which Procter in his young manhood was once +laboring under, that perhaps he was in want of money, Lamb looked him +earnestly in the face as they were walking one day in the country +together, and blurted out, in his stammering way, "My dear boy, I have a +hundred-pound note in my desk that I really don't know what to do with: +oblige me by taking it and getting the confounded thing out of my +keeping." "I was in no need of money," said Procter, "and I declined the +gift; but it was hard work to make Lamb believe that I was not in an +impecunious condition."</p> + +<p>Speaking of Lamb's sister Mary, Procter quoted Hazlitt's saying that +"Mary Lamb was the most rational and wisest woman he had ever been +acquainted with." As we went along some of the more retired streets in +the old city, we had also, I remember, much gossip about Coleridge and +his manner of reciting his poetry, especially when "Elia" happened to be +among the listeners, for the philosopher put a high estimate upon Lamb's +critical judgment. The author of "The Ancient Mariner" always had an +excuse for any bad habit to which he was himself addicted, and he told +Procter one day that perhaps snuff was the final cause of the human +nose. In connection with Coleridge we had much reminiscence of such +interesting persons as the Novellos, Martin Burney, Talfourd, and Crabb +Robinson, and a store of anecdotes in which Haydon, Manning, Dyer, and +Godwin figured at full length. In course of conversation I asked my +companion if he thought Lamb had ever been really in love, and he told +me interesting things of Hester Savory, a young Quaker girl of +Pentonville, who inspired the poem embalming the name of Hester forever, +and of Fanny Kelly, the actress with "the divine plain face," who will +always live in one of "Elia's" most exquisite essays. "He had a +<i>reverence</i> for the sex," said Procter, "and there were tender spots in +his heart that time could never entirely cover up or conceal."</p> + +<p>During our walk we stepped into Christ's Hospital, and turned to the +page on its record book where together we read this entry: "October 9, +1782, Charles Lamb, aged seven years, son of John Lamb, scrivener, and +Elizabeth his wife."</p> + +<p>It was a lucky morning when I dropped in to bid "good morrow" to the +poet as I was passing his house one day, for it was then he took from +among his treasures and gave to me an autograph letter addressed to +himself by Charles Lamb in 1829. I found the dear old man alone and in +his library, sitting at his books, with the windows wide open, letting +in the spring odors. Quoting, as I entered, some lines from Wordsworth +embalming May mornings, he began to talk of the older poets who had +worshipped nature with the ardor of lovers, and his eyes lighted up with +pleasure when I happened to remember some almost forgotten stanza from +England's "Helicon." It was an easy transition from the old bards to +"Elia," and he soon went on in his fine enthusiastic way to relate +several anecdotes of his eccentric friend. As I rose to take leave he +said,—</p> + +<p>"Have I ever given you one of Lamb's letters to carry home to America?"</p> + +<p>"No," I replied, "and you must not part with the least scrap of a note +in 'Elia's' handwriting. Such things are too precious to be risked on a +sea-voyage to another hemisphere."</p> + +<p>"America ought to share with England in these things," he rejoined; and +leading me up to a sort of cabinet in the library, he unlocked a drawer +and got out a package of time-stained papers. "Ah," said he, as he +turned over the golden leaves, "here is something you will like to +handle." I unfolded the sheet, and lo! it was in Keats's handwriting, +the sonnet on first looking into Chapman's Homer. "Keats gave it to me," +said Procter, "many, many years ago," and then he proceeded to read, in +tones tremulous with delight, these undying lines:—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"Much have I travelled in the realms of gold,<br /></span> +<span>And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;<br /></span> +<span>Round many Western islands have I been<br /></span> +<span>Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.<br /></span> +<span>Oft of one wide expanse had I been told<br /></span> +<span>That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne;<br /></span> +<span>Yet did I never breathe its pure serene<br /></span> +<span>Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:<br /></span> +<span>Then felt I like some watcher of the skies<br /></span> +<span>When a new planet swims into his ken,<br /></span> +<span>Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes<br /></span> +<span>He stared at the Pacific—and all his men<br /></span> +<span>Looked at each other with a wild surmise—<br /></span> +<span>Silent, upon a peak in Darien."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I sat gazing at the man who had looked on Keats in the flush of his +young genius, and wondered at my good fortune. As the living poet folded +up again the faded manuscript of the illustrious dead one, and laid it +reverently in its place, I felt grateful for the honor thus vouchsafed +to a wandering stranger in a foreign land, and wished that other and +worthier votaries of English letters might have been present to share +with me the boon of such an interview. Presently my hospitable friend, +still rummaging among the past, drew out a letter, which was the one, +he said, he had been looking after. "Cram it into your pocket," he +cried, "for I hear —— coming down stairs, and perhaps she won't let +you carry it off!" The letter is addressed to B.W. Procter, Esq., 10 +Lincoln's Inn, New Square. I give the entire epistle here just as it +stands in the original which Procter handed me that memorable May +morning. He told me that the law question raised in this epistle was a +sheer fabrication of Lamb's, gotten up by him to puzzle his young +correspondent, the conveyancer. The coolness referred to between himself +and Robinson and Talfourd, Procter said, was also a fiction invented by +Lamb to carry out his legal mystification.</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"<i>Jan'y</i> 19, 1829. + +<p> "My Dear Procter,—I am ashamed to have not taken the drift of your + pleasant letter, which I find to have been pure invention. But jokes + are not suspected in Boeotian Enfield. We are plain people, and our + talk is of corn, and cattle, and Waltham markets. Besides I was a + little out of sorts when I received it. The fact is, I am involved + in a case which has fretted me to death, and I have no reliance + except on you to extricate me. I am sure you will give me your best + legal advice, having no professional friend besides but Robinson and + Talfourd, with neither of whom at present I am on the best terms. My + brother's widow left a will, made during the lifetime of my brother, + in which I am named sole Executor, by which she bequeaths forty + acres of arable property, which it seems she held under Covert + Baron, unknown to my Brother, to the heirs of the body of Elizabeth + Dowden, her married daughter by her first husband, in fee simple, + recoverable by fine—invested property, mind, for there is the + difficulty—subject to leet and quit rent—in short, worded in the + most guarded terms, to shut out the property from Isaac Dowden the + husband. Intelligence has just come of the death of this person in + India, where he made a will, entailing this property (which seem'd + entangled enough already) to the heirs of his body, that should not + be born of his wife; for it seems by the Law in India natural + children can recover. They have put the cause into Exchequer Process + here, removed by Certiorari from the Native Courts, and the question + is whether I should as Executor, try the cause here, or again + re-remove to the Supreme Sessions at Bangalore, which I understand I + can, or plead a hearing before the Privy Council here. As it + involves all the little property of Elizabeth Dowden, I am anxious + to take the fittest steps, and what may be the least expensive. For + God's sake assist me, for the case is so embarrassed that it + deprives me of sleep and appetite. M. Burney thinks there is a Case + like it in Chapt. 170 Sect. 5 in Fearn's <i>Contingent Remainders</i>. + Pray read it over with him dispassionately, and let me have the + result. The complexity lies in the questionable power of the husband + to alienate in usum enfeoffments whereof he was only collaterally + seized, etc."</p></div> + +<p>[On the leaf at this place there are some words in another hand.—F.]</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"The above is some of M. Burney's memoranda, which he has left here, + and you may cut out and give him. I had another favour to beg, which + is the beggarliest of beggings. A few lines of verse for a young + friend's Album (six will be enough). M. Burney will tell you who she + is I want 'em for. A girl of gold. Six lines—make 'em eight—signed + Barry C——. They need not be very good, as I chiefly want 'em as a + foil to mine. But I shall be seriously obliged by any refuse scrap. + We are in the last ages of the world, when St. Paul prophesied that + women should be 'headstrong, lovers of their own wills, having + Albums.' I fled hither to escape the Albumean persecution, and had + not been in my new house 24 hours, when the Daughter of the next + house came in with a friend's Album to beg a contribution, and the + following day intimated she had one of her own. Two more have sprung + up since. If I take the wings of the morning and fly unto the + uttermost parts of the earth, there will Albums be. New Holland has + Albums. But the age is to be complied with. M.B. will tell you the + sort of girl I request the ten lines for. Somewhat of a pensive cast + what you admire. The lines may come before the Law question, as that + cannot be determined before Hilary Term, and I wish your deliberate + judgment on that. The other may be flimsy and superficial. And if + you have not burnt your returned letter pray re-send it me as a + monumental token of my stupidity. 'Twas a little unthinking of you + to touch upon a sore subject. Why, by dabbling in those accursed + Annuals I have become a by-word of infamy all over the kingdom. I + have sicken'd decent women for asking me to write in Albums. There + be 'dark jests' abroad, Master Cornwall, and some riddles may live + to be clear'd up. And 'tisn't every saddle is put on the right + steed. And forgeries and false Gospels are not peculiar to the age + following the Apostles. And some tubs don't stand on their right + bottom. Which is all I wish to say in these ticklish Times —— and + so your servant,</p> + +<p> CHS. LAMB."</p></div> + +<p>At the age of seventy-seven Procter was invited to print his +recollections of Charles Lamb, and his volume was welcomed in both +hemispheres as a pleasant addition to "Eliana." During the last eighteen +years of Lamb's life Procter knew him most intimately, and his +chronicles of visits to the little gamboge-colored house in Enfield are +charming pencillings of memory. When Lamb and his sister, tired of +housekeeping, went into lodging and boarding with T—— W——, their +sometime next-door neighbor,—who, Lamb said, had one joke and forty +pounds a year, upon which he retired in a green old age,—Procter still +kept up his friendly visits to his old associate. And after the brother +and sister moved to their last earthly retreat in Edmonton, where +Charles died in 1834, Procter still paid them regular visits of love and +kindness. And after Charles's death, when Mary went to live at a house +in St. John's Wood, her unfailing friend kept up his cheering calls +there till she set out "for that unknown and silent shore," on the 20th +of May, in 1847.</p> + +<p>Procter's conversation was full of endless delight to his friends. His +"asides" were sometimes full of exquisite touches. I remember one +evening when Carlyle was present and rattling on against American +institutions, half comic and half serious, Procter, who sat near me, +kept up a constant underbreath of commentary, taking exactly the other +side. Carlyle was full of horse-play over the character of George +Washington, whom he never vouchsafed to call anything but George. He +said our first President was a good surveyor, and knew how to measure +timber, and that was about all. Procter kept whispering to me all the +while Carlyle was discoursing, and going over Washington's fine traits +to the disparagement of everything Carlyle was laying down as gospel. I +was listening to both these distinguished men at the same time, and it +was one of the most curious experiences in conversation I ever happened +to enjoy.</p> + +<p>I was once present when a loud-voiced person of quality, ignorant and +supercilious, was inveighing against the want of taste commonly +exhibited by artists when they chose their wives, saying they almost +always selected inferior women. Procter, sitting next to me, put his +hand on my shoulder, and, with a look expressive of ludicrous pity and +contempt for the idiotic speaker, whispered, "And yet Vandyck married +the daughter of Earl Gower, poor fellow!" The mock solemnity of +Procter's manner was irresistible. It had a wink in it that really +embodied the genius of fun and sarcasm.</p> + +<p>Talking of the ocean with him one day, he revealed this curious fact: +although he is the author of one of the most stirring and popular +sea-songs in the language,—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"The sea, the sea, the open sea!"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>he said he had rarely been upon the tossing element, having a great fear +of being made ill by it. I think he told me he had never dared to cross +the Channel even, and so had never seen Paris. He said, like many +others, he delighted to gaze upon the waters from a safe place on land, +but had a horror of living on it even for a few hours. I recalled to his +recollection his own lines,—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"I'm on the sea! I'm on the sea!<br /></span> +<span>I am where I would ever be,"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and he shook his head, and laughingly declared I must have misquoted his +words, or that Dibdin had written the piece and put "Barry Cornwall's" +signature to it. We had, I remember, a great deal of fun over the +poetical lies, as he called them, which bards in all ages had +perpetrated in their verse, and he told me some stories of English +poets, over which we made merry as we sat together in pleasant Cavendish +Square that summer evening.</p> + +<p>His world-renowned song of "The Sea" he afterward gave me in his own +handwriting, and it is still among my autographic treasures.</p> + +<p>It was Procter who first in my hearing, twenty-five years ago, put such +an estimate on the poetry of Robert Browning that I could not delay any +longer to make acquaintance with his writings. I remember to have been +startled at hearing the man who in his day had known so many poets +declare that Browning was the peer of any one who had written in this +century, and that, on the whole, his genius had not been excelled in his +(Procter's) time. "Mind what I say," insisted Procter; "Browning will +make an enduring name, and add another supremely great poet to England."</p> + +<p>Procter could sometimes be prompted into describing that brilliant set +of men and women who were in the habit of congregating at Lady +Blessington's, and I well recollect his description of young N.P. Willis +as he first appeared in her <i>salon</i>. "The young traveller came among +us," said Procter, "enthusiastic, handsome, and good-natured, and took +his place beside D'Orsay, Bulwer, Disraeli, and the other dandies as +naturally as if he had been for years a London man about town. He was +full of fresh talk concerning his own country, and we all admired his +cleverness in compassing so aptly all the little newnesses of the +situation. He was ready on all occasions, a little too ready, some of +the <i>habitués</i> of the <i>salon</i> thought, and they could not understand his +cool and quiet-at-home manners. He became a favorite at first trial, and +laid himself out determined to please and be pleased. His ever kind and +thoughtful attention to others won him troops of friends, and I never +can forget his unwearied goodness to a sick child of mine, with whom, +night after night, he would sit by the bedside and watch, thus relieving +the worn-out family in a way that was very tender and self-sacrificing."</p> + +<p>Of Lady Blessington's tact, kindness, and remarkable beauty Procter +always spoke with ardor, and abated nothing from the popular idea of +that fascinating person. He thought she had done more in her time to +institute good feeling and social intercourse among men of letters than +any other lady in England, and he gave her eminent credit for bringing +forward the rising talent of the metropolis without waiting to be +prompted by a public verdict. As the poet described her to me as she +moved through her exquisite apartments, surrounded by all the luxuries +that naturally connect themselves with one of her commanding position in +literature and art, her radiant and exceptional beauty of person, her +frank and cordial manners, the wit, wisdom, and grace of her speech, I +thought of the fair Giovanna of Naples as painted in "Bianca +Visconti":—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"Gods! what a light enveloped her!<br /></span> +<span class='i18'>.... Her beauty<br /></span> +<span>Was of that order that the universe<br /></span> +<span>Seemed governed by her motion.....<br /></span> +<span>The pomp, the music, the bright sun in heaven,<br /></span> +<span>Seemed glorious by her leave."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>One of the most agreeable men in London literary society during +Procter's time was the companionable and ever kind-hearted John Kenyon. +He was a man compacted of all the best qualities of an incomparable +good-nature. His friends used to call him "the apostle of cheerfulness." +He could not endure a long face under his roof, and declined to see the +dark side of anything. He wrote verses almost like a poet, but no one +surpassed him in genuine admiration for whatever was excellent in +others. No happiness was so great to him as the conferring of happiness +on others, and I am glad to write myself his eternal debtor for much of +my enjoyment in England, for he introduced me to many lifelong +friendships, and he inaugurated for me much of that felicity which +springs from intercourse with men and women whose books are the solace +of our lifelong existence.</p> + +<p>Kenyon was Mrs. Browning's cousin, and in 1856 she dedicates "Aurora +Leigh" to him in these affectionate terms:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"The words 'cousin' and 'friend' are constantly recurring in this + poem, the last pages of which have been finished under the + hospitality of your roof, my own dearest cousin and friend;—cousin + and friend, in a sense of less equality and greater + disinterestedness than Romney's.... I venture to leave in your hands + this book, the most mature of my works, and the one into which my + highest convictions upon Life and Art have entered; that as, through + my various efforts in literature and steps in life, you have + believed in me, borne with me, and been generous to me, far beyond + the common uses of mere relationship or sympathy of mind, so you may + kindly accept, in sight of the public, this poor sign of esteem, + gratitude, and affection from your unforgetting</p> + +<p> "E.B.B."</p></div> + +<p>How often have I seen Kenyon and Procter chirping together over an old +quarto that had floated down from an early century, or rejoicing +together over a well-worn letter in a family portfolio of treasures! +They were a pair of veteran brothers, and there was never a flaw in +their long and loving intercourse. In a letter which Procter wrote to me +in March, 1857, he thus refers to his old friend, then lately dead: +"Everybody seems to be dying hereabouts,—one of my colleagues, one of +my relations, one of my servants, three of them in one week, the last +one in my own house. And now I seem fit for little else myself. My dear +old friend Kenyon is dead. There never was a man, take him for all in +all, with more amiable, attractive qualities. A kind friend, a good +master, a generous and judicious dispenser of his wealth, honorable, +sweet-tempered, and serene, and genial as a summer's day. It is true +that he has left me a solid mark of his friendship. I did not expect +anything; but if to like a man sincerely deserved such a mark of his +regard, I deserved it. I doubt if he has left one person who really +liked him more than I did. Yes, one—I think one—a woman.... I get old +and weak and stupid. That pleasant journey to Niagara, that dip into +your Indian summer, all such thoughts are over. I shall never see Italy; +I shall never see Paris. My future is before me,—a very limited +landscape, with scarcely one old friend left in it. I see a smallish +room, with a bow-window looking south, a bookcase full of books, three +or four drawings, and a library chair and table (once the property of my +old friend Kenyon—I am writing on the table now), and you have the +greater part of the vision before you. Is this the end of all things? I +believe it is pretty much like most scenes in the fifth act, when the +green (or black) curtain is about to drop and tell you that the play of +<i>Hamlet</i> or of John Smith is over. But wait a little. There will be +another piece, in which John Smith the younger will figure, and quite +eclipse his old, stupid, wrinkled, useless, time-slaughtered parent. The +king is dead,—long live the king!"</p> + +<p>Kenyon was very fond of Americans, Professor Ticknor and Mr. George S. +Hillard being especially dear to him. I remember hearing him say one day +that the "best prepared" young foreigner he had ever met, who had come +to see Europe, was Mr. Hillard. One day at his dinner-table, in the +presence of Mrs. Jameson, Mr. and Mrs. Carlyle, Walter Savage Landor, +Mr. and Mrs. Robert Browning, and the Procters, I heard him declare that +one of the best talkers on any subject that might be started at the +social board was the author of "Six Months in Italy." It was at a +breakfast in Kenyon's house that I first met Walter Savage Landor, whose +writings are full of verbal legacies to posterity. As I entered the room +with Procter, Landor was in the midst of an eloquent harangue on the +high art of portraiture. Procter had been lately sitting to a +daguerreotypist for a picture, and Mrs. Jameson, who was very fond of +the poet, had arranged the camera for that occasion. Landor was holding +the picture in his hand, declaring that it had never been surpassed as a +specimen of that particular art. The grand-looking author of "Pericles +and Aspasia" was standing in the middle of the room when we entered, and +his voice sounded like an explosion of first-class artillery. Seeing +Procter enter, he immediately began to address him compliments in +high-sounding Latin. Poor modest Procter pretended to stop his ears that +he might not listen to Landor's eulogistic phrases. Kenyon came to the +rescue by declaring the breakfast had been waiting half an hour. When we +arrived at the table Landor asked Procter to join him on an expedition +into Spain which he was then contemplating. "No," said Procter, "for I +cannot even 'walk Spanish' and having never crossed the Channel, I do +not intend to begin now."</p> + +<p>"Never crossed the Channel!" roared Landor,—"never saw Napoleon +Bonaparte!" He then began to tell us how the young Corsican looked when +he first saw him, saying that he had the olive complexion and roundness +of face of a Greek girl; that the consul's voice was deep and melodious, +but untruthful in tone. While we were eating breakfast he went on to +describe his Italian travels in early youth, telling us that he once saw +Shelley and Byron meet in the doorway of a hotel in Pisa. Landor had +lived in Italy many years, for he detested the climate of his native +country, and used to say "one could only live comfortably in England who +was rich enough to have a solar system of his own."</p> + +<p>The Prince of Carpi said of Erasmus he was so thin-skinned that a fly +would draw blood from him. The author of the "Imaginary Conversations" +had the same infirmity. A very little thing would disturb him for hours, +and his friends were never sure of his equanimity. I was present once +when a blundering friend trod unwittingly on his favorite prejudice, and +Landor went off instanter like a blaspheming torpedo. There were three +things in the world which received no quarter at his hands, and when in +the slightest degree he scented <i>hypocrisy</i>, <i>pharisaism</i>, or <i>tyranny</i>, +straightway he became furious, and laid about him like a mad giant.</p> + +<p>Procter told me that when Landor got into a passion, his rage was +sometimes uncontrollable. The fiery spirit knew his weakness, but his +anger quite overmastered him in spite of himself. "Keep your temper, +Landor," somebody said to him one day when he was raging. "That is just +what I don't wish to keep," he cried; "I wish to be rid of such an +infamous, ungovernable thing. I don't wish to keep my temper." Whoever +wishes to get a good look at Landor will not seek for it alone in John +Forster's interesting life of the old man, admirable as it is, but will +turn to Dickens's "Bleak House" for side glances at the great author. In +that vivid story Dickens has made his friend Landor sit for the portrait +of Lawrence Boythorn. The very laugh that made the whole house vibrate, +the roundness and fulness of voice, the fury of superlatives, are all +given in Dickens's best manner, and no one who has ever seen Landor for +half an hour could possibly mistake Boythorn for anybody else. Talking +the matter over once with Dickens, he said, "Landor always took that +presentation of himself in hearty good-humor, and seemed rather proud of +the picture." This is Dickens's portrait: "He was not only a very +handsome old gentleman, upright and stalwart, with a massive gray head, +a fine composure of face when silent, a figure that might have become +corpulent but for his being so continually in earnest that he gave it no +rest, and a chin that might have subsided into a double chin but for the +vehement emphasis in which it was constantly required to assist; but he +was such a true gentleman in his manner, so chivalrously polite, his +face was lighted by a smile of so much sweetness and tenderness, and it +seemed so plain that he had nothing to hide, that really I could not +help looking at him with equal pleasure, whether he smilingly conversed +with Ada and me, or was led by Mr. Jarndyce into some great volley of +superlatives, or threw up his head like a bloodhound, and gave out that +tremendous Ha! ha! ha!"</p> + +<p>Landor's energetic gravity, when he was proposing some colossal +impossibility, the observant novelist would naturally seize on, for +Dickens was always on the lookout for exaggerations in human language +and conduct. It was at Procter's table I heard Dickens describe a scene +which transpired after the publication of the "Old Curiosity Shop." It +seems that the first idea of Little Nell occurred to Dickens when he was +on a birthday visit to Landor, then living in Bath. The old man was +residing in lodgings in St. James Square, in that city, and ever after +connected Little Nell with that particular spot. No character in prose +fiction was a greater favorite with Landor, and one day, years after the +story was published, he burst out with a tremendous emphasis, and +declared the one mistake of his life was that he had not purchased the +house in Bath, and then and there burned it to the ground, so that no +meaner association should ever desecrate the birthplace of Little Nell!</p> + +<p>It was Procter's old schoolmaster (Dr. Drury, headmaster of Harrow) who +was the means of introducing Edmund Kean, the great actor, on the London +stage. Procter delighted to recall the many theatrical triumphs of the +eccentric tragedian, and the memoir which he printed of Kean will always +be read with interest. I heard the poet one evening describe the player +most graphically as he appeared in Sir Giles Overreach in 1816 at Drury +Lane, when he produced such an effect on Lord Byron, who sat that night +in a stage-box with Tom Moore. His lordship was so overcome by Kean's +magnificent acting that he fell forward in a convulsive fit, and it was +some time before he regained his wonted composure. Douglas Jerrold said +that Kean's appearance in Shakespeare's Jew was like a chapter out of +Genesis, and all who have seen the incomparable actor speak of his +tiger-like power and infinite grace as unrivalled.</p> + +<p>At Procter's house the best of England's celebrated men and women +assembled, and it was a kind of enchantment to converse with the ladies +one met there. It was indeed a privilege to be received by the hostess +herself, for Mrs. Procter was not only sure to be the most brilliant +person among her guests, but she practised habitually that exquisite +courtesy toward all which renders even a stranger, unwonted to London +drawing-rooms, free from awkwardness and that constraint which are +almost inseparable from a first appearance.</p> + +<p>Among the persons T have seen at that house of urbanity in London I +distinctly recall old Mrs. Montague, the mother of Mrs. Procter. She had +met Robert Burns in Edinburgh when he first came up to that city to +bring out his volume of poems. "I have seen many a handsome man in my +time," said the old lady one day to us at dinner, "but never such a pair +of eyes as young Robbie Burns kept flashing from under his beautiful +brow." Mrs. Montague was much interested in Charles Sumner, and +predicted for him all the eminence of his after-position. With a certain +other American visitor she had no patience, and spoke of him to me as a +"note of interrogation, too curious to be comfortable."</p> + +<p>I distinctly recall Adelaide Procter as I first saw her on one of my +early visits to her father's house. She was a shy, bright girl, and the +poet drew my attention to her as she sat reading in a corner of the +library. Looking at the young maiden, intent on her book, I remembered +that exquisite sonnet in her father's volume, bearing date November, +1825, addressed to the infant just a month after her birth:—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Child of my heart! My sweet, beloved First-born!<br /></span> +<span>Thou dove who tidings bring'st of calmer hours!<br /></span> +<span>Thou rainbow who dost shine when all the showers<br /></span> +<span>Are past or passing! Rose which hath no thorn,<br /></span> +<span>No spot, no blemish,—pure and unforlorn,<br /></span> +<span>Untouched, untainted! O my Flower of flowers!<br /></span> +<span>More welcome than to bees are summer bowers,<br /></span> +<span>To stranded seamen life-assuring morn!<br /></span> +<span>Welcome, a thousand welcomes! Care, who clings<br /></span> +<span>Round all, seems loosening now its serpent fold:<br /></span> +<span>New hope springs upward; and the bright world seems<br /></span> +<span>Cast back into a youth of endless springs!<br /></span> +<span>Sweet mother, is it so? or grow I old,<br /></span> +<span>Bewildered in divine Elysian dreams!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I whispered in the poet's ear my admiration of the sonnet and the +beautiful subject of it as we sat looking at her absorbed in the volume +on her knees. Procter, in response, murmured some words expressive of +his joy at having such a gift from God to gladden his affectionate +heart, and he told me afterward what a comfort Adelaide had always been +to his household. He described to me a visit Wordsworth made to his +house one day, and how gentle the old man's aspect was when he looked at +the children. "He took the hand of my dear Adelaide in his," said +Procter, "and spoke some words to her, the recollection of which helped, +perhaps, with other things, to incline her to poetry." When a little +child "the golden-tressed Adelaide," as the poet calls her in one of +his songs, must often have heard her father read aloud his own poems as +they came fresh from the fount of song, and the impression no doubt +wrought upon her young imagination a spell she could not resist. On a +sensitive mind like hers such a piece as the "Petition to Time" could +not fail of producing its full effect, and no girl of her temperament +would be unmoved by the music of words like these:—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"Touch us gently, Time!<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Let us glide adown thy stream<br /></span> +<span>Gently, as we sometimes glide<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Through a quiet dream.<br /></span> +<span>Humble voyagers are we,<br /></span> +<span>Husband, wife, and children three.<br /></span> +<span>(One is lost, an angel, fled<br /></span> +<span>To the azure overhead.)<br /></span> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<span>"Touch us gently, Time!<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>We've not proud nor soaring wings:<br /></span> +<span><i>Our</i> ambition, <i>our</i> content,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Lie in simple things.<br /></span> +<span>Humble voyagers are we,<br /></span> +<span>O'er Life's dim unsounded sea,<br /></span> +<span>Seeking only some calm clime:<br /></span> +<span>Touch us <i>gently</i>, gentle Time!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Adelaide Procter's name will always be sweet in the annals of English +poetry. Her place was assured from the time when she made her modest +advent, in 1853, in the columns of Dickens's "Household Words," and +everything she wrote from that period onward until she died gave +evidence of striking and peculiar talent. I have heard Dickens describe +how she first began to proffer contributions to his columns over a +feigned name, that of Miss Mary Berwick; how he came to think that his +unknown correspondent must be a governess; how, as time went on, he +learned to value his new contributor for her self-reliance and +punctuality,—qualities upon which Dickens always placed a high value; +how at last, going to dine one day with his old friends the Procters, he +launched enthusiastically out in praise of Mary Berwick (the writer +herself, Adelaide Procter, sitting at the table); and how the delighted +mother, being in the secret, revealed, with tears of joy, the real name +of the young aspirant. Although Dickens has told the whole story most +feelingly in an introduction to Miss Procter's "Legends and Lyrics," +issued after her death, to hear it from his own lips and sympathetic +heart, as I have done, was, as may be imagined, something better even +than reading his pathetic words on the printed page.</p> + +<p>One of the most interesting ladies in London literary society in the +period of which I am writing was Mrs. Jameson, the dear and honored +friend of Procter and his family. During many years of her later life +she stood in the relation of consoler to her sex in England. Women in +mental anguish needing consolation and counsel fled to her as to a +convent for protection and guidance. Her published writings established +such a claim upon her sympathy in the hearts of her readers that much of +her time for twenty years before she died was spent in helping others, +by correspondence and personal contact, to submit to the sorrows God had +cast upon them. She believed, with Milton, that it is miserable enough +to be blind, but still more miserable not to be able to bear blindness. +Her own earlier life had been darkened by griefs, and she knew from a +deep experience what it was to enter the cloud and stand waiting and +hoping in the shadows. In her instructive and delightful society I spent +many an hour twenty years ago in the houses of Procter and Rogers and +Kenyon. Procter, knowing my admiration of the Kemble family, frequently +led the conversation up to that regal line which included so many men +and women of genius. Mrs. Jameson was never weary of being questioned +as to the legitimate supremacy of Mrs. Siddons and her nieces, Fanny and +Adelaide Kemble. While Rogers talked of Garrick, and Procter of Kean, +she had no enthusiasms that were not bounded in by those fine spirits +whom she had watched and worshipped from her earliest years.</p> + +<p>Now and then in the garden of life we get that special bite out of the +sunny side of a peach. One of my own memorable experiences in that way +came in this wise. I had heard, long before I went abroad, so much of +the singing of the youngest child of the "Olympian dynasty," Adelaide +Kemble, so much of a brief career crowded with triumphs on the lyric +stage, that I longed, if it might be possible, to listen to the "true +daughter of her race." The rest of her family for years had been, as it +were, "nourished on Shakespeare," and achieved greatness in that high +walk of genius; but now came one who could interpret Mozart, Bellini, +and Mercadante, one who could equal what Pasta and Malibran and Persiani +and Grisi had taught the world to understand and worship. "Ah!" said a +friend, "if you could only hear <i>her</i> sing 'Casta Diva'!" "Yes," said +another, "and 'Auld Robin Gray'!" No wonder, I thought, at the universal +enthusiasm for a vocal and lyrical artist who can alternate with equal +power from "Casta Diva" to "Auld Robin Gray." I <i>must</i> hear her! She had +left the stage, after a brief glory upon it, but as Madame Sartoris she +sometimes sang at home to her guests.</p> + +<p>"We are invited to hear some music, this evening," said Procter to me +one day, "and you must go with us." I went, and our hostess was the once +magnificent <i>prima donna!</i> At intervals throughout the evening, with a +voice</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"That crowds and hurries and precipitates<br /></span> +<span>With thick fast warble its delicious notes,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>she poured out her full soul in melody. We all know her now as the +author of that exquisite "Week in a French Country-House," and her +fascinating book somehow always mingles itself in my memory with the +enchanted evening when I heard her sing. As she sat at the piano in all +her majestic beauty, I imagined her a sort of later St. Cecilia, and +could have wished for another Raphael to paint her worthily. Henry +Chorley, who was present on that memorable evening, seemed to be in a +kind of nervous rapture at hearing again the supreme and willing singer. +Procter moved away into a dim corner of the room, and held his tremulous +hand over his eyes. The old poet's sensitive spirit seemed at times to +be going out on the breath of the glorious artist who was thrilling us +all with her power. Mrs. Jameson bent forward to watch every motion of +her idol, looking applause at every noble passage. Another lady, whom I +did not know, was tremulous with excitement, and I could well imagine +what might have taken place when the "impassioned chantress" sang and +enacted Semiramide as I have heard it described. Every one present was +inspired by her fine mien, as well as by her transcendent voice. Mozart, +Rossini, Bellini, Cherubini,—how she flung herself that night, with all +her gifts, into their highest compositions! As she rose and was walking +away from the piano, after singing an air from the "Medea" with a pathos +that no musically uneducated pen like mine can or ought to attempt a +description of, some one intercepted her and whispered a request. Again +she turned, and walked toward the instrument like a queen among her +admiring court. A flash of lightning, followed by a peal of thunder that +jarred the house, stopped her for a moment on her way to the piano. A +sudden summer tempest was gathering, and crash after crash made it +impossible for her to begin. As she stood waiting for the "elemental +fury" to subside, her attitude was quite worthy of the niece of Mrs. +Siddons. When the thunder had grown less frequent, she threw back her +beautiful classic head and touched the keys. The air she had been called +upon to sing was so wild and weird, a dead silence fell upon the room, +and an influence as of terror pervaded the whole assembly. It was a song +by Dessauer, which he had composed for her voice, the words by Tennyson. +No one who was present that evening can forget how she broke the silence +with</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"We were two daughters of one race,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>or how she uttered the words,</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"The wind is roaring in turret and tree."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It was like a scene in a great tragedy, and then I fully understood the +worship she had won as belonging only to those consummate artists who +have arisen to dignify and ennoble the lyric stage. As we left the house +Procter said, "You are in great luck to-night. I never heard her sing +more divinely."</p> + +<p>The Poet frequently spoke to me of the old days when he was contributing +to the "London Magazine," which fifty years ago was deservedly so +popular in Great Britain. All the "best talent" (to use a modern +advertisement phrase) wrote for it. Carlyle sent his papers on Schiller +to be printed in it; De Quincey's "Confessions of an English +Opium-Eater" appeared in its pages; and the essays of "Elia" came out +first in that potent periodical; Landor, Keats, and John Bowring +contributed to it; and to have printed a prose or poetical article in +the "London" entitled a man to be asked to dine out anywhere in society +in those days. In 1821 the proprietors began to give dinners in Waterloo +Place once a month to their contributors, who, after the cloth was +removed, were expected to talk over the prospects of the magazine, and +lay out the contents for next month. Procter described to me the +authors of his generation as they sat round the old "mahogany-tree" of +that period. "Very social and expansive hours they passed in that +pleasant room half a century ago. Thither came stalwart Allan +Cunningham, with his Scotch face shining with good-nature; Charles Lamb, +'a Diogenes with the heart of a St. John'; Hamilton Reynolds, whose good +temper and vivacity were like condiments at a feast; John Clare, the +peasant-poet, simple as a daisy; Tom Hood, young, silent, and grave, but +who nevertheless now and then shot out a pun that damaged the shaking +sides of the whole company; De Quincey, self-involved and courteous, +rolling out his periods with a pomp and splendor suited, perhaps, to a +high Roman festival; and with these sons of fame gathered certain +nameless folk whose contributions to the great 'London' are now under +the protection of that tremendous power which men call <i>Oblivion</i>."</p> + +<p>It was a vivid pleasure to hear Procter describe Edward Irving, the +eccentric preacher, who made such a deep impression on the spirit of his +time. He is now dislimned into space, but he was, according to all his +thoughtful contemporaries, a "son of thunder," a "giant force of +activity." Procter fully indorsed all that Carlyle has so nobly written +of the eloquent man who, dying at forty-two, has stamped his strong +personal vitality on the age in which he lived.</p> + +<p>Procter, in his younger days, was evidently much impressed by that +clever rascal who, under the name of "Janus Weathercock," scintillated +at intervals in the old "London Magazine." Wainwright—for that was his +real name—was so brilliant, he made friends for a time among many of +the first-class contributors to that once famous periodical; but the Ten +Commandments ruined all his prospects for life. A murderer, a forger, a +thief,—in short, a sinner in general,—he came to grief rather early +in his wicked career, and suffered penalties of the law accordingly, but +never to the full extent of his remarkable deserts. I have heard Procter +describe his personal appearance as he came sparkling into the room, +clad in undress military costume. His smart conversation deceived those +about him into the belief that he had been an officer in the dragoons, +that he had spent a large fortune, and now condescended to take a part +in periodical literature with the culture of a gentleman and the grace +of an amateur. How this vapid charlatan in a braided surtout and +prismatic necktie could so long veil his real character from, and retain +the regard of, such men as Procter and Talfourd and Coleridge is +amazing. Lamb calls him the "kind and light-hearted Janus," and thought +he liked him. The contributors often spoke of his guileless nature at +the festal monthly board of the magazine, and no one dreamed that this +gay and mock-smiling London cavalier was about to begin a career so foul +and monstrous that the annals of crime for centuries have no blacker +pages inscribed on them. To secure the means of luxurious living without +labor, and to pamper his dandy tastes, this lounging, lazy <i>littérateur</i> +resolved to become a murderer on a large scale, and accompany his cruel +poisonings with forgeries whenever they were most convenient. His custom +for years was to effect policies of insurance on the lives of his +relations, and then at the proper time administer strychnine to his +victims. The heart sickens at the recital of his brutal crimes. On the +life of a beautiful young girl named Abercrombie this fiendish wretch +effected an insurance at various offices for £18,000 before he sent her +to her account with the rest of his poisoned too-confiding relatives. So +many heavily insured ladies dying in violent convulsions drew attention +to the gentleman who always called to collect the money. But why this +consummate criminal was not brought to justice and hung, my Lord Abinger +never satisfactorily divulged. At last this polished Sybarite, who +boasted that he always drank the richest Montepulciano, who could not +sit long in a room that was not garlanded with flowers, who said he felt +lonely in an apartment without a fine cast of the Venus de' Medici in +it,—this self-indulgent voluptuary at last committed several forgeries +on the Bank of England, and the Old Bailey sessions of July, 1837, +sentenced him to transportation for life. While he was lying in Newgate +prior to his departure, with other convicts, to New South Wales, where +he died, Dickens went with a former acquaintance of the prisoner to see +him. They found him still possessed with a morbid self-esteem and a poor +and empty vanity. All other feelings and interests were overwhelmed by +an excessive idolatry of self, and he claimed (I now quote his own words +to Dickens) a soul whose nutriment is love, and its offspring art, +music, divine song, and still holier philosophy. To the last this +super-refined creature seemed undisturbed by remorse. What place can we +fancy for such a reptile, and what do we learn from such a career? +Talfourd has so wisely summed up the whole case for us that I leave the +dark tragedy with the recital of this solemn sentence from a paper on +the culprit in the "Final Memorials of Charles Lamb": "Wainwright's +vanity, nurtured by selfishness and unchecked by religion, became a +disease, amounting perhaps to monomania, and yielding one lesson to +repay the world for his existence, viz. that there is no state of the +soul so dangerous as that in which the vices of the sensualist are +envenomed by the grovelling intellect of the scorner."</p> + +<p>One of the men best worth meeting in London, under any circumstances, +was Leigh Hunt, but it was a special boon to find him and Procter +together. I remember a day in the summer of 1859 when Procter had a +party of friends at dinner to meet Hawthorne, who was then on a brief +visit to London. Among the guests were the Countess of ——, Kinglake, +the author of "Eothen," Charles Sumner, then on his way to Paris, and +Leigh Hunt, the mercurial qualities of whose blood were even then +perceptible in his manner.</p> + +<p>Adelaide Procter did not reach home in season to begin the dinner with +us, but she came later in the evening, and sat for some time in earnest +talk with Hawthorne. It was a "goodly companie," long to be remembered. +Hunt and Procter were in a mood for gossip over the ruddy port. As the +twilight deepened around the table, which was exquisitely decorated with +flowers, the author of "Rimini" recalled to Procter's recollection other +memorable tables where they used to meet in vanished days with Lamb, +Coleridge, and others of their set long since passed away. As they +talked on in rather low tones, I saw the two old poets take hands more +than once at the mention of dead and beloved names. I recollect they had +a good deal of fine talk over the great singers whose voices had +delighted them in bygone days; speaking with rapture of Pasta, whose +tones in opera they thought incomparably the grandest musical utterances +they had ever heard. Procter's tribute in verse to this</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"Queen and wonder of the enchanted world of sound"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>is one of his best lyrics, and never was singer more divinely +complimented by poet. At the dinner I am describing he declared that she +walked on the stage like an empress, "and when she sang," said he, "I +held my breath." Leigh Hunt, in one of his letters to Procter in 1831, +says: "As to Pasta, I love her, for she makes the ground firm under my +feet, and the sky blue over my head."</p> + +<p>I cannot remember all the good things I heard that day, but some of +them live in my recollection still. Hunt quoted Hartley Coleridge, who +said, "No boy ever imagined himself a poet while he was reading +Shakespeare or Milton." And speaking of Landor's oaths, he said, "They +are so rich, they are really nutritious." Talking of criticism, he said +he did not believe in spiteful imps, but in kindly elves who would "nod +to him and do him courtesies." He laughed at Bishop Berkeley's attempt +to destroy the world in one octavo volume. His doctrine to mankind +always was, "Enlarge your tastes, that you may enlarge your hearts." He +believed in reversing original propensities by education,—as +Spallanzani brought up eagles on bread and milk, and fed doves on raw +meat. "Don't let us demand too much of human nature," was a line in his +creed; and he believed in Hood's advice, that gentleness in a case of +wrong direction is always better than vituperation.</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"Mid light, and by degrees, should be the plan<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>To cure the dark and erring mind;<br /></span> +<span>But who would rush at a benighted man<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>And give him two black eyes for being blind?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I recollect there was much converse that day on the love of reading in +old age, and Leigh Hunt observed that Sir Robert Walpole, seeing Mr. Fox +busy in the library at Houghton, said to him: "And you can read! Ah, how +I envy you! I totally neglected the <i>habit</i> of reading when I was young, +and now in my old age I cannot read a single page." Hunt himself was a +man who could be "penetrated by a book." It was inspiring to hear him +dilate over "Plutarch's Morals," and quote passages from that delightful +essay on "The Tranquillity of the Soul." He had such reverence for the +wisdom folded up on his library shelves, he declared that the very +perusal of the <i>backs of his books</i> was "a discipline of humanity." +Whenever and wherever I met this charming person, I learned a lesson of +gentleness and patience; for, steeped to the lips in poverty as he was, +he was ever the most cheerful, the most genial companion and friend. He +never left his good-nature outside the family circle, as a Mussulman +leaves his slippers outside a mosque, but he always brought a smiling +face into the house with him. T—— A——, whose fine floating wit has +never yet quite condensed itself into a star, said one day of a Boston +man that he was "east-wind made flesh." Leigh Hunt was exactly the +opposite of this; he was compact of all the spicy breezes that blow. In +his bare cottage at Hammersmith the temperament of his fine spirit +heaped up such riches of fancy that kings, if wise ones, might envy his +magic power.</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"Onward in faith, and leave the rest to Heaven,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>was a line he often quoted. There was about him such a modest fortitude +in want and poverty, such an inborn mental superiority to low and +uncomfortable circumstances, that he rose without effort into a region +encompassed with felicities, untroubled by a care or sorrow. He always +reminded me of that favorite child of the genii who carried an amulet in +his bosom by which all the gold and jewels of the Sultan's halls were no +sooner beheld than they became his own. If he sat down companionless to +a solitary chop, his imagination transformed it straightway into a fine +shoulder of mutton. When he looked out of his dingy old windows on the +four bleak elms in front of his dwelling, he saw, or thought he saw, a +vast forest, and he could hear in the note of one poor sparrow even the +silvery voices of a hundred nightingales. Such a man might often be cold +and hungry, but he had the wit never to be aware of it.</p> + +<p>Hunt's love for Procter was deep and tender, and in one of his notes to +me he says, referring to the meeting my memory has been trying to +describe, "I have reasons for liking our dear friend Procter's wine +beyond what you saw when we dined together at his table the other day." +Procter prefixed a memoir of the life and writings of Ben Jonson to the +great dramatist's works printed by Moxon in 1838. I happen to be the +lucky owner of a copy of this edition that once belonged to Leigh Hunt, +who has enriched it and perfumed the pages, as it were, by his +annotations. The memoir abounds in felicities of expression, and is the +best brief chronicle yet made of rare Ben and his poetry. Leigh Hunt has +filled the margins with his own neat handwriting, and as I turn over the +leaves, thus companioned, I seem to meet those two loving brothers in +modern song, and have again the benefit of their sweet society,—a +society redolent of</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,<br /></span> +<span>And all the sweet serenity of books."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I shall not soon forget the first morning I walked with Procter and +Kenyon to the famous house No 22 St. James Place, overlooking the Green +Park, to a breakfast with Samuel Rogers. Mixed up with this matutinal +rite was much that belongs to the modern literary and political history +of England. Fox, Burke, Talleyrand, Grattan, Walter Scott, and many +other great ones have sat there and held converse on divers matters with +the banker-poet. For more than half a century the wits and the wise men +honored that unpretending mansion with their presence. On my way thither +for the first time my companions related anecdote after anecdote of the +"ancient bard," as they called our host, telling me also how all his +life long the poet of Memory had been giving substantial aid to poor +authors; how he had befriended Sheridan, and how good he had been to +Campbell in his sorest needs. Intellectual or artistic excellence was a +sure passport to his <i>salon</i>, and his door never turned on reluctant +hinges to admit the unfriended man of letters who needed his aid and +counsel.</p> + +<p>We arrived in quite an expectant mood, to find our host already seated +at the head of his table, and his good man Edmund standing behind his +chair. As we entered the room, and I saw Rogers sitting there so +venerable and strange, I was reminded of that line of Wordsworth's,</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"The oldest man he seemed that ever wore gray hair."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But old as he was, he seemed full of <i>verve</i>, vivacity, and decision. +Knowing his homage for Ben Franklin, I had brought to him as a gift from +America an old volume issued by the patriot printer in 1741. He was +delighted with my little present, and began at once to say how much he +thought of Franklin's prose. He considered the style admirable, and +declared that it might be studied now for improvement in the art of +composition. One of the guests that morning was the Rev. Alexander Dyce, +the scholarly editor of Beaumont and Fletcher, and he very soon drew +Rogers out on the subject of Warren Hastings's trial. It seemed ghostly +enough to hear that famous event depicted by one who sat in the great +hall of William Rufus; who day after day had looked on and listened to +the eloquence of Fox and Sheridan; who had heard Edmund Burke raise his +voice till the old arches of Irish oak resounded, and impeach Warren +Hastings, "in the name of both sexes, in the name of every age, in the +name of every rank, as the common enemy and oppressor of all." It +thrilled me to hear Rogers say, "As I walked up Parliament Street with +Mrs. Siddons, after hearing Sheridan's great speech, we both agreed that +never before could human lips have uttered more eloquent words." That +morning Rogers described to us the appearance of Grattan as he first +saw and heard him when he made his first speech in Parliament. "Some of +us were inclined to laugh," said he, "at the orator's Irish brogue when +he began his speech that day, but after he had been on his legs five +minutes nobody dared to laugh any more." Then followed personal +anecdotes of Madame De Stael, the Duke of Wellington, Walter Scott, Tom +Moore, and Sydney Smith, all exquisitely told. Both our host and his +friend Procter had known or entertained most of the celebrities of their +day. Procter soon led the conversation up to matters connected with the +stage, and thinking of John Kemble and Edmund Kean, I ventured to ask +Rogers who of all the great actors he had seen bore away the palm. "I +have looked upon a magnificent procession of them," he said, "in my +time, and I never saw any one superior to <i>David Garrick</i>." He then +repeated Hannah More's couplet on receiving as a gift from Mrs. Garrick +the shoe-buckles which once belonged to the great actor:—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"Thy buckles, O Garrick, another may use,<br /></span> +<span>but none shall be found who can tread in thy shoes"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>We applauded his memory and his manner of reciting the lines, which +seemed to please him. "How much can sometimes be put into an epigram!" +he said to Procter, and asked him if he remembered the lines about Earl +Grey and the Kaffir war. Procter did not recall them, and Rogers set off +again:—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"A dispute has arisen of late at the Cape,<br /></span> +<span>As touching the devil, his color and shape;<br /></span> +<span>While some folks contend that the devil is white,<br /></span> +<span>The others aver that he's black as midnight;<br /></span> +<span>But now't is decided quite right in this way,<br /></span> +<span>And all are convinced that the devil is <i>Grey</i>."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>We asked him if he remembered the theatrical excitement in London when +Garrick and his troublesome contemporary, Barry, were playing King Lear +at rival houses, and dividing the final opinion of the critics. "Yes," +said he, "perfectly. I saw both those wonderful actors, and fully agreed +at the time with the admirable epigram that ran like wildfire into every +nook and corner of society." "Did the epigram still live in his memory?" +we asked. The old man seemed looking across the misty valley of time for +a few moments, and then gave it without a pause:—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"The town have chosen different ways<br /></span> +<span>To praise their different Lears;<br /></span> +<span>To Barry they give loud applause,<br /></span> +<span>To Garrick only tears.<br /></span> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<span>"A king! ay, every inch a king,<br /></span> +<span>Such Barry doth appear;<br /></span> +<span>But Garrick's quite another thing,—<br /></span> +<span>He's every inch <i>King Lear!</i>"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Among other things which Rogers told us that morning, I remember he had +much to say of Byron's <i>forgetfulness</i> as to all manner of things. As an +evidence of his inaccuracy, Rogers related how the noble bard had once +quoted to him some lines on Venice as Southey's, "which he wanted me to +admire," said Rogers; "and as I wrote them myself, I had no hesitation +in doing so. The lines are in my poem on Italy, and begin,</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"'There is a glorious city in the sea.'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Samuel Lawrence had recently painted in oils a portrait of Rogers, and +we asked to see it; so Edmund was sent up stairs to get it, and bring it +to the table. Rogers himself wished to compare it with his own face, and +had a looking-glass held before him. We sat by in silence as he regarded +the picture attentively, and waited for his criticism. Soon he burst out +with, "Is my nose so d——y sharp as that?" We all exclaimed, "No! no! +the artist is at fault there, sir." "I thought so," he cried; "he has +painted the face of a dead man, d—n him!" Some one said, "The portrait +is too hard." "I won't be painted as a hard man," rejoined Rogers. "I am +not a hard man, am I, Procter?" asked the old poet. Procter deprecated +with energy such an idea as that. Looking at the portrait again, Rogers +said, with great feeling, "Children would run away from that face, and +they never ran away from me!" Notwithstanding all he had to say against +the portrait, I thought it a wonderful likeness, and a painting of great +value. Moxon, the publisher, who was present, asked for a certain +portfolio of engraved heads which had been made from time to time of +Rogers, and this was brought and opened for our examination of its +contents. Rogers insisted upon looking over the portraits, and he amused +us by his cutting comments on each one as it came out of the portfolio. +"This," said he, holding one up, "is the head of a cunning fellow, and +this the face of a debauched clergyman, and this the visage of a +shameless drunkard!" After a comic discussion of the pictures of +himself, which went on for half an hour, he said, "It is time to change +the topic, and set aside the little man for a very great one. Bring me +my collection of Washington portraits." These were brought in, and he +had much to say of American matters. He remembered being told, when a +boy, by his father one day, that "a fight had recently occurred at a +place called Bunker Hill, in America." He then inquired about Webster +and the monument. He had met Webster in England, and greatly admired +him. Now and then his memory was at fault, and he spoke occasionally of +events as still existing which had happened half a century before. I +remember what a shock it gave me when he asked me if Alexander Hamilton +had printed any new pamphlets lately, and begged me to send him anything +that distinguished man might publish after I got home to America.</p> + +<p>I recollect how delighted I was when Rogers sent me an invitation the +second time to breakfast with him. On that occasion the poet spoke of +being in Paris on a pleasure-tour with Daniel Webster, and he grew +eloquent over the great American orator's genius. He also referred with +enthusiasm to Bryant's poetry, and quoted with deep feeling the first +three verses of "The Future Life." When he pronounced the lines:—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"My name on earth was ever in thy prayer,<br /></span> +<span>And must thou never utter it in heaven?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>his voice trembled, and he faltered out, "I cannot go on: there is +something in that poem which breaks me down, and I must never try again +to recite verses so full of tenderness and undying love."</p> + +<p>For Longfellow's poems, then just published in England, he expressed the +warmest admiration, and thought the author of "Voices of the Night" one +of the most perfect artists in English verse who had ever lived.</p> + +<p>Rogers's reminiscences of Holland House that morning were a series of +delightful pictures painted by an artist who left out none of the +salient features, but gave to everything he touched a graphic reality. +In his narrations the eloquent men, the fine ladies, he had seen there +assembled again around their noble host and hostess, and one listened in +the pleasant breakfast-room in St. James Place to the wit and wisdom of +that brilliant company which met fifty years ago in the great <i>salon</i> of +that princely mansion, which will always be famous in the literary and +political history of England.</p> + +<p>Rogers talked that morning with inimitable finish and grace of +expression. A light seemed to play over his faded features when he +recalled some happy past experience, and his eye would sometimes fill as +he glanced back among his kindred, all now dead save one, his sister, +who also lived to a great age. His head was very fine, and I never +could quite understand the satirical sayings about his personal +appearance which have crept into the literary gossip of his time. He was +by no means the vivacious spectre some of his contemporaries have +represented him, and I never thought of connecting him with that +terrible line in "The Mirror of Magistrates,"—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"His withered fist still striking at Death's door."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>His dome of brain was one of the amplest and most perfectly shaped I +ever saw, and his countenance was very far from unpleasant. His +faculties to enjoy had not perished with age. He certainly looked like a +well-seasoned author, but not dropping to pieces yet. His turn of +thought was characteristic, and in the main just, for he loved the best, +and was naturally impatient of what was low and mean in conduct and +intellect. He had always lived in an atmosphere of art, and his +reminiscences of painters and sculptors were never wearisome or dull. He +had a store of pleasant anecdotes of Chantrey, whom he had employed as a +wood-carver long before he became a modeller in clay; and he had also +much to tell us of Sir Joshua Reynolds, whose lectures he had attended, +and whose studio-talk had been familiar to him while he was a young man +and studying art himself as an amateur. It was impossible almost to make +Rogers seem a real being as we used to surround his table during those +mornings and sometimes deep into the afternoons. We were listening to +one who had talked with Boswell about Dr. Johnson; who had sat hours +with Mrs. Piozzi; who read the "Vicar of Wakefield" the day it was +published; who had heard Haydn, the composer, playing at a concert, +"dressed out with a sword"; who had listened to Talleyrand's best +sayings from his own lips; who had seen John Wesley lying dead in his +coffin, "an old man, with the countenance of a little child"; who had +been with Beckford at Fonthill; who had seen Porson slink back into the +dining-room after the company had left it and drain what was left in the +wineglasses; who had crossed the Apennines with Byron; who had seen Beau +Nash in the height of his career dancing minuets at Bath; who had known +Lady Hamilton in her days of beauty, and seen her often with Lord +Nelson; who was in Fox's room when that great man lay dying; and who +could describe Pitt from personal observation, speaking always as if his +mouth was "full of worsted." It was unreal as a dream to sit there in +St. James Place and hear that old man talk by the hour of what one had +been reading about all one's life. One thing, I must confess, somewhat +shocked me,—I was not prepared for the feeble manner in which some of +Rogers's best stories were received by the gentlemen who had gathered at +his table on those Tuesday mornings. But when Procter told me in +explanation afterward that they had all "heard the same anecdotes every +week, perhaps, for half a century from the same lips," I no longer +wondered at the seeming apathy I had witnessed. It was a great treat to +me, however, the talk I heard at Rogers's hospitable table, and my three +visits there cannot be erased from the pleasantest tablets of memory. +There is only one regret connected with them, but that loss still haunts +me. On one of those memorable mornings I was obliged to leave earlier +than the rest of the company on account of an engagement out of London, +and Lady Beecher (formerly Miss O'Neil), the great actress of other +days, came in and read an hour to the old poet and his guests. Procter +told me afterward that among other things she read, at Rogers's request, +the 14th chapter of Isaiah, and that her voice and manner seemed like +inspiration.</p> + +<p>Seeing and talking with Rogers was, indeed, like living in the past: +and one may imagine how weird it seemed to a raw Yankee youth, thus +facing the man who might have shaken hands with Dr. Johnson. I ventured +to ask him one day if he had ever seen the doctor. "No," said he; "but I +went down to Bolt Court in 1782 with the intention of making Dr. +Johnson's acquaintance. I raised the knocker tremblingly, and hearing +the shuffling footsteps as of an old man in the entry, my heart failed +me, and I put down the knocker softly again, and crept back into Fleet +Street without seeing the vision I was not bold enough to encounter." I +thought it was something to have heard the footsteps of old Sam Johnson +stirring about in that ancient entry, and for my own part I was glad to +look upon the man whose ears had been so strangely privileged.</p> + +<p>Rogers drew about him all the musical as well as the literary talent of +London. Grisi and Jenny Lind often came of a morning to sing their best +<i>arias</i> to him when he became too old to attend the opera; and both +Adelaide and Fanny Kemble brought to him frequently the rich tributes of +their genius in art.</p> + +<p>It was my good fortune, through the friendship of Procter, to make the +acquaintance, at Rogers's table, of Leslie, the artist,—a warm friend +of the old poet,—and to be taken round by him and shown all the +principal private galleries in London. He first drew my attention to the +pictures by Constable, and pointed out their quiet beauty to my +uneducated eye, thus instructing me to hate all those intemperate +landscapes and lurid compositions which abound in the shambles of modern +art. In the company of Leslie I saw my first Titians and Vandycks, and +felt, as Northcote says, on my good behavior in the presence of +portraits so lifelike and inspiring. It was Leslie who inoculated me +with a love of Gainsborough, before whose perfect pictures a spectator +involuntarily raises his hat and stands uncovered. (And just here let +me advise every art lover who goes to England to visit the little +Dulwich Gallery, only a few miles from London, and there to spend an +hour or two among the exquisite Gainsboroughs. No small collection in +Europe is better worth a visit, and the place itself in summer-time is +enchanting with greenery.)</p> + +<p>As Rogers's dining-room abounded in only first-rate works of art, Leslie +used to take round the guests and make us admire the Raphaels and +Correggios. Inserted in the walls on each side of the mantel-piece, like +tiles, were several of Turner's original oil and water-color drawings, +which that supreme artist had designed to illustrate Rogers's "Poems" +and "Italy." Long before Ruskin made those sketches world-famous in his +"Modern Painters," I have heard Leslie point out their beauties with as +fine an enthusiasm. He used to say that they purified the whole +atmosphere round St. James Place!</p> + +<p>Procter had a genuine regard for Count d'Orsay, and he pointed him out +to me one day sitting in the window of his club, near Gore House, +looking out on Piccadilly. The count seemed a little past his prime, but +was still the handsomest man in London. Procter described him as a +brilliant person, of special ability, and by no means a mere dandy.</p> + +<p>I first saw Procter's friend, John Forster, the biographer of Goldsmith +and Dickens, in his pleasant rooms, No. 58 Lincoln's Inn Fields. He was +then in his prime, and looked brimful of energy. His age might have been +forty, or a trifle onward from that mile-stone, and his whole manner +announced a determination to assert that nobody need prompt <i>him</i>. His +voice rang loud and clear, up stairs and down, everywhere throughout his +premises. When he walked over the uncarpeted floor, you <i>heard</i> him +walk, and he meant you should. When <i>he</i> spoke, nobody required an +ear-trumpet; the deaf never lost a syllable of his manly utterances. +Procter and he were in the same Commission, and were on excellent terms, +the younger officer always regarding the elder with a kind of leonine +deference.</p> + +<p>It was to John Forster these charming lines were addressed by Barry +Cornwall, when the poet sent his old friend a present of Shakespeare's +Works. A more exquisite compliment was never conveyed in verse so modest +and so perfect in simple grace:—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"I do not know a man who better reads<br /></span> +<span>Or weighs the great thoughts of the book I send,—<br /></span> +<span>Better than he whom I have called my friend<br /></span> +<span>For twenty years and upwards. He who feeds<br /></span> +<span>Upon Shakesperian pastures never needs<br /></span> +<span>The humbler food which springs from plains below;<br /></span> +<span>Yet may he love the little flowers that blow,<br /></span> +<span>And him excuse who for their beauty pleads.<br /></span> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<span>"Take then my Shakespeare to some sylvan nook;<br /></span> +<span>And pray thee, in the name of Days of old,<br /></span> +<span>Good-will and friendship, never bought or sold,<br /></span> +<span>Give me assurance thou wilt always look<br /></span> +<span>With kindness still on Spirits of humbler mould;<br /></span> +<span>Kept firm by resting on that wondrous book,<br /></span> +<span>Wherein the Dream of Life is all unrolled."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Forster's library was filled with treasures, and he brought to the +dinner-table, the day I was first with him, such rare and costly +manuscripts and annotated volumes to show us, that one's appetite for +"made dishes" was quite taken away. The excellent lady whom he afterward +married was one of the guests, and among the gentlemen present I +remember the brilliant author of "The Bachelor of the Albany," a book +that was then the Novel sensation in London. Forster flew from one topic +to another with admirable skill, and entertained us with anecdotes of +Wellington and Rogers, gilding the time with capital imitations of his +celebrated contemporaries in literature and on the stage. A touch about +Edmund Kean made us all start from our chairs and demand a mimetic +repetition. Forster must have been an excellent private actor, for he +had power and skill quite exceptional in that way. His force carried him +along wherever he chose to go, and when he played "Kitely," his ability +must have been strikingly apparent. After his marriage, and when he +removed from Lincoln's Inn to his fine residence at "Palace-Gate House," +he gave frequent readings, evincing remarkable natural and acquired +talents. For Dickens he had a love amounting to jealousy. He never quite +relished anybody else whom the great novelist had a fondness for, and I +have heard droll stories touching this weakness. For Professor Felton he +had unbounded regard, which had grown up by correspondence and through +report from Dickens. He had never met Felton, and when the professor +arrived in London, Dickens, with his love of fun, arranged a bit of +cajolery, which was never quite forgotten, though wholly forgiven. +Knowing how highly Forster esteemed Felton, through his writings and his +letters, Dickens resolved to take Felton at once to Forster's house and +introduce him as <i>Professor Stowe</i>, the <i>port</i> of both these gentlemen +being pretty nearly equal. The Stowes were then in England on their +triumphant tour, and this made the attempt at deception an easy one. So, +Felton being in the secret, he and Dickens proceed to Forster's house +and are shown in. Down comes Forster into the library, and is presented +forthwith to "<i>Professor Stowe</i>." "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is at once +referred to, and the talk goes on in that direction for some time. At +last both Dickens and Felton fell into such a paroxysm of laughter at +Forster's dogged determination to be complimentary to the world-renowned +novel, that they could no longer hold out; and Forster, becoming almost +insane with wonder at the hilarious conduct of his two visitors, +Dickens revealed their wickedness, and a right jolty day the happy trio +made of it.</p> + +<p>Talfourd informs us that Forster had become to Charles Lamb as one of +his oldest companions, and that Mary also cherished a strong regard for +him. It is surely a proof of his admirable qualities that the love of so +many of England's best and greatest was secured to him by so lasting a +tenure. To have the friendship of Landor, Dickens, and Procter through +long years; to have Carlyle for a constant votary, and to be mourned by +him with an abiding sorrow,—these are no slight tributes to purity of +purpose.</p> + +<p>Forster had that genuine sympathy with men of letters which entitled him +to be their biographer, and all his works in that department have a +special charm, habitually gained only by a subtle and earnest intellect.</p> + +<p>It is a singular coincidence that the writers of two of the most +brilliant records of travel of their time should have been law students +in Barry Cornwall's office. Kinglake, the author of "Eothen," and +Warburton, the author of "The Crescent and the Cross," were at one +period both engaged as pupils in their profession under the guidance of +Mr. Procter. He frequently spoke with pride of his two law students, and +when Warburton perished at sea, his grief for his brilliant friend was +deep and abiding. Kinglake's later literary fame was always a pleasure +to the historian's old master, and no one in England loved better to +point out the fine passages in the "History of the Invasion of the +Crimea" than the old poet in Weymouth Street.</p> + +<p>"Blackwood" and the "Quarterly Review" railed at Procter and his author +friends for a long period; but how true is the saying of Macaulay, "that +the place of books in the public estimation is fixed, not by what is +written <i>about</i> them, but by what is written in them!" No man was more +decried in his day than Procter's friend, William Hazlitt. The poet had +for the critic a genuine admiration; and I have heard him dilate with a +kind of rapture over the critic's fine sayings, quoting abundant +passages from the essays. Procter would never hear any disparagement of +his friend's ability and keenness. I recall his earnest but restrained +indignation one day, when some person compared Hazlitt with a diffusive +modern writer of notes on the theatre, and I remember with what +contempt, in his sweet forgivable way, the old man spoke of much that +passes nowadays for criticism. He said Hazlitt was exactly the opposite +of Lord Chesterfield, who advised his son, if he could not get at a +thing in a straight line, to try the serpentine one. There were no +crooked pathways in Hazlitt's intellect. His style is brilliant, but +never cloyed with ornamentation. Hazlitt's paper on Gifford was thought +by Procter to be as pungent a bit of writing as had appeared in his day, +and he quoted this paragraph as a sample of its biting justice: "Mr. +Gifford is admirably qualified for the situation he has held for many +years as editor of the 'Quarterly' by a happy combination of defects, +natural and acquired." In one of his letters to me Procter writes, "I +despair of the age that has forgotten to read Hazlitt."</p> + +<p>Procter was a delightful prose writer, as well as a charming poet. +Having met in old magazines and annuals several of his essays and +stories, and admiring their style and spirit, I induced him, after much +persuasion, to collect and publish in America his prose works. The +result was a couple of volumes, which were brought out in Boston in +1853. In them there are perhaps no "thoughts that wander through +eternity," but they abound in fancies which the reader will recognize as +agile</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"Daughters of the earth and sun."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In them there is nothing loud or painful, and whoever really loves "a +good book," and knows it to be such on trial, will find Barry Cornwall's +"Essays and Tales in Prose" most delectable reading. "Imparadised," as +Milton hath the word, on a summer hillside, or tented by the cool salt +wave, no better afternoon literature can be selected. One will never +meet with distorted metaphor or tawdry rhetoric in Barry's thoughtful +pages, but will find a calm philosophy and a beautiful faith, very +precious and profitable in these days of doubt and insecurity of +intellect. There is a respite and a sympathy in this fine spirit, and so +I commend him heartily in times so full of turmoil and suspicion as +these. One of the stories in the first volume of these prose writings, +called "The Man-Hunter," is quite equal in power to any of the graphic +pieces of a similar character ever written by De Quincey or Dickens, but +the tone in these books is commonly more tender and inclining to +melancholy. What, for instance, could be more heart-moving than these +passages of his on the death of little children?</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I scarcely know how it is, but the deaths of children seem to me + always less premature than those of elder persons. Not that they are + in fact so; but it is because they themselves have little or no + relation to time or maturity. Life seems a race which they have yet + to run entirely. They have made no progress toward the goal. They + are born—nothing further. But it seems hard, when a man has toiled + high up the steep hill of knowledge, that he should be cast like + Sisyphus, downward in a moment; that he who has worn the day and + wasted the night in gathering the gold of science should be, with + all his wealth of learning, all his accumulations, made bankrupt at + once. What becomes of all the riches of the soul, the piles and + pyramids of precious thoughts which men heap together? Where are + Shakespeare's imagination, Bacon's learning, Galileo's dream? Where + is the sweet fancy of Sidney, the airy spirit of Fletcher, and + Milton's thought severe? Methinks such things should not die and + dissipate, when a hair can live for centuries, and a brick of Egypt + will last three thousand years! I am content to believe that the + mind of man survives (somewhere or other) his clay.</p> + +<p> "I was once present at the death of a little child. I will not pain + the reader by portraying its agonies; but when its breath was gone, + its <i>life</i>, (nothing more than a cloud of smoke!) and it lay like a + waxen image before me, I turned my eyes to its moaning mother, and + sighed out my few words of comfort. But I am a beggar in grief. I + can feel and sigh and look kindly, I think; but I have nothing to + give. My tongue deserts me. I know the inutility of too soon + comforting. I know that <i>I</i> should weep were I the loser, and I let + the tears have their way. Sometimes a word or two I can muster: a + 'Sigh no more!' and 'Dear lady, do not grieve!' but further I am + mute and useless."</p></div> + +<p>I have many letters and kind little notes which Procter used to write me +during the years I knew him best. His tricksy fancies peeped out in his +correspondence, and several of his old friends in England thought no +literary man of his time had a better epistolary style. His neat elegant +chirography on the back of a letter was always a delightful foretaste of +something good inside, and I never received one of his welcome missives +that did not contain, no matter how brief it happened to be, welcome +passages of wit or affectionate interest.</p> + +<p>In one of his early letters to me he says:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"There is no one rising hereabouts in literature. I suppose our + national genius is taking a mechanical turn. And, in truth, it is + much better to make a good steam-engine than to manufacture a bad + poem. 'Building the lofty rhyme' is a good thing, but our present + buildings are of a low order, and seldom reach the Attic. This piece + of wit will scarcely throw you into a fit, I imagine, your risible + muscles being doubtless kept in good order."</p></div> + +<p>In another he writes:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I see you have some capital names in the 'Atlantic Monthly.' If + they will only put forth their strength, there is no doubt as to the + result, but the misfortune is that persons who write anonymously + <i>don't</i> put forth their strength, in general. I was a magazine + writer for no less than a dozen years, and I felt that no personal + credit or responsibility attached to my literary trifling, and + although I sometimes did pretty well (for me), yet I never did my + best."</p></div> + +<p>As I read over again the portfolio of his letters to me, bearing date +from 1848 to 1866, I find many passages of interest, but most of them +are too personal for type. A few extracts, however, I cannot resist +copying. Some of his epistles are enriched with a song or a sonnet, then +just written, and there are also frequent references in them to American +editions of his poetical and prose works, which he collected at the +request of his Boston publishers.</p> + +<p>In June, 1851, he writes:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I have encountered a good many of your countrymen here lately, but + have been introduced only to a few. I found Mr. Norton, who has + returned to you, and Mr. Dwight, who is still here, I believe, very + intelligent and agreeable.</p> + +<p> "If all Americans were like them and yourself, and if all Englishmen + were like Kenyon and (so far as regards a desire to judge fairly) + myself, I think there would be little or no quarrelling between our + small island and your great continent.</p> + +<p> "Our glass palace is a perpetual theme for small-talk. It usurps the + place of the weather, which is turned adrift, or laid up in ordinary + for future use. Nevertheless it (I mean the palace) is a remarkable + achievement, after all; and I speak sincerely when I say, 'All honor + and glory to Paxton!' If the strings of my poor little lyre were not + rusty and overworn, I think I should try to sing some of my nonsense + verses before his image, and add to the idolatry already existing.</p> + +<p> "If you have hotter weather in America than that which is at present + burning and blistering us here, you are entitled to pity. If it + continue much longer, I shall be held in solution for the remainder + of my days, and shall be remarkable as 'Oxygen, the poet' (reduced + to his natural weakness and simplicity by the hot summer of 1851), + instead of Your very sincere and obliged</p> + +<p> "B.W. PROCTER."</p></div> + +<p>Here is a brief reference to Judd's remarkable novel, forming part of a +note written to me in 1852:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Thanks for 'Margaret' (the book, <i>not</i> the woman), that you have + sent me. When will you want it back? and who is the author? There is + a great deal of clever writing in it,—great observation of nature, + and also of character among a certain class of persons. <i>But</i> it is + almost too minute, and for <i>me</i> decidedly too theological. You see + what irreligious people we are here. I shall come over to one of + your camp-meetings and <i>try</i> to be converted. What will they + administer in such a case? brimstone or brandy? I shall try the + latter first."</p></div> + +<p>Here is a letter bearing date "Thursday night, November 25, 1852," in +which he refers to his own writings, and copies a charming song:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Your letter, announcing the arrival of the little preface, reached + me last night. I shall look out for the book in about three weeks + hence, as you tell me that they are all printed. You Americans are a + rapid race. When I thought you were in Scotland, lo, you had touched + the soil of Boston; and when I thought you were unpacking my poor + MS., tumbling it out of your great trunk, behold! it is arranged—it + is in the printer's hands—it is <i>printed</i>—published—it is—ah! + would I could add, SOLD! That, after all, is the grand triumph in + Boston as well as London.</p> + +<p> "Well, since it is not sold yet, let us be generous and give a few + copies away. Indeed, such is my weakness, that I would sometimes + rather give than sell. In the present instance you will do me the + kindness to send a copy each to Mr. Charles Sumner, Mr. Hillard, Mr. + Norton: but no—my wife requests to be the donor to Mr. Norton, so + you must, if you please, write his name in the first leaf and state + that it comes from '<i>Mrs</i>. Procter.' I liked him very much when I + met him in London, and I should wish him to be reminded of his + English acquaintance.</p> + +<p> "I am writing to you at eleven o'clock at night, after a long and + busy day, and I write <i>now</i> rather than wait for a little + inspiration, because the mail, I believe, starts to-morrow. The + unwilling Minerva is at my elbow, and I feel that every sentence I + write, were it pounded ten times in a mortar, would come out again + unleavened and heavy. Braying some people in a mortar, you know, is + but a weary and unprofitable process.</p> + +<p> "You speak of London as a delightful place. I don't know how it may + be in the white-bait season, but at present it is foggy, rainy, + cold, dull. Half of us are unwell and the other half dissatisfied. + Some are apprehensive of an invasion,—not an impossible event; some + writing odes to the Duke of Wellington; and I am putting my good + friend to sleep with the flattest prose that ever dropped from an + English pen. I wish that it were better; I wish that it were even + worse; but it is the most undeniable twaddle. I must go to bed, and + invoke the Muses in the morning. At present, I cannot touch one of + their petticoats.</p> +</div> + +<div class='poem'> +<div class='stanza'> +<span class='i13'>"A SLEEPY SONG.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class='stanza'> +<span>"Sing! sing me to sleep!<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>With gentle words, in some sweet slumberous measure,<br /></span> +<span>Such as lone poet on some shady steep<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Sings to the silence in his noonday leisure.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class='stanza'> +<span>"Sing! as the river sings,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>When gently it flows between soft banks of flowers,<br /></span> +<span>And the bee murmurs, and the cuckoo brings<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>His faint May music, 'tween the golden showers.<br /></span> +</div> +<div class='stanza'> +<span>"Sing! O divinest tone!<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>I sink beneath some wizard's charming wand;<br /></span> +<span>I yield, I move, by soothing breezes blown,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>O'er twilight shores, into the Dreaming Land!<br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>"I read the above to you when you were in London. It will appear in + an Annual edited by Miss Power (Lady Blessington's niece).</p> + +<p> "Friday Morning.</p> + +<p> "The wind blowing down the chimney; the rain sprinkling my windows. + The English Apollo hides his head—you can scarcely see him on the + 'misty mountain-tops' (those brick ones which you remember in + Portland Place).</p> + +<p> "My friend Thackeray is gone to America, and I hope is, by this + time, in the United States. He goes to New York, and afterward I + <i>suppose</i> (but I don't know) to Boston and Philadelphia. Have you + seen <i>Esmond</i>? There are parts of it charmingly written. His pathos + is to me very touching. I believe that the best mode of making one's + way to a person's head is—through his heart.</p> + +<p> "I hope that your literary men will like some of my little prose + matters. I know that they will <i>try</i> to like them; but the papers + have been written so long, and all, or almost all, written so + hastily, that I have my misgivings. However, they must take their + chance.</p> + +<p> "Had I leisure to complete something that I began two or three years + ago, and in which I have written a chapter or two, I should reckon + more surely on success; but I shall probably never finish the thing, + although I contemplated only one volume.</p> + +<p> "(If you cannot read this letter apply to the printer's + devil.—Hibernicus.)</p> + +<p> "Farewell. All good be with you. My wife desires to be kindly + remembered by you.</p> + +<p> "Always yours, very sincerely,</p> + +<p> "B.W. PROCTER."</p> + +<p> "P.S.—Can you contrive to send Mr. Willis a copy of the prose book? + If so, pray do."</p> +</div> + +<p>In February, 1853, he writes:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'> + <p>"Those famous volumes, the advent of which was some time since + announced by the great transatlantic trumpet, have duly arrived. My + wife is properly grateful for her copy, which, indeed, impresses + both of us with respect for the American skill in binding. Neither + too gay to be gaudy, nor too grave, so as to affect the theological, + it hits that happy medium which agrees with the tastes of most + people and disgusts none. We should flatter ourselves that it is + intended to represent the matter within, but that we are afraid of + incurring the sin of vanity, and the indiscretion of taking + appearances too much upon trust. We suspend our conjectures on this + very interesting subject. The whole getting up of the book is + excellent.</p> + + <p>"For the little scraps of (critical) sugar enclosed in your letter, + due thanks. These will sweeten our imagination for some time to + come.</p> + + <p>"I have been obliged to give all the copies you sent me away. I dare + say you will not grudge me four or five copies more, to be sent at + your convenience, of course. Let me hear from you at the same time. + You can give me one of those frequent quarters of an hour which I + know you now devote to a meditation on 'things in general.'</p> + + <p>"I am glad that you like Thackeray. He is well worth your liking. I + trust to his making both friends and money in America, and to his + <i>keeping</i> both. I am not so sure of the money, however, for he has a + liberal hand. I should have liked to have been at one of the dinners + you speak of. When shall you begin that <i>bridge</i>? You seem to be a + long time about it. It will, I dare say, be a bridge of boats, after + all....</p> + + <p>"I was reading (rather re-reading) the other evening the + introductory chapter to the 'Scarlet Letter.' It is admirably + written. Not having any great sympathy with a custom-house,—nor, + indeed, with Salem, except that it seems to be Hawthorne's + birthplace,—all my attention was concentrated on the <i>style</i>, which + seems to me excellent.</p> + + <p>"The most striking book which has been recently published here is + 'Villette,' by the authoress of 'Jane Eyre,' who, as you know, is a + Miss Bronte. The book does not give one the most pleasing notion of + the authoress, perhaps, but it is very clever, graphic, vigorous. It + is 'man's meat,' and not the whipped syllabub, which is <i>all</i> froth, + without any jam at the bottom. The scene of the drama is Brussels.</p> + + <p>"I was sorry to hear of poor Willis. Our critics here were too + severe upon him....</p> + + <p>"The Frost King (vulg. Jack Frost) has come down upon us with all + his might. Banished from the pleasant shores of Boston, he has come + with his cold scythe and ice pincers to our undefended little + island, and is tyrannizing in every corner and over every part of + every person. Nothing is too great for him, nothing too mean. He + condescends even to lay hold of the nose (an offence for which any + one below the dignity of a King—or a President—would be kicked.) + As for me I have taken refuge in</p> +</div> +<div class='poem'> + <div class='stanza'> + <span class='i3'>"A SONG WITH A MORAL.<br /></span> + </div> + <div class='stanza'> + <span>"When the winter bloweth loud,<br /></span> + <span>And the earth is in a shroud,<br /></span> + <span>Frozen rain or sleety snow<br /></span> + <span>Dimming every dream below,—<br /></span> + <span class='i2'>There is e'er a spot of green<br /></span> + <span class='i2'>Whence the heavens may be seen.<br /></span> + </div> + <div class='stanza'> + <span>"When our purse is shrinking fast,<br /></span> + <span>And our friend is lost, (the last!)<br /></span> + <span>And the world doth pour its pain,<br /></span> + <span>Sharper than the frozen rain,—<br /></span> + <span class='i2'>There is still a spot of green<br /></span> + <span class='i2'>Whence the heavens may be seen.<br /></span> + </div> + <div class='stanza'> + <span>"Let us never meet despair<br /></span> + <span>While the little spot is there;<br /></span> + <span>Winter brighteneth into May,<br /></span> + <span>And sullen night to sunny day,—<br /></span> + <span class='i2'>Seek we then the spot of green<br /></span> + <span class='i2'>Whence the heavens may be seen.<br /></span> + </div> +</div> +<div class="blkquot"> + <p>"I have left myself little space for more small-talk. I must, therefore, + conclude with wishing that your English dreams may continue bright, and + that when they begin to fade you will come and <i>relume</i> at one of the + white-bait dinners of which you used to talk in such terms of rapture.</p> + + <p>"Have I space to say that I am very truly yours?</p> + + <p>"B.W. PROCTER."</p> +</div> + +<p>A few months later, in the same year (1853), he sits by his open window +in London, on a morning of spring, and sends off the following pleasant +words:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"You also must now be in the first burst and sunshine of spring. + Your spear-grass is showing its points, your succulent grass its + richness, even your little plant [?] (so useful for certain + invalids) is seen here and there; primroses are peeping out in your + neighborhood, and you are looking for cowslips to come. I say + nothing of your hawthorns (from the common May to the classic + Nathaniel), except that I trust they are thriving, and like to put + forth a world of blossoms soon.</p></div> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>'With all this wealth, present and future,<br /></span> +<span>The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose,'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>you will doubtless feel disposed to scatter your small coins abroad + on the poor, and, among other things, to forward to your humble + correspondent those copies of B—— C——'s prose works which you + promised I know not how long ago. 'He who gives <i>speedily</i>,' they + say, 'gives twice.' I quote, as you see, from the Latins.</p> + +<p> "I have just got the two additional volumes of De Quincey, for + which—thanks! I have not seen Mr. Parker, who brought them, and who + left his card here yesterday, but I have asked if he will come and + breakfast with me on Sunday,—my only certain leisure day. Your De + Quincey is a man of a good deal of reading, and has thought on + divers and sundry matters; but he is evidently so thoroughly well + pleased with the Sieur 'Thomas De Quincey' that his self-sufficiency + spoils even his best works. Then some of his facts are, I hear, + <i>quasi</i> facts only, not unfrequently. He has his moments when he + sleeps, and becomes oblivious of all but the aforesaid 'Thomas,' who + pervades both his sleeping and waking visions. I, like all authors, + am glad to have a little praise now and then (it is my hydromel), + but it must be dispensed by others. I do not think it decent to + manufacture the sweet liquor myself, and I hate a coxcomb, whether + in dress or print.</p> + +<p> "We have little or no literary news here. Our poets are all going + to the poorhouse (except Tennyson), and our prose writers are + piling up their works for the next 5th of November, when there will + be a great bonfire. It is deuced lucky that my immortal (ah! I am De + Quinceying)—I mean my humble—performances were printed in America, + so that they will escape. By the by, are they on foolscap? for I + forgot to caution you on that head.</p> + +<p> "I have been spending a week at Liverpool, where I rejoiced to hear + that Hawthorne's appointment was settled, and that it was a valuable + post; but I hear that it lasts for three years only. This is + melancholy. I hope, however, that he will 'realize' (as you + trans-atlantics say) as much as he can during his consulate, and + that your next President will have the good taste and the good sense + to renew his lease for three years more.</p> + +<p> "I have not seen Mrs. Stowe. I shall probably meet her somewhere or + other when she comes to London.</p> + +<p> "I dare not ask after Mr. Longfellow. He was kind enough to write me + a very agreeable letter some time ago, which I ought to have + answered. I dare say he has forgotten it, but my conscience is a + serpent that gives me a bite or a sting every now and then when I + think of him. The first time I am in fit condition (I mean in point + of brightness) to reply to so famous a correspondent, I shall try + what an English pen and ink will enable me to say. In the mean time, + God be thanked for all things!</p> + +<p> "My wife heard from Thackeray about ten days ago. He speaks + gratefully of the kindness that he has met with in America. Among + other things, it appears that he has seen something of your slaves, + whom he represents as leading a very easy life, and as being fat, + cheerful, and happy. Nevertheless, <i>I</i> (for one) would rather be a + free man,—such is the singularity of my opinions. If my prosings + should ever in the course of the next twenty years require to be + reprinted, pray take note of the above opinion.</p> + +<p> "And now I have no more paper; I have scarcely room left to say that + I hope you are well, and to remind you that for your ten lines of + writing I have sent you back a hundred. Give my best compliments to + all whom I know, personally or otherwise. God be with you!</p> + +<p> "Yours, very sincerely,</p> + +<p> "B.W. PROCTER."</p></div> + +<p>Procter always seemed to be astounded at the travelling spirit of +Americans, and in his letters he makes frequent reference to our +"national propensity," as he calls it.</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Half an hour ago," he writes in. July, 1853, "we had three of your + countrymen here to lunch,—countrymen I mean, Hibernically, for two + of them wore petticoats. They are all going to Switzerland, France, + Italy, Egypt, and Syria. What an adventurous race you are, you + Americans! Here the women go merely 'from the blue bed to the + brown,' and think that they have travelled and seen the world. I + myself should not care much to be confined to a circle reaching six + or seven miles round London. There are the fresh winds and wild + thyme on Hampstead Heath, and from Richmond you may survey the + Naiades. Highgate, where Coleridge lived, Enfield, where Charles + Lamb dwelt, are not far off. Turning eastward, there is the river + Lea, in which Izaak Walton fished; and farther on—ha! what do I + see? What are those little fish frisking in the batter (the great + Naval Hospital close by), which fixed the affections of the enamored + American while he resided in London, and have been floating in his + dreams ever since? They are said by the naturalists to be of the + species <i>Blandamentum album</i>, and are by vulgar aldermen spoken + carelessly of as <i>white-bait</i>.</p> + +<p> "London is full of carriages, full of strangers, full of parties + feasting on strawberries and ices and other things intended to allay + the heat of summer; but the Summer herself (fickle virgin) keeps + back, or has been stopped somewhere or other,—perhaps at the + Liverpool custom-house, where the very brains of men (their books) + are held in durance, as I know to my cost.</p> + +<p> "Thackeray is about to publish a new work in numbers,—a serial, as + the newspapers call it. Thomas Carlyle is publishing (a sixpenny + matter) in favor of the slave-trade. Novelists of all shades are + plying their trades. Husbands are killing their wives in every day's + newspaper. Burglars are peaching against each other; there is no + longer honor among thieves. I am starting for Leicester on a week's + expedition amidst the mad people; and the Emperor of Russia has + crossed the Pruth, and intends to make a tour of Turkey.</p> + +<p> "All this appears to me little better than idle, restless vanity. O + my friend, what a fuss and a pother we are all making, we little + flies who are going round on the great wheel of time! To-day we are + flickering and buzzing about, our little bits of wings glittering in + the sunshine, and to-morrow we are safe enough in the little crevice + at the back of the fireplace, or hid in the folds of the old + curtain, shut up, stiff and torpid, for the long winter. What do you + say to that profound reflection?</p> + +<p> "I struggle against the lassitude which besets me, and strive in + vain to be either sensible or jocose. I had better say farewell."</p></div> + +<p>On Christmas day, 1854, he writes in rather flagging spirits, induced +by ill health:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I have owed you a letter for these many months, my good friend. I + am afraid to think <i>how</i> long, lest the interest on the debt should + have exceeded the capital, and be beyond my power to pay.</p> + +<p> "You must be good-natured and excuse me, for I have been ill—very + frequently—and dispirited. A bodily complaint torments me, that has + tormented me for the last two years. I no longer look at the world + through a rose-colored glass. The prospect, I am sorry to say, is + gray, grim, dull, barren, full of withered leaves, without flowers, + or if there be any, all of them trampled down, soiled, discolored, + and without fragrance. You see what a bit of half-smoked glass I am + looking through. At all events, you must see how entirely I am + disabled from returning, except in sober sentences, the lively and + good-natured letters and other things which you have sent me from + America. They were welcome, and I thank you for them now, in a few + words, as you observe, but sincerely. I am somewhat brief, even in + my gratitude. Had I been in braver spirits, I might have spurred my + poor Pegasus, and sent you some lines on the Alma, or the + Inkerman,—bloody battles, but exhibiting marks not to be mistaken + of the old English heroism, which, after all is said about the + enervating effects of luxury, is as grand and manifest as in the + ancient fights which English history talks of so much. Even you, + sternest of republicans, will, I think, be proud of the indomitable + courage of Englishmen, and gladly refer to your old paternity. I, at + least, should be proud of Americans fighting after the same fashion + (and without doubt they <i>would</i> fight thus), just as old people + exult in the brave conduct of their runaway sons. I cannot read of + these later battles without the tears coming into my eyes. It is + said by 'our correspondent' at <i>New York</i> that the folks there + rejoice in the losses and disasters of the allies. This can never be + the case, surely? No one whose opinion is worth a rap can rejoice at + any success of the Czar, whose double-dealing and unscrupulous + greediness must have rendered him an object of loathing to every + well-thinking man. But what have I to do with politics, or you? Our + 'pleasant object and serene employ' are books, books. Let us return + to pacific thoughts.</p> + +<p> "What a number of things have happened since I saw you! I looked for + you in the last spring, little dreaming that so fat and flourishing + a 'Statesman' could be overthrown by a little fever. I had even + begun some doggerel, announcing to you the advent of the + white-bait, which I imagined were likely to be all eaten up in your + absence. My memory is so bad that I cannot recollect half a dozen + lines, probably not one, as it originally stood.</p> + +<p> "I was at Liverpool last June. After two or three attempts I + contrived to seize on the famous Nathaniel Hawthorne. Need I say + that I like him <i>very</i> much? He is very sensible, very genial,—a + little shy, I think (for an American!)—and altogether extremely + agreeable. I wish that I could see more of him, but our orbits are + wide apart. Now and then—once in two years—I diverge into and + cross his circle, but at other times we are separated by a space + amounting to 210 miles. He has three children, and a nice little + wife, who has good-humor engraved on her countenance.</p> + +<p> "As to verse—yes, I have begun a dozen trifling things, which are + in my drawer unfinished; poor rags with ink upon them, none of them, + I am afraid, properly labelled for posterity. I was for six weeks at + Ryde, in the Isle of Wight, this year, but so unwell that I could + not write a line, scarcely read one; sitting out in the sun, eating, + drinking, sleeping, and sometimes (poor soul!) imagining I was + thinking. One Sunday I saw a magnificent steamer go by, and on + placing my eye to the telescope I saw some Stars and Stripes + (streaming from the mast-head) that carried me away to Boston. By + the way, when <i>will</i> you finish the bridge?</p> + +<p> "I hear strange hints of you all quarrelling about the slave + question. Is it so? You are so happy and prosperous in America that + you must be on the lookout for clouds, surely! When you see Emerson, + Longfellow, Sumner, any one I know, pray bespeak for me a kind + thought or word from them."</p></div> + +<p>Procter was always on the lookout for Hawthorne, whom he greatly +admired. In November, 1855, he says, in a brief letter:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"I have not seen Hawthorne since I wrote to you. He came to London + this summer, but, I am sorry to say, did not inquire for me. As it + turned out, I was absent from town, but sent him (by Mrs. Russell + Sturgis) a letter of introduction to Leigh Hunt, who was very much + pleased with him. Poor Hunt! he is the most genial of men; and, now + that his wife is confined to her bed by rheumatism, is recovering + himself, and, I hope, doing well. He asked to come and see me the + other day. I willingly assented, and when I saw him—grown old and + sad and broken down in health—all my ancient liking for him + revived.</p> + +<p> "You ask me to send you some verse. I accordingly send you a scrap + of recent manufacture, and you will observe that instead of + forwarding my epic on Sevastopol, I select something that is fitter + for these present vernal love days than the blaster of heroic verse:—</p></div> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class='i12'>"SONG.<br /></span> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<span>"Within the chambers of her breast<br /></span> +<span>Love lives and makes his spicy nest,<br /></span> +<span>Midst downy blooms and fragrant flowers,<br /></span> +<span>And there he dreams away the hours—<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>There let him rest!<br /></span> +<span>Some time hence, when the cuckoo sings,<br /></span> +<span>I'll come by night and bind his wings,—<br /></span> +<span>Bind him that he shall not roam<br /></span> +<span>From his warm white virgin home.<br /></span> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<span>"Maiden of the summer season,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Angel of the rosy time,<br /></span> +<span>Come, unless some graver reason<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Bid thee scorn my rhyme;<br /></span> +<span>Come from thy serener height,<br /></span> +<span>On a golden cloud descending,<br /></span> +<span>Come ere Love hath taken flight,<br /></span> +<span>And let thy stay be like the light,<br /></span> +<span>When its glory hath no ending<br /></span> +<span>In the Northern night!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Now and then we get a glimpse of Thackeray in his letters. In one of +them he says:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Thackeray came a few days ago and read one of his lectures at our + house (that on George the Third), and we asked about a dozen persons + to come and hear it, among the rest, your handsome countrywoman, + Mrs. R—— S——. It was very pleasant, with that agreeable + intermixture of tragedy and comedy that tells so well when + judiciously managed. He will not print them for some time to come, + intending to read them at some of the principal places in England, + and perhaps Scotland.</p> + +<p> "What are you doing in America? You are too happy and independent! + 'O fortunatos Agricolas, sua si bona nôrint!' I am not quite sure of + my Latin (which is rusty from old age), but I am sure of the + sentiment, which is that when people are too happy, they don't know + it, and so take to quarrelling to relieve the monotony of their + blue sky. Some of these days you will split your great kingdom in + two, I suppose, and then—</p> + +<p> "My wife's mother, Mrs. Basil Montagu, is very ill, and we are + apprehensive of a fatal result, which, in truth, the mere fact of + her age (eighty-two or eighty-three) is enough to warrant. Ah, this + terrible <i>age</i>! The young people, I dare say, think that we live too + long. Yet how short it is to look back on life! Why, I saw the house + the other day where I used to play with a wooden sword when I was + five years old! It cannot surely be eighty years ago! What has + occurred since? Why, nothing that is worth putting down on paper. A + few nonsense verses, a flogging or two (richly deserved), and a few + white-bait dinners, and the whole is reckoned up. Let us begin + again." [Here he makes some big letters in a school-boy hand, which + have a very pathetic look on the page.]</p></div> + +<p>In a letter written in 1856 he gives me a graphic picture of sad times +in India:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"All our anxiety here at present is the Indian mutiny. We ourselves + have great cause for trouble. Our son (the only son I have, indeed) + escaped from Delhi lately. He is now at Meerut. He and four or five + other officers, four women, and a child escaped. The men were + obliged to drop the women a fearful height from the walls of the + fort, amidst showers of bullets. A round shot passed within a yard + of my son, and one of the ladies had a bullet through her shoulder. + They were seven days and seven nights in the jungle, without money + or meat, scarcely any clothes, no shoes. They forded rivers, lay on + the wet ground at night, lapped water from the puddles, and finally + reached Meerut. The lady (the mother of the three other ladies) had + not her wound dressed, or seen, indeed, for upward of a week. Their + feet were full of thorns. My son had nothing but a shirt, a pair of + trousers, and a flannel waistcoat. How they contrived to <i>live</i> I + don't know; I suppose from small gifts of rice, etc., from the + natives.</p> + +<p> "When I find any little thing now that disturbs my serenity, and + which I might in former times have magnified into an evil, I think + of what Europeans suffer from the vengeance of the Indians, and pass + it by in quiet.</p> + +<p> "I received Mr. Hillard's epitaph on my dear kind friend Kenyon. + Thank him in my name for it. There are some copies to be reserved of + a lithograph now in progress (a portrait of Kenyon) for his American + friends. Should it be completed in time, Mr. Sumner will be asked + to take them over. I have put down your name for one of those who + would wish to have this little memento of a good kind man....</p> + +<p> "I shall never visit America, be assured, or the continent of + Europe, or any distant region. I have reached nearly to the length + of my tether. I have grown old and apathetic and stupid. All I care + for, in the way of personal enjoyment, is quiet, ease,—to have + nothing to do, nothing to think of. My only glance is backward. + There is so little before me that I would rather not look that way."</p></div> + +<p>In a later letter he again speaks of his son and the war in India:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"My son is <i>not</i> in the list of killed and wounded, thank God! He + was before Delhi, having <i>volunteered</i> thither after his escape. We + trust that he is at present safe, but every mail is pregnant with + bloody tidings, and we do not find ourselves yet in a position to + rejoice securely. What a terrible war this Indian war is! Are all + people of black blood cruel, cowardly, and treacherous? If it were a + case of great oppression on our part, I could understand and + (almost) excuse it; but it is from the <i>spoiled</i> portion of the + Hindostanees that the revengeful mutiny has arisen. One thing is + quite clear, that whatever luxury and refinement have done for our + race (for I include Americans with English), they have not + diminished the courage and endurance and heroism for which I think + we have formerly been famous. We are the same Saxons still. There + has never been fiercer fighting than in some of the battles that + have lately taken place in India. When I look back on the old + history books, and see that <i>all</i> history consists of little else + than the bloody feuds of nation with nation, I almost wonder that + God has not extinguished the cruel, selfish animals that we dignify + with the name of men. No—I cry forgiveness: let the women live, if + they can, without the men. I used the word 'men' only."</p></div> + +<p>Here is a pleasant paragraph about "Aurora Leigh":—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"The most successful book of the season has been Mrs. Browning's + 'Aurora Leigh.' I could wish some things altered, I confess; but as + it is, it is by far (a hundred times over) the finest poem ever + written by a woman. We know little or nothing of Sappho,—nothing to + induce comparison,—and all other wearers of petticoats must + courtesy to the ground."</p></div> + +<p>In several of his last letters to me there are frequent allusions to +our civil war. Here is an extract from an epistle written in 1861:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"We read with painful attention the accounts of your great quarrel + in America. We know nothing beyond what we are told by the New York + papers, and these are the stories of <i>one</i> of the combatants. I am + afraid that, however you may mend the schism, you will never be so + strong again. I hope, however, that something may arise to terminate + the bloodshed; for, after all, fighting is an unsatisfactory way of + coming at the truth. If you were to stand up at once (and finally) + against the slave-trade, your band of soldiers would have a more + decided <i>principle</i> to fight for. But—</p> + +<p> "—But I really know little or nothing. I hope that at Boston you + are comparatively peaceful, and I know that you are more + abolitionist than in the more southern countries.</p> + +<p> "There is nothing new doing here in the way of books. The last book + I have seen is called 'Tannhauser,' published by Chapman and + Hall,—a poem under feigned names, but <i>really</i> written by Robert + Lytton and Julian Fane. It is not good enough for the first, but (as + I conjecture) too good for the last. The songs which decide the + contest of the bards are the worst portions of the book.</p> + +<p> "I read some time ago a novel which has not made much noise, but + which is prodigiously clever,—'City and Suburb.' The story hangs in + parts, but it is full of weighty sentences. We have no poet <i>since</i> + Tennyson except Robert Lytton, who, you know, calls himself Owen + Meredith. Poetry in England is assuming a new character, and not a + better character. It has a sort of pre-Raphaelite tendency which + does not suit my aged feelings. I am for Love, or the World well + lost. But I forget that, if I live beyond the 21st of next November, + I shall be <i>seventy-four</i> years of age. I have been obliged to + resign my Commissionership of Lunacy, not being able to bear the + pain of travelling. By this I lose about £900 a year. I am, + therefore, sufficiently poor, even for a poet. Browning, as you + know, has lost his wife. He is coming with his little boy to live in + England. I rejoice at this, for I think that the English should live + in England, especially in their youth, when people learn things that + they never forget afterward."</p></div> + +<p>Near the close of 1864 he writes:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Since I last heard from you, nothing except what is melancholy + seems to have taken place. You seem all busy killing each other in + America. Some friends of yours and several friends of mine have + died. Among the last I cannot help placing Nathaniel Hawthorne, for + whom I had a sincere regard.... He was about your best prose writer, + I think, and intermingled with his humor was a great deal of + tenderness. To die so soon!</p> + +<p> "You are so easily affronted in America, if we (English) say + anything about putting an end to your war, that I will not venture + to hint at the subject. Nevertheless, I wish that you were all at + peace again, for your own sakes and for the sake of human nature. I + detest fighting now, although I was a great admirer of fighting in + my youth. My youth? I wonder where it has gone. It has left me with + gray hairs and rheumatism, and plenty of (too many other) + infirmities. I stagger and stumble along, with almost seventy-six + years on my head, upon failing limbs, which no longer enable me to + walk half a mile. I see a great deal, all behind me (the Past), but + the prospect before me is not cheerful. Sometimes I wish that I had + tried harder for what is called Fame, but generally (as now) I care + very little about it. After all,—unless one could be Shakespeare, + which (clearly) is not an easy matter,—of what value is a little + puff of smoke from a review? If we could settle permanently who is + to be the Homer or Shakespeare of our time, it might be worth + something; but we cannot. Is it Jones, or Smith, or ——? Alas! I + get short-sighted on this point, and cannot penetrate the + impenetrable dark. Make my remembrances acceptable to Longfellow, to + Lowell, to Emerson, and to any one else who remembers me.</p> + +<p> "Yours, ever sincerely,</p> + +<p> "B.W. PROCTER."</p></div> + +<p>And here are a few paragraphs from the last letter I ever received in +Procter's loving hand:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"Although I date this from Weymouth Street, yet I am writing 140 or + 150 miles away from London. Perhaps this temporary retreat from our + great, noisy, turbulent city reminds me that I have been very + unmindful of your letter, received long ago. But I have been busy, + and my writing now is not a simple matter, as it was fifty years + ago. I have great difficulty in forming the letters, and you would + be surprised to learn with what labor <i>this</i> task is performed. Then + I have been incessantly occupied in writing (I refer to the + <i>mechanical</i> part only) the 'Memoir of Charles Lamb.' It is not my + book,—i.e. not my property,—but one which I was hired to write, + and it forms my last earnings. You will have heard of the book + (perhaps seen it) some time since. It has been very well received. I + would not have engaged myself on anything else, but I had great + regard for Charles Lamb, and so (somehow or other) I have contrived + to reach the end.</p> + +<p> "I <i>have</i> already (long ago) written something about Hazlitt, but I + have received more than one application for it, in case I can manage + to complete my essay. As in the case of Lamb, I am really the only + person living who knew much about his daily life. I have not, + however, quite the same incentive to carry me on. Indeed, I am not + certain that I should be able to travel to the real Finis.</p> + +<p> "My wife is very grateful for the copies of my dear Adelaide's poems + which you sent her. She appears surprised to hear that I have not + transmitted her thanks to you before.</p> + +<p> "We get the 'Atlantic Monthly' regularly. I need not tell you how + much better the poetry is than at its commencement. Very good is + 'Released,' in the July number, and several of the stories; but they + are in London, and I cannot particularize them.</p> + +<p> "We were very much pleased with Colonel Holmes, the son of your + friend and contributor. He seems a very intelligent, modest young + man; as little military as need be, and, like Coriolanus, not baring + his wounds (if he has any) for public gaze. When you see Dr. Holmes, + pray tell him how much I and my wife liked his son.</p> + +<p> "We are at the present moment rusticating at Malvern Wells. We are + on the side of a great hill (which you would call small in America), + and our intercourse is only with the flowers and bees and swallows + of the season. Sometimes we encounter a wasp, which I suppose comes + from over seas!</p> + +<p> "The Storys are living two or three miles off, and called upon us a + few days ago. You have not seen <i>his</i> Sibyl, which I think very + fine, and as containing a <i>very great</i> future. But the young poets + generally disappoint us, and are too content with startling us into + admiration of their first works, and then go to sleep.</p> + +<p> "I wish that I had, when younger, made more notes about my + contemporaries; for, being of no faction in politics, it happens + that I have known far more literary men than any other person of my + time. In counting up the names of persons known to me who were, in + some way or other, <i>connected</i> with literature, I reckoned up more + than one hundred. But then I have had more than sixty years to do + this in. My first acquaintance of this sort was Bowles, the poet. + This was about 1805.</p> + +<p> "Although I can scarcely write, I am able to say, in conclusion, + that I am</p> + +<p> "Very sincerely yours,</p> + +<p> "B.W. PROCTER."</p></div> + +<p>Procter was an ardent student of the works of our older English +dramatists, and he had a special fondness for such writers as Decker, +Marlowe, Heywood, Webster, and Fletcher. Many of his own dramatic scenes +are modelled on that passionate and romantic school. He had great relish +for a good modern novel, too; and I recall the titles of several which +he recommended warmly for my perusal and republication in America. When +I first came to know him, the duties of his office as a Commissioner +obliged him to travel about the kingdom, sometimes on long journeys, and +he told me his pocket companion was a cheap reprint of Emerson's +"Essays," which he found such agreeable reading that he never left home +without it. Longfellow's "Hyperion" was another of his favorite books +during the years he was on duty.</p> + +<p>Among the last agreeable visits I made to the old poet was one with +reference to a proposition of his own to omit several songs and other +short poems from a new issue of his works then in press. I stoutly +opposed the ignoring of certain old favorites of mine, and the poet's +wife joined with me in deciding against the author in his proposal to +cast aside so many beautiful songs,—songs as well worth saving as any +in the volume. Procter argued that, being past seventy, he had now +reached to years of discretion, and that his judgment ought to be +followed without a murmur. I held out firm to the end of our discussion, +and we settled the matter with this compromise: he was to expunge +whatever he chose from the English edition, but I was to have my own way +with the American one. So to this day the American reprint is the only +complete collection of Barry Cornwall's earliest pieces, for I held on +to all the old lyrics, without discarding a single line.</p> + +<p>The poet's figure was short and full, and his voice had a low, veiled +tone habitually in it, which made it sometimes difficult to hear +distinctly what he was saying. When in conversation, he liked to be very +near his listener, and thus stand, as it were, on confidential ground +with him. His turn of thought was cheerful among his friends, and he +proceeded readily into a vein of wit and nimble expression. Verbal +felicity seemed natural to him, and his epithets, evidently unprepared, +were always perfect. He disliked cant and hard ways of judging +character. He praised easily. He had no wish to stand in anybody's shoes +but his own, and he said, "There is no literary vice of a darker shade +than envy." Talleyrand's recipe for perfect happiness was the opposite +to his. He impressed every one who came near him as a born gentleman, +chivalrous and generous in a marked degree, and it was the habit of +those who knew him to have an affection for him. Altering a line of +Pope, this counsel might have been safely tendered to all the authors of +his day,—</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"Disdain whatever <i>Procter's mind</i> disdains."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Yesterdays with Authors, by James T. 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Fields + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Yesterdays with Authors + +Author: James T. Fields + +Release Date: June 15, 2004 [EBook #12632] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK YESTERDAYS WITH AUTHORS *** + + + + +Produced by Keren Vergon, David Cortesi and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + YESTERDAYS WITH AUTHORS + + By + + JAMES T. FIELDS. + + + +"Was it not yesterday we spoke together?"--SHAKESPEARE + + Seventeenth Edition + + BOSTON: + HOUGHTON, OSGOOD AND COMPANY + The Riverside Press, Cambridge + + 1879 + + * * * * * + + Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, + BY JAMES T. FIELDS, +in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington + + + University Press: Welch, Bigelow, & Co., Cambridge. + + * * * * * + INSCRIBED + + TO MY FELLOW-MEMBERS OF + + THE SATURDAY CLUB. + + * * * * * + + Preface to the Project Gutenberg Edition. + +James Fields (1817-1881) at age 14 became a clerk in a bookstore in +Boston, and in a few years became a partner in the bookselling firm of +Ticknor, Reed and Fields. + +Fields's firm became the publisher for most of the great American +writers of the Nineteenth Century. In this book, Fields tells how he +persuaded a jobless, despondent Nathaniel Hawthorne to let him print +"The Scarlet Letter." + +Fields made frequent visits to England to land the American publishing +rights to the works of important British writers, including the great +superstar of the time, Charles Dickens. Dickens accepted Fields as a +personal friend, entertained him at his retreat, Gad's Hill, and wrote +him many amusing notes that are included here. Fields also socialized +with the cream of London literary society, and the book includes his +personal anecdotes of meeting Wordsworth, Thackeray, and others. He +formed a friendship with Mary Russell Mitford (a successful dramatist +and novelist of the day; two of her works are available in Project +Gutenberg editions) and she wrote him long, gossipy letters, reproduced +here. + +The firm of Ticknor and Fields, after many mergers and acquisitions, +continues to exist today as Houghton Mifflin Books. The firm's original +store, the Old Corner Bookstore, still exists as a bookstore at the +corner of School and Washington streets in Boston. + + * * * * * + +CONTENTS. + + +I. INTRODUCTORY + +II. THACKERAY + +III. HAWTHORNE + +IV. DICKENS + +V. WORDSWORTH + +VI. MISS MITFORD + +VII. "BARRY CORNWALL" AND SOME OF HIS FRIENDS + + INTRODUCTORY. + + * * * * * + + "_Some there are, + By their good works exalted, lofty minds + And meditative, authors of delight + And happiness, which to the end of time + Will live, and spread, and kindle_." + WORDSWORTH. + + + + +I. INTRODUCTORY. + +Surrounded by the portraits of those I have long counted my friends, I +like to chat with the people about me concerning these pictures, my +companions on the wall, and the men and women they represent. These are +my assembled guests, who dropped in years ago and stayed with me, +without the form of invitation or demand on my time or thought. They are +my eloquent silent partners for life, and I trust they will dwell here +as long as I do. Some of them I have known intimately; several of them +lived in other times; but they are all my friends and associates in a +certain sense. + +To converse with them and of them-- + + + "When to the sessions of sweet silent thought + I summon up remembrance of things past"-- + + +is one of the delights of existence, and I am never tired of answering +questions about them, or gossiping of my own free will as to their +every-day life and manners. + +If I were to call the little collection in this diminutive house a +_Gallery of Pictures_, in the usual sense of that title, many would +smile and remind me of what Foote said with his characteristic sharpness +of David Garrick, when he joined his brother Peter in the wine trade: +"Davy lived with three quarts of vinegar in the cellar, calling himself +a wine merchant." + +My friends have often heard me in my "garrulous old age" discourse of +things past and gone, and know what they bring down on their heads when +they request me "to run over," as they call it, the faces looking out +upon us from these plain unvarnished frames. + +Let us begin, then, with the little man of Twickenham, for that is his +portrait which hangs over the front fireplace. An original portrait of +Alexander Pope I certainly never expected to possess, and I must relate +how I came by it. Only a year ago I was strolling in my vagabond way up +and down the London streets, and dropped in to see an old +picture-shop,--kept by a man so thoroughly instructed in his calling +that it is always a pleasure to talk with him and examine his collection +of valuables, albeit his treasures are of such preciousness as to make +the humble purse of a commoner seem to shrink into a still smaller +compass from sheer inability to respond when prices are named. At No. 6 +Pall Mall one is apt to find Mr. Graves "clipp'd round about" by +first-rate canvas. When I dropped in upon him that summer morning he had +just returned from the sale of the Marquis of Hastings's effects. The +Marquis, it will be remembered, went wrong, and his debts swallowed up +everything. It was a wretched stormy day when the pictures were sold, +and Mr. Graves secured, at very moderate prices, five original +portraits. All the paintings had suffered more or less decay, and some +of them, with their frames, had fallen to the floor. One of the best +preserved pictures inherited by the late Marquis was a portrait of Pope, +painted from life by Richardson for the Earl of Burlington, and even +that had been allowed to drop out of its oaken frame. Horace Walpole +says, Jonathan Richardson was undoubtedly one of the best painters of a +head that had appeared in England. He was pupil of the celebrated Riley, +the master of Hudson, of whom Sir Joshua took lessons in his art, and it +was Richardson's "Treatise on Painting" which inflamed the mind of +young Reynolds, and stimulated his ambition to become a great painter. +Pope seems to have had a real affection for Richardson, and probably sat +to him for this picture some time during the year 1732. In Pope's +correspondence there is a letter addressed to the painter making an +engagement with him for a several days' sitting, and it is quite +probable that the portrait before us was finished at that time. One can +imagine the painter and the poet chatting together day after day, in +presence of that canvas. During the same year Pope's mother died, at the +great age of ninety-three; and on the evening of June 10th, while she +lay dead in the house, Pope sent off the following heart-touching letter +from Twickenham to his friend the painter:-- + + "As you know you and I mutually desire to see one another, I hoped + that this day our wishes would have met, and brought you hither. And + this for the very reason which possibly might hinder your coming, + that my poor mother is dead. I thank God, her death was as easy as + her life was innocent; and as it cost her not a groan, or even a + sigh, there is yet upon her countenance such an expression of + tranquillity, nay, almost of pleasure, that it is even amiable to + behold it. It would afford the finest image of a saint expired that + ever painting drew; and it would be the greatest obligation which + even that obliging art could ever bestow on a friend, if you could + come and sketch it for me. I am sure, if there be no very prevalent + obstacle, you will leave any common business to do this; and I hope + to see you this evening, as late as you will, or to-morrow morning + as early, before this winter flower is faded. I will defer her + interment till to-morrow night. I know you love me, or I could not + have written this; I could not (at this time) have written at all. + Adieu! May you die as happily!" + +Several eminent artists of that day painted the likeness of Pope, and +among them Sir Godfrey Kneller and Jervas, but I like the expression of +this one by Richardson best of all. The mouth, it will be observed, is +very sensitive and the eyes almost painfully so. It is told of the poet, +that when he was a boy "there was great sweetness in his look," and +that his face was plump and pretty, and that he had a very fresh +complexion. Continual study ruined his constitution and changed his +form, it is said. Richardson has skilfully kept out of sight the poor +little decrepit figure, and gives us only the beautiful head of a man of +genius. I scarcely know a face on canvas that expresses the poetical +sense in a higher degree than this one. The likeness must be perfect, +and I can imagine the delight of the Rev. Joseph Spence hobbling into +his presence on the 4th of September, 1735, after "a ragged boy of an +ostler came in with a little scrap of paper not half an inch broad, +which contained the following words: 'Mr. Pope would be very glad to see +Mr. Spence at the Cross Inn just now.'" + +English literature is full of eulogistic mention of Pope. Thackeray is +one of the last great authors who has spoken golden words about the +poet. "Let us always take into account," he says, "that constant +tenderness and fidelity of affection which pervaded and sanctified his +life." + +What pluck and dauntless courage possessed the "gallant little cripple" +of Twickenham! When all the dunces of England were aiming their +poisonous barbs at him, he said, "I had rather die at once, than live in +fear of those rascals." A vast deal that has been written about him is +untrue. No author has been more elaborately slandered on principle, or +more studiously abused through envy. Smarting dullards went about for +years, with an ever-ready microscope, hunting for flaws in his character +that might be injuriously exposed; but to-day his defamers are in bad +repute. Excellence in a fellow-mortal is to many men worse than death; +and great suffering fell upon a host of mediocre writers when Pope +uplifted his sceptre and sat supreme above them all. + +Pope's latest champion is John Ruskin. Open his Lectures on Art, +recently delivered before the University of Oxford, and read passage +number seventy. Let us read it together, as we sit here in the presence +of the sensitive poet. + + "I want you to think over the relation of expression to character in + two great masters of the absolute art of language, Virgil and Pope. + You are perhaps surprised at the last named; and indeed you have in + English much higher grasp and melody of language from more + passionate minds, but you have nothing else, in its range, so + perfect. I name, therefore, these two men, because they are the two + most accomplished _artists_, merely as such, whom I know, in + literature; and because I think you will be afterwards interested in + investigating how the infinite grace in the words of the one, the + severity in those of the other, and the precision in those of both, + arise wholly out of the moral elements of their minds,--out of the + deep tenderness in Virgil which enabled him to write the stories of + Nisus and Lausus, and the serene and just benevolence which placed + Pope, in his theology, two centuries in advance of his time, and + enabled him to sum the law of noble life in two lines which, so far + as I know, are the most complete, the most concise, and the most + lofty expression of moral temper existing in English words:-- + + + 'Never elated, while one man's oppressed; + Never dejected, while another's blessed.' + + + I wish you also to remember these lines of Pope, and to make + yourselves entirely masters of his system of ethics; because, + putting Shakespeare aside as rather the world's than ours, I hold + Pope to be the most perfect representative we have, since Chaucer, + of the true English mind; and I think the Dunciad is the most + absolutely chiselled and monumental work 'exacted' in our country. + You will find, as you study Pope, that he has expressed for you, in + the strictest language and within the briefest limits, every law of + art, of criticism, of economy, of policy, and, finally, of a + benevolence, humble, rational, and resigned, contented with its + allotted share of life, and trusting the problem of its salvation to + Him in whose hands lies that of the universe." + +Glance up at the tender eyes of the poet, who seems to have been eagerly +listening while we have been reading Ruskin's beautiful tribute. As he +is so intent upon us, let me gratify still further the honest pride of +"the little nightingale," as they used to call him when he was a child, +and read to you from the "Causeries du Lundi" what that wise French +critic, Sainte-Beuve, has written of his favorite English poet:-- + + "The natural history of Pope is very simple: delicate persons, it + has been said, are unhappy, and he was doubly delicate, delicate of + mind, delicate and infirm of body; he was doubly irritable. But what + grace, what taste, what swiftness to feel, what justness and + perfection in expressing his feeling!... His first masters were + insignificant; he educated himself: at twelve years old he learned + Latin and Greek together, and almost without a master; at fifteen he + resolved to go to London, in order to learn French and Italian + there, by reading the authors. His family, retired from trade, and + Catholic, lived at this time upon an estate in the forest of + Windsor. This desire of his was considered as an odd caprice, for + his health from that time hardly permitted him to move about. He + persisted, and accomplished his project; he learned nearly + everything thus by himself, making his own choice among authors, + getting the grammar quite alone, and his pleasure was to translate + into verse the finest passages he met with among the Latin and Greek + poets. When he was about sixteen years old, he said, his taste was + formed as much as it was later.... If such a thing as literary + temperament exist, it never discovered itself in a manner more + clearly defined and more decided than with Pope. Men ordinarily + become classic by means of the fact and discipline of education; he + was so by vocation, so to speak, and by a natural originality. At + the same time with the poets, he read the best among the critics, + and prepared himself to speak after them. + + * * * * * + + "Pope had the characteristic sign of literary natures, the faithful + worship of genius.... He said one day to a friend: 'I have always + been particularly struck with this passage of Homer where he + represents to us Priam transported with grief for the loss of + Hector, on the point of breaking out into reproaches and invectives + against the servants who surrounded him and against his sons. It + would be impossible for me to read this passage without weeping over + the disasters of the unfortunate old king.' And then he took the + book, and tried to read aloud the passage, 'Go, wretches, curse of + my life,' but he was interrupted by tears. + + * * * * * + + "No example could prove to us better than his to what degree the + faculty of tender, sensitive criticism is an active faculty. We + neither feel nor perceive in this way when there is nothing to give + in return. This taste, this sensibility, so swift and alert, justly + supposes imagination behind it. It is said that Shelley, the first + time he heard the poem of 'Christabel' recited, at a certain + magnificent and terrible passage, took fright and suddenly fainted. + The whole poem of 'Alastor' was to be foreseen in that fainting. + Pope, not less sensitive in his way, could not read through that + passage of the Iliad without bursting into tears. To be a critic to + that degree, is to be a poet." + +Thanks, eloquent and judicious scholar, so lately gone from the world of +letters! A love of what is best in art was the habit of Sainte-Beuve's +life, and so he too will be remembered as one who has kept the best +company in literature,--a man who cheerfully did homage to genius, +wherever and whenever it might be found. + +I intend to leave as a legacy to a dear friend of mine an old faded +book, which I hope he will always prize as it deserves. It is a +well-worn, well-read volume, of no value whatever as an _edition_,--but +_it belonged to Abraham Lincoln_. It is his copy of "The Poetical Works +of Alexander Pope, Esq., to which is prefixed the life of the author by +Dr. Johnson." It bears the imprint on the title-page of J.J. Woodward, +Philadelphia, and was published in 1839. Our President wrote his own +name in it, and chronicles the fact that it was presented to him "by his +friend N.W. Edwards." In January, 1861, Mr. Lincoln gave the book to a +very dear friend of his, who honored me with it in January, 1867, as a +New-Year's present. As long as I live it will remain among my books, +specially treasured as having been owned and read by one of the noblest +and most sorely tried of men, a hero comparable with any of +Plutarch's,-- + + + "The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man, + Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame, + New birth of our new soil, the first American." + + +THACKERAY + + * * * * * + +_What Emerson has said in his fine subtle way of Shakespeare may well be +applied to the author of "Vanity Fair." + +"One can discern in his ample pictures what forms and humanities pleased +him; his delight in troops of friends, in large hospitality, in cheerful +giving._ + + * * * * * + +_"He read the hearts of men and women, their probity, and their second +thought, and wiles; the wiles of innocence, and the transitions by which +virtues and vices slide into their contraries."_ + + + + +II. THACKERAY. + +Dear old Thackeray!--as everybody who knew him intimately calls him, now +he is gone. That is his face, looking out upon us, next to Pope's. What +a contrast in bodily appearance those two English men of genius present! +Thackeray's great burly figure, broad-chested, and ample as the day, +seems to overshadow and quite blot out of existence the author of "The +Essay on Man." But what friends they would have been had they lived as +contemporaries under Queen Anne or Queen Victoria! One can imagine the +author of "Pendennis" gently lifting poor little Alexander out of his +"chariot" into the club, and revelling in talk with him all night long. +Pope's high-bred and gentlemanly manner, combined with his extraordinary +sensibility and dread of ridicule, would have modified Thackeray's usual +gigantic fun and sometimes boisterous sarcasm into a rich and strange +adaptability to his little guest. We can imagine them talking together +now, with even a nobler wisdom and ampler charity than were ever +vouchsafed to them when they were busy amid the turmoils of their +crowded literary lives. + +As a reader and lover of all that Thackeray has written and published, +as well as a personal friend, I will relate briefly something of his +literary habits as I can recall them. It is now nearly twenty years +since I first saw him and came to know him familiarly in London. I was +very much in earnest to have him come to America, and read his series +of lectures on "The English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century," and +when I talked the matter over with some of his friends at the little +Garrick Club, they all said he could never be induced to leave London +long enough for such an expedition. Next morning, after this talk at the +Garrick, the elderly damsel of all work announced to me, as I was taking +breakfast at my lodgings, that Mr. _Sackville_ had called to see me, and +was then waiting below. Very soon I heard a heavy tread on the stairs, +and then entered a tall, white-haired stranger, who held out his hand, +bowed profoundly, and with a most comical expression announced himself +as Mr. Sackville. Recognizing at once the face from published portraits, +I knew that my visitor was none other than Thackeray himself, who, +having heard the servant give the wrong name, determined to assume it on +this occasion. For years afterwards, when he would drop in unexpectedly, +both at home and abroad, he delighted to call himself Mr. Sackville, +until a certain Milesian waiter at the Tremont House addressed him as +Mr. Thack_uary_, when he adopted that name in preference to the other. + +Questions are frequently asked as to the habits of thought and +composition of authors one has happened to know, as if an author's +friends were commonly invited to observe the growth of works he was by +and by to launch from the press. It is not customary for the doors of +the writer's work-shop to be thrown open, and for this reason it is all +the more interesting to notice, when it is possible, how an essay, a +history, a novel, or a poem is conceived, grows up, and is corrected for +publication. One would like very much to be informed how Shakespeare put +together the scenes of Hamlet or Macbeth, whether the subtile thought +accumulated easily on the page before him, or whether he struggled for +it with anxiety and distrust. We know that Milton troubled himself about +little matters of punctuation, and obliged the printer to take special +note of his requirements, scolding him roundly when he neglected his +instructions. We also know that Melanchthon was in his library hard at +work by two or three o'clock in the morning both in summer and winter, +and that Sir William Jones began his studies with the dawn. + +The most popular female writer of America, whose great novel struck a +chord of universal sympathy throughout the civilized world, has habits +of composition peculiarly her own, and unlike those belonging to any +author of whom we have record. She _croons_, so to speak, over her +writings, and it makes very little difference to her whether there is a +crowd of people about her or whether she is alone during the composition +of her books. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was wholly prepared for the press in a +little wooden house in Maine, from week to week, while the story was +coming out in a Washington newspaper. Most of it was written by the +evening lamp, on a pine table, about which the children of the family +were gathered together conning their various lessons for the next day. +Amid the busy hum of earnest voices, constantly asking questions of the +mother, intent on her world-renowned task, Mrs. Stowe wove together +those thrilling chapters which were destined to find readers in so many +languages throughout the globe. No work of similar importance, so far as +we know, was ever written amid so much that seemed hostile to literary +composition. + +I had the opportunity, both in England and America, of observing the +literary habits of Thackeray, and it always seemed to me that he did his +work with comparative ease, but was somewhat influenced by a custom of +procrastination. Nearly all his stories were written in monthly +instalments for magazines, with the press at his heels. He told me that +when he began a novel he rarely knew how many people were to figure in +it, and, to use his own words, he was always very shaky about their +moral conduct. He said that sometimes, especially if he had been dining +late and did not feel in remarkably good-humor next morning, he was +inclined to make his characters villanously wicked; but if he rose +serene with an unclouded brain, there was no end to the lovely actions +he was willing to make his men and women perform. When he had written a +passage that pleased him very much he could not resist clapping on his +hat and rushing forth to find an acquaintance to whom he might instantly +read his successful composition. Gilbert Wakefield, universally +acknowledged to have been the best Greek scholar of his time, said he +would have turned out a much better one, if he had begun earlier to +study that language; but unfortunately he did not begin till he was +fifteen years of age. Thackeray, in quoting to me this saying of +Wakefield, remarked: "My English would have been very much better if I +had read Fielding before I was ten." This observation was a valuable +hint, on the part of Thackeray, as to whom he considered his master in +art. + +James Hannay paid Thackeray a beautiful compliment when he said: "If he +had had his choice he would rather have been famous as an artist than as +a writer; but it was destined that he should paint in colors which will +never crack and never need restoration." Thackeray's characters are, +indeed, not so much _inventions_ as _existences_, and we know them as we +know our best friends or our most intimate enemies. + +When I was asked, the other day, which of his books I like best, I gave +the old answer to a similar question. "_The last one I read_." If I +could possess only _one_ of his works, I think I should choose "Henry +Esmond." To my thinking, it is a marvel in literature, and I have read +it oftener than any of the other works. Perhaps the reason of my +partiality lies somewhat in this little incident. One day, in the snowy +winter of 1852, I met Thackeray sturdily ploughing his way down Beacon +Street with a copy of "Henry Esmond" (the English edition, then just +issued) under his arm. Seeing me some way off, he held aloft the volumes +and began to shout in great glee. When I came up to him he cried out, +"Here is the _very_ best I can do, and I am carrying it to Prescott as a +reward of merit for having given me my first dinner in America. I stand +by this book, and am willing to leave it, when I go, as my card." + +As he wrote from month to month, and liked to put off the inevitable +chapters till the last moment, he was often in great tribulation. I +happened to be one of a large company whom he had invited to a +six-o'clock dinner at Greenwich one summer afternoon, several years ago. +We were all to go down from London, assemble in a particular room at the +hotel, where he was to meet us at six o'clock, _sharp_. Accordingly we +took steamer and gathered ourselves together in the reception-room at +the appointed time. When the clock struck six, our host had not +fulfilled his part of the contract. His burly figure was yet wanting +among the company assembled. As the guests were nearly all strangers to +each other, and as there was no one present to introduce us, a profound +silence fell upon the room, and we anxiously looked out of the windows, +hoping every moment that Thackeray would arrive. This untoward state of +things went on for one hour, still no Thackeray and no dinner. English +reticence would not allow any remark as to the absence of our host. +Everybody felt serious and a gloom fell upon the assembled party. Still +no Thackeray. The landlord, the butler, and the waiters rushed in and +out the room, shrieking for the master of the feast, who as yet had not +arrived. It was confidentially whispered by a fat gentleman, with a +hungry look, that the dinner was utterly spoiled twenty minutes ago, +when we heard a merry shout in the entry and Thackeray bounced into the +room. He had not changed his morning dress, and ink was still visible +upon his fingers. Clapping his hands and pirouetting briskly on one leg, +he cried out, "Thank Heaven, the last sheet of The Virginians has just +gone to the printer." He made no apology for his late appearance, +introduced nobody, shook hands heartily with everybody, and begged us +all to be seated as quickly as possible. His exquisite delight at +completing his book swept away every other feeling, and we all shared +his pleasure, albeit the dinner was overdone throughout. + +The most finished and elegant of all _lecturers_, Thackeray often made a +very poor appearance when he attempted to deliver a set speech to a +public assembly. He frequently broke down after the first two or three +sentences. He prepared what he intended to say with great exactness, and +his favorite delusion was that he was about to astonish everybody with a +remarkable effort. It never disturbed him that he commonly made a woful +failure when he attempted speech-making, but he sat down with such cool +serenity if he found that he could not recall what he wished to say, +that his audience could not help joining in and smiling with him when he +came to a stand-still. Once he asked me to travel with him from London +to Manchester to hear a great speech he was going to make at the +founding of the Free Library Institution in that city. All the way down +he was discoursing of certain effects he intended to produce on the +Manchester dons by his eloquent appeals to their pockets. This passage +was to have great influence with the rich merchants, this one with the +clergy, and so on. He said that although Dickens and Bulwer and Sir +James Stephen, all eloquent speakers, were to precede him, he intended +to beat each of them on this special occasion. He insisted that I +should be seated directly in front of him, so that I should have the +full force of his magic eloquence. The occasion was a most brilliant +one; tickets had been in demand at unheard-of prices several weeks +before the day appointed; the great hall, then opened for the first time +to the public, was filled by an audience such as is seldom convened, +even in England. The three speeches which came before Thackeray was +called upon were admirably suited to the occasion, and most eloquently +spoken. Sir John Potter, who presided, then rose, and after some +complimentary allusions to the author of "Vanity Fair," introduced him +to the crowd, who welcomed him with ringing plaudits. As he rose, he +gave me a half-wink from under his spectacles, as if to say: "Now for +it; the others have done very well, but I will show 'em a grace beyond +the reach of their art." He began in a clear and charming manner, and +was absolutely perfect for three minutes. In the middle of a most +earnest and elaborate sentence he suddenly stopped, gave a look of comic +despair at the ceiling, crammed both hands into his trousers' pockets, +and deliberately sat down. Everybody seemed to understand that it was +one of Thackeray's unfinished speeches and there were no signs of +surprise or discontent among his audience. He continued to sit on the +platform in a perfectly composed manner; and when the meeting was over +he said to me, without a sign of discomfiture, "My boy, you have my +profoundest sympathy; this day you have accidentally missed hearing one +of the finest speeches ever composed for delivery by a great British +orator." And I never heard him mention the subject again. + +Thackeray rarely took any exercise, thus living in striking contrast to +the other celebrated novelist of our time, who was remarkable for the +number of hours he daily spent in the open air. It seems to be almost +certain now, from concurrent testimony, gathered from physicians and +those who knew him best in England, that Thackeray's premature death was +hastened by an utter disregard of the natural laws. His vigorous frame +gave ample promise of longevity, but he drew too largely on his brain +and not enough on his legs. _High_ living and high _thinking_, he used +to say, was the correct reading of the proverb. + +He was a man of the tenderest feelings, very apt to be cajoled into +doing what the world calls foolish things, and constantly performing +feats of unwisdom, which performances he was immoderately laughing at +all the while in his books. No man has impaled snobbery with such a +stinging rapier, but he always accused himself of being a snob, past all +cure. This I make no doubt was one of his exaggerations, but there was a +grain of truth in the remark, which so sharp an observer as himself +could not fail to notice, even though the victim was so near home. + +Thackeray announced to me by letter in the early autumn of 1852 that he +had determined to visit America, and would sail for Boston by the Canada +on the 30th of October. All the necessary arrangements for his lecturing +tour had been made without troubling him with any of the details. He +arrived on a frosty November evening, and went directly to the Tremont +House, where rooms had been engaged for him. I remember his delight in +getting off the sea, and the enthusiasm with which he hailed the +announcement that dinner would be ready shortly. A few friends were +ready to sit down with him, and he seemed greatly to enjoy the novelty +of an American repast. In London he had been very curious in his +inquiries about American oysters, as marvellous stories, which +he did not believe, had been told him of their great size. We +apologized--although we had taken care that the largest specimens to be +procured should startle his unwonted vision when he came to the +table--for what we called the extreme _smallness_ of the oysters, +promising that we would do better next time. Six bloated Falstaffian +bivalves lay before him in their shells. I noticed that he gazed at them +anxiously with fork upraised; then he whispered to me, with a look of +anguish, "How shall I do it?" I described to him the simple process by +which the free-born citizens of America were accustomed to accomplish +such a task. He seemed satisfied that the thing was feasible, selected +the smallest one in the half-dozen (rejecting a large one, "because," he +said, "it resembled the High Priest's servant's ear that Peter cut off") +and then bowed his head as if he were saying grace. All eyes were upon +him to watch the effect of a new sensation in the person of a great +British author. Opening his mouth very wide, he struggled for a moment, +and then all was over. I shall never forget the comic look of despair he +cast upon the other five over-occupied shells. I broke the perfect +stillness by asking him how he felt. "Profoundly grateful," he gasped, +"and as if I had swallowed a little baby." It was many years ago since +we gathered about him on that occasion, but, if my memory serves me, we +had what might be called _a pleasant evening_. Indeed, I remember much +hilarity, and sounds as of men laughing and singing far into midnight. I +could not deny, if called upon to testify in court, that we had a _good +time_ on that frosty November evening. + +We had many happy days and nights together both in England and America, +but I remember none happier than that evening we passed with him when +the Punch people came to dine at his own table with the silver statuette +of Mr. Punch in full dress looking down upon the hospitable board from +the head of the table. This silver figure always stood in a conspicuous +place when Tom Taylor, Mark Lemon, Shirley Brooks, and the rest of his +jolly companions and life-long cronies were gathered together. If I were +to say here that there were any dull moments on _that_ occasion, I +should not expect to be strictly believed. + +Thackeray's playfulness was a marked peculiarity; a great deal of the +time he seemed like a school-boy, just released from his task. In the +midst of the most serious topic under discussion he was fond of asking +permission to sing a comic song, or he would beg to be allowed to +enliven the occasion by the instant introduction of a brief +double-shuffle. Barry Cornwall told me that when he and Charles Lamb +were once making up a dinner-party together, Charles asked him not to +invite a certain lugubrious friend of theirs. "Because," said Lamb, "he +would cast a damper even over a funeral." I have often contrasted the +habitual qualities of that gloomy friend of theirs with the astounding +spirits of both Thackeray and Dickens. They always seemed to me to be +standing in the sunshine, and to be constantly warning other people out +of cloudland. During Thackeray's first visit to America his jollity knew +no bounds, and it became necessary often to repress him when he was +walking in the street. I well remember his uproarious shouting and +dancing when he was told that the tickets to his first course of +readings were all sold, and when we rode together from his hotel to the +lecture-hall he insisted on thrusting both his long legs out of the +carriage window, in deference, as he said, to his magnanimous +ticket-holders. An instance of his procrastination occurred the evening +of his first public appearance in America. His lecture was advertised to +take place at half past seven, and when he was informed of the hour, he +said he would try and be ready at eight o'clock, but thought it very +doubtful. Horrified at this assertion, I tried to impress upon him the +importance of punctuality on this, the night of his first bow to an +American audience. At a quarter past seven I called for him, and found +him not only unshaved and undressed for the evening, but rapturously +absorbed in making a pen-and-ink drawing to illustrate a passage in +Goethe's Sorrows of Werther, for a lady, which illustration,--a charming +one, by the way, for he was greatly skilled in drawing,--he vowed he +would finish before he would budge an inch in the direction of the (I +omit the adjective) Melodeon. A comical incident occurred just as he was +about leaving the hall, after his first lecture in Boston. A shabby, +ungainly looking man stepped briskly up to him in the anteroom, seized +his hand and announced himself as "proprietor of the Mammoth Rat," and +proposed to exchange season tickets. Thackeray, with the utmost gravity, +exchanged cards and promised to call on the wonderful quadruped next +day. + +Thackeray's motto was 'Avoid performing to-day, if possible, what can be +postponed till to-morrow.' Although he received large sums for his +writings, he managed without much difficulty to keep his expenditures +fully abreast, and often in advance of, his receipts. His pecuniary +object in visiting America the second time was to lay up, as he said, a +"pot of money" for his two daughters, and he left the country with more +than half his lecture engagements unfulfilled. He was to have visited +various cities in the Middle and Western States; but he took up a +newspaper one night, in his hotel in New York, before retiring, saw a +steamer advertised to sail the next morning for England, was seized with +a sudden fit of homesickness, rang the bell for his servant, who packed +up his luggage that night, and the next day he sailed. The first +intimation I had of his departure was a card which he sent by the pilot +of the steamer, with these words upon it: "Good by, Fields; good by, +Mrs. Fields; God bless everybody, says W.M.T." Of course he did not +avail himself of the opportunity afforded him for receiving a very large +sum in America, and he afterwards told me in London, that if Mr. Astor +had offered him half his fortune if he would allow that particular +steamer to sail without him, he should have declined the +well-intentioned but impossible favor, and gone on board. + +No man has left behind him a tenderer regard for his genius and foibles +among his friends than Thackeray. He had a natural love of good which +nothing could wholly blur or destroy. He was a most generous critic of +the writings of his contemporaries, and no one has printed or spoken +warmer praise of Dickens, in one sense his great rival, than he. + +Thackeray was not a voluminous correspondent, but what exquisite letters +he has left in the hands of many of his friends! "Should any letters +arrive," he says in a little missive from Philadelphia, "addressed to +the care of J.T.F. for the ridiculous author of this, that, and the +other, F. is requested to send them to Mercantile Library, Baltimore. My +ghostly enemy will be delighted (or will gnash his teeth with rage) to +hear that the lectures in the capital of Pa. have been very well +attended. No less than 750 people paid at the door on Friday night, and +though last night there was a storm of snow so furious that no +reasonable mortal could face it, 500 (at least) amiable maniacs were in +the lecture-room, and wept over the fate of the last king of these +colonies." + +Almost every day, while he was lecturing in America, he would send off +little notes exquisitely written in point of penmanship, and sometimes +embellished with characteristic pen-drawings. Having attended an +extemporaneous supper festival at "Porter's," he was never tired of +"going again." Here is a scrap of paper holding these few words, +written in 1852. + + "Nine o'clock, P.M. Tremont. + + "Arrangements have just been concluded for a meeting _somewhere_ + to-night, which we much desire you should attend. Are you equal to + two nights running of good time?" + +Then follows a pen portrait of a friend of his with a cloven foot and a +devil's tail just visible under his cloak Sometimes, to puzzle his +correspondent, he would write in so small a hand that the note could not +be read without the aid of a magnifying-glass. Calligraphy was to him +one of the fine arts, and he once told Dr. John Brown of Edinburgh, that +if all trades failed, he would earn sixpences by writing the Lord's +Prayer and the Creed (not the Athanasian) in the size of that coin. He +greatly delighted in rhyming and lisping notes and billets. Here is one +of them, dated from Baltimore without signature:-- + + "Dear F----th! The thanguinary fateth (I don't know what their anger + meanth) brought me your letter of the eighth, yethterday, only the + fifteenth! What blunder cauthed by chill delay (thee Doctor + Johnthon'th noble verthe) Thuth kept my longing thoul away, from all + that motht I love on earth? Thankth for the happy contenth!--thothe + Dithpatched to J.G.K. and Thonth, and that thmall letter you + inclothe from Parith, from my dearetht oneth! I pray each month may + tho increathe my thmall account with J.G. King, that all the thipth + which croth the theath, good tidingth of my girlth may bring!--that + every blething fortune yieldth, I altho pray, may come to path on + Mithter and Mrth. J.T. F----th, and all good friendth in Bothton, + Math.!" + +While he was staying at the Clarendon Hotel, in New York, every +morning's mail brought a few lines, sometimes only one line, sometimes +only two words, from him, reporting progress. One day he tells me: +"Immense hawdience last night." Another day he says: "Our shares look +very much up this morning." On the 29th of November, 1852, he writes: +"I find I have a much bigger voice than I knew of, and am not afraid of +anybody." At another time he writes: "I make no doubt you have seen that +admirable paper, the New York Herald, and are aware of the excellent +reception my lectures are having in this city. It was a lucky Friday +when first I set foot in this country. I have nearly saved the fifty +dollars you lent me in Boston." In a letter from Savannah, dated the +19th of March, 1853, in answer to one I had written to him, telling him +that a charming epistle, which accompanied the gift of a silver mug he +had sent to me some time before, had been stolen from me, he says:-- + + "My dear fellow, I remember I asked you in that letter to accept a + silver mug in token of our pleasant days together, and to drink a + health sometimes in it to a sincere friend.... Smith and Elder write + me word they have sent by a Cunard to Boston a packet of paper, + stamped etc. in London. I want it to be taken from the Custom-House, + dooties paid etc., and dispatched to Miss ----, New York. Hold your + tongue, and don't laugh, you rogue. Why shouldn't she have her + paper, and I my pleasure, without your wicked, wicked sneers and + imperence? I'm only a cipher in the young lady's estimation, and why + shouldn't I sigh for her if I like. I hope I shall see you all at + Boston before very long. I always consider Boston as my native + place, you know." + +I wish I could recall half the incidents connected with the dear, dear +old Thackeray days, when I saw him so constantly and enjoyed him so +hugely; but, alas! many of them are gone, with much more that is lovely +and would have been of _good report_, could they be now +remembered;--they are dead as--(Holmes always puts your simile quite +right for you),-- + + "Dead as the bulrushes round little Moses, + On the old banks of the Nile." + +But while I sit here quietly, and have no fear of any bad, +unsympathizing listeners who might, if some other subject were up, +frown upon my levity, let me walk through the dusky chambers of my +memory and report what I find there, just as the records turn up, +without regard to method. + +I once made a pilgrimage with Thackeray (at my request, of course, the +visits were planned) to the various houses where his books had been +written; and I remember when we came to Young Street, Kensington, he +said, with mock gravity, "Down on your knees, you rogue, for here +'Vanity Fair' was penned! And I will go down with you, for I have a high +opinion of that little production myself." He was always perfectly +honest in his expressions about his own writings, and it was delightful +to hear him praise them when he could depend on his listeners. A friend +congratulated him once on that touch in "Vanity Fair" in which Becky +"_admires_" her husband when he is giving Steyne the punishment which +ruins _her_ for life. "Well," he said, "when I wrote the sentence, I +slapped my fist on the table and said, _'That_ is a touch of genius!'" + +He told me he was nearly forty years old before he was recognized in +literature as belonging to a class of writers at all above the ordinary +magazinists of his day. "I turned off far better things then than I do +now," said he, "and I wanted money sadly, (my parents were rich but +respectable, and I had spent my guineas in my youth,) but how little I +got for my work! It makes me laugh," he continued, "at what The Times +pays me now, when I think of the old days, and how much better I wrote +for them then, and got a shilling where I now get ten." + +One day he wanted a little service done for a friend, and I remember his +very quizzical expression, as he said, "Please say the favor asked will +greatly oblige a man of the name of Thackeray, whose only recommendation +is, that he has seen Napoleon and Goethe, and is the owner of Schiller's +sword." + +I think he told me he and Tennyson were at one time intimate; but I +distinctly remember a description he gave me of having heard the poet, +when a young man, storming about in the first rapture of composing his +poem of "Ulysses." One line of it Tennyson greatly revelled in,-- + + "And see the great Achilles, whom we knew." + +"He went through the streets," said Thackeray, "screaming about his +great Achilles, whom we knew," as if we had all made the acquaintance of +that gentleman, and were very proud of it. + +One of the most comical and interesting occasions I remember, in +connection with Thackeray, was going with him to a grand concert given +fifteen or twenty years ago by Madame Sontag. We sat near an entrance +door in the hall, and every one who came in, male and female, Thackeray +pretended to know, and gave each one a name and brief chronicle, as the +presence flitted by. It was in Boston, and as he had been in town only a +day or two, and knew only half a dozen people in it, the biographies +were most amusing. As I happened to know several people who passed, it +was droll enough to hear this great master of character give them their +dues. Mr. Choate moved along in his regal, affluent manner. The large +style of the man, so magnificent and yet so modest, at once arrested +Thackeray's attention, and he forbore to place him in his extemporaneous +catalogue. I remember a pallid, sharp-faced girl fluttering past, and +how Thackeray exulted in the history of this "frail little bit of +porcelain," as he called her. There was something in her manner that +made him hate her, and he insisted she had murdered somebody on her way +to the hall. Altogether this marvellous prelude to the concert made a +deep impression on Thackeray's one listener, into whose ear he whispered +his fatal insinuations. There is one man still living and moving about +the streets I walk in occasionally, whom I never encounter without +almost a shudder, remembering as I do the unerring shaft which Thackeray +sent that night into the unknown man's character. + +One day, many years ago, I saw him chaffing on the sidewalk in London, +in front of the Athenaeum Club, with a monstrous-sized, "copiously +ebriose" cabman, and I judged from the driver's ludicrously careful way +of landing the coin deep down in his breeches-pocket, that Thackeray had +given him a very unusual fare. "Who is your fat friend?" I asked, +crossing over to shake hands with him. "O, that indomitable youth is an +old crony of mine," he replied; and then, quoting Falstaff, "a goodly, +portly man, i' faith, and a corpulent, of a cheerful look, a pleasing +eye, and a most noble _carriage_." It was the _manner_ of saying this, +then, and there in the London street, the cabman moving slowly off on +his sorry vehicle, with one eye (an eye dewy with gin and water, and a +tear of gratitude, perhaps) on Thackeray, and the great man himself so +jovial and so full of kindness! + +It was a treat to hear him, as I once did, discourse of Shakespeare's +probable life in Stratford among his neighbors. He painted, as he alone +could paint, the great poet sauntering about the lanes without the +slightest show of greatness, having a crack with the farmers, and in +very earnest talk about the crops. "I don't believe," said Thackeray, +"that these village cronies of his ever looked upon him as the mighty +poet, + + 'Sailing with supreme dominion + Through the azure deep of air,' + +but simply as a wholesome, good-natured citizen, with whom it was always +pleasant to have a chat. I can see him now," continued Thackeray, +"leaning over a cottage gate, and tasting good Master Such-a-one's +home-brewed, and inquiring with a real interest after the mistress and +her children." Long before he put it into his lecture, I heard him say +in words to the same effect: "I should like to have been Shakespeare's +shoe-black, just to have lived in his house, just to have worshipped +him, to have run on his errands, and seen that sweet, serene face." To +have heard Thackeray depict, in his own charming manner, and at +considerable length, the imaginary walks and talks of Shakespeare, when +he would return to his home from occasional visits to London, pouring +into the ready ears of his unsophisticated friends and neighbors the +gossip from town which he thought would be likely to interest them, is +something to remember all one's days. + +The enormous circulation achieved by the Cornhill Magazine, when it was +first started with Thackeray for its editor in chief, is a matter of +literary history. The announcement by his publishers that a sale of a +hundred and ten thousand of the first number had been reached made the +editor half delirious with joy, and he ran away to Paris to be rid of +the excitement for a few days. I met him by appointment at his hotel in +the Rue de la Paix, and found him wild with exultation and full of +enthusiasm for excellent George Smith, his publisher. "London," he +exclaimed, "is not big enough to contain me now, and I am obliged to add +Paris to my residence! Great heavens," said he, throwing up his long +arms, "where will this tremendous circulation stop! Who knows but that I +shall have to add Vienna and Rome to my whereabouts? If the worst comes +to the worst, New York, also, may fall into my clutches, and only the +Rocky Mountains may be able to stop my progress!" Those days in Paris +with him were simply tremendous. We dined at all possible and impossible +places together. We walked round and round the glittering court of the +Palais Royal, gazing in at the windows of the jewellers' shops, and all +my efforts were necessary to restrain him from rushing in and ordering a +pocketful of diamonds and "other trifles," as he called them; "for," +said he, "how can I spend the princely income which Smith allows me for +editing the Cornhill, unless I begin instantly somewhere?" If he saw a +group of three or four persons talking together in an excited way, after +the manner of that then riant Parisian people, he would whisper to me +with immense gesticulation: "There, there, you see the news has reached +Paris, and perhaps the number has gone up since my last accounts from +London." His spirits during those few days were colossal, and he told me +that he found it impossible to sleep, "for counting up his subscribers." + +I happened to know personally (and let me modestly add, with some degree +of sympathy) what he suffered editorially, when he had the charge and +responsibility of a magazine. With first-class contributors he got on +very well, he said, but the extortioners and revilers bothered the very +life out of him. He gave me some amusing accounts of his +misunderstandings with the "fair" (as he loved to call them), some of +whom followed him up so closely with their poetical compositions, that +his house (he was then living in Onslow Square) was never free of +interruption. "The darlings demanded," said he, "that I should re-write, +if I could not understand their ---- nonsense and put their halting +lines into proper form." "I was so appalled," said he, "when they set +upon me with their 'ipics and their ipecacs,' that you might have +knocked me down with a feather, sir. It was insupportable, and I fled +away into France." As he went on, waxing drolly furious at the +recollection of various editorial scenes, I could not help remembering +Mr. Yellowplush's recommendation, thus characteristically expressed: +"Take my advice, honrabble sir,--listen to a humble footmin: it's +genrally best in poatry to understand puffickly what you mean yourself, +and to igspress your meaning clearly afterwoods,--in the simpler words +the better, p'r'aps." + +He took very great delight in his young daughter's first contributions +to the Cornhill, and I shall always remember how he made me get into a +cab, one day in London, that I might hear, as we rode along, the joyful +news he had to impart, that he had just been reading his daughter's +first paper, which was entitled "Little Scholars." "When I read it," +said he, "I blubbered like a child, it is so good, so simple, and so +honest; and my little girl wrote it, every word of it." + +During his second visit to Boston I was asked to invite him to attend an +evening meeting of a scientific club, which was to be held at the house +of a distinguished member. I was very reluctant to ask him to be +present, for I knew he could be easily bored, and I was fearful that a +prosy essay or geological speech might ensue, and I knew he would be +exasperated with me, even although I were the _innocent_ cause of his +affliction. My worst fears were realized. We had hardly got seated, +before a dull, bilious-looking old gentleman rose, and applied his auger +with such pertinacity that we were all bored nearly to distraction. I +dared not look at Thackeray, but I felt that his eye was upon me. My +distress may be imagined, when he got up quite deliberately from the +prominent place where a chair had been set for him, and made his exit +very noiselessly into a small anteroom leading into the larger room, and +in which no one was sitting. The small apartment was dimly lighted, but +he knew that I knew _he_ was there. Then commenced a series of +pantomimic feats impossible to describe adequately. He threw an +imaginary person (myself, of course) upon the floor, and proceeded to +stab him several times with a paper-folder, which he caught up for the +purpose. After disposing of his victim in this way, he was not +satisfied, for the dull lecture still went on in the other room, and he +fired an imaginary revolver several times at an imaginary head. Still, +the droning speaker proceeded with his frozen subject (it was something +about the Arctic regions, if I remember rightly), and now began the +greatest pantomimic scene of all, namely, murder by poison, after the +manner in which the player king is disposed of in Hamlet. Thackeray had +found a small vial on the mantel-shelf, and out of that he proceeded to +pour the imaginary "juice of cursed hebenon" into the imaginary porches +of somebody's ears. The whole thing was inimitably done, and I hoped +nobody saw it but myself; but years afterwards, a ponderous, fat-witted +young man put the question squarely to me: "What _was_ the matter with +Mr. Thackeray, that night the club met at Mr ----'s house?" + +Overhearing me say one morning something about the vast attractions of +London to a greenhorn like myself, he broke in with, "Yes, but you have +not seen the grandest one yet! Go with me to-day to St. Paul's and hear +the charity children sing." So we went, and I saw the "head cynic of +literature," the "hater of humanity," as a critical dunce in the Times +once called him, hiding his bowed face, wet with tears, while his whole +frame shook with emotion, as the children of poverty rose to pour out +their anthems of praise. Afterwards he wrote in one of his books this +passage, which seems to me perfect in its feeling and tone:-- + + "And yet there is one day in the year when I think St. Paul's + presents the noblest sight in the whole world; when five thousand + charity children, with cheeks like nosegays, and sweet, fresh + voices, sing the hymn which makes every heart thrill with praise and + happiness. I have seen a hundred grand sights in the + world,--coronations, Parisian splendors, Crystal Palace openings, + Pope's chapels with their processions of long-tailed cardinals and + quavering choirs of fat soprani,--but think in all Christendom there + is no such sight as Charity Children's day. _Non Anglei, sed + angeli_. As one looks at that beautiful multitude of innocents; as + the first note strikes; indeed one may almost fancy that cherubs are + singing." + +I parted with Thackeray for the last time in the street, at midnight, in +London, a few months before his death. The Cornhill Magazine, under his +editorship, having proved a very great success, grand dinners were given +every month in honor of the new venture. We had been sitting late at one +of these festivals, and, as it was getting toward morning, I thought it +wise, as far as I was concerned, to be moving homeward before the sun +rose. Seeing my intention to withdraw, he insisted on driving me in his +brougham to my lodgings. When we reached the outside door of our host, +Thackeray's servant, seeing a stranger with his master, touched his hat +and asked where he should drive us. It was then between one and two +o'clock,--time certainly for all decent diners out to be at rest. +Thackeray put on one of his most quizzical expressions, and said to +John, in answer to his question, "I think we will make a morning call on +the Lord Bishop of London." John knew his master's quips and cranks too +well to suppose he was in earnest, so I gave him my address, and we went +on. When we reached my lodgings the clocks were striking two, and the +early morning air was raw and piercing. Opposing all my entreaties for +leave-taking in the carriage, he insisted upon getting out on the +sidewalk and escorting me up to my door, saying, with a mock heroic +protest to the heavens above us, "That it would be shameful for a +full-blooded Britisher to leave an unprotected Yankee friend exposed to +ruffians, who prowl about the streets with an eye to plunder." Then +giving me a gigantic embrace, he sang a verse of which he knew me to be +very fond; and so vanished out of my sight the great-hearted author of +"Pendennis" and "Vanity Fair." But I think of him still as moving, in +his own stately way, up and down the crowded thoroughfares of London, +dropping in at the Garrick, or sitting at the window of the Athenaeum +Club, and watching the stupendous tide of life that is ever moving past +in that wonderful city. + +Thackeray was a _master_ in every sense, having as it were, in himself, +a double quantity of being. Robust humor and lofty sentiment alternated +so strangely in him, that sometimes he seemed like the natural son of +Rabelais, and at others he rose up a very twin brother of the Stratford +Seer. There was nothing in him amorphous and unconsidered. Whatever he +chose to do was always perfectly done. There was a genuine Thackeray +flavor in everything he was willing to say or to write. He detected with +unfailing skill the good or the vile wherever it existed. He had an +unerring eye, a firm understanding, and abounding truth. "Two of his +great master powers," said the chairman at a dinner given to him many +years ago in Edinburgh, "are _satire_ and _sympathy_." George Brimley +remarked, "That he could not have painted Vanity Fair as he has, unless +Eden had been shining in his inner eye." He had, indeed, an awful +insight, with a world of solemn tenderness and simplicity, in his +composition. Those who heard the same voice that withered the memory of +King George the Fourth repeat "The spacious firmament on high" have a +recollection not easily to be blotted from the mind, and I have a kind +of pity for all who were born so recently as not to have heard and +understood Thackeray's Lectures. But they can read him, and I beg of +them to try and appreciate the tenderer phase of his genius, as well as +the sarcastic one. He teaches many lessons to young men, and here is one +of them, which I quote _memoriter_ from "Barry Lyndon": "Do you not, as +a boy, remember waking of bright summer mornings and finding your mother +looking over you? had not the gaze of her tender eyes stolen into your +senses long before you woke, and cast over your slumbering spirit a +sweet spell of peace, and love, and fresh-springing joy?" My dear +friend, John Brown, of Edinburgh (whom may God long preserve to both +countries where he is so loved and honored), chronicles this touching +incident. "We cannot resist here recalling one Sunday evening in +December, when Thackeray was walking with two friends along the Dean +Road, to the west of Edinburgh,--one of the noblest outlets to any city. +It was a lovely evening; such a sunset as one never forgets; a rich dark +bar of cloud hovered over the sun, going down behind the Highland hills, +lying bathed in amethystine bloom; between this cloud and the hills +there was a narrow slip of the pure ether, of a tender cowslip color, +lucid, and as if it were the very body of heaven in its clearness; every +object standing out as if etched upon the sky. The northwest end of +Corstorphine Hill, with its trees and rocks, lay in the heart of this +pure radiance; and there a wooden crane, used in the granary below, was +so placed as to assume the figure of a cross; there it was, +unmistakable, lifted up against the crystalline sky. All three gazed at +it silently. As they gazed, Thackeray gave utterance in a tremulous, +gentle, and rapid voice to what all were feeling, in the word, +'CALVARY!' The friends walked on in silence, and then turned to other +things. All that evening he was very gentle and serious, speaking, as he +seldom did, of divine things,--of death, of sin, of eternity, of +salvation, expressing his simple faith in God and in his Saviour." + +Thackeray was found dead in his bed on Christmas morning, and he +probably died without pain. His mother and his daughters were sleeping +under the same roof when he passed away alone. Dickens told me that, +looking on him as he lay in his coffin, he wondered that the figure he +had known in life as one of such noble presence could seem so shrunken +and wasted; but there had been years of sorrow, years of labor, years of +pain, in that now exhausted life. It was his happiest Christmas morning +when he heard the Voice calling him homeward to unbroken rest. + +HAWTHORNE. + + * * * * * + + _A hundred years ago Henry Vaughan seems almost to have anticipated + Hawthorne's appearance when he wrote that beautiful line,_ + + "_Feed on the vocal silence of his eye_." + + + + +III. HAWTHORNE. + +I am sitting to-day opposite the likeness of the rarest genius America +has given to literature,--a man who lately sojourned in this busy world +of ours, but during many years of his life + + "Wandered lonely as a cloud,"-- + +a man who had, so to speak, a physical affinity with solitude. The +writings of this author have never soiled the public mind with one +unlovely image. His men and women have a magic of their own, and we +shall wait a long time before another arises among us to take his place. +Indeed, it seems probable no one will ever walk precisely the same round +of fiction which he traversed with so free and firm a step. + +The portrait I am looking at was made by Rowse (an exquisite drawing), +and is a very truthful representation of the head of Nathaniel +Hawthorne. He was several times painted and photographed, but it was +impossible for art to give the light and beauty of his wonderful eyes. I +remember to have heard, in the literary circles of Great Britain, that, +since Burns, no author had appeared there with a finer face than +Hawthorne's. Old Mrs. Basil Montagu told me, many years ago, that she +sat next to Burns at dinner, when he appeared in society in the first +flush of his fame, after the Edinburgh edition of his poems had been +published. She said, among other things, that, although the company +consisted of some of the best bred men of England, Burns seemed to her +the most perfect gentleman among them. She noticed, particularly, his +genuine grace and deferential manner toward women, and I was interested +to hear Mrs. Montagu's brilliant daughter, when speaking of Hawthorne's +advent in English society, describe him in almost the same terms as I +had heard her mother, years before, describe the Scottish poet. I +happened to be in London with Hawthorne during his consular residence in +England, and was always greatly delighted at the rustle of admiration +his personal appearance excited when he entered a room. His bearing was +modestly grand, and his voice touched the ear like a melody. + +Here is a golden curl which adorned the head of Nathaniel Hawthorne when +he lay a little child in his cradle. It was given to me many years ago +by one near and dear to him. I have two other similar "blossoms," which +I keep pressed in the same book of remembrance. One is from the head of +John Keats, and was given to me by Charles Cowden Clarke, and the other +graced the head of Mary Mitford, and was sent to me after her death by +her friendly physician, who watched over her last hours. Leigh Hunt says +with a fine poetic emphasis, + + "There seems a love in hair, though it be dead. + It is the gentlest, yet the strongest thread + Of our frail plant,--a blossom from the tree + Surviving the proud trunk;--as though it said, + Patience and Gentleness is Power. In me + Behold affectionate eternity." + +There is a charming old lady, now living two doors from me, who dwelt in +Salem when Hawthorne was born, and, being his mother's neighbor at that +time (Mrs. Hawthorne then lived in Union Street), there came a message +to her intimating that the baby could be seen by calling. So my friend +tells me she went in, and saw the little winking thing in its mother's +arms. She is very clear as to the beauty of the infant, even when only a +week old, and remembers that "he was a pleasant child, quite handsome, +with golden curls." She also tells me that Hawthorne's mother was a +beautiful woman, with remarkable eyes, full of sensibility and +expression, and that she was a person of singular purity of mind. +Hawthorne's father, whom my friend knew well, she describes as a +warm-hearted and kindly man, very fond of children. He was somewhat +inclined to melancholy, and of a reticent disposition. He was a great +reader, employing all his leisure time at sea over books. + +Hawthorne's father died when Nathaniel was four years old, and from that +time his uncle Robert Manning took charge of his education, sending him +to the best schools and afterwards to college. When the lad was about +nine years old, while playing bat and ball at school, he lamed his foot +so badly that he used two crutches for more than a year. His foot ceased +to grow like the other, and the doctors of the town were called in to +examine the little lame boy. He was not perfectly restored till he was +twelve years old. His kind-hearted schoolmaster, Joseph Worcester, the +author of the Dictionary, came every day to the house to hear the boy's +lessons, so that he did not fall behind in his studies. [There is a +tradition in the Manning family that Mr. Worcester was very much +interested in Maria Manning (a sister of Mrs. Hawthorne), who died in +1814, and that this was one reason of his attention to Nathaniel.] The +boy used to lie flat upon the carpet, and read and study the long days +through. Some time after he had recovered from this lameness he had an +illness causing him to lose the use of his limbs, and he was obliged to +seek again the aid of his old crutches, which were then pieced out at +the ends to make them longer. While a little child, and as soon almost +as he began to read, the authors he most delighted in were Shakespeare, +Milton, Pope, and Thomson. The "Castle of Indolence" was an especial +favorite with him during boyhood. The first book he bought with his own +money was a copy of Spenser's "Faery Queen." + +One who watched him during his childhood tells me, that "when he was six +years old his favorite book was Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress': and that +whenever he went to visit his Grandmother Hawthorne, he used to take the +old family copy to a large chair in a corner of the room near a window, +and read it by the hour, without once speaking. No one ever thought of +asking how much of it he understood. I think it one of the happiest +circumstances of his training, that nothing was ever explained to him, +and that there was no professedly intellectual person in the family to +usurp the place of Providence and supplement its shortcomings, in order +to make him what he was never intended to be. His mind developed itself; +intentional cultivation might have spoiled it.... He used to invent long +stories, wild and fanciful, and tell where he was going when he grew up, +and of the wonderful adventures he was to meet with, always ending with, +'And I'm never coming back again,' in quite a solemn tone, that enjoined +upon us the advice to value him the more while he stayed with us." + +When he could scarcely speak plain, it is recalled by members of the +family that the little fellow would go about the house, repeating with +vehement emphasis and gestures certain stagy lines from Shakespeare's +Richard III., which he had overheard from older persons about him. One +line, in particular, made a great impression upon him, and he would +start up on the most unexpected occasions and fire off in his loudest +tone, + + "Stand back, my Lord, and let the coffin pass." + +On the 21st of August, 1820, No. 1 of "The Spectator, edited by N. +Hathorne," neatly written in printed letters by the editor's own hand, +appeared. A prospectus was issued the week before, setting forth that +the paper would be published on Wednesdays, "price 12 cents per annum, +payment to be made at the end of the year." Among the advertisements is +the following:-- + + "Nathaniel Hathorne proposes to publish by subscription a NEW + EDITION of the MISERIES OF AUTHORS, to which will be added a SEQUEL, + containing FACTS and REMARKS drawn from his own experience." + +Six numbers only were published. The following subjects were discussed +by young "Hathorne" in the Spectator,--"On Solitude," "The End of the +Year," "On Industry," "On Benevolence," "On Autumn," "On Wealth," "On +Hope," "On Courage." The poetry on the last page of each number was +evidently written by the editor, except in one instance, when an Address +to the Sun is signed by one of his sisters. In one of the numbers he +apologizes that no deaths of any importance have taken place in the +town. Under the head of Births, he gives the following news, "The lady +of Dr. Winthrop Brown, a son and heir. Mrs. Hathorne's cat, seven +kittens. We hear that both of the above ladies are in a state of +convalescence." One of the literary advertisements reads:-- + +"Blank Books made and for sale by N. Hathorne." + +While Hawthorne was yet a little fellow the family moved to Raymond in +the State of Maine; here his out-of-door life did him great service, for +he grew tall and strong, and became a good shot and an excellent +fisherman. Here also his imagination was first stimulated, the wild +scenery and the primitive manners of the people contributing greatly to +awaken his thought. At seventeen he entered Bowdoin College, and after +his graduation returned again to live in Salem. During his youth he had +an impression that he would die before the age of twenty-five; but the +Mannings, his ever-watchful and kind relations, did everything possible +for the care of his health, and he was tided safely over the period when +he was most delicate. Professor Packard told me that when Hawthorne was +a student at Bowdoin in his freshman year, his Latin compositions showed +such facility that they attracted the special attention of those who +examined them. The Professor also remembers that Hawthorne's English +compositions elicited from Professor Newman (author of the work on +Rhetoric) high commendations. + +When a youth Hawthorne made a journey into New Hampshire with his uncle, +Samuel Manning. They travelled in a two-wheeled chaise, and met with +many adventures which the young man chronicled in his home letters, Some +of the touches in these epistles were very characteristic and amusing, +and showed in those early years his quick observation and descriptive +power. The travellers "put up" at Farmington, in order to rest over +Sunday. Hawthorne writes to a member of the family in Salem: "As we were +wearied with rapid travelling, we found it impossible to attend divine +service, which was, of course, very grievous to us both. In the evening, +however, I went to a Bible class, with a very polite and agreeable +gentleman, whom I afterwards discovered to be a strolling tailor, of +very questionable habits." + +When the travellers arrived in the Shaker village of Canterbury, +Hawthorne at once made the acquaintance of the Community there, and the +account which he sent home was to the effect that the brothers and +sisters led a good and comfortable life, and he wrote: "If it were not +for the ridiculous ceremonies, a man might do a worse thing than to join +them." Indeed, he spoke to them about becoming a member of the Society, +and was evidently much impressed with the thrift and peace of the +establishment. + +This visit in early life to the Shakers is interesting as suggesting to +Hawthorne his beautiful story of "The Canterbury Pilgrims," which is in +his volume of "The Snow-Image, and other Twice-Told Tales." + +A lady of my acquaintance (the identical "Little Annie" of the "Ramble" +in "Twice-Told Tales") recalls the young man "when he returned home +after his collegiate studies." "He was even then," she says, "a most +noticeable person, never going into society, and deeply engaged in +reading everything he could lay his hands on. It was said in those days +that he had read every book in the Athenaeum Library in Salem." This +lady remembers that when she was a child, and before Hawthorne had +printed any of his stories, she used to sit on his knee and lean her +head on his shoulder, while by the hour he would fascinate her with +delightful legends, much more wonderful and beautiful than any she has +ever read since in printed books. + +The traits of the Hawthorne character were stern probity and +truthfulness. Hawthorne's mother had many characteristics in common with +her distinguished son, she also being a reserved and thoughtful person. +Those who knew the family describe the son's affection for her as of the +deepest and tenderest nature, and they remember that when she died his +grief was almost insupportable. The anguish he suffered from her loss is +distinctly recalled by many persons still living, who visited the family +at that time in Salem. + +I first saw Hawthorne when he was about thirty-five years old. He had +then published a collection of his sketches, the now famous "Twice-Told +Tales." Longfellow, ever alert for what is excellent, and eager to do a +brother author opportune and substantial service, at once came before +the public with a generous estimate of the work in the North American +Review; but the choice little volume, the most promising addition to +American literature that had appeared for many years, made little +impression on the public mind. Discerning readers, however, recognized +the supreme beauty in this new writer, and they never afterwards lost +sight of him. + +In 1828 Hawthorne published a short anonymous romance called Fanshawe. I +once asked him about this disowned publication, and he spoke of it with +great disgust, and afterwards he thus referred to the subject in a +letter written to me in 1851: "You make an inquiry about some supposed +former publication of mine. I cannot be sworn to make correct answers as +to all the literary or other follies of my nonage; and I earnestly +recommend you not to brush away the dust that may have gathered over +them. Whatever might do me credit you may be pretty sure I should be +ready enough to bring forward. Anything else it is our mutual interest +to conceal; and so far from assisting your researches in that direction, +I especially enjoin it on you, my dear friend, not to read any +unacknowledged page that you may suppose to be mine." + +When Mr. George Bancroft, then Collector of the Port of Boston, +appointed Hawthorne weigher and gauger in the custom-house, he did a +wise thing, for no public officer ever performed his disagreeable duties +better than our romancer. Here is a tattered little official document +signed by Hawthorne when he was watching over the interests of the +country: it certifies his attendance at the unlading of a brig, then +lying at Long Wharf in Boston. I keep this precious relic side by side +with one of a similar custom-house character, signed _Robert Burns_. + +I came to know Hawthorne very intimately after the Whigs displaced the +Democratic romancer from office. In my ardent desire to have him +retained in the public service, his salary at that time being his sole +dependence,--not foreseeing that his withdrawal from that sort of +employment would be the best thing for American letters that could +possibly happen,--I called, in his behalf, on several influential +politicians of the day, and well remember the rebuffs I received in my +enthusiasm for the author of the "Twice-Told Tales." One pompous little +gentleman in authority, after hearing my appeal, quite astounded me by +his ignorance of the claims of a literary man on his country. "Yes, +yes," he sarcastically croaked down his public turtle-fed throat, "I see +through it all, I see through it; this Hawthorne is one of them 'ere +visionists, and we don't want no such a man as him round." So the +"visionist" was not allowed to remain in office, and the country was +better served by him in another way. In the winter of 1849, after he had +been ejected from the custom-house, I went down to Salem to see him and +inquire after his health, for we heard he had been suffering from +illness. He was then living in a modest wooden house in Mall Street, if +I remember rightly the location. I found him alone in a chamber over the +sitting-room of the dwelling; and as the day was cold, he was hovering +near a stove. We fell into talk about his future prospects, and he was, +as I feared I should find him, in a very desponding mood. "Now," said I, +"is the time for you to publish, for I know during these years in Salem +you must have got something ready for the press." "Nonsense," said he; +"what heart had I to write anything, when my publishers (M. and Company) +have been so many years trying to sell a small edition of the +'Twice-Told Tales'?" I still pressed upon him the good chances he would +have now with something new. "Who would risk publishing a book for _me_, +the most unpopular writer in America?" "I would," said I, "and would +start with an edition of two thousand copies of anything you write." +"What madness!" he exclaimed; "your friendship for me gets the better of +your judgment. No, no," he continued; "I have no money to indemnify a +publisher's losses on my account." I looked at my watch and found that +the train would soon be starting for Boston, and I knew there was not +much time to lose in trying to discover what had been his literary work +during these last few years in Salem. I remember that I pressed him to +reveal to me what he had been writing. He shook his head and gave me to +understand he had produced nothing. At that moment I caught sight of a +bureau or set of drawers near where we were sitting; and immediately it +occurred to me that hidden away somewhere in that article of furniture +was a story or stories by the author of the "Twice-Told Tales," and I +became so positive of it that I charged him vehemently with the fact. He +seemed surprised, I thought, but shook his head again; and I rose to +take my leave, begging him not to come into the cold entry, saying I +would come back and see him again in a few days. I was hurrying down the +stairs when he called after me from the chamber, asking me to stop a +moment. Then quickly stepping into the entry with a roll of manuscript +in his hands, he said: "How in Heaven's name did you know this thing was +there? As you have found me out, take what I have written, and tell me, +after you get home and have time to read it, if it is good for anything. +It is either very good or very bad,--I don't know which." On my way up +to Boston I read the germ of "The Scarlet Letter"; before I slept that +night I wrote him a note all aglow with admiration of the marvellous +story he had put into my hands, and told him that I would come again to +Salem the next day and arrange for its publication. I went on in such an +amazing state of excitement when we met again in the little house, that +he would not believe I was really in earnest. He seemed to think I was +beside myself, and laughed sadly at my enthusiasm. However, we soon +arranged for his appearance again before the public with a book. + +This quarto volume before me contains numerous letters, written by him +from 1850 down to the month of his death. The first one refers to "The +Scarlet Letter," and is dated in January, 1850. At my suggestion he had +altered the plan of that story. It was his intention to make "The +Scarlet Letter" one of several short stories, all to be included in one +volume, and to be called + + OLD-TIME LEGENDS: +Together With Sketches, +EXPERIMENTAL AND IDEAL. + +His first design was to make "The Scarlet Letter" occupy about two +hundred pages in his new book; but I persuaded him, after reading the +first chapters of the story, to elaborate it, and publish it as a +separate work. After it was settled that "The Scarlet Letter" should be +enlarged and printed by itself in a volume he wrote to me:-- + + "I am truly glad that you like the Introduction, for I was rather + afraid that it might appear absurd and impertinent to be talking + about myself, when nobody, that I know of, has requested any + information on that subject. + + "As regards the size of the book, I have been thinking a good deal + about it. Considered merely as a matter of taste and beauty, the + form of publication which you recommend seems to me much preferable + to that of the 'Mosses.' + + "In the present case, however, I have some doubts of the expediency, + because, if the book is made up entirely of 'The Scarlet Letter,' it + will be too sombre. I found it impossible to relieve the shadows of + the story with so much light as I would gladly have thrown in. + Keeping so close to its point as the tale does, and no otherwise + than by turning different sides of the same to the reader's eye, it + will weary very many people and disgust some. Is it safe, then, to + stake the fate of the book entirely on this one chance? A hunter + loads his gun with a bullet and several buckshot; and, following his + sagacious example, it was my purpose to conjoin the one long story + with half a dozen shorter ones, so that, failing to kill the public + outright with my biggest and heaviest lump of lead, I might have + other chances with the smaller bits, individually and in the + aggregate. However, I am willing to leave these considerations to + your judgment, and should not be sorry to have you decide for the + separate publication. + + "In this latter event it appears to me that the only proper title + for the book would be 'The Scarlet Letter,' for 'The Custom-House' + is merely introductory,--an entrance-hall to the magnificent edifice + which I throw open to my guests. It would be funny if, seeing the + further passages so dark and dismal, they should all choose to stop + there! If 'The Scarlet Letter' is to be the title, would it not be + well to print it on the title-page in red ink? I am not quite sure + about the good taste of so doing, but it would certainly be piquant + and appropriate, and, I think, attractive to the great gull whom we + are endeavoring to circumvent." + +One beautiful summer day, twenty years ago, I found Hawthorne in his +little red cottage at Lenox, surrounded by his happy young family. He +had the look, as somebody said, of a banished lord, and his grand figure +among the hills of Berkshire seemed finer than ever. His boy and girl +were swinging on the gate as we drove up to his door, and with their +sunny curls formed an attractive feature in the landscape. As the +afternoon was cool and delightful, we proposed a drive over to +Pittsfield to see Holmes, who was then living on his ancestral farm. +Hawthorne was in a cheerful condition, and seemed to enjoy the beauty of +the day to the utmost. Next morning we were all invited by Mr. Dudley +Field, then living at Stockbridge, to ascend Monument Mountain. Holmes, +Hawthorne, Duyckinck, Herman Melville, Headley, Sedgwick, Matthews, and +several ladies, were of the party. We scrambled to the top with great +spirit, and when we arrived, Melville, I remember, bestrode a peaked +rock, which ran out like a bowsprit, and pulled and hauled imaginary +ropes for our delectation. Then we all assembled in a shady spot, and +one of the party read to us Bryant's beautiful poem commemorating +Monument Mountain. Then we lunched among the rocks, and somebody +proposed Bryant's health, and "long life to the dear old poet." This was +the most popular toast of the day, and it took, I remember, a +considerable quantity of Heidsieck to do it justice. In the afternoon, +pioneered by Headley, we made our way, with merry shouts and laughter, +through the Ice-Glen. Hawthorne was among the most enterprising of the +merry-makers; and being in the dark much of the time, he ventured to +call out lustily and pretend that certain destruction was inevitable to +all of us. After this extemporaneous jollity, we dined together at Mr. +Dudley Field's in Stockbridge, and Hawthorne rayed out in a sparkling +and unwonted manner. I remember the conversation at table chiefly ran on +the physical differences between the present American and English men, +Hawthorne stoutly taking part in favor of the American. This 5th of +August was a happy day throughout, and I never saw Hawthorne in better +spirits. + +Often and often I have seen him sitting in the chair I am now occupying +by the window, looking out into the twilight. He liked to watch the +vessels dropping down the stream, and nothing pleased him more than to +go on board a newly arrived bark from Down East, as she was just moored +at the wharf. One night we made the acquaintance of a cabin-boy on board +a brig, whom we found off duty and reading a large subscription volume, +which proved, on inquiry, to be a Commentary on the Bible. When +Hawthorne questioned him why he was reading, then and there, that +particular book, he replied with a knowing wink at both of us, "There's +consider'ble her'sy in our place, and I'm a studying up for 'em." He +liked on Sunday to mouse about among the books, and there are few +volumes in this room that he has not handled or read. He knew he could +have unmolested habitation here, whenever he chose to come, and he was +never allowed to be annoyed by intrusion of any kind. He always slept in +the same room,--the one looking on the water; and many a night I have +heard his solemn footsteps over my head, long after the rest of the +house had gone to sleep. Like many other nervous men of genius, he was a +light sleeper, and he liked to be up and about early; but it was only +for a ramble among the books again. One summer morning I found him as +early as four o'clock reading a favorite poem, on Solitude, a piece he +very much admired. That morning I shall not soon forget, for he was in +the vein for autobiographical talk, and he gave me a most interesting +account of his father, the sea-captain, who died of the yellow-fever in +Surinam in 1808, and of his beautiful mother, who dwelt a secluded +mourner ever after the death of her husband. Then he told stories of his +college life, and of his one sole intimate, Franklin Pierce, whom he +loved devotedly his life long. + +In the early period of our acquaintance he much affected the old Boston +Exchange Coffee-House in Devonshire Street, and once I remember to have +found him shut up there before a blazing coal-fire, in the "tumultuous +privacy" of a great snow-storm, reading with apparent interest an +obsolete copy of the "Old Farmer's Almanac," which he had picked up +about the house. He also delighted in the Old Province House, at that +time an inn, kept by one Thomas Waite, whom he has immortalized. After +he was chosen a member of the Saturday Club he came frequently to dinner +with Felton, Longfellow, Holmes, and the rest of his friends, who +assembled once a month to dine together. At the table, on these +occasions, he was rather reticent than conversational, but when he +chose to talk it was observed that the best things said that day came +from him. + +As I turn over his letters, the old days, delightful to recall, come +back again with added interest. + + "I sha'n't have the new story," he says in one of them, dated from + Lenox on the 1st of October, 1850, "ready by November, for I am + never good for anything in the literary way till after the first + autumnal frost, which has somewhat such an effect on my imagination + that it does on the foliage here about me,--multiplying and + brightening its hues; though they are likely to be sober and shabby + enough after all. + + "I am beginning to puzzle myself about a title for the book. The + scene of it is in one of those old projecting-stoned houses, + familiar to my eye in Salem; and the story, horrible to say, is a + little less than two hundred years long; though all but thirty or + forty pages of it refer to the present time. I think of such titles + as 'The House of the Seven Gables,' there being that number of + gable-ends to the old shanty; or 'The Seven-Gabled House'; or simply + 'The Seven Gables.' Tell me how these strike you. It appears to me + that the latter is rather the best, and has the great advantage that + it would puzzle the Devil to tell what it means." + +A month afterwards he writes further with regard to "The House of the +Seven Gables," concerning the title to which he was still in a +quandary:-- + + "'The Old Pyncheon House: A Romance'; 'The Old Pyncheon Family; or + the House of the Seven Gables: A Romance';--choose between them. I + have rather a distaste to a double title? otherwise, I think I + should prefer the second. Is it any matter under which title it is + announced? If a better should occur hereafter, we can substitute. Of + these two, on the whole, I judge the first to be the better. + + "I write diligently, but not so rapidly as I had hoped. I find the + book requires more care and thought than 'The Scarlet Letter'; also + I have to wait oftener for a mood. 'The Scarlet Letter' being all in + one tone, I had only to get my pitch, and could then go on + interminably. Many passages of this book ought to be finished with + the minuteness of a Dutch picture, in order to give them their + proper effect. Sometimes, when tired of it, it strikes me that the + whole is an absurdity, from beginning to end; but the fact is, in + writing a romance, a man is always, or always ought to be, careering + on the utmost verge of a precipitous absurdity, and the skill lies + in coming as close as possible, without actually tumbling over. My + prevailing idea is, that the book ought to succeed better than 'The + Scarlet Letter,' though I have no idea that it will." + +On the 9th of December he was still at work on the new romance, and +writes:-- + + "My desire and prayer is to get through with the business in hand. I + have been in a Slough of Despond for some days past, having written + so fiercely that I came to a stand-still. There are points where a + writer gets bewildered and cannot form any judgment of what he has + done, or tell what to do next. In these cases it is best to keep + quiet." + +On the 12th of January, 1851, he is still busy over his new book, and +writes: "My 'House of the Seven Gables' is, so to speak, finished; only +I am hammering away a little on the roof, and doing up a few odd jobs, +that were left incomplete." At the end of the month the manuscript of +his second great romance was put into the hands of the expressman at +Lenox, by Hawthorne himself, to be delivered to me. On the 27th he +writes:-- + + "If you do not soon receive it, you may conclude that it has + miscarried; in which case, I shall not consent to the universe + existing a moment longer. I have no copy of it, except the wildest + scribble of a first draught, so that it could never be restored. + + "It has met with extraordinary success from that portion of the + public to whose judgment it has been submitted, viz. from my wife. I + likewise prefer it to 'The Scarlet Letter'; but an author's opinion + of his book just after completing it is worth little or nothing, he + being then in the hot or cold fit of a fever, and certain to rate it + too high or too low. + + "It has undoubtedly one disadvantage in being brought so close to + the present time; whereby its romantic improbabilities become more + glaring. + + "I deem it indispensable that the proof-sheets should be sent me for + correction. It will cause some delay, no doubt, but probably not + much more than if I lived in Salem. At all events, I don't see how + it can be helped. My autography is sometimes villanously blind; and + it is odd enough that whenever the printers do mistake a word, it is + just the very jewel of a word, worth all the rest of the + dictionary." + +I well remember with what anxiety I awaited the arrival of the +expressman with the precious parcel, and with what keen delight I read +every word of the new story before I slept. Here is the original +manuscript, just as it came that day, twenty years ago, fresh from the +author's hand. The printers carefully preserved it for me; and Hawthorne +once made a formal presentation of it, with great mock solemnity, in +this very room where I am now sitting. + +After the book came out he wrote:-- + + "I have by no means an inconvenient multitude of friends; but if + they ever do appear a little too numerous, it is when I am making a + list of those to whom presentation copies are to be sent. Please + send one to General Pierce, Horatio Bridge, R.W. Emerson, W.E. + Channing, Longfellow, Hillard, Sumner, Holmes, Lowell, and Thompson + the artist. You will yourself give one to Whipple, whereby I shall + make a saving. I presume you won't put the portrait into the book. + It appears to me an improper accompaniment to a new work. + Nevertheless, if it be ready, I should be glad to have each of these + presentation copies accompanied by a copy of the engraving put + loosely between the leaves. Good by. I must now trudge two miles to + the village, through rain and mud knee-deep, after that accursed + proof-sheet. The book reads very well in proofs, but I don't believe + it will take like the former one. The preliminary chapter was what + gave 'The Scarlet Letter' its vogue." + +The engraving he refers to in this letter was made from a portrait by +Mr. C.G. Thompson, and at that time, 1851, was an admirable likeness. On +the 6th of March he writes:-- + + "The package, with my five heads, arrived yesterday afternoon, and + we are truly obliged to you for putting so many at our disposal. + They are admirably done. The children recognized their venerable + sire with great delight. My wife complains somewhat of a want of + cheerfulness in the face; and, to say the truth, it does appear to + be with a bedevilled melancholy; but it will do all the better for + the author of 'The Scarlet Letter.' In the expression there is a + singular resemblance (which I do not remember in Thompson's picture) + to a miniature of my father." + +His letters to me, during the summer of 1851, were frequent and +sometimes quite long. "The House of the Seven Gables" was warmly +welcomed, both at home and abroad. On the 23d of May he writes:-- + + "Whipple's notices have done more than pleased me, for they have + helped me to see my book. Much of the censure I recognize as just; I + wish I could feel the praise to be so fully deserved. Being better + (which I insist it is) than 'The Scarlet Letter,' I have never + expected it to be so popular (this steel pen makes me write + awfully). ---- ---- Esq., of Boston, has written to me, complaining + that I have made his grandfather infamous! It seems there was + actually a Pyncheon (or Pynchon, as he spells it) family resident in + Salem, and that their representative, at the period of the + Revolution, was a certain Judge Pynchon, a Tory and a refugee. This + was Mr. ----'s grandfather, and (at least, so he dutifully describes + him) the most exemplary old gentleman in the world. There are + several touches in my account of the Pyncheons which, he says, make + it probable that I had this actual family in my eye, and he + considers himself infinitely wronged and aggrieved, and thinks it + monstrous that the 'virtuous dead' cannot be suffered to rest + quietly in their graves. He further complains that I speak + disrespectfully of the ----'s in Grandfather's Chair. He writes more + in sorrow than in anger, though there is quite enough of the latter + quality to give piquancy to his epistle. The joke of the matter is, + that I never heard of his grandfather, nor knew that any Pyncheons + had ever lived in Salem, but took the name because it suited the + tone of my book, and was as much my property, for fictitious + purposes, as that of Smith. I have pacified him by a very polite and + gentlemanly letter, and if ever you publish any more of the Seven + Gables, I should like to write a brief preface, expressive of my + anguish for this unintentional wrong, and making the best reparation + possible else these wretched old Pyncheons will have no peace in the + other world, nor in this. Furthermore, there is a Rev. Mr. ----, + resident within four miles of me, and a cousin of Mr. ----, who + states that he likewise is highly indignant. Who would have dreamed + of claimants starting up for such an inheritance as the House of the + Seven Gables! + + "I mean, to write, within six weeks or two months next ensuing, a + book of stories made up of classical myths. The subjects are: The + Story of Midas, with his Golden Touch, Pandora's Box, The Adventure + of Hercules in quest of the Golden Apples, Bellerophon and the + Chimera, Baucis and Philemon, Perseus and Medusa; these, I think, + will be enough to make up a volume. As a framework, I shall have a + young college student telling these stories to his cousins and + brothers and sisters, during his vacations, sometimes at the + fireside, sometimes in the woods and dells. Unless I greatly + mistake, these old fictions will work up admirably for the purpose; + and I shall aim at substituting a tone in some degree Gothic or + romantic, or any such tone as may best please myself, instead of the + classic coldness, which is as repellant as the touch of marble. + + "I give you these hints of my plan, because you will perhaps think + it advisable to employ Billings to prepare some illustrations. There + is a good scope in the above subjects for fanciful designs. + Bellerophon and the Chimera, for instance: the Chimera a fantastic + monster with three heads, and Bellerophon fighting him, mounted on + Pegasus; Pandora opening the box; Hercules talking with Atlas, an + enormous giant who holds the sky on his shoulders, or sailing across + the sea in an immense bowl; Perseus transforming a king and all his + subjects to stone, by exhibiting the Gorgon's head. No particular + accuracy in costume need be aimed at. My stories will bear out the + artist in any liberties he may be inclined to take. Billings would + do these things well enough, though his characteristics are grace + and delicacy rather than wildness of fancy. The book, if it comes + out of my mind as I see it now, ought to have pretty wide success + amongst young people; and, of course, I shall purge out all the old + heathen wickedness, and put in a moral wherever practicable. For a + title how would this do: 'A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys'; or, + 'The Wonder-Book of Old Stories'? I prefer the former. Or 'Myths + Modernized for my Children'; that won't do. + + "I need a little change of scene, and meant to have come to Boston + and elsewhere before writing this book; but I cannot leave home at + present." + +Throughout the summer Hawthorne was constantly worried by people who +insisted that they, or their families in the present or past +generations, had been deeply wronged in "The House of the Seven Gables." +In a note, received from him on the 5th of June, he says:-- + + "I have just received a letter from still another claimant of the + Pyncheon estate. I wonder if ever, and how soon, I shall get a just + estimate of how many jackasses there are in this ridiculous world. + My correspondent, by the way, estimates the number of these Pyncheon + jackasses at about twenty; I am doubtless to by remonstrated with by + each individual. After exchanging shots with all of them, I shall + get you to publish the whole correspondence, in a style to match + that of my other works, and I anticipate a great run for the volume. + + "P.S. My last correspondent demands that another name be + substituted, instead of that of the family; to which I assent, in + case the publishers can be prevailed on to cancel the stereotype + plates. Of course you will consent! Pray do!" + +Praise now poured in upon him from all quarters. Hosts of critics, both +in England and America, gallantly came forward to do him service, and +his fame was assured. On the 15th of July he sends me a jubilant letter +from Lenox, from which I will copy several passages:-- + + "Mrs. Kemble writes very good accounts from London of the reception + my two romances have met with there. She says they have made a + greater sensation than any book since 'Jane Eyre'; but probably she + is a little or a good deal too emphatic in her representation of the + matter. At any rate, she advises that the sheets of any future book + be sent to Moxon, and such an arrangement made that a copyright may + be secured in England as well as here. Could this be done with the + Wonder-Book? And do you think it would be worth while? I must see + the proof-sheets of this book. It is a cursed bore; for I want to be + done with it from this moment. Can't you arrange it so that two or + three or more sheets may be sent at once, on stated days, and so my + journeys to the village be fewer? + + "That review which you sent me is a remarkable production. There is + praise enough to satisfy a greedier author than myself. I set it + aside, as not being able to estimate how far it is deserved. I can + better judge of the censure, much of which is undoubtedly just; and + I shall profit by it if I can. But, after all, there would be no + great use in attempting it. There are weeds enough in my mind, to be + sure, and I might pluck them up by the handful; but in so doing I + should root up the few flowers along with them. It is also to be + considered, that what one man calls weeds another classifies among + the choicest flowers in the garden. But this reviewer is certainly + a man of sense, and sometimes tickles me under the fifth rib. I beg + you to observe, however, that I do not acknowledge his justice in + cutting and slashing among the characters of the two books at the + rate he does; sparing nobody, I think, except Pearl and Phoebe. Yet + I think he is right as to my tendency as respects individual + character. + + "I am going to begin to enjoy the summer now, and to read foolish + novels, if I can get any, and smoke cigars, and think of nothing at + all; which is equivalent to thinking of all manner of things." + +The composition of the "Tanglewood Tales" gave him pleasant employment, +and all his letters, during the period he was writing them, overflow +with evidences of his felicitous mood. He requests that Billings should +pay especial attention to the drawings, and is anxious that the porch of +Tanglewood should be "well supplied with shrubbery." He seemed greatly +pleased that Mary Russell Mitford had fallen in with his books and had +written to me about them. "Her sketches," he said, "long ago as I read +them, are as sweet in my memory as the scent of new hay." On the 18th of +August he writes:-- + + "You are going to publish another thousand of the Seven Gables. I + promised those Pyncheons a preface. What if you insert the + following? + + "(The author is pained to learn that, in selecting a name for the + fictitious inhabitants of a castle in the air, he has wounded the + feelings of more than one respectable descendant of an old Pyncheon + family. He begs leave to say that he intended no reference to any + individual of the name, now or heretofore extant; and further, that, + at the time of writing his book, he was wholly unaware of the + existence of such a family in New England for two hundred years + back, and that whatever he may have since learned of them is + altogether to their credit.) + + "Insert it or not, as you like. I have done with the matter." + +I advised him to let the Pyncheons rest as they were, and omit any +addition, either as note or preface, to the romance. + +Near the close of 1851 his health seemed unsettled, and he asked me to +look over certain proofs "carefully," for he did not feel well enough +to manage them himself. In one of his notes, written from Lenox at that +time, he says:-- + + "Please God, I mean to look you in the face towards the end of next + week; at all events, within ten days. I have stayed here too long + and too constantly. To tell you a secret, I am sick to death of + Berkshire, and hate to think of spending another winter here. But I + must. The air and climate do not agree with my health at all; and, + for the first time since I was a boy, I have felt languid and + dispirited during almost my whole residence here. O that Providence + would build me the merest little shanty, and mark me out a rood or + two of garden-ground, near the sea-coast. I thank you for the two + volumes of De Quincey. If it were not for your kindness in supplying + me with books now and then, I should quite forget how to read." + +Hawthorne was a hearty devourer of books, and in certain moods of mind +it made very little difference what the volume before him happened to +be. An old play or an old newspaper sometimes gave him wondrous great +content, and he would ponder the sleepy, uninteresting sentences as if +they contained immortal mental aliment. He once told me he found such +delight in old advertisements in the newspapers at the Boston Athenaeum, +that he had passed delicious hours among them. At other times he was +very fastidious, and threw aside book after book until he found the +right one. De Quincey was a special favorite with him, and the Sermons +of Laurence Sterne he once commended to me as the best sermons ever +written. In his library was an early copy of Sir Philip Sidney's +"Arcadia," which had floated down to him from a remote ancestry, and +which he had read so industriously for forty years that it was nearly +worn out of its thick leathern cover. Hearing him say once that the old +English State Trials were enchanting reading, and knowing that he did +not possess a copy of those heavy folios, I picked up a set one day in a +bookshop and sent them to him. He often told me that he spent more +hours over them and got more delectation out of them than tongue could +tell, and he said, if five lives were vouchsafed to him, he could employ +them all in writing stories out of those books. He had sketched, in his +mind, several romances founded on the remarkable trials reported in the +ancient volumes; and one day, I remember, he made my blood tingle by +relating some of the situations he intended, if his life was spared, to +weave into future romances. Sir Walter Scott's novels he continued +almost to worship, and was accustomed to read them aloud in his family. +The novels of G.P.R. James, both the early and the later ones, he +insisted were admirable stories, admirably told, and he had high praise +to bestow on the works of Anthony Trollope. "Have you ever read these +novels?" he wrote to me in a letter from England, some time before +Trollope began to be much known in America. "They precisely suit my +taste; solid and substantial, written on the strength of beef and +through the inspiration of ale, and just as real as if some giant had +hewn a great lump out of the earth and put it under a glass case, with +all its inhabitants going about their daily business and not suspecting +that they were made a show of. And these books are as English as a +beefsteak. Have they ever been tried in America? It needs an English +residence to make them thoroughly comprehensible; but still I should +think that the human nature in them would give them success anywhere." + +I have often been asked if all his moods were sombre, and if he was +never jolly sometimes like other people. Indeed he was; and although the +humorous side of Hawthorne was not easily or often discoverable, yet +have I seen him marvellously moved to fun, and no man laughed more +heartily in his way over a good story. Wise and witty H----, in whom +wisdom and wit are so ingrained that age only increases his subtile +spirit, and greatly enhances the power of his cheerful temperament, +always had the talismanic faculty of breaking up that thoughtfully sad +face into mirthful waves; and I remember how Hawthorne writhed with +hilarious delight over Professor L----'s account of a butcher who +remarked that "Idees had got afloat in the public mind with respect to +sassingers." I once told him of a young woman who brought in a +manuscript, and said, as she placed it in my hands, "I don't know what +to do with myself sometimes, I'm so filled with _mammoth thoughts_." A +series of convulsive efforts to suppress explosive laughter followed, +which I remember to this day. + +He had an inexhaustible store of amusing anecdotes to relate of people +and things he had observed on the road. One day he described to me, in +his inimitable and quietly ludicrous manner, being _watched_, while on a +visit to a distant city, by a friend who called, and thought he needed a +protector, his health being at that time not so good as usual. "He stuck +by me," said Hawthorne, "as if he were afraid to leave me alone; he +stayed past the dinner hour, and when I began to wonder if he never took +meals himself, he departed and set another man to _watch_ me till he +should return. That man _watched_ me so, in his unwearying kindness, +that when I left the house I forgot half my luggage, and left behind, +among other things, a beautiful pair of slippers. They _watched_ me so, +among them, I swear to you I forgot nearly everything I owned." + + * * * * * + +Hawthorne is still looking at me in his far-seeing way, as if he were +pondering what was next to be said about him. It would not displease +him, I know, if I were to begin my discursive talk to-day by telling a +little incident connected with a famous American poem. + +Hawthorne dined one day with Longfellow, and brought with him a friend +from Salem. After dinner the friend said: "I have been trying to +persuade Hawthorne to write a story, based upon a legend of Acadie, and +still current there; a legend of a girl who, in the dispersion of the +Acadians, was separated from her lover, and passed her life in waiting +and seeking for him, and only found him dying in a hospital, when both +were old." Longfellow wondered that this legend did not strike the fancy +of Hawthorne, and said to him: "If you have really made up your mind not +to use it for a story, will you give it to me for a poem?" To this +Hawthorne assented, and moreover promised not to treat the subject in +prose till Longfellow had seen what he could do with it in verse. And so +we have "Evangeline" in beautiful hexameters, --a poem that will hold +its place in literature while true affection lasts. Hawthorne rejoiced +in this great success of Longfellow, and loved to count up the editions, +both foreign and American, of this now world-renowned poem. + +I have lately met an early friend of Hawthorne's, older than himself, +who knew him intimately all his life long, and I have learned some +additional facts about his youthful days. Soon after he left college he +wrote some stories which he called "Seven Tales of my Native Land." The +motto which he chose for the title-page was "We are Seven," from +Wordsworth. My informant read the tales in manuscript, and says some of +them were very striking, particularly one or two Witch Stories. As soon +as the little book was well prepared for the press he deliberately threw +it into the fire, and sat by to see its destruction. + +When about fourteen he wrote out for a member of his family a list of +the books he had at that time been reading. The catalogue was a long +one, but my informant remembers that The Waverley Novels, Rousseau's +Works, and The Newgate Calender were among them. Serious remonstrances +were made by the family touching the perusal of this last work, but he +persisted in going through it to the end. He had an objection in his +boyhood to reading much that was called "true and useful." Of history in +general he was not very fond, but he read Froissart with interest, and +Clarendon's History of the Rebellion. He is remembered to have said at +that time "he cared very little for the history of the world before the +fourteenth century." After he left college he read a great deal of +French literature, especially the works of Voltaire and his +contemporaries. He rarely went into the streets during the daytime, +unless there was to be a gathering of the people for some public +purpose, such as a political meeting, a military muster, or a fire. A +great conflagration attracted him in a peculiar manner, and he is +remembered, while a young man in Salem, to have been often seen looking +on, from some dark corner, while the fire was raging. When General +Jackson, of whom he professed himself a partisan, visited Salem in 1833, +he walked out to the boundary of the town to meet him,--not to speak to +him, but only to look at him. When he came home at night he said he +found only a few men and boys collected, not enough people, without the +assistance he rendered, to welcome the General with a good cheer. It is +said that Susan, in the "Village Uncle," one of the "Twice-Told Tales," +is not altogether a creation of his fancy. Her father was a fisherman +living in Salem, and Hawthorne was constantly telling the members of his +family how charming she was, and he always spoke of her as his +"mermaid." He said she had a great deal of what the French call +_espieglerie_. There was another young beauty, living at that time in +his native town, quite captivating to him, though in a different style +from the mermaid. But if his head and heart were turned in his youth by +these two nymphs in his native town, there was soon a transfer of his +affections to quite another direction. His new passion was a much more +permanent one, for now there dawned upon him so perfect a creature that +he fell in love irrevocably; all his thoughts and all his delights +centred in her, who suddenly became indeed the mistress of his soul. She +filled the measure of his being, and became a part and parcel of his +life. Who was this mysterious young person that had crossed his +boyhood's path and made him hers forever? Whose daughter was she that +could thus enthrall the ardent young man in Salem, who knew as yet so +little of the world and its sirens? She is described by one who met her +long before Hawthorne made her acquaintance as "the prettiest low-born +lass that ever ran on the greensward," and she must have been a radiant +child of beauty, indeed, that girl! She danced like a fairy, she sang +exquisitely, so that every one who knew her seemed amazed at her perfect +way of doing everything she attempted. Who was it that thus summoned all +this witchery, making such a tumult in young Hawthorne's bosom? She was +"daughter to Leontes and Hermione," king and queen of Sicilia, and her +name was Perdita! It was Shakespeare who introduced Hawthorne to his +first real love, and the lover never forgot his mistress. He was +constant ever, and worshipped her through life. Beauty always captivated +him. Where there was beauty he fancied other good gifts must naturally +be in possession. During his childhood homeliness was always repulsive +to him. When a little boy he is remembered to have said to a woman who +wished to be kind to him, "Take her away! She is ugly and fat, and has a +loud voice." + +When quite a young man he applied for a situation under Commodore Wilkes +on the Exploring Expedition, but did not succeed in obtaining an +appointment. He thought this a great misfortune, as he was fond of +travel, and he promised to do all sorts of wonderful things, should he +be allowed to join the voyagers. + +One very odd but characteristic notion of his, when a youth, was, that +he should like a competent income which should neither increase nor +diminish, for then, he said, it would not engross too much of his +attention. Surrey's little poem, "The Means to obtain a Happy Life," +expressed exactly what his idea of happiness was when a lad. When a +school-boy he wrote verses for the newspapers, but he ignored their +existence in after years with a smile of droll disgust. One of his +quatrains lives in the memory of a friend, who repeated it to me +recently:-- + + + "The ocean hath its silent caves, + Deep, quiet, and alone; + Above them there are troubled waves, + Beneath them there are none." + + +When the Atlantic Cable was first laid, somebody, not knowing the author +of the lines, quoted them to Hawthorne as applicable to the calmness +said to exist in the depths of the ocean. He listened to the verse, and +then laughingly observed, "I know something of the deep sea myself." + +In 1836 he went to Boston, I am told, to edit the "American Magazine of +Useful Knowledge," for which he was to be paid a salary of six hundred +dollars a year. The proprietors soon became insolvent, so that he +received nothing, but he kept on just the same as if he had been paid +regularly. The plan of the work proposed by the publishers of the +magazine admitted no fiction into its pages. The magazine was printed on +coarse paper and was illustrated by engravings painful to look at. There +were no contributors except the editor, and he wrote the whole of every +number. Short biographical sketches of eminent men and historical +narratives filled up its pages. I have examined the columns of this +deceased magazine, and read Hawthorne's narrative of Mrs. Dustan's +captivity. Mrs. Dustan was carried off by the Indians from Haverhill, +and Hawthorne does not much commiserate the hardships she endured, but +reserves his sympathy for her husband, who was _not_ carried into +captivity, and suffered nothing from the Indians, but who, he says, was +a tenderhearted man, and took care of the children during Mrs. D.'s +absence from home, and probably knew that his wife would be more than a +match for a whole tribe of savages. + +When the Rev. Mr. Cheever was knocked down and flogged in the streets of +Salem and then imprisoned, Hawthorne came out of his retreat and visited +him regularly in jail, showing strong sympathy for the man and great +indignation for those who had maltreated him. + +Those early days in Salem,--how interesting the memory of them must be +to the friends who knew and followed the gentle dreamer in his budding +career! When the whisper first came to the timid boy, in that "dismal +chamber in Union Street," that he too possessed the soul of an artist, +there were not many about him to share the divine rapture that must have +filled his proud young heart. Outside of his own little family circle, +doubting and desponding eyes looked upon him, and many a stupid head +wagged in derision as he passed by. But there was always waiting for him +a sweet and honest welcome by the pleasant hearth where his mother and +sisters sat and listened to the beautiful creations of his fresh and +glowing fancy. We can imagine the happy group gathered around the +evening lamp! "Well, my son," says the fond mother, looking up from her +knitting-work, "what have you got for us to-night? It is some time since +you read us a story, and your sisters are as impatient as I am to have a +new one." And then we can hear, or think we hear, the young man begin in +a low and modest tone the story of "Edward Fane's Rosebud," or "The +Seven Vagabonds," or perchance (O tearful, happy evening!) that tender +idyl of "The Gentle Boy!" What a privilege to hear for the first time a +"Twice-Told Tale," before it was even _once_ told to the public! And I +know with what rapture the delighted little audience must have hailed +the advent of every fresh indication that genius, so seldom a visitant +at any fireside, had come down so noiselessly to bless their quiet +hearthstone in the sombre old town. In striking contrast to Hawthorne's +audience nightly convened to listen while he read his charming tales and +essays, I think of poor Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, facing those +hard-eyed critics at the house of Madame Neckar, when as a young man and +entirely unknown he essayed to read his then unpublished story of "Paul +and Virginia." The story was simple and the voice of the poor and +nameless reader trembled. Everybody was unsympathetic and gaped, and at +the end of a quarter of an hour Monsieur de Buffon, who always had a +loud way with him, cried out to Madame Neckar's servant, "Let the horses +be put to my carriage!" + +Hawthorne seems never to have known that raw period in authorship which +is common to most growing writers, when the style is "overlanguaged," +and when it plunges wildly through the "sandy deserts of rhetoric," or +struggles as if it were having a personal difficulty with Ignorance and +his brother Platitude. It was capitally said of Chateaubriand that "he +lived on the summits of syllables," and of another young author that "he +was so dully good, that he made even virtue disreputable." Hawthorne had +no such literary vices to contend with. His looks seemed from the start +to be + + + "Commercing with the skies," + + +and he marching upward to the goal without impediment. I was struck a +few days ago with the untruth, so far as Hawthorne is concerned, of a +passage in the Preface to Endymion. Keats says: "The imagination of a +boy is healthy, and the mature imagination of a man is healthy; but +there is a space of life between, in which the soul is in a ferment, the +character undecided, the way of life uncertain, the ambition +thick-sighted." Hawthorne's imagination had no middle period of +decadence or doubt, but continued, as it began, in full vigor to the +end. + + * * * * * + +In 1852 I went to Europe, and while absent had frequent most welcome +letters from the delightful dreamer. He had finished the "Blithedale +Romance" during my wanderings, and I was fortunate enough to arrange for +its publication in London simultaneously with its appearance in Boston. +One of his letters (dated from his new residence in Concord, June 17, +1852) runs thus:-- + + "You have succeeded admirably in regard to the 'Blithedale Romance,' + and have got L150 more than I expected to receive. It will come in + good time, too; for my drafts have been pretty heavy of late, in + consequence of buying an estate!!! and fitting up my house. What a + truant you are from the Corner! I wish, before leaving London, you + would obtain for me copies of any English editions of my writings + not already in my possession. I have Routledge's edition of 'The + Scarlet Letter,' the 'Mosses,' and 'Twice-Told Tales'; Bohn's + editions of 'The House of the Seven Gables,' the 'Snow-Image' and + the 'Wonder-Book,' and Bogue's edition of 'The Scarlet + Letter';--these are all, and I should be glad of the rest. I meant + to have written another 'Wonder-Book' this summer, but another task + has unexpectedly intervened. General Pierce of New Hampshire, the + Democratic nominee for the Presidency, was a college friend of mine, + as you know, and we have been intimate through life. He wishes me to + write his biography, and I have consented to do so; somewhat + reluctantly, however, for Pierce has now reached that altitude when + a man, careful of his personal dignity, will begin to think of + cutting his acquaintance. But I seek nothing from him, and therefore + need not be ashamed to tell the truth of an old friend.... I have + written to Barry Cornwall, and shall probably enclose the letter + along with this. I don't more than half believe what you tell me of + my reputation in England, and am only so far credulous on the + strength of the L200, and shall have a somewhat stronger sense of + this latter reality when I finger the cash. Do come home in season + to preside over the publication of the Romance." + +He had christened his estate The Wayside, and in a postscript to the +above letter he begs me to consider the name and tell him how I like it. + +Another letter, evidently foreshadowing a foreign appointment from the +newly elected President, contains this passage:-- + + "Do make some inquiries about Portugal; as, for instance, in what + part of the world it lies, and whether it is an empire, a kingdom, + or a republic. Also, and more particularly, the expenses of living + there, and whether the Minister would be likely to be much pestered + with his own countrymen. Also, any other information about foreign + countries would be acceptable to an inquiring mind." + +When I returned from abroad I found him getting matters in readiness to +leave the country for a consulship in Liverpool. He seemed happy at the +thought of flitting, but I wondered if he could possibly be as contented +across the water as he was in Concord. I remember walking with him to +the Old Manse, a mile or so distant from The Wayside, his new residence, +and talking over England and his proposed absence of several years. We +strolled round the house, where he spent the first years of his married +life, and he pointed from the outside to the windows, out of which he +had looked and seen supernatural and other visions. We walked up and +down the avenue, the memory of which he has embalmed in the "Mosses," +and he discoursed most pleasantly of all that had befallen him since he +led a lonely, secluded life in Salem. It was a sleepy, warm afternoon, +and he proposed that we should wander up the banks of the river and lie +down and watch the clouds float above and in the quiet stream. I recall +his lounging, easy air as he tolled me along until we came to a spot +secluded, and ofttimes sacred to his wayward thoughts. He bade me lie +down on the grass and hear the birds sing. As we steeped ourselves in +the delicious idleness, he began to murmur some half-forgotten lines +from Thomson's "Seasons," which he said had been favorites of his from +boyhood. While we lay there, hidden in the grass, we heard approaching +footsteps, and Hawthorne hurriedly whispered, "Duck! or we shall be +interrupted by somebody." The solemnity of his manner, and the thought +of the down-flat position in which we had both placed ourselves to avoid +being seen, threw me into a foolish, semi-hysterical fit of laughter, +and when he nudged me, and again whispered more lugubriously than ever, +"Heaven help me, Mr. ---- is close upon us!" I felt convinced that if +the thing went further, suffocation, in my case at least, must ensue. + +He kept me constantly informed, after he went to Liverpool, of how he +was passing his time; and his charming "English Note-Books" reveal the +fact that he was never idle. There were touches, however, in his private +letters which escaped daily record in his journal, and I remember how +delightful it was, after he landed in Europe, to get his frequent +missives. In one of the first he gives me an account of a dinner where +he was obliged to make a speech. He says:-- + + "I tickled up John Bull's self-conceit (which is very easily done) + with a few sentences of most outrageous flattery, and sat down in a + general puddle of good feeling." In another he says: "I have taken a + house in Rock Park, on the Cheshire side of the Mersey, and am as + snug as a bug in a rug. Next year you must come and see how I live. + Give my regards to everybody, and my love to half a dozen.... I wish + you would call on Mr. Savage, the antiquarian, if you know him, and + ask whether he can inform me what part of England the original + William Hawthorne came from. He came over, I think in 1634.... It + would really be a great obligation if he could answer the above + query. Or, if the fact is not within his own knowledge, he might + perhaps indicate some place where such information might be obtained + here in England. I presume there are records still extant somewhere + of all the passengers by those early ships, with their English + localities annexed to their names. Of all things, I should like to + find a gravestone in one of these old churchyards with my own name + upon it, although, for myself, I should wish to be buried in + America. The graves are too horribly damp here." + +The hedgerows of England, the grassy meadows, and the picturesque old +cottages delighted him, and he was never tired of writing to me about +them. While wandering over the country, he was often deeply touched by +meeting among the wild-flowers many of his old New England +favorites,--bluebells, crocuses, primroses, foxglove, and other flowers +which are cultivated in out gardens, and which had long been familiar to +him in America. + +I can imagine him, in his quiet, musing way, strolling through the +daisied fields on a Sunday morning and hearing the distant church-bells +chiming to service. His religion was deep and broad, but it was irksome +for him to be fastened in by a pew-door, and I doubt if he often heard +an English sermon. He very rarely described himself as _inside_ a +church, but he liked to wander among the graves in the churchyards and +read the epitaphs on the moss-grown slabs. He liked better to meet and +have a talk with the _sexton_ than with the _rector_. + +He was constantly demanding longer letters from home; and nothing gave +him more pleasure than, monthly news from "The Saturday Club," and +detailed accounts of what was going forward in literature. One of his +letters dated in January, 1854, starts off thus:-- + + "I wish your epistolary propensities were stronger than they are. + All your letters to me since I left America might be squeezed into + one.... I send Ticknor a big cheese, which I long ago promised him, + and my advice is, that he keep it in the shop, and daily, between + eleven and one o'clock, distribute slices of it to your half-starved + authors, together with crackers and something to drink.... I thank + you for the books you send me, and more especially for Mrs. Mowatt's + Autobiography, which seems to me an admirable book. Of all things I + delight in autobiographies; and I hardly ever read one that + interested me so much. She must be a remarkable woman, and I cannot + but lament my ill fortune in never having seen her on the stage or + elsewhere.... I count strongly upon your promise to be with us in + May. Can't you bring Whipple with you?" + +One of his favorite resorts in Liverpool was the boarding-house of good +Mrs. Blodgett, in Duke Street, a house where many Americans have found +delectable quarters, after being tossed on the stormy Atlantic. "I have +never known a better woman," Hawthorne used to say, "and her motherly +kindness to me and mine I can never forget." Hundreds of American +travellers will bear witness to the excellence of that beautiful old +lady, who presided with such dignity and sweetness over her hospitable +mansion. + +On the 13th of April, 1854, Hawthorne wrote to me this characteristic +letter from the consular office in Liverpool:-- + + "I am very glad that the 'Mosses' have come into the hands of our + firm; and I return the copy sent me, after a careful revision. When + I wrote those dreamy sketches, I little thought that I should ever + preface an edition for the press amidst the bustling life of a + Liverpool consulate. Upon my honor, I am not quite sure that I + entirely comprehend my own meaning, in some of these blasted + allegories; but I remember that I always had a meaning, or at least + thought I had. I am a good deal changed since those times; and, to + tell you the truth, my past self is not very much to my taste, as I + see myself in this book. Yet certainly there is more in it than the + public generally gave me credit for at the time it was written. + + "But I don't think myself worthy of very much more credit than I + got. It has been a very disagreeable task to read the book. The + story of 'Rappacini's Daughter' was published in the Democratic + Review, about the year 1844; and it was prefaced by some remarks on + the celebrated French author (a certain M. de l'Aubepine), from + whose works it was translated. I left out this preface when the + story was republished; but I wish you would turn to it in the + Democratic, and see whether it is worth while to insert it in the + new edition. I leave it altogether to your judgment. + + "A young poet named ---- has called on me, and has sent me some + copies of his works to be transmitted to America. It seems to me + there is good in him; and he is recognized by Tennyson, by Carlyle, + by Kingsley, and others of the best people here. He writes me that + this edition of his poems is nearly exhausted, and that Routledge is + going to publish another enlarged and in better style. + + "Perhaps it might be well for you to take him up in America. At all + events, try to bring him into notice; and some day or other you may + be glad to have helped a famous poet in his obscurity. The poor + fellow has left a good post in the customs to cultivate literature + in London! + + "We shall begin to look for you now by every steamer from Boston. + You must make up your mind to spend a good while with us before + going to see your London friends. + + "Did you read the article on your friend De Quincey in the last + Westminster? It was written by Mr. ---- of this city, who was in + America a year or two ago. The article is pretty well, but does + nothing like adequate justice to De Quincey; and in fact no + Englishman cares a pin for him. We are ten times as good readers and + critics as they. + + "Is not Whipple coming here soon?" + +Hawthorne's first visit to London afforded him great pleasure, but he +kept out of the way of literary people as much as possible. He +introduced himself to nobody, except Mr. ----, whose assistance he +needed, in order to be identified at the bank. He wrote to me from 24 +George Street, Hanover Square, and told me he delighted in London, and +wished he could spend a year there. He enjoyed floating about, in a sort +of unknown way, among the rotund and rubicund figures made jolly with +ale and port-wine. He was greatly amused at being told (his informants +meaning to be complimentary) "that he would never be taken for anything +but an Englishman." He called Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade," +just printed at that time, "a broken-kneed gallop of a poem." He +writes:-- + + "John Bull is in high spirits just now at the taking of Sebastopol. + What an absurd personage John is! I find that my liking for him + grows stronger the more I see of him, but that my admiration and + respect have constantly decreased." + +One of his most intimate friends (a man unlike that individual of whom +it was said that he was the friend of everybody that did not need a +friend) was Francis Bennoch, a merchant of Wood Street, Cheapside, +London, the gentleman to whom Mrs. Hawthorne dedicated the English +Note-Books. Hawthorne's letters abounded in warm expressions of +affection for the man whose noble hospitality and deep interest made his +residence in England full of happiness. Bennoch was indeed like a +brother to him, sympathizing warmly in all his literary projects, and +giving him the benefit of his excellent judgment while he was sojourning +among strangers. Bennoch's record may be found in Tom Taylor's admirable +life of poor Haydon, the artist. All literary and artistic people who +have had the good fortune to enjoy his friendship have loved him. I +happen to know of his bountiful kindness to Miss Mitford and Hawthorne +and poor old Jerdan, for these hospitalities happened in my time; but he +began to befriend all who needed friendship long before I knew him. His +name ought never to be omitted from the literary annals of England; nor +that of his wife either, for she has always made her delightful fireside +warm and comforting to her husband's friends. + +Many and many a happy time Bennoch, Hawthorne, and myself have had +together on British soil. I remember we went once to dine at a great +house in the country, years ago, where it was understood there would be +no dinner speeches. The banquet was in honor of some society,--I have +quite forgotten what,--but it was a jocose and not a serious club. The +gentleman who gave it, Sir ----, was a most kind and genial person, and +gathered about him on this occasion some of the brightest and best from +London. All the way down in the train Hawthorne was rejoicing that this +was to be a dinner without speech-making; "for," said he, "nothing would +tempt me to go if toasts and such confounded deviltry were to be the +order of the day." So we rattled along, without a fear of any impending +cloud of oratory. The entertainment was a most exquisite one, about +twenty gentlemen sitting down at the beautifully ornamented table. +Hawthorne was in uncommonly good spirits, and, having the seat of honor +at the right of his host, was pretty keenly scrutinized by his British +brethren of the quill. He had, of course, banished all thought of +speech-making, and his knees never smote together once, as he told me +afterwards. But it became evident to my mind that Hawthorne's health was +to be proposed with all the honors. I glanced at him across the table, +and saw that he was unsuspicious of any movement against his quiet +serenity. Suddenly and without warning our host rapped the mahogany, and +began a set speech of welcome to the "distinguished American romancer." +It was a very honest and a very hearty speech, but I dared not look at +Hawthorne. I expected every moment to see him glide out of the room, or +sink down out of sight from his chair. The tortures I suffered on +Hawthorne's account, on that occasion, I will not attempt to describe +now. I knew nothing would have induced the shy man of letters to go down +to Brighton, if he had known he was to be spoken at in that manner. I +imagined his face a deep crimson, and his hands trembling with nervous +horror; but judge of my surprise, when he rose to reply with so calm a +voice and so composed a manner, that, in all my experience of +dinner-speaking, I never witnessed such a case of apparent ease. +(Easy-Chair C ---- himself, one of the best makers of after-dinner or +any other speeches of our day, according to Charles Dickens,--no +inadequate judge, all will allow,--never surpassed in eloquent effect +this speech by Hawthorne.) There was no hesitation, no sign of lack of +preparation, but he went on for about ten minutes in such a masterly +manner, that I declare it was one of the most successful efforts of the +kind ever made. Everybody was delighted, and, when he sat down, a wild +and unanimous shout of applause rattled the glasses on the table. The +meaning of his singular composure on that occasion I could never get him +satisfactorily to explain, and the only remark I ever heard him make, in +any way connected with this marvellous exhibition of coolness, was +simply, "What a confounded fool I was to go down to that speech-making +dinner!" + +During all those long years, while Hawthorne was absent in Europe, he +was anything but an idle man. On the contrary, he was an eminently busy +one, in the best sense of that term; and if his life had been prolonged, +the public would have been a rich gainer for his residence abroad. His +brain teemed with romances, and once I remember he told me he had no +less than five stories, well thought out, any one of which he could +finish and publish whenever he chose to. There was one subject for a +work of imagination that seems to have haunted him for years, and he has +mentioned it twice in his journal. This was the subsequent life of the +young man whom Jesus, looking on, "loved," and whom he bade to sell all +that he had and give to the poor, and take up his cross and follow him. +"Something very deep and beautiful might be made out of this," Hawthorne +said, "for the young man went away sorrowful, and is not recorded to +have done what he was bidden to do." + +One of the most difficult matters he had to manage while in England was +the publication of Miss Bacon's singular book on Shakespeare. The poor +lady, after he had agreed to see the work through the press, broke off +all correspondence with him in a storm of wrath, accusing him of +pusillanimity in not avowing full faith in her theory; so that, as he +told me, so far as her good-will was concerned, he had not gained much +by taking the responsibility of her book upon his shoulders. It was a +heavy weight for him to bear in more senses than one, for he paid out of +his own pocket the expenses of publication. + +I find in his letters constant references to the kindness with which he +was treated in London. He spoke of Mrs. S.C. Hall as "one of the best +and warmest-hearted women in the world." Leigh Hunt, in his way, pleased +and satisfied him more than almost any man he had seen in England. "As +for other literary men," he says in one of his letters, "I doubt whether +London can muster so good a dinner-party as that which assembles every +month at the marble palace in School Street." + +All sorts of adventures befell him during his stay in Europe, even to +that of having his house robbed, and his causing the thieves to be tried +and sentenced to transportation. In the summer-time he travelled about +the country in England and pitched his tent wherever fancy prompted. One +autumn afternoon in September he writes to me from Leamington:-- + + "I received your letter only this morning, at this cleanest and + prettiest of English towns, where we are going to spend a week or + two before taking our departure for Paris. We are acquainted with + Leamington already, having resided here two summers ago; and the + country round about is unadulterated England, rich in old castles, + manor-houses, churches, and thatched cottages, and as green as + Paradise itself. I only wish I had a house here, and that you could + come and be my guest in it; but I am a poor wayside vagabond, and + only find shelter for a night or so, and then trudge onward again. + My wife and children and myself are familiar with all kinds of + lodgement and modes of living, but we have forgotten what home + is,--at least the children have, poor things! I doubt whether they + will ever feel inclined to live long in one place. The worst of it + is, I have outgrown my house in Concord, and feel no inclination to + return to it. + + "We spent seven weeks in Manchester, and went most diligently to the + Art Exhibition; and I really begin to be sensible of the rudiments + of a taste in pictures." + +It was during one of his rambles with Alexander Ireland through the +Manchester Exhibition rooms that Hawthorne saw Tennyson wandering about. +I have always thought it unfortunate that these two men of genius could +not have been introduced on that occasion. Hawthorne was too shy to seek +an introduction, and Tennyson was not aware that the American author was +present. Hawthorne records in his journal that he gazed at Tennyson with +all his eyes, "and rejoiced more in him than in all the other wonders of +the Exhibition." When I afterwards told Tennyson that the author whose +"Twice-Told Tales" he happened to be then reading at Farringford had met +him at Manchester, but did not make himself known, the Laureate said in +his frank and hearty manner: "Why didn't he come up and let me shake +hands with him? I am sure I should have been glad to meet a man like +Hawthorne anywhere." + +At the close of 1857 Hawthorne writes to me that he hears nothing of the +appointment of his successor in the consulate, since he had sent in his +resignation. "Somebody may turn up any day," he says, "with a new +commission in his pocket." He was meanwhile getting ready for Italy, and +he writes, "I expect shortly to be released from durance." + +In his last letter before leaving England for the Continent he says:-- + + "I made up a huge package the other day, consisting of seven closely + written volumes of journal, kept by me since my arrival in England, + and filled with sketches of places and men and manners, many of + which would doubtless be very delightful to the public. I think I + shall seal them up, with directions in my will to have them opened + and published a century hence; and your firm shall have the refusal + of them then. + + "Remember me to everybody, for I love all my friends at least as + well as ever." + +Released from the cares of office, and having nothing to distract his +attention, his life on the Continent opened full of delightful +excitement. His pecuniary situation was such as to enable him to live +very comfortably in a country where, at that time, prices were moderate. + +In a letter dated from a villa near Florence on the 3d of September, +1858, he thus describes in a charming manner his way of life in Italy:-- + + "I am afraid I have stayed away too long, and am forgotten by + everybody. You have piled up the dusty remnants of my editions, I + suppose, in that chamber over the shop, where you once took me to + smoke a cigar, and have crossed my name out of your list of authors, + without so much as asking whether I am dead or alive. But I like it + well enough, nevertheless. It is pleasant to feel at last that I am + really away from America,--a satisfaction that I never enjoyed as + long as I stayed in Liverpool, where it seemed to me that the + quintessence of nasal and hand-shaking Yankeedom was continually + filtered and sublimated through my consulate, on the way outward and + homeward. I first got acquainted with my own countrymen there. At + Rome, too, it was not much better. But here in Florence, and in the + summer-time, and in this secluded villa, I have escaped out of all + my old tracks, and am really remote. + + "I like my present residence immensely. The house stands on a hill, + overlooking Florence, and is big enough to quarter a regiment; + insomuch that each member of the family, including servants, has a + separate suite of apartments, and there are vast wildernesses of + upper rooms into which we have never yet sent exploring expeditions. + + "At one end of the house there is a moss-grown tower, haunted by + owls and by the ghost of a monk, who was confined there in the + thirteenth century, previous to being burned at the stake in the + principal square of Florence. I hire this villa, tower and all, at + twenty-eight dollars a month; but I mean to take it away bodily and + clap it into a romance, which I have in my head ready to be written + out. + + "Speaking of romances, I have planned two, one or both of which I + could have ready for the press in a few months if I were either in + England or America. But I find this Italian atmosphere not favorable + to the close toil of composition, although it is a very good air to + dream in. I must breathe the fogs of old England or the east-winds + of Massachusetts, in order to put me into working trim. + Nevertheless, I shall endeavor to be busy during the coming winter + at Rome, but there will be so much to distract my thoughts that I + have little hope of seriously accomplishing anything. It is a pity; + for I have really a plethora of ideas, and should feel relieved by + discharging some of them upon the public. + + "We shall continue here till the end of this month, and shall then + return to Rome, where I have already taken a house for six months. + In the middle of April we intend to start for home by the way of + Geneva and Paris; and, after spending a few weeks in England, shall + embark for Boston in July or the beginning of August. After so long + an absence (more than five years already, which will be six before + you see me at the old Corner), it is not altogether delightful to + think of returning. Everybody will be changed, and I myself, no + doubt, as much as anybody. Ticknor and you, I suppose, were both + upset in the late religious earthquake, and when I inquire for you + the clerks will direct me to the 'Business Men's Conference.' It + won't do. I shall be forced to come back again and take refuge in a + London lodging. London is like the grave in one respect,--any man + can make himself at home there; and whenever a man finds himself + homeless elsewhere, he had better either die or go to London. + + "Speaking of the grave reminds me of old age and other disagreeable + matters; and I would remark that one grows old in Italy twice or + three times as fast as in other countries. I have three gray hairs + now for one that I brought from England, and I shall look venerable + indeed by next summer, when I return. + + "Remember me affectionately to all my friends. Whoever has a + kindness for me may be assured that I have twice as much for him." + +Hawthorne's second visit to Rome, in the winter of 1859, was not a +fortunate one. His own health was excellent during his sojourn there, +but several members of his family fell ill, and he became very nervous +and longed to get away. In one of his letters he says:-- + + "I bitterly detest Rome, and shall rejoice to bid it farewell + forever; and I fully acquiesce in all the mischief and ruin that has + happened to it, from Nero's conflagration downward. In fact, I wish + the very site had been obliterated before I ever saw it." + +He found solace, however, during the series of domestic troubles +(continued illness in his family) that befell, in writing memoranda for +"The Marble Faun." He thus announces to me the beginning of the new +romance:-- + + "I take some credit to myself for having sternly shut myself up for + an hour or two almost every day, and come to close grips with a + romance which I have been trying to tear out of my mind. As for my + success, I can't say much; indeed, I don't know what to say at all. + I only know that I have produced what seems to be a larger amount of + scribble than either of my former romances, and that portions of it + interested me a good deal while I was writing them; but I have had + so many interruptions, from things to see and things to suffer, that + the story has developed itself in a very imperfect way, and will + have to be revised hereafter. I could finish it for the press in the + time that I am to remain here (till the 15th of April), but my brain + is tired of it just now; and, besides, there are many objects that I + shall regret not seeing hereafter, though I care very little about + seeing them now; so I shall throw aside the romance, and take it up + again next August at The Wayside." + +He decided to be back in England early in the summer, and to sail for +home in July. He writes to me from Rome:-- + + "I shall go home, I fear, with a heavy heart, not expecting to be + very well contented there.... If I were but a hundred times richer + than I am, how very comfortable I could be! I consider it a great + piece of good fortune that I have had experience of the discomforts + and miseries of Italy, and did not go directly home from England. + Anything will seem like Paradise after a Roman winter. + + "If I had but a house fit to live in, I should be greatly more + reconciled to coming home; but I am really at a loss to imagine how + we are to squeeze ourselves into that little old cottage of mine. We + had outgrown it before we came away, and most of us are twice as big + now as we were then. + + "I have an attachment to the place, and should be sorry to give it + up; but I shall half ruin myself if I try to enlarge the house, and + quite if I build another. So what is to be done? Pray have some + plan for me before I get back; not that I think you can possibly hit + on anything that will suit me.... I shall return by way of Venice + and Geneva, spend two or three weeks or more in Paris, and sail for + home, as I said, in July. It would be an exceeding delight to me to + meet you or Ticknor in England, or anywhere else. At any rate, it + will cheer my heart to see you all and the old Corner itself, when I + touch my dear native soil again." + +I went abroad again in 1859, and found Hawthorne back in England, +working away diligently at "The Marble Faun." While travelling on the +Continent, during the autumn I had constant letters from him, giving +accounts of his progress on the new romance. He says: "I get along more +slowly than I expected.... If I mistake not, it will have some good +chapters." Writing on the 10th of October he tells me:-- + + "The romance is almost finished, a great heap of manuscript being + already accumulated, and only a few concluding chapters remaining + behind. If hard pushed, I could have it ready for the press in a + fortnight; but unless the publishers [Smith and Elder were to bring + out the work in England] are in a hurry, I shall be somewhat longer + about it. I have found far more work to do upon it than I + anticipated. To confess the truth, I admire it exceedingly at + intervals, but am liable to cold fits, during which I think it the + most infernal nonsense. You ask for the title. I have not yet fixed + upon one, but here are some that have occurred to me; neither of + them exactly meets my idea: 'Monte Beni; or, The Faun. A Romance.' + 'The Romance of a Faun.' 'The Faun of Monte Beni.' 'Monte Beni: a + Romance.' 'Miriam: a Romance.' 'Hilda: a Romance.' 'Donatello: a + Romance.' 'The Faun: a Romance.' 'Marble and Man: a Romance.' When + you have read the work (which I especially wish you to do before it + goes to press), you will be able to select one of them, or imagine + something better. There is an objection in my mind to an Italian + name, though perhaps Monte Beni might do. Neither do I wish, if I + can help it, to make the fantastic aspect of the book too prominent + by putting the Faun into the title-page." + +Hawthorne wrote so intensely on his new story, that he was quite worn +down before he finished it. To recruit his strength he went to Redcar, +where the bracing air of the German Ocean soon counteracted the ill +effect of overwork. "The Marble Faun" was in the London printing-office +in November, and he seemed very glad to have it off his hands. His +letters to me at this time (I was still on the Continent) were jubilant +with hope. He was living in Leamington, and was constantly writing to me +that I should find the next two months more comfortable in England than +anywhere else. On the 17th he writes:-- + + "The Italian spring commences in February, which is certainly an + advantage, especially as from February to May is the most + disagreeable portion of the English year. But it is always summer by + a bright coal-fire. We find nothing to complain of in the climate of + Leamington. To be sure, we cannot always see our hands before us for + fog; but I like fog, and do not care about seeing my hand before me. + We have thought of staying here till after Christmas and then going + somewhere else,--perhaps to Bath, perhaps to Devonshire. But all + this is uncertain. Leamington is not so desirable a residence in + winter as in summer; its great charm consisting in the many + delightful walks and drives, and in its neighborhood to interesting + places. I have quite finished the book (some time ago) and have sent + it to Smith and Elder, who tell me it is in the printer's hands, but + I have received no proof-sheets. They wrote to request another title + instead of the 'Romance of Monte Beni,' and I sent them their choice + of a dozen. I don't know what they have chosen; neither do I + understand their objection to the above. Perhaps they don't like the + book at all; but I shall not trouble myself about that, as long as + they publish it and pay me my L600. For my part, I think it much my + best romance; but I can see some points where it is open to assault. + If it could have appeared first in America, it would have been a + safe thing.... + + "I mean to spend the rest of my abode in England in blessed + idleness: and as for my journal, in the first place I have not got + it here; secondly, there is nothing in it that will do to publish." + + * * * * * + +Hawthorne was, indeed, a consummate artist, and I do not remember a +single slovenly passage in all his acknowledged writings. It was a +privilege, and one that I can never sufficiently estimate, to have +known him personally through so many years. He was unlike any other +author I have met, and there were qualities in his nature so sweet and +commendable, that, through all his shy reserve, they sometimes asserted +themselves in a marked and conspicuous manner. I have known rude people, +who were jostling him in a crowd, give way at the sound of his low and +almost irresolute voice, so potent was the gentle spell of command that +seemed born of his genius. + +Although he was apt to keep aloof from his kind, and did not hesitate +frequently to announce by his manner that + + "Solitude to him + Was blithe society, who filled the air + With gladness and involuntary songs," + +I ever found him, like Milton's Raphael, an "affable" angel, and +inclined to converse on whatever was human and good in life. + +Here are some more extracts from the letters he wrote to me while he was +engaged on "The Marble Faun." On the 11th of February, 1860, he writes +from Leamington in England (I was then in Italy):-- + + "I received your letter from Florence, and conclude that you are now + in Rome, and probably enjoying the Carnival,--a tame description of + which, by the by, I have introduced into my Romance. + + "I thank you most heartily for your kind wishes in favor of the + forthcoming work, and sincerely join my own prayers to yours in its + behalf, but without much confidence of a good result. My own opinion + is, that I am not really a popular writer, and that what popularity + I have gained is chiefly accidental, and owing to other causes than + my own kind or degree of merit. Possibly I may (or may not) deserve + something better than popularity; but looking at all my productions, + and especially this latter one, with a cold or critical eye, I can + see that they do not make their appeal to the popular mind. It is + odd enough, moreover, that my own individual taste is for quite + another class of works than those which I myself am able to write. + If I were to meet with such books as mine, by another writer, I + don't believe I should be able to get through them. + + * * * * * +"To return to my own moonshiny Romance; its fate will soon +be settled, for Smith and Elder mean to publish on the 28th of this +month. Poor Ticknor will have a tight scratch to get his edition +out contemporaneously; they having sent him the third volume +only a week ago. I think, however, there will be no danger of +piracy in America. Perhaps nobody will think it worth stealing. +Give my best regards to William Story, and look well at his Cleopatra, +for you will meet her again in one of the chapters which I wrote +with most pleasure. If he does not find himself famous henceforth, +the fault will be none of mine. I, at least, have done my duty by +him, whatever delinquency there may be on the part of other critics. + +"Smith and Elder persist in calling the book 'Transformation,' which +gives one the idea of Harlequin in a pantomime; but I have strictly +enjoined upon Ticknor to call it 'The Marble Faun; a Romance of Monte +Beni.'" + +In one of his letters written at this period, referring to his design of +going home, he says:-- + + "I shall not have been absent seven years till the 5th of July next, + and I scorn to touch Yankee soil sooner than that.... As regards + going home I alternate between a longing and a dread." + +Returning to London from the Continent, in April, I found this letter, +written from Bath, awaiting my arrival:-- + + "You are welcome back. I really began to fear that you had been + assassinated among the Apennines or killed in that outbreak at Rome. + I have taken passages for all of us in the steamer which sails the + 16th of June. Your berths are Nos. 19 and 20. I engaged them with + the understanding that you might go earlier or later, if you chose; + but I would advise you to go on the 16th; in the first place, + because the state-rooms for our party are the most eligible in the + ship; secondly, because we shall otherwise mutually lose the + pleasure of each other's company. Besides, I consider it my duty, + towards Ticknor and towards Boston, and America at large, to take + you into custody and bring you home; for I know you will never come + except upon compulsion. Let me know at once whether I am to use + force. + + "The book (The Marble Faun) has done better than I thought it + would; for you will have discovered, by this time, that it is an + audacious attempt to impose a tissue of absurdities upon the public + by the mere art of style of narrative. I hardly hoped that it would + go down with John Bull; but then it is always my best point of + writing, to undertake such a task, and I really put what strength I + have into many parts of this book. + + "The English critics generally (with two or three unimportant + exceptions) have been sufficiently favorable, and the review in the + Times awarded the highest praise of all. At home, too, the notices + have been very kind, so far as they have come under my eye. Lowell + had a good one in the Atlantic Monthly, and Hillard an excellent one + in the Courier; and yesterday I received a sheet of the May number + of the Atlantic containing a really keen and profound article by + Whipple, in which he goes over all my works, and recognizes that + element of unpopularity which (as nobody knows better than myself) + pervades them all. I agree with almost all he says, except that I am + conscious of not deserving nearly so much praise. When I get home, I + will try to write a more genial book; but the Devil himself always + seems to get into my inkstand, and I can only exorcise him by + pensful at a time. + + "I am coming to London very soon, and mean to spend a fortnight of + next month there. I have been quite homesick through this past + dreary winter. Did you ever spend a winter in England? If not, + reserve your ultimate conclusion about the country until you have + done so." + +We met in London early in May, and, as our lodgings were not far apart, +we were frequently together. I recall many pleasant dinners with him and +mutual friends in various charming seaside and country-side places. We +used to take a run down to Greenwich or Blackwall once or twice a week, +and a trip to Richmond was always grateful to him. Bennoch was +constantly planning a day's happiness for his friend, and the hours at +that pleasant season of the year were not long enough for our delights. +In London we strolled along the Strand, day after day, now diving into +Bolt Court, in pursuit of Johnson's whereabouts, and now stumbling +around the Temple, where Goldsmith at one time had his quarters. +Hawthorne was never weary of standing on London Bridge, and watching +the steamers plying up and down the Thames. I was much amused by his +manner towards importunate and sometimes impudent beggars, scores of +whom would attack us even in the shortest walk. He had a mild way of +making a severe and cutting remark, which used to remind me of a little +incident which Charlotte Cushman once related to me. She said a man in +the gallery of a theatre (I think she was on the stage at the time) made +such a disturbance that the play could not proceed. Cries of "Throw him +over" arose from all parts of the house, and the noise became furious. +All was tumultuous chaos until a sweet and gentle female voice was heard +in the pit, exclaiming, "No! I pray you don't throw him over! I beg of +you, dear friends, don't throw him over, but--_kill him where he is_." + +One of our most royal times was at a parting dinner at the house of +Barry Cornwall. Among the notables present were Kinglake and Leigh Hunt. +Our kind-hearted host and his admirable wife greatly delighted in +Hawthorne, and they made this occasion a most grateful one to him. I +remember when we went up to the drawing-room to join the ladies after +dinner, the two dear old poets, Leigh Hunt and Barry Cornwall, mounted +the stairs with their arms round each other in a very tender and loving +way. Hawthorne often referred to this scene as one he would not have +missed for a great deal. + +His renewed intercourse with Motley in England gave him peculiar +pleasure, and his genius found an ardent admirer in the eminent +historian. He did not go much, into society at that time, but there were +a few houses in London where he always seemed happy. + +I met him one night at a great evening-party, looking on from a nook a +little removed from the full glare of the _soiree_. Soon, however, it +was whispered about that the famous American romance-writer was in the +room, and an enthusiastic English lady, a genuine admirer and +intelligent reader of his books, ran for her album and attacked him for +"a few words and his name at the end." He looked dismally perplexed, and +turning to me said imploringly in a whisper, "For pity's sake, what +shall I write? I can't think of a word to add to my name. Help me to +something." Thinking him partly in fun, I said, "Write an original +couplet,--this one, for instance,-- + + 'When this you see, + Remember me,'" + +and to my amazement he stepped forward at once to the table, wrote the +foolish lines I had suggested, and, shutting the book, handed it very +contentedly to the happy lady. + +We sailed from England together in the month of June, as we had +previously arranged, and our voyage home was, to say the least, an +unusual one. We had calm summer, moonlight weather, with no storms. Mrs. +Stowe was on board, and in her own cheery and delightful way she +enlivened the passage with some capital stories of her early life. + +When we arrived at Queenstown, the captain announced to us that, as the +ship would wait there six hours, we might go ashore and see something of +our Irish friends. So we chartered several jaunting-cars, after much +tribulation and delay in arranging terms with the drivers thereof, and +started off on a merry exploring expedition. I remember there was a good +deal of racing up and down the hills of Queenstown, much shouting and +laughing, and crowds of beggars howling after us for pence and beer. The +Irish jaunting-car is a peculiar institution, and we all sat with our +legs dangling over the road in a "dim and perilous way." Occasionally a +horse would give out, for the animals were sad specimens, poorly fed +and wofully driven. We were almost devoured by the ragamuffins that ran +beside our wheels, and I remember the "sad civility" with which +Hawthorne regarded their clamors. We had provided ourselves before +starting with much small coin, which, however, gave out during our first +mile. Hawthorne attempted to explain our inability further to supply +their demands, having, as he said to them, nothing less than a sovereign +in his pocket, when a voice from the crowd shouted, "Bedad, your honor, +I can change that for ye"; and the knave actually did it on the spot. + +Hawthorne's love for the sea amounted to a passionate worship; and while +I (the worst sailor probably on this planet) was longing, spite of the +good company on board, to reach land as soon as possible, Hawthorne was +constantly saying in his quiet, earnest way, "I should like to sail on +and on forever, and never touch the shore again." He liked to stand +alone in the bows of the ship and see the sun go down, and he was never +tired of walking the deck at midnight. I used to watch his dark, +solitary figure under the stars, pacing up and down some unfrequented +part of the vessel, musing and half melancholy. Sometimes he would lie +down beside me and commiserate my unquiet condition. Seasickness, he +declared, he could not understand, and was constantly recommending most +extraordinary dishes and drinks, "all made out of the _artist's_ brain," +which he said were sovereign remedies for nautical illness. I remember +to this day some of the preparations which, in his revelry of fancy, he +would advise me to take, a farrago of good things almost rivalling +"Oberon's Feast," spread out so daintily in Herrick's "Hesperides." He +thought, at first, if I could bear a few roc's eggs beaten up by a +mermaid on a dolphin's back, I might be benefited. He decided that a +gruel made from a sheaf of Robin Hood's arrows would be strengthening. +When suffering pain, "a right gude willie-waught," or a stiff cup of +hemlock of the Socrates brand, before retiring, he considered very good. +He said he had heard recommended a dose of salts distilled from the +tears of Niobe, but he didn't approve of that remedy. He observed that +he had a high opinion of hearty food, such as potted owl with Minerva +sauce, airy tongues of sirens, stewed ibis, livers of Roman Capitol +geese, the wings of a Phoenix not too much done, love-lorn nightingales +cooked briskly over Aladdin's lamp, chicken-pies made of fowls raised by +Mrs. Carey, Nautilus chowder, and the like. Fruit, by all means, should +always be taken by an uneasy victim at sea, especially Atalanta pippins +and purple grapes raised by Bacchus & Co. Examining my garments one day +as I lay on deck, he thought I was not warmly enough clad, and he +recommended, before I took another voyage, that I should fit myself out +in Liverpool with a good warm shirt from the shop of Nessus & Co. in +Bold Street, where I could also find stout seven-league boots to keep +out the damp. He knew another shop, he said, where I could buy +raven-down stockings, and sable clouds with a silver lining, most warm +and comfortable for a sea voyage. + +His own appetite was excellent, and day after day he used to come on +deck after dinner and describe to me what he had eaten. Of course his +accounts were always exaggerations, for my amusement. I remember one +night he gave me a running catalogue of what food he had partaken during +the day, and the sum total was convulsing from its absurdity. Among the +viands he had consumed, I remember he stated there were "several yards +of steak," and a "whole warrenful of Welsh rabbits." The "divine spirit +of Humor" was upon him during many of those days at sea, and he revelled +in it like a careless child. + +That was a voyage, indeed, long to be remembered, and I shall ever look +back upon it as the most satisfactory "sea turn" I ever happened to +experience. I have sailed many a weary, watery mile since then, but +_Hawthorne_ was not on board! + +The summer after his arrival home he spent quietly in Concord, at the +Wayside, and illness in his family made him at times unusually sad. In +one of his notes to me he says:-- + + "I am continually reminded nowadays of a response which I once heard + a drunken sailor make to a pious gentleman, who asked him how he + felt, 'Pretty d--d miserable, thank God!' It very well expresses my + thorough discomfort and forced acquiescence." + +Occasionally he wrote requesting me to make a change, here and there, in +the new edition of his works then passing through the press. On the 23d +of September, 1860, he writes:-- + + "Please to append the following note to the foot of the page, at the + commencement of the story called 'Dr. Heidegger's Experiment,' in + the 'Twice-Told Tales': 'In an English Review, not long since, I + have been accused of plagiarizing the idea of this story from a + chapter in one of the novels of Alexandra Dumas. There has + undoubtedly been a plagiarism, on one side or the other; but as my + story was written a good deal more than twenty years ago, and as the + novel is of considerably more recent date, I take pleasure in + thinking that M. Dumas has done me the honor to appropriate one of + the fanciful conceptions of my earlier days. He is heartily welcome + to it; nor is it the only instance, by many, in which the great + French romancer has exercised the privilege of commanding genius by + confiscating the intellectual property of less famous people to his + own use and behoof.'" + +Hawthorne was a diligent reader of the Bible, and when sometimes, in my +ignorant way, I would question, in a proof-sheet, his use of a word, he +would almost always refer me to the Bible as his authority. It was a +great pleasure to hear him talk about the Book of Job, and his voice +would be tremulous with feeling, as he sometimes quoted a touching +passage from the New Testament. In one of his letters he says to me:-- + + "Did not I suggest to you, last summer, the publication of the Bible + in ten or twelve 12mo volumes? I think it would have great success, + and, at least (but, as a publisher, I suppose this is the very + smallest of your cares), it would result in the salvation of a great + many souls, who will never find their way to heaven, if left to + learn it from the inconvenient editions of the Scriptures now in + use. It is very singular that this form of publishing the Bible in a + single bulky or closely printed volume should be so long continued. + It was first adopted, I suppose, as being the universal mode of + publication at the time when the Bible was translated. Shakespeare, + and the other old dramatists and poets, were first published in the + same form; but all of them have long since been broken into dozens + and scores of portable and readable volumes; and why not the Bible?" + +During this period, after his return from Europe, I saw him frequently +at the Wayside, in Concord. He now seemed happy in the dwelling he had +put in order for the calm and comfort of his middle and later life. He +had added a tower to his house, in which he could be safe from +intrusion, and where he could muse and write. Never was poet or romancer +more fitly shrined. Drummond at Hawthornden, Scott at Abbotsford, +Dickens at Gad's Hill, Irving at Sunnyside, were not more appropriately +sheltered. Shut up in his tower, he could escape from the tumult of +life, and be alone with only the birds and the bees in concert outside +his casement. The view from this apartment, on every side, was lovely, +and Hawthorne enjoyed the charming prospect as I have known, few men to +enjoy nature. + +His favorite walk lay near his house,--indeed it was part of his own +grounds,--a little hillside, where he had worn a foot-path, and where he +might be found in good weather, when not employed in the tower. While +walking to and fro on this bit of rising ground he meditated and +composed innumerable romances that were never written, as well as some +that were. Here he, first announced to me his plan of "The Dolliver +Romance," and, from what he told me of his design of the story as it +existed in his mind, I thought it would have been the greatest of his +books. An enchanting memory is left of that morning when he laid out the +whole story before me as he intended to write it. The plot was a grand +one, and I tried to tell him how much I was impressed by it. Very soon +after our interview, he wrote to me:-- + + "In compliance with your exhortations, I have begun to think + seriously of that story, not, as yet, with a pen in my hand, but + trudging to and fro on my hilltop.... I don't mean to let you see + the first chapters till I have written the final sentence of the + story. Indeed, the first chapters of a story ought always to be the + last written.... If you want me to write a good book, send me a good + pen; not a gold one, for they seldom suit me; but a pen flexible and + capacious of ink, and that will not grow stiff and rheumatic the + moment I get attached to it. I never met with a good pen in my + life." + +Time went on, the war broke out, and he had not the heart to go on with +his new Romance. During the month of April, 1862, he made a visit to +Washington with his friend Ticknor, to whom he was greatly attached. +While on this visit to the capital he sat to Leutze for a portrait. He +took a special fancy to the artist, and, while he was sitting to him, +wrote a long letter to me. Here is an extract from it:-- + + "I stay here only while Leutze finishes a portrait, which I think + will be the best ever painted of the same unworthy subject. One + charm it must needs have,--an aspect of immortal jollity and + well-to-doness; for Leutze, when the sitting begins, gives me a + first-rate cigar, and when he sees me getting tired, he brings out a + bottle of splendid champagne; and we quaffed and smoked yesterday, + in a blessed state of mutual good-will, for three hours and a half, + during which the picture made a really miraculous progress. Leutze + is the best of fellows." + +In the same letter he thus describes the sinking of the Cumberland, and +I know of nothing finer in its way:-- + + "I see in a newspaper that Holmes is going to write a song on the + sinking of the Cumberland; and feeling it to be a subject of + national importance, it occurs to me that he might like to know her + present condition. She lies with her three masts sticking up out of + the water, and careened over, the water being nearly on a level with + her maintop,--I mean that first landing-place from the deck of the + vessel, after climbing the shrouds. The rigging does not appear at + all damaged. There is a tattered bit of a pennant, about a foot and + a half long, fluttering from the tip-top of one of the masts; but + the flag, the ensign of the ship (which never was struck, thank + God), is under water, so as to be quite invisible, being attached to + the gaff, I think they call it, of the mizzen-mast; and though this + bald description makes nothing of it, I never saw anything so + gloriously forlorn as those three masts. I did not think it was in + me to be so moved by any spectacle of the kind. Bodies still + occasionally float up from it. The Secretary of the Navy says she + shall lie there till she goes to pieces, but I suppose by and by + they will sell her to some Yankee for the value of her old iron. + + "P.S. My hair really is not so white as this photograph, which I + enclose, makes me. The sun seems to take an infernal pleasure in + making me venerable,--as if I were as old as himself." + +Hawthorne has rested so long in the twilight of impersonality, that I +hesitate sometimes to reveal the man even to his warmest admirers. This +very day Sainte-Beuve has made me feel a fresh reluctance in unveiling +my friend, and there seems almost a reproof in these words, from the +eloquent French author:-- + + "We know nothing or nearly nothing of the life of La Bruyere, and + this obscurity adds, it has been remarked, to the effect of his + work, and, it may be said, to the piquant happiness of his destiny. + If there was not a single line of his unique book, which from the + first instant of its publication did not appear and remain in the + clear light, so, on the other hand, there was not one individual + detail regarding the author which was well known. Every ray of the + century fell upon each page of the book and the face of the man who + held it open in his hand was veiled from our sight." + +Beautifully said, as usual with Sainte-Beuve, but I venture, +notwithstanding such eloquent warning, to proceed. + +After his return home from Washington Hawthorne sent to me, during the +month of May, an article for the Atlantic Monthly, which he entitled +"Chiefly about War-Matters." The paper, excellently well done +throughout, of course, contained a personal description of President +Lincoln, which I thought, considered as a portrait of a living man, and +drawn by Hawthorne, it would not be wise or tasteful to print. The +office of an editor is a disagreeable one sometimes, and the case of +Hawthorne on Lincoln disturbed me not a little. After reading the +manuscript, I wrote to the author, and asked his permission to omit his +description of the President's personal appearance. As usual,--for he +was the kindest and sweetest of contributors, the most good-natured and +the most amenable man to advise I ever knew,--he consented to my +proposal, and allowed me to print the article with the alterations. If +any one will turn to the paper in the Atlantic Monthly (it is in the +number for July, 1862), it will be observed there are several notes; all +of these were written by Hawthorne himself. He complied with my request +without a murmur, but he always thought I was wrong in my decision. He +said the whole description of the interview and the President's personal +appearance were, to his mind, the only parts of the article worth +publishing. "What a terrible thing," he complained, "it is to try to let +off a little bit of truth into this miserable humbug of a world!" +President Lincoln is dead, and as Hawthorne once wrote to me, "Upon my +honor, it seems to me the passage omitted has an historical value," I +will copy here verbatim what I advised my friend, both on his own +account and the President's, not to print nine years ago. Hawthorne and +his party had gone into the President's room, annexed, as he says, as +supernumeraries to a deputation from a Massachusetts whip-factory, with +a present of a splendid whip to the Chief Magistrate:-- + + "By and by there was a little stir on the staircase and in the + passage way, and in lounged a tall, loose-jointed figure, of an + exaggerated Yankee port and demeanor, whom (as being about the + homeliest man I ever saw, yet by no means repulsive or disagreeable) + it was impossible not to recognize as Uncle Abe. + + "Unquestionably, Western man though he be, and Kentuckian by birth, + President Lincoln is the essential representative of all Yankees, + and the veritable specimen, physically, of what the world seems + determined to regard as our characteristic qualities. It is the + strangest and yet the fittest thing in the jumble of human + vicissitudes, that he, out of so many millions, unlooked for, + unselected by any intelligible process that could be based upon his + genuine qualities, unknown to those who chose him, and unsuspected + of what endowments may adapt him for his tremendous responsibility, + should have found the way open for him to fling his lank personality + into the chair of state,--where, I presume, it was his first impulse + to throw his legs on the council-table, and tell the Cabinet + Ministers a story. There is no describing his lengthy awkwardness, + nor the uncouthness of his movement; and yet it seemed as if I had + been in the habit of seeing him daily, and had shaken hands with him + a thousand times in some village street; so true was he to the + aspect of the pattern American, though with a certain extravagance + which, possibly, I exaggerated still further by the delighted + eagerness with which I took it in. If put to guess his calling and + livelihood, I should have taken him for a country schoolmaster as + soon as anything else. He was dressed in a rusty black frock-coat + and pantaloons, unbrushed, and worn so faithfully that the suit had + adapted itself to the curves and angularities of his figure, and had + grown to be an outer skin of the man. He had shabby slippers on his + feet. His hair was black, still unmixed with gray, stiff, somewhat + bushy, and had apparently been acquainted with neither brush nor + comb that morning, after the disarrangement of the pillow; and as to + a nightcap, Uncle Abe probably knows nothing of such effeminacies. + His complexion is dark and sallow, betokening, I fear, an + insalubrious atmosphere around the White House; he has thick black + eyebrows and an impending brow; his nose is large, and the lines + about his mouth are very strongly defined. + + "The whole physiognomy is as coarse a one as you would meet anywhere + in the length and breadth of the States; but, withal, it is + redeemed, illuminated, softened, and brightened by a kindly though + serious look out of his eyes, and an expression of homely sagacity, + that seems weighted with rich results of village experience. A great + deal of native sense; no bookish cultivation, no refinement; honest + at heart, and thoroughly so, and yet, in some sort, sly,--at least, + endowed with a sort of tact and wisdom that are akin to craft, and + would impel him, I think, to take an antagonist in flank, rather + than to make a bull-run at him right in front. But, on the whole, I + liked this sallow, queer, sagacious visage, with the homely human + sympathies that warmed it; and, for my small share in the matter, + would as lief have Uncle Abe for a ruler as any man whom it would + have been practicable to put in his place. + + "Immediately on his entrance the President accosted our member of + Congress, who had us in charge, and, with a comical twist of his + face, made some jocular remark about the length of his breakfast. He + then greeted us all round, not waiting for an introduction, but + shaking and squeezing everybody's hand with the utmost cordiality, + whether the individual's name was announced to him or not. His + manner towards us was wholly without pretence, but yet had a kind of + natural dignity, quite sufficient to keep the forwardest of us from + clapping him on the shoulder and asking for a story. A mutual + acquaintance being established, our leader took the whip out of its + case, and began to read the address of presentation. The whip was an + exceedingly long one, its handle wrought in ivory (by some artist in + the Massachusetts State Prison, I believe), and ornamented with a + medallion of the President, and other equally beautiful devices; and + along its whole length there was a succession of golden bands and + ferrules. The address was shorter than the whip, but equally well + made, consisting chiefly of an explanatory description of these + artistic designs, and closing with a hint that the gift was a + suggestive and emblematic one, and that the President would + recognize the use to which such an instrument should be put. + + "This suggestion gave Uncle Abe rather a delicate task in his reply, + because, slight as the matter seemed, it apparently called for some + declaration, or intimation, or faint foreshadowing of policy in + reference to the conduct of the war, and the final treatment of the + Rebels. But the President's Yankee aptness and not-to-be-caughtness + stood him in good stead, and he jerked or wiggled himself out of + the dilemma with an uncouth dexterity that was entirely in + character; although, without his gesticulation of eye and + mouth,--and especially the flourish of the whip, with which he + imagined himself touching up a pair of fat horses,--I doubt whether + his words would be worth recording, even if I could remember them. + The gist of the reply was, that he accepted the whip as an emblem of + peace, not punishment; and, this great affair over, we retired out + of the presence in high good-humor, only regretting that we could + not have seen the President sit down and fold up his legs (which is + said to be a most extraordinary spectacle), or have heard him tell + one of those delectable stories for which he is so celebrated. A + good many of them are afloat upon the common talk of Washington, and + are certainly the aptest, pithiest, and funniest little things + imaginable; though, to be sure, they smack of the frontier freedom, + and would not always bear repetition in a drawing-room, or on the + immaculate page of the Atlantic." + +So runs the passage which caused some good-natured discussion nine years +ago, between the contributor and the editor. Perhaps I was squeamish not +to have been, willing to print this matter at that time. Some persons, +no doubt, will adopt that opinion, but as both President and author have +long ago met on the other side of criticism and magazines, we will leave +the subject to their decision, they being most interested in the +transaction. I did what seemed best in 1862. In 1871 "circumstances have +changed" with both parties, and I venture to-day what I hardly dared +then. + + * * * * * + +Whenever I look at Hawthorne's portrait, and that is pretty often, some +new trait or anecdote or reminiscence comes up and clamors to be made +known to those who feel an interest in it. But time and eternity call +loudly for mortal gossip to be brief, and I must hasten to my last +session over that child of genius, who first saw the light on the 4th of +July, 1804. + +One of his favorite books was Lockhart's Life of Sir Walter Scott, and +in 1862 I dedicated to him the Household Edition of that work. When he +received the first volume, he wrote to me a letter of which I am so +proud that I keep it among my best treasures. + + "I am exceedingly gratified by the dedication. I do not deserve so + high an honor; but if you think me worthy, it is enough to make the + compliment in the highest degree acceptable, no matter who may + dispute my title to it. I care more for your good opinion than for + that of a host of critics, and have an excellent reason for so + doing; inasmuch as my literary success, whatever it has been or may + be, is the result of my connection with you. Somehow or other you + smote the rock of public sympathy on my behalf, and a stream gushed + forth in sufficient quantity to quench my thirst though not to drown + me. I think no author can ever have had publisher that he valued so + much as I do mine." + +He began in 1862 to send me some articles from his English Journal for +the Atlantic magazine, which he afterwards collected into a volume and +called "Our Old Home." On forwarding one for December of that year he +says:-- + + "I hope you will like it, for the subject seemed interesting to me + when I was on the spot, but I always feel a singular despondency and + heaviness of heart in reopening those old journals now. However, if + I can make readable sketches out of them, it is no matter." + +In the same letter he tells me he has been re-reading Scott's Life, and +he suggests some additions to the concluding volume. He says:-- + + "If the last volume is not already printed and stereotyped, I think + you ought to insert in it an explanation of all that is left + mysterious in the former volumes,--the name and family of the lady + he was in love with, etc. It is desirable, too, to know what have + been the fortunes and final catastrophes of his family and intimate + friends since his death, down to as recent a period as the death of + Lockhart. All such matter would make your edition more valuable; and + I see no reason why you should be bound by the deference to living + connections of the family that may prevent the English publishers + from inserting these particulars. We stand in the light of + posterity to them, and have the privileges of posterity.... I + should be glad to know something of the personal character and life + of his eldest son, and whether (as I have heard) he was ashamed of + his father for being a literary man. In short, fifty pages devoted + to such elucidation would make the edition unique. Do come and see + us before the leaves fall." + +While he was engaged in copying out and rewriting his papers on England +for the magazine he was despondent about their reception by the public. +Speaking of them, one day, to me, he said: "We must remember that there +is a good deal of intellectual ice mingled with this wine of memory." He +was sometimes so dispirited during the war that he was obliged to +postpone his contributions for sheer lack of spirit to go on. Near the +close of the year 1862 he writes:-- + + "I am delighted at what you tell me about the kind appreciation of + my articles, for I feel rather gloomy about them myself. I am really + much encouraged by what you say; not but what I am sensible that you + mollify me with a good deal of soft soap, but it is skilfully + applied and effects all you intend it should.... I cannot come to + Boston to spend more than a day, just at present. It would suit me + better to come for a visit when the spring of next year is a little + advanced, and if you renew your hospitable proposition then, I shall + probably be glad to accept it; though I have now been a hermit so + long, that the thought affects me somewhat as it would to invite a + lobster or a crab to step out of his shell." + +He continued, during the early months of 1863, to send now and then an +article for the magazine from his English Note-Books. On the 22d of +February he writes:-- + + "Here is another article. I wish it would not be so wretchedly long, + but there are many things which I shall find no opportunity to say + unless I say them now; so the article grows under my hand, and one + part of it seems just about as well worth printing as another. + Heaven sees fit to visit me with an unshakable conviction that all + this series of articles is good for nothing; but that is none of my + business, provided the public and you are of a different opinion. If + you think any part of it can be left out with advantage, you are + quite at liberty to do so. Probably I have not put Leigh Hunt quite + high enough for your sentiments respecting him; but no more genuine + characterization and criticism (so far as the writer's purpose to be + true goes) was ever done. It is very slight. I might have made more + of it, but should not have improved it. + + "I mean to write two more of these articles, and then hold my hand. + I intend to come to Boston before the end of this week, if the + weather is good. It must be nearly or quite six months since I was + there! I wonder how many people there are in the world who would + keep their nerves in tolerably good order through such a length of + nearly solitary imprisonment?" + +I advised him to begin to put the series in order for a volume, and to +preface the book with his "Consular Experiences." On the 18th of April +he writes:-- + + "I don't think the public will bear any more of this sort of + thing.... I had a letter from ----, the other day, in which he sends + me the enclosed verses, and I think he would like to have them + published in the Atlantic. Do it if you like, I pretend to no + judgment in poetry. He also sent this epithalamium by Mrs. ----, and + I doubt not the good lady will be pleased to see it copied into one + of our American newspapers with a few laudatory remarks. Can't you + do it in the Transcript, and send her a copy? You cannot imagine how + a little praise jollifies us poor authors to the marrow of our + bones. Consider, if you had not been a publisher, you would + certainly have been one of our wretched tribe, and therefore ought + to have a fellow-feeling for us. Let Michael Angelo write the + remarks, if you have not the time." + +("Michael Angelo" was a clever little Irish-boy who had the care of my +room. Hawthorne conceived a fancy for the lad, and liked to hear stories +of his smart replies to persistent authors who called during my absence +with unpromising-looking manuscripts.) On the 30th of April he writes:-- + + "I send the article with which the volume is to commence, and you + can begin printing it whenever you like. I can think of no better + title than this, 'Our Old Home; a Series of English Sketches, by,' + etc. I submit to your judgment whether it would not be well to print + these 'Consular Experiences' in the volume without depriving them + of any freshness they may have by previous publication in the + magazine? + + "The article has some of the features that attract the curiosity of + the foolish public, being made up of personal narrative and gossip, + with a few pungencies of personal satire, which will not be the less + effective because the reader can scarcely find out who was the + individual meant. I am not without hope of drawing down upon myself + a good deal of critical severity on this score, and would gladly + incur more of it if I could do so without seriously deserving + censure. + + "The story of the Doctor of Divinity, I think, will prove a good + card in this way. It is every bit true (like the other anecdotes), + only not told so darkly as it might have been for the reverend + gentleman. I do not believe there is any danger of his identity + being ascertained, and do not care whether it is or no, as it could + only be done by the impertinent researches of other people. It seems + to me quite essential to have some novelty in the collected volume, + and, if possible, something that may excite a little discussion and + remark. But decide for yourself and me; and if you conclude not to + publish it in the magazine, I think I can concoct another article in + season for the August number, if you wish. After the publication of + the volume, it seems to me the public had better have no more of + them. + + "J---- has been telling us a mythical story of your intending to + walk with him from Cambridge to Concord. We should be delighted to + see you, though more for our own sakes than yours, for our aspect + here is still a little winterish. When you come, let it be on + Saturday, and stay till Monday. I am hungry to talk with you." + +I was enchanted, of course, with the "Consular Experiences," and find +from his letters, written at that time, that he was made specially happy +by the encomiums I could not help sending upon that inimitable sketch. +When the "Old Home" was nearly all in type, he began to think about a +dedication to the book. On the 3d of May he writes:-- + + "I am of three minds about dedicating the volume. First, it seems + due to Frank Pierce (as he put me into the position where I made all + those profound observations of English scenery, life, and character) + to inscribe it to him with a few pages of friendly and explanatory + talk, which also would be very gratifying to my own lifelong + affection for him. + + "Secondly, I want to say something to Bennoch to show him that I am + thoroughly mindful of all his hospitality and kindness; and I + suppose he might be pleased to see his name at the head of a book of + mine. + + "Thirdly, I am not convinced that it is worth while to inscribe it + to anybody. We will see hereafter." + +The book moved on slowly through the press, and he seemed more than +commonly nervous about the proof-sheets. On the 28th of May he says in a +note to me:-- + + "In a proof-sheet of 'Our Old Home' which I sent you to-day (page + 43, or 4, or 5 or thereabout) I corrected a line thus, 'possessing a + happy faculty of seeing my own interest.' Now as the public interest + was my sole and individual object while I held office, I think that + as a matter of scanty justice to myself, the line ought to stand + thus, 'possessing a happy faculty of seeing my own interest and the + public's.' Even then, you see, I only give myself credit for half + the disinterestedness I really felt. Pray, by all means, have it + altered as above, even if the page is stereotyped; which it can't + have been, as the proof is now in the Concord post-office, and you + will have it at the same time with this. + + "We are getting into full leaf here, and your walk with J---might + come off any time." + +An arrangement was made with the liberal house of Smith and Elder, of +London, to bring out "Our Old Home" on the same day of its publication +in Boston. On the 1st of July Hawthorne wrote to me from the Wayside as +follows:-- + + "I am delighted with Smith and Elder, or rather with you; for it is + you that squeeze the English sovereigns out of the poor devils. On + my own behalf I never could have thought of asking more than L50, + and should hardly have expected to get L10; I look upon the L180 as + the only trustworthy funds I have, our own money being of such a + gaseous consistency. By the time I can draw for it, I expect it will + be worth at least fifteen hundred dollars. + + "I shall think over the prefatory matter for 'Our Old Home' to-day, + and will write it to-morrow. It requires some little thought and + policy in order to say nothing amiss at this time; for I intend to + dedicate the book to Frank Pierce, come what may. It shall reach you + on Friday morning. + + "We find ---- a comfortable and desirable guest to have in the + house. My wife likes her hugely, and for my part, I had no idea that + there was such a sensible woman of letters in the world. She is just + as healthy-minded as if she had never touched a pen. I am glad she + had a pleasant time, and hope she will come back. + + "I mean to come to Boston whenever I can be sure of a cool day. + + "What a prodigious length of time you stayed among the mountains! + + "You ought not to assume such liberties of absence without the + consent of your friends, which I hardly think you would get. I, at + least, want you always within attainable distance, even though I + never see you. Why can't you come and stay a day or two with us, and + drink some spruce beer?" + +Those were troublous days, full of war gloom and general despondency. +The North was naturally suspicious of all public men, who did not bear a +conspicuous part in helping to put down the Rebellion. General Pierce +had been President of the United States, and was not identified, to say +the least, with the great party which favored the vigorous prosecution +of the war. Hawthorne proposed to dedicate his new book to a very dear +friend, indeed, but in doing so he would draw public attention in a +marked way to an unpopular name. Several of Hawthorne's friends, on +learning that he intended to inscribe his book to Franklin Pierce, came +to me and begged that I would, if possible, help Hawthorne to see that +he ought not to do anything to jeopardize the currency of his new +volume. Accordingly I wrote to him, just what many of his friends had +said to me, and this is his reply to my letter, which bears date the +18th of July, 1863:-- + + "I thank you for your note of the 15th instant, and have delayed my + reply thus long in order to ponder deeply on your advice, smoke + cigars over it, and see what it might be possible for me to do + towards taking it. I find that it would be a piece of poltroonery in + me to withdraw either the dedication or the dedicatory letter. My + long and intimate personal relations with Pierce render the + dedication altogether proper, especially as regards this book, + which would have had no existence without his kindness; and if he is + so exceedingly unpopular that his name is enough to sink the volume, + there is so much the more need that an old friend should stand by + him. I cannot, merely on account of pecuniary profit or literary + reputation, go back from what I have deliberately felt and thought + it right to do; and if I were to tear out the dedication, I should + never look at the volume again without remorse and shame. As for the + literary public, it must accept my book precisely as I think fit to + give it, or let it alone. + + "Nevertheless, I have no fancy for making myself a martyr when it is + honorably and conscientiously possible to avoid it; and I always + measure out my heroism very accurately according to the exigencies + of the occasion, and should be the last man in the world to throw + away a bit of it needlessly. So I have looked over the concluding + paragraph and have amended it in such a way that, while doing what I + know to be justice to my friend, it contains not a word that ought + to be objectionable to any set of readers. If the public of the + North see fit to ostracize me for this, I can only say that I would + gladly sacrifice a thousand or two of dollars rather than retain the + good-will of such a herd of dolts and mean-spirited scoundrels. I + enclose the rewritten paragraph, and shall wish to see a proof of + that and the whole dedication. + + "I had a call from an Englishman yesterday, and kept him to dinner; + not the threatened ----, but a Mr. ----, introduced by ----. He says + he knows you, and he seems to be a very good fellow. I have strong + hopes that he will never come back here again, for J---- took him on + a walk of several miles, whereby they both caught a most tremendous + ducking, and the poor Englishman was frightened half to death by the + thunder.... On the other page is the list of presentation people, + and it amounts to twenty-four, which your liberality and kindness + allow me. As likely as not I have forgotten two or three, and I held + my pen suspended over one or two of the names, doubting whether they + deserved of me so especial a favor as a portion of my heart and + brain. I have few friends. Some authors, I should think, would + require half the edition for private distribution." + +"Our Old Home" was published in the autumn of 1863, and although it was +everywhere welcomed, in England the strictures were applied with a +liberal hand. On the 18th of October he writes to me:-- + + "You sent me the 'Reader' with a notice of the book, and I have + received one or two others, one of them from Bennoch. The English + critics seem to think me very bitter against their countrymen, and + it is, perhaps, natural that they should, because their self-conceit + can accept nothing short of indiscriminate adulation; but I really + think that Americans have more cause than they to complain of me. + Looking over the volume, I am rather surprised to find that whenever + I draw a comparison between the two people, I almost invariably cast + the balance against ourselves. It is not a good nor a weighty book, + nor does it deserve any great amount either of praise or censure. I + don't care about seeing any more notices of it." + +Meantime the "Dolliver Romance," which had been laid aside on account of +the exciting scenes through which we were then passing, and which +unfitted him for the composition of a work of the imagination, made +little progress. In a note written to me at this time he says:-- + + "I can't tell you when to expect an instalment of the Romance, if + ever. There is something preternatural in my reluctance to begin. I + linger at the threshold, and have a perception of very disagreeable + phantasms to be encountered if I enter. I wish God had given me the + faculty of writing a sunshiny book." + +I invited him to come to Boston and have a cheerful week among his old +friends, and threw in as an inducement a hint that he should hear the +great organ in the Music Hall. I also suggested that we could talk over +the new Romance together, if he would gladden us all by coming to the +city. Instead of coming, he sent this reply:-- + + "I thank you for your kind invitation to hear the grand instrument; + but it offers me no inducement additional to what I should always + have for a visit to your abode. I have no ear for an organ or a + jewsharp, nor for any instrument between the two; so you had better + invite a worthier guest, and I will come another time. + + "I don't see much probability of my having the first chapter of the + Romance ready so soon as you want it. There are two or three + chapters ready to be written, but I am not yet robust enough to + begin, and I feel as if I should never carry it through. + + "Besides, I want to prefix a little sketch of Thoreau to it, + because, from a tradition which he told me about this house of mine, + I got the idea of a deathless man, which is now taking a shape very + different from the original one. It seems the duty of a live + literary man to perpetuate the memory of a dead one, when there is + such fair opportunity as in this case: but how Thoreau would scorn + me for thinking that _I_ could perpetuate him! And I don't think so. + + "I can think of no title for the unborn Romance. Always heretofore I + have waited till it was quite complete before attempting to name it, + and I fear I shall have to do so now. I wish you or Mrs. Fields + would suggest one. Perhaps you may snatch a title out of the + infinite void that will miraculously suit the book, and give me a + needful impetus to write it. + + "I want a great deal of money..... I wonder how people manage to + live economically. I seem to spend little or nothing, and yet it + will get very far beyond the second thousand, for the present + year.... If it were not for these troublesome necessities, I doubt + whether you would ever see so much as the first chapter of the new + Romance. + + "Those verses entitled 'Weariness,' in the last magazine, seem to me + profoundly touching. I too am weary, and begin to look ahead for the + Wayside Inn." + +I had frequent accounts of his ill health and changed appearance, but I +supposed he would rally again soon, and become hale and strong before +the winter fairly set in. But the shadows even then were about his +pathway, and Allan Cunningham's lines, which he once quoted to me, must +often have occurred to him,-- + + "Cauld's the snaw at my head, + And cauld at my feet, + And the finger o' death's at my een, + Closing them to sleep." + +We had arranged together that the "Dolliver Romance" should be first +published in the magazine, in monthly instalments, and we decided to +begin in the January number of 1864. On the 8th of November came a long +letter from him:-- + + "I foresee that there is little probability of my getting the first + chapter ready by the 15th, although I have a resolute purpose to + write it by the end of the month. It will be in time for the + February number, if it turns out fit for publication at all. As to + the title, we must defer settling that till the book is fully + written, and meanwhile I see nothing better than to call the series + of articles 'Fragments of a Romance.' This will leave me to exercise + greater freedom as to the mechanism of the story than I otherwise + can, and without which I shall probably get entangled in my own + plot. When the work is completed in the magazine, I can fill up the + gaps and make straight the crookednesses, and christen it with a + fresh title. In this untried experiment of a serial work I desire + not to pledge myself, or promise the public more than I may + confidently expect to achieve. As regards the sketch of Thoreau, I + am not ready to write it yet, but will mix him up with the life of + The Wayside, and produce an autobiographical preface for the + finished Romance. If the public like that sort of stuff, I too find + it pleasant and easy writing, and can supply a new chapter of it for + every new volume, and that, moreover, without infringing upon my + proper privacy. An old Quaker wrote me, the other day, that he had + been reading my Introduction to the 'Mosses' and the 'Scarlet + Letter,' and felt as if he knew me better than his best friend; but + I think he considerably overestimates the extent of his intimacy + with me. + + "I received several private letters and printed notices of 'Our Old + Home' from England. It is laughable to see the innocent wonder with + which they regard my criticisms, accounting for them by jaundice, + insanity, jealousy, hatred, on my part, and never admitting the + least suspicion that there may be a particle of truth in them. The + monstrosity of their self-conceit is such that anything short of + unlimited admiration impresses them as malicious caricature. But + they do me great injustice in supposing that I hate them. I would as + soon hate my own people. + + "Tell Ticknor that I want a hundred dollars more, and I suppose I + shall keep on wanting more and more till the end of my days. If I + subside into the almshouse before my intellectual faculties are + quite extinguished, it strikes me that I would make a very pretty + book out of it; and, seriously, if I alone were concerned, I should + not have any great objection to winding up there." + +On the 14th of November came a pleasant little note from him, which +seemed to have been written in better spirits than he had shown of +late. Photographs of himself always amused him greatly, and in the +little note I refer to there is this pleasant passage:-- + + "Here is the photograph,--a grandfatherly old figure enough; and I + suppose that is the reason why you select it. + + "I am much in want of _cartes de visite_ to distribute on my own + account, and am tired and disgusted with all the undesirable + likenesses as yet presented of me. Don't you think I might sell my + head to some photographer who would be willing to return me the + value in small change; that is to say, in a dozen or two of cards?" + +The first part of Chapter I. of "The Dolliver Romance" came to me from +the Wayside on the 1st of December. Hawthorne was very anxious to see it +in type as soon as possible, in order that he might compose the rest in +a similar strain, and so conclude the preliminary phase of Dr. Dolliver. +He was constantly imploring me to send him a good pen, complaining all +the while that everything had failed him in that line. In one of his +notes begging me to hunt him up something that he could write with, he +says:-- + + "Nobody ever suffered more from pens than I have, and I am glad that + my labor with the abominable little tool is drawing to a close." + +In the month of December Hawthorne attended the funeral of Mrs. Franklin +Pierce, and, after the ceremony, came to stay with us. He seemed ill and +more nervous than usual. He said he found General Pierce greatly needing +his companionship, for he was overwhelmed with grief at the loss of his +wife. I well remember the sadness of Hawthorne's face when he told us he +felt obliged to look on the dead. "It was," said he, "like a carven +image laid in its richly embossed enclosure, and there was a remote +expression about it as if the whole had nothing to do with things +present." He told us, as an instance of the ever-constant courtesy of +his friend General Pierce, that while they were standing at the grave, +the General, though completely overcome with his own sorrow, turned and +drew up the collar of Hawthorne's coat to shield him from the bitter +cold. + +The same day, as the sunset deepened and we sat together, Hawthorne +began to talk in an autobiographical vein, and gave us the story of his +early life, of which I have already written somewhat. He said at an +early age he accompanied his mother and sister to the township in Maine, +which his grandfather had purchased. That, he continued, was the +happiest period of his life, and it lasted through several years, when +he was sent to school in Salem. "I lived in Maine," he said, "like a +bird of the air, so perfect was the freedom I enjoyed. But it was there +I first got my cursed habits of solitude." During the moonlight nights +of winter he would skate until midnight all alone upon Sebago Lake, with +the deep shadows of the icy hills on either hand. When he found himself +far away from his home and weary with the exertion of skating, he would +sometimes take refuge in a log-cabin, where half a tree would be burning +on the broad hearth. He would sit in the ample chimney and look at the +stars through the great aperture through which the flames went roaring +up. "Ah," he said, "how well I recall the summer days also, when, with +my gun, I roamed at will through the woods of Maine. How sad middle life +looks to people of erratic temperaments. Everything is beautiful in +youth, for all things are allowed to it then." + +The early home of the Hawthornes in Maine must have been a lonely +dwelling-place indeed. A year ago (May 12, 1870) the old place was +visited by one who had a true feeling for Hawthorne's genius, and who +thus graphically described the spot. + + "A little way off the main-travelled road in the town of Raymond + there stood an old house which has much in common with houses of its + day, but which is distinguished from them by the more evident marks + of neglect and decay. Its unpainted walls are deeply stained by + time. Cornice and window-ledge and threshold are fast falling with + the weight of years. The fences were long since removed from all the + enclosures, the garden-wall is broken down, and the garden itself is + now grown up to pines whose shadows fall dark and heavy upon the old + and mossy roof; fitting roof-trees for such a mansion, planted there + by the hands of Nature herself, as if she could not realize that her + darling child was ever to go out from his early home. The highway + once passed its door, but the location of the road has been changed; + and now the old house stands solitarily apart from the busy world. + Longer than I can remember, and I have never learned how long, this + house has stood untenanted and wholly unused, except, for a few + years, as a place of public worship; but, for myself, and for all + who know its earlier history, it will ever have the deepest + interest, for it was _the early home of Nathaniel Hawthorne_. + + "Often have I, when passing through that town, turned aside to study + the features of that landscape, and to reflect upon the influence + which his surroundings had upon the development of this author's + genius. A few rods to the north runs a little mill-stream, its + sloping bank once covered with grass, now so worn and washed by the + rains as to show but little except yellow sand. Less than half a + mile to the west, this stream empties into an arm of Sebago Lake. + Doubtless, at the time the house was built, the forest was so much + cut away in that direction as to bring into view the waters of the + lake, for a mill was built upon the brook about half-way down the + valley, and it is reasonable to suppose that a clearing was made + from the mill to the landing upon the shore of the pond; but the + pines have so far regained their old dominion as completely to shut + out the whole prospect in that direction. Indeed, the site affords + but a limited survey, except to the northwest. Across a narrow + valley in that direction lie open fields and dark pine-covered + slopes. Beyond these rise long ranges of forest-crowned hills, while + in the far distance every hue of rock and tree, of field and grove, + melts into the soft blue of Mount Washington. The spot must ever + have had the utter loneliness of the pine forests upon the borders + of our northern lakes. The deep silence and dark shadows of the old + woods must have filled the imagination of a youth possessing + Hawthorne's sensibility with images which later years could not + dispel. + + "To this place came the widowed mother of Hawthorne in company with + her brother, an original proprietor and one of the early settlers of + the town of Raymond. This house was built for her, and here she + lived with her son for several years in the most complete seclusion. + Perhaps she strove to conceal here a grief which she could not + forget. In what way, and to what extent, the surroundings of his + boyhood operated in moulding the character and developing the genius + of that gifted author, I leave to the reader to determine. I have + tried simply to draw a faithful picture of his early home." + +On the 15th of December Hawthorne wrote to me:-- + + "I have not yet had courage to read the Dolliver proof-sheet, but + will set about it soon, though with terrible reluctance, such as I + never felt before.... I am most grateful to you for protecting me + from that visitation of the elephant and his cub. If you happen to + see Mr. ---- of L----, a young man who was here last summer, pray + tell him anything that your conscience will let you, to induce him + to spare me another visit, which I know he intended. I really am not + well and cannot be disturbed by strangers without more suffering + than it is worth while to endure. I thank Mrs. P---- and yourself + for your kind hospitality, past and prospective. I never come to see + you without feeling the better for it, but I must not test so + precious a remedy too often." + +The new year found him incapacitated from writing much on the Romance. +On the 17th of January, 1864, he says:-- + + "I am not quite up to writing yet, but shall make an effort as soon + as I see any hope of success. You ought to be thankful that (like + most other broken-down authors) I do not pester you with decrepit + pages, and insist upon your accepting them as full of the old spirit + and vigor. That trouble, perhaps, still awaits you, after I shall + have reached a further stage of decay. Seriously, my mind has, for + the present, lost its temper and its fine edge, and I have an + instinct that I had better keep quiet. Perhaps I shall have a new + spirit of vigor, if I wait quietly for it; perhaps not." + +The end of February found him in a mood which is best indicated in this +letter, which he addressed to me on the 25th of the month:-- + + "I hardly know what to say to the public about this abortive + Romance, though I know pretty well what the case will be. I shall + never finish it. Yet it is not quite pleasant for an author to + announce himself, or to be announced, as finally broken down as to + his literary faculty. It is a pity that I let you put this work in + your programme for the year, for I had always a presentiment that it + would fail us at the pinch. Say to the public what you think best, + and as little as possible; for example: 'We regret that Mr. + Hawthorne's Romance, announced for this magazine some months ago, + still lies upon the author's writing-table, he having been + interrupted in his labor upon it by an impaired state of health'; + or, 'We are sorry to hear (but know not whether the public will + share our grief) that Mr. Hawthorne is out of health and is thereby + prevented, for the present, from proceeding with another of his + promised (or threatened) Romances, intended for this magazine'; or, + 'Mr. Hawthorne's brain is addled at last, and, much to our + satisfaction, he tells us that he cannot possibly go on with the + Romance announced on the cover of the January magazine. We consider + him finally shelved, and shall take early occasion to bury him under + a heavy article, carefully summing up his merits (such as they were) + and his demerits, what few of them can be touched upon in our + limited space'; or, 'We shall commence the publication of Mr. + Hawthorne's Romance as soon as that gentleman chooses to forward it. + We are quite at a loss how to account for this delay in the + fulfilment of his contract; especially as he has already been most + liberally paid for the first number.' Say anything you like, in + short, though I really don't believe that the public will care what + you say or whether you say anything. If you choose, you may publish + the first chapter as an insulated fragment, and charge me with the + overpayment. I cannot finish it unless a great change comes over me; + and if I make too great an effort to do so, it will be my death; not + that I should care much for that, if I could fight the battle + through and win it, thus ending a life of much smoulder and scanty + fire in a blaze of glory. But I should smother myself in mud of my + own making. I mean to come to Boston soon, not for a week but for a + single day, and then I can talk about my sanitary prospects more + freely than I choose to write. I am not low-spirited, nor fanciful, + nor freakish, but look what seem to be realities in the face, and am + ready to take whatever may come. If I could but go to England now, I + think that the sea voyage and the 'Old Home' might set me all right. + + "This letter is for your own eye, and I wish especially that no echo + of it may come back in your notes to me. + + "P.S. Give my kindest regards to Mrs. F----, and tell her that one + of my choicest ideal places is her drawing-room, and therefore I + seldom visit it." + +On Monday, the 28th of March, Hawthorne came to town and made my house +his first station on a journey to the South for health. I was greatly +shocked at his invalid appearance, and he seemed quite deaf. The light +in his eye was beautiful as ever, but his limbs seemed shrunken and his +usual stalwart vigor utterly gone. He said to me with a pathetic voice, +"Why does Nature treat us like little children! I think we could bear it +all if we knew our fate; at least it would not make much difference to +me now what became of me." Toward night he brightened up a little, and +his delicious wit flashed out, at intervals, as of old; but he was +evidently broken and dispirited about his health. Looking out on the bay +that was sparkling in the moonlight, he said he thought the moon rather +lost something of its charm for him as he grew older. He spoke with +great delight of a little story, called "Pet Marjorie," and said he had +read it carefully through twice, every word of it. He had much to say +about England, and observed, among other things, that "the extent over +which her dominions are spread leads her to fancy herself stronger than +she really is; but she is not to-day a powerful empire; she is much like +a squash-vine, which runs over a whole garden, but, if you cut it at the +root, it is at once destroyed." At breakfast, next morning, he spoke of +his kind neighbors in Concord, and said Alcott was one of the most +excellent men he had ever known. "It is impossible to quarrel with him, +for he would take all your harsh words like a saint." + +He left us shortly after this for a journey to Washington, with his +friend Mr. Ticknor. The travellers spent several days in New York, and +then proceeded to Philadelphia. Hawthorne wrote to me from the +Continental Hotel, dating his letter "Saturday evening," announcing the +severe illness of his companion. He did not seem to anticipate a fatal +result, but on Sunday morning the news came that Mr. Ticknor was dead. +Hawthorne returned at once to Boston, and stayed here over night. He was +in a very excited and nervous state, and talked incessantly of the sad +scenes he had just been passing through. We sat late together, +conversing of the friend we had lost, and I am sure he hardly closed his +eyes that night. In the morning he went back to his own home in Concord. + +His health, from that time, seemed to give way rapidly, and in the +middle of May his friend, General Pierce, proposed that they should go +among the New Hampshire hills together and meet the spring there. + +The first letter we received from Mrs. Hawthorne[*] after her husband's +return to Concord in April gave us great anxiety. It was dated "Monday +eve," and here are some extracts from it:-- + + "I have just sent Mr. Hawthorne to bed, and so have a moment to + speak to you. Generally it has been late and I have not liked to + disturb him by sitting up after him, and so I could not write since + he returned, though I wished very much to tell you about him, ever + since he came home. He came back unlooked for that day; and when I + heard a step on the piazza, I was lying on a couch and feeling quite + indisposed. But as soon as I saw him I was frightened out of all + knowledge of myself,--so haggard, so white, so deeply scored with + pain and fatigue was the face, so much more ill he looked than I + ever saw him before. He had walked from the station because he saw + no carriage there, and his brow was streaming with a perfect rain, + so great had been the effort to walk so far.... He needed much to + get home to me, where he could fling off all care of himself and + give way to his feelings, pent up and kept back for so long, + especially since his watch and ward of most excellent, kind Mr. + Ticknor. It relieved him somewhat to break down as he spoke of that + scene.... But he was so weak and weary he could not sit up much, and + lay on the couch nearly all the time in a kind of uneasy somnolency, + not wishing to be read to even, not able to attend or fix his + thoughts at all. On Saturday he unfortunately took cold, and, after + a most restless night, was seized early in the morning with a very + bad stiff neck, which was acutely painful all Sunday. Sunday night, + however, a compress of linen wrung in cold water cured him, with + belladonna. But he slept also most of this morning.... He could as + easily build London as go to the Shakespeare dinner. It tires him so + much to get entirely through his toilet in the morning, that he has + to lie down a long time after it. To-day he walked out on the + grounds, and could not stay ten minutes, because I would not let him + sit down in the wind, and he could not bear any longer exercise. He + has more than lost all he gained by the journey, by the sad event. + From being the nursed and cared for,--early to bed and late to + rise,--led, as it were, by the ever-ready hand of kind Mr. Ticknor, + to become the nurse and night-watcher with all the responsibilities, + with his mighty power of sympathy and his vast apprehension of + suffering in others, and to see death for the first time in a state + so weak as his,--the death also of so valued a friend,--as Mr. + Hawthorne says himself, 'it told upon him' fearfully. There are + lines ploughed on his brow which never were there before.... I have + been up and alert ever since his return, but one day I was obliged, + when he was busy, to run off and lie down for fear I should drop + before his eyes. My head was in such an agony I could not endure it + another moment. But I am well now. I have wrestled and won, and now + I think I shall not fail again. Your most generous kindness of + hospitality I heartily thank you for, but Mr. Hawthorne says he + cannot leave home. He wants rest, and he says when the wind is + _warm_ he shall feel well. This cold wind ruins him. I wish he were + in Cuba or on some isle in the Gulf Stream. But I must say I could + not think him able to go anywhere, unless I could go with him. He is + too weak to take care of himself. I do not like to have him go up + and down stairs alone. I have read to him all the afternoon and + evening and after he walked in the morning to-day. I do nothing but + sit with him, ready to do or not to do, just as he wishes. The + wheels of my small _menage_ are all stopped. He is my world and all + the business of it. He has not smiled since he came home till + to-day, and I made him laugh with Thackeray's humor in reading to + him; but a smile looks strange on a face that once shone like a + thousand suns with smiles. The light for the time has gone out of + his eyes, entirely. An infinite weariness films them quite. I thank + Heaven that summer and not winter approaches." + +[Footnote *: As I write this paragraph, my friend, the Reverend James +Freeman Clarke, puts into my hand the following note, which Hawthorne +sent to him nearly thirty years ago:-- + + 54 PINCKNEY STREET, Friday, July 8, 1842. + + MY DEAR SIR,--Though personally a stranger to you, I am about to + request of you the greatest favor which I can receive from any man. + I am to be married to Miss Sophia Peabody; and it is our mutual + desire that you should perform the ceremony. Unless it should be + decidedly a rainy day, a carriage will call for you at half past + eleven o'clock in the forenoon. + +Very respectfully yours, + + NATH. HAWTHORNE. + +Rev. JAMES F. CLARKE, Chestnut Street.] + +On Friday evening of the same week Mrs. Hawthorne sent off another +despatch to us:-- + + +"Mr. Hawthorne has been miserably ill for two or three days, so that I +could not find a moment to speak to you. I am most anxious to have him +leave Concord again, and General Pierce's plan is admirable, now that +the General is well himself. I think the serene jog-trot in a private +carriage into country places, by trout-streams and to old farm-houses, +away from care and news, will be very restorative. The boy associations +with the General will refresh him. They will fish, and muse, and rest, +and saunter upon horses' feet, and be in the air all the time in fine +weather. I am quite content, though I wish I could go for a few _petits +sions_. But General Pierce has been a most tender, constant nurse for +many years, and knows how to take care of the sick. And his love for Mr. +Hawthorne is the strongest passion of his soul, now his wife is +departed. They will go to the Isles of Shoals together probably, before +their return. + +"Mr. Hawthorne cannot walk ten minutes now without wishing to sit down, +as I think I told you, so that he cannot take sufficient air except in a +carriage. And his horror of hotels and rail-cars is immense, and human +beings beset him in cities. He is indeed very weak. I hardly know what +takes away his strength. I now am obliged to superintend my workman, who +is arranging the grounds. Whenever my husband lies down (which is sadly +often) I rush out of doors to see what the gardener is about. + +"I cannot feel rested till Mr. Hawthorne is better, but I get along. I +shall go to town when he is safe in the care of General Pierce." + +On Saturday this communication from Mrs. Hawthorne reached us:-- + + "General Pierce wrote yesterday to say he wished to meet Mr. + Hawthorne in Boston on Wednesday, and go from thence on their way. + + "Mr. Hawthorne is much weaker. I find, than he has been before at + any time, and I shall go down with him, having a great many things + to do in Boston; but I am sure he is not fit to be left by himself, + for his steps are so uncertain, and his eyes are very uncertain too. + Dear Mr. Fields, I am very anxious about him, and I write now to say + that he absolutely refuses to see a physician officially, and so I + wish to know whether Dr. Holmes could not see him in some ingenious + way on Wednesday as a friend; but with his experienced, acute + observation, to look at him also as a physician, to note how he is + and what he judges of him comparatively since he last saw him. It + almost deprives me of my wits to see him growing weaker with no aid. + He seems quite bilious, and has a restlessness that is infinite. His + look is more distressed and harassed than before; and he has so + little rest, that he is getting worn out. I hope immensely in regard + of this sauntering journey with General Pierce. + + "I feel as if I ought not to speak to you of anything when you are + so busy and weary and bereaved. But yet in such a sad emergency as + this, I am sure your generous, kind heart will not refuse me any + help you can render.... I wish Dr. Holmes would feel his pulse; I do + not know how to judge of it, but it seems to me irregular." + +His friend, Dr. O.W. Holmes, in compliance with Mrs. Hawthorne's desire, +expressed in this letter to me, saw the invalid, and thus describes his +appearance in an article full of tenderness and feeling which was +published in the "Atlantic Monthly" for July, 1864:-- + + "Late in the afternoon of the day before he left Boston on his last + journey I called upon him at the hotel where he was staying. He had + gone out but a moment before. Looking along the street, I saw a form + at some distance in advance which could only be his,--but how + changed from his former port and figure! There was no mistaking the + long iron-gray locks, the carriage of the head, and the general look + of the natural outlines and movement; but he seemed to have shrunken + in all his dimensions, and faltered along with an uncertain, feeble + step, as if every movement were an effort. I joined him, and we + walked together half an hour, during which time I learned so much + of his state of mind and body as could be got at without worrying + him with suggestive questions,--my object being to form an opinion + of his condition, as I had been requested to do, and to give him + some hints that might be useful to him on his journey. + + "His aspect, medically considered, was very unfavorable. There were + persistent local symptoms, referred especially to the + stomach,--'boring pain,' distension, difficult digestion, with great + wasting of flesh and strength. He was very gentle, very willing to + answer questions, very docile to such counsel as I offered him, but + evidently had no hope of recovering his health. He spoke as if his + work were done, and he should write no more. + + "With all his obvious depression, there was no failing noticeable in + his conversational powers. There was the same backwardness and + hesitancy which in his best days it was hard for him to overcome, so + that talking with him was almost like love-making, and his shy, + beautiful soul had to be wooed from its bashful prudency like an + unschooled maiden. The calm despondency with which he spoke about + himself confirmed the unfavorable opinion suggested by his look and + history." + +I saw Hawthorne alive, for the last time, the day he started on this his +last mortal journey. His speech and his gait indicated severe illness, +and I had great misgivings about the jaunt he was proposing to take so +early in the season. His tones were more subdued than ever, and he +scarcely spoke above a whisper. He was very affectionate in parting, and +I followed him to the door, looking after him as he went up School +Street. I noticed that he faltered from weakness, and I should have +taken my hat and joined him to offer my arm, but I knew he did not wish +to _seem_ ill, and I feared he might be troubled at my anxiety. Fearing +to disturb him, I followed him with my eyes only, and watched him till +he turned the corner and passed out of sight. + +On the morning of the 19th of May, 1864, a telegram, signed by Franklin +Pierce, stunned us all. It announced the death of Hawthorne. In the +afternoon of the same day came this letter to me:-- + + "Pemigewasset House, Plymouth, N.H., Thursday morning, 5 o'clock + + "My Dear Sir,--The telegraph has communicated to you the fact of our + dear friend Hawthorne's death. My friend Colonel Hibbard, who bears + this note, was a friend of H----, and will tell you more than I am + able to write. + + "I enclose herewith a note which I commenced last evening to dear + Mrs. Hawthorne. O, how will she bear this shock! Dear mother--dear + children-- + + "When I met Hawthorne in Boston a week ago, it was apparent that he + was much more feeble and more seriously diseased than I had supposed + him to be. We came from Centre Harbor yesterday afternoon, and I + thought he was on the whole brighter than he was the day before. + Through the week he had been inclined to somnolency during the day, + but restless at night. He retired last night soon after nine + o'clock, and soon fell into a quiet slumber. In less than half an + hour changed his position, but continued to sleep. I left the door + open between his bedroom and mine,--our beds being opposite to each + other,--and was asleep myself before eleven o'clock. The light + continued to burn in my room. At two o'clock, I went to H----'s + bedside; he was apparently in a sound sleep, and I did not place my + hand upon him. At four o'clock I went into his room again, and, as + his position was unchanged, I placed my hand upon him and found that + life was extinct. I sent, however, immediately for a physician, and + called Judge Bell and Colonel Hibbard, who occupied rooms upon the + same floor and near me. He lies upon his side, his position so + perfectly natural and easy, his eyes closed, that it is difficult to + realize, while looking upon his noble face, that this is death. He + must have passed from natural slumber to that from which there is no + waking without the slightest movement. + + "I cannot write to dear Mrs. Hawthorne, and you must exercise your + judgment with regard to sending this and the unfinished note, + enclosed, to her. + + "Your friend, + + "FRANKLIN PIERCE." + +Hawthorne's lifelong desire that the end might be a sudden one was +gratified. Often and often he has said to me, "What a blessing to go +quickly!" So the same swift angel that came as a messenger to Allston, +Irving, Prescott, Macaulay, Thackeray, and Dickens was commissioned to +touch his forehead, also, and beckon him away. + +The room in which death fell upon him, + + "Like a shadow thrown + Softly and lightly from a passing cloud," + +looks toward the east; and standing in it, as I have frequently done, +since he passed out silently into the skies, it is easy to imagine the +scene on that spring morning which President Pierce so feelingly +describes in his letter. + +On the 24th of May we carried Hawthorne through the blossoming orchards +of Concord, and laid him down under a group of pines, on a hillside, +overlooking historic fields. All the way from the village church to the +grave the birds kept up a perpetual melody. The sun shone brightly, and +the air was sweet and pleasant, as if death had never entered the world. +Longfellow and Emerson, Channing and Hoar, Agassiz and Lowell, Greene +and Whipple, Alcott and Clarke, Holmes and Hillard, and other friends +whom he loved, walked slowly by his side that beautiful spring morning. +The companion of his youth and his manhood, for whom he would willingly, +at any time, have given up his own life, Franklin Pierce, was there +among the rest, and scattered flowers into the grave. The unfinished +Romance, which had cost him so much anxiety, the last literary work on +which he had ever been engaged, was laid on his coffin. + + "Ah! who shall lift that wand of magic power, + And the lost clew regain? + The unfinished window in Aladdin's tower + Unfinished must remain." + +Longfellow's beautiful poem will always be associated with the memory of +Hawthorne, and most fitting was it that his fellow-student, whom he so +loved and honored, should sing his requiem. + + + + +DICKENS + + * * * * * + + "_O friend with heart as gentle for distress, + As resolute with wise true thoughts to bind + The happiest with the unhappiest of our kind_" + + John Forster. + +_"All men are to an unspeakable degree brothers, each man's life a +strange emblem of every man's; and Human Portraits, faithfully drawn, +are of all pictures the welcomest on human walls."_--Carlyle. + + + + +IV. DICKENS. + + +I observe my favorite chair is placed to-day where the portraits of +Charles Dickens are easiest seen, and I take the hint accordingly. Those +are likenesses of him from the age of twenty-eight down to the year when +he passed through "the golden gate," as that wise mystic William Blake +calls death. One would hardly believe these pictures represented the +same man! See what a beautiful young person Maclise represents in this +early likeness of the great author, and then contrast the face with that +worn one in the photograph of 1869. The same man, but how different in +aspect! I sometimes think, while looking at those two portraits, I must +have known two individuals bearing the same name, at various periods of +my own life. Let me speak to-day of the younger Dickens. How well I +recall the bleak winter evening in 1842 when I first saw the handsome, +glowing face of the young man who was even then famous over half the +globe! He came bounding into the Tremont House, fresh from the steamer +that had brought him to our shores, and his cheery voice rang through +the hall, as he gave a quick glance at the new scenes opening upon him +in a strange land on first arriving at a Transatlantic hotel. "Here we +are!" he shouted, as the lights burst upon the merry party just entering +the house, and several gentlemen came forward to greet him. Ah, how +happy and buoyant he was then! Young, handsome, almost worshipped for +his genius, belted round by such troops of friends as rarely ever man +had, coming to a new country to make new conquests of fame and +honor,--surely it was a sight long to be remembered and never wholly to +be forgotten. The splendor of his endowments and the personal interest +he had won to himself called forth all the enthusiasm of old and young +America, and I am glad to have been among the first to witness his +arrival. You ask me what was his appearance as he ran, or rather flew, +up the steps of the hotel, and sprang into the hall. He seemed all on +fire with curiosity, and alive as I never saw mortal before. From top to +toe every fibre of his body was unrestrained and alert. What vigor, what +keenness, what freshness of spirit, possessed him! He laughed all over, +and did not care who heard him! He seemed like the Emperor of +Cheerfulness on a cruise of pleasure, determined to conquer a realm or +two of fun every hour of his overflowing existence. That night impressed +itself on my memory for all time, so far as I am concerned with things +sublunary. It was Dickens, the true "Boz," in flesh and blood, who stood +before us at last, and with my companions, three or four lads of my own +age, I determined to sit up late that night. None of us then, of course, +had the honor of an acquaintance with the delightful stranger, and I +little thought that I should afterwards come to know him in the beaten +way of friendship, and live with him day after day in years far distant; +that I should ever be so near to him that he would reveal to me his joys +and his sorrows, and thus that I should learn the story of his life from +his own lips. + +About midnight on that eventful landing, "Boz,"--everybody called him +"Boz" in those days,--having finished his supper, came down into the +office of the hotel, and, joining the young Earl of M----, his +fellow-voyager, sallied out for a first look at Boston streets. It was +a stinging night, and the moon was at the full. Every object stood out +sharp and glittering, and "Boz," muffled up in a shaggy fur coat, ran +over the shining frozen snow, wisely keeping the middle of the street +for the most part. We boys followed cautiously behind, but near enough +not to lose any of the fun. Of course the two gentlemen soon lost their +way on emerging into Washington from Tremont Street. Dickens kept up one +continual shout of uproarious laughter as he went rapidly forward, +reading the signs on the shops, and observing the "architecture" of the +new country into which he had dropped as if from the clouds. When the +two arrived opposite the "Old South Church" Dickens screamed. To this +day I could never tell why. Was it because of its fancied resemblance to +St. Paul's or the Abbey? I declare firmly, the mystery of that shout is +still a mystery to me! + +The great event of Boz's first visit to Boston was the dinner of welcome +tendered to him by the young men of the city. It is idle to attempt much +talk about the banquet given on that Monday night in February, +twenty-nine years ago. Papanti's Hall (where many of us learned to +dance, under the guidance of that master of legs, now happily still +among us and pursuing the same highly useful calling which he practised +in 1842) was the scene of that festivity. It was a glorious episode in +all our lives, and whoever was not there has suffered a loss not easy to +estimate. We younger members of that dinner-party sat in the seventh +heaven of happiness, and were translated into other spheres. +Accidentally, of course, I had a seat just in front of the honored +guest; saw him take a pinch of snuff out of Washington Allston's box, +and heard him joke with old President Quincy. Was there ever such a +night before in our staid city? Did ever mortal preside with such +felicitous success as did Mr. Quincy? How he went on with his delicious +compliments to our guest! How he revelled in quotations from "Pickwick" +and "Oliver Twist" and "The Curiosity Shop"! And how admirably he closed +his speech of welcome, calling up the young author amid a perfect volley +of applause! "Health, Happiness, and a Hearty Welcome to Charles +Dickens." I can see and hear Mr. Quincy now, as he spoke the words. Were +ever heard such cheers before? And when Dickens stood up at last to +answer for himself, so fresh and so handsome, with his beautiful eyes +moist with feeling, and his whole frame aglow with excitement, how we +did hurrah, we young fellows! Trust me, it _was_ a great night; and we +must have made a mighty noise at our end of the table, for I remember +frequent messages came down to us from the "Chair," begging that we +would hold up a little and moderate if possible the rapture of our +applause. + +After Dickens left Boston he went on his American travels, gathering up +materials, as he journeyed, for his "American Notes." He was accompanied +as far as New York by a very dear friend, to whom he afterwards +addressed several most interesting letters. For that friend he always +had the warmest enthusiasm; and when he came the second time to America, +there was no one of his old companions whom he missed more. Let us read +some of these letters written by Dickens nearly thirty years ago. The +friend to whom they were addressed was also an intimate and dear +associate of mine, and his children have kindly placed at my disposal +the whole correspondence. Here is the first letter, time-stained, but +preserved with religious care. + + Fuller's Hotel, Washington, Monday, March 14, 1842. + + My Dear Felton: I was more delighted than I can possibly tell you to + receive (last Saturday night) your welcome letter. We and the + oysters missed you terribly in New York. You carried away with you + more than half the delight and pleasure of my New World; and I + heartily wish you could bring it back again. + + There are very interesting men in this place,--highly interesting, + of course,--but it's not a comfortable place; is it? If spittle + could wait at table we should be nobly attended, but as that + property has not been imparted to it in the present state of + mechanical science, we are rather lonely and orphan-like, in respect + of "being looked arter." A blithe black was introduced on our + arrival, as our peculiar and especial attendant. He is the only + gentleman in the town who has a peculiar delicacy in intruding upon + my valuable time. It usually takes seven rings and a threatening + message from ---- to produce him; and when he comes he goes to fetch + something, and, forgetting it by the way, comes back no more. + + We have been in great distress, really in distress, at the + non-arrival of the Caledonia. You may conceive what our joy was, + when, while we were dining out yesterday, H. arrived with the joyful + intelligence of her safety. The very news of her having really + arrived seemed to diminish the distance between ourselves and home, + by one half at least. + + And this morning (though we have not yet received our heap of + despatches, for which we are looking eagerly forward to this night's + mail),--this morning there reached us unexpectedly, through the + government bag (Heaven knows how they came there), two of our many + and long-looked-for letters, wherein was a circumstantial account of + the whole conduct and behavior of our pets; with marvellous + narrations of Charley's precocity at a Twelfth Night juvenile party + at Macready's; and tremendous predictions of the governess, dimly + suggesting his having got out of pot-hooks and hangers, and darkly + insinuating the possibility of his writing us a letter before long; + and many other workings of the same prophetic spirit, in reference + to him and his sisters, very gladdening to their mother's heart, and + not at all depressing to their father's. There was, also, the + doctor's report, which was a clean bill; and the nurse's report, + which was perfectly electrifying; showing as it did how Master + Walter had been weaned, and had cut a double tooth, and done many + other extraordinary things, quite worthy of his high descent. In + short, we were made very happy and grateful; and felt as if the + prodigal father and mother had got home again. + + What do you think of this incendiary card being left at my door last + night? "General G. sends compliments to Mr. Dickens, and called with + two literary ladies. As the two L.L.'s are ambitious of the honor of + a personal introduction to Mr. D., General G requests the honor of + an appointment for to-morrow." I draw a veil over my sufferings. + They are sacred. + + We have altered our route, and don't mean to go to Charleston, for I + want to see the West, and have taken it into my head that as I am + not obliged to go to Charleston, and don't exactly know why I should + go there, I need do no violence to my own inclinations. My route is + of Mr. Clay's designing, and I think it a very good one. We go on + Wednesday night to Richmond in Virginia. On Monday we return to + Baltimore for two days. On Thursday morning we start for Pittsburg, + and so go by the Ohio to Cincinnati, Louisville, Kentucky, + Lexington, St. Louis; and either down the Lakes to Buffalo, or back + to Philadelphia, and by New York to that place, where we shall stay + a week, and then make a hasty trip into Canada. We shall be in + Buffalo, please Heaven, on the 30th of April. If I don't find a + letter from you in the care of the postmaster at that place, I'll + never write to you from England. + + But if I _do_ find one, my right hand shall forget its cunning, + before I forget to be your truthful and constant correspondent; not, + dear Felton, because I promised it, nor because I have a natural + tendency to correspond (which is far from being the case), nor + because I am truly grateful to you for, and have been made truly + proud by, that affectionate and elegant tribute which ---- sent me, + but because you are a man after my own heart, and I love you _well_. + And for the love I bear you, and the pleasure with which I shall + always think of you, and the glow I shall feel when I see your + handwriting in my own home, I hereby enter into a solemn league, and + covenant to write as many letters to you as you write to me, at + least. Amen. + + Come to England! Come to England! Our oysters are small I know; they + are said by Americans to be coppery, but our hearts are of the + largest size. We are thought to excel in shrimps, to be far from + despicable in point of lobsters, and in periwinkles are considered + to challenge the universe. Our oysters, small though they be, are + not devoid of the refreshing influence which that species of fish is + supposed to exercise in these latitudes. Try them and compare. + + Affectionately yours, + + CHARLES DICKENS. + +His next letter is dated from Niagara, and I know every one will relish +his allusion to oysters with wet feet, and his reference to the +squeezing of a Quaker. + + Clifton House, Niagara Falls, 29th April, 1842. + + My Dear Felton: Before I go any farther, let me explain to you what + these great enclosures portend, lest--supposing them part and parcel + of my letter, and asking to be read--you shall fall into fits, from + which recovery might be doubtful. + + They are, as you will see, four copies of the same thing. The nature + of the document you will discover at a glance. As I hoped and + believed, the best of the British brotherhood took fire at my being + attacked because I spoke my mind and theirs on the subject of an + international copyright; and with all good speed, and hearty private + letters, transmitted to me this small parcel of gauntlets for + immediate casting down. + + Now my first idea was, publicity being the object, to send one copy + to you for a Boston newspaper, another to Bryant for his paper, a + third to the New York Herald (because of its large circulation), and + a fourth to a highly respectable journal at Washington (the property + of a gentleman, and a fine fellow named Seaton, whom I knew there), + which I think is called the Intelligencer. Then the Knickerbocker + stepped into my mind, and then it occurred to me that possibly the + North American Review might be the best organ after all, because + indisputably the most respectable and honorable, and the most + concerned in the rights of literature. + + Whether to limit its publication to one journal, or to extend it to + several, is a question so very difficult of decision to a stranger, + that I have finally resolved to send these papers to you, and ask + you (mindful of the conversation we had on this head one day, in + that renowned oyster-cellar) to resolve the point for me. You need + feel no weighty sense of responsibility, my dear Felton, for + whatever you do is _sure_ to please me. If you see Sumner, take him + into our councils. The only two things to be borne in mind are, + first, that if they be published in several quarters, they must be + published in all _simultaneously_; secondly, that I hold them in + trust, to put them before the people. + + I fear this is imposing a heavy tax upon your friendship; and I + don't fear it the less, by reason of being well assured that it is + one you will most readily pay. I shall be in Montreal about the 11th + of May. Will you write to me there, to the care of the Earl of + Mulgrave, and tell me what you have done? + + So much for that. Bisness first, pleasure artervards, as King + Richard the Third said ven he stabbed the tother king in the Tower, + afore he murdered the babbies. + + I have long suspected that oysters have a rheumatic tendency. Their + feet are always wet; and so much damp company in a man's inside + cannot contribute to his peace. But whatever the cause of your + indisposition, we are truly grieved and pained to hear of it, and + should be more so, but that we hope from your account of that + farewell dinner, that you are all right again. I _did_ receive + Longfellow's note. Sumner I have not yet heard from; for which + reason I am constantly bringing telescopes to bear on the ferryboat, + in hopes to see him coming over, accompanied by a modest + portmanteau. + + To say anything about this wonderful place would be sheer nonsense. + It far exceeds my most sanguine expectations, though the impression + on my mind has been, from the first, nothing but beauty and peace. I + haven't drunk the water. Bearing in mind your caution, I have + devoted myself to beer, whereof there is an exceedingly pretty fall + in this house. + + One of the noble hearts who sat for the Cheeryble brothers is dead. + If I had been in England, I would certainly have gone into mourning + for the loss of such a glorious life. His brother is not expected to + survive him. I am told that it appears from a memorandum found among + the papers of the deceased, that in his lifetime he gave away in + charity L600,000, or three millions of dollars! + + What do you say to my _acting_ at the Montreal Theatre? I am an old + hand at such matters, and am going to join the officers of the + garrison in a public representation for the benefit of a local + charity. We shall have a good house, they say. I am going to enact + one Mr. Snobbington in a funny farce called A Good Night's Rest. I + shall want a flaxen wig and eyebrows; and my nightly rest is broken + by visions of there being no such commodities in Canada. I wake in + the dead of night in a cold perspiration, surrounded by imaginary + barbers, all denying the existence or possibility of obtaining such + articles. If ---- had a flaxen head, I would certainly have it + shaved and get a wig and eyebrows out of him, for a small pecuniary + compensation. + + By the by, if you could only have seen the man at Harrisburg, + crushing a friendly Quaker in the parlor door! It was the greatest + sight I ever saw. I had told him not to admit anybody whatever, + forgetting that I had previously given this honest Quaker a special + invitation to come. The Quaker would not be denied, and H. was + stanch. When I came upon them, the Quaker was black in the face, and + H. was administering the final squeeze. The Quaker was still rubbing + his waistcoat with an expression of acute inward suffering, when I + left the town. I have been looking for his death in the newspapers + almost daily. + + Do you know one General G.? He is a weazen-faced warrior, and in his + dotage. I had him for a fellow-passenger on board a steamboat. I had + also a statistical colonel with me, outside the coach from + Cincinnati to Columbus. A New England poet buzzed about me on the + Ohio, like a gigantic bee. A mesmeric doctor, of an impossibly great + age, gave me pamphlets at Louisville. I have suffered much, very + much. + + If I could get beyond New York to see anybody, it would be (as you + know) to see _you_. But I do not expect to reach the "Carlton" until + the last day of May, and then we are going with the Coldens + somewhere on the banks of the North River for a couple of days. So + you see we shall not have much leisure for our voyaging + preparations. + + You and Dr. Howe (to whom my love) MUST come to New York. On the 6th + of June, you must engage yourselves to dine with us at the + "Carlton"; and if we don't make a merry evening of it, the fault + shall not be in us. + + Mrs. Dickens unites with me in best regards to Mrs. Felton and your + little daughter, and I am always, my dear Felton, + + Affectionately your friend, + + CHARLES DICKENS. + + P.S. I saw a good deal of Walker at Cincinnati. I like him very + much. We took to him mightily at first, because he resembled you in + face and figure, we thought. You will be glad to hear that our news + from home is cheering from first to last, all well, happy, and + loving. My friend Forster says in his last letter that he "wants to + know you," and looks forward to Longfellow. + +When Dickens arrived in Montreal he had, it seems, a busy time of it, +and I have often heard of his capital acting in private theatricals +while in that city. + + Montreal, Saturday, 21st May, 1842. + + My Dear Felton: I was delighted to receive your letter yesterday, + and was well pleased with its contents. I anticipated objection to + Carlyle's letter. I called particular attention to it for three + reasons. Firstly, because he boldly _said_ what all the others + _think_, and therefore deserved to be manfully supported. Secondly, + because it is my deliberate opinion that I have been assailed on + this subject in a manner in which no man with any pretensions to + public respect or with the remotest right to express an opinion on + a subject of universal literary interest would be assailed in any + other country..... + + I really cannot sufficiently thank you, dear Felton, for your warm + and hearty interest in these proceedings. But it would be idle to + pursue that theme, so let it pass. + + The wig and whiskers are in a state of the highest preservation. The + play comes off next Wednesday night, the 25th. What would I give to + see you in the front row of the centre box, your spectacles gleaming + not unlike those of my dear friend Pickwick, your face radiant with + as broad a grin as a staid professor may indulge in, and your very + coat, waistcoat, and shoulders expressive of what we should take + together when the performance was over! I would give something (not + so much, but still a good round sum) if you could only stumble into + that very dark and dusty theatre in the daytime (at any minute + between twelve and three), and see me with my coat off, the stage + manager and universal director, urging impracticable ladies and + impossible gentlemen on to the very confines of insanity, shouting + and driving about, in my own person, to an extent which would + justify any philanthropic stranger in clapping me into a + strait-waistcoat without further inquiry, endeavoring to goad H. + into some dim and faint understanding of a prompter's duties, and + struggling in such a vortex of noise, dirt, bustle, confusion, and + inextricable entanglement of speech and action as you would grow + giddy in contemplating. We perform A Roland for an Oliver, A good + Night's Rest, and Deaf as a Post. This kind of voluntary hard labor + used to be my great delight. The _furor_ has come strong upon me + again, and I begin to be once more of opinion that nature intended + me for the lessee of a national theatre, and that pen, ink, and + paper have spoiled a manager. + + O, how I look forward across that rolling water to home and its + small tenantry! How I busy myself in thinking how my books look, and + where the tables are, and in what positions the chairs stand + relatively to the other furniture; and whether we shall get there in + the night, or in the morning, or in the afternoon; and whether we + shall be able to surprise them, or whether they will be too sharply + looking out for us; and what our pets will say; and how they'll + look, and who will be the first to come and shake hands, and so + forth! If I could but tell you how I have set my heart on rushing + into Forster's study (he is my great friend, and writes at the + bottom of all his letters, "My love to Felton"), and into Maclise's + painting-room, and into Macready's managerial ditto, without a + moment's warning, and how I picture every little trait and + circumstance of our arrival to myself, down to the very color of the + bow on the cook's cap, you would almost think I had changed places + with my eldest son, and was still in pantaloons of the thinnest + texture. I left all these things--God only knows what a love I have + for them--as coolly and calmly as any animated cucumber; but when I + come upon them again I shall have lost all power of self-restraint, + and shall as certainly make a fool of myself (in the popular meaning + of that expression) as ever Grimaldi did in his way, or George III. + in his. + + And not the less so, dear Felton, for having found some warm hearts, + and left some instalments of earnest and sincere affection, behind + me on this continent. And whenever I turn my mental telescope + hitherward, trust me that one of the first figures it will descry + will wear spectacles so like yours that the maker couldn't tell the + difference, and shall address a Greek class in such an exact + imitation of your voice, that the very students hearing it should + cry, "That's he! Three cheers. Hoo-ray-ay-ay-ay-ay!" + + About those joints of yours, I think you are mistaken. They _can't_ + be stiff. At the worst they merely want the air of New York, which, + being impregnated with the flavor of last year's oysters, has a + surprising effect in rendering the human frame supple and flexible + in all cases of rust. + + A terrible idea occurred to me as I wrote those words. The + oyster-cellars,--what do they do when oysters are not in season? Is + pickled salmon vended there? Do they sell crabs, shrimps, winkles, + herrings? The oyster-openers,--what do _they_ do? Do they commit + suicide in despair, or wrench open tight drawers and cupboards and + hermetically sealed bottles for practice? Perhaps they are dentists + out of the oyster season. Who knows? + + Affectionately yours, + + CHARLES DICKENS. + +Dickens always greatly rejoiced in the theatre; and, having seen him act +with the Amateur Company of the Guild of Literature and Art, I can well +imagine the delight his impersonations in Montreal must have occasioned. +I have seen him play Sir Charles Coldstream, in the comedy of Used Up, +with such perfection that all other performers in the same part have +seemed dull by comparison. Even Matthews, superb artist as he is, could +not rival Dickens in the character of Sir Charles. Once I saw Dickens, +Mark Lemon, and Wilkie Collins on the stage together. The play was +called Mrs. Nightingale's Diary (a farce in one act, the joint +production of Dickens and Mark Lemon), and Dickens played six characters +in the piece. Never have I seen such wonderful changes of face and form +as he gave us that night. He was alternately a rattling lawyer of the +Middle Temple, a boots, an eccentric pedestrian and cold-water drinker, +a deaf sexton, an invalid captain, and an old woman. What fun it was, to +be sure, and how we roared over the performance! Here is the playbill +which I held in my hand nineteen years ago, while the great writer was +proving himself to be as pre-eminent an actor as he was an author. One +can see by reading the bill that Dickens was manager of the company, and +that it was under his direction that the plays were produced. Observe +the clear evidence of his hand in the very wording of the bill:-- + + "On Wednesday evening, September 1, 1852. + + "THE AMATEUR COMPANY + OF THE + GUILD OF LITERATURE AND ART; + +To encourage Life Assurance and other provident habits among Authors +and Artists; to render such assistance to both as shall never +compromise their independence; and to found a new Institution where +honorable rest from arduous labors shall still be associated with +the discharge of congenial duties; + +"Will have the honor of presenting," etc., etc., + +But let us go on with the letters. Here is the first one to his friend +after Dickens arrived home again in England. It is delightful, through +and through. + + London, 1 Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regent's Park, Sunday, July + 31, 1842. + + My Dear Felton: Of all the monstrous and incalculable amount of + occupation that ever beset one unfortunate man, mine has been the + most stupendous since I came home. The dinners I have had to eat, + the places I have had to go to, the letters I have had to answer, + the sea of business and of pleasure in which I have been plunged, + not even the genius of an ---- or the pen of a ---- could describe. + + Wherefore I indite a monstrously short and wildly uninteresting + epistle to the American Dando, but perhaps you don't know who Dando + was. He was an oyster-eater, my dear Felton. He used to go into + oyster-shops, without a farthing of money, and stand at the counter + eating natives, until the man who opened them grew pale, cast down + his knife, staggered backward, struck his white forehead with his + open hand, and cried, "You are Dando!!!" He has been known to eat + twenty dozen at one sitting, and would have eaten forty, if the + truth had not flashed upon the shopkeeper. For these offences he was + constantly committed to the House of Correction. During his last + imprisonment he was taken ill, got worse and worse, and at last + began knocking violent double-knocks at Death's door. The doctor + stood beside his bed, with his fingers on his pulse. "He is going," + says the doctor. "I see it in his eye. There is only one thing that + would keep life in him for another hour, and that is--oysters." They + were immediately brought. Dando swallowed eight, and feebly took a + ninth. He held it in his mouth and looked round the bed strangely. + "Not a bad one, is it?" says the doctor. The patient shook his head, + rubbed his trembling hand upon his stomach, bolted the oyster, and + fell back--dead. They buried him in the prison yard, and paved his + grave with oyster-shells. + + We are all well and hearty, and have already begun to wonder what + time next year you and Mrs. Felton and Dr. Howe will come across the + briny sea together. To-morrow we go to the seaside for two months. I + am looking out for news of Longfellow, and shall be delighted when I + know that he is on his way to London and this house. + + I am bent upon striking at the piratical newspapers with the + sharpest edge I can put upon my small axe, and hope in the next + session of Parliament to stop their entrance into Canada. For the + first time within the memory of man, the professors of English + literature seem disposed to act together on this question. It is a + good thing to aggravate a scoundrel, if one can do nothing else, and + I think we can make them smart a little in this way.... + + I wish you had been at Greenwich the other day, where a party of + friends gave me a private dinner; public ones I have refused. C. was + perfectly wild at the reunion, and, after singing all manner of + marine songs, wound up the entertainment by coming home (six miles) + in a little open phaeton of mine, _on his head_, to the mingled + delight and indignation of the metropolitan police. We were very + jovial indeed; and I assure you that I drank your health with + fearful vigor and energy. + + On board that ship coming home I established a club, called the + United Vagabonds, to the large amusement of the rest of the + passengers. This holy brotherhood committed all kinds of + absurdities, and dined always, with a variety of solemn forms, at + one end of the table, below the mast, away from all the rest. The + captain being ill when we were three or four days out, I produced my + medicine-chest and recovered him. We had a few more sick men after + that, and I went round "the wards" every day in great state, + accompanied by two Vagabonds, habited as Ben Allen and Bob Sawyer, + bearing enormous rolls of plaster and huge pairs of scissors. We + were really very merry all the way, breakfasted in one party at + Liverpool, shook hands, and parted most cordially.... + + Affectionately + + Your faithful friend, + + C.D. + + P.S. I have looked over my journal, and have decided to produce my + American trip in two volumes. I have written about half the first + since I came home, and hope to be out in October. This is "exclusive + news," to be communicated to any friends to whom you may like to + intrust it, my dear F. + +What a capital epistolary pen Dickens held! He seems never to have +written the shortest note without something piquant in it; and when he +attempted a _letter_, he always made it entertaining from sheer force of +habit. + +When I think of this man, and all the lasting good and abounding +pleasure he has brought into the world, I wonder at the superstition +that dares to arraign him. A sound philosopher once said: "He that +thinks any innocent pastime foolish has either to grow wiser, or is past +the ability to do so"; and I have always counted it an impudent fiction +that playfulness is inconsistent with greatness. Many men and women have +died of Dignity, but the disease which sent them to the tomb was not +contracted from Charles Dickens. Not long ago, I met in the street a +bleak old character, full of dogmatism, egotism, and rheumatism, who +complained that Dickens had "too much exuberant sociality" in his books +for _him_, and he wondered how any one could get through Pickwick. My +solemn friend evidently preferred the dropping-down-deadness of manner, +which he had been accustomed to find in Hervey's "Meditations," and +other kindred authors, where it always seems to be urged that life would +be endurable but for its pleasures. A person once commended to my +acquaintance an individual whom he described as "a fine, pompous, +gentlemanly man," and I thought it prudent, under the circumstances, to +decline the proffered introduction. + +But I will proceed with those outbursts of bright-heartedness vouchsafed +to us in Dickens's letters. To me these epistles are good as fresh +"Uncommercials," or unpublished "Sketches by Boz." + + 1 Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regent's Park, London, 1st + September, 1842. + + My Dear Felton: Of course that letter in the papers was as foul a + forgery as ever felon swung for.... I have not contradicted it + publicly, nor shall I. When I tilt at such wringings out of the + dirtiest mortality, I shall be another man--indeed, almost the + creature they would make me. + + I gave your message to Forster, who sends a despatch-box full of + kind remembrances in return. He is in a great state of delight with + the first volume of my American book (which I have just finished), + and swears loudly by it. It is _True_, and Honorable I know, and I + shall hope to send it you, complete, by the first steamer in + November. + + Your description of the porter and the carpet-bags prepares me for a + first-rate facetious novel, brimful of the richest humor, on which I + have no doubt you are engaged. What is it called? Sometimes I + imagine the title-page thus:-- + + OYSTERS + IN + EVERY STYLE + or + OPENINGS + OF + LIFE + by + YOUNG DANDO. + + As to the man putting the luggage on his head, as a sort of sign, I + adopt it from this hour. + + I date this from London, where I have come, as a good, profligate, + graceless bachelor, for a day or two; leaving my wife and babbies at + the seaside.... Heavens! if you were but here at this minute! A + piece of salmon and a steak are cooking in the kitchen; it's a very + wet day, and I have had a fire lighted; the wine sparkles on a + side-table; the room looks the more snug from being the only + undismantled one in the house; plates are warming for Forster and + Maclise, whose knock I am momentarily expecting; that groom I told + you of, who never comes into the house, except when we are all out + of town, is walking about in his shirt-sleeves without the smallest + consciousness of impropriety; a great mound of proofs are waiting to + be read aloud, after dinner. With what a shout I would clap you down + into the easiest chair, my genial Felton, if you would but appear, + and order you a pair of slippers instantly! + + Since I have written this, the aforesaid groom--a very small man (as + the fashion is) with fiery-red hair (as the fashion is _not_)--has + looked very hard at me and fluttered about me at the same time, like + a giant butterfly. After a pause, he says, in a Sam Wellerish kind + of way: "I vent to the club this mornin', sir. There vorn't no + letters, sir." "Very good. Topping." "How's missis, sir?" "Pretty + well, Topping." "Glad to hear it, sir. My missis ain't wery well, + sir." "No!" "No, sir, she's a goin', sir, to have a hincrease wery + soon, and it makes her rather nervous, sir; and ven a young voman + gets at all down at sich a time, sir, she goes down wery deep, sir." + To this sentiment I reply affirmatively, and then he adds, as he + stirs the fire (as if he were thinking out loud), "Wot a mystery it + is! Wot a go is natur'!" With which scrap of philosophy, he + gradually gets nearer to the door, and so fades out of the room. + This same man asked me one day, soon after I came home, what Sir + John Wilson was. This is a friend of mine, who took our house and + servants, and everything as it stood, during our absence in America. + I told him an officer. "A wot, sir?" "An officer." And then, for + fear he should think I meant a police-officer, I added, "An officer + in the army." "I beg your pardon, sir," he said, touching his hat, + "but the club as I always drove him to wos the United Servants." + + The real name of this club is the United Service, but I have no + doubt he thought it was a high-life-below-stairs kind of resort, and + that this gentleman was a retired butler or superannuated footman. + + There's the knock, and the Great Western sails, or steams rather, + to-morrow. Write soon again, dear Felton, and ever believe me, ... + + Your affectionate friend, + + CHARLES DICKENS. + + P.S. All good angels prosper Dr. Howe. He, at least, will not like + me the less, I hope, for what I shall say of Laura. + + + London, 1 Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regent's Park, 31st + December, 1842. + + My Dear Felton: Many and many happy New Years to you and yours! As + many happy children as may be quite convenient (no more)! and as + many happy meetings between them and our children, and between you + and us, as the kind fates in their utmost kindness shall favorably + decree! + + The American book (to begin with that) has been a most complete and + thorough-going success. Four large editions have now been sold _and + paid for_, and it has won golden opinions from all sorts of men, + except our friend in F----, who is a miserable creature; a + disappointed man in great poverty, to whom I have ever been most + kind and considerate (I need scarcely say that); and another friend + in B----, no less a person than an illustrious gentleman named ----, + who wrote a story called ----. They have done no harm, and have + fallen short of their mark, which, of course, was to annoy me. Now I + am perfectly free from any diseased curiosity in such respects, and + whenever I hear of a notice of this kind, I never read it; whereby I + always conceive (don't you?) that I get the victory. With regard to + your slave-owners, they may cry, till they are as black in the face + as their own slaves, that Dickens lies. Dickens does not write for + their satisfaction, and Dickens will not explain for their comfort. + Dickens has the name and date of every newspaper in which every one + of those advertisements appeared, as they know perfectly well; but + Dickens does not choose to give them, and will not at any time + between this and the day of judgment.... + + I have been hard at work on my new book, of which the first number + has just appeared. The Paul Joneses who pursue happiness and profit + at other men's cost will no doubt enable you to read it, almost as + soon as you receive this. I hope you will like it. And I + particularly commend, my dear Felton, one Mr. Pecksniff and his + daughters to your tender regards. I have a kind of liking for them + myself. + + Blessed star of morning, such a trip as we had into Cornwall, just + after Longfellow went away! The "we" means Forster, Maclise, + Stanfield (the renowned marine painter), and the Inimitable Boz. We + went down into Devonshire by the railroad, and there we hired an + open carriage from an innkeeper, patriotic in all Pickwick matters, + and went on with post horses. Sometimes we travelled all night, + sometimes all day, sometimes both. I kept the joint-stock purse, + ordered all the dinners, paid all the turnpikes, conducted facetious + conversations with the post boys, and regulated the pace at which we + travelled. Stanfield (an old sailor) consulted an enormous map on + all disputed points of wayfaring; and referred, moreover, to a + pocket-compass and other scientific instruments. The luggage was in + Forster's department; and Maclise, having nothing particular to do, + sang songs. Heavens! If you could have seen the necks of + bottles--distracting in their immense varieties of shape--peering + out of the carriage pockets! If you could have witnessed the deep + devotion of the post-boys, the wild attachment of the hostlers, the + maniac glee of the waiters. If you could have followed us into the + earthy old churches we visited, and into the strange caverns on the + gloomy sea-shore, and down into the depths of mines, and up to the + tops of giddy heights where the unspeakably green water was roaring, + I don't know how many hundred feet below! If you could have seen but + one gleam of the bright fires by which we sat in the big rooms of + ancient inns at night, until long after the small hours had come and + gone, or smelt but one steam of the HOT punch (not white, dear + Felton, like that amazing compound I sent you a taste of, but a + rich, genial, glowing brown) which came in every evening in a huge + broad china bowl! I never laughed in my life as I did on this + journey. It would have done you good to hear me. I was choking and + gasping and bursting the buckle off the back of my stock, all the + way. And Stanfield (who is very much of your figure and temperament, + but fifteen years older) got into such apoplectic entanglements + that we were often obliged to beat him on the back with portmanteaus + before we could recover him. Seriously, I do believe there never was + such a trip. And they made such sketches, those two men, in the most + romantic of our halting-places, that you would have sworn we had the + Spirit of Beauty with us, as well as the Spirit of Fun. But stop + till you come to England,--I say no more. + + The actuary of the national debt couldn't calculate the number of + children who are coming here on Twelfth Night, in honor of Charley's + birthday, for which occasion I have provided a magic lantern and + divers other tremendous engines of that nature. But the best of it + is that Forster and I have purchased between us the entire stock in + trade of a conjurer, the practice and display whereof is intrusted + to me. And O my dear eyes, Felton, if you could see me conjuring the + company's watches into impossible tea-caddies, and causing pieces of + money to fly, and burning pocket-handkerchiefs without hurting 'em, + and practising in my own room, without anybody to admire, you would + never forget as long as you live. In those tricks which require a + confederate, I am assisted (by reason of his imperturbable + good-humor) by Stanfield, who always does his part exactly the wrong + way, to the unspeakable delight of all beholders. We come out on a + small scale, to-night, at Forster's, where we see the old year out + and the new one in. Particulars of shall be forwarded in my next. + + I have quite made up my mind that F---- really believes he _does_ + know you personally, and has all his life. He talks to me about you + with such gravity that I am afraid to grin, and feel it necessary to + look quite serious. Sometimes he _tells_ me things about you, + doesn't ask me, you know, so that I am occasionally perplexed beyond + all telling, and begin to think it was he, and not I, who went to + America. It's the queerest thing in the world. + + The book I was to have given Longfellow for you is not worth sending + by itself, being only a Barnaby. But I will look up some manuscript + for you (I think I have that of the American Notes complete), and + will try to make the parcel better worth its long conveyance. With + regard to Maclise's pictures, you certainly are quite right in your + impression of them; but he is "such a discursive devil" (as he says + about himself), and flies off at such odd tangents, that I feel it + difficult to convey to you any general notion of his purpose. I will + try to do so when I write again. I want very much to know about ---- + and that charming girl..... Give me full particulars. Will you + remember me cordially to Sumner, and say I thank him for his + welcome letter? The like to Hillard, with many regards to himself + and his wife, with whom I had one night a little conversation which + I shall not readily forget. The like to Washington Allston, and all + friends who care for me and have outlived my book.... Always, my + dear Felton, + + With true regard and affection, yours, + + CHARLES DICKENS. + +Here is a letter that seems to me something tremendous in its fun and +pathos:-- + + + 1 Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regent's Park, London, 2d March, + 1843. + + My Dear Felton: I don't know where to begin, but plunge headlong + with a terrible splash into this letter, on the chance of turning up + somewhere. + + Hurrah! Up like a cork again, with the "North American Review" in my + hand. Like you, my dear ----, and I can say no more in praise of it, + though I go on to the end of the sheet. You cannot think how much + notice it has attracted here. Brougham called the other day, with + the number (thinking I might not have seen it), and I being out at + the time, he left a note, speaking of it, and of the writer, in + terms that warmed my heart. Lord Ashburton (one of whose people + wrote a notice in the "Edinburgh," which they have since publicly + contradicted) also wrote to me about it in just the same strain. And + many others have done the like. + + I am in great health and spirits and powdering away at Chuzzlewit, + with all manner of facetiousness rising up before me as I go on. As + to news, I have really none, saving that ---- (who never took any + exercise in his life) has been laid up with rheumatism for weeks + past, but is now, I hope, getting better. My little captain, as I + call him,--he who took me out, I mean, and with whom I had that + adventure of the cork soles,--has been in London too, and seeing all + the lions under my escort. Good heavens! I wish you could have seen + certain other mahogany-faced men (also captains) who used to call + here for him in the morning, and bear him off to docks and rivers + and all sorts of queer places, whence he always returned late at + night, with rum-and-water tear-drops in his eyes, and a complication + of punchy smells in his mouth! He was better than a comedy to us, + having marvellous ways of tying his pocket-handkerchief round his + neck at dinner-time in a kind of jolly embarrassment, and then + forgetting what he had done with it; also of singing songs to wrong + tunes, and calling land objects by sea names, and never knowing + what o'clock it was, but taking midnight for seven in the evening; + with many other sailor oddities, all full of honesty, manliness, and + good temper. We took him to Drury Lane Theatre to see Much Ado About + Nothing. But I never could find out what he meant by turning round, + after he had watched the first two scenes with great attention, and + inquiring "whether it was a Polish piece." ... + + On the 4th of April I am going to preside at a public dinner for the + benefit of the printers; and if you were a guest at that table, + wouldn't I smite you on the shoulder, harder than ever I rapped the + well-beloved back of Washington Irving at the City Hotel in New + York! + + You were asking me--I love to say asking, as if we could talk + together--about Maclise. He is such a discursive fellow, and so + eccentric in his might, that on a mental review of his pictures I + can hardly tell you of them as leading to any one strong purpose. + But the annual Exhibition of the Royal Academy comes off in May, and + then I will endeavor to give you some notion of him. He is a + tremendous creature, and might do anything. But, like all tremendous + creatures, he takes his own way, and flies off at unexpected + breaches in the conventional wall. + + You know H----'s Book, I daresay. Ah! I saw a scene of mingled + comicality and seriousness at his funeral some weeks ago, which has + choked me at dinner-time ever since. C---- and I went as mourners; + and as he lived, poor fellow, five miles out of town, I drove C---- + down. It was such a day as I hope, for the credit of nature, is + seldom seen in any parts but these,--muddy, foggy, wet, dark, cold, + and unutterably wretched in every possible respect. Now, C---- has + enormous whiskers, which straggle all down his throat in such + weather, and stick out in front of him, like a partially unravelled + bird's-nest; so that he looks queer enough at the best, but when he + is very wet, and in a state between jollity (he is always very jolly + with me) and the deepest gravity (going to a funeral, you know), it + is utterly impossible to resist him; especially as he makes the + strangest remarks the mind of man can conceive, without any + intention of being funny, but rather meaning to be philosophical. I + really cried with an irresistible sense of his comicality all the + way; but when he was dressed out in a black cloak and a very long + black hat-band by an undertaker (who, as he whispered me with tears + in his eyes--for he had known H---- many years--was "a character, + and he would like to sketch him"), I thought I should have been + obliged to go away. However, we went into a little parlor where the + funeral party was, and God knows it was miserable enough, for the + widow and children were crying bitterly in one corner, and the other + mourners--mere people of ceremony, who cared no more for the dead + man than the hearse did--were talking quite coolly and carelessly + together in another; and the contrast was as painful and distressing + as anything I ever saw. There was an independent clergyman present, + with his bands on and a Bible under his arm, who, as soon as we were + seated, addressed ---- thus, in a loud, emphatic voice: "Mr. C----, + have you seen a paragraph respecting our departed friend, which has + gone the round of the morning papers?" "Yes, sir," says C----, "I + have," looking very hard at me the while, for he had told me with + some pride coming down that it was his composition. "Oh!" said the + clergyman. "Then you will agree with me, Mr. C----, that it is not + only an insult to me, who am the servant of the Almighty, but an + insult to the Almighty, whose servant I am." "How is that, sir?" + said C----. "It is stated, Mr. C----, in that paragraph," says the + minister, "that when Mr. H---- failed in business as a bookseller, + he was persuaded by _me_ to try the pulpit, which is false, + incorrect, unchristian, in a manner blasphemous, and in all respects + contemptible. Let us pray." With which, my dear Felton, and in the + same breath, I give you my word, he knelt down, as we all did, and + began a very miserable jumble of an extemporary prayer. I was really + penetrated with sorrow for the family, but when C---- (upon his + knees, and sobbing for the loss of an old friend) whispered me, + "that if that wasn't a clergyman, and it wasn't a funeral, he'd have + punched his head," I felt as if nothing but convulsions could + possibly relieve me..... + + Faithfully always, my dear Felton, + + C.D. + +Was there ever such a genial, jovial creature as this master of humor! +When we read his friendly epistles, we cannot help wishing he had +written letters only, as when we read his novels we grudge the time he +employed on anything else. + + Broadstairs, Kent, 1st September, 1843. + + My Dear Felton: If I thought it in the nature of things that you and + I could ever agree on paper, touching a certain Chuzzlewitian + question whereupon F---- tells me you have remarks to make, I should + immediately walk into the same, tooth and nail. But as I don't, I + won't. Contenting myself with this prediction, that one of these + years and days, you will write or say to me, "My dear Dickens, you + were right, though rough, and did a world of good, though you got + most thoroughly hated for it." To which I shall reply, "My dear + Felton, I looked a long way off and not immediately under my nose." + ... At which sentiment you will laugh, and I shall laugh; and then + (for I foresee this will all happen in my land) we shall call for + another pot of porter and two or three dozen of oysters. + + Now don't you in your own heart and soul quarrel with me for this + long silence? Not half so much as I quarrel with myself, I know; but + if you could read half the letters I write to you in imagination, + you would swear by me for the best of correspondents. The truth is, + that when I have done my morning's work, down goes my pen, and from + that minute I feel it a positive impossibility to take it up again, + until imaginary butchers and bakers wave me to my desk. I walk about + brimful of letters, facetious descriptions, touching morsels, and + pathetic friendships, but can't for the soul of me uncork myself. + The post-office is my rock ahead. My average number of letters that + _must_ be written every day is, at the least, a dozen. And you could + no more know what I was writing to you spiritually, from the perusal + of the bodily thirteenth, than you could tell from my hat what was + going on in my head, or could read my heart on the surface of my + flannel waistcoat. + + This is a little fishing-place; intensely quiet; built on a cliff + whereon--in the centre of a tiny semicircular bay--our house stands; + the sea rolling and dashing under the windows. Seven miles out are + the Goodwin Sands, (you've heard of the Goodwin Sands?) whence + floating lights perpetually wink after dark, as if they were + carrying on intrigues with the servants. Also there is a big + lighthouse called the North Foreland on a hill behind the village, a + severe parsonic light, which reproves the young and giddy floaters, + and stares grimly out upon the sea. Under the cliff are rare good + sands, where all the children assemble every morning and throw up + impossible fortifications, which the sea throws down again at high + water. Old gentlemen and ancient ladies flirt after their own manner + in two reading-rooms and on a great many scattered seats in the open + air. Other old gentlemen look all day through telescopes and never + see anything. In a bay-window in a one pair sits from nine o'clock + to one a gentleman with rather long hair and no neckcloth, who + writes and grins as if he thought he were very funny indeed. His + name is Boz. At one he disappears, and presently emerges from a + bathing-machine, and may be seen--a kind of salmon-colored + porpoise--splashing about in the ocean. After that he may be seen + in another bay-window on the ground-floor, eating a strong lunch; + after that, walking a dozen miles or so, or lying on his back in the + sand reading a book. Nobody bothers him unless they know he is + disposed to be talked to; and I am told he is very comfortable + indeed. He's as brown as a berry, and they _do_ say is a small + fortune to the innkeeper who sells beer and cold punch. But this is + mere rumor. Sometimes he goes up to London (eighty miles, or so, + away), and then I'm told there is a sound in Lincoln Inn Fields at + night, as of men laughing, together with a clinking of knives and + forks and wine-glasses. + + I never shall have been so near you since we parted aboard the + George Washington as next Tuesday. Forster, Maclise, and I, and + perhaps Stanfield, are then going aboard the Cunard steamer at + Liverpool, to bid Macready good by, and bring his wife away. It will + be a very hard parting. You will see and know him of course. We gave + him a splendid dinner last Saturday at Richmond, whereat I presided + with my accustomed grace. He is one of the noblest fellows in the + world, and I would give a great deal that you and I should sit + beside each other to see him play Virginius, Lear, or Werner, which + I take to be, every way, the greatest piece of exquisite perfection + that his lofty art is capable of attaining. His Macbeth, especially + the last act, is a tremendous reality; but so indeed is almost + everything he does. You recollect, perhaps, that he was the guardian + of our children while we were away. I love him dearly.... + + You asked me, long ago, about Maclise. He is such a wayward fellow + in his subjects, that it would be next to impossible to write such + an article as you were thinking of about him. I wish you could form + an idea of his genius. One of these days a book will come out, + "Moore's Irish Melodies," entirely illustrated by him, on every + page. _When_ it comes, I'll send it to you. You will have some + notion of him then. He is in great favor with the queen, and paints + secret pictures for her to put upon her husband's table on the + morning of his birthday, and the like. But if he has a care, he will + leave his mark on more enduring things than palace walls. + + And so L---- is married. I remember _her_ well, and could draw her + portrait, in words, to the life. A very beautiful and gentle + creature, and a proper love for a poet. My cordial remembrances and + congratulations. Do they live in the house where we breakfasted?.... + + I very often dream I am in America again; but, strange to say, I + never dream of you. I am always endeavoring to get home in disguise, + and have a dreary sense of the distance. _Apropos_ of dreams, is it + not a strange thing if writers of fiction never dream of their own + creations; recollecting, I suppose, even in their dreams, that they + have no real existence? _I_ never dreamed of any of my own + characters, and I feel it so impossible that I would wager Scott + never did of his, real as they are. I had a good piece of absurdity + in my head a night or two ago. I dreamed that somebody was dead. I + don't know who, but it's not to the purpose. It was a private + gentleman, and a particular friend; and I was greatly overcome when + the news was broken to me (very delicately) by a gentleman in a + cocked hat, top boots, and a sheet. Nothing else. "Good God!" I + said, "is he dead?" "He is as dead, sir," rejoined the gentleman, + "as a door-nail. But we must all die, Mr. Dickens; sooner or later, + my dear sir." "Ah!" I said. "Yes, to be sure. Very true. But what + did he die of?" The gentleman burst into a flood of tears, and said, + in a voice broken by emotion: "He christened his youngest child, + sir, with a toasting-fork." I never in my life was so affected as at + his having fallen a victim to this complaint. It carried a + conviction to my mind that he never could have recovered. I knew + that it was the most interesting and fatal malady in the world; and + I wrung the gentleman's hand in a convulsion of respectful + admiration, for I felt that this explanation did equal honor to his + head and heart! + + What do you think of Mrs. Gamp? And how do you like the undertaker? + I have a fancy that they are in your way. O heaven! such green woods + as I was rambling among down in Yorkshire, when I was getting that + done last July! For days and weeks we never saw the sky but through + green boughs; and all day long I cantered over such soft moss and + turf, that the horse's feet scarcely made a sound upon it. We have + some friends in that part of the country (close to Castle Howard, + where Lord Morpeth's father dwells in state, _in_ his park indeed), + who are the jolliest of the jolly, keeping a big old country house, + with an ale cellar something larger than a reasonable church, and + everything like Goldsmith's bear dances, "in a concatenation + accordingly." Just the place for you, Felton! We performed some + madnesses there in the way of forfeits, picnics, rustic games, + inspections of ancient monasteries at midnight, when the moon was + shining, that would have gone to your heart, and, as Mr. Weller + says, "come out on the other side." ... + + Write soon, my dear Felton; and if I write to you less often than I + would, believe that my affectionate heart is with you always. Loves + and regards to all friends, from yours ever and ever, + + CHARLES DICKENS. + +These letters grow better and better as we get on. Ah me! and to think +we shall have no more from that delightful pen! + + Devonshire Terrace, London, January 2, 1844. + + My Very Dear Felton: You are a prophet, and had best retire from + business straightway. Yesterday morning, New Year's day, when I + walked into my little workroom after breakfast, and was looking out + of window at the snow in the garden,--not seeing it particularly + well in consequence of some staggering suggestions of last night, + whereby I was beset,--the postman came to the door with a knock, for + which I denounced him from my heart. Seeing your hand upon the cover + of a letter which he brought, I immediately blessed him, presented + him with a glass of whiskey, inquired after his family (they are all + well), and opened the despatch with a moist and oystery twinkle in + my eye. And on the very day from which the new year dates, I read + your New Year congratulations as punctually as if you lived in the + next house. Why don't you? + + Now, if instantly on the receipt of this you will send a free and + independent citizen down to the Cunard wharf at Boston, you will + find that Captain Hewett, of the Britannia steamship (my ship), has + a small parcel for Professor Felton of Cambridge; and in that parcel + you will find a Christmas Carol in prose; being a short story of + Christmas by Charles Dickens. Over which Christmas Carol Charles + Dickens wept and laughed and wept again, and excited himself in a + most extraordinary manner in the composition; and thinking whereof + he walked about the black streets of London, fifteen and twenty + miles, many a night when all the sober folks had gone to bed.... Its + success is most prodigious. And by every post all manner of + strangers write all manner of letters to him about their homes and + hearths, and how this same Carol is read aloud there, and kept on a + little shelf by itself. Indeed, it is the greatest success, as I am + told, that this ruffian and rascal has ever achieved. + + Forster is out again; and if he don't go in again, after the manner + in which we have been keeping Christmas, he must be very strong + indeed. Such dinings, such dancings, such conjurings, such + blindman's-buffings, such theatre-goings, such kissings-out of old + years and kissings-in of new ones, never took place in these parts + before. To keep the Chuzzlewit going, and do this little book, the + Carol, in the odd times between two parts of it, was, as you may + suppose, pretty tight work. But when it was done I broke out like a + madman. And if you could have seen me at a children's party at + Macready's the other night, going down a country dance with Mrs. + M., you would have thought I was a country gentleman of independent + property, residing on a tiptop farm, with the wind blowing straight + in my face every day.... + + Your friend, Mr. P----, dined with us one day (I don't know whether + I told you this before), and pleased us very much. Mr. C---- has + dined here once, and spent an evening here. I have not seen him + lately, though he has called twice or thrice; for K----being unwell + and I busy, we have not been visible at our accustomed seasons. I + wonder whether H---- has fallen in your way. Poor H----! He was a + good fellow, and has the most grateful heart I ever met with. Our + journeyings seem to be a dream now. Talking of dreams, strange + thoughts of Italy and France, and maybe Germany, are springing up + within me as the Chuzzlewit clears off. It's a secret I have hardly + breathed to any one, but I "think" of leaving England for a year, + next midsummer, bag and baggage, little ones and all,--then coming + out with _such_ a story, Felton, all at once, no parts, + sledge-hammer blow. + + I send you a Manchester paper, as you desire. The report is not + exactly done, but very well done, notwithstanding. It was a very + splendid sight, I assure you, and an awful-looking audience. I am + going to preside at a similar meeting at Liverpool on the 26th of + next month, and on my way home I may be obliged to preside at + another at Birmingham. I will send you papers, if the reports be at + all like the real thing. + + I wrote to Prescott about his book, with which I was perfectly + charmed. I think his descriptions masterly, his style brilliant, his + purpose manly and gallant always. The introductory account of Aztec + civilization impressed me exactly as it impressed you. From + beginning to end, the whole history is enchanting and full of + genius. I only wonder that, having such an opportunity of + illustrating the doctrine of visible judgments, he never remarks, + when Cortes and his men tumble the idols down the temple steps and + call upon the people to take notice that their gods are powerless to + help themselves, that possibly if some intelligent native had + tumbled down the image of the Virgin or patron saint after them + nothing very remarkable might have ensued in consequence. + + Of course you like Macready. Your name's Felton. I wish you could + see him play Lear. It is stupendously terrible. But I suppose he + would be slow to act it with the Boston company. + + Hearty remembrances to Sumner, Longfellow, Prescott, and all whom + you know I love to remember. Countless happy years to you and + yours, my dear Felton, and some instalment of them, however slight, + in England, in the loving company of + + THE PROSCRIBED ONE. + + O, breathe not his name. + + * * * * * + +Here is a portfolio of Dickens's letters, written to me from time to +time during the past ten years. As long ago as the spring of 1858 I +began to press him very hard to come to America and give us a course of +readings from his works. At that time I had never heard him read in +public, but the fame of his wonderful performances rendered me eager to +have my own country share in the enjoyment of them. Being in London in +the summer of 1859, and dining with him one day in his town residence, +Tavistock House, Tavistock Square, we had much talk in a corner of his +library about coming to America. I thought him over-sensitive with +regard to his reception here, and I tried to remove any obstructions +that might exist in his mind at that time against a second visit across +the Atlantic. I followed up our conversation with a note setting forth +the certainty of his success among his Transatlantic friends, and urging +him to decide on a visit during the year. He replied to me, dating from +"Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent." + + "I write to you from my little Kentish country house, on the very + spot where Falstaff ran away. + + "I cannot tell you how very much obliged to you I feel for your kind + suggestion, and for the perfectly frank and unaffected manner in + which it is conveyed to me. + + "It touches, I will admit to you frankly, a chord that has several + times sounded in my breast, since I began my readings. I should very + much like to read in America. But the idea is a mere dream as yet. + Several strong reasons would make the journey difficult to me, + and--even were they overcome--I would never make it, unless I had + great general reason to believe that the American people really + wanted to hear me. + + "Through the whole of this autumn I shall be reading in various + parts of England, Ireland, and Scotland. I mention this, in + reference to the closing paragraph of your esteemed favor. + + "Allow me once again to thank you most heartily, and to remain, + + "Gratefully and faithfully yours, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +Early in the month of July, 1859, I spent a day with him in his +beautiful country retreat in Kent. He drove me about the leafy lanes in +his basket wagon, pointing out the lovely spots belonging to his +friends, and ending with a visit to the ruins of Rochester Castle. We +climbed up the time-worn walls and leaned out of the ivied windows, +looking into the various apartments below. I remember how vividly he +reproduced a probable scene in the great old banqueting-room, and how +graphically he imagined the life of _ennui_ and every-day tediousness +that went on in those lazy old times. I recall his fancy picture of the +dogs stretched out before the fire, sleeping and snoring with their +masters. That day he seemed to revel in the past, and I stood by, +listening almost with awe to his impressive voice, as he spoke out whole +chapters of a romance destined never to be written. On our way back to +Gad's Hill Place, he stopped in the road, I remember, to have a crack +with a gentleman who he told me was a son of Sydney Smith. The only +other guest at his table that day was Wilkie Collins; and after dinner +we three went out and lay down on the grass, while Dickens showed off a +raven that was hopping about, and told anecdotes of the bird and of his +many predecessors. We also talked about his visiting America, I putting +as many spokes as possible into that favorite wheel of mine. A day or +two after I returned to London I received this note from him:-- + + "...Only to say that I heartily enjoyed our day, and shall long + remember it. Also that I have been perpetually repeating the ---- + experience (of a more tremendous sort in the way of ghastly + comicality, experience there is none) on the grass, on my back. + Also, that I have not forgotten Cobbett. Also, that I shall trouble + you at greater length when the mysterious oracle, of New York, + pronounces. + + "Wilkie Collins begs me to report that he declines pale horse, and + all other horse exercise--and all exercise, except eating, drinking, + smoking, and sleeping--in the dog days. + + "With united kind regards, believe me always cordially yours, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +An agent had come out from New York with offers to induce him to arrange +for a speedy visit to America, and Dickens was then waiting to see the +man who had been announced as on his way to him. He was evidently giving +the subject serious consideration, for on the 20th of July he sends me +this note:-- + + "As I have not yet heard from Mr. ---- of New York, I begin to think + it likely (or, rather, I begin to think it more likely than I + thought it before) that he has not backers good and sufficient, and + that his 'mission' will go off. It is possible that I may hear from + him before the month is out, and I shall not make any reading + arrangements until it has come to a close; but I do not regard it as + being very probable that the said ---- will appear satisfactorily, + either in the flesh or the spirit. + + "Now, considering that it would be August before I could move in the + matter, that it would be indispensably necessary to choose some + business connection and have some business arrangements made in + America, and that I am inclined to think it would not be easy to + originate and complete all the necessary preparations for beginning + in October, I want your kind advice on the following points:-- + + "1. Suppose I postponed the idea for a year. + + "2. Suppose I postponed it until after Christmas. + + "3. Suppose I sent some trusty person out to America _now_, to + negotiate with some sound, responsible, trustworthy man of business + in New York, accustomed to public undertakings of such a nature; my + negotiator being fully empowered to conclude any arrangements with + him that might appear, on consultation, best. + + "Have you any idea of any such person to whom you could recommend + me? Or of any such agent here? I only want to see my way distinctly, + and to have it prepared before me, out in the States. Now, I will + make no apology for troubling you, because I thoroughly rely on your + interest and kindness. + + "I am at Gad's Hill, except on Tuesdays and the greater part of + Wednesdays. + + "With kind regards, very faithfully yours, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +Various notes passed between us after this, during my stay in London in +1859. On the 6th of August he writes:-- + + "I have considered the subject in every way, and have consulted with + the few friends to whom I ever refer my doubts, and whose judgment + is in the main excellent. I have (this is between ourselves) come to + the conclusion _that I will not go now_. + + "A year hence I may revive the matter, and your presence in America + will then be a great encouragement and assistance to me. I shall see + you (at least I count upon doing so) at my house in town before you + turn your face towards the locked-up house; and we will then, + reversing Macbeth, 'proceed further in this business.' ... + + "Believe me always (and here I forever renounce 'Mr.,' as having + anything whatever to do with our communication, and as being a mere + preposterous interloper), + + "Faithfully yours, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +When I arrived in Rome, early in 1860, one of the first letters I +received from London was from him. The project of coming to America was +constantly before him, and he wrote to me that he should have a great +deal to say when I came back to England in the spring; but the plan fell +through, and he gave up all hope of crossing the water again. However, I +did not let the matter rest; and when I returned home I did not cease, +year after year, to keep the subject open in my communications with him. +He kept a watchful eye on what was going forward in America, both in +literature and politics. During the war, of course, both of us gave up +our correspondence about the readings. He was actively engaged all over +Great Britain in giving his marvellous entertainments, and there +certainly was no occasion for his travelling elsewhere. In October, +1862, I sent him the proof-sheets of an article, that was soon to appear +in the Atlantic Monthly, on "Blind Tom," and on receipt of it he sent me +a letter, from which this is an extract:-- + + "I have read that affecting paper you have had the kindness to send + me, with strong interest and emotion. You may readily suppose that I + have been most glad and ready to avail myself of your permission to + print it. I have placed it in our Number made up to-day, which will + be published on the 18th of this month,--well before you,--as you + desire. + + "Think of reading in America? Lord bless you, I think of reading in + the deepest depth of the lowest crater in the Moon, on my way there! + + "There is no sun-picture of my Falstaff House as yet; but it shall + be done, and you shall have it. It has been much improved internally + since you saw it.... + + "I expect Macready at Gad's Hill on Saturday. You know that his + second wife (an excellent one) presented him lately with a little + boy? I was staying with him for a day or two last winter, and, + seizing an umbrella when he had the audacity to tell me he was + growing old, made at him with Macduff's defiance. Upon which he fell + into the old fierce guard, with the desperation of thirty years ago. + + "Kind remembrances to all friends who kindly remember me. + + "Ever heartily yours, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +Every time I had occasion to write to him after the war, I stirred up +the subject of the readings. On the 2d of May, 1866, he says:-- + + "Your letter is an excessively difficult one to answer, because I + really do not know that any sum of money that could be laid down + would induce me to cross the Atlantic to read. Nor do I think it + likely that any one on your side of the great water can be prepared + to understand the state of the case. For example, I am now just + finishing a series of thirty readings. The crowds attending them + have been so astounding, and the relish for them has so far outgone + all previous experience, that if I were to set myself the task, 'I + will make such or such a sum of money by devoting myself to readings + for a certain time,' I should have to go no further than Bond + Street or Regent Street, to have it secured to me in a day. + Therefore, if a specific offer, and a very large one indeed, were + made to me from America, I should naturally ask myself, 'Why go + through this wear and tear, merely to pluck fruit that grows on + every bough at home?' It is a delightful sensation to move a new + people; but I have but to go to Paris, and I find the brightest + people in the world quite ready for me. I say thus much in a sort of + desperate endeavor to explain myself to you. I can put no price upon + fifty readings in America, because I do not know that any possible + price could pay me for them. And I really cannot say to any one + disposed towards the enterprise, 'Tempt me,' because I have too + strong a misgiving that he cannot in the nature of things do it. + + "This is the plain truth. If any distinct proposal be submitted to + me, I will give it a distinct answer. But the chances are a round + thousand to one that the answer will be no, and therefore I feel + bound to make the declaration beforehand. + + "....This place has been greatly improved since you were here, and + we should be heartily glad if you and she could see it. + + "Faithfully yours ever, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +On the 16th of October he writes:-- + + "Although I perpetually see in the papers that I am coming out with + a new serial, I assure you I know no more of it at present. I am + _not_ writing (except for Christmas number of 'All the Year Round'), + and am going to begin, in the middle of January, a series of + forty-two readings. Those will probably occupy me until Easter. + Early in the summer I hope to get to work upon a story that I have + in my mind. But in what form it will appear I do not yet know, + because when the time comes I shall have to take many circumstances + into consideration..... + + "A faint outline of a castle in the air always dimly hovers between + me and Rochester, in the great hall of which I see myself reading to + American audiences. But my domestic surroundings must change before + the castle takes tangible form. And perhaps _I_ may change first, + and establish a castle in the other world. So no more at present. + + "Believe me ever faithfully yours, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +In June, 1867, things begin to look more promising, and I find in one +of his letters, dated the 3d of that month, some good news, as +follows:-- + + "I cannot receive your pleasantest of notes, without assuring you of + the interest and gratification that _I_ feel on _my_ side in our + alliance. And now I am going to add a piece of intelligence that I + hope may not be disagreeable. + + "I am trying hard so to free myself, as to be able to come over to + read this next winter! Whether I may succeed in this endeavor or no + I cannot yet say, but I am trying HARD. So in the mean time don't + contradict the rumor. In the course of a few mails I hope to be able + to give you positive and definite information on the subject. + + "My daughter (whom I shall not bring if I come) will answer for + herself by and by. Understand that I am really endeavoring tooth and + nail to make my way personally to the American public, and that no + light obstacles will turn me aside, now that my hand is in. + + "My dear Fields, faithfully yours always, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +This was followed up by another letter, dated the 13th, in which he +says:-- + + "I have this morning resolved to send out to Boston, in the first + week in August, Mr. Dolby, the secretary and manager of my readings. + He is profoundly versed in the business of those delightful + intellectual feasts (!), and will come straight to Ticknor and + Fields, and will hold solemn council with them, and will then go to + New York, Philadelphia, Hartford, Washington, etc., etc., and see + the rooms for himself, and make his estimates. He will then + telegraph to me: 'I see my way to such and such results. Shall I go + on?' If I reply, 'Yes,' I shall stand committed to begin reading in + America with the month of December. If I reply, 'No,' it will be + because I do not clearly see the game to be worth so large a candle. + In either case he will come back to me. + + "He is the brother of Madame Sainton Dolby, the celebrated singer. I + have absolute trust in him and a great regard for him. He goes with + me everywhere when I read, and manages for me to perfection. + + "We mean to keep all this STRICTLY SECRET, as I beg of you to do, + until I finally decide for or against. I am beleaguered by every + kind of speculator in such things on your side of the water; and it + is very likely that they would take the rooms over our heads,--to + charge me heavily for them,--or would set on foot unheard-of + devices for buying up the tickets, etc., etc., if the probabilities + oozed out. This is exactly how the case stands now, and I confide it + to you within a couple of hours after having so far resolved. Dolby + quite understands that _he_ is to confide in you, similarly, without + a particle of reserve. + + "Ever faithfully yours, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +On the 12th of July he says:-- + + "Our letters will be crossing one another rarely! I have received + your cordial answer to my first notion of coming out; but there has + not yet been time for me to hear again.... + + "With kindest regard to 'both your houses,' public and private, + + "Ever faithfully yours, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +He had engaged to write for "Our Young Folks" "A Holiday Romance," and +the following note, dated the 25th of July, refers to the story:-- + + "Your note of the 12th is like a cordial of the best sort. I have + taken it accordingly. + + "Dolby sails in the Java on Saturday, the 3d of next month, and will + come direct to you. You will find him a frank and capital fellow. He + is perfectly acquainted with his business and with his chief, and + may be trusted without a grain of reserve. + + "I hope the Americans will see the joke of 'Holiday Romance.' The + writing seems to me so like children's, that dull folks (on _any_ + side of _any_ water) might perhaps rate it accordingly! I should + like to be beside you when you read it, and particularly when you + read the Pirate's story. It made me laugh to that extent that my + people here thought I was out of my wits, until I gave it to them to + read, when they did likewise. + + "Ever cordially yours, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +On the 3d of September he breaks out in this wise, Dolby having arrived +out and made all arrangements for the readings:-- + + "Your cheering letter of the 21st of August arrived here this + morning. A thousand thanks for it. I begin to think (nautically) + that I 'head west'ard.' You shall hear from me fully and finally as + soon as Dolby shall have reported personally. + + "The other day I received a letter from Mr. ---- of New York (who + came over in the winning yacht, and described the voyage in the + Times), saying he would much like to see me. I made an appointment + in London, and observed that when he _did_ see me he was obviously + astonished. While I was sensible that the magnificence of my + appearance would fully account for his being overcome, I + nevertheless angled for the cause of his surprise. He then told me + that there was a paragraph going round the papers, to the effect + that I was 'in a critical state of health.' I asked him if he was + sure it wasn't 'cricketing' state of health? To which he replied, + Quite. I then asked him down here to dinner, and he was again + staggered by finding me in sporting training; also much amused. + + "Yesterday's and to-day's post bring me this unaccountable paragraph + from hosts of uneasy friends, with the enormous and wonderful + addition that 'eminent surgeons' are sending me to America for + 'cessation from literary labor'!!! So I have written a quiet line to + the Times, certifying to my own state of health, and have also + begged Dixon to do the like in the Athenaeum. I mention the matter + to you, in order that you may contradict, from me, if the nonsense + should reach America unaccompanied by the truth. But I suppose that + the New York Herald will probably have got the latter from Mr. ---- + aforesaid..... + + "Charles Reade and Wilkie Collins are here; and the joke of the time + is to feel my pulse when I appear at table, and also to inveigle + innocent messengers to come over to the summer-house, where I write + (the place is quite changed since you were here, and a tunnel under + the high road connects this shrubbery with the front garden), to + ask, with their compliments, how I find myself _now_. + + "If I come to America this next November, even you can hardly + imagine with what interest I shall try Copperfield on an American + audience, or, if they give me their heart, how freely and fully I + shall give them mine. We will ask Dolby then whether he ever heard + it before. + + "I cannot thank you enough for your invaluable help to Dolby. He + writes that at every turn and moment the sense and knowledge and + tact of Mr. Osgood are inestimable to him. + + "Ever, my dear Fields, faithfully yours, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +Here is a little note dated the 3d of October:-- + + "I cannot tell you how much I thank you for your kind little letter, + which is like a pleasant voice coming across the Atlantic, with + that domestic welcome in it which has no substitute on earth. If + you knew how strongly I am inclined to allow myself the pleasure of + staying at your house, you would look upon me as a kind of ancient + Roman (which, I trust in Heaven, I am not) for having the courage to + say no. But if I gave myself that gratification in the beginning, I + could scarcely hope to get on in the hard 'reading' life, without + offending some kindly disposed and hospitable American friend + afterwards; whereas if I observe my English principle on such + occasions, of having no abiding-place but an hotel, and stick to it + from the first, I may perhaps count on being consistently + uncomfortable. + + "The nightly exertion necessitates meals at odd hours, silence and + rest at impossible times of the day, a general Spartan behavior so + utterly inconsistent with my nature, that if you were to give me a + happy inch, I should take an ell, and frightfully disappoint you in + public. I don't want to do that, if I can help it, and so I will be + good in spite of myself. + + "Ever your affectionate friend, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +A ridiculous paragraph in the papers following close on the public +announcement that Dickens was coming to America in November, drew from +him this letter to me, dated also early in October:-- + + "I hope the telegraph clerks did not mutilate out of recognition or + reasonable guess the words I added to Dolby's last telegram to + Boston. 'Tribune London correspondent totally false.' Not only is + there not a word of truth in the pretended conversation, but it is + so absurdly unlike me that I cannot suppose it to be even invented + by any one who ever heard me exchange a word with mortal creature. + For twenty years I am perfectly certain that I have never made any + other allusion to the republication of my books in America than the + good-humored remark, 'that if there had been international copyright + between England and the States, I should have been a man of very + large fortune, instead of a man of moderate savings, always + supporting a very expensive public position.' Nor have I ever been + such a fool as to charge the absence of international copyright upon + individuals. Nor have I ever been so ungenerous as to disguise or + suppress the fact that I have received handsome sums for advance + sheets. When I was in the States, I said what I had to say on the + question, and there an end. I am absolutely certain that I have + never since expressed myself, even with soreness, on the subject. + Reverting to the preposterous fabrication of the London + correspondent, the statement that I ever talked about 'these + fellows' who republished my books, or pretended to know (what I + don't know at this instant) who made how much out of them, or ever + talked of their sending me 'conscience money,' is as grossly and + completely false as the statement that I ever said anything to the + effect that I could not be expected to have an interest in the + American people. And nothing can by any possibility be falser than + that. Again and again in these pages (All the Year Round) I have + expressed my interest in them. You will see it in the 'Child's + History of England.' You will see it in the last Preface to + 'American Notes.' Every American who has ever spoken with me in + London, Paris, or where not, knows whether I have frankly said, 'You + could have no better introduction to me than your country.' And for + years and years when I have been asked about reading in America, my + invariable reply has been, 'I have so many friends there, and + constantly receive so many earnest letters from personally unknown + readers there, that, but for domestic reasons, I would go + to-morrow.' I think I must, in the confidential intercourse between + you and me, have written you to this effect more than once. + + "The statement of the London correspondent from beginning to end is + false. It is false in the letter and false in the spirit. He may + have been misinformed, and the statement may not have originated + with him. With whomsoever it originated, it never originated with + me, and consequently is false. More than enough about it. + + "As I hope to see you so soon, my dear Fields, and as I am busily at + work on the Christmas number, I will not make this a longer letter + than I can help. I thank you most heartily for your proffered + hospitality, and need not tell you that if I went to any friend's + house in America, I would go to yours. But the readings are very + hard work, and I think I cannot do better than observe the rule on + that side of the Atlantic which I observe on this,--of never, under + such circumstances, going to a friend's house, but always staying at + a hotel. I am able to observe it here, by being consistent and never + breaking it. If I am equally consistent there, I can (I hope) offend + no one. + + "Dolby sends his love to you and all his friends (as I do), and is + girding up his loins vigorously. + + "Ever, my dear Fields, heartily and affectionately yours, + + "CHARLES DICKENS." + +Before sailing in November he sent off this note to me from the office +of All the Year Round:-- + +"I received your more than acceptable letter yesterday morning, and +consequently am able to send you this line of acknowledgment by the next +mail. Please God we will have that walk among the autumn leaves, before +the readings set in. + +"You may have heard from Dolby that a gorgeous repast is to be given to +me to-morrow, and that it is expected to be a notable demonstration. I +shall try, in what I say, to state my American case exactly. I have a +strong hope and belief that within the compass of a couple of minutes or +so I can put it, with perfect truthfulness, in the light that my +American friends would be best pleased to see me place it in. Either so, +or my instinct is at fault. + +"My daughters and their aunt unite with me in kindest loves. As I write, +a shrill prolongation of the message comes in from the next room, 'Tell +them to take care of you-u-u!' + +"Tell Longfellow, with my love, that I am charged by Forster (who has +been very ill of diffused gout and bronchitis) with a copy of his Sir +John Eliot. + +"I will bring you out the early proof of the Christmas number. We +publish it here on the 12th of December. I am planning it (No +Thoroughfare) out into a play for Wilkie Collins to manipulate after I +sail, and have arranged for Fechter to go to the Adelphi Theatre and +play a Swiss in it. It will be brought out the day after Christmas day. + +"Here, at Boston Wharf, and everywhere else, + +"Yours heartily and affectionately, + +"C.D." + +On a blustering evening in November, 1867, Dickens arrived in Boston +Harbor, on his second visit to America. A few of his friends, under the +guidance of the Collector of the port, steamed down in the custom-house +boat to welcome him. It was pitch dark before we sighted the Cuba and +ran alongside. The great steamer stopped for a few minutes to take us on +board, and Dickens's cheery voice greeted me before I had time to +distinguish him on the deck of the vessel. The news of the excitement +the sale of the tickets to his readings had occasioned had been earned +to him by the pilot, twenty miles out. He was in capital spirits over +the cheerful account that all was going on so well, and I thought he +never looked in better health. The voyage had been a good one, and the +ten days' rest on shipboard had strengthened him amazingly he said. As +we were told that a crowd had assembled in East Boston, we took him in +our little tug and landed him safely at Long Wharf in Boston, where +carriages were in waiting. Rooms had been taken for him at the Parker +House, and in half an hour after he had reached the hotel he was sitting +down to dinner with half a dozen friends, quite prepared, he said, to +give the first reading in America that very night, if desirable. +Assurances that the kindest feelings towards him existed everywhere put +him in great spirits, and he seemed happy to be among us. On Sunday he +visited the School Ship and said a few words of encouragement and +counsel to the boys. He began his long walks at once, and girded himself +up for the hard winter's work before him. Steadily refusing all +invitations to go out during the weeks he was reading, he only went into +one other house besides the Parker, habitually, during his stay in +Boston. Every one who was present remembers the delighted crowds that +assembled nightly in the Tremont Temple, and no one who heard Dickens, +during that eventful month of December, will forget the sensation +produced by the great author, actor, and reader. Hazlitt says of Kean's +Othello, "The tone of voice in which he delivered the beautiful +apostrophe 'Then, O, farewell,' struck on the heart like the swelling +notes of some divine music, like the sound of years of departed +happiness." There were thrills of pathos in Dickens's readings (of David +Copperfield, for instance) which Kean himself never surpassed in +dramatic effect. + +He went from Boston to New York, carrying with him a severe catarrh +contracted in our climate. In reality much of the time during his +reading in Boston he was quite ill from the effects of the disease, but +he fought courageously against its effects, and always came up, on the +night of the reading, all right. Several times I feared he would be +obliged to postpone the readings, and I am sure almost any one else +would have felt compelled to do so; but he declared no man had a right +to break an engagement with the public, if he were able to be out of +bed. His spirit was wonderful, and, although he lost all appetite and +could partake of very little food, he was always cheerful and ready for +his work when the evening came round. Every morning his table was +covered with invitations to dinners and all sorts of entertainments, but +he said, "I came for hard work, and I must try to fulfil the +expectations of the American public." He did accept a dinner which was +tendered to him by some of his literary friends in Boston; but the day +before it was to come off he was so ill he felt obliged to ask that the +banquet might be given up. The strain upon his strength and nerves was +very great during all the months he remained in the country, and only a +man of iron will could have accomplished all he did. And here let me +say, that although he was accustomed to talk and write a great deal +about eating and drinking, I have rarely seen a man eat and drink less. +He liked to dilate in imagination over the brewing of a bowl of punch, +but I always noticed that when the punch was ready, he drank less of it +than any one who might be present. It was the sentiment of the thing and +not the thing itself that engaged his attention. He liked to have a +little supper every night after a reading, and have three or four +friends round the table with him, but he only pecked at the viands as a +bird might do, and I scarcely saw him eat a hearty meal during his whole +stay in the country. Both at Parker's Hotel in Boston, and at the +Westminster in New York, everything was arranged by the proprietors for +his comfort and happiness, and tempting dishes to pique his invalid +appetite were sent up at different hours of the day, with the hope that +he might be induced to try unwonted things and get up again the habit of +eating more; but the influenza, that seized him with such masterful +powder, held the strong man down till he left the country. + +One of the first letters I had from him, after he had begun his reading +tour, was dated from the Westminster Hotel in New York, on the 15th of +January, 1868. + + My Dear Fields: On coming back from Philadelphia just now (three + o'clock) I was welcomed by your cordial letter. It was a delightful + welcome and did me a world of good. + + The cold remains just as it was (beastly), and where it was (in my + head). We have left off referring to the hateful subject, except in + emphatic sniffs on my part, convulsive wheezes, and resounding + sneezes. + + The Philadelphia audience ready and bright. I think they understood + the Carol better than Copperfield, but they were bright and + responsive as to both.--They also highly appreciated your friend Mr. + Jack Hopkins. A most excellent hotel there, and everything + satisfactory. While on the subject of satisfaction, I know you will + be pleased to hear that a long run is confidently expected for the + No Thoroughfare drama. Although the piece is well cast and well + played, my letters tell me that Fechter is so remarkably fine as to + play down the whole company. The Times, in its account of it, said + that "Mr. Fechter" (in the Swiss mountain scene, and in the Swiss + Hotel) "was practically alone upon the stage." It is splendidly got + up, and the Mountain Pass (I planned it with the scene-painter) was + loudly cheered by the whole house. Of course I knew that Fechter + would tear himself to pieces rather than fall short, but I was not + prepared for his contriving to get the pity and sympathy of the + audience out of his passionate love for Marguerite. + + My dear fellow, you cannot miss me more than I miss you and yours. + And Heaven knows how gladly I would substitute Boston for Chicago, + Detroit, and Co.! But the tour is fast shaping itself out into its + last details, and we must remember that there is a clear fortnight + in Boston, not counting the four Farewells. I look forward to that + fortnight as a radiant landing-place in the series.... + + Rash youth! No presumptuous hand should try to make the punch, + except in the presence of the hoary sage who pens these lines. With + _him_ on the spot to perceive and avert impending failure, with + timely words of wisdom to arrest the erring hand and curb the + straying judgment, and, with such gentle expressions of + encouragement as his stern experience may justify, to cheer the + aspirant with faint hopes of future excellence,--with these + conditions observed, the daring mind may scale the heights of sugar + and contemplate the depths of lemon. Otherwise not. + + Dolby is at Washington, and will return in the night. ---- is on + guard. He made a most brilliant appearance before the Philadelphia + public, and looked hard at them. The mastery of his eye diverted + their attention from his boots: charming in themselves, but + (unfortunately) two left ones. + + I send my hearty and enduring love. Your kindness to the British + Wanderer is deeply inscribed in his heart. + + When I think of L----'s story about Dr. Webster, I feel like the + lady in Nickleby who "has had a sensation of alternate cold and + biling water running down her back ever since." + + Ever, my dear Fields, your affectionate friend, + + C.D. + +His birthday, 7th of February, was spent in Washington, and on the 9th +of the month he sent this little note from Baltimore:-- + + Baltimore, Sunday, February 9, 1868. + + My Dear Fields: I thank you heartily for your pleasant note (I can + scarcely tell you _how_ pleasant it was to receive the same) and for + the beautiful flowers that you sent me on my birthday. For + which--and much more--my loving thanks to both. + + In consequence of the Washington papers having referred to the + august 7th of this month, my room was on that day a blooming garden. + Nor were flowers alone represented there. The silversmith, the + goldsmith, the landscape-painter, all sent in their contributions. + After the reading was done at night, the whole audience rose; and it + was spontaneous, hearty, and affecting. + + I was very much surprised by the President's face and manner. It is, + in its way, one of the most remarkable faces I have ever seen. Not + imaginative, but very powerful in its firmness (or perhaps + obstinacy), strength of will, and steadiness of purpose. There is a + reticence in it too, curiously at variance with that first + unfortunate speech of his. A man not to be turned or trifled with. A + man (I should say) who must be killed to be got out of the way. His + manners, perfectly composed. We looked at one another pretty hard. + There was an air of chronic anxiety upon him. But not a crease or a + ruffle in his dress, and his papers were as composed as himself. + (Mr. Thornton was going in to deliver his credentials, immediately + afterwards.) + + This day fortnight will find me, please God, in my "native Boston." + I wish I were there to-day. + + Ever, my dear Fields, your affectionate friend, + + CHARLES DICKENS, _Chairman Missionary Society._ + +When he returned to Boston in the latter part of the month, after his +fatiguing campaign in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, +he seemed far from well, and one afternoon sent round from the Parker +House to me this little note, explaining why he could not go out on our +accustomed walk. + + I have been terrifying Dolby out of his wits, by setting in for a + paroxysm of sneezing, and it would be madness in me, with such a + cold, and on such a night, and with to-morrow's reading before me, + to go out. I need not add that I shall be heartily glad to see you + if you have time. Many thanks for the Life and Letters of Wilder + Dwight. I shall "save up" that book, to read on the passage home. + After turning over the leaves, I have shut it up and put it away; + for I am a great reader at sea, and wish to reserve the interest + that I find awaiting me in the personal following of the sad war. + Good God, when one stands among the hearths that war has broken, + what an awful consideration it is that such a tremendous evil _must_ + be sometimes! + + Ever affectionately yours, + + CHARLES DICKENS. + + * * * * * + +I will dispose here of the question often asked me by correspondents, +and lately renewed in many epistles, _"Was Charles Dickens a believer in +our Saviour's life and teachings?"_ Persons addressing to me such +inquiries must be profoundly ignorant of the works of the great author, +whom they endeavor by implication to place among the "Unbelievers." If +anywhere, out of the Bible, God's goodness and mercy are solemnly +commended to the world's attention, it is in the pages of Dickens. I had +supposed that these written words of his, which have been so extensively +copied both in Europe and America, from his last will and testament, +dated the 12th of May, 1869, would forever remain an emphatic testimony +to his Christian faith:-- + + "I commit my soul to the mercy of God, through our Lord and Saviour + Jesus Christ, and I exhort my dear children humbly to try to guide + themselves by the teachings of the New Testament." + +I wish it were in my power to bring to the knowledge of all who doubt +the Christian character of Charles Dickens certain other memorable words +of his, written years ago, with reference to Christmas. They are not as +familiar as many beautiful things from the same pen on the same subject, +for the paper which enshrines them has not as yet been collected among +his authorized works. Listen to these loving words in which the +Christian writer has embodied the life of his Saviour:-- + + "Hark! the Waits are playing, and they break my childish sleep! What + images do I associate with the Christmas music as I see them set + forth on the Christmas tree? Known before all others, keeping far + apart from all the others, they gather round my little bed. An + angel, speaking to a group of shepherds in a field; some travellers, + with eyes uplifted, following a star; a baby in a manger; a child in + a spacious temple, talking with grave men; a solemn figure with a + mild and beautiful face, raising a dead girl by the hand; again, + near a city gate, calling back the son of a widow, on his bier, to + life; a crowd of people looking through the opened roof of a chamber + where he site, and letting down a sick person on a bed, with ropes; + the same in a tempest, walking on the water to a ship; again, on a + sea-shore, teaching a great multitude; again, with a child upon his + knee, and other children round; again, restoring sight to the blind, + speech to the dumb, hearing to the deaf, health to the sick, + strength to the lame, knowledge to the ignorant; again, dying upon a + cross, watched by armed soldiers, a thick darkness coming on, the + earth beginning to shake, and only one voice heard,--'Forgive them, + for they know not what they do!'" + +The writer of these pages begs to say here, most respectfully and +emphatically, that he will not feel himself bound, in future, to reply +to any inquiries, from however well-meaning correspondents, as to +whether Charles Dickens was an "Unbeliever," or a "Unitarian," or an +"Episcopalian," or whether "he ever went to church in his life," or +"used improper language," or "drank enough to hurt him." He was human, +very human, but he was no scoffer or doubter. His religion was of the +heart, and his faith beyond questioning. He taught the world, said Dean +Stanley over his new-made grave in Westminster Abbey, great lessons of +"the eternal value of generosity, of purity, of kindness, and of +unselfishness," and by his fruits he shall be known of all men. + +Let me commend to the attention of my numerous nameless correspondents, +who have attempted to soil the moral character of Dickens, the following +little incident, related to me by himself, during a summer-evening walk +among the Kentish meadows, a few months before he died. I will try to +tell the story, if possible, as simply and naturally as he told it to +me. + +"I chanced to be travelling some years ago," he said, "in a railroad +carriage between Liverpool and London. Beside myself there were two +ladies and a gentleman occupying the carriage. We happened to be all +strangers to each other, but I noticed at once that a clergyman was of +the party. I was occupied with a ponderous article in the 'Times,' when +the sound of my own name drew my attention to the fact that a +conversation was going forward among the three other persons in the +carriage with reference to myself and my books. One of the ladies was +perusing 'Bleak House,' then lately published, and the clergyman had +commenced a conversation with the ladies by asking what book they were +reading. On being told the author's name and the title of the book, he +expressed himself greatly grieved that any lady in England should be +willing to take up the writings of so vile a character as Charles +Dickens. Both the ladies showed great surprise at the low estimate the +clergyman put upon an author whom they had been accustomed to read, to +say the least, with a certain degree of pleasure. They were evidently +much shocked at what the man said of the immoral tendency of these +books, which they seemed never before to have suspected; but when he +attacked the author's private character, and told monstrous stories of +his immoralities in every direction, the volume was shut up and +consigned to the dark pockets of a travelling bag. I listened in wonder +and astonishment, behind my newspaper, to stories of myself, which if +they had been true would have consigned any man to a prison for life. +After my fictitious biographer had occupied himself for nearly an hour +with the eloquent recital of my delinquencies and crimes, I very quietly +joined in the conversation. Of course I began by modestly doubting some +statements which I had just heard, touching the author of 'Bleak House,' +and other unimportant works of a similar character. The man stared at +me, and evidently considered my appearance on the conversational stage +an intrusion and an impertinence. 'You seem to speak,' I said, 'from +personal knowledge of Mr. Dickens. Are you acquainted with him?' He +rather evaded the question, but, following him up closely, I compelled +him to say that he had been talking, not from his own knowledge of the +author in question; but he said he knew for a certainty that every +statement he had made was a true one. I then became more earnest in my +inquiries for proofs, which he arrogantly declined giving. The ladies +sat by in silence, listening intently to what was going forward. An +author they had been accustomed to read for amusement had been traduced +for the first time in their hearing, and they were waiting to learn +what I had to say in refutation of the clergyman's charges. I was taking +up his vile stories, one by one, and stamping them as false in every +particular, when the man grew furious, and asked me if I knew Dickens +personally. I replied, 'Perfectly well; no man knows him better than I +do; and all your stories about him from beginning to end, to these +ladies, are unmitigated lies.' The man became livid with rage, and asked +for my card. 'You shall have it,' I said, and, coolly taking out +one, I presented it to him without bowing. We were just then nearing the +station in London, so that I was spared a longer interview with my +_truthful_ companion; but, if I were to live a hundred years, I should +not forget the abject condition into which the narrator of my crimes was +instantly plunged. His face turned white as his cravat, and his lips +refused to utter words. He seemed like a wilted vegetable, and as if his +legs belonged to somebody else. The ladies became aware of the situation +at once, and, bidding them 'good day,' I stepped smilingly out of the +carriage. Before I could get away from the station the man had mustered +up strength sufficient to follow me, and his apologies were so nauseous +and craven, that I pitied him from my soul. I left him with this +caution, 'Before you make charges against the character of any man +again, about whom you know nothing, and of whose works you are utterly +ignorant, study to be a seeker after Truth, and avoid Lying as you would +eternal perdition.'" + +I never ceased to wonder at Dickens's indomitable cheerfulness, even +when he was suffering from ill health, and could not sleep more than two +or three hours out of the twenty-four. He made it a point never to +inflict on another what he might be painfully enduring himself, and I +have seen him, with what must have been a great effort, arrange a merry +meeting for some friends, when I knew that almost any one else under +similar circumstances would have sought relief in bed. + +One evening at a little dinner given by himself to half a dozen friends +in Boston, he came out very strong. His influenza lifted a little, as he +said afterwards, and he took advantage of the lull. Only his own pen +could possibly give an idea of that hilarious night, and I will merely +attempt a brief reference to it. As soon as we were seated at the table, +I read in his lustrous eye, and heard in his jovial voice, that all +solemn forms were to be dispensed with on that occasion, and that +merriment might be confidently expected. To the end of the feast there +was no let up to his magnificent cheerfulness and humor. J---- B----, +ex-minister plenipotentiary as he was, went in for nonsense, and he, I +am sure, will not soon forget how undignified we all were, and what +screams of laughter went up from his own uncontrollable throat. Among +other tomfooleries, we had an imitation of scenes at an English +hustings, Dickens bringing on his candidate (his friend D----), and I +opposing him with mine (the ex-minister). Of course there was nothing +spoken in the speeches worth remembering, but it was Dickens's _manner_ +that carried off the whole thing. D---- necessarily now wears his hair +so widely parted in the middle that only two little capillary scraps are +left, just over his ears, to show what kind of thatch once covered his +jolly cranium. Dickens pretended that _his_ candidate was superior to +the other, _because_ he had no hair; and that mine, being profusely +supplied with that commodity was in consequence disqualified in a marked +degree for an election. His speech, for volubility and nonsense, was +nearly fatal to us all. We roared and writhed in agonies of laughter, +and the candidates themselves were literally choking and crying with the +humor of the thing. But the fun culminated when I tried to get a hearing +in behalf of my man, and Dickens drowned all my attempts to be heard +with imitative jeers of a boisterous election mob. He seemed to have as +many voices that night as the human throat is capable of, and the +repeated interrupting shouts, among others, of a pretended husky old man +bawling out at intervals, "Three cheers for the bald 'un!" "Down vith +the hairy aristocracy!" "Up vith the little shiny chap on top!" and +other similar outbursts, I can never forget. At last, in sheer +exhaustion, we all gave in, and agreed to break up and thus save our +lives, if it were not already too late to make the attempt. + +The extent and variety of Dickens's tones were wonderful. Once he +described to me in an inimitable way a scene he witnessed many years ago +at a London theatre, and I am certain no professional ventriloquist +could have reproduced it better. I could never persuade him to repeat +the description in presence of others; but he did it for me several +times during our walks into the country, where he was, of course, +unobserved. His recital of the incident was irresistibly droll, and no +words of mine can give the _situation_ even, as he gave it. He said he +was once sitting in the pit of a London theatre, when two men came in +and took places directly in front of him. Both were evidently strangers +from the country, and not very familiar with the stage. One of them was +stone deaf, and relied entirely upon his friend to keep him informed of +the dialogue and story of the play as it went on, by having bawled into +his ear, word for word, as near as possible what the actors and +actresses were saying. The man who could hear became intensely +interested in the play, and kept close watch of the stage. The deaf man +also shared in the progressive action of the drama, and rated his friend +soundly, in a loud voice, if a stitch in the story of the play were +inadvertently dropped. Dickens gave the two voices of these two +spectators with his best comic and dramatic power. Notwithstanding the +roars of the audience, for the scene in the pit grew immensely funny to +them as it went on, the deaf man and his friend were too much interested +in the main business of the evening to observe that they were noticed. +One bawled louder, and the other, with his elevated ear-trumpet, +listened more intently than ever. At length the scene culminated in a +most unexpected manner. "Now," screamed the hearing man to the deaf one, +"they are going to elope!" "_Who_ is going to elope?" asked the deaf +man, in a loud, vehement tone. "Why, them two, the young man in the red +coat and the girl in a white gown, that's a talking together now, and +just going off the stage!" "Well, then, you must have missed telling me +something they've said before," roared the other in an enraged and +stentorian voice; "for there was nothing in their conduct all the +evening, as you have been representing it to me, that would warrant them +in such a proceeding!" At which the audience could not bear it any +longer, and screamed their delight till the curtain fell. + +Dickens was always planning something to interest and amuse his friends, +and when in America he taught us several games arranged by himself, +which we played again and again, he taking part as our instructor. While +he was travelling from point to point, he was cogitating fresh charades +to be acted when we should again meet. It was at Baltimore that he first +conceived the idea of a walking-match, which should take place on his +return to Boston, and he drew up a set of humorous "articles," which he +sent to me with this injunction, "Keep them in a place of profound +safety, for attested execution, until my arrival in Boston." He went +into this matter of the walking-match with as much earnest directness as +if he were planning a new novel. The articles, as prepared by himself, +are thus drawn up:-- + + "Articles of agreement entered into at Baltimore, in the United + States of America, this third day of February in the year of our + Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, between ----, + British subject, _alias_ the Man of Ross, and ----, American + citizen, _alias_ the Boston Bantam. + + "Whereas, some Bounce having arisen between the above men in + reference to feats of pedestrianism and agility, they have agreed to + settle their differences and prove who is the better man, by means + of a walking-match for two hats a side and the glory of their + respective countries; and whereas they agree that the said match + shall come off, whatsoever the weather, on the Mill Dam Road outside + Boston, on Saturday, the 29th day of this present month; and whereas + they agree that the personal attendants on themselves during the + whole walk, and also the umpires and starters and declarers of + victory in the match shall be ---- of Boston, known in sporting + circles as Massachusetts Jemmy, and Charles Dickens of Falstaff's + Gad's Hill, whose surprising performances (without the least + variation) on that truly national instrument, the American catarrh, + have won for him the well-merited title of the Gad's Hill Gasper:-- + + "1. The men are to be started, on the day appointed, by + Massachusetts Jemmy and The Gasper. + + "2. Jemmy and The Gasper are, on some previous day, to walk out at + the rate of not less than four miles an hour by the Gasper's watch, + for one hour and a half. At the expiration of that one hour and a + half they are to carefully note the place at which they halt. On the + match's coming off they are to station themselves in the middle of + the road, at that precise point, and the men (keeping clear of them + and of each other) are to turn round them, right shoulder inward, + and walk back to the starting-point. The man declared by them to + pass the starting-point first is to be the victor and the winner of + the match. + + "3. No jostling or fouling allowed. + + "4. All cautions or orders issued to the men by the umpires, + starters, and declarers of victory to be considered final and + admitting of no appeal. + + "5. A sporting narrative of the match to be written by The Gasper + within one week after its coming off, and the same to be duly + printed (at the expense of the subscribers to these articles) on a + broadside. The said broadside to be framed and glazed, and one copy + of the same to be carefully preserved by each of the subscribers to + these articles. + + "6. The men to show on the evening of the day of walking, at six + o'clock precisely, at the Parker House, Boston, when and where a + dinner will be given them by The Gasper. The Gasper to occupy the + chair, faced by Massachusetts Jemmy. The latter promptly and + formally to invite, as soon as may be after the date of these + presents, the following guests to honor the said dinner with their + presence; that is to say [here follow the names of a few of his + friends, whom he wished to be invited]. + + "Now, lastly. In token of their accepting the trusts and offices by + these articles conferred upon them, these articles are solemnly and + formally signed by Massachusetts Jemmy and by the Gad's Hill Gasper, + as well as by the men themselves. + + "Signed by the Man of Ross, otherwise ----. + + "Signed by the Boston Bantam, otherwise ----. + + "Signed by Massachusetts Jemmy, otherwise ----. + + "Signed by the Gad's Hill Gasper, otherwise Charles Dickens. + + "Witness to the signatures, ----." + +When he returned to Boston from Baltimore, he proposed that I should +accompany him over the walking-ground "at the rate of not less than four +miles an hour, for one hour and a half." I shall not soon forget the +tremendous pace at which he travelled that day. I have seen a great many +walkers, but never one with whom I found it such hard work to keep up. +Of course his object was to stretch out the space as far as possible for +our friends to travel on the appointed day. With watch in hand, Dickens +strode on over the Mill Dam toward Newton Centre. When we reached the +turning-point, and had established the extreme limit, we both felt that +we had given the men who were to walk in the match excellent good +measure. All along the road people had stared at us, wondering, I +suppose, why two men on such a blustering day should be pegging away in +the middle of the road as if life depended on the speed they were +getting over the ground. We had walked together many a mile before this, +but never at such a rate as on this day. I had never seen his full power +tested before, and I could not but feel great admiration for his +walking pluck. We were both greatly heated, and, seeing a little shop by +the roadside, we went in for refreshments. A few sickly-looking oranges +were all we could obtain to quench our thirst, and we seized those and +sat down on the shop door-steps, tired and panting. After a few minutes' +rest we started again and walked back to town. Thirteen miles' stretch +on a brisk winter day did neither of us any harm, and Dickens was in +great spirits over the match that was so soon to come off. We agreed to +walk over the ground again on the appointed day, keeping company with +our respective men. Here is the account that Dickens himself drew up, of +that day's achievement, for the broadside. + +THE SPORTING NARRATIVE. + + THE MEN. + + "The Boston Bantam (_alias_ Bright Chanticleer) is a young bird, + though too old to be caught with chaff. He comes of a thorough game + breed, and has a clear though modest crow. He pulls down the scale + at ten stone and a half and add a pound or two. His previous + performances in the pedestrian line have not been numerous. He once + achieved a neat little match against time in two left boots at + Philadelphia; but this must be considered as a pedestrian + eccentricity, and cannot be accepted by the rigid chronicler as high + art. The old mower with the scythe and hour-glass has not yet laid + his mauley heavily on the Bantam's frontispiece, but he has had a + grip at the Bantam's top feathers, and in plucking out a handful was + very near making him like the great Napoleon Bonaparte (with the + exception of the victualling department), when the ancient one found + himself too much occupied to carry out the idea, and gave it up. The + Man of Ross (_alias_ old Alick Pope, _alias_ + Allourpraises-whyshouldlords, etc.) is a thought and a half too + fleshy, and, if he accidentally sat down upon his baby, would do it + to the tune of fourteen stone. This popular codger is of the + rubicund and jovial sort, and has long been known as a piscatorial + pedestrian on the banks of the Wye. But Izaak Walton hadn't + pace,--look at his book and you'll find it slow,--and when that + article comes in question, the fishing-rod may prove to some of his + disciples a rod in pickle. Howbeit, the Man of Ross is a lively + ambler, and has a smart stride of his own. + + THE TRAINING. + + "If vigorous attention to diet could have brought both men up to the + post in tip-top feather, their condition would have left nothing to + be desired. But both might have had more daily practice in the + poetry of motion. Their breathings were confined to an occasional + Baltimore burst under the guidance of The Gasper, and to an amicable + toddle between themselves at Washington. + + THE COURSE. + + "Six miles and a half, good measure, from the first tree on the Mill + Dam Road, lies the little village (with no refreshments in it but + five oranges and a bottle of blacking) of Newton Centre. Here + Massachusetts Jemmy and The Gasper had established the + turning-point. The road comprehended every variety of inconvenience + to test the mettle of the men, and nearly the whole of it was + covered with snow. + + THE START + + was effected beautifully. The men taking their stand in exact line + at the starting-post, the first tree aforesaid, received from The + Gasper the warning, "Are you ready?" and then the signal, "One, two, + three. Go!" They got away exactly together, and at a spinning speed, + waited on by Massachusetts Jemmy and the Gasper. + + THE RACE. + + "In the teeth of an intensely cold and bitter wind, before which the + snow flew fast and furious across the road from right to left, the + Bantam slightly led. But the Man responded to the challenge, and + soon breasted him. For the first three miles each led by a yard or + so alternately; but the walking was very even. On four miles being + called by The Gasper the men were side by side; and then ensued one + of the best periods of the race, the same splitting pace being held + by both through a heavy snow-wreath and up a dragging hill. At this + point it was anybody's game, a dollar on Rossius and two + half-dollars on the member of the feathery tribe. When five miles + were called, the men were still shoulder to shoulder. At about six + miles The Gasper put on a tremendous spirt to leave the men behind + and establish himself at the turning-point at the entrance of the + village. He afterwards declared that he received a mental + knock-downer on taking his station and facing about, to find Bright + Chanticleer close in upon him, and Rossius steaming up like a + locomotive. The Bantam rounded first; Rossius rounded wide; and from + that moment the Bantam steadily shot ahead. Though both were + breathed at the town, the Bantam quickly got his bellows into + obedient condition, and blew away like an orderly blacksmith in full + work. The forcing-pumps of Rossius likewise proved themselves tough + and true, and warranted first-rate, but he fell off in pace; whereas + the Bantam pegged away with his little drumsticks, as if he saw his + wives and a peck of barley waiting for him at the family perch. + Continually gaining upon him of Ross, Chanticleer gradually drew + ahead within a very few yards of half a mile, finally doing the + whole distance in two hours and forty-eight minutes. Ross had ceased + to compete three miles short of the winning-post, but bravely walked + it out and came in seven minutes later. + + REMARKS. + + "The difficulties under which this plucky match was walked can only + be appreciated by those who were on the ground. To the excessive + rigor of the icy blast and the depth and state of the snow must be + added the constant scattering of the latter into the air and into + the eyes of the men, while heads of hair, beards, eyelashes, and + eyebrows were frozen into icicles. To breathe at all, in such a + rarefied and disturbed atmosphere, was not easy; but to breathe up + to the required mark was genuine, slogging, ding-dong, hard labor. + That both competitors were game to the backbone, doing what they did + under such conditions, was evident to all; but to his gameness the + courageous Bantam added unexpected endurance and (like the sailor's + watch that did three hours to the cathedral clock's one) unexpected + powers of going when wound up. The knowing eye could not fail to + detect considerable disparity between the lads; Chanticleer being, + as Mrs. Cratchit said of Tiny Tim, 'very light to carry,' and + Rossius promising fair to attain the rotundity of the Anonymous Cove + in the Epigram:-- + + And when he walks the streets the paviors cry, + "God bless you, sir!"--and lay their rammers by. + +The dinner at the Parker House, after the fatigues of the day, was a +brilliant success. The Great International Walking-Match was over; +America had won, and England was nowhere. The victor and the vanquished +were the heroes of the occasion, for both had shown great powers of +endurance and done their work in capital time. We had no set speeches at +the table, for we had voted eloquence a bore before we sat down. David +Copperfield, Hyperion, Hosea Biglow, the Autocrat, and the Bad Boy were +present, and there was no need of set speeches. The ladies present, +being all daughters of America, smiled upon the champion, and we had a +great, good time. The banquet provided by Dickens was profusely +decorated with flowers, arranged by himself. The master of the feast was +in his best mood, albeit his country had lost; and we all declared, when +we bade him good night, that none of us had ever enjoyed a festival +more. + +Soon after this Dickens started on his reading travels again, and I +received from him frequent letters from various parts of the country. On +the 8th of March, 1868, he writes from a Western city:-- + + Sunday, 8th March, 1868. + + My Dear Fields: We came here yesterday most comfortably in a + "drawing-room car," of which (Rule Britannia!) we bought exclusive + possession. ---- is rather a depressing feather in the eagle's wing, + when considered on a Sunday and in a thaw. Its hotel is likewise a + dreary institution. But I have an impression that we must be in the + wrong one, and buoy myself up with a devout belief in the other, + over the way. The awakening to consciousness this morning on a + lop-sided bedstead facing nowhere, in a room holding nothing but + sour dust, was more terrible than the being afraid to go to bed last + night. To keep ourselves up we played whist (double dummy) until + neither of us could bear to speak to the other any more. We had + previously supped on a tough old nightmare named buffalo. + + What do you think of a "Fowl de poulet"? or a "Paettie de Shay"? or + "Celary"? or "Murange with cream"? Because all these delicacies are + in the printed bill of fare! If Mrs. Fields would like the recipe, + how to make a "Paettie de Shay," telegraph instantly, and the recipe + shall be purchased. We asked the Irish waiter what this dish was, + and he said it was "the Frinch name the steward giv' to oyster + pattie." It is usually washed down, I believe, with "Movseaux," or + "Table Madeira," or "Abasinthe," or "Curraco," all of which drinks + are on the wine list. I mean to drink my love to ---- after dinner + in Movseaux. Your ruggeder nature shall be pledged in Abasinthe. + + Ever affectionately, + + CHARLES DICKENS. + +On the 19th of March he writes from Albany:-- + + Albany, 19th March, 1868. + + My Dear ----: I should have answered your kind and welcome note + before now, but that we have been in difficulties. After creeping + through water for miles upon miles, our train gave it up as a bad + job between Rochester and this place, and stranded us, early on + Tuesday afternoon, at Utica. There we remained all night, and at six + o'clock yesterday morning were ordered up to get ready for starting + again. Then we were countermanded. Then we were once more told to + get ready. Then we were told to stay where we were. At last we got + off at eight o'clock, and after paddling through the flood until + half past three, got landed here,--to the great relief of our minds + as well as bodies, for the tickets were all sold out for last night. + We had all sorts of adventures by the way, among which two of the + most notable were:-- + + 1. Picking up two trains out of the water, in which the passengers + had been composedly sitting all night, until relief should arrive. + + 2. Unpacking and releasing into the open country a great train of + cattle and sheep that had been in the water I don't know how long, + and that had begun in their imprisonment to eat each other. I never + could have realized the strong and dismal expressions of which the + faces of sheep are capable, had I not seen the haggard countenances + of this unfortunate flock as they were tumbled out of their dens and + picked themselves up and made off, leaping wildly (many with broken + legs) over a great mound of thawing snow, and over the worried body + of a deceased companion. Their misery was so very human that I was + sorry to recognize several intimate acquaintances conducting + themselves in this forlornly gymnastic manner. + + As there is no question that our friendship began in some previous + state of existence many years ago, I am now going to make bold to + mention a discovery we have made concerning Springfield. We find + that by remaining there next Saturday and Sunday, instead of coming + on to Boston, we shall save several hours' travel, and much wear and + tear of our baggage and camp-followers. Ticknor reports the + Springfield hotel excellent. Now will you and Fields come and pass + Sunday with us there? It will be delightful, if you can. If you + cannot, will you defer our Boston dinner until the following Sunday? + Send me a hopeful word to Springfield (Massasoit House) in reply, + please. + + Lowell's delightful note enclosed with thanks. _Do_ make a trial for + Springfield. We saw Professor White at Syracuse, and went out for a + ride with him. Queer quarters at Utica, and nothing particular to + eat; but the people so very anxious to please, that it was better + than the best cuisine. I made a jug of punch (in the bedroom + pitcher), and we drank our love to you and Fields. Dolby had more + than his share, under pretence of devoted enthusiasm. Ever + affectionately yours, + + CHARLES DICKENS. + +His readings everywhere were crowned with enthusiastic success, and if +his strength had been equal to his will, he could have stayed in America +another year, and occupied every night of it with his wonderful +impersonations. I regretted extremely that he felt obliged to give up +visiting the West. Invitations which greatly pleased him came day after +day from the principal cities and towns, but his friends soon discovered +that his health would not allow him to extend his travels beyond +Washington. + +He sailed for home on the 19th of April, 1868, and we shook hands with +him on the deck of the Russia as the good ship turned her prow toward +England. He was in great spirits at the thought of so soon again seeing +Gad's Hill, and the prospect of a rest after all his toilsome days and +nights in America. While at sea he wrote the following letter to me:-- + + Aboard The Russia, Bound For Liverpool, Sunday, 26th April, 1868. + + My Dear Fields: In order that you may have the earliest intelligence + of me, I begin this note to-day in my small cabin, purposing (if it + should prove practicable) to post it at Queenstown for the return + steamer. + + We are already past the Banks of Newfoundland, although our course + was seventy miles to the south, with the view of avoiding ice seen + by Judkins in the Scotia on his passage out to New York. The Russia + is a magnificent ship, and has dashed along bravely. We had made + more than thirteen hundred and odd miles at, noon to-day. The wind, + after being a little capricious, rather threatens at the present + time to turn against us, but our run is already eighty miles ahead + of the Russia's last run in this direction,--a very fast one. ...To + all whom it may concern, report the Russia in the highest terms. She + rolls more easily than the other Cunard Screws, is kept in perfect + order, and is most carefully looked after in all departments. We + have had nothing approaching to heavy weather; still, one can speak + to the trim of the ship. Her captain, a gentleman; bright, polite, + good-natured, and vigilant..... + + As to me, I am greatly better, I hope. I have got on my right boot + to-day for the first time; the "true American" seems to be turning + faithless at last; and I made a Gad's Hill breakfast this morning, + as a further advance on having otherwise eaten and drunk all day + ever since Wednesday. + + You will see Anthony Trollope, I dare say. What was my amazement to + see him with these eyes come aboard in the mail tender just before + we started! He had come out in the Scotia just in time to dash off + again in said tender to shake hands with me, knowing me to be aboard + here. It was most heartily done. He is on a special mission of + convention with the United States post-office. + + We have been picturing your movements, and have duly checked off + your journey home, and have talked about you continually. But I have + thought about, you both, even much, much more. You will never know + how I love you both; or what you have been to me in America, and + will always be to me everywhere; or how fervently I thank you. + + All the working of the ship seems to be done on my forehead. It is + scrubbed and holystoned (my head--not the deck) at three every + morning. It is scraped and swabbed all day. Eight pairs of heavy + boots are now clattering on it, getting the ship under sail again. + Legions of ropes'-ends are flopped upon it as I write, and I must + leave off with Dolby's love. + + Thursday, 30th. + + Soon after I left off as above we had a gale of wind, which blew all + night. For a few hours on the evening side of midnight there was no + getting from this cabin of mine to the saloon, or _vice versa,_ so + heavily did the sea break over the decks. The ship, however, made + nothing of it, and we were all right again by Monday afternoon. + Except for a few hours yesterday (when we had a very light head + wind), the weather has been constantly favorable, and we are now + bowling away at a great rate, with a fresh breeze filling all our + sails. We expect to be at Queenstown between midnight and three in + the morning. + + I hope, my dear Fields, you may find this legible, but I rather + doubt it; for there is motion enough on the ship to render writing + to a landsman, however accustomed to pen and ink, rather a difficult + achievement. Besides which, I slide away gracefully from the paper, + whenever I want to be particularly expressive..... + + ----, sitting opposite to me at breakfast, always has the following + items: A large dish of porridge, into which he casts slices of + butter and a quantity of sugar. Two cups of tea. A steak. Irish + stew. Chutnee, and marmalade. Another deputation of two has + solicited a reading to-night. Illustrious novelist has + unconditionally and absolutely declined. + + More love, and more to that, from your ever affectionate friend, + + C.D. + +His first letter from home gave us all great pleasure, for it announced +his complete recovery from the severe influenza that had fastened itself +upon him so many months before. Among his earliest notes I find these +paragraphs:-- + + "I have found it so extremely difficult to write about America + (though never so briefly) without appearing to blow trumpets on the + one hand, or to be inconsistent with my avowed determination _not_ + to write about it on the other, that I have taken the simple course + enclosed. The number will be published on the 6th of June. It + appears to me to be the most modest and manly course, and to derive + some graceful significance from its title..... + + "Thank my dear ---- for me for her delightful letter received on the + 16th. I will write to her very soon, and tell her about the dogs. I + would write by this post, but that Wills's absence (in Sussex, and + getting no better there as yet) so overwhelms me with business that + I can scarcely get through it. + + "Miss me? Ah, my dear fellow, but how do I miss _you!_ We talk about + you both at Gad's Hill every day of our lives. And I never see the + place looking very pretty indeed, or hear the birds sing all day + long and the nightingales all night, without restlessly wishing that + you were both there. + + "With best love, and truest and most enduring regard, ever, my dear + Fields, + + "Your most affectionate, + + "C.D." + + ".... I hope you will receive by Saturday's Cunard a case + containing: + + 1. A trifling supply of the pen-knibs that suited your hand. 2. A + do. of unfailing medicine for cockroaches. 3. Mrs. Gamp, for ----. + + "The case is addressed to you at Bleecker Street, New York. If it + should be delayed for the knibs (or nibs) promised to-morrow, and + should be too late for the Cunard packet, it will in that case come + by the next following Inman steamer. + + "Everything here looks lovely, and I find it (you will be surprised + to hear) really a pretty place! I have seen No Thoroughfare twice. + Excellent things in it; but it drags, to my thinking. It is, + however, a great success in the country, and is now getting up with + great force in Paris. Fechter is ill, and was ordered off to + Brighton yesterday. Wills is ill too, and banished into Sussex for + perfect rest. Otherwise, thank God, I find everything well and + thriving. You and my dear Mrs. F---- are constantly in my mind. + Procter greatly better...." + +On the 25th of May he sent off the following from Gad's Hill:-- + + My Dear ----: As you ask me about the dogs, I begin with them. When + I came down first, I came to Gravesend, five miles off. The two + Newfoundland dogs coming to meet me, with the usual carriage and the + usual driver, and beholding me coming in my usual dress out at the + usual door, it struck me that their recollection of my having been + absent for any unusual time was at once cancelled. They behaved + (they are both young dogs) exactly in their usual manner; coming + behind the basket phaeton as we trotted along, and lifting their + heads to have their ears pulled,--a special attention which they + receive from no one else. But when I drove into the stable-yard, + Linda (the St. Bernard) was greatly excited; weeping profusely, and + throwing herself on her back that she might caress my foot with her + great fore-paws. M----'s little dog too, Mrs. Bouncer, barked in the + greatest agitation on being called down and asked by M----, "Who is + this?" and tore round and round me, like the dog in the Faust + outlines. You must know that all the farmers turned out on the road + in their market-chaises to say, "Welcome home, sir!" that all the + houses along the road were dressed with flags; and that our + servants, to cut out the rest, had dressed this house so, that every + brick of it was hidden. They had asked M----'s permission to "ring + the alarm-bell (!) when master drove up"; but M----, having some + slight idea that that compliment might awaken master's sense of the + ludicrous, had recommended bell abstinence. But on Sunday, the + village choir (which includes the bell-ringers) made amends. After + some unusually brief pious reflection in the crowns of their hats at + the end of the sermon, the ringers bolted out and rang like mad + until I got home. (There had been a conspiracy among the villagers + to take the horse out, if I had come to our own station, and draw me + here. M---- and G---- had got wind of it and warned me.) + + Divers birds sing here all day, and the nightingales all night. The + place is lovely, and in perfect order. I have put five mirrors in + the Swiss Chalet (where I write), and they reflect and refract in + all kinds of ways the leaves that are quivering at the windows, and + he great fields of waving corn, and the sail-dotted river. My room + is up among the branches of the trees; and the birds and the + butterflies fly in and out, and the green branches shoot in, at the + open windows, and the lights and shadows of the clouds come and go + with the rest of the company. The scent of the flowers, and indeed + of everything that is growing for miles and miles, is most + delicious. + + Dolby (who sends a world of messages) found his wife much better + than he expected, and the children (wonderful to relate!) perfect. + The little girl winds up her prayers every night with a special + commendation to Heaven of me and the pony,--as if I must mount him + to get there! I dine with Dolby (I was going to write "him," but + found it would look as if I were going to dine with the pony) at + Greenwich this very day, and if your ears do not burn from six to + nine this evening, then the Atlantic is a non-conductor. We are + already settling--think of this!--the details of my farewell course + of readings. I am brown beyond relief, and cause the greatest + disappointment in all quarters by looking so well. It is really + wonderful what those fine days at sea did for me! My doctor was + quite broken down in spirits when he saw me, for the first time + since my return, last Saturday. "Good Lord!" he said, recoiling; + "seven years younger!" + + It is time I should explain the otherwise inexplicable enclosure. + Will you tell Fields, with my love, (I suppose he hasn't used _all_ + the pens yet?) that I think there is in Tremont Street a set of my + books, sent out by Chapman, not arrived when I departed. Such set of + the immortal works of our illustrious, etc., is designed for the + gentleman to whom the enclosure is addressed. If T., F., & Co. will + kindly forward the set (carriage paid) with the enclosure to ----'s + address, I will invoke new blessings on their heads, and will get + Dolby's little daughter to mention them nightly. + + "No Thoroughfare" is very shortly coming out in Paris, where it is + now in active rehearsal. It is still playing here, but without + Fechter, who has been very ill. The doctor's dismissal of him to + Paris, however, and his getting better there, enables him to get up + the play there. He and Wilkie missed so many pieces of stage effect + here, that, unless I am quite satisfied with his report, I shall go + over and try my stage-managerial hand at the Vaudeville Theatre. I + particularly want the drugging and attempted robbing in the bedroom + scene at the Swiss inn to be done to the sound of a waterfall rising + and falling with the wind. Although in the very opening of that + scene they speak of the waterfall and listen to it, nobody thought + of its mysterious music. I could make it, with a good stage + carpenter, in an hour. Is it not a curious thing that they want to + make me a governor of the Foundling Hospital, because, since the + Christmas number, they have had such an amazing access of visitors + and money? + + My dear love to Fields once again. Same to you and him from M---- + and G----. I cannot tell you both how I miss you, or how overjoyed I + should be to see you here. + + Ever, my dear ----, your most affectionate friend, + + C.D. + +Excellent accounts of his health and spirits continued to come from +Gad's Hill, and his letters were full of plans for the future. On the +7th of July he writes from Gad's Hill as usual:-- + + Gad's Hill Place, Tuesday, 7th July, 1868. + + My Dear Fields: I have delayed writing to you (and ----, to whom my + love) until I should have seen Longfellow. When he was in London the + first time he came and went without reporting himself, and left me + in a state of unspeakable discomfiture. Indeed, I should not have + believed in his having been here at all, if Mrs. Procter had not + told me of his calling to see Procter. However, on his return he + wrote to me from the Langham Hotel, and I went up to town to see + him, and to make an appointment for his coming here. He, the girls, + and ---- came down last Saturday night, and stayed until Monday + forenoon. I showed them all the neighboring country that could be + shown in so short a time, and they finished off with a tour of + inspection of the kitchens, pantry, wine-cellar, pickles, sauces, + servants' sitting-room, general household stores, and even the + Cellar Book, of this illustrious establishment. Forster and Kent + (the latter wrote certain verses to Longfellow, which have been + published in the "Times," and which I sent to D----) came down for a + day, and I hope we all had a really "good time." I turned out a + couple of postilions in the old red jacket of the old red royal + Dover road, for our ride; and it was like a holiday ride in England + fifty years ago. Of course we went to look at the old houses in + Rochester, and the old cathedral, and the old castle, and the house + for the six poor travellers who, "not being rogues or proctors, + shall have lodging, entertainment, and four pence each." + + Nothing can surpass the respect paid to Longfellow here, from the + Queen downward. He is everywhere received and courted, and finds (as + I told him he would, when we talked of it in Boston) the workingmen + at least as well acquainted with his books as the classes socially + above them..... + + Last Thursday I attended, as sponsor, the christening of Dolby's son + and heir,--a most jolly baby, who held on tight by the rector's left + whisker while the service was performed. What time, too, his little + sister, connecting me with the pony, trotted up and down the centre + isle, noisily driving herself as that celebrated animal, so that it + went very hard with the sponsorial dignity. + + ---- is not yet recovered from that concussion of the brain, and I + have all his work to do. This may account for my not being able to + devise a Christmas number, but I seem to have left my invention in + America. In case you should find it, please send it over. I am going + up to town to-day to dine with Longfellow. And now, my dear Fields, + you know all about me and mine. + + You are enjoying your holiday? and are still thinking sometimes of + our Boston days, as I do? and are maturing schemes for coming here + next summer? A satisfactory reply to the last question is + particularly entreated. + + I am delighted to find you both so well pleased with the Blind Book + scheme. I said nothing of it to you when we were together, though I + had made up my mind, because I wanted to come upon you with that + little burst from a distance. It seemed something like meeting + again when I remitted the money and thought of your talking of it. + + The dryness of the weather is amazing. All the ponds and surface + wells about here are waterless, and the poor people suffer greatly. + The people of this village have only one spring to resort to, and it + is a couple of miles from many cottages. I do not let the great dogs + swim in the canal, because the people have to drink of it. But when + they get into the Medway, it is hard to get them out again. The + other day Bumble (the son, Newfoundland dog) got into difficulties + among some floating timber, and became frightened. Don (the father) + was standing by me, shaking off the wet and looking on carelessly, + when all of a sudden he perceived something amiss, and went in with + a bound and brought Bumble out by the ear. The scientific way in + which he towed him along was charming. + + Ever your loving + + C.D. + + * * * * * + +During the summer of 1868 constant messages and letters came from +Dickens across the seas, containing pleasant references to his visit in +America, and giving charming accounts of his way of life at home. Here +is a letter announcing the fact that he had decided to close forever his +appearance in the reading-desk:-- + + Liverpool, Friday, October 30, 1868. + + My Dear ----: I ought to have written to you long ago. But I have + begun my one hundred and third Farewell Readings, and have been so + busy and so fatigued that my hands have been quite full. Here are + Dolby and I again leading the kind of life that you know so well. We + stop next week (except in London) for the month of November, on + account of the elections, and then go on again, with a short holiday + at Christmas. We have been doing wonders, and the crowds that pour + in upon us in London are beyond all precedent or means of providing + for. I have serious thoughts of doing the murder from Oliver Twist; + but it is so horrible, that I am going to try it on a dozen people + in my London hall one night next month, privately, and see what + effect it makes. + + My reason for abandoning the Christmas number was, that I became + weary of having my own writing swamped by that of other people. This + reminds me of the Ghost story. I don't think so well of it my dear + Fields, as you do. It seems to me to be too obviously founded on + Bill Jones (in Monk Lewis's Tales of Terror), and there is also a + remembrance in it of another Sea-Ghost story entitled, I think, + "Stand from Under," and written by I don't know whom. _Stand from + under_ is the cry from aloft when anything is going to be sent down + on deck, and the ghost is aloft on a yard.... + + You know all about public affairs, Irish churches, and party + squabbles. A vast amount of electioneering is going on about here; + but it has not hurt us; though Gladstone has been making speeches, + north, east, south, and west of us. I hear that C----is on his way + here in the Russia. Gad's Hill must be thrown open..... + + Your most affectionate + + CHARLES DICKENS. + +We had often talked together of the addition to his _repertoire_ of some +scenes from "Oliver Twist," and the following letter explains itself:-- + + Glasgow, Wednesday, December 16, 1868. + + Mr Dear ----: ...And first, as you are curious about the Oliver + murder, I will tell you about that trial of the same at which you + _ought_ to have assisted. There were about a hundred people present + in all. I have changed my stage. Besides that back screen which you + know so well, there are two large screens of the same color, set + off, one on either side, like the "wings" at a theatre. And besides + those again, we have a quantity of curtains of the same color, with + which to close in any width of room from wall to wall. Consequently, + the figure is now completely isolated, and the slightest action + becomes much more important. This was used for the first time on the + occasion. But behind the stage--the orchestra being very large and + built for the accommodation of a numerous chorus--there was ready, + on the level of the platform, a very long table, beautifully + lighted, with a large staff of men ready to open oysters and set + champagne corks flying. Directly I had done, the screens being + whisked off by my people, there was disclosed one of the prettiest + banquets you can imagine; and when all the people came up, and the + gay dresses of the ladies were lighted by those powerful lights of + mine, the scene was exquisitely pretty; the hall being newly + decorated, and very elegantly; and the whole looking like a great + bed of flowers and diamonds. + + Now, you must know that all this company were, before the wine went + round, unmistakably pale, and had horror-stricken faces. Next + morning, Harness (Fields knows--Rev. William--did an edition of + Shakespeare--old friend of the Kembles and Mrs. Siddons), writing to + me about it, and saying it was "a most amazing and terrific thing," + added, "but I am bound to tell you that I had an almost irresistible + impulse upon me to _scream_, and that, if any one had cried out, I + am certain I should have followed." He had no idea that on the night + P----, the great ladies' doctor, had taken me aside and said, "My + dear Dickens, you may rely upon it that if only one woman cries out + when you murder the girl, there will be a contagion of hysteria all + over this place." It is impossible to soften it without spoiling it, + and you may suppose that I am rather anxious to discover how it goes + on the 5th of January!!! We are afraid to announce it elsewhere, + without knowing, except that I have thought it pretty safe to put it + up once in Dublin. I asked Mrs. K----, the famous actress, who was + at the experiment: "What do _you_ say? Do it, or not?" "Why, of + course, do it," she replied. "Having got at such an effect as that, + it must be done. But," rolling her large black eyes very slowly, and + speaking very distinctly, "the public have been looking out for a + sensation these last fifty years or so, and by Heaven they have got + it!" With which words, and a long breath and a long stare, she + became speechless. Again, you may suppose that I am a little + anxious! I had previously tried it, merely sitting over the fire in + a chair, upon two ladies separately, one of whom was G----. They had + both said, "O, good gracious! if you are going to do _that_, it + ought to be seen; but it's awful." So once again you may suppose I + am a little anxious!... + + Not a day passes but Dolby and I talk about you both, and recall + where we were at the corresponding time of last year. My old + likening of Boston to Edinburgh has been constantly revived within + these last ten days. There is a certain remarkable similarity of + tone between the two places. The audiences are curiously alike, + except that the Edinburgh audience has a quicker sense of humor and + is a little more genial. No disparagement to Boston in this, because + I consider an Edinburgh audience perfect. + + I trust, my dear Eugenius, that you have recognized yourself in a + certain Uncommercial, and also some small reference to a name rather + dear to you? As an instance of how strangely something comic springs + up in the midst of the direst misery, look to a succeeding + Uncommercial, called "A Small Star in the East," published to-day, + by the by. I have described, with _exactness_, the poor places into + which I went, and how the people behaved, and what they said. I was + wretched, looking on; and yet the boiler-maker and the poor man with + the legs filled me with a sense of drollery not to be kept down by + any pressure. + + The atmosphere of this place, compounded of mists from the highlands + and smoke from the town factories, is crushing my eyebrows as I + write, and it rains as it never does rain anywhere else, and always + does rain here. It is a dreadful place, though much improved and + possessing a deal of public spirit. Improvement is beginning to + knock the old town of Edinburgh about, here and there; but the + Canongate and the most picturesque of the horrible courts and wynds + are not to be easily spoiled, or made fit for the poor wretches who + people them to live in. Edinburgh is so changed as to its + notabilities, that I had the only three men left of the Wilson and + Jeffrey time to dine with me there, last Saturday. + + I read here to-night and to-morrow, go back to Edinburgh on Friday + morning, read there on Saturday morning, and start southward by the + mail that same night. After the great experiment of the 5th,--that + is to say, on the morning of the 6th,--we are off to Belfast and + Dublin. On every alternate Tuesday I am due in London, from + wheresoever I may be, to read at St. James's Hall. + + I think you will find "Fatal Zero" (by Percy Fitzgerald) a very + curious analysis of a mind, as the story advances. A new beginner in + A.Y.R. (Hon. Mrs. Clifford, Kinglake's sister), who wrote a story in + the series just finished, called "The Abbot's Pool," has just sent + me another story. I have a strong impression that, with care, she + will step into Mrs. Graskell's vacant place. W---- is no better, and + I have work enough even in that direction. + + God bless the woman with the black mittens, for making me laugh so + this morning! I take her to be a kind of public-spirited Mrs. + Sparsit, and as such take her to my bosom. God bless you both, my + dear friends, in this Christmas and New Year time, and in all times, + seasons, and places, and send you to Gad's Hill with the next + flowers! + + Ever your most affectionate + + C.D. + +All who witnessed the reading of Dickens in the "Oliver Twist" murder +scene unite in testifying to the wonderful effect he produced in it. Old +theatrical _habitues_ have told me that, since the days of Edmund Kean +and Cooper, no mimetic representation had been superior to it. I became +so much interested in all I heard about it, that I resolved early in the +year 1869 to step across the water (it is only a stride of three +thousand miles) and see it done. The following is Dickens's reply to my +announcement of the intended voyage:-- + + A.Y.R. Office, London, Monday, February 15, 1869. + + My Dear Fields: Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah! It is a remarkable instance + of magnetic sympathy that before I received your joyfully welcomed + announcement of your probable visit to England, I was waiting for + the enclosed card to be printed, that I might send you a clear + statement of my Readings. I felt almost convinced that you would + arrive before the Farewells were over. What do you say to _that_? + + The final course of Four Readings in a week, mentioned in the + enclosed card, is arranged to come off, on + + Monday, June 7th; + + Tuesday, June 8th; + + Thursday, June 10th; and + + Friday, June 11th: last night of all. + + We hoped to have finished in May, but cannot clear the country off + in sufficient time. I shall probably be about the Lancashire towns + in that month. There are to be three morning murders in London not + yet announced, but they will be extra the London nights I send you, + and will in no wise interfere with them. We are doing most + amazingly. In the country the people usually collapse with the + murder, and don't fully revive in time for the final piece; in + London, where they are much quicker, they are equal to both. It is + very hard work; but I have never for a moment lost voice or been + unwell; except that my foot occasionally gives me a twinge. We shall + have in London on the 2d of March, for the second murder night, + probably the greatest assemblage of notabilities of all sorts ever + packed together. D---- continues steady in his allegiance to the + Stars and Stripes, sends his kindest regard, and is immensely + excited by the prospect of seeing you. Gad's Hill is all ablaze on + the subject. We are having such wonderfully warm weather that I fear + we shall have a backward spring there. You'll excuse east-winds, + won't you, if they shake the flowers roughly when you first set foot + on the lawn? I have only seen it once since Christmas, and that was + from last Saturday to Monday, when I went there for my birthday, and + had the Forsters and Wilkie to keep it. I had had ----'s letter + four days before, and drank to you both most heartily and lovingly. + + I was with M---- a week or two ago. He is quite surprisingly infirm + and aged. Could not possibly get on without his second wife to take + care of him, which she does to perfection. I went to Cheltenham + expressly to do the murder for him, and we put him in the front row, + where he sat grimly staring at me. After it was over, he thus + delivered himself, on my laughing it off and giving him some wine: + "No, Dickens--er--er--I will NOT," with sudden emphasis, --"er--have + it--er--put aside. In my--er--best times--er--you remember them, my + dear boy--er--gone, gone! --no,"--with great emphasis again,--"it + comes to this--er --TWO MACBETHS!" with extraordinary energy. After + which he stood (with his glass in his hand and his old square jaw of + its old fierce form) looking defiantly at Dolby as if Dolby had + contradicted him; and then trailed off into a weak pale likeness of + himself as if his whole appearance had been some clever optical + illusion. + + I am away to Scotland on Wednesday next, the 17th, to finish there. + Ireland is already disposed of, and Manchester and Liverpool will + follow within six weeks. "Like lights in a theatre, they are being + snuffed out fast," as Carlyle says of the guillotined in his + Revolution. I suppose I shall be glad when they are all snuffed out. + Anyhow, I think so now. + + The N----s have a very pretty house at Kensington. He has quite + recovered, and is positively getting fat. I dined with them last + Friday at F----'s, having (marvellous to relate!) a spare day in + London. The warm weather has greatly spared F----'s bronchitis; but + I fear that he is quite unable to bear cold, or even changes of + temperature, and that he will suffer exceedingly if east-winds + obtain. One would say they must at last, for it has been blowing a + tempest from the south and southwest for weeks and weeks. + + The safe arrival of my boy's ship in Australia has been telegraphed + home, but I have not yet heard from him. His post will be due a week + or so hence in London. My next boy is doing very well, I hope, at + Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Of my seafaring boy's luck in getting a + death-vacancy of First Lieutenant, aboard a new ship-of-war on the + South American Station, I heard from a friend, a captain in the + Navy, when I was at Bath the other day; though we have not yet heard + it from himself. Bath (setting aside remembrances of Roderick Random + and Humphrey Clinker) looked, I fancied, just as if a cemetery-full + of old people had somehow made a successful rise against death, + carried the place by assault, and built a city with their + gravestones; in which they were trying to look alive, but with very + indifferent success. + + C---- is no better, and no worse. M---- and G---- send all manner of + loves, and have already represented to me that the red-jacketed + post-boys must be turned out for a summer expedition to Canterbury, + and that there must be lunches among the cornfields, walks in Cobham + Park, and a thousand other expeditions. Pray give our pretty M---- + to understand that a great deal will be expected of her, and that + she will have to look her very best, to look as I have drawn her. If + your Irish people turn up at Gad's at the same time, as they + probably will, they shall be entertained in the yard, with muzzled + dogs. I foresee that they will come over, haymaking and hopping, and + will recognize their beautiful vagabonds at a glance. + + I wish Reverdy Johnson would dine in private and hold his tongue. He + overdoes the thing. C---- is trying to get the Pope to subscribe, + and to run over to take the chair at his next dinner, on which + occasion Victor Emmanuel is to propose C----'s health, and may all + differences among friends be referred to him. With much love always, + and in high rapture at the thought of seeing you both here, + + Ever your most affectionate + + C.D. + +A few weeks later, while on his reading tour, he sent off the +following:-- + + Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool, Friday, April 9, 1869. + + My Dear Fields: The faithful Russia will bring this out to you, as a + sort of warrant to take you into loving custody and bring you back + on her return trip. + + I have been "reading" here all this week, and finish here for good + to-night. To-morrow the Mayor, Corporation, and citizens give me a + farewell dinner in St. George's Hall. Six hundred and fifty are to + dine, and a mighty show of beauty is to be mustered besides. N---- + had a great desire to see the sight, and so I suggested him as a + friend to be invited. He is over at Manchester now on a visit, and + will come here at midday to-morrow, and go back to London with us on + Sunday afternoon. On Tuesday I read in London, and on Wednesday + start off again. To-night is No. 68 out of one hundred. I am very + tired of it, but I could have no such good fillip as you among the + audience, and that will carry me on gayly to the end. So please to + look sharp in the matter of landing on the bosom of the used-up, + worn-out, and rotten old Parient. I rather think that when the 12th + of June shall have shaken off these shackles, there _will_ be borage + on the lawn at Gad's. Your heart's desire in that matter, and in the + minor particulars of Cobham Park, Rochester Castle, and Canterbury + shall be fulfilled, please God! The red jackets shall turn out again + upon the turnpike road, and picnics among the cherry-orchards and + hop-gardens shall be heard of in Kent. Then, too, shall the + Uncommercial resuscitate (being at present nightly murdered by Mr. + W. Sikes) and uplift his voice again. + + The chief officer of the Russia (a capital fellow) was at the + Reading last night, and Dolby specially charged him with the care of + you and yours. We shall be on the borders of Wales, and probably + about Hereford, when you arrive. Dolby has insane projects of + getting over here to meet you; so amiably hopeful and obviously + impracticable, that I encourage him to the utmost. The regular + little captain of the Russia, Cook, is just now changed into the + Cuba, whence arise disputes of seniority, etc. I wish he had been + with you, for I liked him very much when I was his passenger. I like + to think of your being in _my_ ship! + + ---- and ---- have been taking it by turns to be "on the point of + death," and have been complimenting one another greatly on the + fineness of the point attained. My people got a very good impression + of ----, and thought her a sincere and earnest little woman. + + The Russia hauls out into the stream to-day, and I fear her people + may be too busy to come to us to-night. But if any of them do, they + shall have the warmest of welcomes for your sake. (By the by, a very + good party of seamen from the Queen's ship Donegal, lying in the + Mersey, have been told off to decorate St. George's Hall with the + ship's bunting. They were all hanging on aloft upside down, holding + to the gigantically high roof by nothing, this morning, in the most + wonderfully cheerful manner.) + + My son Charley has come for the dinner, and Chappell (my Proprietor, + as--isn't it Wemmick?--says) is coming to-day, and Lord Dufferin + (Mrs. Norton's nephew) is to come and make _the_ speech. I don't + envy the feelings of my noble friend when he sees the hall. + Seriously, it is less adapted to speaking than Westminster Abbey, + and is as large.... + + I hope you will see Fechter in a really clever piece by Wilkie. Also + you will see the Academy Exhibition, which will be a very good one; + and also we will, please God, see everything and more, and + everything else after that. I begin to doubt and fear on the subject + of your having a horror of me after seeing the murder. I don't + think a hand moved while I was doing it last night, or an eye looked + away. And there was a fixed expression of horror of me, all over the + theatre, which could not have been surpassed if I had been going to + be hanged to that red velvet table. It is quite a new sensation to + be execrated with that unanimity; and I hope it will remain so! + + [Is it lawful--would that woman in the black gaiters, green veil, + and spectacles, hold it so--to send my love to the pretty M----?] + + Pack up, my dear Fields, and be quick. + + Ever your most affectionate + + C.D. + +It will be remembered that Dickens broke down entirely during the month +of April, being completely worn out with hard work in the Readings. He +described to me with graphic earnestness, when we met in May, all the +incidents connected with the final crisis, and I shall never forget how +he imitated himself during that last Reading, when he nearly fell before +the audience. It was a terrible blow to his constitution, and only a man +of the greatest strength and will could have survived it. When we +arrived in Queenstown, this note was sent on board our steamer. + + Loving welcome to England. Hurrah! + + Office Of All The Year Round, Wednesday, May 5, 1869. + + My Dear ----: I fear you will have been uneasy about me, and will + have heard distorted accounts of the stoppage of my Readings. It is + a measure of precaution, and not of cure. I was too tired and too + jarred by the railway fast express, travelling night and day. No + half-measure could be taken; and rest being medically considered + essential, we stopped. I became, thank God, myself again, almost as + soon as I could rest! I am good for all country pleasures with you, + and am looking forward to Gad's, Rochester Castle, Cobham Park, red + jackets, and Canterbury. When you come to London we shall probably + be staying at our hotel. You will learn, here, where to find us. I + yearn to be with you both again! + + Love to M----. + + Ever your affectionate C.D. + + I hope this will be put into your hands on board, in Queenstown + Harbor. + +We met in London a few days after this, and I found him in capital +spirits, with such a protracted list of things we were to do together, +that, had I followed out the prescribed programme, it would have taken +many more months of absence from home than I had proposed to myself. We +began our long rambles among the thoroughfares that had undergone +important changes since I was last in London, taking in the noble Thames +embankments, which I had never seen, and the improvements in the city +markets. Dickens had moved up to London for the purpose of showing us +about, and had taken rooms only a few streets off from our hotel. Here +are two specimens of the welcome little notes which I constantly found +on my breakfast-table:-- + + Office Of All The Year Round, London, Wednesday, May 19, 1869. + + My Dear Fields: Suppose we give the weather a longer chance, and say + Monday instead of Friday. I think we must be safer with that + precaution. If Monday will suit you, I propose that we meet here + that day,--your ladies and you and I,--and cast ourselves on the + stony-hearted streets. If it be bright for St. Paul's, good; if not, + we can take some other lion that roars in dull weather. We will dine + here at six, and meet here at half past two. So IF you should want + to go elsewhere after dinner, it can be done, notwithstanding. Let + me know in a line what you say. + + O the delight of a cold bath this morning, after those + lodging-houses! And a mild sniffler of punch, on getting into the + hotel last night, I found what my friend Mr. Wegg calls, "Mellering, + sir, very mellering." + + With kindest regards, ever affectionately, + + CHARLES DICKENS. + + Office Of All The Year Round, London, Tuesday, May 25, 1869. + + My Dear Fields: First, you leave Charing Cross Station, by North + Kent railway, on Wednesday, June 2d, at 2.10 for Higham Station, the + next station beyond Gravesend. Now, bring your lofty mind back to + the previous Saturday, next Saturday. There is only one way of + combining Windsor and Richmond. That way will leave us but two hours + and a half at Windsor. This would not be long enough to enable us to + see the inside of the castle, but would admit of our seeing the + outside, the Long Walk, etc. I will assume that such a survey will + suffice. That taken for granted, meet me at Waterloo Terminus (Loop + Line for Windsor) at 10.35, on Saturday morning. + + The rendezvous for Monday evening will be _here at half past eight_. + As I don't know Mr. Eytinge's number in Guildford Street, will you + kindly undertake to let him know that we are going out with the + great Detective? And will you also give him the time and place for + Gad's? + + I shall be here on Friday for a few hours; meantime at Gad's + aforesaid. + + With love to the ladies, ever faithfully, + + C.D. + +During my stay in England in that summer of 1869, I made many excursions +with Dickens both around the city and into the country. Among the most +memorable of these London rambles was a visit to the General +Post-Office, by arrangement with the authorities there, a stroll among +the cheap theatres and lodging-houses for the poor, a visit to +Furnival's Inn and the very room in it where "Pickwick" was written, and +a walk through the thieves' quarter. Two of these expeditions were made +on two consecutive nights, under the protection of police detailed for +the service. On one of these nights we also visited the lock-up houses, +watch-houses, and opium-eating establishments. It was in one of the +horrid opium-dens that he gathered the incidents which he has related in +the opening pages of "Edwin Drood." In a miserable court we found the +haggard old woman blowing at a kind of pipe made of an old penny +ink-bottle. The identical words which Dickens puts into the mouth of +this wretched creature in "Edwin Drood" we heard her croon as we leaned +over the tattered bed on which she was lying. There was something +hideous in the way this woman kept repeating, "Ye'll pay up +according, deary, won't ye?" and the Chinamen and Lascars made +never-to-be-forgotten pictures in the scene. I watched Dickens intently +as he went among these outcasts of London, and saw with what deep +sympathy he encountered the sad and suffering in their horrid abodes. At +the door of one of the penny lodging-houses (it was growing toward +morning, and the raw air almost cut one to the bone), I saw him snatch a +little child out of its poor drunken mother's arms, and bear it in, +filthy as it was, that it might be warmed and cared for. I noticed that +whenever he entered one of these wretched rooms he had a word of cheer +for its inmates, and that when he left the apartment he always had a +pleasant "Good night" or "God bless you" to bestow upon them. I do not +think his person was ever recognized in any of these haunts, except in +one instance. As we entered a low room in the worst alley we had yet +visited, in which were huddled together some forty or fifty +half-starved-looking wretches, I noticed a man among the crowd +whispering to another and pointing out Dickens. Both men regarded him +with marked interest all the time he remained in the room, and tried to +get as near him, without observation, as possible. As he turned to go +out, one of these men pressed forward and said, "Good night, sir," with +much feeling, in reply to Dickens's parting word. + +Among other places, we went, a little past midnight, into one of the +Casual Wards, which were so graphically described, some years ago, in an +English magazine, by a gentleman who, as a pretended tramp, went in on a +reporting expedition. We walked through an avenue of poor tired sleeping +forms, all lying flat on the floor, and not one of them raised a head to +look at us as we moved thoughtfully up the aisle of sorrowful humanity. +I think we counted sixty or seventy prostrate beings, who had come in +for a night's shelter, and had lain down worn out with fatigue and +hunger. There was one pale young face to which I whispered Dickens's +attention, and he stood over it with a look of sympathizing interest not +to be easily forgotten. There was much ghastly comicality mingled with +the horror in several of the places we visited on those two nights. We +were standing in a room half filled with people of both sexes, whom the +police accompanying us knew to be thieves. Many of these abandoned +persons had served out their terms in jail or prison, and would probably +be again sentenced under the law. They were all silent and sullen as we +entered the room, until an old woman spoke up with a strong, beery +voice: "Good evening, gentlemen. We are all wery poor, but strictly +honest." At which cheerful apocryphal statement, all the inmates of the +room burst into boisterous laughter, and began pelting the imaginative +female with epithets uncomplimentary and unsavory. Dickens's quick eye +never for a moment ceased to study all these scenes of vice and gloom, +and he told me afterwards that, bad as the whole thing was, it had +improved infinitely since he first began to study character in those +regions of crime and woe. + +Between eleven and twelve o'clock on one of the evenings I have +mentioned we were taken by Dickens's favorite Detective W---- into a +sort of lock-up house, where persons are brought from the streets who +have been engaged in brawls, or detected in the act of thieving, or who +have, in short, committed any offence against the laws. Here they are +examined for commitment by a sort of presiding officer, who sits all +night for that purpose. We looked into some of the cells, and found them +nearly filled with wretched-looking objects who had been brought in that +night. To this establishment are also brought lost children who are +picked up in the streets by the police,--children who have wandered away +from their homes, and are not old enough to tell the magistrate where +they live. It was well on toward morning, and we were sitting in +conversation with one of the officers, when the ponderous door opened +and one of these small wanderers was brought in. She was the queerest +little figure I ever beheld, and she walked in, holding the police +officer by the hand as solemnly and as quietly if she were attending her +own obsequies. She was between four and five years old, and had on what +was evidently her mother's bonnet,--an enormous production, resembling a +sort of coal-scuttle, manufactured after the fashion of ten or fifteen +years ago. The child had, no doubt, caught up this wonderful head-gear +in the absence of her parent, and had gone forth in quest of adventure. +The officer reported that he had discovered her in the middle of the +street, moving ponderingly along, without any regard to the horses and +vehicles all about her. When asked where she lived, she mentioned a +street which only existed in her own imagination, and she knew only her +Christian name. When she was interrogated by the proper authorities, +without the slightest apparent discomposure she replied in a steady +voice, as she thought proper, to their questions. The magistrate +inadvertently repeated a question as to the number of her brothers and +sisters, and the child snapped out, "I told ye wunst; can't ye hear?" +When asked if she would like anything, she gayly answered, "Candy, cake +and _candy_." A messenger was sent out to procure these commodities, +which she instantly seized on their arrival and began to devour. She +showed no signs of fear, until one of the officers untied the huge +bonnet and took it off, when she tearfully insisted upon being put into +it again. I was greatly impressed by the ingenious efforts of the +excellent men in the room to learn from the child where she lived, and +who her parents were. Dickens sat looking at the little figure with +profound interest, and soon came forward and asked permission to speak +with the child. Of course his request was granted, and I don't know when +I have enjoyed a conversation more. She made some very smart answers, +which convulsed us all with laughter as we stood looking on; and the +creator of "little Nell" and "Paul Dombey" gave her up in despair. He +was so much interested in the little vagrant, that he sent a messenger +next morning to learn if the rightful owner of the bonnet had been +found. Report came back, on a duly printed form, setting forth that the +anxious father and mother had applied for the child at three o'clock in +the morning, and had borne her away in triumph to her home. + +It was a warm summer afternoon towards the close of the day, when +Dickens went with us to visit the London Post-Office. He said: "I know +nothing which could give a stranger a better idea of the size of London +than that great institution. The hurry and rush of letters! men up to +their chin in letters! nothing but letters everywhere! the air full of +letters!--suddenly the clock strikes; not a person is to be seen, _nor_ +a letter: only one man with a lantern peering about and putting one +drop-letter into a box." For two hours we went from room to room, with +him as our guide, up stairs and down stairs, observing the myriad clerks +at their various avocations, with letters for the North Pole, for the +South Pole, for Egypt and Alaska, Darien and the next street. + +The "Blind Man," as he was called, appeared to afford Dickens as much +amusement as if he saw his work then for the first time; but this was +one of the qualities of his genius; there was inexhaustibility and +freshness in everything to which he turned his attention. The ingenuity +and loving care shown by the "Blind Man" in deciphering or guessing at +the apparently inexplicable addresses on letters and parcels excited his +admiration. "What a lesson to all of us," he could not help saying, "to +be careful in preparing our letters for the mail!" His own were always +directed with such exquisite care, however, that had he been brother to +the "Blind Man," and considered it his special work in life to teach +others how to save that officer trouble, he could hardly have done +better. + +Leaving the hurry and bustle of the Post-Office behind us, we strolled +out into the streets of London. It was past eight o'clock, but the +beauty of the soft June sunset was only then overspreading the misty +heavens. Every sound of traffic had died out of those turbulent +thoroughfares; now and then a belated figure would hurry past us and +disappear, or perhaps in turning the corner would linger to "take a good +look" at Charles Dickens. But even these stragglers soon dispersed, +leaving us alone in the light of day and the sweet living air to +heighten the sensation of a dream. We came through White Friars to the +Temple, and thence into the Temple Garden, where our very voices echoed. +Dickens pointed up to Talfourd's room, and recalled with tenderness the +merry hours they had passed together in the old place. Of course we +hunted out Goldsmith's abode, and Dr. Johnson's, saw the site of the +Earl of Essex's palace, and the steps by which he was wont to descend to +the river, now so far removed. But most interesting of all to us there +was "Pip's" room, to which Dickens led us, and the staircase where the +convict stumbled up in the dark, and the chimney nearest the river +where, although less exposed than in "Pip's" days, we could well +understand how "the wind shook the house that night like discharges of +cannon, or breakings of a sea." We looked in at the dark old staircase, +so dark on that night when "the lamps were blown out, and the lamps on +the bridges and the shore were shuddering," then went on to take a peep, +half shuddering ourselves, at the narrow street where "Pip" by and by +found a lodging for the convict. Nothing dark could long survive in our +minds on that June night, when the whole scene was so like the airy work +of imagination. Past the Temple, past the garden to the river, mistily +fair, with a few boats moving upon its surface, the convict's story was +forgotten, and we only knew this was Dickens's home, where he had lived +and written, lying in the calm light of its fairest mood. + + * * * * * + +Dickens had timed our visit to his country house in Kent, and arranged +that we should appear at Gad's Hill with the nightingales. Arriving at +the Higham station on a bright June day in 1869, we found his stout +little pony ready to take us up the hill; and before we had proceeded +far on the road, the master himself came out to welcome us on the way. +He looked brown and hearty, and told us he had passed a breezy morning +writing in the chalet. We had parted from him only a few days before in +London, but I thought the country air had already begun to exert its +strengthening influence,--a process he said which commonly set in the +moment he reached his garden gate. + +It was ten years since I had seen Gad's Hill Place, and I observed at +once what extensive improvements had been made during that period. +Dickens had increased his estate by adding quite a large tract of land +on the opposite side of the road, and a beautiful meadow at the back of +the house. He had connected the front lawn, by a passageway running +under the road, with beautifully wooded grounds, on which was erected +the Swiss chalet, a present from Fechter. The old house, too, had been +greatly improved, and there was an air of assured comfort and ease about +the charming establishment. No one could surpass Dickens as a host; and +as there were certain household rules (hours for meals, recreation, +etc.), he at once announced them, so that visitors never lost any time +"wondering" when this or that was to happen. + +Lunch over, we were taken round to see the dogs, and Dickens gave us a +rapid biographical account of each as we made acquaintance with the +whole colony. One old fellow, who had grown superannuated and nearly +blind, raised himself up and laid his great black head against Dickens's +breast as if he loved him. All were spoken to with pleasant words of +greeting, and the whole troop seemed wild with joy over the master's +visit. "Linda" put up her shaggy paw to be shaken at parting; and as we +left the dog-houses, our host told us some amusing anecdotes of his +favorite friends. + +Dickens's admiration of Hogarth was unbounded, and he had hung the +staircase leading up from the hall of his house with fine old +impressions of the great master's best works. Observing our immediate +interest in these pictures, he seemed greatly pleased, and proceeded at +once to point out in his graphic way what had struck his own fancy most +in Hogarth's genius. He had made a study of the painter's _thought_ as +displayed in these works, and his talk about the artist was delightful. +He used to say he never came down the stairs without pausing with new +wonder over the fertility of the mind that had conceived and the hand +that had executed these powerful pictures of human life; and I cannot +forget with what fervid energy and feeling he repeated one day, as we +were standing together on the stairs in front of the Hogarth pictures, +Dr. Johnson's epitaph, on the painter:-- + + "The hand of him here torpid lies, + That drew the essential form of grace; + Here closed in death the attentive eyes + That saw the manners in the face." + +Every day we had out-of-door games, such as "Bowls," "Aunt Sally," and +the like, Dickens leading off with great spirit and fun. Billiards came +after dinner, and during the evening we had charades and dancing. There +was no end to the new divertisements our kind host was in the habit of +proposing, so that constant cheerfulness reigned at Gad's Hill. He went +into his work-room, as he called it, soon after breakfast, and wrote +till twelve o'clock; then he came out, ready for a long walk. The +country about Gad's Hill is admirably adapted for pedestrian exercise, +and we went forth every day, rain or shine, for a stretcher. Twelve, +fifteen, even twenty miles were not too much for Dickens, and many a +long tramp we have had over the hop-country together. Chatham, +Rochester, Cobham Park, Maidstone,--anywhere, out under the open sky and +into the free air! Then Dickens was at his best, and talked. Swinging +his blackthorn stick, his lithe figure sprang forward over the ground, +and it took a practised pair of legs to keep alongside of his voice. In +these expeditions I heard from his own lips delightful reminiscences of +his early days in the region we were then traversing, and charming +narratives of incidents connected with the writing of his books. + +Dickens's association with Gad's Hill, the city of Rochester, the road +to Canterbury, and the old cathedral town itself, dates back to his +earliest years. In "David Copperfield," the most autobiographic of all +his books, we find him, a little boy, (so small, that the landlady is +called to peer over the counter and catch a glimpse of the tiny lad who +possesses such "a spirit,") trudging over the old Kent Road to Dover. "I +see myself," he writes, "as evening closes in, coming over the bridge at +Rochester, footsore and tired, and eating bread that I had bought for +supper. One or two little houses, with the notice, 'Lodgings for +Travellers' hanging out, had tempted me; but I was afraid of spending +the few pence I had, and was even more afraid of the vicious looks of +the trampers I had met or overtaken. I sought no shelter, therefore, but +the sky; and toiling into Chatham,--which in that night's aspect is a +mere dream of chalk, and drawbridges, and mastless ships in a muddy +river, roofed like Noah's arks,--crept, at last, upon a sort of +grass-grown battery overhanging a lane, where a sentry was walking to +and fro. Here I lay down near a cannon; and, happy in the society of the +sentry's footsteps, though he knew no more of my being above him than +the boys at Salem House had known of my lying by the wall, slept soundly +until morning," Thus early he noticed "the trampers" which infest the +old Dover Road, and observed them in their numberless gypsy-like +variety; thus early he looked lovingly on Gad's Hill Place, and wished +it might be his own, if he ever grew up to be a man. His earliest +memories were filled with pictures of the endless hop-grounds and +orchards, and the little child "thought it all extremely beautiful!" + +Through the long years of his short life he was always consistent in his +love for Kent and the old surroundings. When the after days came and +while travelling abroad, how vividly the childish love returned! As he +passed rapidly over the road on his way to France he once wrote: "Midway +between Gravesend and Rochester the widening river was bearing the +ships, white-sailed or black-smoked, out to sea, when I noticed by the +wayside a very queer small boy. + +"'Halloa!' said I to the very queer small boy, 'where do you live?' + +"'At Chatham,' says he. + +"'What do you do there?' said I. + +"'I go to school,' says he. + +"I took him up in a moment, and we went on. Presently the very queer +small boy says, 'This is Gad's Hill we are coming to, where Falstaff +went out to rob those travellers, and ran away.' + +"'You know something about Falstaff, eh?' said I. + +"'All about him,' said the very queer small boy. 'I am old (I am nine) +and I read all sorts of books. But _do_ let us stop at the top of the +hill, and look at the house there, if you please!' + +"'You admire that house,' said I. + +"'Bless you, sir,' said the very queer small boy, 'when I was not more +than half as old as nine, it used to be a treat for me to be brought to +look at it. And now I am nine, I come by myself to look at it. And ever +since I can recollect, my father, seeing me so fond of it, has often +said to me, "If you were to be very persevering and were to work hard, +you might some day come to live in it." Though that's impossible!' said +the very queer small boy, drawing a low breath, and now staring at the +house out of window with all his might. I was rather annoyed to be told +this by the very queer small boy; for that house happens to be _my_ +house, and I have reason to believe that what he said was true." + +What stay-at-home is there who does not know the Bull Inn at Rochester, +from which Mr. Tupman and Mr. Jingle attended the ball, Mr. Jingle +wearing Mr. Winkle's coat? or who has not seen in fancy the +"gypsy-tramp," the "show-tramp," the "cheap jack," the "tramp-children," +and the "Irish hoppers" all passing over "the Kentish Road, bordered" in +their favorite resting-place "on either side by a wood, and having on +one hand, between the road-dust and the trees, a skirting patch of +grass? Wild-flowers grow in abundance on this spot, and it lies high and +airy, with the distant river stealing steadily away to the ocean, like a +man's life." + +Sitting in the beautiful chalet during his later years and watching +this same river stealing away like his own life, he never could find a +harsh word for the tramps, and many and many a one has gone over the +road rejoicing because of some kindness received from his hands. Every +precaution was taken to protect a house exposed as his was to these wild +rovers, several dogs being kept in the stable-yard, and the large outer +gates locked. But he seldom made an excursion in any direction without +finding some opportunity to benefit them. One of these many kindnesses +came to the public ear during the last summer of his life. He was +dressing in his own bedroom in the morning, when he saw two Savoyards +and two bears come up to the Falstaff Inn opposite. While he was +watching the odd company, two English bullies joined the little party +and insisted upon taking the muzzles off the bears in order to have a +dance with them. "At once," said Dickens, "I saw there would be trouble, +and I watched the scene with the greatest anxiety. In a moment I saw how +things were going, and without delay I found myself at the gate. I +called the gardener by the way, but he managed to hold himself at safe +distance behind the fence. I put the Savoyards instantly in a secure +position, asked the bullies what they were at, forced them to muzzle the +bears again, under threat of sending for the police, and ended the whole +affair in so short a time that I was not missed from the house. +Unfortunately, while I was covered with dust and blood, for the bears +had already attacked one of the men when I arrived, I heard a carriage +roll by. I thought nothing of it at the time, but the report in the +foreign journals which startled and shocked my friends so much came +probably from the occupants of that vehicle. Unhappily, in my desire to +save the men, I entirely forgot the dogs, and ordered the bears to be +carried into the stable-yard until the scuffle should be over, when a +tremendous tumult arose between the bears and the dogs. Fortunately we +were able to separate them without injury, and the whole was so soon +over that it was hard to make the family believe, when I came in to +breakfast, that anything of the kind had gone forward." It was the +newspaper report, causing anxiety to some absent friends, which led, on +inquiry, to this rehearsal of the incident. + +Who does not know Cobham Park? Has Dickens not invited us +there in the old days to meet Mr. Pickwick, who pronounced it +"delightful!--thoroughly delightful," while "the skin of his expressive +countenance was rapidly peeling off with exposure to the sun"? Has he +not invited the world to enjoy the loveliness of its solitudes with him, +and peopled its haunts for us again and again? + +Our first _real_ visit to Cobham Park was on a summer morning when +Dickens walked out with us from his own gate, and, strolling quietly +along the road, turned at length into what seemed a rural wooded +pathway. At first we did not associate the spot in its spring freshness +with that morning after Christmas when he had supped with the "Seven +Poor Travellers," and lain awake all night with thinking of them; and +after parting in the morning with a kindly shake of the hand all round, +started to walk through Cobham woods on his way towards London. Then on +his lonely road, "the mists began to rise in the most beautiful manner +and the sun to shine; and as I went on," he writes, "through the bracing +air, seeing the hoar frost sparkle everywhere, I felt as if all nature +shared in the joy of the great Birthday. Going through the woods, the +softness of my tread upon the mossy ground and among the brown leaves +enhanced the Christmas sacredness by which I felt surrounded. As the +whitened stems environed me, I thought how the Founder of the time had +never raised his benignant hand, save to bless and heal, except in the +case of one unconscious tree." + +Now we found ourselves on the same ground, surrounded by the full beauty +of the summer-time. The hand of Art conspiring with Nature had planted +rhododendrons, as if in their native soil beneath the forest-trees. They +were in one universal flame of blossoms, as far as the eye could see. +Lord and Lady D----, the kindest and most hospitable of neighbors, were +absent; there was not a living figure beside ourselves to break the +solitude, and we wandered on and on with the wild birds for companions +as in our native wildernesses. By and by we came near Cobham Hall, with +its fine lawns and far-sweeping landscape, and workmen and gardeners and +a general air of summer luxury. But to-day we were to go past the hall +and lunch on a green slope under the trees, (was it _just_ the spot +where Mr. Pickwick tried the cold punch and found it satisfactory? I +never liked to ask!) and after making the old woods ring with the +clatter and clink of our noontide meal, mingled with floods of laughter, +were to come to the village, and to the very inn from which the +disconsolate Mr. Tupman wrote to Mr. Pickwick, after his adventure with +Miss Wardle. There is the old sign, and here we are at the Leather +Bottle, Cobham, Kent. "There's no doubt whatever about that." Dickens's +modesty would not allow him to go in, so we made the most of an outside +study of the quaint old place as we strolled by; also of the cottages +whose inmates were evidently no strangers to our party, but were cared +for by them as English cottagers are so often looked after by the kindly +ladies in their neighborhood. And there was the old churchyard, "where +the dead had been quietly buried 'in the sure and certain hope' which +Christmas-time inspired." There too were the children, whom, seeing at +their play, he could not but be loving, remembering who had loved them! +One party of urchins swinging on a gate reminded us vividly of Collins, +the painter. Here was his composition to the life. Every lover of rural +scenery must recall the little fellow on the top of a five-barred gate +in the picture Collins painted, known widely by the fine engraving made +of it at the time. And there too were the blossoming gardens, which now +shone in their new garments of resurrection. The stillness of midsummer +noon crept over everything as we lingered in the sun and shadow of the +old village. Slowly circling the hall, we came upon an avenue of +lime-trees leading up to a stately doorway in the distance. The path was +overgrown, birds and squirrels were hopping unconcernedly over the +ground, and the gates and chains were rusty with disuse. "This avenue," +said Dickens, as we leaned upon the wall and looked into its cool +shadows, "is never crossed except to bear the dead body of the lord of +the hall to its last resting-place; a remnant of superstition, and one +which Lord and Lady D---- would be glad to do away with, but the +villagers would never hear of such a thing, and would consider it +certain death to any person who should go or come through this entrance. +It would be a highly unpopular movement for the present occupants to +attempt to uproot this absurd idea, and they have given up all thoughts +of it for the time." + +It was on a subsequent visit to Cobham village that we explored the +"College," an old foundation of the reign of Edward III. for the aged +poor of both sexes. Each occupant of the various small apartments was +sitting at his or her door, which opened on a grassy enclosure with +arches like an abandoned cloister of some old cathedral. Such a motley +society, brought together under such unnatural circumstances, would of +course interest Dickens. He seemed to take a profound pleasure in +wandering about the place, which was evidently filled with the +associations of former visits in his own mind. He was usually possessed +by a childlike eagerness to go to any spot which he had made up his mind +it was best to visit, and quick to come away, but he lingered long about +this leafy old haunt on that Sunday afternoon. + +Of Cobham Hall itself much might be written without conveying an +adequate idea of its peculiar interest to this generation. The terraces, +and lawns, and cedar-trees, and deer-park, the names of Edward III. and +Elizabeth, the famous old Cobhams and their long line of distinguished +descendants, their invaluable pictures and historic chapel, have all +been the common property of the past and of the present. But the air of +comfort and hospitality diffused about the place by the present owners +belongs exclusively to our time, and a little Swiss chalet removed from +Gad's Hill, standing not far from the great house, will always connect +the name of Charles Dickens with the place he loved so well. The chalet +has been transferred thither as a tribute from the Dickens family to the +kindness of their friends and former neighbors. We could not fail, +during our visit, to think of the connection his name would always have +with Cobham Hall, though he was then still by our side, and the little +chalet yet remained embowered in its own green trees overlooking the +sail-dotted Medway as it flowed towards the Thames. + +The old city of Rochester, to which we have already referred as being +particularly well known to all Mr. Pickwick's admirers, is within +walking distance from Gad's Hill Place, and was the object of daily +visits from its occupants. The ancient castle, one of the best ruins in +England, as Dickens loved to say, because less has been done to it, +rises with rugged walls precipitously from the river. It is wholly +unrestored; just enough care has been bestowed to prevent its utter +destruction, but otherwise it stands as it has stood and crumbled from +year to year. We climbed painfully up to the highest steep of its +loftiest tower, and looked down on the wonderful scene spread out in the +glory of a summer sunset. Below, a clear trickling stream flowed and +tinkled as it has done since the rope was first lowered in the year 800 +to bring the bucket up over the worn stones which still remain to attest +the fact. How happy Dickens was in the beauty of that scene! What +delight he took in rebuilding the old place, with every legend of which +he proved himself familiar, and repeopling it out of the storehouse of +his fancy. "Here was the kitchen, and there the dining-hall! How +frightfully dark they must have been in those days, with such small +slits for windows, and the fireplaces without chimneys! There were the +galleries; this is one of the four towers; the others, you will +understand, corresponded with this; and now, if you're not dizzy, we +will come out on the battlements for the view!" Up we went, of course, +following our cheery leader until we stood among the topmost +wall-flowers, which were waving yellow and sweet in the sunset air. East +and west, north and south, our eyes traversed the beautiful garden land +of Kent, the land beloved of poets through the centuries. Below lay the +city of Rochester on one hand, and in the heart of it an old inn where a +carrier was even then getting out, or putting in, horses and wagon for +the night. A procession, with banners and music, was moving slowly by +the tavern, and the quaint costumes in which the men were dressed +suggested days long past, when far other scenes were going forward in +this locality. It was almost like a pageant marching out of antiquity +for our delectation. Our master of ceremonies revelled that day in +repeopling the queer old streets down into which we were looking from +our charming elevation. His delightful fancy seemed especially alert on +that occasion, and we lived over again with him many a chapter in the +history of Rochester, full of interest to those of us who had come from +a land where all is new and comparatively barren of romance. + +Below, on the other side, was the river Medway, from whose depths the +castle once rose steeply. Now the _debris_ and perhaps also a slight +swerving of the river from its old course have left a rough margin, over +which it would not be difficult to make an ascent. Rochester Bridge, +too, is here, and the "windy hills" in the distance; and again, on the +other hand, Chatham, and beyond, the Thames, with the sunset tingeing +the many-colored sails. We were not easily persuaded to descend from our +picturesque vantage-ground; but the master's hand led us gently on from +point to point, until we found ourselves, before we were aware, on the +grassy slope outside the castle wall. Besides, there was the cathedral +to be visited, and the tomb of Richard Watts, "with the effigy of worthy +Master Richard starting out of it like a ship's figurehead." + +After seeing the cathedral, we went along the silent High Street, past +queer Elizabethan houses with endless gables and fences and +lattice-windows, until we came to Watts's Charity, the house of +entertainment for six poor travellers. The establishment is so familiar +to all lovers of Dickens through his description of it in the article +entitled "Seven Poor Travellers" among his "Uncommercial" papers, that +little is left to be said on that subject; except perhaps that no +autobiographic sketch ever gave a more faithful picture, a closer +portrait, than is there conveyed. + +Dickens's fancy for Rochester, and his numberless associations with it, +have left traces of that city in almost everything he wrote. From the +time when Mr. Snodgrass first discovered the castle ruin from Rochester +Bridge, to the last chapter of Edwin Drood, we observe hints of the +city's quaintness or silence; the unending pavements, which go on and +on till the wisest head would be puzzled to know where Rochester ends +and where Chatham begins, the disposition of Father Time to have his own +unimpeded way therein, and of the gray cathedral towers which loom up in +the background of many a sketch and tale. Rochester, too, is on the way +to Canterbury, Dickens's best loved cathedral, the home of Agnes +Wickfield, the sunny spot in the life and memory of David Copperfield. +David was particularly small, as we are told, when he first saw +Canterbury, but he was already familiar with Roderick Random, Peregrine +Pickle, Humphrey Clinker, Tom Jones, The Vicar of Wakefield, Don +Quixote, Gil Blas, and Robinson Crusoe, who came out, as he says, a +glorious host, to keep him company. Naturally, the calm old place, the +green nooks, the beauty of the cathedral, possessed a better chance with +him than with many others, and surely no one could have loved them more. +In the later years of his life the crowning-point of the summer holidays +was "a pilgrimage to Canterbury." + +The sun shone merrily through the day when he chose to carry us thither. +Early in the morning the whole house was astir; large hampers were +packed, ladies and gentlemen were clad in gay midsummer attire, and, +soon after breakfast, huge carriages with four horses, and postilions +with red coats and top-boots, after the fashion of the olden time, were +drawn up before the door. Presently we were moving lightly over the +road, the hop-vines dancing on the poles on either side, the orchards +looking invitingly cool, the oast-houses fanning with their wide arms, +the river glowing from time to time through the landscape. We made such +a clatter passing through Rochester, that all the main street turned out +to see the carriages, and, being obliged to stop the horses a moment, a +shopkeeper, desirous of discovering Dickens among the party, hit upon +the wrong man, and confused an humble individual among the company by +calling a crowd, pointing him out as Dickens, and making him the mark of +eager eyes. This incident seemed very odd to us in a place he knew so +well. On we clattered, leaving the echoing street behind us, on and on +for many a mile, until noon, when, finding a green wood and clear stream +by the roadside, we encamped under the shadow of the trees in a retired +spot for lunch. Again we went on, through quaint towns and lonely roads, +until we came to Canterbury, in the yellow afternoon. The bells for +service were ringing as we drove under the stone archway into the +soundless streets. The whole town seemed to be enjoying a simultaneous +nap, from which it was aroused by our horses' hoofs. Out the people ran, +at this signal, into the highway, and we were glad to descend at some +distance from the centre of the city, thus leaving the excitement behind +us. We had been exposed to the hot rays of the sun all day, and the +change into the shadow of the cathedral was refreshing. Service was +going forward as we entered; we sat down, therefore, and joined our +voices with those of the choristers. Dickens, with tireless observation, +noted how sleepy and inane were the faces of many of the singers, to +whom this beautiful service was but a sickening monotony of repetition. +The words, too, were gabbled over in a manner anything but impressive. +He was such a downright enemy to form, as substituted for religion, that +any dash of untruth or unreality was abhorrent to him. When the last +sounds died away in the cathedral we came out again into the cloisters, +and sauntered about until the shadows fell over the beautiful enclosure. +We were hospitably entreated, and listened to many an historical tale of +tomb and stone and grassy nook; but under all we were listening to the +heart of our companion, who had so often wandered thither in his +solitude, and was now rereading the stories these urns had prepared for +him. + +During one of his winter visits, he says (in "Copperfield"):-- + +"Coming into Canterbury, I loitered through the old streets with a sober +pleasure that calmed my spirits and eased my heart. There were the old +signs, the old names over the shops, the old people serving in them. It +appeared so long since I had been a school-boy there, that I wondered +the place was so little changed, until I reflected how little I was +changed myself. Strange to say, that quiet influence which was +inseparable in my mind from Agnes seemed to pervade even the city where +she dwelt. The venerable cathedral towers, and the old jackdaws and +rooks, whose airy voices made them more retired than perfect silence +would have done; the battered gateways, once stuck full with statues, +long thrown down and crumbled away, like the reverential pilgrims who +had gazed upon them; the still nooks, where the ivied growth of +centuries crept over gabled ends and ruined walls; the ancient houses; +the pastoral landscape of field, orchard, and garden;--everywhere, in +everything, I felt the same serene air, the same calm, thoughtful, +softening spirit." + +Walking away and leaving Canterbury behind us forever, we came again +into the voiceless streets, past a "very old house bulging out over the +road, ... quite spotless in its cleanliness, the old-fashioned brass +knocker on the low, arched door ornamented with carved garlands of fruit +and flowers, twinkling like a star," the very house, perhaps, "with +angles and corners and carvings and mouldings," where David Copperfield +was sent to school. We were turned off with a laughing reply, when we +ventured to accuse this particular house of being _the one_, and were +told there were several that "would do"; which was quite true, for +nothing could be more quaint, more satisfactory to all, from the lovers +of Chaucer to the lovers of Dickens, than this same city of Canterbury. +The sun had set as we rattled noisily out of the ancient place that +afternoon, and along the high road, which was quite novel in its evening +aspect. There was no lingering now; on and on we went, the postilions +flying up and down on the backs of their huge horses, their red coats +glancing in the occasional gleams of wayside lamps, fire-flies making +the orchards shine, the sunset lighting up vast clouds that lay across +the western sky, and the whole scene filled with evening stillness. When +we stopped to change horses, the quiet was almost oppressive. Soon after +nine we espied the welcome lantern of Gad's Hill Place and the open +gates. And so ended Dickens's last pilgrimage to Canterbury. + +There was another interesting spot near Gad's Hill which was one of +Dickens's haunts, and this was the "Druid-stone," as it is called, at +Maidstone. This is within walking distance of his house, along the +breezy hillside road, which we remember blossomy and wavy in the summer +season, with open spaces in the hedges where one may look over wide +hilly slopes, and at times come upon strange cuts down into the chalk +which pervades this district. We turned into a lane from the dusty road, +and, following our leader over a barred gate, came into wide grassy +fields full of summer's bloom and glory. A short walk farther brought us +to the Druid-stone, which Dickens thought to be, from the fitness of its +position, simply a vantage-ground chosen by priests,--whether Druid or +Christian of course it would be impossible to say,--from which to +address a multitude. The rock served as a kind of background and +sounding-board, while the beautiful sloping of the sward upward from the +speaker made it an excellent position for out-of-door discourses. On +this day it was only a blooming solitude, the birds had done all the +talking, until we arrived. It was a fine afternoon haunt, and one +worthy of a visit, apart from the associations which make the place +dear. + +One of the weirdest neighborhoods to Gad's Hill, and one of those most +closely associated with Dickens, is the village of Cooling. A cloudy day +proved well enough for Cooling; indeed, was undoubtedly chosen by the +adroit master of hospitalities as being a fitting sky to show the dark +landscape of "Great Expectations." The pony-carriage went thither to +accompany the walking party and carry the baskets; the whole way, as we +remember, leading on among narrow lanes, where heavy carriages were +seldom seen. We are told in the novel, "On every rail and gate, wet lay +clammy, and the marsh mist was so thick that the wooden finger on the +post directing people to our village--a direction which they never +accepted, for they never came there--was invisible to me until I was +close under it." The lanes certainly wore that aspect of never being +accepted as a way of travel; but this was a delightful recommendation to +our walk, for summer kept her own way there, and grass and wild-flowers +were abundant. It was already noon, and low clouds and mists were lying +about the earth and sky as we approached a forlorn little village on the +edge of the wide marshes described in the opening of the novel. This was +Cooling, and passing by the few cottages, the decayed rectory, and +straggling buildings, we came at length to the churchyard. It took but a +short time to make us feel at home there, with the marshes on one hand, +the low wall over which Pip saw the convict climb before he dared to run +away; "the five little stone lozenges, each about a foot and a half +long, ... sacred to the memory of five little brothers, ...to which I +had been indebted for a belief that they all had been born on their +backs, with their hands in their trousers pockets, and had never taken +them out in this state of existence";--all these points, combined with +the general dreariness of the landscape, the far-stretching marshes, and +the distant sea-line, soon revealed to us that this was Pip's country, +and we might momently expect to see the convict's head, or to hear the +clank of his chain, over that low wall. + +We were in the churchyard now, having left the pony within eye-shot, and +taken the baskets along with us, and were standing on one of those very +lozenges, somewhat grass-grown by this time, and deciphering the +inscriptions. On tiptoe we could get a wide view of the marsh, with, the +wind sweeping in a lonely limitless way through the tall grasses. +Presently hearing Dickens's cheery call, we turned to see what he was +doing. He had chosen a good flat gravestone in one corner (the corner +farthest from the marsh and Pip's little brothers and the expected +convict), had spread a wide napkin thereupon after the fashion of a +domestic dinner-table, and was rapidly transferring the contents of the +hampers to that point. The horrible whimsicality of trying to eat and +make merry under these deplorable circumstances, the tragic-comic +character of the scene, appeared to take him by surprise. He at once +threw himself into it (as he says in "Copperfield" he was wont to do +with anything to which he had laid his hand) with fantastic eagerness. +Having spread the table after the most approved style, he suddenly +disappeared behind the wall for a moment, transformed himself by the aid +of a towel and napkin into a first-class head-waiter, reappeared, laid a +row of plates along the top of the wall, as at a bar-room or +eating-house, again retreated to the other side with some provisions, +and, making the gentlemen of the party stand up to the wall, went +through the whole play with most entire gravity. When we had wound up +with a good laugh, and were again seated together on the grass around +the table, we espied two wretched figures, not the convicts this time, +although we might have easily persuaded ourselves so, but only tramps +gazing at us over the wall from the marsh side as they approached, and +finally sitting down, just outside the churchyard gate. They looked +wretchedly hungry and miserable, and Dickens said at once, starting up, +"Come, let us offer them a glass of wine and something good for lunch." +He was about to carry them himself, when what he considered a happy +thought seemed to strike him. "_You_ shall carry it to them," he cried, +turning to one of the ladies; "it will be less like a charity and more +like a kindness if one of you should speak to the poor souls!" This was +so much in character for him, who stopped always to choose the most +delicate way of doing a kind deed, that the memory of this little +incident remains, while much, alas! of his wit and wisdom have vanished +beyond the power of reproducing. We feasted on the satisfaction the +tramps took in their lunch, long after our own was concluded; and, +seeing them well off on their road again, took up our own way to Gad's +Hill Place. How comfortable it looked on our return; how beautifully the +afternoon gleams of sunshine shone upon the holly-trees by the porch; +how we turned away from the door and went into the playground, where we +bowled on the green turf, until the tall maid in her spotless cap was +seen bringing the five-o'clock tea thitherward; how the dews and the +setting sun warned us at last we must prepare for dinner; and how +Dickens played longer and harder than any one of the company, scorning +the idea of going in to tea at that hour, and beating his ball instead, +quite the youngest of the company up to the last moment!--all this +returns with vivid distinctness as I write these inadequate words. + +Many days and weeks passed over after those June days were ended before +we were to see Dickens again. Our meeting then was at the station in +London, on our way to Gad's Hill once more. He was always early at a +railway station, he said, if only to save himself the unnecessary and +wasteful excitement hurry commonly produces; and so he came to meet us +with a cheery manner, as if care were shut up in some desk or closet he +had left behind, and he were ready to make the day a gay one, whatever +the sun might say to it. A small roll of manuscript in his hand led him +soon to confess that a new story was already begun; but this +communication was made in the utmost confidence, as if to account for +any otherwise unexplainable absences, physically or mentally, from our +society, which might occur. But there were no gaps during that autumn +afternoon of return to Gad's Hill. He told us how summer had brought him +no vacation this year, and only two days of recreation. One of those, he +said, was spent with his family at "Rosherville Gardens," "the place," +as a huge advertisement informed us, "to spend a happy day." His +curiosity with regard to all entertainments for the people, he said to +us, carried him thither, and he seemed to have been amused and rewarded +by his visit. The previous Sunday had found him in London; he was +anxious to reach Gad's Hill before the afternoon, but in order to +accomplish this he must walk nine miles to a way station, which he did. +Coming to the little village, he inquired where the station was, and, +being shown in the wrong direction, walked calmly down a narrow road +which did not lead there at all. "On I went," he said, "in the perfect +sunshine, over yellow leaves, without even a wandering breeze to break +the silence, when suddenly I came upon three or four antique wooden +houses standing under trees on the borders of a lovely stream, and, a +little farther, upon an ancient doorway to a grand hall, perhaps the +home of some bishop of the olden time. The road came to an end there, +and I was obliged to retrace my steps; but anything more entirely +peaceful and beautiful in its aspect on that autumnal day than this +retreat, forgotten by the world, I almost never saw." He was eager, too, +to describe for our entertainment one of the yearly cricket-matches +among the villagers at Gad's Hill which had just come off. Some of the +toasts at the supper afterward were as old as the time of Queen Anne. +For instance,-- + + "More pigs, + Fewer parsons"; + +delivered with all seriousness; a later one was, "May the walls of old +England never be covered with French polish!" + +Once more we recall a morning at Gad's Hill, a soft white haze over +everything, and the yellow sun burning through. The birds were singing, +and beauty and calm pervaded the whole scene. We strayed through Cobham +Park and saw the lovely vistas through the autumnal haze; once more we +reclined in the cool chalet in the afternoon, and watched the vessels +going and coming upon the ever-moving river. Suddenly all has vanished; +and now, neither spring nor autumn, nor flowers nor birds, nor dawn nor +sunset, nor the ever-moving river, can be the same to any of us again. +We have all drifted down upon the river of Time, and one has already +sailed out into the illimitable ocean. + + * * * * * + +On a pleasant Sunday morning in October, 1869, as I sat looking out on +the beautiful landscape from my chamber window at Gad's Hill, a servant +tapped at my door and gave me a summons from Dickens, written in his +drollest manner on a sheet of paper, bidding me descend into his study +on business of great importance. That day I heard from the author's lips +the first chapters of "Edwin Drood" the concluding lines of which +initial pages were then scarcely dry from the pen. The story is +unfinished, and he who read that autumn morning with such vigor of voice +and dramatic power is in his grave. This private reading took place in +the little room where the great novelist for many years had been +accustomed to write, and in the house where on a pleasant evening in the +following June he died. The spot is one of the loveliest in Kent, and +must always be remembered as the last residence of Charles Dickens. He +used to declare his firm belief that Shakespeare was specially fond of +Kent, and that the poet chose Gad's Hill and Rochester for the scenery +of his plays from intimate personal knowledge of their localities. He +said he had no manner of doubt but that one of Shakespeare's haunts was +the old inn at Rochester, and that this conviction came forcibly upon +him one night as he was walking that way, and discovered Charles's Wain +over the chimney just as Shakespeare has described it, in words put into +the mouth of the carrier in King Henry IV. There is no prettier place +than Gad's Hill in all England for the earliest and latest flowers, and +Dickens chose it, when he had arrived at the fulness of his fame and +prosperity, as the home in which he most wished to spend the remainder +of his days. When a boy, he would often pass the house with his father +and frequently said to him, "If ever I have a dwelling of my own, Gad's +Hill Place is the house I mean to buy." In that beautiful retreat he had +for many years been accustomed to welcome his friends, and find +relaxation from the crowded life of London. On the lawn playing at +bowls, in the Swiss summer-house charmingly shaded by green leaves, he +always seemed the best part of summer, beautiful as the season is in the +delightful region where he lived. + +There he could be most thoroughly enjoyed, for he never seemed so +cheerfully at home anywhere else. At his own table, surrounded by his +family, and a few guests, old acquaintances from town,--among them +sometimes Forster, Carlyle, Reade, Collins, Layard, Maclise, Stone, +Macready, Talfourd,--he was always the choicest and liveliest companion. +He was not what is called in society a professed talker, but he was +something far better and rarer. + +In his own inimitable manner he would frequently relate to me, if +prompted, stories of his youthful days, when he was toiling on the +London Morning Chronicle, passing sleepless hours as a reporter on the +road in a post-chaise, driving day and night from point to point to take +down the speeches of Shiel or O'Connell. He liked to describe the +post-boys, who were accustomed to hurry him over the road that he might +reach London in advance of his rival reporters, while, by the aid of a +lantern, he was writing out for the press, as he flew over the ground, +the words he had taken down in short-hand. Those were his days of severe +training, when in rain and sleet and cold he dashed along, scarcely able +to keep the blinding mud out of his tired eyes; and he imputed much of +his ability for steady hard work to his practice as a reporter, kept at +his grinding business, and determined if possible to earn seven guineas +a week. A large sheet was started at this period of his life, in which +all the important speeches of Parliament were to be reported _verbatim_ +for future reference. Dickens was engaged on this gigantic journal. Mr. +Stanley (afterwards Lord Derby) had spoken at great length on the +condition of Ireland. It was a long and eloquent speech, occupying many +hours in the delivery. Eight reporters were sent in to do the work. Each +one was required to report three quarters of an hour, then to retire, +write out his portion, and to be succeeded by the next. Young Dickens +was detailed to lead off with the first part. It also fell to his lot, +when the time came round, to report the closing portions of the speech. +On Saturday the whole was given to the press, and Dickens ran down to +the country for a Sunday's rest. Sunday morning had scarcely dawned, +when his father, who was a man of immense energy, made his appearance in +his son's sleeping-room. Mr. Stanley was so dissatisfied with what he +found in print, except the beginning and ending of his speech (just what +Dickens had reported) that he sent immediately to the office and +obtained the sheets of those parts of the report. He there found the +name of the reporter, which, according to custom, was written on the +margin. Then he requested that the young man bearing the name of Dickens +should be immediately sent for. Dickens's father, all aglow with the +prospect of probable promotion in the office, went immediately to his +son's stopping-place in the country and brought him back to London. In +telling the story, Dickens said: "I remember perfectly to this day the +aspect of the room I was shown into, and the two persons in it, Mr. +Stanley and his father. Both gentlemen were extremely courteous to me, +but I noted their evident surprise at the appearance of so young a man. +While we spoke together, I had taken a seat extended to me in the middle +of the room. Mr. Stanley told me he wished to go over the whole speech +and have it written out by me, and if I were ready he would begin now. +Where would I like to sit? I told him I was very well where I was, and +we could begin immediately. He tried to induce me to sit at a desk, but +at that time in the House of Commons there was nothing but one's knees +to write upon, and I had formed the habit of doing my work in that way. +Without further pause he began and went rapidly on, hour after hour, to +the end, often becoming very much excited and frequently bringing down +his hand with great violence upon the desk near which he stood." + +I have before me, as I write, an unpublished autograph letter of young +Dickens, which he sent off to his employer in November, 1835, while he +was on a reporting expedition for the Morning Chronicle. At that early +stage of his career he seems to have had that unfailing accuracy of +statement so marked in after years when he became famous. The letter was +given to me several years ago by one of Dickens's brother reporters. +Thus it runs:-- + + George And Pelican, Newbury, Sunday Morning. + + Dear Fraser: In conjunction with The Herald we have arranged for a + Horse Express from Marlborough to London on Tuesday night, to go the + whole distance at the rate of thirteen miles an hour, for six + guineas: half has been paid, but, to insure despatch, the remainder + is withheld until the boy arrives at the office, when he will + produce a paper with a copy of the agreement on one side, and an + order for three guineas (signed by myself) on the other. Will you + take care that it is duly honored? A Boy from The Herald will be in + waiting at our office for their copy; and Lyons begs me to remind + you most strongly that it is an indispensable part of our agreement + _that he should not be detained one instant_. + + We go to Bristol to-day, and if we are equally fortunate in laying + the chaise-horses, I hope the packet will reach town by seven. As + all the papers have arranged to leave Bristol the moment Russell is + down, we have determined on adopting the same plan,--one of us will + go to Marlborough in the chaise with one Herald man, and the other + remain at Bristol with the second Herald man to conclude the account + for the next day. The Times has ordered a chaise and four the whole + distance, so there is every probability of our beating them hollow. + From all we hear, we think the Herald, relying on the packet + reaching town early, intends publishing the report in their first + Edition. This is however, of course, mere speculation on our parts, + as we have no direct means of ascertaining their intention. + + I think I have now given you all needful information. I have only in + conclusion to impress upon you the necessity of having all the + compositors ready, at a very early hour, for if Russell be down by + half past eight, we hope to have his speech in town at six. + + Believe me (for self and Beard) very truly yours, + + Charles Dickens. + + Nov., 1835. + + Thomas Fraser, Esq., Morning Chronicle Office. + +No writer ever lived whose method was more exact, whose industry was +more constant, and whose punctuality was more marked, than those of +Charles Dickens. He never shirked labor, mental or bodily. He rarely +declined, if the object were a good one, taking the chair at a public +meeting, or accepting a charitable trust. Many widows and orphans of +deceased literary men have for years been benefited by his wise +trusteeship or counsel, and he spent a great portion of his time +personally looking after the property of the poor whose interests were +under his control. He was, as has been intimated, one of the most +industrious of men, and marvellous stories are told (not by himself) of +what he has accomplished in a given time in literary and social matters. +His studies were all from nature and life, and his habits of observation +were untiring. If he contemplated writing "Hard Times," he arranged with +the master of Astley's circus to spend many hours behind the scenes with +the riders and among the horses; and if the composition of the "Tale of +Two Cities" were occupying his thoughts, he could banish himself to +France for two years to prepare for that great work. Hogarth pencilled +on his thumb-nail a striking face in a crowd that he wished to preserve; +Dickens with his transcendent memory chronicled in his mind whatever of +interest met his eye or reached his ear, any time or anywhere. Speaking +of memory one day, he said the memory of children was prodigious; it was +a mistake to fancy children ever forgot anything. When he was +delineating the character of Mrs. Pipchin, he had in his mind an old +lodging-house keeper in an English watering-place where he was living +with his father and mother when he was but two years old. After the book +was written he sent it to his sister, who wrote back at once: "Good +heavens! what does this mean? you have painted our lodging-house keeper, +and you were but two years old at that time!" Characters and incidents +crowded the chambers of his brain, all ready for use when occasion +required. No subject of human interest was ever indifferent to him, and +never a day went by that did not afford him some suggestion to be +utilized in the future. + +His favorite mode of exercise was walking; and when in America, scarcely +a day passed, no matter what the weather, that he did not accomplish his +eight or ten miles. It was on these expeditions that he liked to recount +to the companion of his rambles stories and incidents of his early life; +and when he was in the mood, his fun and humor knew no bounds. He would +then frequently discuss the numerous characters in his delightful books, +and would act out, on the road, dramatic situations, where Nickleby or +Copperfield or Swiveller would play distinguished parts. I remember he +said, on one of these occasions, that during the composition of his +first stories he could never entirely dismiss the characters about whom +he happened to be writing; that while the "Old Curiosity Shop" was in +process of composition Little Nell followed him about everywhere; that +while he was writing "Oliver Twist" Fagin the Jew would never let him +rest, even in his most retired moments; that at midnight and in the +morning, on the sea and on the land, Tiny Tim and Little Bob Cratchit +were ever tugging at his coat-sleeve, as if impatient for him to get +back to his desk and continue the story of their lives. But he said +after he had published several books, and saw what serious demands his +characters were accustomed to make for the constant attention of his +already overtasked brain, he resolved that the phantom individuals +should no longer intrude on his hours of recreation and rest, but that +when he closed the door of his study he would shut them all in, and only +meet them again when he came back to resume his task. That force of will +with which he was so pre-eminently endowed enabled him to ignore these +manifold existences till he chose to renew their acquaintance. He said, +also, that when the children of his brain had once been launched, free +and clear of him, into the world, they would sometimes turn up in the +most unexpected manner to look their father in the face. + +Sometimes he would pull my arm while we were walking together and +whisper, "Let us avoid Mr. Pumblechook, who is crossing the street to +meet us"; or, "Mr. Micawber is coming; let us turn down this alley to +get out of his way." He always seemed to enjoy the fun of his comic +people, and had unceasing mirth over Mr. Pickwick's misadventures. In +answer one day to a question, prompted by psychological curiosity, if he +ever dreamed of any of his characters, his reply was, "Never; and I am +convinced that no writer (judging from my own experience, which cannot +be altogether singular, but must be a type of the experience of others) +has ever dreamed of the creatures of his own imagination. It would," he +went on to say, "be like a man's dreaming of meeting himself, which is +clearly an impossibility. Things exterior to one's self must always be +the basis of dreams." The growing up of characters in his mind never +lost for him a sense of the marvellous. "What an unfathomable mystery +there is in it all!" he said one day. Taking up a wineglass, he +continued: "Suppose I choose to call this a _character_, fancy it a man, +endue it with certain qualities; and soon the fine filmy webs of +thought, almost impalpable, coming from every direction, we know not +whence, spin and weave about it, until it assumes form and beauty, and +becomes instinct with life." + +In society Dickens rarely referred to the traits and characteristics of +people he had known; but during a long walk in the country he delighted +to recall and describe the peculiarities, eccentric and otherwise, of +dead and gone as well as living friends. Then Sydney Smith and Jeffrey +and Christopher North and Talfourd and Hood and Rogers seemed to live +over again in his vivid reproductions, made so impressive by his +marvellous memory and imagination. As he walked rapidly along the road, +he appeared to enjoy the keen zest of his companion in the numerous +impersonations with which he was indulging him. + +He always had much to say of animals as well as of men, and there were +certain dogs and horses he had met and known intimately which it was +specially interesting to him to remember and picture. There was a +particular dog in Washington which he was never tired of delineating. +The first night Dickens read in the Capital this dog attracted his +attention. "He came into the hall by himself," said he, "got a good +place before the reading began, and paid strict attention throughout. He +came the second night, and was ignominiously shown out by one of the +check-takers. On the third night he appeared again with another dog, +which he had evidently promised to pass in free; but you see," continued +Dickens, "upon the imposition being unmasked, the other dog apologized +by a howl and withdrew. His intentions, no doubt, were of the best, but +he afterwards rose to explain outside, with such inconvenient eloquence +to the reader and his audience, that they were obliged to put him down +stairs." + +He was such a firm believer in the mental faculties of animals, that it +would have gone hard with a companion with whom he was talking, if a +doubt were thrown, however inadvertently, on the mental intelligence of +any four-footed friend that chanced to be at the time the subject of +conversation. All animals which he took under his especial patronage +seemed to have a marked affection for him. Quite a colony of dogs has +always been a feature at Gad's Hill. + +In many walks and talks with Dickens, his conversation, now, alas! so +imperfectly recalled, frequently ran on the habits of birds, the raven, +of course, interesting him particularly. He always liked to have a raven +hopping about his grounds, and whoever has read the new Preface to +"Barnaby Rudge" must remember several of his old friends in that line. +He had quite a fund of canary-bird anecdotes, and the pert ways of birds +that picked up worms for a living afforded him infinite amusement. He +would give a capital imitation of the way a robin-redbreast cocks his +head on one side preliminary to a dash forward in the direction of a +wriggling victim. There is a small grave at Gad's Hill to which Dickens +would occasionally take a friend, and it was quite a privilege to stand +with him beside the burial-place of little Dick, the family's favorite +canary. + +What a treat it was to go with him to the London Zooelogical Gardens, a +place he greatly delighted in at all times! He knew the zooelogical +address of every animal, bird, and fish of any distinction; and he +could, without the slightest hesitation, on entering the grounds, +proceed straightway to the celebrities of claw or foot or fin. The +delight he took in the hippopotamus family was most exhilarating. He +entered familiarly into conversation with the huge, unwieldy creatures, +and they seemed to understand him. Indeed, he spoke to all the +unphilological inhabitants with a directness and tact which went home to +them at once. He chaffed with the monkeys, coaxed the tigers, and +bamboozled the snakes, with a dexterity unapproachable. All the keepers +knew him, he was such a loyal visitor, and I noticed they came up to him +in a friendly way, with the feeling that they had a sympathetic listener +always in Charles Dickens. + +There were certain books of which Dickens liked to talk during his walks +Among his especial favorites were the writings of Cobbett, DeQuincey, +the Lectures on Moral Philosophy by Sydney Smith, and Carlyle's French +Revolution. Of this latter Dickens said it was the book of all others +which he read perpetually and of which he never tired,--the book which +always appeared more imaginative in proportion to the fresh imagination +he brought to it, a book for inexhaustibleness to be placed before every +other book. When writing the "Tale of Two Cities," he asked Carlyle if +he might see one of the works to which he referred in his history; +whereupon Carlyle packed up and sent down to Gad's Hill _all_ his +reference volumes, and Dickens read them faithfully. But the more he +read the more he was astonished to find how the facts had passed through +the alembic of Carlyle's brain and had come out and fitted themselves, +each as a part of one great whole, making a compact result, +indestructible and unrivalled; and he always found himself turning away +from the books of reference, and re-reading with increased wonder this +marvellous new growth. There were certain books particularly hateful to +him, and of which he never spoke except in terms of most ludicrous +raillery. Mr. Barlow, in "Sandford and Merton," he said was the favorite +enemy of his boyhood and his first experience of a bore. He had an +almost supernatural hatred for Barlow, "because he was so very +_instructive_, and always hinting doubts with regard to the veracity of +'Sindbad the Sailor,' and had no belief whatever in 'The Wonderful Lamp' +or 'The Enchanted Horse.'" Dickens rattling his mental cane over the +head of Mr. Barlow was as much better than any play as can be well +imagined. He gloried in many of Hood's poems, especially in that biting +Ode to Rae Wilson, and he would gesticulate with a fine fervor the +lines, + + "...the hypocrites who ope Heaven's door + Obsequious to the sinful man of riches,-- + But put the wicked, naked, bare-legged poor + In parish _stocks_ instead of _breeches_." + +One of his favorite books was Pepys's Diary, the curious discovery of +the key to which, and the odd characteristics of its writer, were a +never-failing source of interest and amusement to him. The vision of +Pepys hanging round the door of the theatre, hoping for an invitation to +go in, not being able to keep away in spite of a promise he had made to +himself that he would spend no more money foolishly, delighted him. +Speaking one day of Gray, the author of the Elegy, he said: "No poet +ever came walking down to posterity with so _small_ a book under his +arm." He preferred Smollett to Fielding, putting "Peregrine Pickle" +above "Tom Jones." Of the best novels by his contemporaries he always +spoke with warm commendation, and "Griffith Gaunt" he thought a +production of very high merit. He was "hospitable to the thought" of all +writers who were really in earnest, but at the first exhibition of +floundering or inexactness he became an unbeliever. People with +dislocated understandings he had no tolerance for. + +He was passionately fond of the theatre, loved the lights and music and +flowers, and the happy faces of the audience; he was accustomed to say +that his love of the theatre never failed, and, no matter how dull the +play, he was always careful while he sat in the box to make no sound +which could hurt the feelings of the actors, or show any lack of +attention. His genuine enthusiasm for Mr. Fechter's acting was most +interesting. He loved to describe seeing him first, quite by accident, +in Paris, having strolled into a little theatre there one night. "He was +making love to a woman," Dickens said, "and he so elevated her as well +as himself by the sentiment in which he enveloped her, that they trod in +a purer ether, and in another sphere, quite lifted out of the present. +'By heavens!' I said to myself, 'a man who can do this can do +anything.' I never saw two people more purely and instantly elevated by +the power of love. The manner, also," he continued, "in which he presses +the hem of the dress of Lucy in the Bride of Lammermoor is something +wonderful. The man has genius in him which is unmistakable." + +Life behind the scenes was always a fascinating study to Dickens. "One +of the oddest sights a green-room can present," he said one day, "is +when they are collecting children for a pantomime. For this purpose the +prompter calls together all the women in the ballet, and begins giving +out their names in order, while they press about him eager for the +chance of increasing their poor pay by the extra pittance their children +will receive. 'Mrs. Johnson, how many?' 'Two, sir.' 'What ages?' 'Seven +and ten.' 'Mrs. B., how many?' and so on, until the required number is +made up. The people who go upon the stage, however poor their pay or +hard their lot, love it too well ever to adopt another vocation of their +free-will. A mother will frequently be in the wardrobe, children in the +pantomime, elder sisters in the ballet, etc." + + * * * * * + +Dickens's habits as a speaker differed from those of most orators. He +gave no thought to the composition of the speech he was to make till the +day before he was to deliver it. No matter whether the effort was to be +a long or a short one, he never wrote down a word of what he was going +to say; but when the proper time arrived for him to consider his +subject, he took a walk into the country and the thing was done. When he +returned he was all ready for his task. + +He liked to talk about the audiences that came to hear him read, and he +gave the palm to his Parisian one, saying it was the quickest to catch +his meaning. Although he said there were many always present in his room +in Paris who did not fully understand English, yet the French eye is so +quick to detect expression that it never failed instantly to understand +what he meant by a look or an act. "Thus, for instance," he said, "when +I was impersonating Steerforth in 'David Copperfield,' and gave that +peculiar grip of the hand to Emily's lover, the French audience burst +into cheers and rounds of applause." He said with reference to the +preparation of his readings, that it was three months' hard labor to get +up one of his own stories for public recitation, and he thought he had +greatly improved his presentation of the "Christmas Carol" while in this +country. He considered the storm scene in "David Copperfield" one of the +most effective of his readings. The character of Jack Hopkins in "Bob +Sawyer's Party" he took great delight in representing, and as Jack was a +prime favorite of mine, he brought him forward whenever the occasion +prompted. He always spoke of Hopkins as my particular friend, and he was +constantly quoting him, taking on the peculiar voice and turn of the +head which he gave Jack in the public reading. + +It gave him a natural pleasure when he heard quotations from his own +books introduced without effort into conversation. He did not always +remember, when his own words were quoted, that he was himself the author +of them, and appeared astounded at the memory of others in this regard. +He said Mr. Secretary Stanton had a most extraordinary knowledge of his +books and a power of taking the text up at any point, which he supposed +to belong to only one person, and that person not himself. + +It was said of Garrick that he was the _cheerfullest_ man of his age. +This can be as truly said of Charles Dickens. In his presence there was +perpetual sunshine, and gloom was banished as having no sort of +relationship with him. No man suffered more keenly or sympathized more +fully than he did with want and misery; but his motto was, "Don't stand +and cry; press forward and help remove the difficulty." The speed with +which he was accustomed to make the deed follow his yet speedier +sympathy was seen pleasantly on the day of his visit to the School-ship +in Boston Harbor. He said, previously to going on board that ship, +nothing would tempt him to make a speech, for he should always be +obliged to do it on similar occasions, if he broke through his rule so +early in his reading tour. But Judge Russell had no sooner finished his +simple talk, to which the boys listened, as they always do, with eager +faces, than Dickens rose as if he could not help it, and with a few +words so magnetized them that they wore their hearts in their eyes as if +they meant to keep the words forever. An enthusiastic critic once said +of John Ruskin, "that he could discover the Apocalypse in a daisy." As +noble a discovery may be claimed for Dickens. He found all the fair +humanities blooming in the lowliest hovel. He never _put on_ the good +Samaritan: that character was native to him. Once while in this country, +on a bitter, freezing afternoon,--night coming down in a drifting +snow-storm,--he was returning with me from a long walk in the country. +The wind and baffling sleet were so furious that the street in which we +happened to be fighting our way was quite deserted; it was almost +impossible to see across it, the air was so thick with the tempest; all +conversation between us had ceased, for it was only possible to breast +the storm by devoting our whole energies to keeping on our feet; we +seemed to be walking in a different atmosphere from any we had ever +before encountered. All at once I missed Dickens from my side. What had +become of him? Had he gone down in the drift, utterly exhausted, and was +the snow burying him out of sight? Very soon the sound of his cheery +voice was heard on the other side of the way. With great difficulty, +over the piled-up snow, I struggled across the street, and there found +him lifting up, almost by main force, a blind old man who had got +bewildered by the storm, and had fallen down unnoticed, quite unable to +proceed. Dickens, a long distance away from him, with that tender, +sensitive, and penetrating vision, ever on the alert for suffering in +any form, had rushed at once to the rescue, comprehending at a glance +the situation of the sightless man. To help him to his feet and aid him +homeward in the most natural and simple way afforded Dickens such a +pleasure as only the benevolent by intuition can understand. + +Throughout his life Dickens was continually receiving tributes from +those he had benefited, either by his books or by his friendship. There +is an odd and very pretty story (vouched for here as true) connected +with the influence he so widely exerted. In the winter of 1869, soon +after he came up to London to reside for a few months, he received a +letter from a man telling him that he had begun life in the most humble +way possible, and that he considered he owed his subsequent great +success and such education as he had given himself entirely to the +encouragement and cheering influence he had derived from Dickens's +books, of which he had been a constant reader from his childhood. He had +been made a partner in his master's business, and when the head of the +house died, the other day, it was found he had left the whole of his +large property to this man. As soon as he came into possession of this +fortune, his mind turned to Dickens, whom he looked upon as his +benefactor and teacher, and his first desire was to tender him some +testimonial of gratitude and veneration. He then begged Dickens to +accept a large sum of money. Dickens declined to receive the money, but +his unknown friend sent him instead two silver table ornaments of great +intrinsic value bearing this inscription: "To Charles Dickens, from one +who has been cheered and stimulated by his writings, and held the author +amongst his first Remembrances when he became prosperous." One of these +silver ornaments was supported by three figures, representing three +seasons. In the original design there were, of course, four, but the +donor was so averse to associating the idea of Winter in any sense with +Dickens that he caused the workman to alter the design and leave only +the _cheerful_ seasons. No event in the great author's career was ever +more gratifying and pleasant to him. + +His friendly notes were exquisitely turned, and are among his most +charming compositions. They abound in felicities only like himself. In +1860 he wrote to me while I was sojourning in Italy: "I should like to +have a walk through Rome with you this bright morning (for it really +_is_ bright in London), and convey you over some favorite ground of +mine. I used to go up the street of Tombs, past the tomb of Cecilia +Metella, away out upon the wild campagna, and by the old Appian Road +(easily tracked out among the ruins and primroses), to Albano. There, at +a very dirty inn, I used to have a very dirty lunch, generally with the +family's dirty linen lying in a corner, and inveigle some very dirty +Vetturino in sheep-skin to take me back to Rome." + +In a little note in answer to one I had written consulting him about the +purchase of some old furniture in London he wrote: "There is a chair +(without a bottom) at a shop near the office, which I think would suit +you. It cannot stand of itself, but will almost seat somebody, if you +put it in a corner, and prop one leg up with two wedges and cut another +leg off, The proprietor asks L20, but says he admires literature and +would take L18. He is of republican principles and I think would take +L17 19_s_. 6_d_. from a cousin; shall I secure this prize? It is very +ugly and wormy, and it is related, but without proof, that on one +occasion Washington declined to sit down in it." + +Here are the last two missives I ever received from his dear, kind +hand:-- + + 5 Hyde Park Place, London, W., Friday, January 14, 1870. + + My Dear Fields: We live here (opposite the Marble Arch) in a + charming house until the 1st of June, and then return to Gad's. The + Conservatory is completed, and is a brilliant success;--but an + expensive one! + + I read this afternoon at three,--a beastly proceeding which I + particularly hate,--and again this day week at three. These morning + readings particularly disturb me at my book-work; nevertheless I + hope, please God, to lose no way on their account. An evening + reading once a week is nothing. By the by, I recommenced last + Tuesday evening with the greatest brilliancy. + + I should be quite ashamed of not having written to you and my dear + Mrs. Fields before now, if I didn't know that you will both + understand how occupied I am, and how naturally, when I put my + papers away for the day, I get up and fly. I have a large room here, + with three fine windows, overlooking the Park,--unsurpassable for + airiness and cheerfulness. + + You saw the announcement of the death of poor dear Harness. The + circumstances are curious. He wrote to his old friend the Dean of + Battle saying he would come to visit him on that day (the day of his + death). The Dean wrote back: "Come next day, instead, as we are + obliged to go out to dinner, and you will be alone." Harness told + his sister a little impatiently that he _must_ go on the first-named + day,--that he had made up his mind to go, and MUST. He had been + getting himself ready for dinner, and came to a part of the + staircase whence two doors opened,--one, upon another level passage; + one, upon a flight of stone steps. He opened the wrong door, fell + down the steps, injured himself very severely, and died in a few + hours. + + You will know--_I_ don't--what Fechter's success is in America at + the time of this present writing. In his farewell performances at + the Princess's he acted very finely. I thought the three first acts + of his Hamlet very much better than I had ever thought them + before,--and I always thought very highly of them. We gave him a + foaming stirrup cup at Gad's Hill. Forster (who has been ill with + his bronchitis again) thinks No. 2 of the new book (Edwin Drood) a + clincher,--I mean that word (as his own expression) for _Clincher_. + There is a curious interest steadily working up to No. 5, which + requires a great deal of art and self-denial. I think also, apart + from character and picturesqueness, that the young people are placed + in a very novel situation. So I hope--at Nos. 5 and 6 the story will + turn upon an interest suspended until the end. + + I can't believe it, and don't, and won't, but they say Harry's + twenty-first birthday is next Sunday. I have entered him at the + Temple just now; and if he don't get a fellowship at Trinity Hall + when his time comes, I shall be disappointed, if in the present + disappointed state of existence. + + I hope you may have met with the little touch of Radicalism I gave + them at Birmingham in the words of Buckle? With pride I observe that + it makes the regular political traders, of all sorts, perfectly mad. + Sich was my intentions, as a grateful acknowledgment of having been + misrepresented. + + I think Mrs. ----'s prose very admirable, but I don't believe it! + No, I do _not_. My conviction is that those Islanders get + frightfully bored by the Islands, and wish they had never set eyes + upon them! + + Charley Collins has done a charming cover for the monthly part of + the new book. At the very earnest representations of Millais (and + after having seen a great number of his drawings) I am going to + engage with a new man; retaining, of course, C.C.'s cover aforesaid. + K---- has made some more capital portraits, and is always improving. + + My dear Mrs. Fields, if "He" (made proud by chairs and bloated by + pictures) does not give you my dear love, let us conspire against + him when you find him out, and exclude him from all future + confidences. Until then + + Ever affectionately yours and his, + + C.D. + + 5 Hyde Park Place, London, W., Monday, April 18, 1870. + + My dear Fields: I have been hard at work all day until post time, + and have only leisure to acknowledge the receipt, the day before + yesterday, of your note containing such good news of Fechter; and to + assure you of my undiminished regard and affection. + + We have been doing wonders with No. 1 of Edwin Drood. _It has very, + very far outstripped every one of its predecessors._ + + Ever your affectionate friend, + + Charles Dickens + +Bright colors were a constant delight to him; and the gay hues of +flowers were those most welcome to his eye. When the rhododendrons were +in bloom in Cobham Park, the seat of his friend and neighbor, Lord +Darnley, he always counted on taking his guests there to enjoy the +magnificent show. He delighted to turn out for the delectation of his +Transatlantic cousins a couple of postilions in the old red jackets of +the old red royal Dover road, making the ride as much as possible like a +holiday drive in England fifty years ago. + +When in the mood for humorous characterization, Dickens's hilarity was +most amazing. To hear him tell a ghost story with a very florid +imitation of a very pallid ghost, or hear him sing an old-time stage +song, such as he used to enjoy in his youth at a cheap London theatre, +to see him imitate a lion in a menagerie-cage, or the clown in a +pantomime when he flops and folds himself up like a jack-knife, or to +join with him in some mirthful game of his own composing, was to become +acquainted with one of the most delightful and original companions in +the world. + +On one occasion, during a walk with me, he chose to run into the wildest +of vagaries about _conversation_. The ludicrous vein he indulged in +during that two hours' stretch can never be forgotten. Among other +things, he said he had often thought how restricted one's conversation +must become when one was visiting a man who was to be hanged in half an +hour. He went on in a most surprising manner to imagine all sorts of +difficulties in the way of becoming interesting to the poor fellow. +"Suppose," said he, "it should be a rainy morning while you are making +the call, you could not possibly indulge in the remark, 'We shall have +fine weather to-morrow, sir,' for what would that be to him? For my +part, I think," said he, "I should confine my observations to the days +of Julius Caesar or King Alfred." + +At another time when speaking of what was constantly said about him in +certain newspapers, he observed: "I notice that about once in every +seven years I become the victim of a paragraph disease. It breaks out in +England, travels to India by the overland route, gets to America per +Cunard line, strikes the base of the Rocky Mountains, and, rebounding +back to Europe, mostly perishes on the steppes of Russia from inanition +and extreme cold." When he felt he was not under observation, and that +tomfoolery would not be frowned upon or gazed at with astonishment, he +gave himself up without reserve to healthy amusement and strengthening +mirth. It was his mission to make people happy. Words of good cheer were +native to his lips, and he was always doing what he could to lighten the +lot of all who came into his beautiful presence. His talk was simple, +natural, and direct, never dropping into circumlocution nor elocution. +Now that he is gone, whoever has known him intimately for any +considerable period of time will linger over his tender regard for, and +his engaging manner with, children; his cheery "Good Day" to poor people +he happened to be passing in the road; his trustful and earnest "Please +God," when he was promising himself any special pleasure, like rejoining +an old friend or returning again to scenes he loved. At such times his +voice had an irresistible pathos in it, and his smile diffused a +sensation like music. When he came into the presence of squalid or +degraded persons, such as one sometimes encounters in almshouses or +prisons, he had such soothing words to scatter here and there, that +those who had been "most hurt by the archers" listened gladly, and loved +him without knowing who it was that found it in his heart to speak so +kindly to them. + +Oftentimes during long walks in the streets and by-ways of London, or +through the pleasant Kentish lanes, or among the localities he has +rendered forever famous in his books, I have recalled the sweet words +in which Shakespeare has embalmed one of the characters in Love's +Labor's Lost:-- + + "A merrier man, + Within the limit of becoming mirth, + I never spent an hour's talk withal: + His eye begets occasion for his wit; + For every object that the one doth catch + The other turns to a mirth-moving jest, + Which his fair tongue, conceit's expositor, + Delivers in such apt and gracious words + That aged ears play truant at his tales, + And younger hearings are quite ravished; + So sweet and voluble is his discourse." + +Twenty years ago Daniel Webster said that Dickens had already done more +to ameliorate the condition of the English poor than all the statesmen +Great Britain had sent into Parliament. During the unceasing demands +upon his time and thought, he found opportunities of visiting personally +those haunts of suffering in London which needed the keen eye and +sympathetic heart to bring them before the public for relief. Whoever +has accompanied him, as I have, on his midnight walks into the cheap +lodging-houses provided for London's lowest poor, cannot have failed to +learn lessons never to be forgotten. Newgate and Smithfield were lifted +out of their abominations by his eloquent pen, and many a hospital is +to-day all the better charity for having been visited and watched by +Charles Dickens. To use his own words, through his whole life he did +what he could "to lighten the lot of those rejected ones whom the world +has too long forgotten and too often misused." + +These inadequate, and, of necessity, hastily written, records must stand +for what they are worth as personal recollections of the great author +who has made so many millions happy by his inestimable genius and +sympathy. His life will no doubt be written out in full by some +competent hand in England; but however numerous the volumes of his +biography, the half can hardly be told of the good deeds he has +accomplished for his fellow-men. + +And who could ever tell, if those volumes were written, of the subtle +qualities of insight and sympathy which rendered him capable of +friendship above most men,--which enabled him to reinstate its ideal, +and made his presence a perpetual joy, and separation from him an +ineffaceable sorrow? + + + + +WORDSWORTH. + +_"His mind is, as it were, coeval with the primary forms of things; his +imagination holds immediately from nature, and 'owes no allegiance' but +'to the elements.' ....He sees all things in himself."_--Hazlitt. + + + + +V. WORDSWORTH. + +That portrait looking down so calmly from the wall is an original +picture of the poet Wordsworth, drawn in crayon a few years before he +died. He went up to London on purpose to sit for it, at the request of +Moxon, his publisher, and his friends in England always considered it a +perfect likeness of the poet. After the head was engraved, the artist's +family disposed of the drawing, and through the watchful kindness of my +dear old friend, Mary Russell Mitford, the portrait came across the +Atlantic to this house. Miss Mitford said America ought to have on view +such a perfect representation of the great poet, and she used all her +successful influence in my behalf. So there the picture hangs for +anybody's inspection at any hour of the day. + +I once made a pilgrimage to the small market-town of Hawkshead, in the +valley of Esthwaite, where Wordsworth went to school in his ninth year. +The thoughtful boy was lodged in the house of Dame Anne Tyson in 1788; +and I had the good fortune to meet a lady in the village street who +conducted me at once to the room which the lad occupied while he was a +scholar under the Rev. William Taylor, whom he loved and venerated so +much. I went into the chamber which he afterwards described in The +Prelude, where he + + "Had lain awake on summer nights to watch + The moon in splendor couched among the leaves + Of a tall ash, that near our cottage stood"; + +and I visited many of the beautiful spots which tradition points out as +the favorite haunts of his childhood. + +It was true Lake-country weather when I knocked at Wordsworth's cottage +door, three years before he died, and found myself shaking hands with +the poet at the threshold. His daughter Dora had been dead only a few +months, and the sorrow that had so recently fallen upon the house was +still dominant there. I thought there was something prophet-like in the +tones of his voice, as well as in his whole appearance, and there was a +noble tranquillity about him that almost awed one, at first, into +silence. As the day was cold and wet, he proposed we should sit down +together in the only room in the house where there was a fire, and he +led the way to what seemed a common sitting or dining room. It was a +plain apartment, the rafters visible, and no attempt at decoration +noticeable. Mrs. Wordsworth sat knitting at the fireside, and she rose +with a sweet expression of courtesy and welcome as we entered the +apartment. As I had just left Paris, which was in a state of commotion, +Wordsworth was eager in his inquiries about the state of things on the +other side of the Channel. As our talk ran in the direction of French +revolutions, he soon became eloquent and vehement, as one can easily +imagine, on such a theme. There was a deep and solemn meaning in all he +had to say about France, which I recall now with added interest. The +subject deeply moved him, of course, and he sat looking into the fire, +discoursing in a low monotone, sometimes quite forgetful that he was not +alone and soliloquizing. I noticed that Mrs. Wordsworth listened as if +she were hearing him speak for the first time in her life, and the work +on which she was engaged lay idle in her lap, while she watched intently +every movement of her husband's face. I also was absorbed in the man and +in his speech. I thought of the long years he had lived in communion +with nature in that lonely but lovely region. The story of his life was +familiar to me, and I sat as if under the influence of a spell. Soon he +turned and plied me with questions about the prominent men in Paris whom +I had recently seen and heard in the Chamber of Deputies. "How did +Guizot bear himself? What part was De Tocqueville taking in the fray? +Had I noticed George Lafayette especially?" America did not seem to +concern him much, and I waited for him to introduce the subject, if he +chose to do so. He seemed pleased that a youth from a far-away country +should find his way to Rydal cottage to worship at the shrine of an old +poet. + +By and by we fell into talk about those who had been his friends and +neighbors among the hills in former years. "And so," he said, "you read +Charles Lamb in America?" "Yes," I replied, "and _love_ him too." "Do +you hear that, Mary?" he eagerly inquired, turning round to Mrs. +Wordsworth. "Yes, William, and no wonder, for he was one to be loved +everywhere," she quickly answered. Then we spoke of Hazlitt, whom he +ranked very high as a prose-writer; and when I quoted a fine passage +from Hazlitt's essay on Jeremy Taylor, he seemed pleased at my +remembrance of it. + +He asked about Inman, the American artist, who had painted his portrait, +having been sent on a special mission to Rydal by Professor Henry Reed +of Philadelphia, to procure the likeness. The painter's daughter, who +accompanied her father, made a marked impression on Wordsworth, and both +he and his wife joined in the question, "Are all the girls in America as +pretty as she?" I thought it an honor Mary Inman might well be proud of +to be so complimented by the old bard. In speaking of Henry Reed, his +manner was affectionate and tender. + +Now and then I stole a glance at the gentle lady, the poet's wife, as +she sat knitting silently by the fireside. This, then, was the Mary whom +in 1802 he had brought home to be his loving companion through so many +years. I could not help remembering too, as we all sat there together, +that when children they had "practised reading and spelling under the +same old dame at Penrith," and that they had always been lovers. There +sat the woman, now gray-haired and bent, to whom the poet had addressed +those undying poems, "She was a phantom of delight," "Let other bards of +angels sing," "Yes, thou art fair," and "O, dearer far than life and +light are dear." I recalled, too, the "Lines written after Thirty-six +Years of Wedded Life," commemorating her whose + + "Morn into noon did pass, noon into eve, + And the old day was welcome as the young, + As welcome, and as beautiful,--in sooth + More beautiful, as being a thing more holy." + +When she raised her eyes to his, which I noticed she did frequently, +they seemed overflowing with tenderness. + +When I rose to go, for I felt that I must not intrude longer on one for +whom I had such reverence, Wordsworth said, "I must show you my library, +and some tributes that have been sent to me from the friends of my +verse." His son John now came in, and we all proceeded to a large room +in front of the house, containing his books. Seeing that I had an +interest in such things, he seemed to take a real pleasure in showing me +the presentation copies of works by distinguished authors. We read +together, from many a well-worn old volume, notes in the handwriting of +Coleridge and Charles Lamb. I thought he did not praise easily those +whose names are indissolubly connected with his own in the history of +literature. It was languid praise, at least, and I observed he hesitated +for mild terms which he could apply to names almost as great as his own. +I believe a duplicate of the portrait which Inman had painted for Reed +hung in the room; at any rate a picture of himself was there, and he +seemed to regard it with veneration as we stood before it. As we moved +about the apartment, Mrs. Wordsworth quietly followed us, and listened +as eagerly as I did to everything her husband had to say. Her spare +little figure flitted about noiselessly, pausing as we paused, and +always walking slowly behind us as we went from object to object in the +room. John Wordsworth, too, seemed deeply interested to watch and listen +to his father. "And now," said Wordsworth, "I must show you one of my +latest presents." Leading us up to a corner of the room, we all stood +before a beautiful statuette which a young sculptor had just sent to +him, illustrating a passage in "The Excursion." Turning to me, +Wordsworth asked, "Do you know the meaning of this figure?" I saw at a +glance that it was + + "A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract + Of inland ground, applying to his ear + The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell," + +and I quoted the lines. My recollection of the words pleased the old +man; and as we stood there in front of the figure he began to recite the +whole passage from "The Excursion," and it sounded very grand from the +poet's own lips. He repeated some fifty lines, and I could not help +thinking afterwards, when I came to hear Tennyson read his own poetry, +that the younger Laureate had caught something of the strange, +mysterious tone of the elder bard. It was a sort of chant, deep and +earnest, which conveyed the impression that the reciter had the highest +opinion of the poetry. + +Although it was raining still, Wordsworth proposed to show me Lady +Fleming's grounds, and some other spots of interest near his cottage. +Our walk was a wet one; but as he did not seem incommoded by it, I was +only too glad to hold the umbrella over his venerable head. As we went +on, he added now and then a sonnet to the scenery, telling me precisely +the circumstances under which it had been composed. It is many years +since my memorable walk with the author of "The Excursion," but I can +call up his figure and the very tones of his voice so vividly that I +enjoy my interview over again any time I choose. He was then nearly +eighty, but he seemed hale and quite as able to walk up and down the +hills as ever. He always led back the conversation that day to his own +writings, and it seemed the most natural thing in the world for him to +do so. All his most celebrated poems seemed to live in his memory, and +it was easy to start him off by quoting the first line of any of his +pieces. Speaking of the vastness of London, he quoted the whole of his +sonnet describing the great city, as seen in the morning from +Westminster Bridge. When I parted with him at the foot of Rydal Hill, he +gave me messages to Rogers and other friends of his whom I was to see in +London. As we were shaking hands I said, "How glad your many readers in +America would be to see you on our side of the water!" "Ah," he replied, +"I shall never see your country,--that is impossible now; but" (laying +his hand on his son's shoulder) "John shall go, please God, some day." I +watched the aged man as he went slowly up the hill, and saw him +disappear through the little gate that led to his cottage door. The ode +on "Intimations of Immortality" kept sounding in my brain as I came down +the road, long after he had left me. + +Since I sat, a little child, in "a woman's school," Wordsworth's poems +had been familiar to me. Here is my first school-book, with a name +written on the cover by dear old "Marm Sloper," setting forth that the +owner thereof is "aged 5." As I went musing along in Westmoreland that +rainy morning, so many years ago, little figures seemed to accompany +me, and childish voices filled the air as I trudged through the wet +grass. My small ghostly companions seemed to carry in their little hands +quaint-looking dog's-eared books, some of them covered with cloth of +various colors. None of these phantom children looked to be over six +years old, and all were bareheaded, and some of the girls wore +old-fashioned pinafores. They were the schoolmates of my childhood, and +many of them must have come out of their graves to run by my side that +morning in Rydal. I had not thought of them for years. Little Emily +R---- read from her book with a chirping lisp:-- + + "O, what's the matter? what's the matter? + What is't that ails young Harry Gill?" + +Mary B---- began:-- + + "Oft I had heard of Lucy Grey"; + +Nancy C---- piped up:-- + + "'How many are you, then,' said I, + 'If there are two in heaven?' + The little maiden did reply, + 'O Master! we are seven.'" + +Among the group I seemed to recognize poor pale little Charley F----, +who they told me years ago was laid in St. John's Churchyard after they +took him out of the pond, near the mill-stream, that terrible Saturday +afternoon. He too read from his well-worn, green-baize-covered book,-- + + "The dew was falling fast, the stars began to blink." + +Other white-headed little urchins trotted along _very near_ me all the +way, and kept saying over and over their "spirit ditties of no tone" +till I reached the village inn, and sat down as if in a dream of +long-past years. + +Two years ago I stood by Wordsworth's grave in the churchyard at +Grasmere, and my companion wove a chaplet of flowers and placed it on +the headstone. Afterwards we went into the old church and sat down in +the poet's pew. "They are all dead and gone now," sighed the gray-headed +sexton; "but I can remember when the seats used to be filled by the +family from Rydal Mount. Now they are all outside there in yon grass." + + + + +MISS MITFORD. + + + _"I care not, Fortune, what you me deny: + You cannot rob me of free Nature's grace; + You cannot shut the windows of the sky, + Through which Aurora shows her brightening face; + You cannot bar my constant feet to trace + The woods and lawns, by living streams at eve: + Let health my nerves and finer fibres brace, + And I their toys to the great children leave: + Of fancy, reason, virtue, naught can me bereave."_ + + THOMSON. + + + + +VI. MISS MITFORD. + +That portrait hanging near Wordsworth's is next to seeing Mary Russell +Mitford herself as I first saw her, twenty-three years ago, in her +geranium-planted cottage at Three-Mile Cross. She sat to John Lucas for +the picture in her serene old age, and the likeness is faultless. She +had proposed to herself to leave the portrait, as it was her own +property, to me in her will; but as I happened to be in England during +the latter part of her life, she altered her determination, and gave it +to me from her own hands. + +Sydney Smith said of a certain quarrelsome person, that his very face +was a breach of the peace. The face of that portrait opposite to us is a +very different one from Sydney's fighter. Everything that belongs to the +beauty of old age one will find recorded in that charming countenance. +Serene cheerfulness most abounds, and that is a quality as rare as it is +commendable. It will be observed that the dress of Miss Mitford in the +picture before us is quaint and somewhat antiquated even for the time +when it was painted, but a pleasant face is never out of fashion. + +An observer of how old age is neglected in America said to me the other +day, "It seems an impertinence to be alive after sixty on this side of +the globe"; and I have often thought how much we lose by not cultivating +fine old-fashioned ladies and gentlemen. Our aged relatives and friends +seem to be tucked away, nowadays, into neglected corners, as though it +were the correct thing to give them a long preparation for still +narrower quarters. For my own part, comely and debonair old age is most +attractive; and when I see the "thick silver-white hair lying on a +serious and weather-worn face, like moonlight on a stout old tower," I +have a strong tendency to lift my hat, whether I know the person or not. + + "No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace + As I have seen in an autumnal face." + +It was a fortunate hour for me when kind-hearted John Kenyon said, as I +was leaving his hospitable door in London one summer midnight in 1847, +"You must know my friend, Miss Mitford. She lives directly on the line +of your route to Oxford, and you must call with my card and make her +acquaintance." I had lately been talking with Wordsworth and Christopher +North and old Samuel Rogers, but my hunger at that time to stand face to +face with the distinguished persons in English literature was not +satisfied. So it was during my first "tourification" in England that I +came to know Miss Mitford. The day selected for my call at her cottage +door happened to be a perfect one on which to begin an acquaintance with +the lady of "Our Village." She was then living at Three-Mile Cross, +having removed there from Bertram House in 1820. The cottage where I +found her was situated on the high road between Basingstoke and Reading; +and the village street on which she was then living contained the +public-house and several small shops near by. There was also close at +hand the village pond full of ducks and geese, and I noticed several +young rogues on their way to school were occupied in worrying their +feathered friends. The windows of the cottage were filled with flowers, +and cowslips and violets were plentifully scattered about the little +garden. Miss Mitford liked to have one dog, at least, at her heels, and +this day her pet seemed to be constantly under foot. I remember the room +into which I was shown was sanded, and a quaint old clock behind the +door was marking off the hour in small but very loud pieces. The +cheerful old lady called to me from the head of the stairs to come up +into her sitting-room. I sat down by the open window to converse with +her, and it was pleasant to see how the village children, as they went +by, stopped to bow and curtsey. One curly-headed urchin made bold to +take off his well-worn cap, and wait to be recognized as "little +Johnny". "No great scholar," said the kind-hearted old lady to me, "but +a sad rogue among our flock of geese. Only yesterday the young marauder +was detected by my maid with a plump gosling stuffed half-way into his +pocket!" While she was thus discoursing of Johnny's peccadilloes, the +little fellow looked up with a knowing expression, and very soon caught +in his cap a gingerbread dog, which the old lady threw to him from the +window. "I wish he loved his book as well as he relishes sweetcake," +sighed she, as the boy kicked up his heels and disappeared down the +lane. + +Her conversation that afternoon, full of anecdote, ran on in a perpetual +flow of good-humor, and I was shocked, on looking at my watch, to find I +had stayed so long, and had barely time to reach the railway-station in +season to arrive at Oxford that night. We parted with the mutual +determination and understanding to keep our friendship warm by +correspondence, and I promised never to come to England again without +finding my way to Three-Mile Cross. + +During the conversation that day, Miss Mitford had many inquiries to +make concerning her American friends, Miss Catherine Sedgwick, Daniel +Webster, and Dr. Chancing. Her voice had a peculiar ringing sweetness in +it, rippling out sometimes like a beautiful chime of silver bells; and +when she told a comic story, hitting off some one of her acquaintances, +she joined in with the laugh at the end with great heartiness and +_naivete_. When listening to anything that interested her, she had a way +of coming into the narrative with "Dear me, dear me, dear me," three +times repeated, which it was very pleasant to hear. + +From that summer day our friendship continued, and during other visits +to England I saw her frequently, driving about the country with her in +her pony-chaise, and spending many happy hours in the new cottage which +she afterwards occupied at Swallowfield. Her health had broken down +years before, from too constant attendance on her invalid parents, and +she was never certain of a well day. When her father died, in 1842, +shamefully in debt (for he had squandered two fortunes not exactly his +own, and was always one of the most improvident of men, belonging to +that class of impecunious individuals who seem to have been born +insolvent), she said, "Everybody shall be paid, if I sell the gown off +my back or pledge my little pension." And putting her shoulder to the +domestic wheel, she never nagged for an instant, or gave way to +despondency. + +She was always cheerful, and her talk is delightful to remember. From +girlhood she had known and had been intimate with most of the prominent +writers of her time, and her observations and reminiscences were so +shrewd and pertinent that I have scarcely known her equal. + +Carlyle tells us "nothing so lifts a man from all his mean +imprisonments, were it but for moments, as true admiration"; and Miss +Mitford admired to such an extent that she must have been lifted in this +way nearly all her lifetime. Indeed she erred, if she erred at all, on +this side, and overpraised and over-admired everything and everybody +whom she regarded. When she spoke of Beranger or Dumas or Hazlitt or +Holmes, she exhausted every term of worship and panegyric. Louis +Napoleon was one of her most potent crazes, and I fully believe, if she +had been alive during the days of his downfall, she would have died of +grief. When she talked of Munden and Bannister and Fawcett and Emery, +those delightful old actors for whom she had had such an exquisite +relish, she said they had made comedy to her a living art full of +laughter and tears. How often have I heard her describe John Kemble, +Mrs. Siddons, Miss O'Neil, and Edmund Kean, as they were wont to +electrify the town in her girlhood! With what gusto she reproduced +Elliston, who was one of her prime favorites, and tried to make me, +through her representation of him, feel what a spirit there was in the +man. Although she had been prostrated by the hard work and increasing +anxieties of forty years of authorship, when I saw her she was as fresh +and independent as a skylark. She was a good hater as well as a good +praiser, and she left nothing worth saving in an obnoxious reputation. + +I well remember, one autumn evening, when half a dozen friends were +sitting in her library after dinner, talking with her of Tom Taylor's +Life of Haydon, then lately published, how graphically she described to +us the eccentric painter, whose genius she was among the foremost to +recognize. The flavor of her discourse I cannot reproduce; but I was too +much interested in what she was saying to forget the main incidents she +drew for our edification, during those pleasant hours now far away in +the past. + +"I am a terrible forgetter of dates," she used to say, when any one +asked her of the _time when_; but for the _manner how_ she was never at +a loss. "Poor Haydon!" she began. "He was an old friend of mine, and I +am indebted to Sir William Elford, one of my dear father's +correspondents during my girlhood, for a suggestion which sent me to +look at a picture then on exhibition in London, and thus was brought +about my knowledge of the painter's existence. He, Sir William, had +taken a fancy to me, and I became his child-correspondent. Few things +contribute more to that indirect after-education, which is worth all the +formal lessons of the school-room a thousand times told, than such +good-humored condescension from a clever man of the world to a girl +almost young enough to be his granddaughter. I owe much to that +correspondence, and, amongst other debts, the acquaintance of Haydon. +Sir William's own letters were most charming,--full of old-fashioned +courtesy, of quaint humor, and of pleasant and genial criticism on +literature and on art. An amateur-painter himself, painting interested +him particularly, and he often spoke much and warmly of the young man +from Plymouth, whose picture of the 'Judgment of Solomon' was then on +exhibition in London. 'You must see it,' said he, 'even if you come to +town on purpose.'"--The reader of Haydon's Life will remember that Sir +William Elford, in conjunction with a Plymouth banker named Tingecombe, +ultimately purchased the picture. The poor artist was overwhelmed with +astonishment and joy when he walked into the exhibition-room and read +the label, "Sold," which had been attached to his picture that morning +before he arrived. "My first impulse," he says in his Autobiography, +"was gratitude to God." + +"It so happened," continued Miss Mitford, "that I merely passed through +London that season, and, being detained by some of the thousand and one +nothings which are so apt to detain women in the great city, I arrived +at the exhibition, in company with a still younger friend, so near the +period of closing, that more punctual visitors were moving out, and the +doorkeeper actually turned us and our money back. I persisted, however, +assuring him that I only wished to look at one picture, and promising +not to detain him long. Whether my entreaties would have carried the +point or not, I cannot tell; but half a crown did; so we stood +admiringly before the 'Judgment of Solomon.' I am no great judge of +painting; but that picture impressed me then, as it does now, as +excellent in composition, in color, and in that great quality of telling +a story which appeals at once to every mind. Our delight was sincerely +felt, and most enthusiastically expressed, as we kept gazing at the +picture, and seemed, unaccountably to us at first, to give much pleasure +to the only gentleman who had remained in the room,--a young and very +distinguished-looking person, who had watched with evident amusement our +negotiation with the doorkeeper. Beyond indicating the best position to +look at the picture, he had no conversation with us; but I soon surmised +that we were seeing the painter, as well as his painting; and when, two +or three years afterwards, a friend took me by appointment to view the +'Entry into Jerusalem,' Haydon's next great picture, then near its +completion, I found I had not been mistaken. + +"Haydon was, at that period, a remarkable person to look at and listen +to. Perhaps your American word _bright_ expresses better than any other +his appearance and manner. His figure, short, slight, elastic, and +vigorous, looked still more light and youthful from the little +sailor's-jacket and snowy trousers which formed his painting costume. +His complexion was clear and healthful. His forehead, broad and high, +out of all proportion to the lower part of his face, gave an +unmistakable character of intellect to the finely placed head. Indeed, +he liked to observe that the gods of the Greek sculptors owed much of +their elevation to being similarly out of drawing! The lower features +were terse, succinct, and powerful,--from the bold, decided jaw, to the +large, firm, ugly, good-humored mouth. His very spectacles aided the +general expression; they had a look of the man. But how shall I attempt +to tell you of his brilliant conversation, of his rapid, energetic +manner, of his quick turns of thought, as he flew on from topic to +topic, dashing his brush here and there upon the canvas? Slow and quiet +persons were a good deal startled by this suddenness and mobility. He +left such people far behind, mentally and bodily. But his talk was so +rich and varied, so earnest and glowing, his anecdotes so racy, his +perception of character so shrewd, and the whole tone so spontaneous and +natural, that the want of repose was rather recalled afterwards than +felt at the time. The alloy to this charm was a slight coarseness of +voice and accent, which contrasted somewhat strangely with his constant +courtesy and high breeding. Perhaps this was characteristic. A defect of +some sort pervades his pictures. Their great want is equality and +congruity,--that perfect union of qualities which we call _taste_. His +apartment, especially at that period when he lived in his painting-room, +was in itself a study of the most picturesque kind. Besides the great +picture itself, for which there seemed hardly space between the walls, +it was crowded with casts, lay figures, arms, tripods, vases, draperies, +and costumes of all ages, weapons of all nations, books in all tongues. +These cumbered the floor; whilst around hung smaller pictures, sketches, +and drawings, replete with originality and force. With chalk he could do +what he chose. I remember he once drew for me a head of hair with nine +of his sweeping, vigorous strokes! Among the studies I remarked that day +in his apartment was one of a mother who had just lost her only +child,--a most masterly rendering of an unspeakable grief. A sonnet, +which I could not help writing on this sketch, gave rise to our long +correspondence, and to a friendship which never flagged. Everybody feels +that his life, as told by Mr. Taylor, with its terrible catastrophe, is +a stern lesson to young artists, an awful warning that cannot be set +aside. Let us not forget that amongst his many faults are qualities +which hold out a bright example. His devotion to his noble art, his +conscientious pursuit of every study connected with it, his unwearied +industry, his love of beauty and of excellence, his warm family +affection, his patriotism, his courage, and his piety, will not easily +be surpassed. Thinking of them, let us speak tenderly of the ardent +spirit whose violence would have been softened by better fortune, and +who, if more successful, would have been more gentle and more humble." + +And so with her vigilant and appreciative eye she saw, and thus in her +own charming way she talked of, the man whose name, says Taylor, as a +popularizer of art, stands without a rival among his brethren. + +She loathed mere dandies, and there were no epithets too hot for her +contempts in that direction. Old beaux she heartily despised, and, +speaking of one whom she had known, I remember she quoted with a fine +scorn this appropriate passage from Dickens: "Ancient, dandified men, +those crippled _invalides_ from the campaign of vanity, where the only +powder was hair-powder, and the only bullets fancy balls." + +There was no half-way with her, and she never could have said with M---- +S----, when a certain visitor left the room one day after a call, "If we +did not _love_ our dear friend Mr. ---- so much, shouldn't we hate him +tremendously!" Her neighbor, John Ruskin, she thought as eloquent a +prose-writer as Jeremy Taylor, and I have heard her go on in her fine +way, giving preferences to certain modern poems far above the works of +the great masters of song. Pascal says that "the heart has reasons that +reason does not know"; and Miss Mitford was a charming exemplification +of this wise saying. + +Her dogs and her geraniums were her great glories. She used to write me +long letters about Fanchon, a dog whose personal acquaintance I had +made some time before, while on a visit to her cottage. Every virtue +under heaven she attributed to that canine individual; and I was obliged +to allow in my return letters, that, since our planet began to spin, +nothing comparable to Fanchon had ever run on four legs. I had also +known Flush, the ancestor of Fanchon, intimately, and had been +accustomed to hear wonderful things of that dog; but Fanchon had graces +and genius unique. Miss Mitford would have joined with Hamerton in his +gratitude for canine companionship, when he says, "I humbly thank Divine +Providence for having invented dogs, and I regard that man with +wondering pity who can lead a dogless life." + +Her fondness for rural life, one may well imagine, was almost +unparalleled. I have often been with her among the wooded lanes of her +pretty country, listening for the nightingales, and on such occasions +she would discourse so eloquently of the sights and sounds about us, +that her talk seemed to me "far above singing." She had fallen in love +with nature when a little child, and had studied the landscape till she +knew familiarly every flower and leaf which grows on English soil. She +delighted in rural vagabonds of every sort, especially in gypsies; and +as they flourished in her part of the country, she knew all their ways, +and had charming stories to tell of their pranks and thievings. She +called them "the commoners of nature"; and once I remember she pointed +out to me on the road a villanous-looking youth on whom she smiled as we +passed, as if he had been Virtue itself in footpad disguise. She knew +all the literature of rural life, and her memory was stored with +delightful eulogies of forests and meadows. When she repeated or read +aloud the poetry she loved, her accents were + + "Like flowers' voices, if they could but speak." + +She _understood_ how to enjoy rural occupations and rural existence, +and she had no patience with her friend Charles Lamb, who preferred the +town. Walter Savage Landor addressed these lines to her a few months +before she died, and they seem to me very perfect and lovely in their +application:-- + + "The hay is carried; and the hours + Snatch, as they pass, the linden flow'rs; + And children leap to pluck a spray + Bent earthward, and then run away. + Park-keeper! catch me those grave thieves + About whose frocks the fragrant leaves, + Sticking and fluttering here and there, + No false nor faltering witness bear. + + "I never view such scenes as these + In grassy meadow girt with trees, + But comes a thought of her who now + Sits with serenely patient brow + Amid deep sufferings: none hath told + More pleasant tales to young and old. + Fondest was she of Father Thames, + But rambled to Hellenic streams; + Nor even there could any tell + The country's purer charms so well + As Mary Mitford. + Verse! go forth + And breathe o'er gentle breasts her worth. + Needless the task ... but should she see + One hearty wish from you and me, + A moment's pain it may assuage,-- + A rose-leaf on the couch of Age." + +And Harriet Martineau pays her respects to my friend in this wise: "Miss +Mitford's descriptions of scenery, brutes, and human beings have such +singular merit, that she may be regarded as the founder of a new style; +and if the freshness wore off with time, there was much more than a +compensation in the fine spirit of resignation and cheerfulness which +breathed through everything she wrote, and endeared her as a suffering +friend to thousands who formerly regarded her only as a most +entertaining stranger." + +What lovely drives about England I have enjoyed with Miss Mitford as my +companion and guide! We used to arrange with her trusty Sam for a day +now and then in the open air. He would have everything in readiness at +the appointed hour, and be at his post with that careful, kind-hearted +little maid, the "hemmer of flounces," all prepared to give the old lady +a fair start on her day's expedition. Both those excellent servants +delighted to make their mistress happy, and she greatly rejoiced in +their devotion and care. Perhaps we had made our plans to visit Upton +Court, a charming old house where Pope's Arabella Fermor had passed many +years of her married life. On the way thither we would talk over "The +Rape of the Lock" and the heroine, Belinda, who was no other than +Arabella herself. Arriving on the lawn in front of the decaying mansion, +we would stop in the shade of a gigantic oak, and gossip about the times +of Queen Elizabeth, for it was then the old house was built, no doubt. + +Once I remember Miss Mitford carried me on a pilgrimage to a grand old +village church with a tower half covered with ivy. We came to it through +laurel hedges, and passed on the way a magnificent cedar of Lebanon. It +was a superb pile, rich in painted glass windows and carved oak +ornaments. Here Miss Mitford ordered the man to stop, and, turning to me +with great enthusiasm, said, "This is Shiplake Church, where Alfred +Tennyson was married!" Then we rode on a little farther, and she called +my attention to some of the finest wych-elms I had ever seen. + +Another day we drove along the valley of the Loddon, and she pointed out +the Duke of Wellington's seat of Strathfieldsaye. As our pony trotted +leisurely over the charming road, she told many amusing stories of the +Duke's economical habits, and she rated him soundly for his money-saving +propensities. The furniture in the house she said was a disgrace to the +great man, and she described a certain old carpet that had done service +so many years in the establishment that no one could tell what the +original colors were. + +But the mansion most dear to her in that neighborhood was the residence +of her kind friends the Russells of Swallowfield Park. It is indeed a +beautiful old place, full of historical and literary associations, for +there Lord Clarendon wrote his story of the Great Rebellion. Miss +Mitford never ceased to be thankful that her declining years were +passing in the society of such neighbors as the Russells. If she were +unusually ill, they were the first to know of it and come at once to her +aid. Little attentions, so grateful to old age, they were always on the +alert to offer; and she frequently told me that their affectionate +kindness had helped her over the dark places of life more than once, +where without their succor she must have dropped by the way. + +As a letter-writer, Miss Mitford has rarely been surpassed. Her "Life, +as told by herself in Letters to her Friends," is admirably done in +every particular. Few letters in the English language are superior to +hers, and I think they, will come to be regarded as among the choicest +specimens of epistolary literature. When her friend, the Rev. William +Harness, was about to collect from Miss Mitford's correspondents, for +publication, the letters she had written to them, he applied to me among +others. I was obliged to withhold the correspondence for a reason that +existed then; but I am no longer restrained from printing it now. Miss +Mitford's first letter to me was written in 1847, and her last one came +only a few weeks before she died, in 1855. I am inclined to think that +her correspondence, so full of point in allusions, so full of anecdote +and recollections, will be considered among her finest writings. Her +criticisms, not always the wisest, were always piquant and readable. She +had such a charming humor, and her style was so delightful, that her +friendly notes had a relish about them quite their own. In reading some +of them here collected one will see that she overrated my little +services as she did those of many of her personal friends. I shall have +hard work to place the dates properly, for the good lady rarely took the +trouble to put either month or year at the head of her paper. + +She began her correspondence with me before I left England after making +her acquaintance, and, true to the instincts of her kind heart, the +object of her first letter was to press upon my notice the poems of a +young friend of hers, and she was constantly saying good words for +unfledged authors who were struggling forward to gain recognition. No +one ever lent such a helping hand as she did to the young writers of her +country. + +The recognition which America, very early in the career of Miss Mitford, +awarded her, she never forgot, and she used to say, "It takes ten years +to make a literary reputation in England, but America is wiser and +bolder, and dares say at once, 'This is fine.'" + +Sweetness of temper and brightness of mind, her never-failing +characteristics, accompanied her to the last; and she passed on in her +usual cheerful and affectionate mood, her sympathies uncontracted by +age, narrow fortune, and pain. + +A plain substantial cross marks the spot in the old churchyard at +Swallowfield, where, according to her own wish, Mary Mitford lies +sleeping. It is proposed to erect a memorial in the old parish church to +her memory, and her admirers in England have determined, if a sufficient +sum can be raised, to build what shall be known as "The Mitford Aisle," +to afford accommodation for the poor people who are not able to pay for +seats. Several of Miss Mitford's American friends will join in this +beautiful object, and a tablet will be put up in the old church +commemorating the fact that England and America united in the tribute. + +LETTERS, 1848-1849. + + Three-mile Cross, December 4, 1848. + + Dear Mr. Fields: My silence has been caused by severe illness. For + more than a twelvemonth my health has been so impaired as to leave + me a very poor creature, almost incapable of any exertion at all + times, and frequently suffering severe pain besides. So that I have + to entreat the friends who are good enough to care for me never to + be displeased if a long time elapses between my letters. My + correspondents being so numerous, and I myself so utterly alone, + without any one even to fold or seal a letter, that the very + physical part of the task sometimes becomes more fatiguing than I + can bear. I am not, generally speaking, confined to my room, or even + to the house; but the loss of power is so great that after the short + drive or shorter walk which my very skilful medical adviser orders, + I am too often compelled to retire immediately to bed, and I have + not once been well enough to go out of an evening during the year + 1848. Before its expiration I shall have completed my sixty-first + year; but it is not age that has so prostrated me, but the hard work + and increasing anxiety of thirty years of authorship, during which + my poor labors were all that my dear father and mother had to look + to, besides which for the greater part of that time I was constantly + called upon to attend to the sick-bed, first of one aged parent and + then of another. Few women could stand this, and I have only to be + intensely thankful that the power of exertion did not fail until the + necessity of such exertion was removed. Now my poor life is (beyond + mere friendly feeling) of value to no one. I have, too, many + alleviations,--in the general kindness of the neighborhood, the + particular goodness of many admirable friends, the affectionate + attention of a most attached and intelligent old servant, and above + all in my continued interest in books and delight in reading. I love + poetry and people as well at sixty as I did at sixteen, and can + never be sufficiently grateful to God for having permitted me to + retain the two joy-giving faculties of admiration and sympathy, by + which we are enabled to escape from the consciousness of our own + infirmities into the great works of all ages and the joys and + sorrows of our immediate friends. Among the books which I have been + reading with the greatest interest is the Life of Dr. Channing, and + I can hardly tell you the glow of gratification with which I found + my own name mentioned, as one of the writers in whose works that + great man had taken pleasure. The approbation of Dr. Channing is + something worth toiling for. I know no individual suffrage that + could have given me more delight. Besides this selfish pleasure and + the intense interest with which I followed that admirable thinker + through the whole course of his pure and blameless life, I have + derived another and a different satisfaction from that work,--I mean + from its reception in England. I know nothing that shows a greater + improvement in liberality in the least liberal part of the English + public, a greater sweeping away of prejudice whether national or + sectarian, than the manner in which even the High Church and Tory + party have spoken of Dr. Channing. They really seem to cast aside + their usual intolerance in his case, and to look upon a Unitarian + with feelings of Christian fellowship. God grant that this spirit + may continue! Is American literature rich in native biography? Just + have the goodness to mention to me any lives of Americans, whether + illustrious or not, that are graphic, minute, and outspoken. I + delight in French memoirs and English lives, especially such as are + either autobiography or made out by diaries and letters; and + America, a young country with manners as picturesque and unhackneyed + as the scenery, ought to be full of such works. We have had two + volumes lately that will interest your countrymen: Mr. Milnes's Life + of John Keats, that wonderful youth whose early death was, I think, + the greatest loss that English poetry ever experienced. Some of the + letters are very striking as developments on character, and the + richness of diction in the poetical fragments is exquisite. Mrs. + Browning is still at Florence with her husband. She sees more + Americans than English. + + Books here are sadly depreciated. Mr. Dyce's admirable edition of + Beaumont and Fletcher, brought out two years ago at L6 12_s._ is now + offered at L2 17_s._ + + Adieu, dear Mr. Fields; forgive my seeming neglect, and believe me + always most faithfully yours, + + M.R. MITFORD. + + (No date, 1849.) + + Dear Mr. Fields: I cannot tell you how vexed I am at this mistake + about letters, which must have made you think me careless of your + correspondence and ungrateful for your kindness. The same thing has + happened to me before, I may say often, with American letters,--with + Professor Norton, Mrs. Sigourney, the Sedgwicks,--in short I always + feel an insecurity in writing to America which I never experience in + corresponding with friends on the Continent; France, Germany, + Italy, even Poland and Russia, are comparatively certain. Whether it + be the agents in London who lose letters, or some fault in the + post-office, I cannot tell, but I have twenty times experienced the + vexation, and it casts a certain discouragement over one's + communications. However, I hope that this letter will reach you, and + that you will be assured that the fault does not lie at my door. + + During the last year or two my health has been declining much, and I + am just now thinking of taking a journey to Paris. My friend, Henry + Chorley of the Athenaeum, the first musical critic of Europe, is + going thither next month to assist at the production of Meyerbeer's + Prophete at the French Opera, and another friend will accompany me + and my little maid to take care of us; so that I have just hopes + that the excursion, erenow much facilitated by railways, may do me + good. I have always been a great admirer of the great Emperor, and + to see the heir of Napoleon at the Elysee seems to me a real piece + of poetical justice. I know many of his friends in England, who all + speak of him most highly; one of them says, "He is the very + impersonation of calm and simple honesty." I hope the nation will be + true to him, but, as Mirabeau says, "there are no such words as + 'jamais' or 'toujours' with the French public." + + 10th of June, 1849. + + I have been waiting to answer your most kind and interesting letter, + dear Mr. Fields, until I could announce to you a publication that + Mr. Colburn has been meditating and pressing me for, but which, + chiefly I believe from my own fault in not going to town, and not + liking to give him or Mr. Shoberl the trouble of coming here, is now + probably adjourned to the autumn. The fact is that I have been and + still am very poorly. We are stricken in our vanities, and the only + things that I recollect having ever been immoderately proud of--my + garden and my personal activity--have both now turned into causes of + shame and pity; the garden, declining from one bad gardener to + worse, has become a ploughed field,--and I myself, from a severe + attack of rheumatism, and since then a terrible fright in a + pony-chaise, am now little better than a cripple. However, if there + be punishment here below, there are likewise + consolations,--everybody is kind to me; I retain the vivid love of + reading, which is one of the highest pleasures of life; and very + interesting persons come to see me sometimes, from both sides of the + water,--witness, dear Mr. Fields, our present correspondence. One + such person arrived yesterday in the shape of Doctor ----, who has + been working musical miracles in Scotland, (think of making singing + teachers of children of four or five years of age!) and is now on + his way to Paris, where, having been during seven years one of the + editors of the National, he will find most of his colleagues of the + newspaper filling the highest posts in the government. What is the + American opinion of that great experiment; or, rather, what is + yours? I wish it success from the bottom of my heart, but I am a, + little afraid, from their total want of political economy (we have + not a school-girl so ignorant of the commonest principles of demand + and supply as the whole of the countrymen of Turgot from the + executive government downwards), and from a certain warlike tendency + which seems to me to pierce through all their declarations of peace. + We hear the flourish of trumpets through all the fine phrases of the + orators, and indeed it is difficult to imagine what they will do + with their _soi-disant ouvriers_,--workmen who have lost the habit + of labor,--unless they make soldiers of them. In the mean time some + friends of mine are about to accompany your countryman Mr. Elihu + Burritt as a deputation, and doubtless M. de Lamartine will give + them as eloquent an answer as heart can desire,--no doubt he will + keep peace if he can,--but the government have certainly not + hitherto shown firmness or vigor enough to make one rely upon them, + if the question becomes pressing and personal. In Italy matters seem + to be very promising. We have here one of the Silvio Pellico + exiles,--Count Carpinetta,--whose story is quite a romance. He is + just returned from Turin, where he was received with enthusiasm, + might have been returned as Deputy for two places, and did recover + some of his property, confiscated years ago by the Austrians. It + does one's heart good to see a piece of poetical justice transferred + to real life. _Apropos_ of public events, all London is talking of + the prediction of an old theological writer of the name of Fleming, + who in or about the year 1700 prophesied a revolution in France in + 1794 (only one year wrong), and the fall of papacy in 1848 at all + events. + + Ever yours, M.R.M. + + (No date, 1849) + + DEAR MR. FIELDS: I must have seemed very ungrateful in being so long + silent. But your magnificent present of books, beautiful in every + sense of the word, has come dropping in volume by volume, and only + arrived complete (Mr. Longfellow's striking book being the last) + about a fortnight ago, and then it found me keeping my room, as I am + still doing, with a tremendous attack of neuralgia on the left side + of the face. I am getting better now by dint of blisters and tonic + medicine; but I can answer for that disease well deserving its bad + eminence of "painful." It is however, blessed be God! more + manageable than it used to be; and my medical friend, a man of + singular skill, promises me a cure. + + I have seen things of Longfellow's as fine as anything in Campbell + or Coleridge or Tennyson or Hood. After all, our great lyrical poets + are great only for half a volume. Look at Gray and Collins, at your + own edition of the man whom one song immortalized, at Gerald + Griffin, whom you perhaps do not know, and at Wordsworth, who, + greatest of the great for about a hundred pages, is drowned in the + flood of his own wordiness in his longer works. To be sure, there + are giants who are rich to overflowing through a whole shelf of + books,--Shakespeare, the mutual ancestor of Englishmen and + Americans, above all,--and I think the much that they did, and did + well, will be the great hold on posterity of Scott and of Byron. + Have you happened to see Bulwer's King Arthur? It astonished me very + much. I had a full persuasion that, with great merit in a certain + way, he would never be a poet. Indeed, he is beginning poetry just + at the age when Scott, Southey, and a host of others, left it off. + But he is a strange person, full of the powerful quality called + _will_, and has produced a work which, although it is not at all in + the fashionable vein and has made little noise, has yet + extraordinary merit. When I say that it is more like Ariosto than + any other English poem that I know, I certainly give it no mean + praise. + + Everybody is impatient for Mr. George Ticknor's work. The subject + seems to me full of interest. Lord Holland made a charming book of + Lope de Vega years ago, and Mr. Ticknor, with equal qualifications + and a much wider field, will hardly fail of delighting England and + America. Will you remember me to him most gratefully and + respectfully? He is a man whom no one can forget. As to Mr. + Prescott, I know no author now, except perhaps Mr. Macaulay, whose + works command so much attention and give so much delight. I am + ashamed to send you so little news, but I live in the country and + see few people. The day I caught my terrible Tic I spent with the + great capitalist, Mr. Goldsmidt, and Mr. Cobden and his pretty wife. + He is a very different person from what one expects,--graceful, + tasteful, playful, simple, and refined, and looking absolutely + young. I suspect that much of his power springs from his genial + character. I heard last week from Mrs. Browning; she and her husband + are at the Baths of Lucca. Mr. Kenyon's graceful book is out, and I + must not forget to tell you that "Our Village" has been printed by + Mr. Bohn in two volumes, which include the whole five. It is + beautifully got up and very cheap, that is to say, for 3 _s._ 6 _d._ + a volume. Did Mr. Whittier send his works, or do I owe them wholly + to your kindness? If he sent them, I will write by the first + opportunity. Say everything for me to your young friend, and believe + me ever, dear Mr. F---- most faithfully and gratefully yours, M.R.M. + +1850. + + (No date.) + + I have to thank you very earnestly, dear Mr. Fields, for two very + interesting books. The "Leaves from Margaret Smith's Journal" are, I + suppose, a sort of Lady Willoughby's Diary, so well executed that + they read like one of the imitations of Defoe,--his "Memoirs of a + Cavalier," for instance, which always seemed to me quite as true as + if they had been actually written seventy years before. Thank you + over and over again for these admirable books and for your great + kindness and attention. What a perfectly American name Peabody is! + And how strange it is that there should be in the United States so + many persons of English descent whose names have entirely + disappeared from the land of their fathers. Did you get my last + unworthy letter? I hope you did. It would at all events show that + there was on my part no intentional neglect, that I certainly had + written in reply to the last letter that I received, although + doubtless a letter had been lost on one side or the other. I live so + entirely in the quiet country that I have little to tell you that + can be interesting. Two things indeed, not generally known, I may + mention: that Stanfield Hall, the scene of the horrible murder of + which you have doubtless read, was the actual birthplace of Amy + Robsart,--of whose tragic end, by the way, there is at last an + authentic account, both in the new edition of Pepys and the first + volume of the "Romance of the Peerage"; and that a friend of mine + saw the other day in the window of a London bookseller a copy of + Hume, ticketed "An Excellent Introduction to Macaulay." The great + man was much amused at this practical compliment, as well he might + be. I have been reading the autobiographies of Lamartine and + Chateaubriand, as well as Raphael, which, although not avowed, is of + course and most certainly a continuation of "Les Confiances." What + strange beings these Frenchmen are! Here is M. de Lamartine at + sixty, poet, orator, historian, and statesman, writing the stories + of two ladies--one of them married--who died for love of him! Think + if Mr. Macaulay should announce himself as a lady-killer, and put + the details not merely into a book, but into a feuilleton! + + The Brownings are living quite quietly at Florence, seeing, I + suspect, more Americans than English. Mrs. Trollope has lost her + only remaining daughter; arrived in England only time enough to see + her die. + + Adieu, dear Mr. Fields; say everything for me to Mr. and Mrs. + Ticknor, and Mr. and Mrs. Norton. How much I should like to see you! + + Ever faithfully yours, M.R.M. + + (February, 1850.) + + You will have thought me either dead or dying, my dear Mr. Fields, + for ungrateful I hope you could not think me to such a friend as + yourself, but in truth I have been in too much trouble and anxiety + to write. This is the story: I live alone, and my servants become, + as they are in France, and ought, I think, always to be, really and + truly part of my family. A most sensible young woman, my own maid, + who waits upon me and walks out with me, (we have another to do the + drudgery of our cottage,) has a little fatherless boy who is the pet + of the house. I wonder whether you saw him during the glimpse we had + of you! He is a fair-haired child of six years old, singularly quick + in intellect, and as bright in mind and heart and temper as a + fountain in the sun. He is at school in Reading, and, the small-pox + raging there like a pestilence, they sent him home to us to be out + of the way. The very next week my man-servant was seized with it, + after vaccination of course. Our medical friend advised me to send + him away, but that was, in my view of things, out of the question; + so we did the best we could,--my own maid, who is a perfect Sister + of Charity in all cases of illness, sitting up with him for seven + nights following, for one or two were requisite during the delirium, + and we could not get a nurse for love or money, and when he became + better, then, as we had dreaded, our poor little boy was struck + down. However, it has pleased God to spare him, and, after a long + struggle, he is safe from the disorder and almost restored to his + former health. But we are still under a sort of quarantine, for, + although people pretend to believe in vaccination, they avoid the + house as if the plague were in it, and stop their carriages at the + end of the village and send inquiries and cards, and in my mind they + are right. To say nothing of Reading, there have been above thirty + severe cases, after vaccination, in our immediate neighborhood, five + of them fatal. I had been inoculated after the old style, my maid + had had the small-pox the natural way and the only one who escaped + was a young girl who had been vaccinated three times, the last two + years ago. Forgive this long story; it was necessary to excuse my + most unthankful silence, and may serve as an illustration of the way + a disease, supposed to be all but exterminated, is making head again + in England. + + Thank you a thousand and a thousand times for your most delightful + books. Mr. Whipple's Lectures are magnificent, and your own Boston + Book could not, I think, be beaten by a London Book, certainly not + approached by the collected works of any other British + city,--Edinburgh, for example. + + Mr. Bennett is most grateful for your kindness, and Mrs. Browning + will be no less enchanted at the honor done her husband. It is most + creditable to America that they think more of our thoughtful poets + than the English do themselves. + + Two female friends of mine--Mrs. Acton Tindal, a young beauty as + well as a woman of genius, and a Miss Julia Day, whom I have never + seen, but whose verses show extraordinary purity of thought, + feeling, and expression--have been putting forth books. Julia Day's + second series she has done me the honor to inscribe to me, + notwithstanding which I venture to say how very much I admire it, + and so I think would you. Henry Chorley is going to be a happy man. + All his life long he has been dying to have a play acted, and now he + has one coming out at the Surrey Theatre, over Blackfriars Bridge. + He lives much among fine people, and likes the notion of a Faubourg + audience. Perhaps he is right. I am not at all afraid of the play, + which is very beautiful,--a blank-verse comedy full of truth and + feeling. I don't know if you know Henry Chorley. He is the friend of + Robert Browning, and the especial favorite of John Kenyon, and has + always been a sort of adopted nephew of mine. Poor Mrs. Hemans loved + him well; so did a very different person, Lady Blessington,--so that + altogether you may fancy him a very likeable person; but he is much + more,--generous, unselfish, loyal, and as true as steel, worth all + his writings a thousand times over. If my house be in such condition + as to allow of my getting to London to see "Old Love and New + Fortune," I shall consult with Mr. Lucas about the time of sitting + to him for a portrait, as I have promised to do; for, although there + be several extant, not one is passably like. John Lucas is a man of + so much taste that he will make a real old woman's picture of it, + just with my every-day look and dress. + + Will you make my most grateful thanks to Mr. Whipple, and also to + the author of "Greenwood Leaves," which I read with great pleasure, + and say all that is kindest and most respectful for me to Mr. and + Mrs. George Ticknor. I shall indeed expect great delight from his + book. + + Ever, dear Mr. Fields, most gratefully yours, + + M.R.M. + + We have had a Mr. Richmond here, lecturing and so forth. Do you know + him? I can fancy what Mr. Webster would be on the Hungarian + question. To hear Mr. Cobden talk of it was like the sound of a + trumpet. + + Three-mile Cross, November 25, 1850. + + I have been waiting day after day, dear Mr. Fields, to send you two + books,--one new, the other old,--one by my friend, Mr. Bennett; the + other a volume [her Dramatic Poems] long out of print in England, + and never, I think, known in America. I had great difficulty in + procuring the shabby copy which I send you, but I think you will + like it because it is mine, and comes to you from friend to friend, + and because there is more of myself, that is, of my own inner + feelings and fancies, than one ever ventures to put into prose. Mr. + Bennett's volume, which is from himself as well as from me, I am + sure you will like; most thoroughly would like each other if ever + you met. He has the poet's heart and the poet's mind, large, + truthful, generous, and full of true refinement, delightful as a + companion, and invaluable as a man. + + After eight years' absolute cessation of composition, Henry Chorley, + of the Athenaeum, coaxed me last summer into writing for a Lady's + Journal, which he was editing for Messrs. Bradbury and Evans, + certain Readings of Poetry, old and new, which will, I suppose, form + two or three separate volumes when collected, buried as they now are + amongst all the trash and crochet-work and millinery. They will be + quite as good as MS., and, indeed, every paper will be enlarged and + above as many again added. One pleasure will be the doing what + justice I can to certain American poets,--Mr. Whittier, for + instance, whose "Massachusetts to Virginia" is amongst the finest + things ever written. I gave one copy to a most intelligent Quaker + lady, and have another in the house at this moment for Mrs. Walter, + widow and mother of the two John Walters, father and son, so well + known as proprietors of the Times. I shall cause my book to be + immediately forwarded to you, but I don't think it will be ready for + a twelvemonth. There is a good deal in it of my own prose, and it + takes a wider range than usual of poetry, including much that has + never appeared in any of the specimen books. Of course, dear friend, + this is strictly between you and me, because it would greatly damage + the work to have the few fragments that have appeared as yet brought + forward without revision and completion in their present detached + and crude form. + + This England of ours is all alight and aflame with Protestant + indignation against popery; the Church of England being likely to + rekindle the fires of 1780, by way of vindicating the right of + private judgment. I, who hold perfect freedom of thought and of + conscience the most precious of all possessions, have of course my + own hatred to these things. Cardinal Wiseman has taken advantage of + the attack to put forth one of the most brilliant appeals that has + appeared in my time; of course you will see it in America. + + Professor Longfellow has won a station in England such as no + American poet ever held before, and assuredly he deserves it. Except + Beranger and Tennyson, I do not know any living man who has written + things so beautiful. I think I like his Nuremburg best of all. Mr. + Ticknor's great work, too, has won golden opinions, especially from + those whose applause is fame; and I foresee that day by day our + literature will become more mingled with rich, bright novelties from + America, not reflections of European brightness, but gems all + colored with your own skies and woods and waters. Lord Carlisle, the + most accomplished of our ministers and the most amiable of our + nobles, is giving this very week to the Leeds Mechanics' Institute a + lecture on his travels in the United States, and another on the + poetry of Pope. + + May I ask you to transmit the accompanying letter to Mrs. H----? She + has sent to me for titles and dates, and fifty things in which I can + give her little help; but what I do know about my works I have sent + her. Only, as, except that I believe her to live in Philadelphia, I + really am as ignorant of her address as I am of the year which + brought forth the first volume of "Our Village," I am compelled to + go to you for help in forwarding my reply. + + Ever, my dear Mr. Fields, most gratefully and faithfully yours, + + M.R. MITFORD. + + Is not Louis Napoleon the most graceful of our European chiefs? I + have always had a weakness for the Emperor, and am delighted to find + the heir of his name turning out so well. + +1851. + + February 10, 1851 + + I cannot tell you, my dear Mr. Fields, how much I thank you for your + most kind letter and parcel, which, after sending three or four + emissaries all over London to seek, (Mr. ---- having ignored the + matter to my first messenger,) was at last sent to me by the Great + Western Railway,--I suspect by the aforesaid Mr. ----, because, + although the name of the London bookseller was dashed out, a + _long-tailed_ letter was left just where the "p" would come in ----, + and as neither Bonn's nor Whittaker's name boasts such a grace, I + suspect that, in spite of his assurance, the packet was in the + Strand, and neither in Ave Maria Lane nor in Henrietta Street, to + both houses I sent. Thank you a thousand times for all your + kindness. The orations are very striking. But I was delighted with + Dr. Holmes's poems for their individuality. How charming a person he + must be! And how truly the portrait represents the mind, the lofty + brow full of thought, and the wrinkle of humor in the eye! (Between + ourselves, I always have a little doubt of genius where there is no + humor; certainly in the very highest poetry the two go + together,--Scott, Shakespeare, Fletcher, Burns.) Another charming + thing in Dr. Holmes is, that every succeeding poem is better than + the last. Is he a widower, or a bachelor, or a married man? At all + events, he is a true poet, and I like him all the better for being a + physician,--the one truly noble profession. There are noble men in + all professions, but in medicine only are the great mass, almost the + whole, generous, liberal, self-denying, living to advance science + and to help mankind. If I had been a man I should certainly have + followed that profession. I rejoice to hear of another Romance by + the author of "The Scarlet Letter." That is a real work of genius. + Have you seen "Alton Locke"? No novel has made so much noise for a + long time; but it is, like "The Saint's Tragedy," inconclusive. + Between ourselves, I suspect that the latter part was written with + the fear of the Bishop before his eyes (the author, Mr. Kingsley, is + a clergyman of the Church of England), which makes the one volume + almost a contradiction of the others. Mrs. Browning is still at + Florence, where she sees scarcely any English, a few Italians, and + many Americans. + + Ever most gratefully yours. + + M.R.M. + + (No date.) + + Dear Mr. Fields: I sent you a packet last week, but I have just + received your two charming books, and I cannot suffer a post to + pass without thanking you for them. Mr. Whittier's volume is quite + what might have been expected from the greatest of Quaker writers, + the worthy compeer of Longfellow, and will give me other extracts to + go with "From Massachusetts to Virginia" and "Cassandra Southwick" + in my own book, where one of my pleasures will be trying to do + justice to American poetry, and Dr. Holmes's fine "Astraea." We have + nothing like that nowadays in England. Nobody writes now in the + glorious resonant metre of Dryden, and very few ever did write as + Dr. Holmes does. I see there is another volume of his poetry, but + the name was new to me. How much I owe to you, my dear Mr. Fields! + That great romance, "The Scarlet Letter," and these fine poets,--for + true poetry, not at all imitative, is rare in England, common as + elegant imitative verse may be,--and that charming edition of Robert + Browning. Shall you republish his wife's new edition? I cannot tell + you how much I thank you. I read an extract from the Times, + containing a report of Lord Carlisle's lecture on America, chiefly + because he and Dr. Holmes say the same thing touching the slavish + regard to opinion which prevails in America. Lord Carlisle is by + many degrees the most accomplished of our nobles. Another + accomplished and cultivated nobleman, a friend of my own, we have + just lost,--Lord Nugent,--liberal, too, against the views of his + family. + + You must make my earnest and very sincere congratulations to your + friend. In publishing Gray, he shows the refinement of taste to be + expected in your companion. I went over all his haunts two years + ago, and have commemorated them in the book you will see by and + by,--the book that is to be,--and there I have put on record the + bride-cake, and the finding by you on my table your own edition of + Motherwell. You are not angry, are you? If your father and mother in + law ever come again to England, I shall rejoice to see them, and + shall be sure to do so, if they will drop me a line. God bless you, + dear Mr. Fields. + + Ever faithfully and gratefully yours, M.R.M. + + Three-mile Cross, July 20, 1851. + + You will have thought me most ungrateful, dear Mr. Fields, in being + so long your debtor for a most kind and charming letter; but first I + waited for the "House of the Seven Gables," and then when it + arrived, only a week ago; I waited to read it a second time. At + sixty-four life gets too short to allow us to read every book once + and again; but it is not so with Mr. Hawthorne's. The first time one + sketches them (to borrow Dr. Holmes's excellent word), and cannot + put them down for the vivid interest; the next, one lingers over the + beauty with a calmer enjoyment. Very beautiful this book is! I thank + you for it again and again. The legendary part is all the better for + being vague and dim and shadowy, all pervading, yet never tangible; + and the living people have a charm about them which is as lifelike + and real as the legendary folks are ghostly and remote. Phoebe, for + instance, is a creation which, not to speak it profanely, is almost + Shakespearian. I know no modern heroine to compare with her, except + it be Eugene Sue's Rigolette, who shines forth amidst the iniquities + of "Les Mysteres de Paris" like some rich, bright, fresh cottage + rose thrown by evil chance upon a dunghill. Tell me, please, about + Mr. Hawthorne, as you were so good as to do about that charming + person, Dr. Holmes. Is he young? I think he is, and I hope so for + the sake of books to come. And is he of any profession? Does he + depend altogether upon literature, as too many writers do here? At + all events, he is one of the glories of your most glorious part of + great America. Tell me, too, what is become of Mr. Cooper, that + other great novelist? I think I heard from you, or from some other + Transatlantic friend, that he was less genial and less beloved than + so many other of your notabilities have been. Indeed, one sees that + in many of his recent works; but I have been reading many of his + earlier books again, with ever-increased admiration, especially I + should say "The Pioneers"; and one cannot help hoping that the mind + that has given so much pleasure to so many readers will adjust + itself so as to admit of its own happiness,--for very clearly the + discomfort was his own fault, and he is too clever a person for one + not to wish him well. + + I think that the most distinguished of our own _young_ writers are, + the one a dear friend of mine, John Ruskin; the other, one who will + shortly be so near a neighbor that we must know each other. It is + quite wonderful that we don't now, for we are only twelve miles + apart, and have scores of friends in common. This last is the Rev. + Charles Kingsley, author of "Alton Locke" and "Yeast" and "The + Saint's Tragedy." All these books are full of world-wide truths, and + yet, taken as a whole, they are unsatisfactory and inconclusive, + knocking down without building up. Perhaps that is the fault of the + social system that he lays bare, perhaps of the organization of the + man, perhaps a little of both. You will have heard probably that he, + with other benevolent persons, established a sort of socialist + community (Christian socialism) for journeymen tailors, he himself + being their chaplain. The evil was very great, for of twenty-one + thousand of that class in London, fifteen thousand were ill-paid + and only half-employed. For a while, that is, as long as the + subscription lasted, all went well; but I fear this week that the + money has come to an end, and so very likely will the experiment. + Have you republished "Alton Locke" in America? It has one character, + an old Scotchman, equal to anything in Scott. The writer is still + quite a young man, but out of health. I have heard (but this is + between ourselves) that ----'s brain is suffering,--the terrible + malady by which so many of our great mental laborers (Scott and + Southey, above all) have fallen. Dr. Buckland is now dying of it. I + am afraid ---- may be so lost to the world and his friends, not + merely because his health is going, but because certain + peculiarities have come to my knowledge which look like it. A + brother clergyman saw him the other day, upon a common near his own + house, spouting, singing, and reciting verse at the top of his voice + at one o'clock in the morning. Upon inquiring what was the matter, + the poet said that he never went to bed till two or three o'clock, + and frequently went out in that way to exercise his lungs. My + informant, an orderly person of a very different stamp, set him down + for mad at once; but he is much beloved among his parishioners, and + if the escapade above mentioned do not indicate disease of the + brain, I can only say it would be good for the country if we had + more madmen of the same sort. As to John Ruskin, I would not answer + for quiet people not taking him for crazy too. He is an enthusiast + in art, often right, often wrong,--"in the right very stark, in the + wrong very sturdy,"--bigoted, perverse, provoking, as ever man was; + but good and kind and charming beyond the common lot of mortals. + There are some pages of his prose that seem to me more eloquent than + anything out of Jeremy Taylor, and I should think a selection of his + works would answer to reprint. Their sale here is something + wonderful, considering their dearness, in this age of cheap + literature, and the want of attraction in the subject, although the + illustrations of the "Stones of Venice," executed by himself from + his own drawings, are almost as exquisite as the writings. By the + way, he does not say what I heard the other day from another friend, + just returned from the city of the sea, that Taglioni has purchased + four of the finest palaces, and is restoring them with great taste, + by way of investment, intending to let them to Russian and English + noblemen. She was a very graceful dancer once, was Taglioni; but + still it rather depoetizes the place, which of all others was + richest in associations. + + Mrs. Browning has got as near to England as Paris, and holds out + enough of hope of coming to London to keep me from visiting it until + I know her decision. I have not seen the great Exhibition, and, + unless she arrives, most probably shall not see it. My lameness, + which has now lasted five months, is the reason I give to myself for + not going, chairs being only admitted for an hour or two on Saturday + mornings. But I suspect that my curiosity has hardly reached the + fever-heat needful to encounter the crowd and the fatigue. It is + amusing to find how people are cooling down about it. We always were + a nation of idolaters, and always had the trick of avenging + ourselves upon our poor idols for the sin of our own idolatry. Many + an overrated, and then underrated, poet can bear witness to this. I + remember when my friend Mr. Milnes was called _the_ poet, although + Scott and Byron were in their glory, and Wordsworth had written all + of his works that will live. We make gods of wood and stone, and + then we knock them to pieces; and so figuratively, if not literally, + shall we do by the Exhibition. Next month I am going to move to a + cottage at Swallowfield,--so called, I suppose, because those + migratory birds meet by millions every autumn in the park there, now + belonging to some friends of mine, and still famous as the place + where Lord Clarendon wrote his history. That place is still almost a + palace; mine an humble but very prettily placed cottage. O, how + proud and glad I should be, if ever I could receive Mr. and Mrs. + Fields within its walls for more than a poor hour! I shall have + tired you with this long letter, but you have made me reckon you + among my friends,--ay, one of the best and kindest,--and must take + the consequence. + + Ever yours, M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, Saturday Night. + + I write you two notes at once, my dear friend, whilst the + recollection of your conversation is still in my head and the + feeling of your kindness warm on my heart. To write, to thank you + for a visit which has given me so much pleasure, is an impulse not + to be resisted. Pray tell Mr. and Mrs. Bennoch how delighted I am to + make their acquaintance and how earnestly I hope we may meet often. + They are charming people. + + Another motive that I had for writing at once is to tell you that + the more I think of the title of the forthcoming book, the less I + like it; and I care more for it, now that you are concerned in the + matter, than I did before. "Personal Reminiscences" sounds like a + bad title for an autobiography. Now this is nothing of the sort. It + is literally a book made up of favorite scraps of poetry and prose; + the bits of my own writing are partly critical, and partly have + been interwoven to please Henry Chorley and give something of + novelty, and as it were individuality, to a mere selection, to take + off the dryness and triteness of extracts, and give the pen + something to say in the work as well as the scissors. Still, it is a + book founded on other books, and since it pleased Mr. Bentley to + object to "Readings of Poetry," because he said nobody in England + bought poetry, why "Recollections of Books," as suggested by Mr. + Bennett, approved by me, and as I believed (till this very day) + adopted by Mr. Bentley, seemed to meet exactly the truth of the + case, and to be quite concession enough to the exigencies of the + trade. By the other title we exposed ourselves, in my mind, to all + manner of danger. I shall write this by this same post to Mr. + Bennett, and get the announcement changed, if possible; for it seems + to me a trick of the worst sort. I shall write a list of the + subjects, and I only wish that I had duplicates, and I would send + you the articles, for I am most uncomfortable at the notion of your + being taken in to purchase a book that may, through this misnomer, + lose its reputation in England; for of course it will be attacked as + an unworthy attempt to make it pass for what it is not.... + + Now if you dislike it, or if Mr. Bentley keep that odious title, + why, give it up at once. Don't pray, pray lose money by me. It would + grieve me far more than it would you. A good many of these are about + books quite forgotten, as the "Pleader's Guide" (an exquisite + pleasantry), "Holcroft's Memoirs," and "Richardson's + Correspondence." Much on Darley and the Irish Poets, unknown in + England; and I think myself that the book will contain, as in the + last article, much exquisite poetry and curious prose, as in the + forgotten murder (of Toole, the author's uncle) in the State Trials. + But it should be called by its right name, as everything should in + this world. God bless you! + + Ever faithfully yours, + + M.R.M. + + P.S. First will come the Preface, then the story of the book + (without Henry Chorley's name; it is to be dedicated to him), + noticing the coincidence of "Our Village" having first appeared in + the Lady's Magazine, and saying something like what I wrote to you + last night. I think this will take off the danger of provoking + apprehension on one side and disappointment on the other; because + after all, although anecdote be not the style of the book, it does + contain some. + + May I put in the story of Washington's ghost? without your name, of + course; it would be very interesting, and I am ten times more + desirous of making the book as good as I can, since I have reason to + believe you will be interested in it. Pray, forgive me for having + worried you last night and now again. I am a terribly nervous + person, and hate and dread literary scrapes, or indeed disputes of + any sort. But I ought not to have worried you. Just tell me if you + think this sort of preface will take the sting from the title, for I + dare say Mr. Bentley won't change it. + + Adieu, dear friend. All peace and comfort to you in your journey; + amusement you are sure of. I write also to dear Mr. Bennett, whom I + fear I have also worried. + + Ever most faithfully yours, + + M.R.M. + +1852. + + January 5. + + Mr. Bennoch has just had the very great kindness, dear Mr. Fields, + to let me know of your safe arrival at Genoa, and of your enjoyment + of your journey. Thank God for it! We heard so much about commotions + in the South of France that I had become fidgety about you, the + rather that it is the best who go, and that I for one cannot afford + to lose you. + + Now let me thank you for all your munificence,--that beautiful + Longfellow with the hundred illustrations, and that other book of + Professor Longfellow's, beautiful in another way, the "Golden + Legend." I hope I shall be only one among the multitude who think + this the greatest and best thing he has done yet, so racy, so full + of character, of what the French call local color, so, in its best + and highest sense, original. Moreover, I like the happy ending. Then + those charming volumes of De Quincey and Sprague and Grace + Greenwood. (Is that her real name?) And dear Mr. Hawthorne, and the + two new poets, who, if also young poets, will be fresh glories for + America. How can I thank you enough for all these enjoyments? And + you must come back to England, and add to my obligations by giving + me as much as you can of your company in the merry month of May. I + have fallen in with Mr. Kingsley, and a most charming person he is, + certainly the least like an Englishman of letters, and the most like + an accomplished, high-toned English gentleman, that I have ever met + with. You must know Mr. Kingsley. He is very young too, really + young, for it is characteristic of our "young poets" that they + generally turn out middle-aged and very often elderly. My book is + out at last, hurried through the press in a fortnight,--a process + which half killed me, and has left the volumes, no doubt, full of + errata,--and you, I mean your house, have not got it. I am keeping a + copy for you personally. People say that they like it. I think you + will, because it will remind you of this pretty country, and of an + old Englishwoman who loves you well. Mrs. Browning was delighted + with your visit. She is a Bonapartiste; so am I. I always adored the + Emperor, and I think his nephew is a great man, full of ability, + energy, and courage, who put an end to an untenable situation and + got quit of a set of unrepresenting representatives. The Times + newspaper, right as it seems to me about Kossuth, is dangerously + wrong about Louis Napoleon, since it is trying to stimulate the + nation to a war for which France is more than prepared, is ready, + and England is not. London might be taken with far less trouble and + fewer men than it took to accomplish the _coup d'etat_. Ah! I + suspect very different politics will enclose this wee bit notie, if + dear Mr. Bennoch contrives to fold it up in a letter of his own; but + to agree to differ is part of the privileges of friendship; besides, + I think you and I generally agree. + + Ever yours, + + M.R.M. + + P.S. All this time I have not said a word of "The Wonder Book." + Thanks again and again. Who was the Mr. Blackstone mentioned in "The + Scarlet Letter" as riding like a myth in New England History, and + what his arms? A grandson of Judge Blackstone, a friend of mine, + wishes to know. + + (March, 1852.) + + I can never enough thank you, dearest Mr. Fields, for your kind + recollection of me in such a place as the Eternal City. But you + never forget any whom you make happy in your friendship, for that is + the word; and therefore here in Europe or across the Atlantic, you + will always remain.... Your anecdote of the ---- is most + characteristic. I am very much afraid that he is only a poet, and + although I fear the last person in the world to deny that that is + much, I think that to be a really great man needs something more. I + am sure that you would not have sympathized with Wordsworth. I do + hope that you will see Beranger when in Paris. He is the one man in + France (always excepting Louis Napoleon, to whom I confess the + interest that all women feel in strength and courage) whom I should + earnestly desire to know well. In the first place, I think him by + far the greatest of living poets, the one who unites most completely + those two rare things, impulse and finish. In the next, I admire + his admirable independence and consistency, and his generous feeling + for fallen greatness. Ah, what a truth he told, when he said that + Napoleon was the greatest poet of modern days! I should like to have + the description of Beranger from your lips. Mrs. Browning ... has + made acquaintance with Madame Sand, of whom her account is most + striking and interesting. But George Sand is George Sand, and + Beranger is Beranger. + + Thank you, dear friend, for your kind interest in my book. It has + found far more favor than I expected, and I think, ever since the + week after its publication, I have received a dozen of letters daily + about it, from friends and strangers,--mostly strangers,--some of + very high accomplishments, who will certainly be friends. This is + encouragement to write again, and we will have a talk about it when + you come. I should like your advice. One thing is certain, that this + work has succeeded, and that the people who like it best are + precisely those whom one wishes to like it best, the lovers of + literature. Amongst other things, I have received countless volumes + of poetry and prose,--one little volume of poetry written under the + name of Mary Maynard, of the greatest beauty, with the vividness and + picturesqueness of the new school, combined with infinite + correctness and clearness, that rarest of all merits nowadays. Her + real name I don't know, she has only thought it right to tell me + that Mary Maynard was not the true appellation (this is between + ourselves). Her own family know nothing of the publication, which + seems to have been suggested by her and my friend, John Ruskin. Of + course, she must have her probation, but I know of no young writer + so likely to rival your new American school. I sent your gift-books + of Hawthorne, yesterday, to the Walters of Bearwood, who had never + heard of them! Tell him that I have had the honor of poking him into + the den of the Times, the only civilized place in England where they + were barbarous enough not to be acquainted with "The Scarlet + Letter." I wonder what they'll think of it. It will make them stare. + They come to see me, for it is full two months since I have been in + the pony-chaise. I was low, if you remember, when you were here, but + thought myself getting better, was getting better. About Christmas, + very damp weather came on, or rather very wet weather, and the damp + seized my knee and ankles and brought back such an attack of + rheumatism that I cannot stand upright, walk quite double, and am + often obliged to be lifted from step to step up stairs. My medical + adviser (a very clever man) says that I shall get much better when + warm weather comes, but for weeks and weeks we have had east-winds + and frost. No violets, no primroses, no token of spring. A little + flock of ewes and lambs, with a pretty boy commonly holding a lamb + in his arms, who drives his flock to water at the pond opposite my + window, is the only thing that gives token of the season. I am quite + mortified at this on your account, for April, in general a month of + great beauty here, will be as desolate as winter. Nevertheless you + must come and see me, you and Mr. and Mrs. Bennoch, and perhaps you + can continue to stay a day or two, or to come more than once. I want + to see as much of you as I can, and I must change much, if I be in + any condition to go to London, even upon the only condition on which + I ever do go, that is, into lodgings, for I never stay anywhere; and + if I were to go, even to one dear and warm-hearted friend, I should + affront the very many other friends whose invitations I have refused + for so many years. I hope to get at Mr. Kingsley; but I have seen + little of him this winter. We are five miles asunder; his wife has + been ill; and my fear of an open carriage, or rather the medical + injunction not to enter one, has been a most insuperable objection. + We are, as we both said, summer neighbors. However, I will try that + you should see him. He is well worth knowing. Thank you about Mr. + Blackstone. He is worth knowing too, in a different way, a very + learned and very clever man (you will find half Dr. Arnold's letters + addressed to him), as full of crotchets as an egg is full of meat, + fond of disputing and contradicting, a clergyman living in the house + where Mrs. Trollope _was raised_, and very kind after his own + fashion. One thing that I should especially like would be that you + should see your first nightingale amongst our woody lanes. To be + sure, these winds can never last till then. Mr. ---- is coming here + on Sunday. He always brings rain or snow, and that will change the + weather. You are a person who ought to bring sunshine, and I suppose + you do more than metaphorically; for I remember that both times I + have had the happiness to see you--a summer day and a winter + day--were glorious. Heaven bless you, dear friend! May all the + pleasure ... return upon your own head! Even my little world is + charmed at the prospect of seeing you again. If you come to Reading + by the Great Western you could return later and make a longer day, + and yet be no longer from home. + + Ever faithfully yours, M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, April 27, 1852. + + How can I thank you half enough, dearest Mr. Fields, for all your + goodness! To write to me the very day after reaching Paris, to think + of me so kindly! It is what I never can repay. I write now not to + trouble you for another letter, but to remind you that, as soon as + possible after your return to England, I hope to see you and Mr. and + Mrs. Bennoch here. Heaven grant the spring may come to meet you! At + present I am writing in an east-wind, which has continued two months + and gives no sign of cessation. Professor Airy says it will continue + five weeks longer. Not a drop of rain has fallen in all that time. + We have frosts every night, the hedges are as bare as at Christmas, + flowers forget to blow, or if they put forth miserable, infrequent, + reluctant blossoms, have no heart, and I have only once heard the + nightingale in this place where they abound, and not yet seen a + swallow in the spot which takes name from their gatherings. It + follows, of course, that the rheumatism, covered by a glut of wet + weather, just upon the coming in of the new year, is fifty times + increased by the bitter season,--a season which has no parallel in + my recollection. I can hardly sit down when standing, or rise from + my chair without assistance, walk quite double, and am lifted up + stairs step by step by my man-servant. I thought, two years ago, I + could walk fifteen or sixteen miles a day! O, I was too proud of my + activity! I am sure we are smitten in our vanities. However, you + will bring the summer, which is, they say, to do me good; and even + if that should fail, it will do me some good to see you, that is + quite certain. Thank you for telling me about the Galignani, and + about the kind American reception of my book; some one sent me a New + York paper (the Tribune, I think), full of kindness, and I do assure + you that to be so heartily greeted by my kinsmen across the Atlantic + is very precious to me. From the first American has there come + nothing but good-will. However, the general kindness here has taken + me quite by surprise. The only fault found was with the title, + which, as you know, was no doing of mine; and the number of private + letters, books, verses, (commendatory verses, as the old poets have + it), and tributes of all sorts, and from all manner of persons, that + I receive every day is something quite astonishing. + + Our great portrait-painter, John Lucas, certainly the first painter + of female portraits now alive, has been down here to take a portrait + for engraving. He has been most successful. It is looking better, I + suppose, than I ever do look; but not better than under certain + circumstances--listening to a favorite friend, for example--I + perhaps might look. The picture is to go to-morrow into the + engraver's hands, and I hope the print will be completed before your + departure; also they are engraving, or are about to engrave, a + miniature taken of me when I was a little girl between three and + four years old. They are to be placed side by side, the young child + and the old withered woman, ---- a skull and cross-bones could + hardly be a more significant _memento mori_! I have lost my near + neighbor and most accomplished friend, Sir Henry Russell, and many + other friends, for Death has been very busy this winter, and Mr. + Ware is gone! He had sent me his "Zenobia," "from the author," and + for that very reason, I suppose, some one had stolen it; but I had + replaced both that and the letters from Rome, and sent them to Mr. + Kingsley as models for his "Hypatia." He has them still. He had + never heard of them till I named them to him. They seem to me very + fine and classical, just like the best translations from some great + Latin writer. And I have been most struck with Edgar Poe, who has + been republished, prose and poetry, in a shilling volume called + "Readable Books." What a deplorable history it was!--I mean his + own,--the most unredeemed vice that I have met with in the annals of + genius. But he was a very remarkable writer, and must have a niche + if I write again; so must your two poets, Stoddard and Taylor. I am + very sorry you missed Mrs. Trollope; she is a most remarkable woman, + and you would have liked her, I am sure, for her warm heart and her + many accomplishments. I had a sure way to Beranger, one of my dear + friends being a dear friend of his; but on inquiring for him last + week, that friend also is gone to heaven. Do pick up for me all you + can about Louis Napoleon, my one real abiding enthusiasm,--the + enthusiasm of my whole life,--for it began with the Emperor and has + passed quite undiminished to the present great, bold, and able ruler + of France. Mrs. Browning shares it, I think; only she calls herself + cool, which I don't; and another still more remarkable + co-religionist in the L.N. faith is old Lady Shirley (of Alderley), + the writer of that most interesting letter to Gibbon, dated 1792, + published by her father, Lord Sheffield, in his edition of the great + historian's posthumous works. She is eighty-two now, and as active + and vigorous in body and mind, as sixty years ago. + + Make my most affectionate love to my friend in the Avenue des Champs + Elysees, and believe me ever, my dear Mr. Fields, most gratefully + and affectionately yours, + + M.R.M. + + + (No date) + + Ah, my dearest Mr. Fields, how inimitably good and kind you are to + me! Your account of Rachel is most delightful, the rather that it + confirms a preconceived notion which two of my friends had taken + pains to change. Henry Chorley, not only by his own opinion, but by + that of Scribe, who told him that there was no comparison between + her and Viardot. Now if Viardot, even in that one famous part of + Fides, excels Rachel, she must be much the finer actress, having the + horrible drawback of the music to get over. My other friend told me + a story of her, in the modern play of Virginie; she declared that + when in her father's arms she pointed to the butcher's knife, + telling him what to do, and completely reversing that loveliest + story; but I hold to your version of her genius, even admitting that + she did commit the Virginie iniquity, which would be intensely + characteristic of her calling,--all actors and actresses having a + desire to play the whole play themselves, speaking every speech, + producing every effect in their own person. No doubt she is a great + actress, and still more assuredly is Louis Napoleon a great man, a + man of genius, which includes in my mind both sensibility and charm. + There are little bits of his writing from Ham, one where he speaks + of "le repos de ma prison," another long and most eloquent passage + on exile, which ends (I forget the exact words) with a sentiment + full of truth and sensibility. He is speaking of the treatment shown + to an exile in a foreign land, of the mistiness and coldness of + some, of the blandness and smoothness of others, and he goes on to + say, "He must be a man of ten thousand who behaves to an exile just + as he would behave to another person." If I could trust you to + perform a commission for me, and let me pay you the money you spent + upon it, I would ask you to bring me a cheap but comprehensive life + of him, with his works and speeches, and a portrait as like him as + possible. I asked an English friend to do this for me, and fancy his + sending me a book dated on the outside 1847!!!! Did I ever tell you + a pretty story of him, when he was in England after Strasburg and + before Boulogne, and which I know to be true? He spent a twelvemonth + at Leamington, living in the quietest manner. One of the principal + persons there is Mr. Hampden, a descendant of John Hampden, and the + elder brother of the Bishop. Mr. Hampden, himself a very liberal and + accomplished man, made a point of showing every attention in his + power to the Prince, and they soon became very intimate. There was + in the town an old officer of the Emperor's Polish Legion who, + compelled to leave France after Waterloo, had taken refuge in + England, and, having the national talent for languages, maintained + himself by teaching French, Italian, and German in different + families. The old exile and the young one found each other out, and + the language master was soon an habitual guest at the Prince's + table, and treated by him with the most affectionate attention. At + last Louis Napoleon wearied of a country town and repaired to + London; but before he went he called on Mr. Hampden to take leave. + After warm thanks for all the pleasure he had experienced in his + society, he said: "I am about to prove to you my entire reliance + upon your unfailing kindness by leaving you a legacy. I want to ask + you to transfer to my poor old friend the goodness you have lavished + upon me. His health is failing, his means are small. Will you call + upon him sometimes? and will you see that those lodging-house people + do not neglect him? and will you, above all, do for him what he will + not do for himself, draw upon me for what may be wanting for his + needs or for his comforts?" Mr. Hampden promised. The prophecy + proved true; the poor old man grew worse and worse, and finally + died. Mr. Hampden, as he had promised, replaced the Prince in his + kind attentions to his old friend, and finally defrayed the charges + of his illness and of his funeral. "I would willingly have paid them + myself," said he, "but I knew that that would have offended and + grieved the Prince, so I honestly divided the expenses with him, and + I found that full provision had been made at his banker's to answer + my drafts to a much larger amount." Now I have full faith in such a + nature. Let me add that he never forgot Mr. Hampden's kindness, + sending him his different brochures and the kindest messages, both + from Ham and the Elysee. If one did not not admire Louis Napoleon, I + should like to know upon whom one could, as a public man, fix one's + admiration! Just look at our English statesmen! And see the state to + which self-government brings everything! Look at London with all its + sanitary questions just in the same state as ten years ago; look at + all our acts of Parliament, one half of a session passed in amending + the mismanagement of the other. For my own part, I really believe + that there is nothing like one mind, one wise and good ruler; and I + verily believe that the President of France is that man. My only + doubt being whether the people are worthy of him, fickle as they + are, like all great masses,--the French people, in particular. By + the way, if a most vilely translated book, called the "Prisoner of + Ham," be extant in French, I should like to possess it. The account + of the escape looks true, and is most interesting. + + I have been exceedingly struck, since I last wrote to you, by some + extracts from Edgar Poe's writings; I mean a book called "The + Readable Library," composed of selections from his works, prose and + verse. The famous ones are, I find, The Maelstrom and The Raven; + without denying their high merits, I prefer that fine poem on The + Bells, quite as fine as Schiller's, and those remarkable bits of + stories on circumstantial evidence. I am lower, dear friend, than + ever, and what is worse, in supporting myself on my hand I have + strained my right side and can hardly turn in bed. But if we cannot + walk round Swallowfield, we can drive, and the very sight of you + will do me good. If Mr. Bentley send me only one copy of that + engraving, it shall be for you. You know I have a copy for you of + the book. There are no words to tell the letters and books I receive + about it, so I suppose it is popular. I have lost, as you know, my + most accomplished and admirable neighbor, Sir Henry Russell, the + worthy successor of the great Lord Clarendon. His eldest daughter is + my favorite young friend, a most lovely creature, the ideal of a + poet. I hope you will see Beranger. Heaven bless you! + + Ever yours, M.R.M. + + Saturday Night. + + Ah, my very dear friend, how can I ever thank you? But I don't want + to thank you. There are some persons (very few, though) to whom it + is a happiness to be indebted, and you are one of them. The books + and the busts are arrived. Poor dear Louis Napoleon with his head + off--Heaven avert the omen! Of course _that_ head can be replaced, I + mean stuck on again upon its proper shoulders. Beranger is a + beautiful old man, just what one fancies him and loves to fancy him. + I hope you saw him. To my mind, he is the very greatest poet now + alive, perhaps the greatest man, the truest and best type of perfect + independence. Thanks a thousand and a thousand times for those + charming busts and for the books. Mrs. Browning had mentioned to me + Mr. Read. If I live to write another book, I shall put him and Mr. + Taylor and Mr. Stoddard together, and try to do justice to Poe. I + have a good right to love America and the Americans. My Mr. Lucas + tells me to go, and says he has a mind to go. I want you to know + John Lucas, not only the finest portrait-painter, but about the very + finest mind that I know in the world. He might be.... for talent and + manner and heart; and, if you like, you shall, when I am dead, have + the portrait he has just taken of me. I make the reserve, instead of + giving it to you now, because it is possible that he might wish (I + know he does) to paint one for himself, and if I be dead before + sitting to him again, the present one would serve him to copy. Mr. + Bentley wanted to purchase it, and many have wanted it, but it shall + be for you. + + Now, my very dear friend, I am afraid that Mr. ---- has said or done + something that would make you rather come here alone. His last + letter to me, after a month's silence, was _odd_. There was no + fixing upon line or word; still it was not like his other letters, + and I suppose the air of ---- is not genial, and yet dear Mr. + Bennoch breathes it often! You must know that I never could have + meant for one instant to impose him upon you as a companion. Only in + the autumn there had been a talk of his joining your party. He knows + Mr. Bennoch.... He has been very kind and attentive to me, and is, I + verily believe, an excellent and true-hearted person; and so I was + willing that, if all fell out well, he should have the pleasure of + your society here,--the rather that I am sometimes so poorly, and + always so helpless now, that one who knows the place might be of + use. But to think that for one moment I would make your time or your + wishes bend to his is out of the question. Come at your own time, as + soon and as often as you can. I should say this to any one going + away three thousand miles off, much more to you, and forgive my + having even hinted at his coming too. I only did it thinking it + might fix you and suit you. In this view I wrote to him yesterday, + to tell him that on Wednesday next there would be a cricket-match at + Bramshill, one of the finest old mansions in England, a Tudor Manor + House, altered by Inigo Jones, and formerly the residence of Prince + Henry, the elder son of James the First. In the grand old park + belonging to that grand old place, there will be on that afternoon a + cricket-match. I thought you would like to see our national game in + a scene so perfectly well adapted to show it to advantage. Being in + Mr. Kingsley's parish, and he very intimate with the owner, it is + most likely, too, that he will be there; so that altogether it + seemed to me something that you and dear Mr. and Mrs. Bennoch might + like to see. My poor little pony could take you from hence; but not + to fetch or carry you, and if the dear Bennochs come, it would be + advisable to let the flymen know the place of destination, because, + Sir William Cope being a new-comer, I am not sure whether he (like + his predecessor, whom I knew) allows horses and carriages to be put + up there. I should like you to look on for half an hour at a + cricket-match in Bramshill Park, and to be with you at a scene so + English and so beautiful. We could dine here afterwards, the Great + Western allowing till a quarter before nine in the evening. Contrive + this if you can, and let me know by return of post, and forgive my + _mal addresse_ about Mr. ----. There certainly has something come + across him,--not about you, but about me; one thing is, I think, his + extreme politics. I always find these violent Radicals very + unwilling to allow in others the unlimited freedom of thought that + they claim for themselves. He can't forgive my love for the + President. Now I must tell you a story I know to be true. A lady of + rank was placed next the Prince a year or two ago. He was very + gentle and courteous, but very silent, and she wanted to make him + talk. At last she remembered that, having been in Switzerland twenty + years before, she had received some kindness from the Queen + Hortense, and had spent a day at Arenenburg. She told him so, + speaking with warm admiration of the Queen. "Ah, madame, vous avez + connu ma mere!" exclaimed Louis Napoleon, turning to her eagerly and + talking of the place and the people as a school-boy talks of home. + She spent some months in Paris, receiving from the Prince every + attention which his position enabled him to show; and when she + thanked him for such kindness, his answer was always: "Ah, madame, + vous avez connu ma mere!" Is it in woman's heart not to love such a + man? And then look at the purchase of the Murillo the other day, and + the thousand really great things that he is doing. Mr. ---- is a + goose. + + I send this letter to the post to-morrow, when I send other + letters,--a vile, puritanical post-office arrangement not permitting + us to send letters in the afternoon, unless we send straight to + Reading (six miles) on purpose,--so perhaps this may cross an answer + from Mr. ---- or from you about Bramshill; perhaps, on the other + hand, I may have to write again. At all events, you will understand + that this is written on Saturday night. God bless you, my very dear + and kind friend. + + Ever faithfully yours, M.R.M. + + May 24, 1852. + + Ah, dearest Mr. Fields, how much too good and kind you are to me + always! ... I wish I were better, that I might go to town and see + more of you; but I am more lame than ever, and having, in my weight + and my shortness and my extreme helplessness, caught at tables and + chairs and dragged myself along that fashion, I have now so strained + the upper part of the body that I cannot turn in bed, and am full of + muscular pains which are worse than the rheumatism and more + disabling, so that I seem to cumber the earth. They say that summer, + when it comes, will do me good. How much more sure that the sight of + you will do me good, and I trust that, when your business will let + you, you will give me that happiness. In the mean while will you + take the trouble to send the enclosed and my answer, if it be fit + and proper and properly addressed? I give you this office, because + really the kindness seems so large and unlimited, that, if the + letter had not come enclosed in one from Mr. Kenyon, one could + hardly have believed it to be serious, and yet I am well used to + kindness, too. I thank over and over again your glorious poets for + their kindness, and tell Mr. Hawthorne I shall prize a letter from + him beyond all the worlds one has to give. I rejoice to hear of the + new work, and can answer for its excellence. + + I trust that the English edition of Dr. Holmes will contain the + "Astraea," and the "Morning Visit," and the "Cambridge Address." I + am not sure, in my secret soul, that I do not prefer him to any + American poet. Besides his inimitable word-painting, the charity is + so large and the scale so fine. How kind in you to like my + book,--some people do like it. I am afraid to tell you what John + Ruskin says of it from Venice, and I get letters, from ten to twenty + a day. You know how little I dreamt of this! Mrs. Trollope has sent + me a most affectionate letter, bemoaning her ill-fortune in missing + you. I thank you for the Galignani edition, and the presidential + kindness, and all your goodness of every sort. I have nothing to + give you but as large a share of my poor affection as I think any + human being has. You know a copy of the book from me has been + waiting for you these three months. Adieu, my dear friend. + + Ever yours, + + M.R.M. + + (July 6, 1852.) Monday Night, or, rather, 2 o'clock Tuesday Morning. + + Having just finished Mr. Hawthorne's book, dear Mr. Fields, I shall + get K---- to put it up and direct it so that it may be ready the + first time Sam has occasion to go to Reading, at which time this + letter will be put in the post; so that when you read this, you may + be assured that the precious volumes are arrived at the Paddington + Station, whence I hope they may be immediately transmitted to you. + If not, send for them. They will have your full direction, carriage + paid. I say this, because the much vaunted Great Western is like all + other railways, most uncertain and irregular, and we have lost a + packet of plants this very week, sent to us, announced by letter and + never arrived. Thank you heartily for the perusal of the book. I + shall not name it in a letter which I mean to enclose to Mr. + Hawthorne, not knowing that you mean to tell him, and having plenty + of other things to say to him besides. To you, and only to you, I + shall speak quite frankly what I think. It is full of beauty and of + power, but I agree with ---- that it would not have made a + reputation as the other two books did, and I have some doubts + whether it will not be a disappointment, but one that will soon be + redeemed by a fresh and happier effort. It seems to me too long, + too slow, and the personages are to my mind ill chosen. Zenobia puts + one in mind of Fanny Wright and Margaret Fuller and other unsexed + authorities, and Hollingsworth will, I fear, recall, to English + people at least, a most horrible man who went about preaching peace. + I heard him lecture once, and shall never forget his presumption, + his ignorance, or his vulgarity. He is said to know many languages. + I can answer for his not knowing his own, for I never, even upon the + platform, the native home of bad English, heard so much in so short + a time. The mesmeric lecturer and the sickly girl are almost equally + disagreeable. In short, the only likeable person in the book is + honest Silas Foster, who alone gives one the notion of a man of + flesh and blood. In my mind, dear Mr. Hawthorne mistakes exceedingly + when he thinks that fiction should be based upon, or rather seen + through, some ideal medium. The greatest fictions of the world are + the truest. Look at the "Vicar of Wakefield," look at the "Simple + Story," look at Scott, look at Jane Austen, greater because truer + than all, look at the best works of your own Cooper. It is precisely + the want of reality in his smaller stories which has delayed Mr. + Hawthorne's fame so long, and will prevent its extension if he do + not resolutely throw himself into truth, which is as great a thing + in my mind in art as in morals, the foundation of all excellence in + both. The fine parts of this book, at least the finest, are the + truest,--that magnificent search for the body, which is as perfect + as the search for the exciseman in Guy Mannering, and the burst of + passion in Eliot's pulpit. The plot, too, is very finely + constructed, and doubtless I have been a too critical reader, + because, from the moment you and I parted, I have been suffering + from fever, and have never left the bed, in which I am now writing. + Don't fancy, dear friend, that you had anything to do with this. The + complaint had fixed itself and would have run its course, even + although your ... society has not roused and excited the good + spirits, which will, I think, fail only with my life. I think I am + going to get better. Love to all. + + Ever most affectionately yours, M.R.M. + + Tuesday. (No date.) + + My Dear Friend: Being fit for nothing but lying in bed and reading + novels, I have just finished Mr. Field's and Mr. Jones's "Adrien," + and as you certainly will not have time to look at it, and may like + to hear my opinion, I will tell it to you. Mr. Field, from the + Preface, is of New York. The thing that has diverted me most is the + love-plot of the book. A young gentleman, whose father came and + settled in America and made a competence there, is third or fourth + cousin to an English lord. He falls in love with a fisherman's + daughter (the story appears to be about fifty years back). This + fisherman's daughter is a most ethereal personage, speaking and + reading Italian, and possessing in the fishing-cottage a pianoforte + and a collection of books; nevertheless, she one day hears her + husband say something about a person being "well born and well + bred," and forthwith goes away from him, in order to set him free + from the misery entailed upon him, as she supposes, by a + disproportionate marriage. Is not this curious in your republic? We + in England certainly should not play such pranks. A man having + married a wife, his wife stays by him. This dilemma is got over by + the fisherman's turning out to be himself fifth or sixth cousin of + another English lord. But, having lived really as a fisherman ever + since his daughter's birth, he knew nothing of his aristocratic + descent. I think this is the most remarkable thing in the book. + There are certain flings at the New England character (the scene is + laid beside the waters of your Bay) which seem to foretell a not + very remote migration on the part of Mr. Jones, though they may come + from his partner; nothing very bad, only such hits as this: "He was + simple, humble, affectionate, three qualities rare anywhere, but + perhaps more rare in that part of the world than anywhere else." For + the rest the book is far inferior to the best even of Mr. James's + recent productions, such as "Henry Smeaton." These two authors speak + of the corpse of a drowned man as beautified by death, and retaining + all the look of life. You remember what Mr. Hawthorne says of the + appearance of his drowned heroine,--which is right? I have had the + most delightful letter possible (you shall see it when you come) + from dear Dr. Holmes, and venture to trouble you with the enclosed + answer. Yesterday, Mr. Harness, who had heard a bad account of me + (for I have been very ill, and, although much better now, I gather + from everybody that I am thought to be breaking down fast), so like + the dear kind old friend that he is, came to see me. It was a great + pleasure. We talked much of you, and I think he will call upon you. + Whether he call or not, do go to see him. He is fully prepared for + you as Mr. Dyce's friend and Mr. Rogers's friend, and my very dear + friend. Do go; you will find him charming, so different from the + author people that Mr. Kenyon collects. I am sure of your liking + each other. Surely by next week I may be well enough to see you. You + and Mrs. W---- would do me nothing but good. Say everything to her, + and to our dear kind friends, the Bennochs. I ought to have written + to them, but I get as much scolded for writing as talking. + + Ever yours, M.R.M. + + (No date.) + + How good and kind you are to me, dearest Mr. Fields! kindest of all, + I think, in writing me those.... One comfort is, that if London lose + you this year I do think you will not suffer many to elapse before + revisiting it. Ah, you will hardly find your poor old friend next + time! Not that I expect to die just now, but there is such a want of + strength, of the power that shakes off disease, which is no good + sign for the constitution. Yesterday I got up for a little while, + for the first time since I saw you; but, having let in too many + people, the fever came on again at night, and I am only just now + shaking off the attack, and feel that I must submit to perfect + quietness for the present. Still the attack was less violent than + the last, and unattended by sickness, so that I am really better and + hope in a week or so to be able to get out with you under the trees, + perhaps as far as Upton. + + One of my yesterday's visitors was a glorious old lady of + seventy-six, who has lived in Paris for the last thirty years, and I + do believe came to England very much for the purpose of seeing me. + She had known my father before his marriage. He had taken her in his + hand (he was always fond of children) one day to see my mother; she + had been present at their wedding, and remembered the old + housekeeper and the pretty nursery-maid and the great dog too, and + had won with great difficulty (she being then eleven years old) the + privilege of having the baby to hold. Her descriptions of all these + things and places were most graphic, and you may imagine how much + she must have been struck with my book when it met her eye in Paris, + and how much I (knowing all about her family) was struck on my part + by all these details, given with the spirit and fire of an + enthusiastic woman of twenty. We had certainly never met. I left + Alresford at three years old. She made an appointment to spend a day + here next year, having with her a daughter, apparently by a first + husband. Also she had the same host of recollections of Louis + Napoleon, remembered the Emperor, as Premier Consul, and La Reine + Hortense as Mlle. de Beauharnais. Her account of the Prince is + favorable. She says that it is a most real popularity, and that, if + anything like durability can ever be predicated of the French, it + will prove a lasting one. I had a letter from Mrs. Browning to-day, + talking of the "Facts of the Times," of which she said some + gentlemen were speaking with the same supreme contempt and disbelief + that I profess for every paragraph in that collection of falsehoods. + For my own part, I hold a wise despotism, like the Prince + President's, the only rule to live under. Only look at the figure + our _soi-disant_ statesmen cut,--Whig and Tory,--and then glance + your eye across the Atlantic to your "own dear people," as Dr. + Holmes says, and their doings in the Presidential line. Apropos to + Dr. Holmes you'll see him read and quoted when--and his doings are + as dead as Henry the Eighth.--has no feeling for finish or polish or + delicacy, and doubtless dismisses Pope and Goldsmith with supreme + contempt. She never mentions that horrid trial, to my great comfort. + Did I tell you that I had been reading Louis Napoleon's most + charming three volumes full? + + Among my visitors yesterday was Miss Percy, the heiress of Guy's + Cliff, one of the richest in England, and, what is odd, the + translator of "Emilie Carlen's Birthright," the only Swedish novel I + have ever got fairly through, because Miss Percy really does her + work well, and I can't read ----'s English. Miss Percy, who, besides + being very clever and agreeable, is also pretty, has refused some + scores of offers, and declares she'll never marry; she has a dread + of being sought for her money..... + + God bless you, dearest, kindest friend. Say everything for me to + your companions. + + Ever most faithfully yours, M.R.M. + + (No date) + + Yes, dearest Mr. Fields, I continue to get better and better, and + shall be delighted to see you and Mr. and Mrs. W---- on Friday. I + even went in to surprise Mr. May on Saturday, so, weather + permitting, we shall get up to Upton together. I want you to see + that relique of Protestant bigotry. No doubt many of my dear + countrymen would play just the same pranks now, if the spirit of the + age would permit; the will is not wanting, witness our courts of + law. + + I have been reading the "Life of Margaret Fuller." What a tragedy + from first to last! She must have been odious in Boston in spite of + her power and her strong sense of duty, with which I always + sympathize; but at New York, where she dwindled from a sibyl to a + "lionne," one begins to like her better, and in England and Paris, + where she was not even that, better still; so that one is prepared + for the deep interest of the last half-volume. Of course her + example must have done much injury to the girls of her train. Of + course, also, she is the Zenobia of dear Mr Hawthorne. One wonders + what her book would have been like. + + Mr. Bennett has sent me the "Nile Notes." We must talk about that, + which I have not read yet, not delighting much in Eastern travels, + or, rather, being tired of them. Ah, how sad it will be when I + cannot say "We will talk"! Surely Mr. Webster does not mean to get + up a dispute with England! That would be an affliction; for what + nations should be friends if ours should not? What our ministers + mean, nobody can tell,--hardly, I suppose, themselves. My hope was + in Mr. Webster. Well, this is for talking. God bless you, dear + friend. + + Ever most affectionately yours, M.R.M. + + August 7, 1852. + + Hurrah! dear and kind friend, I have found the line without any + other person's aid or suggestion. Last night it occurred to me that + it was in some prologue or epilogue, and my little book-room being + very rich in the drama, I have looked through many hundreds of those + bits of rhyme, and at last made a discovery which, if it have no + other good effect, will at least have "emptied my head of Corsica," + as Johnson said to Boswell; for never was the great biographer more + haunted by the thought of Paoli than I by that line. It occurs in an + epilogue by Garrick on quitting the stage, June, 1776, when the + performance was for the benefit of sick and aged actors. + + A veteran see! whose last act on the stage + Entreats your smiles for sickness and for age; + Their cause I plead, plead it in heart and mind, + _A fellow-feeling makes one wondrous kind_. + + Not finding it quoted in Johnson convinced me that it would probably + have been written after the publication of the Dictionary, and + ultimately guided me to the right place. It is singular that + epilogues were just dismissed at the first representation of one of + my plays, "Foscari," and prologues at another, "Rienzi." + + I have but a moment to answer your most kind letter, because I have + been engaged with company, or rather interrupted by company, ever + since I got up, but you will pardon me. Nothing ever did me so much + good as your visit. My only comfort is the hope of your return in + the spring. Then I hope to be well enough to show Mr Hawthorne all + the holes and corners my own self. Tell him so. I am already about + to study the State Trials, and make myself perfect in all that can + assist the romance. It will be a labor of love to do for him the + small and humble part of collecting facts and books, and making + ready the palette for the great painter. + + Talking of _artists_, one was here on Sunday who was going to Upton + yesterday. His object was to sketch every place mentioned in my + book. Many of the places (as those round Taplow) he had taken, and + K---- says he took this house and the stick and Fanchon and probably + herself. I was unluckily gone to take home the dear visitors who + cheer me daily and whom I so wish you to see. + + God bless you all, dear friends. + + Ever most affectionately yours, M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, September 24, 1852 + + My Very Dear Mr. Fields: I am beginning to get very fidgety about + you, and thinking rather too often, not only of the breadth of the + Atlantic, but of its dangers. However I must hear soon, and I write + now because I am expecting a fellow-townsman of yours, Mr. Thompson, + an American artist, who expected to find you still in England, and + who is welcomed, as I suppose all Boston would be ... People do not + love you the less, dear friend, for missing you. + + I write to you this morning, because I have something to say and + something to ask. In the first place, I am better. Mr. Harness, who, + God bless him, left that Temple of Art, the Deepdene, and Mr. Hope's + delightful conversation, to come and take care of me, stayed at + Swallowfield three weeks. He found out a tidy lodging, which he has + retained, and he promises to come back in November; at present he is + again at the Deepdene. Nothing could be so judicious as his way of + going on; he came at two o'clock to my cottage and we drove out + together; then he went to his lodgings to dinner, to give me three + hours of perfect quiet; at eight he and the Russells met here to + tea, and he read Shakespeare (there is no such reader in the world) + till bedtime. Under his treatment no wonder that I improved, but the + low-fever is not far off; doing a little too much, I fell back even + before his departure, and have been worse since. However, on the + whole, I am much better. + + Now to my request. You perhaps remember my speaking to you of a copy + of my "Recollections," which was in course of illustration in the + winter. Mr. Holloway, a great print-seller of Bedford Street, Covent + Garden, has been engaged upon it ever since, and brought me the + first volume to look at on Tuesday. It would have rejoiced the soul + of dear Dr. Holmes. My book is to be set into six or seven or eight + volumes, quarto, as the case may be; and although not unfamiliar + with the luxuries of the library, I could not have believed in the + number and richness of the pearls which have been strung upon so + slender a thread. The rarest and finest portraits, often many of one + person and always the choicest and the best,--ranging from + magnificent heads of the great old poets, from the Charleses and + Cromwells, to Sprat and George Faulkner of Dublin, of whom it was + thought none existed, until this print turned up unexpectedly in a + supplementary volume of Lord Chesterfield; nothing is too odd for + Mr. Holloway. There is a colored print of George the Third,--a full + length which really brings the old king to life again, so striking + is the resemblance, and quantities of theatrical people, Munden and + Elliston and the Kembles. There are two portraits of "glorious John" + in Penruddock. Then the curious old prints of old houses. They have + not only one two hundred years old of Dorrington Castle, but the + actual drawing from which that engraving was made; and they are rich + beyond anything in exquisite drawings of scenery by modern artists + sent on purpose to the different spots mentioned. Besides which + there are all sorts of characteristic autographs (a capital one of + Pope); in short, nothing is wanting that the most unlimited expense + (Mr. Holloway told me that his employer, a great city merchant of + unbounded riches, constantly urged him to spare no expense to + procure everything that money would buy), added to taste, skill, and + experience, could accomplish. Of course the number of proper names + and names of places have been one motive for conferring upon my book + an honor of which I never dreamt; but there is, besides, an + enthusiasm for my writings on the part of Mrs. Dillon, the lady of + the possessor, for whom it is destined as a birthday gift. Now what + I have to ask of you is to procure for Mr. Holloway as many + autographs and portraits as you can of the American writers whom I + have named,--dear Dr. Holmes, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Whittier, + Prescott, Ticknor. If any of them would add a line or two of their + writing to their names, it would be a favor, and if; being about it, + they would send two other plain autographs, for I have heard of two + other copies in course of illustration, and expect to be applied to + by their proprietors every day. Mr. Holloway wrote to some trade + connection in Philadelphia, but probably because he applied to the + wrong place and the wrong person, and because he limited his + correspondent to time, obtained no results. If there be a print of + Professor Longfellow's house, so much the better, or any other + autographs of Americans named in my book. Forgive this trouble, dear + friend. You will probably see the work when you come to London in + the spring, and then you will understand the interest that I take + in it as a great book of art. Also my dear old friend, Lady Morley + (Gibbon's correspondent), who at the age of eighty-three is caught + by new books and is as enthusiastic as a girl, has commissioned me + to inquire about your new authoress, the writer of ----, who she is + and all about her. For my part, I have not finished the book yet, + and never shall. Besides my own utter dislike to its painfulness, + its one-sidedness, and its exaggeration, I observe that the sort of + popularity which it has obtained in England, and probably in + America, is decidedly _bad_, of the sort which cannot and does not + last,--a cry which is always essentially one-sided and commonly + wrong.... + + Ever most faithfully and affectionately yours, + + M.R.M. + + October 5, 1852. + + DEAREST MR. FIELDS: You will think that I persecute you, but I find + that Mr. Dillon, for whom Mr. Holloway is illustrating my + Recollections so splendidly, means to send the volumes to the binder + on the 1st of November. I write therefore to beg, in case of your + not having yet sent off the American autographs and portraits, that + they may be forwarded direct to Mr. Holloway, 25 Bedford Street, + Covent Garden, London. It is very foolish not to wait until all the + materials are collected, but it is meant as an offering to Mrs. + Dillon, and I suppose there is some anniversary in the way. Mr. + Dillon is a great lover and preserver of fine engravings; his + collection, one of the finest private collections in the world, is + estimated at sixty thousand pounds. He is a friend of dear Mr. + Bennoch's, who, when I told him the compliment that had been paid to + my work by a great city man, immediately said it could be nobody but + Mr. Dillon. I have twice seen Mr. Bennoch within the last ten days, + once with Mr. Johnson and Mr. Thompson, your own Boston artist, whom + I liked much, and who gave me the great pleasure of talking of you + and of dear Mr. and Mrs. W----, last time with his own good and + charming wife and ----. Only think of ----'s saying that + Shakespeare, if he had lived now, would have been thought nothing + of, and this rather as a compliment to the age than not! But, if you + remember, he printed amended words to the air of "Drink to me only." + Ah, dear me, I suspect that both William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson + will survive him; don't you? Nevertheless he is better than might be + predicated from that observation. + + All my domestic news is bad enough. My poor pretty pony keeps his + bed in the stable, with a violent attack of influenza, and Sam and + Fanchon spend three parts of their time in nursing him. Moreover we + have had such rains here that the Lodden has overflowed its banks, + and is now covering the water meadows, and almost covering the lower + parts of the lanes. Adieu, dearest friend. + + Ever most faithfully yours, M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, October 13, 1852. + + More than one letter of mine, dearest friend, crossed yours, for + which I cannot sufficiently thank you. Nobody can better understand + than I do, how very, very glad your own people, and all the good + city, must feel to get you back again,--I trust not to keep; for in + spite of sea-sickness, that misery which during the summer I have + contrived to feel on land, I still hope that we shall have you here + again in the spring. I am impatiently waiting the arrival of + portraits and autographs, and if they do not come in time to bind, I + shall charge Mr. Holloway to contrive that they may be pasted with + the copy of my Recollections to which Mr. Dillon is paying so high + and so costly a compliment. Now I must tell you some news. + + First let me say that there is an admirable criticism in one of the + numbers of the Nonconformist, edited by Edward Miall, one of the new + members of Parliament, and certainly the most able of the dissenting + organs, on our favorite poet, Dr. Holmes. Also I have a letter from + Dr. Robert Dickson, of Hertford Street, May Fair, one of the highest + and most fashionable London physicians, respecting my book, liking + Dr. Holmes better than anybody for the very qualities for which he + would himself choose to be preferred, originality and justness of + thought, admirable fineness and propriety of diction, and a power of + painting by words, very rare in any age, and rarest of the rare in + _this_, when vagueness and obscurity mar so much that is high and + pure. I shall keep this letter to _show_ Dr. Holmes, tell him with + my affectionate love. If it were not written on the thickest paper + ever seen, and as huge as it is thick, I would send it; but I'll + keep it for him against he comes to claim it. The description of + spring is, Dr. Dickson says, remarkable for originality and truth. + He thanks me for those poems of Dr. Holmes as if I had written them. + Now be free to tell him all this. Of course you have told Mr. + Hawthorne of the highly eulogistic critique on the "Blithedale + Romance" in the Times, written, I believe, by Mr. Willmott, to whom + I lent the veritable copy received from the author. Another thing + let me say, that I have been reading with the greatest pleasure some + letters on African trees copied from the New York Tribune into + Bentley's Miscellany, and no doubt by Mr. Bayard Taylor. Our chief + London news is that Mrs. Browning's cough came on so violently, in + consequence of the sudden setting in of cold weather, that they are + off for a week or two to Paris, then to Florence, Rome, and Naples, + and back here in the summer. Her father still refuses to open a + letter or to hear her name. Mrs. Southey, suffering also from + chest-complaint, has shut herself up till June. Poor Anne Hatton, + who was betrothed to Thomas Davis, and was supposed to be in a + consumption, is recovering, they say, under the advice of a + clairvoyante. Most likely a broken vessel has healed on the lungs, + or perhaps an abscess. Be what it may, the consequence is happy, for + she is a lovely creature and the only joy of a fond mother. Alfred + Tennyson's boy was christened the other day by the name of Hallam + Tennyson, Mr. Hallam standing to it in person. This is just as it + should be on all sides, only that Arthur Hallam would have been a + prettier name. You know that Arthur Hallam was the lost friend of + the "In Memoriam," and engaged to Tennyson's sister, and that after + his death, and even after her marrying another man, Mr. Hallam makes + her a large allowance. + + We have just escaped a signal misfortune; my dear pretty pony has + been upon the point of death with influenza. Would not you have been + sorry if that pony had died? He has, however, recovered under Sam's + care and skill, and the first symptom of convalescence was his + neighing to Sam through the window. You will have found out that I + too am better. I trust to be stronger when you come again, well + enough to introduce you to Mr. Harness, whom we are expecting here + next month. God bless you, my dear and kind friend. I send this + through dear Mr Bennoch, whom I like better and better; so I do Mrs. + Bennoch, and everybody who knows and loves you. Ever, my dear Mr. + Fields, + + Your faithful and affectionate friend, M.R.M. + + P.S.--October 17. I have kept this letter open till now, and I am + glad I did so. Acting upon the hint you gave of Mr. De Quincey's + kind feeling, I wrote to him, and yesterday I had a charming letter + from his daughter, saying how much her father was gratified by mine, + that he had already written an answer, amounting to a good-sized + pamphlet, but that when it would be finished was doubtful, so she + sent hers as a precursor. + + Swallowfield, November 11, 1852. + + I write, dearest friend, and although the packet which you had the + infinite goodness to send, has not reached me yet, and may not + possibly before my letter goes,--so uncertain is our railway,--yet + I will write because our excellent friend, Mr. Bennoch, says that he + has sent it off.... You will understand that I am even more obliged + by your goodness about Mr. Dillon's book than by any of the thousand + obligations to myself only. Besides my personal interest, as so + great a compliment to my own work, Mr. Dillon appears to be a most + interesting person. He is a friend of Mr. Bennoch's, from whom I had + his history, one most honorable to him, and he has written to me + since I wrote to you and proposes to come and see me. _You_ must see + him when you come to England, and must see his collection of + engravings. Would not dear Dr. Holmes have a sympathy with Mr. + Dillon? Have you such fancies in America? They are not common even + here; but Miss Skerrett (the Queen's factotum) tells me that the + most remarkable book in Windsor Castle is a De Grammont most richly + and expensively illustrated by George the Fourth, who, with all his + sins as a monarch, was the only sovereign since the Stuarts of any + literary taste. + + Here is your packet! O my dear, dear friend, how shall I thank you + half enough! I shall send the parcels to-morrow morning, the very + first thing, to Mr. Holloway. The work is at the binder's, but + fly-leaves have been left for the American packet of which I felt so + sure, although even I could hardly foresee its value. One or two + duplicates I have kept. Tell Mr. Hawthorne that I shall make a dozen + people rich and happy by his autograph, and tell Dr. Holmes I could + not find it in my heart to part with the "Mary" stanza. Never was a + writer who possessed more perfectly the art of doing great things + greatly and small things gracefully. Love to Mr. Hawthorne and to + him. + + Poor Daniel Webster! or rather poor America! Rich as she is, she + cannot afford the loss, the greatest the world has known since our + Sir Robert. But what a death-bed, and what a funeral! How noble an + end of that noble life! I feel it the more, hearing and reading so + much about the Duke's funeral, which by dint of the delay will not + cause the slightest real feeling, but will be attended just like + every show, and yet as a show will be gloomy and poor. How much + better to have laid him simply here at Strathfieldsaye, and left it + as a place of pilgrimage,--as Strathfield will be,--although between + the two men, in my mind, there was no comparison; the one was a + genius, the other mere soldier,--pure physical force measured with + intellect the richest and the proudest. I have twenty letters + speaking of him as one of the greatest among the statesmen of the + age. The Times only refuses to do him justice. But when did the + Times do justice to any one? Look how it talks of our Emperor. + + Your friend Bayard Taylor came to see me a fortnight ago, just + before he sailed on his tour round the world. I told him the first + of Bentley's reprinting his letters from the New York Tribune; he + had not heard a word of it. He seemed an admirable person, and it is + good to have such travellers to follow with one's heart and one's + earnest good wishes. + + Also I have had two packets,--one from Mrs. Sparks, with a nice + letter, and some fresh and glorious autumnal flowers, and a + collection of autumn leaves from your glorious forests. I have + written to thank her. She seems full of heart, and she says that she + drove into Boston on purpose to see you, but missed you. When you do + meet, tell me about her. Also, I have through you, dear friend, a + most interesting book from Mr. Ware. To him, also, I have written, + but tell him how much I feel and prize his kindness, all the more + welcome for coming from a kinsman of dear Mrs. W----. Tell her and + her excellent husband that they cannot think of us oftener or more + warmly than we think of them. O, how I should like to visit you at + Boston! But I should have your malady by the way, and not your + strength to stand it.... + + God bless you, my dear and excellent friend! I seem to have a + thousand things to say to you, but the post is going, and a whole + sheet of paper would not hold my thanks. + + Ever yours, M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, November 25, 1852. + + My Dear Friend: Your most kind and welcome letter arrived to-day, + two days after the papers, for which I thank you much. Still more do + I thank you for that kind and charming letter, and for its + enclosures. The anonymous poem [it was by Dr. T.W. Parsons] is far + finer than anything that has been written on the death of the Duke + of Wellington, as indeed it was a far finer subject. May I inquire + the name of the writer? Mr. Everett's speech also is superb, and how + very much I prefer the Marshfield funeral in its sublime simplicity + to the tawdry pageantry here! I have had fifty letters from persons + who saw the funeral in St. Paul's, and seen as many who saw that or + the procession, and it is strange that the papers have omitted alike + the great successes and the great failures. My young neighbor, a + captain in the Grenadier Guards (the Duke's regiment), saw the + uncovering the car which had been hidden by the drapery, and was to + have been a great effect, and he says it was exactly what is + sometimes seen in a theatre when one scene is drawn up too soon and + the other is not ready. Carpenters and undertaker's men were on all + parts of the car, and the draperies and ornaments were everywhere + but in their places. Again, the procession waited upwards of an hour + at the cathedral door, because the same people had made no provision + for taking the coffin from the car; again, the sunlight was let into + St. Paul's, mingling most discordantly with the gas, and the naked + wood of screens and benches and board beams disfigured the grand + entrance. In three months' interval they had not time! On the other + hand, the strong points were the music, the effect of which is said + to have been unrivalled; the actual performance of the service,--my + friend Dean Milman is renowned for his manner of reading the funeral + service, he officiated at the burial of Mrs. Lockhart (Sir Walter's + favorite daughter),--and none who were present could speak of it + without tears; the clerical part of the procession, which was a real + and visible mourning pageant in its flowing robes of white with + black bands and sashes; the living branches of laurel and cypress + amongst the mere finery; and, above all, the hushed silence of the + people, always most and best impressed by anything that appeals to + the imagination or the heart. + + I suppose you will have seen how England is flooded, and you will + like to hear that this tiny speck has escaped. The Lodden is over + the park, and turns the beautiful water meadows down to + Strathfieldsaye into a no less beautiful lake, two or three times a + week; but then it subsides as quickly as it rises, so there is none + of the lying under water which results in all sorts of pestilential + exhalations, and this cottage is lifted out of every bad influence, + nay, a kind neighbor having had my lane scraped, I walk dry-shod + every afternoon a mile and a half, which is more than I ever + expected to compass again, and for which I am most thankful. But we + have had our own troubles. K---- has lost her father. He was seized + with paralysis and knew nobody, so they desired her not to come, and + Sam went alone to the funeral. After all, _this_ is her home, and + she has pretty well got over her affliction, and the pony is well + again, and strong enough to draw you and me in the spring,--for I am + looking forward to good and happy days again when you shall return + to England. + + Your magnificent present for Mr. Dillon's book was quite in time, + dear friend. I had warned them to leave room, and Mr. Holloway and + the binders contrived it admirably. They are most grateful for your + kindness, and most gratefully shall I receive the promised volumes. + I have not yet got "the pamphlet," and am much afraid it is buried + in what Miss De Quincey calls her "father's chaos"; but I have + charming letters from her, and am heartily glad that I wrote. You + have the way (like Mr. Bennoch) of making friends still better + friends, and bringing together those who, without you, would have + had no intercourse. It is the very finest of all the fine arts. Tell + dear Dr. Holmes that the more I hear of him, the more I feel how + inadequate has been all that I have said to express my own feelings; + and tell President Sparks that his charming wife ought to have + received a long letter from me at the same moment with yourself. Mr. + Hawthorne's new work will be a real treat. Tell me if Mr. Bennoch + has sent you some stanzas on Ireland, which have more of the very + highest qualities of Beranger than I have ever seen in English + verse. We who love him shall have to be very proud of dear Mr. + Bennoch. Tell me, too, if our solution of the line, "A + fellow-feeling makes us wondrous kind," was the first; and why the + new President is at once called General and talked of as a civilian. + The other President goes on nobly, does he not? + + Say everything for me to dear Mr. and Mrs. W---- and all friends. + + Ever yours, M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, December 14, 1852. + + O my very dear friend, how much too kind you are to me, who have + nothing to give you in return but affection and gratitude! Mr. + Bennett brought me your beautiful book on Saturday, and you may + think how heartily we wished that you had been here also. But you + will come this spring, will you not? I earnestly hope nothing will + come in the way of that happiness. Before leaving the subject of our + good little friend, let me say that, talking over our own best + authors and your De Quincey (N.B. The pamphlet has not arrived yet, + I fear it is forever buried in De Quincey's "chaos"),--talking of + these things, we both agreed that there was another author, probably + little known in America, who would be quite worthy of a reprint, + William Hazlitt. Is there any complete edition of his Lectures and + Essays? I should think they would come out well, now that Thackeray + is giving his Lectures. I know that Charles Lamb and Talfourd + thought Hazlitt not only the most brilliant, but the soundest of all + critics. Then his Life of Napoleon is capital, that is, capital for + an English life; the only way really to know the great man is to + read him in the _memoires_ of his own ministers, lieutenants, and + servants; for _he was_ a hero to his _valet de chambre_, the + greatness was so real that it would bear close looking into. And our + Emperor, I have just had a letter from Osborne, from Marianne + Skerrett, describing the arrival of Count Walewski under a royal + salute to receive the Queen's recognition of Napoleon III. She, + Marianne, says, "How great a man that, is, and how like a fairy tale + the whole story!" She adds, that, seeing much of Louis Philippe, she + never could abide him, he was so cunning and so false, not cunning + enough to hide the falseness! Were not you charmed with the bits of + sentiment and feeling that come out all through our hero's Southern + progress? Always one finds in him traits of a gracious and graceful + nature, far too frequent and too spontaneous to be the effect of + calculation. It is a comfort to find, in spite of our delectable + press, ministers are wise enough to understand that our policy is + peace, and not only peace but cordiality. To quarrel with France + would be almost as great a sin as to quarrel with America. What a + set of fools our great ladies are! I had hoped better things of Lord + Carlisle, but to find that long list at Stafford House in female + parliament assembled, echoing the absurdities of Exeter Hall, + leaving their own duties and the reserve which is the happy + privilege of our sex to dictate to a great nation on a point which + all the world knows to be its chief difficulty, is enough to make + one ashamed of the title of Englishwoman. I know a great many of + these committee ladies, and in most of them I trace that desire to + follow the fashion, and concert with duchesses, which is one of the + besetting sins of the literary circles in London. One name did + surprise me, ----, considering that one of her husband's happiest + bits, in the book of his that will live, was the subscription for + sending flannel waistcoats to the negroes in the West Indies; and + that in this present book a certain Mrs. Jellyby is doing just what + his wife is doing at Stafford House! + + Even if I had not had my earnest thanks to send you, I should have + written this week to beg you to convey a message to Mr. Hawthorne. + Mr. Chorley writes to me, "You will be interested to hear that a + Russian literary man of eminence was so much attracted to the 'House + of the Seven Gables' by the review in the Athenaeum, as to have + translated it into Russian and published it feuilletonwise in a + newspaper." I know you will have the goodness to tell Mr. Hawthorne + this, with my love. Mr. Chorley saw the entrance of the Empereur + into the Tuileries. He looked radiant. The more I read that elegy on + the death of Daniel Webster, the more I find to admire. It is as + grand as a dirge upon an organ. Love to the dear W----s and to Dr. + Holmes. + + Ever, dearest Mr. Fields, most gratefully yours, M.R.M. + +1853 + + Swallowfield, January 5, 1853. + + Your most welcome letter, my very dear friend, arrived to-day, and + I write not only to acknowledge that, and your constant kindness, + but because, if, as I believe, Mr. Bennoch has told you of my + mischance, you will be glad to hear from my own hand that I am + going on well. Last Monday fortnight I was thrown violently from my + own pony-chaise upon the hard road in Lady Russell's park. No bones + were broken, but the nerves of one side were so terribly bruised + and lacerated, and the shock to the system was so great, that even + at the end of ten days Mr. May could not satisfy himself, without a + most minute re-examination, that neither fracture nor dislocation + had taken place, and I am writing to you at this moment with my + left arm bound tightly to my body and no power whatever of raising + either foot from the ground. The only parts of me that have escaped + uninjured are my head and my right hand, and this is much. Moreover + Mr. May says that, although the cure will be tedious, he sees no + cause to doubt my recovering altogether my former condition, so + that we may still hope to drive about together when you come back + to England.... + + I wrote I think, dearest friend, to thank you heartily for the + beautiful and interesting book called "The Homes of American + Authors." How comfortably they are housed, and how glad I am to + find that, owing to Mr. Hawthorne's being so near the new + President, and therefore keeping up the habit of friendship and + intercourse, the want of which habit so frequently brings college + friendship to an end, he is likely to enter into public life. It + will be an excellent thing for his future books,--the fault of all + his writings, in spite of their great beauty, being a want of + reality, of the actual, healthy, every-day life which is a + necessary element in literature. All the great poets have + it,--Homer, Shakespeare, Scott. It will be the very best school for + our pet poet. + + Nobody under the sun has so much right as you have to see Mr. + Dillon's book, which is in six quarto volumes, not one. Our dear + friend Mr. Bennoch knows him, and tells me to-day that Mr. Dillon + has invited him to go and look at it. He has just received it from + the binders. Of course Mr. Bennoch will introduce you. I was so + glad to read what looked like a renewed pledge of your return to + England. + + Mr. Bentley has sent me three several applications for a second + series. At present Mr. May forbids all composition, but I suppose + the thing will be done. I shall introduce some chapters on French + poetry and literature. At this moment I am in full chase of Casimer + Delavigne's _ballads_. He thought so little of them that he + published very few in his Poesies,--one in a note,--and several of + the very finest not at all. They are scattered about here and + there. ---- has reproduced two (which I had) in his Memories; but I + want all that can be found, especially one of which the refrain is, + "Chez l'Ambassadere de France." I was such a fool, when I read it + six or seven years ago, as not to take a copy. Do you think Mr. + Hector Bossange could help me to that, or to any others not printed + in the Memories? ...Of course I shall devote one chapter to _our_ + Emperor. Ah, how much better is such a government as his than one + which every four years causes a sort of moral earthquake; or one + like ours, where whole sessions are passed in squabbling! The loss + of his place has saved Disraeli's life, for everybody said he could + not have survived three months' badgering in the House. A very + intimate friend of his (Mr. Henry Drummond, the very odd, very + clever member for Surrey) says that he had certainly broken a + bloodvessel. One piece of news I have heard to-day from Miss + Goldsmid, that the Jews are certain now to gain their point and be + admitted to the House of Commons; for my part, I hold that every + one has a claim to his civil rights, were he Mahometan or Hindoo, + and I rejoice that poor old Sir Isaac, the real author of the + movement, will probably live to see it accomplished. The thought of + succeeding at last in the pursuit to which he has devoted half his + life has quite revived him. + + And now Heaven bless you, my very dear friend. None of the poems on + Wellington are to be compared to that dirge on Webster. I rejoice + that my article should have pleased his family. The only bit of my + new book that I have written is a paper on Taylor and Stoddard. Say + everything for me to the Ticknors and Nortons and your own people, + the W----s. + + Ever most faithfully and affectionately yours, M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, February 1, 1853. + + Ah, my dear friend! ask Dr. Holmes what these severe bruises and + lacerations of the nerves of the principal joints are, and he will + tell you that they are much more slow and difficult of cure, as well + as more painful, than half a dozen broken bones. It is now above six + weeks since that accident, and although the shoulder is going on + favorably, there is still a total loss of muscular power in the + lower limbs. I am just lifted out of bed and wheeled to the + fireside, and then at night wheeled back and lifted into + bed,--without the power of standing for a moment, or of putting one + foot before the other, or of turning in bed. Mr. May says that warm + weather will probably do much for me, but that till then I must be a + prisoner to my room, for that if rheumatism supervenes upon my + present inability, there will be no chance of getting rid of it. So + "patience and shuffle the cards," as a good man, much in my state, + the contented Marquess, says in Don Quixote.... I assure you I am + not out of spirits; indeed, people are so kind to me that it would + be the basest of all ingratitude if I were not cheerful as well as + thankful. I think that in a letter which you must have received by + this time, I told you how it came about, and thanked you for the + comely book which shows how cosily America lodges my brethren of the + quill. Dr. Holmes ought to have been there, and Dr. Parsons, but + their time will come and must. Nothing gratifies me more than to + find how many strangers, writing to me of my Recollections, mention + Dr. Holmes, classing him sometimes with Thomas Davis, sometimes with + Praed. If I write another series of Recollections, as, when Mr. May + will let me, I suppose I must, I shall certainly include Dr. + Parsons.... + + Has anybody told you the terrible story of that boy, Lord Ockham, + Lord Byron's grandson? I had it from Mr. Noel, Lady Byron's + cousin-german and intimate friend. While his poor mother was dying + her death of martyrdom from an inward cancer,--Mrs. Sartoris + (Adelaide Kemble), who went to sing to her, saw her through the + door, which was left open, crouching on a floor covered with + mattresses, on her hands and knees, the only posture she could + bear,--whilst she with the patience of an angel was enduring her + long agony, her husband, engrossed by her, left this lad of + seventeen to his sister and the governess. It was a dull life, and + he ran away. Mr. Noel (my friend's brother, from whom he had the + story) knew most of the youth, who had been for a long time staying + at his house, and they begged him to undertake the search. Lord + Ockham had sent a carpet-bag containing his gentleman's clothes to + his father, Lord Lovelace, in London; he was therefore disguised, + and from certain things he had said Mr. Noel suspected that he + intended to go to America. Accordingly he went first to Bristol, + then to Liverpool, leaving his description, a sort of written + portrait of him, with the police at both places. At Liverpool he was + found before long, and when Mr. Noel, summoned by the electric + telegraph, reached that town, he found him dressed as a sailor-boy + at a low public-house, surrounded by seamen of both nations, and + enjoying, as much as possible, their sailor yarns. He had given his + money, L36, to the landlord to keep; had desired him to inquire for + a ship where he might be received as cabin-boy; and had entered into + a shrewd bargain for his board, stipulating that he should have over + and above his ordinary rations a pint of beer with his Sunday + dinner. The landlord did not cheat him, but he postponed all + engagements under the expectation--seeing that he was clearly a + gentleman's son--that money would be offered for his recovery. The + worst is that he (Lord Ockham) showed no regret for the sorrow and + disgrace that he had brought upon his family at such a time. He has + two tastes not often seen combined,--the love of money and of low + company. One wonders how he will turn out. He is now in Paris, after + which he is to re-enter in Green's ship (he had served in one + before) for a twelvemonth, and to leave the service or remain in it + as he may decide then. This is perfectly true; Mr. Noel had it from + his brother the very day before he wrote it to me. He says that Lady + Lovelace's funeral was too ostentatious. Escutcheons and silver + coronals everywhere. Lord Lovelace's taste that, and not Lady + Byron's, which is perfectly simple. You know that she was buried in + the same vault with her father, whose coffin and the box containing + his heart were in perfect preservation. Scott's only grandson, too, + is just dead of sheer debauchery. Strange! As if one generation paid + in vice and folly for the genius of the past. By the way, are you + not charmed at the Emperor's marriage? To restore to princes honest + love and healthy preference, instead of the conventional + intermarriages which have brought epilepsy and idiotism and madness + into half the royal families of Christendom! And then the beauty of + that speech, with its fine appeals to the best sympathies of our + common nature! I am proud of him. What a sad, sad catastrophe was + that of young Pierce! I won't call his father general, and I hope he + will leave it off. With us it is a real offence to give any man a + higher rank than belongs to him,--to say captain, for instance, to a + lieutenant,--and that is one of our usages which it would be well to + copy. But we have follies enough, God knows; that duchess address, + with all its tuft-hunting signatures, is a thing to make + Englishwomen ashamed. Well, they caught it deservedly in an address + from American women, written probably by some very clever American + man. No, I have not seen Longfellow's lines on the Duke. One gets + sick of the very name. Henry is exceedingly fond of his little + sister. I remember that when he first saw the snow fall in large + flakes, he would have it that it was a shower of white feathers. + Love to all my dear friends, the W----s, Mrs. Sparks, Dr. Holmes, + Mr. Hawthorne. Ever, dearest friend, most affectionately yours, + + M.R.M. + + (1st March, 1853.) + + The numbers for the election of President of France in favor of + Louis Napoleon were for against 7119791 1119 + + Look through the back of this against the candle, or the fire, or + any light. + + My Very Dear Friend: Having a note to send to Mrs. Sparks, who has + sent me, or rather whose husband has sent me, two answers to Lord + Mahon, which, coming through a country bookseller, have, I suspect, + been some months on the way, I cannot help sending it enclosed to + you, that I may have a chat with you _en passant_,--the last, I + hope, before your arrival. If you have not seen the above curious + instance of figures forming into a word, and that word into a + prophecy, I think it will amuse you, and I want besides to tell you + some of the _on-dits_ about the Empress. A Mr. Huddlestone, the head + of one of our great Catholic houses, is in despair at the marriage. + He had been desperately in love with her for two years in + Spain,--had followed her to Paris,--was called back to England by + his father's illness, and was on the point of crossing the Channel, + after that father's death, to lay himself and L30,000 or L40,000 a + year at her feet, when the Emperor stepped in and carried off the + prize. To comfort himself he has got a portrait of her on horseback, + which a friend of mine saw the other day at his house. Mrs. Browning + writes me from Florence: "I wonder if the Empress pleases you as + well as the Emperor. For my part, I approve altogether, and none the + less that he has offended Austria by the mode of announcement. Every + cut of the whip on the face of Austria is an especial compliment to + me, or so I feel it. Let him heed the democracy, and do his duty to + the world, and use to the utmost his great opportunities. Mr. Cobden + and the peace societies are pleasing me infinitely just now in + making head against the immorality--that's the word--of the English + press. The tone taken up towards France is immoral in the highest + degree, and the invasion cry would be idiotic if it were not + something worse. The Empress, I heard the other day from high + authority, is charming and good at heart. She was brought up at a + respectable school at Clifton, and is very English, which does not + prevent her from shooting with pistols, leaping gates, driving four + in hand, and upsetting the carriage if the frolic requires it,--as + brave as a lion and as true as a dog. Her complexion is like marble, + white, pale, and pure,--the hair light, rather sandy, they say, and + she powders it with gold dust for effect; but there is less physical + and more intellectual beauty than is generally attributed to her. + She is a woman of very decided opinions. I like all that, don't you? + and I like her letter to the press, as everybody must." Besides + this, I have to-day a letter from a friend in Paris, who says that + "everybody feels her charm," and that "the Emperor, when presenting + her at the balcony on the wedding-day, looked radiant with + happiness." My Parisian friend says that young Alexandre Dumas is + amongst the people arrested for libel,--a thorough _mauvais sujet_. + Lamartine is quite ruined, and forced to sell his estates. He was + always, I believe, expensive, like all those French _litterateurs_. + You don't happen to have in Boston--have you?--a copy of "Les + Memoires de Lally Tollendal"? I think they are different + publications in defence of his father, published, some in London + during the Emigration, some in Paris after the Restoration. What I + want is an account of the retreat from Pondicherie. I'll tell you + why some day here. Mrs. Browning is most curious about your + rappings,--of which I suppose you believe as much as I do of the + Cock Lane Ghost, whose doings, by the way, they much resemble. + + I liked Mrs. Tyler's letter; at least I liked it much better than + the one to which it was an answer, although I hold it one of our + best female privileges to have no act or part in such matters. + + Now you will be sorry to have a very bad account of me. Three weeks + ago frost and snow set in here, and ever since I have been unable to + rise or stand, or put one foot before another, and the pain is much + worse than at first. I suppose rheumatism has supervened upon the + injured nerve. God bless you. Love to all. + + Ever faithfully yours, M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, March 17, 1853 + + My Dear Friend: I cannot enough thank you for your most kind and + charming letter. Your letters, and the thoughts of you, and the hope + that you will coax your partners into the hazardous experiment of + letting you come to England, help to console me under this long + confinement; for here I am at near Easter still a close prisoner + from the consequences of the accident that took place before + Christmas. I have only once left my room, and that only to the + opposite chamber to have this cleaned, and I got such a chill that + it brought back all the pain and increased all the weakness. But + when fine weather--warm, genial, sunny weather--comes, I will get + down in some way or other, and trust myself to that which never + hurts any one, the honest open air. Spring, and even the approach of + spring, has upon me something the effect that England has upon you. + It sets me dreaming,--I see leafy hedges in my dreams, and flowery + banks, and then I long to make the vision a reality. I remember that + Fanchon's father, Flush, who was a famous sporting dog, used, at the + approach of the covering season, to quest in his sleep, doubtless by + the same instinct that works in me. So, as soon as the sun tells the + same story with the primroses I shall make a descent after some + fashion, and no doubt, aided by Sam's stalwart arm, successfully. In + the mean while I have one great pleasure in store, be the weather + what it may; for next Saturday or the Saturday after I shall see + dear Mr. Bennoch. We have not met since November, although he has + written to me again and again. He will take this letter, and I + trouble you with a note to kind Mrs. Sparks, who is about to send + me, or rather who has sent me, some American cracknels, which have + not yet arrived. To-day, too, I had a charming letter from + Lasswade,--not _the_ letter, the pamphlet one, but one full of + kindness from father and daughter, written by Miss Margaret to ask + after me with a reality of interest which one feels at once. It gave + me pleasure in another way too; Mr. De Quincey is of my faith and + delight in the Emperor! Is not that delightful? Also he holds in + great abomination that blackest of iniquities ----, my heresy as to + which nearly cost me an idolator t'other day, a lady from Essex, who + came here to take a house in my neighborhood to be near me. She was + so shocked that, if we had not met afterwards, when I regained my + ground a little by certain congenialities she certainly would have + abjured me forever. Well! no offence to Mrs. ----. I had rather in a + literary question agree with Thomas De Quincey than with her and + Queen Victoria, who, always fond of strong not to say coarse + excitements, is amongst ----'s warm admirers. I knew you would like + the Emperor's marriage. I heard last week from a stiff English lady, + who had been visiting one of the Empress's ladies of honor, that one + day at St. Cloud she shot thirteen brace of partridges; "but," added + the narrator, "she is so sweet and charming a creature that any man + might fall in love with her notwithstanding." To be sure Mr. + Thackeray liked you. How could he help it? Did not he also like Dr. + Holmes? I hope so. How glad I should be to see him in England, and + how glad I shall be to see Mr. Hawthorne! He will find all the best + judges of English writing admiring him to his heart's content, + warmly and discriminatingly; and a consulship in a bustling town + will give him the cheerful reality, the healthy air of every-day + life, which is his only want. Will you tell all these dear friends, + especially Mr. and Mrs. W----, how deeply I feel their affectionate + sympathy, and thank Mr. Whittier and Professor Longfellow over and + over again for their kind condolence? Tell Mr. Whittier how much I + shall prize his book. He has an earnest admirer in Buckingham + Palace, Marianne Skerrett, known as the Queen's Miss Skerrett, the + lady chiefly about her, and the only one to whom she talks of books. + Miss Skerrett is herself a very clever woman, and holds Mr. Whittier + to be not only the greatest, but the _one_ poet of America; which + last assertion the poet himself would, I suspect, be the very first + to deny. Your promise of Dr. Parsons's poem is very delightful to + me. I hold firm to my admiration of those stanzas on Webster. + Nothing written on the Duke came within miles of it, and I have no + doubt that the poem on Dante's bust is equally fine.... Mr. Justice + Talfourd has just printed a new tragedy. He sent it to me from + Oxford, not from Reading, where he had passed four days and never + gave a copy to any mortal, and told me, in a very affectionate + letter which accompanied it, that "it was at present a very private + sin, he having only given eight or ten copies in all." I suppose + that it will be published, for I observe that the "not published" is + written, not printed, and that Moxon's name is on the title-page. It + is called "The Castilian,"--is on the story of a revolt headed by + Don John de Padilla in the early part of Charles the Fifth's reign, + and is more like Ion than either of his other tragedies. I have just + been reading a most interesting little book in manuscript, called + "The Heart of Montrose." It is a versification in three ballads of a + very striking letter in Napier's "Life and Times of Montrose," by + the young lady who calls herself Mary Maynard. It is really a little + book that ought to make a noise, not too long, full of grace and of + interest, and she has adhered to the true story with excellent + taste, that story being a very remarkable union of the romantic and + the domestic. I am afraid that my other young poet, ----, is dying + of consumption; those fine spirits often fall in that way. I have + just corrected my book for a cheaper edition. Mr. Bentley is very + urgent for a second series, and I suppose I must try. I shall get + you to write for me to Mr. Hector Bossange when you come, for come + you must. My eyes begin to feel the effects of this long confinement + to one smoky and dusty room. + + So far had I written, dearest friend, when this day (March 26) + brought me your most kind and welcome letter enclosed in another + from dear Mr. Bennoch. Am I to return Dr. Parsons's? or shall I + keep it till you come to fetch it? Tell the writer how very much I + prize his kindness, none the less that he likes (as I do) my + tragedies, that is, one of them, the best of my poor doings. The + lines on the Duchess are capital, and quite what she deserves; but I + think those the worst who, in so true a spirit of what Carlyle would + call flunkeyism, consent to sign any nonsense that their names may + figure side by side with that of a duchess, and they themselves find + (for once) an admittance to the gilded saloons of Stafford House. + For my part, I well-nigh lost an admirer the other day by taking a + common-sense view of the question. A lady (whose name I never heard + till a week ago) came here to take a house to be near me. (N.B. + There was none to be had.) Well, she was so provoked to find that I + had stopped short of the one hundredth page of ----, and never + intended to read another, that I do think, if we had not discovered + some sympathies to counterbalance that grand difference--As I live, + I have told you that story before! Ah! I am sixty-six, and I get + older every day! So does little Henry, who is at home just now, and + longing to put the clock forward that he may go to America. He is a + boy of great promise, full of sound sense, and as good as good can + be. I suppose that he never in his life told an untruth, or broke a + promise, or disobeyed a command. He is very fond of his little + sister; and not at all jealous either--to the great praise of that + four-footed lady be it said--is Fanchon, who watches over the + cradle, and is as fond of the baby in her way as Henry in his. + + So far from paying me copyright money, all that I ever received from + Mr. B---- was two copies of his edition of "Our Village," one of + which I gave away, and of the other some chance visitor has taken + one of the volumes. I really do think I shall ask him for a copy or + two. How can I ever thank you enough for your infinite kindness in + sending me books! Thank you again and again. Dear Mr. Bennoch has + been making an admirable speech, in moving to present the thanks of + the city to Mr. Layard. How one likes to feel proud of one's + friends! God bless you! + + Ever most faithfully yours, M.R.M. + + Kind Mrs. Sparks's biscuits arrived quite safe. How droll some of + the cookery is in "The Wide, Wide World"! It would try English + stomachs by its over-richness. I wonder you are not all dead, if + such be your _cuisine_. + + Swallowfield, May 3, 1853. + + How shall I thank you enough, dear and kind friend, for the copy of + ---- that arrived here yesterday! Very like; only it wanted what + that great painter, the sun, will never arrive at giving, the actual + look of life which is the one great charm of the human countenance. + Strange that the very source of light should fail in giving that + light of the face, the smile. However, all that can be given by that + branch of art has been given. I never before saw so good a + photographic portrait, and for one that gives more I must wait until + John Lucas, or some American John Lucas, shall coax you into + sitting. I sent you, ten days ago, a batch of notes, and a most + unworthy letter of thanks for one of your parcels of gift-books; and + I write the rather now to tell you I am better than then, and hope + to be in a still better plight before July or August, when a most + welcome letter from Mr. Tuckerman has bidden us to expect you to + officiate as Master of the Ceremonies to Mr. Hawthorne, who, welcome + for himself, will be trebly welcome for such an introducer. + + Now let me say how much I like De Quincey's new volumes. The "Wreck + of a Household" shows great power of narrative, if he would but take + the trouble to be right as to details; the least and lowest part of + the art, that of interesting you in his people, he has. And those + "Last Days of Kant," how affecting they are, and how thoroughly in + every line and in every thought, agree with him or not, (and in all + that relates to Napoleon I differ from him, as in his overestimate + of Wordsworth and of Coleridge), one always feels how thoroughly and + completely he is a gentleman as well as a great writer; and so much + has _that_ to do with my admiration, that I have come to tracing + personal character in books almost as a test of literary merit: + Charles Boner's "Chamois-Hunting," for instance, owes a great part + of its charm to the resolute truth of the writer, and a great + drawback from the attraction of "My Novel" seems to me to be derived + from the _blase_ feeling, the unclean mind from whence it springs, + felt most when trying after moralities. + + Amongst your bounties I was much amused with the New York magazines, + the curious turning up of a new claimant to the + Louis-the-Seventeenth pretension amongst the Red Indians, and the + rappings and pencil-writings of the new Spiritualists. One should + wonder most at the believers in these two branches of faith, if that + particular class did not always seem to be provided most abundantly + whenever a demand occurs. Only think of Mrs. Browning giving the + most unlimited credence to every "rapping" story which anybody can + tell her! Did I tell you that the work on which she is engaged is a + fictitious autobiography in blank verse, the heroine a woman artist + (I suppose singer or actress), and the tone intensely modern? You + will see that "Colombe's Birthday" has been brought out at the + Haymarket. Mr. Chorley (Robert Browning's most intimate friend) + writes me word that Mrs. Martin (Helen Faucit, at whose persuasion + it was acted) told him that it had gone off "better than she + expected." Have you seen Alexander Smith's book, which is all the + rage just now? I saw some extracts from his poems a year and a half + ago, and the whole book is like a quantity of extracts put together + without any sort of connection, a mass of powerful metaphor with + scarce any lattice-work for the honeysuckles to climb upon. Keats + was too much like this; but then Keats was the first. Now this book, + admitting its merit in a certain way, is but the imitation of a + school, and, in my mind, a bad school. One such poem as that on the + bust of Dante is worth a whole wilderness of these new writers, the + very best of them. Certainly nothing better than those two pages + ever crossed the Atlantic. + + God bless you, dear friend. Say everything for me to dear Mr. and + Mrs. W----, to Dr. Holmes, to Dr. Parsons, to Mr. Whittier, (how + powerful his new volume is!) to Mr. Stoddard, to Mrs. Sparks, to all + my friends. + + Ever most affectionately yours, M.R.M. + + I am writing on the 8th of May, but where is the May of the poets? + Half the morning yesterday it snowed, at night there was ice as + thick as a shilling, and to-day it is absolutely as cold as + Christmas. Of course the leaves refuse to unfold, the nightingales + can hardly be said to sing, even the hateful cuckoo holds his peace. + I am hoping to see dear Mr. Bennoch soon to supply some glow and + warmth. + + Swallowfield, June 4, 1853. + + I write at once, dearest friend, to acknowledge your most kind and + welcome letter. I am better than when I wrote last, and get out + almost every day for a very slow and quiet drive round our lovely + lanes; far more lovely than last year, since the foliage is quite as + thick again, and all the flowery trees, aloes, laburnums, + horse-chestnuts, acacias, honeysuckles, azalias, rhododendrons, + hawthorns, are one mass of blossoms,--literally the leaves are + hardly visible, so that the color, whenever we come upon park, + shrubbery, or plantation, is such as should be seen to be imagined. + In my long life I never knew such a season of flowers; so the wet + winter and the cold spring have their compensation. I get out in + this way with Sam and K---- and the baby, and it gives me exquisite + pleasure, and if you were here the pleasure would be multiplied a + thousand fold by your society; but I do not gain strength in the + least. Attempting to do a little more and take some young people to + the gates of Whiteknights, which, without my presence, would be + closed, proved too far and too rapid a movement, and for two days I + could not stir for excessive soreness all over the body. I am still + lifted down stairs step by step, and it is an operation of such time + (it takes half an hour to get me down that one flight of cottage + stairs), such pain, such fatigue, and such difficulty, that, unless + to get out in the pony-chaise, I do not attempt to leave my room. I + am still lifted into bed, and can neither turn nor move in any way + when there, am wheeled from the stairs to the pony-carriage, cannot + walk three steps, can hardly stand a moment, and in rising from my + chair am sometimes ten minutes, often longer. So you see that I am + very, very feeble and infirm. Still I feel sound at heart and clear + in head, am quite as cheerful as ever, and, except that I get very + much sooner exhausted, enjoy society as much as ever, so you must + come if only to make me well. I do verily believe your coming would + do me more good than anything. + + I was much interested by your account of the poor English stage + coachman. Ah, these are bad days for stage coachmen on both sides + the Atlantic! Do you remember his name? and do you know whether he + drove between London and Reading, or between Reading and + Basingstoke?--a most useless branch railroad between the two latter + places, constructed by the Great Western simply out of spite to the + Southwestern, which I am happy to state has never yet paid its daily + expenses, to say nothing of the cost of construction, and has taken + everything off our road, which before abounded in coaches, carriers, + and conveyances of all sorts. The vile railway does us no earthly + good, we being above four miles from the nearest station, and you + may imagine how much inconvenience the absence of stated + communication with a market town causes to our small family, + especially now that I can neither spare Sam nor the pony to go + twelve miles. You must come to England and come often to see me, + just to prove that there is any good whatever in railways,--a fact I + am often inclined to doubt. + + I shall send this letter to be forwarded to Mr. Bennett, and desire + him to write to you himself. He is, as you say, an "excellent + youth," although it is very generous in me to say so, for I do + believe that you came to see me since he has been. Dear Mr. Bennoch, + with all his multifarious business, has been again and again. God + bless him! ...To return to Mr Bennett. He has been engaged in a + grand battle with the trustees of an old charity school, + principally the vicar. His two brothers helped in the fight. They + won a notable victory. They were quite right in the matter in + dispute and the "excellent youth" came out well in various letters. + His opponent, the vicar, was Senior Wrangler at our Cambridge, the + very highest University honor in England, and tutor to the present + Lord Grey. + + By the way, Mr. ---- wrote to me the other day to ask that I would + let him be here when Mr. Hawthorne comes to see me. I only answered + this request by asking whether he did not intend to come to see _me_ + before that time, for certainly he might come to visit an old + friend, especially a sick one, for her own sake, and not merely to + meet a notability, and I am by no means sure that Mr. Hawthorne + might not prefer to come alone or with dear Mr. Bennoch; at all + events it ought to be left to _his_ choice, and besides I have not + lost the hope of your being the introducer of the great romancer, + and then how little should I want anybody to come between us. Begin + as they may, all my paragraphs slide into that refrain of Pray, pray + come! + + I have written to you about other kindnesses since that note full of + hopes, but I do not think that I did write to thank you for dear Dr. + Holmes's "Lecture on English Poetesses," or rather the analysis of a + lecture which sins only by over-gallantry. Ah, there is a difference + between the sexes, and the difference is the reverse way to that in + which he puts it! Tell him I sent his charming stanzas on Moore to a + leading member of the Irish committee for raising a monument to his + memory, and that they were received with enthusiasm by the Irish + friends of the poet. I have sent them to many persons in England + worthy to be so honored, and the very cleverest woman whom I have + ever known (Miss Goldsmid) wrote to me only yesterday to thank me + for sending her that exquisite poem, adding, "I think the stanza 'If + on his cheek, etc.,' contains one of the most beautiful similes to + be found in the whole domain of poetry." I also told Mrs. Browning + what dear Dr. Holmes said of her. The American poets whom she + prefers are Lowell and Emerson. Now I know something of Lowell and + of Emerson, but I hold that those lines on Dante's bust are amongst + the finest ever written in the language, whether by American or + Englishman; don't you? And what a grand Dead March is the poem on + Webster! ...Also Mrs. Browning believes in spirit-rapping + stories,--all,--and tells me that Robert Owen has been converted by + them to a belief in a future state. Everybody everywhere is turning + tables. The young Russells, who are surcharged with electricity, set + them spinning in ten minutes. In general, you know, it is usual to + take off all articles of metal. They, the other night, took a fancy + to remove their rings and bracelets, and, having done so, the table, + which had paused for a moment, began whirling again as fast as ever + the contrary way. This is a fact, and a curious one. + + I have lent three volumes of your "De Quincey" to my young friend, + James Payn, a poet of very high promise, who has verified the Green + story, and taken the books with him to the Lakes. God grant, my dear + friend, that you may not lose by "Our Village"; that is what I care + for. + + Ever faithfully yours, M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, June 23, 1853. + + Ah, my very dear friend, we shall not see you this summer, I am + sure. For the first time I clearly perceive the obstacle, and I feel + that unless some chance should detain Mr. Ticknor, we must give up + the great happiness of seeing you till next year. I wonder whether + your poor old friend will be alive to greet you then! Well, that is + as God pleases; in the mean time be assured that you have been one + of the chief comforts and blessings of these latter years of my + life, not only in your own friendship and your thousand kindnesses, + but in the kindness and friendship of dear Mr. Bennoch, which, in + the first instance, I mainly owe to you. I am in somewhat better + trim, although the getting out of doors and into the pony-carriage, + from which Mr. May hoped such great things, has hardly answered his + expectations. I am not stronger, and I am so nervous that I can only + bear to be driven, or more ignominiously still to be led, at a + foot's pace through the lanes. I am still unable to stand or walk, + unless supported by Sam's strong hands lifting me up on each side, + still obliged to be lifted into bed, and unable to turn or move when + there, the worst grievance of all. However, I am in as good spirits + as ever, and just at this moment most comfortably seated under the + acacia-tree at the corner of my house,--the beautiful acacia + literally loaded with its snowy chains (the flowering trees this + summer, lilacs, laburnums, rhododendrons, azalias, have been one + mass of blossoms, and none are so graceful as this waving acacia); + on one side a syringa, smelling and looking like an orange-tree; a + jar of roses on the table before me,--fresh-gathered roses, the + pride of Sam's heart; and little Fanchon at my feet, too idle to eat + the biscuits with which I am trying to tempt her,--biscuits from + Boston, sent to me by Mrs. Sparks, whose kindness is really + indefatigable, and which Fanchon ought to like upon that principle + if upon no other, but you know her laziness of old, and she + improves in it every day. Well that is a picture of the Swallowfield + cottage at this moment, and I wish that you and the Bennochs and the + W----s and Mr. Whipple were here to add to its life and comfort. You + must come next year and come in May, that you and dear Mr. Bennoch + may hear the nightingales together. He has never heard them, and + this year they have been faint and feeble (as indeed they were last) + compared with their usual song. Now they are over, and although I + expect him next week, it will be too late. + + Precious fooling that has been at Stafford House! And our ---- who + delights in strong, not to say worse, emotions, whose chief pleasure + it was to see the lions fed in Van Amburgh's time, who went seven + times to see the Ghost in the "Corsican Brothers," and has every + sort of natural curiosity (not to say wonder) brought to her at + Buckingham Palace, was in a state of exceeding misery because she + could not, consistently with her amicable relations with the United + States, receive Mrs. ---- there. (Ah! our dear Emperor has better + taste. Heaven bless him!) From Lord Shaftesbury one looks for + unmitigated cant, but I did expect better things of Lord Carlisle. + How many names that both you and I know went there merely because + the owner of the house was a fashionable Duchess,--the Wilmers + ("though they are my friends"), the P----s and ----! For my part, I + have never read beyond the first one hundred pages, and have a + certain malicious pleasure in so saying. Let me add that almost all + the clever men whom I have seen are of the same faction; they took + up the book and laid it down again. Do you ever reprint French + books, or ever get them translated? By very far the most delightful + work that I have read for many years is Sainte-Beuve's "Causeries du + Lundi," or his weekly feuilletons in the "Constitutionnel." I am + sure they would sell if there be any taste for French literature. It + is so curious, so various, so healthy, so catholic in its biography + and criticism; but it must be well done by some one who writes good + English prose and knows well the literary history of France. Don't + trust women; they, especially the authoresses, are as ignorant as + dirt. Just as I had got to this point, Mr. Willmot came to spend the + evening, and very singularly consulted me about undertaking a series + of English Portraits Litteraires, like Sainte-Beuve's former works. + He will do it well, and I commended him to the charming "Causeries," + and advised him to make that a weekly article, as no doubt he could. + It would only tell the better for the wide diffusion. He does, you + know, the best criticism of The Times. I have most charming letters + from Dr. Parsons and dear Mr. Whittier. His cordiality is + delightful. God bless you. + + Ever yours, M.R.M. + + (No date.) + + Never, my dear friend, did I expect to like so well a man who came + in your place, as I do like Mr. Ticknor. He is an admirable person, + very like his cousin in mind and manners, unmistakably good. It is + delightful to hear him talk of you, and to feel that the sort of + elder brotherhood which a senior partner must exercise in a firm is + in such hands. He was very kind to little Harry, and Harry likes him + _next_ to you. You know he had been stanch in resisting all the + advances of dear Mr ----, who had asked him if he would not come to + him, to which he had responded by a sturdy "no!" He (Mr. Ticknor) + came here on Saturday with the dear Bennochs (N.B. I love him better + than ever), and the Kingsleys met him. Mr. Hawthorne was to have + come, but could not leave Liverpool so soon, so that is a pleasure + to come. He will tell you that all is arranged for printing with + Colburn's successors, Hurst and Blackett, two separate works, the + plays and dramatic scenes forming one, the stories to be headed by a + long tale, of which I have always had the idea in my head, to form + almost a novel. God grant me strength to do myself and my publishers + justice in that story! This whole affair springs from the fancy + which Mr. Bennoch has taken to have the plays printed in a collected + form during my lifetime, for I had always felt that they would be so + printed after my death, so that their coming out now seems to me a + sort of anachronism. The one certain pleasure that I shall derive + from this arrangement will be, having my name and yours joined + together in the American edition, for we reserve the early sheets. + Nothing ever vexed me so much as the other book not being in your + hands. That was Mr. ----'s fault, for, stiff as Bentley is, Mr. + Bennoch would have managed him..... Of a certainty my first strong + interest in American poetry sprang from dear Dr. Holmes's exquisite + little piece of scenery painting, which he delivered where his + father had been educated. You sent me that, and thus made the + friendship between Dr. Holmes and me; and now you are yourself--you, + my dearest American friend--delivering an address at the greatest + American University. It is a great honor, and one.... + + I suppose Mr. Ticknor tells you the book-news? The most striking + work for years is "Haydon's Life." I hope you have reprinted it, for + it is sure, not only of a run, but of a durable success. You know + that the family wanted me to edit the book. I shrank from a task + that required so much knowledge which could only be possessed by one + living in the artist world _now_, to know who was dead and who + alive, and Mr. Tom Taylor has done it admirably. I read the book + twice over, so profound was my interest in it. In his early days, I + used to be a sort of safety-valve to that ardent spirit most like + Benvenuto Cellini both in pen and tongue and person. Our dear Mr. + Bennoch was the providence of his later years. They tell me that + that powerful work has entirely stopped the sale of Moore's Life, + which, all tinsel and tawdry rags, might have been written by a + court newsman or a court milliner. I wonder whether they will print + the other six volumes; for the four out they have given Mrs. Moore + three thousand pounds. A bad account Mr. Tupper gives of ----. Fancy + his conceit! When Mr. Tupper praised a passage in one of his poems, + he said, "If I had known you liked it, I would have omitted that + passage in my new edition," and he has done so by passages praised + by persons of taste, cut them out bodily and left the sentences + before and after to join themselves how they could. What a bad + figure your President and Mr. ---- cut at the opening of your + Exhibition! I am sorry for ----, for, although he has quite + forgotten me since his aunt's book came out, he once stayed three + weeks with us, and I liked him. Well, so many of his countrymen are + over-good to me, that I may well forgive one solitary instance of + forgetfulness! Make my love to all my dear friends at Boston and + Cambridge. Tell Mrs. Sparks how dearly I should have liked to have + been at her side on _the_ Thursday. Tell Dr. Holmes that his kind + approbation of Rienzi is one of my encouragements in this new + edition. I had a long talk about him with Mr. Ticknor, and rejoice + to find him so young. Thank Mr. Whipple again and again for his + kindness. + + Ever yours, M.R.M. + + (No date.) + + My Very Dear Friend: Mr. Hillard (whom I shall be delighted to see + if he come to England and will let me know when he can get + here)--Mr. Hillard has just put into verse my own feelings about + you. It is the one comfort belonging to the hard work of these _two_ + books (for besides the Dramatic Works in two thick volumes, there + are prose stories in two also, and I have one long tale, almost a + novel, to write),--it is the one comfort of this labor that _I_ + shall see our names together on one page. I have just finished a + long gossiping preface of thirty or forty pages to the Dramatic + Works, which is much more an autobiography than the Recollections, + and which I have tried to make as amusing as if it were ill-natured. + _That_ work is dedicated to our dear Mr. Bennoch, another + consolation. I sent the dedication to dear Mr. Ticknor, but as his + letter of adieu did not reach me till two or three days after it was + written, and I am not quite sure that I recollected the number in + Paternoster Row, I shall send it to you here. "To Francis Bennoch, + Esq., who blends in his life great public services with the most + genial private hospitality; who, munificent patron of poet and of + painter, is the first to recognize every talent except his own, + content to be beloved where others claim to be admired; to him, + equally valued as companion and as friend, these volumes are most + respectfully and affectionately inscribed by the author." I write + from memory, but if this be not it, it is very like it, (and I beg + you to believe that my preface is a little better English than this + agglomeration of "its.") + + Mr. Kingsley says that Alfred Tennyson says that Alexander Smith's + poems show fancy, but not imagination; and on my repeating this to + Mrs. Browning, she said it was exactly her impression. For my part I + am struck by the extravagance and the total want of finish and of + constructive power, and I am in hopes that ultimately good will come + out of evil, for Mr. Kingsley has written, he tells me, a paper + called "Alexander Pope and Alexander Smith," and Mr. Willmott, the + powerful critic of The Times, takes the same view, he tells me, and + will doubtless put it into print some day or other, so that the + carrying this bad school to excess will work for good. By the way, + Mr. ----, whose Imogen is so beautiful, sent me the other day a + terrible wild affair in that style, and I wrote him a frank letter, + which my sincere admiration for what he does well gives me some + right to do. He has in him the making of a great poet; but, if he + once take to these obscurities, he is lost. I hope I have not + offended him, for I think it is a real talent, and I feel the + strongest interest in him. My young friend, James Payn, went a + fortnight or three weeks ago to Lasswade and spent an evening with + Mr. De Quincey. He speaks of him just as you do, marvellously fine + in point of conversation, looking like an old beggar, but with the + manners of a prince, "if," adds James Payn, "we may understand by + that all that is intelligent and courteous and charming." (I suppose + he means such manners as our Emperor's.) He began by saying that his + life was a mere misery to him from nerves, and that he could only + render it endurable by a semi-inebriation with opium. (I always + thought he had not left opium off.).... On his return, James Payn + again visited Harriet Martineau, who talked frankly about _the_ + book, exculpating Mr. Atkinson and taking all the blame to herself. + She asked if I had read it, and on finding that I had not, said, "It + was better so." There are fine points about Harriet Martineau. Mrs. + Browning is positively crazy about the spirit-rappings. She believes + every story, European or American, and says our Emperor consults the + mediums, which I disbelieve. + + The above was written yesterday. To-day has brought me a charming + letter from Miss De Quincey. She has been very ill, but is now back + at Lasswade, and longing most earnestly to persuade her father to + return to Grasmere. Will she succeed? She sends me a charming + message from a brother Francis, a young physician settled in India. + She says that her sister told her her father was in bad spirits when + talking to Mr. Payn, which perhaps accounts for his confessing to + the continuing the opium-eating. + + Mr. ---- brought me some proofs of his new volume of poems. I think + that if he will take pains he will be a real poet. But it is so + difficult to get young men to believe that correcting and + re-correcting is necessary, and he is a most charming person, and so + gets spoiled. I spoil him myself, God forgive me! although I advise + him to the best of my power. No signs of Mr. Hawthorne yet! Heaven + bless you, my dear friend. + + Ever faithfully yours, M.R.M. + + October, 1853. + + My Very Dear Friend: I cannot thank you enough for the two charming + books which you have sent me. I enclose a letter for the author of + this very remarkable book of Italian travel, and I have written to + dear Mr. Hawthorne myself. + + Since I wrote to you, dear Mr. Bennoch sent to me to look out what + letters I could find of poor Haydon's. I was half killed by the + operation, all my sins came upon me; for, lulling my conscience by + carelessness about bills and receipts, and by answering almost every + letter the day it comes, I am in other respects utterly careless, + and my great mass of correspondence goes where fate and K---- + decree. We had five great chests and boxes, two huge hampers, + fifteen or sixteen baskets, and more drawers than you would believe + the house could hold, to look over, and at last disinterred + sixty-five. I did not dare read them for fear of the dust, but I + have no doubt they will be most valuable, for his letters were + matchless for talent and spirit. I hope you have reprinted the Life; + if so, of course you will publish the Correspondence. By the way, + it is a curious specimen of the little care our highest people have + for poetry of the ---- school, that Vice-Chancellor Wood, one of the + most accomplished men whom I have ever known, a bosom friend of + Macaulay, was with me last week, and had never heard of Alexander + Smith. + + I continue terribly lame, and with no chance of amendment till the + spring, when you will come and do me good. Besides the lameness, I + am also miserably feeble, ten years older than when you saw me last. + I am working as well as I can, but very slowly. I send you a proof + of the Preface to the Dramatic Works (not knowing whether they have + sent you the sheets, or when they mean to bring it out). The few who + have seen this Introduction like it. It tells the truth about myself + and says no ill of other people. God bless you, dear friend. Say + everything for me to all friends, not forgetting Mr. Ticknor. + + Ever yours, M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, November 8, 1853. + + My Very Dear Friend; Your letters are always delightful to me, even + when they are dated Boston; think what they will be when they are + dated London. In my last I sent you a very rough proof of my Preface + (I think Mr. Hurst means to call it Introduction), which you will + find autobiographical to your heart's content; I hope you will like + it. To-day I enclose the first rough draft of an account of my first + impression of Haydon. Don't print it, please, because I suppose they + mean it for a part of the Correspondence when it shall be published. + I looked out for those sixty-five long letters of Haydon's,--as + long, perhaps, each, as half a dozen of mine to you,--and doubtless + I have many more, but I was almost blinded by the dust in hunting up + those, my eyes having been very tender since I was shut up in a + smoky room for twenty-two weeks last winter. I find now that Messrs. + Longman have postponed the publication of the Correspondence in the + fear that it would injure the sale of the Memoirs, the book having + had a great success here. By the enclosed, which is as true and as + like as I could make it, you will see that he was a very brilliant + and charming person. I believe that next to having been heart-broken + by the committee and the heartlessness of his pupil ----, and + enraged by the passion for that miserable little wretch, Tom Thumb, + that the real cause of his suicide was to get his family provided + for. It succeeded. By one way and another they had L440 a year + between the four; but although the poor father never complained, + you will see by his book what a selfish wretch that ---- was..... + + My tragedies are printed, and the dramatic scenes, forming, with the + preface, two volumes of above four hundred pages each. But I don't + think they are to come out till the prose work, and that is not a + quarter finished. I am always a most slow and laborious writer (that + Preface was written three times over throughout, and many parts of + it five or six), and of course my ill health does not improve my + powers of composition. This wet summer and autumn have been terribly + against me. I am lamer even than when Mr. Ticknor saw me, and + sometimes cannot even dip the pen in the ink without holding it in + my left hand. Thank God my head is spared, and my heart is, I think, + as young as ever. + + I had a letter to-day from Mr. Chorley; he has been staying all the + autumn with Sir William Molesworth, now a Cabinet Minister, but he + complains terribly about his own health, notwithstanding he has a + play coming out at the Olympic, which Mr. Wigan has taken. Mrs. + Kingsley, a most sweet person, has a cough which has forced them to + send her to the sea. You shall be sure to see both him and Mr. + Willmott if I can compass it; but we live, each of us, seven miles + apart, and these country clergymen are so tied to their parish that + they are difficult to catch. However, they both come to see me + whenever they can, and we must contrive it. You will like both in + different ways. Mr. Willmott is one of the most agreeable men in the + world, and Mr. Kingsley is charming. I have another dear friend, not + an author, whom I prefer to either,--Hugh Pearson. He made for + himself a collection of De Quincey, when a lad at Oxford. You would + like him, I think, better than anybody; but he too is a country + clergyman, living eight miles off. Poor Mr. Norton! His letters were + charming. He is connected in my mind with Mrs. Hemans, too, to whom + he was so kind. You must say everything for me to dear Mrs. Sparks. + I seem most ungrateful to her, but I really have little power of + writing letters just now. Did I tell you that Mr. ---- sent me a + poem called ----, which I am very sorry that he ever wrote. It has + shocked Mr. Bennoch even more than it did me. You must get him to + write more poems like ----. A young friend of mine has brought out a + little volume in which there is striking evidence of talent; but + none of these young writers take pains. How very pretty is that + scrap on a country church! Mrs. Browning is at Florence, but is + going to Rome. She says that your countryman, Mr. Story, has made a + charming statuette, I think of Beethoven, or else of Mendelssohn, + which ought to make his reputation. She is crazy about mediums. She + says (but I have not heard it elsewhere) that Thackeray and Dickens + are to winter at Rome, and Alfred Tennyson at Florence. Mrs. + Trollope has quite recovered, and receives as usual. How full of + beauty Mr. Hillard's book is! thank him for it again and again. Did + I tell you that they are going to engrave a portrait of me by + Haydon, now belonging to Mr. Bennoch, for the Dramatic Works? God + bless you, my very dear friend. Say everything for me to Mr. Ticknor + and Dr. Holmes and Dr. Parsons, and all my friends in Boston. Little + Henry grows a very sensible, intelligent boy, and is a great + favorite at his school. He is getting on with French. + + Once more, ever yours, M.R.M. + + +1854. + + (January, 1854.) + + My Beloved Friend: They who correspond with sick people must be + content to receive such letters as are sent from hospitals. For many + weeks I have been wholly shut up in my own room, getting with + exceeding difficulty from the bed to the fireside, quite unable to + stir either in the chair or in the bed, but much less miserable up + than when in bed. The terrible cold of last summer did not allow me + to gain any strength, so that although the fire in my room is kept + up night and day, yet a severe attack of influenza came on and would + have carried me off, had not Mr. May been so much alarmed at the + state of the pulse and the general feebleness as to order me two + tablespoonfuls of champagne in water once a day, and a teaspoonful + of brandy also in water, at night, which undoubtedly saved my life. + It is the only good argument for what is called teetotalism that it + keeps more admirable medicines as medicine; for undoubtedly a + wine-drinker, however moderate, would not have been brought round by + the remedy which did me so much good. Miserably feeble I still am, + and shall continue till May or June (if it please God to spare my + life till then), when, if it be fine weather, Sam will lift me down + stairs and into the pony-chaise, and I may get stronger. Well, in + the midst of the terrible cough, which did not allow me to lie down + in bed, and a weakness difficult to describe, I finished "Atherton." + I did it against orders and against warning, because I had an + impression that I should not live to complete it, and I sent it + yesterday to London to dear Mr. Bennoch, so I suppose you will soon + receive the sheets. Almost every line has been written three times + over, and it is certainly the most cheerful and sunshiny story that + was ever composed in such a state of helplessness, feebleness, and + suffering; for the rheumatic pain in the chest not only rendered the + cough terrible (that, thank God, is nearly gone now), but makes the + position of writing one of misery. God grant you may like this + story! I shall at least say in the Preface that it will give me one + pleasure, that of having in the American title-page the names of + dear friends united with mine. Mind I don't know whether the story + be good or bad. I only answer for its having the youthfulness which + you liked in the preface to the plays. Well, dearest friend, just + when I was at the worst came your letter about the ducks and the + ducks themselves. Never were birds so welcome. My friend, Mr. May, + the cleverest and most admirable person whom I know in this + neighborhood, refuses all fees of any sort, and comes twelve miles + to see me, when torn to pieces by all the great folk round, from + pure friendship. Think how glad I was to have such a dainty to offer + him just when he had all his family gathered about him at Christmas. + I thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me this great + pleasure, infinitely greater than eating it myself would have been. + They were delicious. How very, very good you are to me! + + Has Mrs. Craig written to you to tell you of her marriage? I will + run the risk of repetition and tell you that it is the charming + Margaret De Quincey, who has married the son of a Scotch neighbor. + He has purchased land in Ireland, and they are about to live in + Tipperary,--a district which Irish people tell me is losing its + reputation for being the most disturbed in Ireland, but keeping that + for superior fertility. They are trying to regain a reputation for + literature in Edinburgh. John Ruskin has been giving a series of + lectures on art there, and Mr. Kingsley four lectures on the schools + of Alexandria. + + Nothing out of Parliament has for very long made so strong a + sensation as our dear Mr. Bennoch's evidence on the London + Corporation. Three leading articles in The Times paid him the + highest compliments, and you know what that implies. I have myself + had several letters congratulating me on having such a friend. Ah! + the public qualities make but a part of that fine and genial + character, although I firmly believe that the strength is essential + to the tenderness. I always put you and him together, and it is one + of the compensations of my old age to have acquired such friends. + + Have you seen Matthew Arnold's poems? They have fine bits. The + author is a son of Dr. Arnold. + + God bless you! Say everything for me to my dear American friends, + Drs. Holmes and Parsons, Mr. Longfellow, Mr. Whittier, Mrs. Sparks, + Mr. Taylor, Mr. Whipple, Mr. and Mrs. Willard, and Mr. Ticknor. + Many, very many happy years to them and to you. + + Always most affectionately yours, M.R.M. + + P.S. I enclose some slips to be pasted into books for my different + American friends. If I have sent too many, you will know which to + omit. I must add to the American preface a line expressive of my + pleasure in joining my name to yours. I will send one line here for + fear of its not going. Mr. May says that those ducks were amongst + the few things thoroughly deserving their reputation, holding the + same place, as compared with our wild ducks, that the finest venison + does to common mutton. I cannot tell you how much I thank you for + enabling me to send such a treat to such a friend. You will send a + copy of the prose book or the dramas, according to your own + pleasure, only I should like the two dear doctors to have the plays. + + Swallowfield, January 23, 1854. + + I have always to thank you for some kindness, dearest Mr. Fields, + generally for many. How clever those magazines are, especially Mr. + Lowell's article, and Mr. Bayard Taylor's graceful stanzas! Just now + I have to ask you to forward the enclosed to Mr. Whittier. He sent + me a charming poem on Burns, full of tenderness and humanity, and + the indulgence which the wise and good can so well afford, and which + only the wisest and best can show to their erring brethren. I + rejoice to hear that he is getting well again. I myself am weaker + and more helpless every day, and the rheumatic pain in the chest + increases so rapidly, and makes writing so difficult, even the + writing such a note as this, that I cannot be thankful enough for + having finished "Atherton," for I am sure I could not write it now. + There is some chance of my getting better in the summer, if I can be + got into the air, and that must be by being let down in a chair + through a trap-door, like so much railway luggage, for there is not + the slightest power of helping myself left in me,--nothing, indeed, + but the good spirits which Shakespeare gave to Horatio, and Hamlet + envied him. Dearest Mr. Bennoch has made me a superb present,--two + portraits of our Emperor and his fair wife. He all intellect,--never + was a brow so full of thought; she all sweetness,--such a mouth was + never seen, it seems waiting to smile. The beauty is rather of + expression than of feature, which is exactly what it ought to be.... + + M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, May 2, 1854. + + My Dear Friend: Long before this time, you will, I hope, have + received the sheets of "Atherton." It has met with an enthusiastic + reception from the English press, and certainly the friends who have + written to me on the subject seem to prefer the tale which fills the + first volume to anything that I have done. I hope you will like + it,--I am sure you will not detect in it the gloom of a + sick-chamber. Mr. May holds out hopes that the summer may do me + good. As yet the spring has been most unfavorable to invalids, being + one combined series of east-wind, so that instead of getting better + I am every day weaker than the last, unable to see more than one + person a day, and quite exhausted by half an hour's conversation. I + hope to be a little better before your arrival, dearest friend, + because I must see you; but any stranger--even Mr. Hawthorne--is + quite out of the question. + + You may imagine how kind dear Mr. Bennoch has been all through this + long trial, next after John Ruskin and his admirable father the + kindest of all my friends, and that is saying much. + + God bless you. Love to all my friends, poets, prosers, and the dear + ----, who are that most excellent thing, readers. I wonder if you + ever received a list of people to whom to send one or other of my + works? I wrote such with little words in my own hand, but writing is + so painful and difficult, and I am always so uncertain of your + getting my letters, that I cannot attempt to send another. There was + one for Mrs. Sparks. I am sure of liking Dr. Parsons's book,--quite + sure. Once again, God bless you! Little Henry grows a nice boy. + + Ever most affectionately yours, M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, July 12, 1854. + + Dearest Mr. Fields: Our excellent friend Mr. Bennoch will have told + you from how painful a state of anxiety your most welcome letter + relieved us. You have done quite right, my beloved friend, in + returning to Boston. The voyage, always so trying to you, would, + with your health so deranged, have been most dangerous, and next + year you will find all your friends, except one, as happy to see and + to welcome you. Even if you had arrived now our meeting would have + been limited to minutes. Dr. Parsons will tell you that fresh + feebleness in a person so long tried and so aged (sixty-seven) must + have a speedy termination. May Heaven prolong your valuable life, + dear friend, and grant that you may be as happy yourself as you have + always tried to render others! + + I rejoice to hear what you tell me of "Atherton." Here the + reception has been most warm and cordial. Every page of it was + written three times over, so that I spared no pains, but I was + nearly killed by the terrible haste in which it was finished, and I + do believe that many of the sheets were sent to me without ever + being read in the office. I have corrected one copy for the third + English edition, but I cannot undertake such an effort again, so, if + (as I venture to believe) it be destined to be often reprinted by + you, you must correct it from _that_ edition. I hope you sent a copy + to Mr. Whittier from me. I had hoped you would bring one to Mr. + Hawthorne and Mr. De Quincey, but I must try what I can do with Mr. + Hurst, and must depend on you for assuring these valued friends that + it was not neglect or ingratitude on my part. + + Mr. Boner, my dear and valued friend, wishes you and dear Mr. + Ticknor to print his "Chamois-Hunting" from a second edition which + Chapman and Hall are bringing out. I sent my copy of the work to Mr. + Bennoch when we were expecting you, that you might see it. It is a + really excellent book, full of interest, with admirable plates, + which you could have, and, speaking in your interest, as much as in + his, I firmly believe that it would answer to you in money as well + as in credit to bring it out in America. Also Mrs. Browning (while + in Italy) wrote to me to inquire if you would like to bring out a + new poem by her, and a new work by her husband. I told her that I + could not doubt it, but that she had better write duplicate letters + to London and to Boston. Our poor little boy is here for his + holidays. His excellent mother and step-father have nursed me rather + as if they had been my children than my servants. Everybody has been + most kind. The champagne, which I believe keeps me alive, is dear + Mr. Bennoch's present; but you will understand how ill I am when I + tell you that my breath is so much affected by the slightest + exertion that I cannot bear even to be lifted into bed, but have + spent the last eight nights sitting up, with my feet supported on a + leg-rest. This from exhaustion, not from disease of the lungs. + + Give the enclosed to Dr. Parsons. You know what I have always + thought of his genius. In my mind no poems ever crossed the Atlantic + which approached his stanzas on Dante and on the death of Webster, + and yet you have great poets too. Think how glad and proud I am to + hear of the honor he has done me. I wish you had transcribed the + verses. + + God bless you, my beloved friend! Say everything for me to all my + dear friends, to Dr. Parsons, to Dr. Holmes, to Mr. Whittier, to + Professor Longfellow, to Mr. Taylor, to Mr. Stoddard, to Mrs. + Sparks, and above all to the excellent Mr. Ticknor and the dear + W----s. + + Ever yours, M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, July 28, 1854. + + My Very Dear Friend: This is a sort of postscript to my last, + written instantly on the receipt of yours and sent through Mr. ----. + I hope you received it, for he is so impetuous that I always a + little doubt his care; at least it was when sent through him that + the loss of letters to and fro took place. However, I enjoined him + to be careful this time, and he assured me that he was so. + + The purport of this is to add the name of my friend, Mr. Willmott, + to the authors who wish for the advantage of your firm as their + American publishers. I have begged him to write to you himself, and + I hope he has done so, or that he will do so. But he is staying at + Richmond with sick relatives, and I am not sure. You know his works, + of course. They are becoming more and more popular in England, and + he is writing better and better. The best critical articles in The + Times are by him. He is eminently a scholar, and yet full of + anecdote of the most amusing sort, with a memory like Scott, and a + charming habit of applying his knowledge. His writings become more + and more like his talk, and I am confident that you would find his + works not only most creditable, but most profitable. I would not + recommend you to each other if it were not for your mutual + advantage, so far as my poor judgment goes. On the 25th my Dramatic + Works are to be published here. I hope they have sent you the + sheets. + + I have not heard yet from any American friend, except your + delightful letter and one from Grace Greenwood, but I hope I shall. + I prize the good word of such persons as Drs. Parsons and Holmes and + Professor Longfellow and John Whittier and many others. I am still + very ill. + + The Brownings remain this year in Italy. If it be very hot, they + will go for a month or two to the Baths of Lucca, but their home is + Florence. She has taken a fancy to an American female sculptor,--a + girl of twenty-two,--a pupil of Gibson's, who goes with the rest of + the fraternity of the studio to breakfast and dine at a _cafe_, and + yet keeps her character. Also she believes in all your rappings. + + God be with you, my very dear friend. I trust you are quite + recovered. + + Always affectionately yours, M.R.M. + + Swallowfield, August 21, 1854. + + My Dear Mr. Fields: Mr. Bayard Taylor having sent me a most + interesting letter, but no address, I trouble you with my reply. + Read it, and you will perhaps understand that I am declining day by + day, and that, humanly speaking, the end is very near. Perhaps there + may yet be time for an answer to this.... + + I believe that one reason for your not quite understanding my + illness is, that you, if you have seen long and great sickness at + all, which is doubtful, have seen it with an utter prostration of + the mind and the spirits,--that your women are languid and + querulous, and never dream of bearing up against bodily evils by an + effort of the mind. Even now, when half an hour's visit is utterly + forbidden, and half that time leaves me panting and exhausted, I + never mention (except forced into it by your evident disbelief) my + own illness either in speaking or writing,--never, except to answer + Mr. May's questions, or to join my beloved friend, Mr. Pearson, in + thanking God for the visitation which I humbly hope was sent in his + mercy to draw me nearer to him; may he grant me grace to use + it!--for the rest, whilst the intelligence and the sympathy are + vouchsafed to me, I will write of others, and give to my friends, as + far as in me lies, the thoughts which would hardly be more worthily + bestowed on my own miserable body. + + You will be sorry to find that the poor Talfourds are likely to be + very poor. A Reading attorney has run away, cheating half the town. + He has carried off L4,000 belonging to Lady Talfourd, and she + herself tells my friend, William Harness (one of her kindest + friends), that that formed the principal part of the Judge's small + savings, and, together with the sum for which he had insured his + life (only L5,000), was all which they had. Now there are five young + people,--his children,--the widow and an adopted niece, seven in + all, accustomed to every sort of luxury and indulgence. The only + glimpse of hope is, that the eldest son held a few briefs on circuit + and went through them creditably; but it takes many years in England + to win a barrister's reputation, and the poorer our young men are + the more sure they are to marry. Add the strange fact that since the + father's death (he having reserved his copyrights) not a single copy + of any of his books has been sold! A fortnight ago I had a great + fright respecting Miss Martineau, which still continues. James Payn, + who is living at the Lakes, and to whom she has been most kind, says + he fears she will be a great pecuniary sufferer by ----. I only hope + that it is a definite sum, and no general security or + partnership,--even that will be bad enough for a woman of her age, + and so hard a worker, who intended to give herself rest; but observe + these are only _fears_. I _know_ nothing. The Brownings are detained + in Italy, she tells me, for want of money, and cannot even get to + Lucca. This is my bad news,--O, and it is very bad that sweet Mrs. + Kingsley must stay two years in Devonshire and cannot come home. I + expect to see him this week. John Ruskin is with his father and + mother in Switzerland, constantly sending me tokens of friendship. + Everybody writes or sends or comes; never was such kindness. The + Bennochs are in Scotland. He sends me charming letters, having, I + believe, at last discovered what every one else has known long. + Remember me to Mr. Ticknor. Say everything to my Athenian friends + all, especially to Dr. Holmes and Dr. Parsons. + + Ever, dear friend, your affectionate M.R.M. + + September 26, 1854. + + My Very Dear Friend: Your most kind and interesting letter has just + arrived, with one from our good friend, Mr. Bennoch, announcing the + receipt of the L50 bill for "Atherton." More welcome even as a sign + of the prosperity of the book in a country where I have so many + friends and which I have always loved so well, than as money, + although in that way it is a far greater comfort than you probably + guess, this very long and very severe illness obliging me to keep a + third maid-servant. I get no sleep,--not on an average an hour a + night,--and require perpetual change of posture to prevent the skin + giving way still more than it does, and forming what we emphatically + call bed-sores, although I sit up night and day, and have no other + relief than the being, to a slight extent, shifted from one position + to another in the chair that I never quit. Besides this, there are + many other expenses. I tell you this, dear friend, that Mr. Ticknor + and yourself may have the satisfaction of knowing that, besides all + that you have done for many years for my gratification, you have + been of substantial use in this emergency. In spite of all this + illness, after being so entirely given over that dear Mr. Pearson, + leaving me a month ago to travel with Arthur Stanley for a month, + took a final leave of me, I have yet revived greatly during these + last three weeks. I owe this, under Providence, to my admirable + friend, Mr. May, who, instead of abandoning the stranded ship, as is + common in these cases, has continued, although six miles off, and + driving four pair of horses a day, ay, and while himself hopeless of + my case, to visit me constantly and to watch every symptom, and + exhaust every resource of his great art, as if his own fame and + fortune depended on the result. One kind but too sanguine friend, + Mr. Bennoch, is rather over-hopeful about this amendment, for I am + still in a state in which the slightest falling back would carry me + off, and in which I can hardly think it possible to weather the + winter. If that incredible contingency should arise, what a + happiness it would be to see you in April! But I must content myself + with the charming little portrait you have sent me, which is your + very self. Thank you for it over and over. Thank you, too, for the + batch of notices on "Atherton.".... + + Dr. Parsons's address is very fine, and makes me still more desire + to see his volume; and the letter from Dr. Holmes is charming, so + clear, so kind, and so good. If I had been a boy, I would have + followed their noble profession. Three such men as Mr. May, Dr. + Parsons, and Dr. Holmes are enough to confirm the predilection that + I have always had for the art of healing. + + I have no good news to tell you of dear Mr. K----. His sweet wife + (Mr. Ticknor will remember her) has been three times at death's door + since he saw her here, and must spend at least two winters more at + Torquay. But I don't believe that he could stay here even if she + were well. Bramshill has fallen into the hands of a Puseyite parson, + who, besides that craze, which is so flagrant as to have made dear + Mr. K---- forbid him his pulpit, is subject to fits of raving + madness,--one of those most dangerous lunatics whom an age (in which + there is a great deal of false humanity) never shuts up until some + terrible crime has been committed. (A celebrated mad-doctor said the + other day of this very man, that he had "homicidal madness.") You + may fancy what such a Squire, opposing him in every way, is to the + rector of the parish. Mr. K---- told me last winter that he was + driving him mad, and I am fully persuaded that he would make a large + sacrifice of income to exchange his parish. To make up for this, he + is working himself to death, and I greatly fear that his excess of + tobacco is almost equal to the opium of Mr. De Quincey. With his + temperament this is full of danger. He was only here for two or + three days to settle a new curate, but he walked over to see me, and + I will take care that he receives your message. His regard for me + is, I really believe, sincere and very warm. Remember that all this + is in strict confidence. The kindness that people show to me is + something surprising. I have not deserved it, but I receive it most + gratefully. It touches one's very heart. Will you say everything for + me to my many kind friends, too many to name? I had a kind letter + from Mrs. Sparks the other day. The poets I cling to while I can + hold a pen. God bless you. + + Ever yours, M.R.M. + + Can you contrive to send a copy of your edition of "Atherton" to Mr. + Hawthorne? Pray, dear friend, do if you can. + + October 12, 1854 + + My Very Dear Friend: I can hardly give you a greater proof of + affection, than in telling you that your letter of yesterday + affected me to tears, and that I thanked God for it last night in my + prayers; so much a mercy does it seem to me to be still beloved by + one whom I have always loved so much. I thank you a thousand times + for that letter and for the book. I enclose you my own letter to + dear Dr. Parsons. Read it before giving it to him. I could not help + being amused at his having appended my name to a poem in some sort + derogating from the fame of the only Frenchman who is worthy to be + named after the present great monarch. I hope I have not done wrong + in confessing my faith. Holding back an opinion is often as much a + falsehood as the actual untruth itself, and so I think it would be + here. Now we have the book, do you remember through whom you sent + the notices? If you do, let me know. You will see by my letter to + Dr. Parsons that ---- dined here yesterday, under K----'s auspices. + He invited himself for three days,--luckily I have Mr. Pearson to + take care of him,--and still more luckily I told him frankly + yesterday that three days would be too much, for I had nearly died + last night of fatigue and exhaustion and their consequences. + To-night I shall leave all to my charming friend. There is nobody + like John Ruskin for refinement and eloquence. You will be glad to + hear that he has asked me for a letter to dear Mr. Bennoch to help + him in his schools of Art,--I mean with advice. This will, I hope, + bring our dear friend out of the set he is in, and into that where I + wish to see him, for John Ruskin must always fill the very highest + position. God bless you all, dear friends! + + Ever most affectionately yours, M.R.M. + + Love to all my friends. + + You have given me a new motive for clinging to life by coming to + England in April. Till this pull-back yesterday, I was better, + although still afraid of being lifted into bed, and with small hope + of getting alive through the winter. God bless you! + + October 18, 1854. + + My Very Dear Friend: Another copy of dear Dr. Parsons's book has + arrived, with a charming, most charming letter from him, and a copy + of your edition of "Atherton." It is very nicely got up indeed, the + portrait the best of any engraving that has been made of me, at + least, any recent engraving. May I have a few copies of that + engraving when you come to England? And if I should be gone, will + you let poor K---- have one? The only thing I lament in the American + "Atherton" is that a passage that I wrote to add to that edition has + been omitted. It was to the purport of my having a peculiar pleasure + in the prospect of that reprint, because few things could be so + gratifying to me as to find my poor name conjoined with those of the + great and liberal publishers, for one of whom I entertain so much + respect and esteem, and for the other so true and so lively an + affection. The little sentence was better turned much, but that was + the meaning. No doubt it was in one of my many missing letters. I + even think I sent it twice,--I should greatly have liked that little + paragraph to be there. May I ask you to give the enclosed to dear + Dr. Parsons? There are noble lines in his book, which gains much by + being known. Dear John Ruskin was here when it arrived, and much + pleased with it on turning over the leaves, and he is the most + fastidious of men. I must give him the copy. His praise is indeed + worth having. I am as when I wrote last. God bless you, beloved + friend. + + Ever yours, M.R.M. + + December 23, 1854. + + Your dear affectionate letter, dearest and kindest friend, would + have given me unmingled pleasure had it conveyed a better account of + your business prospects. Here, from what I can gather, and from the + sure sign of all works of importance being postponed, the trade is + in a similar state of depression, caused, they say, by this war, + which but for the wretched imbecility of our ministers could never + have assumed so alarming an appearance. Whether we shall recover + from it, God only knows. My hope is in Louis Napoleon; but that + America will rally seems certain enough. She has elbow-room, and, + moreover, she is not unused to rapid transitions from high + prosperity to temporary difficulty, and so back again. Moreover, + dear friend, I have faith in you..... God bless you, my dear friend! + May he send to both of you health and happiness and length of days, + and so much of this world's goods as is needful to prevent anxiety + and insure comfort. I have known many rich people in my time, and + the result has convinced me that with great wealth some deep black + shadow is as sure to walk, as it is to follow the bright sunshine. + So I never pray for more than the blessed enough for those whom I + love best. + + And very dearly do I love my American friends,--you best of + all,--but all very dearly, as I have cause. Say this, please, to Dr. + Parsons and Dr. Holmes (admiring their poems is a sort of touchstone + of taste with me, and very, very many stand the test well) and dear + Bayard Taylor, a man soundest and sweetest the nearer one gets to + the kernel, and good, kind John Whittier, who has the fervor of the + poet ingrafted into the tough old Quaker stock, and Mr. Stoddard, + and Mrs. Lippincott, and Mrs. Sparks, and the Philadelphia Poetess, + and dear Mr. and Mrs. W----, and your capital critics and orators. + Remember me to all who think of me; but keep the choicest tenderness + for yourself and your wife. + + Do you know those books which pretend to have been written from one + hundred to two hundred years ago,--"Mary Powell" (Milton's + Courtship), "Cherry and Violet," and the rest? Their fault is that + they are too much alike. The authoress (a Miss Manning) sent me some + of them last winter, with some most interesting letters. Then for + many months I ceased to hear from her, but a few weeks ago she sent + me her new Christmas book,--"The Old Chelsea Bun House,"--and told + me she was dying of a frightful internal complaint. She suffers + martyrdom, but bears it like a saint, and her letters are better + than all the sermons in the world. May God grant me the same + cheerful submission! I try for it and pray that it be granted, but I + have none of the enthusiastic glow of devotion, so real and so + beautiful in Miss Manning. My faith is humble and lowly,--not that I + have the slightest doubt,--but I cannot get her rapturous assurance + of acceptance. My friend, William Harness, got me to employ our kind + little friend, Mr. ----, to procure for him Judge Edmonds's + "Spiritualism." What an odious book it is! there is neither respect + for the dead nor the living. Mrs. Browning believes it all; so does + Bulwer, who is surrounded by mediums who summon his dead daughter. + It is too frightful to talk about. Mr. May and Mr. Pearson both + asked me to send it away, for fear of its seizing upon my nerves. I + get weaker and weaker, and am become a mere skeleton. Ah, dear + friend, come when you may, you will find only a grave at + Swallowfield. Once again, God bless you and yours! + + Ever yours, M, R.M. + + "_BARRY CORNWALL_" +_And Some Of His Friends_. + + * * * * * + + "_All, all are gone, the old familiar faces_." + CHARLES LAMB. + + "_Old Acquaintance, shall the nights + You and I once talked together, + Be forgot like common things?_" + + * * * * * + + "_His thoughts half hid in golden dreams, + Which make thrice fair the songs and streams + Of Air and Earth_." + + * * * * * + + "_Song should breathe of scents and flowers; + Song should like a river flow; + Song should bring back scenes and hours + That we loved,--ah, long ago!_" + BARRY CORNWALL. + + + + +VII. "BARRY CORNWALL" AND SOME OF HIS FRIENDS. + +There is no portrait in my possession more satisfactory than the small +one of Barry Cornwall, made purposely for me in England, from life. It +is a thoroughly honest resemblance. + +I first saw the poet five-and-twenty years ago, in his own house in +London, at No. 13 Upper Harley Street, Cavendish Square. He was then +declining into the vale of years, but his mind was still vigorous and +young. My letter of introduction to him was written by Charles Sumner, +and it proved sufficient for the beginning of a friendship which existed +through a quarter of a century. My last interview with him occurred in +1869. I found him then quite feeble, but full of his old kindness and +geniality. His speech was somewhat difficult to follow, for he had been +slightly paralyzed not long before; but after listening to him for half +an hour, it was easy to understand nearly every word he uttered. He +spoke with warm feeling of Longfellow, who had been in London during +that season, and had called to see his venerable friend before +proceeding to the Continent. "Wasn't it good of him," said the old man, +in his tremulous voice, "to think of _me_ before he had been in town +twenty-four hours?" He also spoke of his dear companion, John Kenyon, at +whose house we had often met in years past, and he called to mind a +breakfast party there, saying with deep feeling, "And you and I are the +only ones now alive of all who came together that happy morning!" + +A few months ago,[*] at the great age of eighty-seven, Bryan Waller +Procter, familiarly and honorably known in English literature for sixty +years past as "Barry Cornwall," calmly "fell on sleep." The schoolmate +of Lord Byron and Sir Robert Peel at Harrow, the friend and companion of +Keats, Lamb, Shelley, Coleridge, Landor, Hunt, Talfourd, and Rogers, the +man to whom Thackeray "affectionately dedicated" his "Vanity Fair," one +of the kindest souls that ever gladdened earth, has now joined the great +majority of England's hallowed sons of song. No poet ever left behind +him more fragrant memories, and he will always be thought of as one whom +his contemporaries loved and honored. No harsh word will ever be spoken +by those who have known him of the author of "Marcian Colonna," +"Mirandola," "The Broken Heart," and those charming lyrics which rank +the poet among the first of his class. His songs will be sung so long as +music wedded to beautiful poetry is a requisition anywhere. His verses +have gone into the Book of Fame, and such pieces as "Touch us gently, +Time," "Send down thy winged Angel, God," "King Death," "The Sea," and +"Belshazzar is King," will long keep his memory green. Who that ever +came habitually into his presence can forget the tones of his voice, the +tenderness in his gray retrospective eyes, or the touch of his +sympathetic hand laid on the shoulder of a friend! The elements were +indeed so kindly mixed in him that no bitterness or rancor or jealousy +had part or lot in his composition. No distinguished person was ever +more ready to help forward the rising and as yet nameless literary man +or woman who asked his counsel and warm-hearted suffrage. His mere +presence was sunshine to a new-comer into the world of letters and +criticism, for he was always quick to encourage, and slow to disparage +anybody. Indeed, to be _human_ only entitled any one who came near him +to receive the gracious bounty of his goodness and courtesy. He made it +the happiness of his life never to miss, whenever opportunity occurred, +the chance of conferring pleasure and gladness on those who needed kind +words and substantial aid. + +[Footnote *: October, 1874.] + +His equals in literature venerated and loved him. Dickens and Thackeray +never ceased to regard him with the deepest feeling, and such men as +Browning and Tennyson and Carlyle and Forster rallied about him to the +last. He was the delight of all those interesting men and women who +habitually gathered around Rogers's famous table in the olden time, for +his manner had in it all the courtesy of genius, without any of that +chance asperity so common in some literary circles. The shyness of a +scholar brooded continually over him and made him reticent, but he was +never silent from ill-humor. His was that true modesty so excellent in +ability, and so rare in celebrities petted for a long time in society. +His was also that happy alchemy of mind which transmutes disagreeable +things into golden and ruby colors like the dawn. His temperament was +the exact reverse of Fuseli's, who complained that "_nature_ put him +out." A beautiful spirit has indeed passed away, and the name of "Barry +Cornwall," beloved in both hemispheres, is now sanctified afresh by the +seal of eternity so recently stamped upon it. + +It was indeed a privilege for a young American, on his first travels +abroad, to have "Barry Cornwall" for his host in London. As I recall the +memorable days and nights of that long-ago period, I wonder at the good +fortune which brought me into such relations with him, and I linger +with profound gratitude over his many acts of unmerited kindness. One of +the most intimate rambles I ever took with him was in 1851, when we +started one morning from a book-shop in Piccadilly, where we met +accidentally. I had been in London only a couple of days, and had not +yet called upon him for lack of time. Several years had elapsed since we +had met, but he began to talk as if we had parted only a few hours +before. At first I thought his mind was impaired by age, and that he had +forgotten how long it was since we had spoken together. I imagined it +possible that he mistook me for some one else; but very soon I found +that his memory was not at fault, for in a few minutes he began to +question me about old friends in America, and to ask for information +concerning the probable sea-sick horrors of an Atlantic voyage. "I +suppose," said he, "knowing your infirmity, you found it hard work to +stand on your immaterial legs, as Hood used to call Lamb's quivering +limbs." Sauntering out into the street, he went on in a quaintly +humorous way to imagine what a rough voyage must be to a real sufferer, +and thus walking gayly along, we came into Leadenhall Street. There he +pointed out the office where his old friend and fellow-magazinist, +"Elia," spent so many years of hard work from ten until four o'clock of +every day. Being in a mood for reminiscence, he described the Wednesday +evenings he used to spend with "Charles and Mary" and their friends +around the old "mahogany-tree" in Russell Street. I remember he tried to +give me an idea of how Lamb looked and dressed, and how he stood bending +forward to welcome his guests as they arrived in his humble lodgings. +Procter thought nothing unimportant that might serve in any way to +illustrate character, and so he seemed to wish that I might get an exact +idea of the charming person both of us prized so ardently and he had +known so intimately. Speaking of Lamb's habits, he said he had never +known his friend to drink immoderately except upon one occasion, and he +observed that "Elia," like Dickens, was a small and delicate eater. With +faltering voice he told me of Lamb's "givings away" to needy, +impoverished friends whose necessities were yet greater than his own. +His secret charities were constant and unfailing, and no one ever +suffered hunger when he was by. He could not endure to see a +fellow-creature in want if he had the means to feed him. Thinking, from +a depression of spirits which Procter in his young manhood was once +laboring under, that perhaps he was in want of money, Lamb looked him +earnestly in the face as they were walking one day in the country +together, and blurted out, in his stammering way, "My dear boy, I have a +hundred-pound note in my desk that I really don't know what to do with: +oblige me by taking it and getting the confounded thing out of my +keeping." "I was in no need of money," said Procter, "and I declined the +gift; but it was hard work to make Lamb believe that I was not in an +impecunious condition." + +Speaking of Lamb's sister Mary, Procter quoted Hazlitt's saying that +"Mary Lamb was the most rational and wisest woman he had ever been +acquainted with." As we went along some of the more retired streets in +the old city, we had also, I remember, much gossip about Coleridge and +his manner of reciting his poetry, especially when "Elia" happened to be +among the listeners, for the philosopher put a high estimate upon Lamb's +critical judgment. The author of "The Ancient Mariner" always had an +excuse for any bad habit to which he was himself addicted, and he told +Procter one day that perhaps snuff was the final cause of the human +nose. In connection with Coleridge we had much reminiscence of such +interesting persons as the Novellos, Martin Burney, Talfourd, and Crabb +Robinson, and a store of anecdotes in which Haydon, Manning, Dyer, and +Godwin figured at full length. In course of conversation I asked my +companion if he thought Lamb had ever been really in love, and he told +me interesting things of Hester Savory, a young Quaker girl of +Pentonville, who inspired the poem embalming the name of Hester forever, +and of Fanny Kelly, the actress with "the divine plain face," who will +always live in one of "Elia's" most exquisite essays. "He had a +_reverence_ for the sex," said Procter, "and there were tender spots in +his heart that time could never entirely cover up or conceal." + +During our walk we stepped into Christ's Hospital, and turned to the +page on its record book where together we read this entry: "October 9, +1782, Charles Lamb, aged seven years, son of John Lamb, scrivener, and +Elizabeth his wife." + +It was a lucky morning when I dropped in to bid "good morrow" to the +poet as I was passing his house one day, for it was then he took from +among his treasures and gave to me an autograph letter addressed to +himself by Charles Lamb in 1829. I found the dear old man alone and in +his library, sitting at his books, with the windows wide open, letting +in the spring odors. Quoting, as I entered, some lines from Wordsworth +embalming May mornings, he began to talk of the older poets who had +worshipped nature with the ardor of lovers, and his eyes lighted up with +pleasure when I happened to remember some almost forgotten stanza from +England's "Helicon." It was an easy transition from the old bards to +"Elia," and he soon went on in his fine enthusiastic way to relate +several anecdotes of his eccentric friend. As I rose to take leave he +said,-- + +"Have I ever given you one of Lamb's letters to carry home to America?" + +"No," I replied, "and you must not part with the least scrap of a note +in 'Elia's' handwriting. Such things are too precious to be risked on a +sea-voyage to another hemisphere." + +"America ought to share with England in these things," he rejoined; and +leading me up to a sort of cabinet in the library, he unlocked a drawer +and got out a package of time-stained papers. "Ah," said he, as he +turned over the golden leaves, "here is something you will like to +handle." I unfolded the sheet, and lo! it was in Keats's handwriting, +the sonnet on first looking into Chapman's Homer. "Keats gave it to me," +said Procter, "many, many years ago," and then he proceeded to read, in +tones tremulous with delight, these undying lines:-- + + "Much have I travelled in the realms of gold, + And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; + Round many Western islands have I been + Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. + Oft of one wide expanse had I been told + That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne; + Yet did I never breathe its pure serene + Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: + Then felt I like some watcher of the skies + When a new planet swims into his ken, + Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes + He stared at the Pacific--and all his men + Looked at each other with a wild surmise-- + Silent, upon a peak in Darien." + +I sat gazing at the man who had looked on Keats in the flush of his +young genius, and wondered at my good fortune. As the living poet folded +up again the faded manuscript of the illustrious dead one, and laid it +reverently in its place, I felt grateful for the honor thus vouchsafed +to a wandering stranger in a foreign land, and wished that other and +worthier votaries of English letters might have been present to share +with me the boon of such an interview. Presently my hospitable friend, +still rummaging among the past, drew out a letter, which was the one, +he said, he had been looking after. "Cram it into your pocket," he +cried, "for I hear ---- coming down stairs, and perhaps she won't let +you carry it off!" The letter is addressed to B.W. Procter, Esq., 10 +Lincoln's Inn, New Square. I give the entire epistle here just as it +stands in the original which Procter handed me that memorable May +morning. He told me that the law question raised in this epistle was a +sheer fabrication of Lamb's, gotten up by him to puzzle his young +correspondent, the conveyancer. The coolness referred to between himself +and Robinson and Talfourd, Procter said, was also a fiction invented by +Lamb to carry out his legal mystification. + + "_Jan'y_ 19, 1829. + + "My Dear Procter,--I am ashamed to have not taken the drift of your + pleasant letter, which I find to have been pure invention. But jokes + are not suspected in Boeotian Enfield. We are plain people, and our + talk is of corn, and cattle, and Waltham markets. Besides I was a + little out of sorts when I received it. The fact is, I am involved + in a case which has fretted me to death, and I have no reliance + except on you to extricate me. I am sure you will give me your best + legal advice, having no professional friend besides but Robinson and + Talfourd, with neither of whom at present I am on the best terms. My + brother's widow left a will, made during the lifetime of my brother, + in which I am named sole Executor, by which she bequeaths forty + acres of arable property, which it seems she held under Covert + Baron, unknown to my Brother, to the heirs of the body of Elizabeth + Dowden, her married daughter by her first husband, in fee simple, + recoverable by fine--invested property, mind, for there is the + difficulty--subject to leet and quit rent--in short, worded in the + most guarded terms, to shut out the property from Isaac Dowden the + husband. Intelligence has just come of the death of this person in + India, where he made a will, entailing this property (which seem'd + entangled enough already) to the heirs of his body, that should not + be born of his wife; for it seems by the Law in India natural + children can recover. They have put the cause into Exchequer Process + here, removed by Certiorari from the Native Courts, and the question + is whether I should as Executor, try the cause here, or again + re-remove to the Supreme Sessions at Bangalore, which I understand I + can, or plead a hearing before the Privy Council here. As it + involves all the little property of Elizabeth Dowden, I am anxious + to take the fittest steps, and what may be the least expensive. For + God's sake assist me, for the case is so embarrassed that it + deprives me of sleep and appetite. M. Burney thinks there is a Case + like it in Chapt. 170 Sect. 5 in Fearn's _Contingent Remainders_. + Pray read it over with him dispassionately, and let me have the + result. The complexity lies in the questionable power of the husband + to alienate in usum enfeoffments whereof he was only collaterally + seized, etc." + +[On the leaf at this place there are some words in another hand.--F.] + + "The above is some of M. Burney's memoranda, which he has left here, + and you may cut out and give him. I had another favour to beg, which + is the beggarliest of beggings. A few lines of verse for a young + friend's Album (six will be enough). M. Burney will tell you who she + is I want 'em for. A girl of gold. Six lines--make 'em eight--signed + Barry C----. They need not be very good, as I chiefly want 'em as a + foil to mine. But I shall be seriously obliged by any refuse scrap. + We are in the last ages of the world, when St. Paul prophesied that + women should be 'headstrong, lovers of their own wills, having + Albums.' I fled hither to escape the Albumean persecution, and had + not been in my new house 24 hours, when the Daughter of the next + house came in with a friend's Album to beg a contribution, and the + following day intimated she had one of her own. Two more have sprung + up since. If I take the wings of the morning and fly unto the + uttermost parts of the earth, there will Albums be. New Holland has + Albums. But the age is to be complied with. M.B. will tell you the + sort of girl I request the ten lines for. Somewhat of a pensive cast + what you admire. The lines may come before the Law question, as that + cannot be determined before Hilary Term, and I wish your deliberate + judgment on that. The other may be flimsy and superficial. And if + you have not burnt your returned letter pray re-send it me as a + monumental token of my stupidity. 'Twas a little unthinking of you + to touch upon a sore subject. Why, by dabbling in those accursed + Annuals I have become a by-word of infamy all over the kingdom. I + have sicken'd decent women for asking me to write in Albums. There + be 'dark jests' abroad, Master Cornwall, and some riddles may live + to be clear'd up. And 'tisn't every saddle is put on the right + steed. And forgeries and false Gospels are not peculiar to the age + following the Apostles. And some tubs don't stand on their right + bottom. Which is all I wish to say in these ticklish Times ---- and + so your servant, + + CHS. LAMB." + +At the age of seventy-seven Procter was invited to print his +recollections of Charles Lamb, and his volume was welcomed in both +hemispheres as a pleasant addition to "Eliana." During the last eighteen +years of Lamb's life Procter knew him most intimately, and his +chronicles of visits to the little gamboge-colored house in Enfield are +charming pencillings of memory. When Lamb and his sister, tired of +housekeeping, went into lodging and boarding with T---- W----, their +sometime next-door neighbor,--who, Lamb said, had one joke and forty +pounds a year, upon which he retired in a green old age,--Procter still +kept up his friendly visits to his old associate. And after the brother +and sister moved to their last earthly retreat in Edmonton, where +Charles died in 1834, Procter still paid them regular visits of love and +kindness. And after Charles's death, when Mary went to live at a house +in St. John's Wood, her unfailing friend kept up his cheering calls +there till she set out "for that unknown and silent shore," on the 20th +of May, in 1847. + +Procter's conversation was full of endless delight to his friends. His +"asides" were sometimes full of exquisite touches. I remember one +evening when Carlyle was present and rattling on against American +institutions, half comic and half serious, Procter, who sat near me, +kept up a constant underbreath of commentary, taking exactly the other +side. Carlyle was full of horse-play over the character of George +Washington, whom he never vouchsafed to call anything but George. He +said our first President was a good surveyor, and knew how to measure +timber, and that was about all. Procter kept whispering to me all the +while Carlyle was discoursing, and going over Washington's fine traits +to the disparagement of everything Carlyle was laying down as gospel. I +was listening to both these distinguished men at the same time, and it +was one of the most curious experiences in conversation I ever happened +to enjoy. + +I was once present when a loud-voiced person of quality, ignorant and +supercilious, was inveighing against the want of taste commonly +exhibited by artists when they chose their wives, saying they almost +always selected inferior women. Procter, sitting next to me, put his +hand on my shoulder, and, with a look expressive of ludicrous pity and +contempt for the idiotic speaker, whispered, "And yet Vandyck married +the daughter of Earl Gower, poor fellow!" The mock solemnity of +Procter's manner was irresistible. It had a wink in it that really +embodied the genius of fun and sarcasm. + +Talking of the ocean with him one day, he revealed this curious fact: +although he is the author of one of the most stirring and popular +sea-songs in the language,-- + + "The sea, the sea, the open sea!"-- + +he said he had rarely been upon the tossing element, having a great fear +of being made ill by it. I think he told me he had never dared to cross +the Channel even, and so had never seen Paris. He said, like many +others, he delighted to gaze upon the waters from a safe place on land, +but had a horror of living on it even for a few hours. I recalled to his +recollection his own lines,-- + + "I'm on the sea! I'm on the sea! + I am where I would ever be,"-- + +and he shook his head, and laughingly declared I must have misquoted his +words, or that Dibdin had written the piece and put "Barry Cornwall's" +signature to it. We had, I remember, a great deal of fun over the +poetical lies, as he called them, which bards in all ages had +perpetrated in their verse, and he told me some stories of English +poets, over which we made merry as we sat together in pleasant Cavendish +Square that summer evening. + +His world-renowned song of "The Sea" he afterward gave me in his own +handwriting, and it is still among my autographic treasures. + +It was Procter who first in my hearing, twenty-five years ago, put such +an estimate on the poetry of Robert Browning that I could not delay any +longer to make acquaintance with his writings. I remember to have been +startled at hearing the man who in his day had known so many poets +declare that Browning was the peer of any one who had written in this +century, and that, on the whole, his genius had not been excelled in his +(Procter's) time. "Mind what I say," insisted Procter; "Browning will +make an enduring name, and add another supremely great poet to England." + +Procter could sometimes be prompted into describing that brilliant set +of men and women who were in the habit of congregating at Lady +Blessington's, and I well recollect his description of young N.P. Willis +as he first appeared in her _salon_. "The young traveller came among +us," said Procter, "enthusiastic, handsome, and good-natured, and took +his place beside D'Orsay, Bulwer, Disraeli, and the other dandies as +naturally as if he had been for years a London man about town. He was +full of fresh talk concerning his own country, and we all admired his +cleverness in compassing so aptly all the little newnesses of the +situation. He was ready on all occasions, a little too ready, some of +the _habitues_ of the _salon_ thought, and they could not understand his +cool and quiet-at-home manners. He became a favorite at first trial, and +laid himself out determined to please and be pleased. His ever kind and +thoughtful attention to others won him troops of friends, and I never +can forget his unwearied goodness to a sick child of mine, with whom, +night after night, he would sit by the bedside and watch, thus relieving +the worn-out family in a way that was very tender and self-sacrificing." + +Of Lady Blessington's tact, kindness, and remarkable beauty Procter +always spoke with ardor, and abated nothing from the popular idea of +that fascinating person. He thought she had done more in her time to +institute good feeling and social intercourse among men of letters than +any other lady in England, and he gave her eminent credit for bringing +forward the rising talent of the metropolis without waiting to be +prompted by a public verdict. As the poet described her to me as she +moved through her exquisite apartments, surrounded by all the luxuries +that naturally connect themselves with one of her commanding position in +literature and art, her radiant and exceptional beauty of person, her +frank and cordial manners, the wit, wisdom, and grace of her speech, I +thought of the fair Giovanna of Naples as painted in "Bianca +Visconti":-- + + "Gods! what a light enveloped her! + .... Her beauty + Was of that order that the universe + Seemed governed by her motion..... + The pomp, the music, the bright sun in heaven, + Seemed glorious by her leave." + +One of the most agreeable men in London literary society during +Procter's time was the companionable and ever kind-hearted John Kenyon. +He was a man compacted of all the best qualities of an incomparable +good-nature. His friends used to call him "the apostle of cheerfulness." +He could not endure a long face under his roof, and declined to see the +dark side of anything. He wrote verses almost like a poet, but no one +surpassed him in genuine admiration for whatever was excellent in +others. No happiness was so great to him as the conferring of happiness +on others, and I am glad to write myself his eternal debtor for much of +my enjoyment in England, for he introduced me to many lifelong +friendships, and he inaugurated for me much of that felicity which +springs from intercourse with men and women whose books are the solace +of our lifelong existence. + +Kenyon was Mrs. Browning's cousin, and in 1856 she dedicates "Aurora +Leigh" to him in these affectionate terms:-- + + "The words 'cousin' and 'friend' are constantly recurring in this + poem, the last pages of which have been finished under the + hospitality of your roof, my own dearest cousin and friend;--cousin + and friend, in a sense of less equality and greater + disinterestedness than Romney's.... I venture to leave in your hands + this book, the most mature of my works, and the one into which my + highest convictions upon Life and Art have entered; that as, through + my various efforts in literature and steps in life, you have + believed in me, borne with me, and been generous to me, far beyond + the common uses of mere relationship or sympathy of mind, so you may + kindly accept, in sight of the public, this poor sign of esteem, + gratitude, and affection from your unforgetting + + "E.B.B." + +How often have I seen Kenyon and Procter chirping together over an old +quarto that had floated down from an early century, or rejoicing +together over a well-worn letter in a family portfolio of treasures! +They were a pair of veteran brothers, and there was never a flaw in +their long and loving intercourse. In a letter which Procter wrote to me +in March, 1857, he thus refers to his old friend, then lately dead: +"Everybody seems to be dying hereabouts,--one of my colleagues, one of +my relations, one of my servants, three of them in one week, the last +one in my own house. And now I seem fit for little else myself. My dear +old friend Kenyon is dead. There never was a man, take him for all in +all, with more amiable, attractive qualities. A kind friend, a good +master, a generous and judicious dispenser of his wealth, honorable, +sweet-tempered, and serene, and genial as a summer's day. It is true +that he has left me a solid mark of his friendship. I did not expect +anything; but if to like a man sincerely deserved such a mark of his +regard, I deserved it. I doubt if he has left one person who really +liked him more than I did. Yes, one--I think one--a woman.... I get old +and weak and stupid. That pleasant journey to Niagara, that dip into +your Indian summer, all such thoughts are over. I shall never see Italy; +I shall never see Paris. My future is before me,--a very limited +landscape, with scarcely one old friend left in it. I see a smallish +room, with a bow-window looking south, a bookcase full of books, three +or four drawings, and a library chair and table (once the property of my +old friend Kenyon--I am writing on the table now), and you have the +greater part of the vision before you. Is this the end of all things? I +believe it is pretty much like most scenes in the fifth act, when the +green (or black) curtain is about to drop and tell you that the play of +_Hamlet_ or of John Smith is over. But wait a little. There will be +another piece, in which John Smith the younger will figure, and quite +eclipse his old, stupid, wrinkled, useless, time-slaughtered parent. The +king is dead,--long live the king!" + +Kenyon was very fond of Americans, Professor Ticknor and Mr. George S. +Hillard being especially dear to him. I remember hearing him say one day +that the "best prepared" young foreigner he had ever met, who had come +to see Europe, was Mr. Hillard. One day at his dinner-table, in the +presence of Mrs. Jameson, Mr. and Mrs. Carlyle, Walter Savage Landor, +Mr. and Mrs. Robert Browning, and the Procters, I heard him declare that +one of the best talkers on any subject that might be started at the +social board was the author of "Six Months in Italy." It was at a +breakfast in Kenyon's house that I first met Walter Savage Landor, whose +writings are full of verbal legacies to posterity. As I entered the room +with Procter, Landor was in the midst of an eloquent harangue on the +high art of portraiture. Procter had been lately sitting to a +daguerreotypist for a picture, and Mrs. Jameson, who was very fond of +the poet, had arranged the camera for that occasion. Landor was holding +the picture in his hand, declaring that it had never been surpassed as a +specimen of that particular art. The grand-looking author of "Pericles +and Aspasia" was standing in the middle of the room when we entered, and +his voice sounded like an explosion of first-class artillery. Seeing +Procter enter, he immediately began to address him compliments in +high-sounding Latin. Poor modest Procter pretended to stop his ears that +he might not listen to Landor's eulogistic phrases. Kenyon came to the +rescue by declaring the breakfast had been waiting half an hour. When we +arrived at the table Landor asked Procter to join him on an expedition +into Spain which he was then contemplating. "No," said Procter, "for I +cannot even 'walk Spanish' and having never crossed the Channel, I do +not intend to begin now." + +"Never crossed the Channel!" roared Landor,--"never saw Napoleon +Bonaparte!" He then began to tell us how the young Corsican looked when +he first saw him, saying that he had the olive complexion and roundness +of face of a Greek girl; that the consul's voice was deep and melodious, +but untruthful in tone. While we were eating breakfast he went on to +describe his Italian travels in early youth, telling us that he once saw +Shelley and Byron meet in the doorway of a hotel in Pisa. Landor had +lived in Italy many years, for he detested the climate of his native +country, and used to say "one could only live comfortably in England who +was rich enough to have a solar system of his own." + +The Prince of Carpi said of Erasmus he was so thin-skinned that a fly +would draw blood from him. The author of the "Imaginary Conversations" +had the same infirmity. A very little thing would disturb him for hours, +and his friends were never sure of his equanimity. I was present once +when a blundering friend trod unwittingly on his favorite prejudice, and +Landor went off instanter like a blaspheming torpedo. There were three +things in the world which received no quarter at his hands, and when in +the slightest degree he scented _hypocrisy_, _pharisaism_, or _tyranny_, +straightway he became furious, and laid about him like a mad giant. + +Procter told me that when Landor got into a passion, his rage was +sometimes uncontrollable. The fiery spirit knew his weakness, but his +anger quite overmastered him in spite of himself. "Keep your temper, +Landor," somebody said to him one day when he was raging. "That is just +what I don't wish to keep," he cried; "I wish to be rid of such an +infamous, ungovernable thing. I don't wish to keep my temper." Whoever +wishes to get a good look at Landor will not seek for it alone in John +Forster's interesting life of the old man, admirable as it is, but will +turn to Dickens's "Bleak House" for side glances at the great author. In +that vivid story Dickens has made his friend Landor sit for the portrait +of Lawrence Boythorn. The very laugh that made the whole house vibrate, +the roundness and fulness of voice, the fury of superlatives, are all +given in Dickens's best manner, and no one who has ever seen Landor for +half an hour could possibly mistake Boythorn for anybody else. Talking +the matter over once with Dickens, he said, "Landor always took that +presentation of himself in hearty good-humor, and seemed rather proud of +the picture." This is Dickens's portrait: "He was not only a very +handsome old gentleman, upright and stalwart, with a massive gray head, +a fine composure of face when silent, a figure that might have become +corpulent but for his being so continually in earnest that he gave it no +rest, and a chin that might have subsided into a double chin but for the +vehement emphasis in which it was constantly required to assist; but he +was such a true gentleman in his manner, so chivalrously polite, his +face was lighted by a smile of so much sweetness and tenderness, and it +seemed so plain that he had nothing to hide, that really I could not +help looking at him with equal pleasure, whether he smilingly conversed +with Ada and me, or was led by Mr. Jarndyce into some great volley of +superlatives, or threw up his head like a bloodhound, and gave out that +tremendous Ha! ha! ha!" + +Landor's energetic gravity, when he was proposing some colossal +impossibility, the observant novelist would naturally seize on, for +Dickens was always on the lookout for exaggerations in human language +and conduct. It was at Procter's table I heard Dickens describe a scene +which transpired after the publication of the "Old Curiosity Shop." It +seems that the first idea of Little Nell occurred to Dickens when he was +on a birthday visit to Landor, then living in Bath. The old man was +residing in lodgings in St. James Square, in that city, and ever after +connected Little Nell with that particular spot. No character in prose +fiction was a greater favorite with Landor, and one day, years after the +story was published, he burst out with a tremendous emphasis, and +declared the one mistake of his life was that he had not purchased the +house in Bath, and then and there burned it to the ground, so that no +meaner association should ever desecrate the birthplace of Little Nell! + +It was Procter's old schoolmaster (Dr. Drury, headmaster of Harrow) who +was the means of introducing Edmund Kean, the great actor, on the London +stage. Procter delighted to recall the many theatrical triumphs of the +eccentric tragedian, and the memoir which he printed of Kean will always +be read with interest. I heard the poet one evening describe the player +most graphically as he appeared in Sir Giles Overreach in 1816 at Drury +Lane, when he produced such an effect on Lord Byron, who sat that night +in a stage-box with Tom Moore. His lordship was so overcome by Kean's +magnificent acting that he fell forward in a convulsive fit, and it was +some time before he regained his wonted composure. Douglas Jerrold said +that Kean's appearance in Shakespeare's Jew was like a chapter out of +Genesis, and all who have seen the incomparable actor speak of his +tiger-like power and infinite grace as unrivalled. + +At Procter's house the best of England's celebrated men and women +assembled, and it was a kind of enchantment to converse with the ladies +one met there. It was indeed a privilege to be received by the hostess +herself, for Mrs. Procter was not only sure to be the most brilliant +person among her guests, but she practised habitually that exquisite +courtesy toward all which renders even a stranger, unwonted to London +drawing-rooms, free from awkwardness and that constraint which are +almost inseparable from a first appearance. + +Among the persons T have seen at that house of urbanity in London I +distinctly recall old Mrs. Montague, the mother of Mrs. Procter. She had +met Robert Burns in Edinburgh when he first came up to that city to +bring out his volume of poems. "I have seen many a handsome man in my +time," said the old lady one day to us at dinner, "but never such a pair +of eyes as young Robbie Burns kept flashing from under his beautiful +brow." Mrs. Montague was much interested in Charles Sumner, and +predicted for him all the eminence of his after-position. With a certain +other American visitor she had no patience, and spoke of him to me as a +"note of interrogation, too curious to be comfortable." + +I distinctly recall Adelaide Procter as I first saw her on one of my +early visits to her father's house. She was a shy, bright girl, and the +poet drew my attention to her as she sat reading in a corner of the +library. Looking at the young maiden, intent on her book, I remembered +that exquisite sonnet in her father's volume, bearing date November, +1825, addressed to the infant just a month after her birth:-- + + Child of my heart! My sweet, beloved First-born! + Thou dove who tidings bring'st of calmer hours! + Thou rainbow who dost shine when all the showers + Are past or passing! Rose which hath no thorn, + No spot, no blemish,--pure and unforlorn, + Untouched, untainted! O my Flower of flowers! + More welcome than to bees are summer bowers, + To stranded seamen life-assuring morn! + Welcome, a thousand welcomes! Care, who clings + Round all, seems loosening now its serpent fold: + New hope springs upward; and the bright world seems + Cast back into a youth of endless springs! + Sweet mother, is it so? or grow I old, + Bewildered in divine Elysian dreams! + +I whispered in the poet's ear my admiration of the sonnet and the +beautiful subject of it as we sat looking at her absorbed in the volume +on her knees. Procter, in response, murmured some words expressive of +his joy at having such a gift from God to gladden his affectionate +heart, and he told me afterward what a comfort Adelaide had always been +to his household. He described to me a visit Wordsworth made to his +house one day, and how gentle the old man's aspect was when he looked at +the children. "He took the hand of my dear Adelaide in his," said +Procter, "and spoke some words to her, the recollection of which helped, +perhaps, with other things, to incline her to poetry." When a little +child "the golden-tressed Adelaide," as the poet calls her in one of +his songs, must often have heard her father read aloud his own poems as +they came fresh from the fount of song, and the impression no doubt +wrought upon her young imagination a spell she could not resist. On a +sensitive mind like hers such a piece as the "Petition to Time" could +not fail of producing its full effect, and no girl of her temperament +would be unmoved by the music of words like these:-- + + "Touch us gently, Time! + Let us glide adown thy stream + Gently, as we sometimes glide + Through a quiet dream. + Humble voyagers are we, + Husband, wife, and children three. + (One is lost, an angel, fled + To the azure overhead.) + + "Touch us gently, Time! + We've not proud nor soaring wings: + _Our_ ambition, _our_ content, + Lie in simple things. + Humble voyagers are we, + O'er Life's dim unsounded sea, + Seeking only some calm clime: + Touch us _gently_, gentle Time!" + +Adelaide Procter's name will always be sweet in the annals of English +poetry. Her place was assured from the time when she made her modest +advent, in 1853, in the columns of Dickens's "Household Words," and +everything she wrote from that period onward until she died gave +evidence of striking and peculiar talent. I have heard Dickens describe +how she first began to proffer contributions to his columns over a +feigned name, that of Miss Mary Berwick; how he came to think that his +unknown correspondent must be a governess; how, as time went on, he +learned to value his new contributor for her self-reliance and +punctuality,--qualities upon which Dickens always placed a high value; +how at last, going to dine one day with his old friends the Procters, he +launched enthusiastically out in praise of Mary Berwick (the writer +herself, Adelaide Procter, sitting at the table); and how the delighted +mother, being in the secret, revealed, with tears of joy, the real name +of the young aspirant. Although Dickens has told the whole story most +feelingly in an introduction to Miss Procter's "Legends and Lyrics," +issued after her death, to hear it from his own lips and sympathetic +heart, as I have done, was, as may be imagined, something better even +than reading his pathetic words on the printed page. + +One of the most interesting ladies in London literary society in the +period of which I am writing was Mrs. Jameson, the dear and honored +friend of Procter and his family. During many years of her later life +she stood in the relation of consoler to her sex in England. Women in +mental anguish needing consolation and counsel fled to her as to a +convent for protection and guidance. Her published writings established +such a claim upon her sympathy in the hearts of her readers that much of +her time for twenty years before she died was spent in helping others, +by correspondence and personal contact, to submit to the sorrows God had +cast upon them. She believed, with Milton, that it is miserable enough +to be blind, but still more miserable not to be able to bear blindness. +Her own earlier life had been darkened by griefs, and she knew from a +deep experience what it was to enter the cloud and stand waiting and +hoping in the shadows. In her instructive and delightful society I spent +many an hour twenty years ago in the houses of Procter and Rogers and +Kenyon. Procter, knowing my admiration of the Kemble family, frequently +led the conversation up to that regal line which included so many men +and women of genius. Mrs. Jameson was never weary of being questioned +as to the legitimate supremacy of Mrs. Siddons and her nieces, Fanny and +Adelaide Kemble. While Rogers talked of Garrick, and Procter of Kean, +she had no enthusiasms that were not bounded in by those fine spirits +whom she had watched and worshipped from her earliest years. + +Now and then in the garden of life we get that special bite out of the +sunny side of a peach. One of my own memorable experiences in that way +came in this wise. I had heard, long before I went abroad, so much of +the singing of the youngest child of the "Olympian dynasty," Adelaide +Kemble, so much of a brief career crowded with triumphs on the lyric +stage, that I longed, if it might be possible, to listen to the "true +daughter of her race." The rest of her family for years had been, as it +were, "nourished on Shakespeare," and achieved greatness in that high +walk of genius; but now came one who could interpret Mozart, Bellini, +and Mercadante, one who could equal what Pasta and Malibran and Persiani +and Grisi had taught the world to understand and worship. "Ah!" said a +friend, "if you could only hear _her_ sing 'Casta Diva'!" "Yes," said +another, "and 'Auld Robin Gray'!" No wonder, I thought, at the universal +enthusiasm for a vocal and lyrical artist who can alternate with equal +power from "Casta Diva" to "Auld Robin Gray." I _must_ hear her! She had +left the stage, after a brief glory upon it, but as Madame Sartoris she +sometimes sang at home to her guests. + +"We are invited to hear some music, this evening," said Procter to me +one day, "and you must go with us." I went, and our hostess was the once +magnificent _prima donna!_ At intervals throughout the evening, with a +voice + + "That crowds and hurries and precipitates + With thick fast warble its delicious notes," + +she poured out her full soul in melody. We all know her now as the +author of that exquisite "Week in a French Country-House," and her +fascinating book somehow always mingles itself in my memory with the +enchanted evening when I heard her sing. As she sat at the piano in all +her majestic beauty, I imagined her a sort of later St. Cecilia, and +could have wished for another Raphael to paint her worthily. Henry +Chorley, who was present on that memorable evening, seemed to be in a +kind of nervous rapture at hearing again the supreme and willing singer. +Procter moved away into a dim corner of the room, and held his tremulous +hand over his eyes. The old poet's sensitive spirit seemed at times to +be going out on the breath of the glorious artist who was thrilling us +all with her power. Mrs. Jameson bent forward to watch every motion of +her idol, looking applause at every noble passage. Another lady, whom I +did not know, was tremulous with excitement, and I could well imagine +what might have taken place when the "impassioned chantress" sang and +enacted Semiramide as I have heard it described. Every one present was +inspired by her fine mien, as well as by her transcendent voice. Mozart, +Rossini, Bellini, Cherubini,--how she flung herself that night, with all +her gifts, into their highest compositions! As she rose and was walking +away from the piano, after singing an air from the "Medea" with a pathos +that no musically uneducated pen like mine can or ought to attempt a +description of, some one intercepted her and whispered a request. Again +she turned, and walked toward the instrument like a queen among her +admiring court. A flash of lightning, followed by a peal of thunder that +jarred the house, stopped her for a moment on her way to the piano. A +sudden summer tempest was gathering, and crash after crash made it +impossible for her to begin. As she stood waiting for the "elemental +fury" to subside, her attitude was quite worthy of the niece of Mrs. +Siddons. When the thunder had grown less frequent, she threw back her +beautiful classic head and touched the keys. The air she had been called +upon to sing was so wild and weird, a dead silence fell upon the room, +and an influence as of terror pervaded the whole assembly. It was a song +by Dessauer, which he had composed for her voice, the words by Tennyson. +No one who was present that evening can forget how she broke the silence +with + + "We were two daughters of one race," + +or how she uttered the words, + + "The wind is roaring in turret and tree." + +It was like a scene in a great tragedy, and then I fully understood the +worship she had won as belonging only to those consummate artists who +have arisen to dignify and ennoble the lyric stage. As we left the house +Procter said, "You are in great luck to-night. I never heard her sing +more divinely." + +The Poet frequently spoke to me of the old days when he was contributing +to the "London Magazine," which fifty years ago was deservedly so +popular in Great Britain. All the "best talent" (to use a modern +advertisement phrase) wrote for it. Carlyle sent his papers on Schiller +to be printed in it; De Quincey's "Confessions of an English +Opium-Eater" appeared in its pages; and the essays of "Elia" came out +first in that potent periodical; Landor, Keats, and John Bowring +contributed to it; and to have printed a prose or poetical article in +the "London" entitled a man to be asked to dine out anywhere in society +in those days. In 1821 the proprietors began to give dinners in Waterloo +Place once a month to their contributors, who, after the cloth was +removed, were expected to talk over the prospects of the magazine, and +lay out the contents for next month. Procter described to me the +authors of his generation as they sat round the old "mahogany-tree" of +that period. "Very social and expansive hours they passed in that +pleasant room half a century ago. Thither came stalwart Allan +Cunningham, with his Scotch face shining with good-nature; Charles Lamb, +'a Diogenes with the heart of a St. John'; Hamilton Reynolds, whose good +temper and vivacity were like condiments at a feast; John Clare, the +peasant-poet, simple as a daisy; Tom Hood, young, silent, and grave, but +who nevertheless now and then shot out a pun that damaged the shaking +sides of the whole company; De Quincey, self-involved and courteous, +rolling out his periods with a pomp and splendor suited, perhaps, to a +high Roman festival; and with these sons of fame gathered certain +nameless folk whose contributions to the great 'London' are now under +the protection of that tremendous power which men call _Oblivion_." + +It was a vivid pleasure to hear Procter describe Edward Irving, the +eccentric preacher, who made such a deep impression on the spirit of his +time. He is now dislimned into space, but he was, according to all his +thoughtful contemporaries, a "son of thunder," a "giant force of +activity." Procter fully indorsed all that Carlyle has so nobly written +of the eloquent man who, dying at forty-two, has stamped his strong +personal vitality on the age in which he lived. + +Procter, in his younger days, was evidently much impressed by that +clever rascal who, under the name of "Janus Weathercock," scintillated +at intervals in the old "London Magazine." Wainwright--for that was his +real name--was so brilliant, he made friends for a time among many of +the first-class contributors to that once famous periodical; but the Ten +Commandments ruined all his prospects for life. A murderer, a forger, a +thief,--in short, a sinner in general,--he came to grief rather early +in his wicked career, and suffered penalties of the law accordingly, but +never to the full extent of his remarkable deserts. I have heard Procter +describe his personal appearance as he came sparkling into the room, +clad in undress military costume. His smart conversation deceived those +about him into the belief that he had been an officer in the dragoons, +that he had spent a large fortune, and now condescended to take a part +in periodical literature with the culture of a gentleman and the grace +of an amateur. How this vapid charlatan in a braided surtout and +prismatic necktie could so long veil his real character from, and retain +the regard of, such men as Procter and Talfourd and Coleridge is +amazing. Lamb calls him the "kind and light-hearted Janus," and thought +he liked him. The contributors often spoke of his guileless nature at +the festal monthly board of the magazine, and no one dreamed that this +gay and mock-smiling London cavalier was about to begin a career so foul +and monstrous that the annals of crime for centuries have no blacker +pages inscribed on them. To secure the means of luxurious living without +labor, and to pamper his dandy tastes, this lounging, lazy _litterateur_ +resolved to become a murderer on a large scale, and accompany his cruel +poisonings with forgeries whenever they were most convenient. His custom +for years was to effect policies of insurance on the lives of his +relations, and then at the proper time administer strychnine to his +victims. The heart sickens at the recital of his brutal crimes. On the +life of a beautiful young girl named Abercrombie this fiendish wretch +effected an insurance at various offices for L18,000 before he sent her +to her account with the rest of his poisoned too-confiding relatives. So +many heavily insured ladies dying in violent convulsions drew attention +to the gentleman who always called to collect the money. But why this +consummate criminal was not brought to justice and hung, my Lord Abinger +never satisfactorily divulged. At last this polished Sybarite, who +boasted that he always drank the richest Montepulciano, who could not +sit long in a room that was not garlanded with flowers, who said he felt +lonely in an apartment without a fine cast of the Venus de' Medici in +it,--this self-indulgent voluptuary at last committed several forgeries +on the Bank of England, and the Old Bailey sessions of July, 1837, +sentenced him to transportation for life. While he was lying in Newgate +prior to his departure, with other convicts, to New South Wales, where +he died, Dickens went with a former acquaintance of the prisoner to see +him. They found him still possessed with a morbid self-esteem and a poor +and empty vanity. All other feelings and interests were overwhelmed by +an excessive idolatry of self, and he claimed (I now quote his own words +to Dickens) a soul whose nutriment is love, and its offspring art, +music, divine song, and still holier philosophy. To the last this +super-refined creature seemed undisturbed by remorse. What place can we +fancy for such a reptile, and what do we learn from such a career? +Talfourd has so wisely summed up the whole case for us that I leave the +dark tragedy with the recital of this solemn sentence from a paper on +the culprit in the "Final Memorials of Charles Lamb": "Wainwright's +vanity, nurtured by selfishness and unchecked by religion, became a +disease, amounting perhaps to monomania, and yielding one lesson to +repay the world for his existence, viz. that there is no state of the +soul so dangerous as that in which the vices of the sensualist are +envenomed by the grovelling intellect of the scorner." + +One of the men best worth meeting in London, under any circumstances, +was Leigh Hunt, but it was a special boon to find him and Procter +together. I remember a day in the summer of 1859 when Procter had a +party of friends at dinner to meet Hawthorne, who was then on a brief +visit to London. Among the guests were the Countess of ----, Kinglake, +the author of "Eothen," Charles Sumner, then on his way to Paris, and +Leigh Hunt, the mercurial qualities of whose blood were even then +perceptible in his manner. + +Adelaide Procter did not reach home in season to begin the dinner with +us, but she came later in the evening, and sat for some time in earnest +talk with Hawthorne. It was a "goodly companie," long to be remembered. +Hunt and Procter were in a mood for gossip over the ruddy port. As the +twilight deepened around the table, which was exquisitely decorated with +flowers, the author of "Rimini" recalled to Procter's recollection other +memorable tables where they used to meet in vanished days with Lamb, +Coleridge, and others of their set long since passed away. As they +talked on in rather low tones, I saw the two old poets take hands more +than once at the mention of dead and beloved names. I recollect they had +a good deal of fine talk over the great singers whose voices had +delighted them in bygone days; speaking with rapture of Pasta, whose +tones in opera they thought incomparably the grandest musical utterances +they had ever heard. Procter's tribute in verse to this + + "Queen and wonder of the enchanted world of sound" + +is one of his best lyrics, and never was singer more divinely +complimented by poet. At the dinner I am describing he declared that she +walked on the stage like an empress, "and when she sang," said he, "I +held my breath." Leigh Hunt, in one of his letters to Procter in 1831, +says: "As to Pasta, I love her, for she makes the ground firm under my +feet, and the sky blue over my head." + +I cannot remember all the good things I heard that day, but some of +them live in my recollection still. Hunt quoted Hartley Coleridge, who +said, "No boy ever imagined himself a poet while he was reading +Shakespeare or Milton." And speaking of Landor's oaths, he said, "They +are so rich, they are really nutritious." Talking of criticism, he said +he did not believe in spiteful imps, but in kindly elves who would "nod +to him and do him courtesies." He laughed at Bishop Berkeley's attempt +to destroy the world in one octavo volume. His doctrine to mankind +always was, "Enlarge your tastes, that you may enlarge your hearts." He +believed in reversing original propensities by education,--as +Spallanzani brought up eagles on bread and milk, and fed doves on raw +meat. "Don't let us demand too much of human nature," was a line in his +creed; and he believed in Hood's advice, that gentleness in a case of +wrong direction is always better than vituperation. + + "Mid light, and by degrees, should be the plan + To cure the dark and erring mind; + But who would rush at a benighted man + And give him two black eyes for being blind?" + +I recollect there was much converse that day on the love of reading in +old age, and Leigh Hunt observed that Sir Robert Walpole, seeing Mr. Fox +busy in the library at Houghton, said to him: "And you can read! Ah, how +I envy you! I totally neglected the _habit_ of reading when I was young, +and now in my old age I cannot read a single page." Hunt himself was a +man who could be "penetrated by a book." It was inspiring to hear him +dilate over "Plutarch's Morals," and quote passages from that delightful +essay on "The Tranquillity of the Soul." He had such reverence for the +wisdom folded up on his library shelves, he declared that the very +perusal of the _backs of his books_ was "a discipline of humanity." +Whenever and wherever I met this charming person, I learned a lesson of +gentleness and patience; for, steeped to the lips in poverty as he was, +he was ever the most cheerful, the most genial companion and friend. He +never left his good-nature outside the family circle, as a Mussulman +leaves his slippers outside a mosque, but he always brought a smiling +face into the house with him. T---- A----, whose fine floating wit has +never yet quite condensed itself into a star, said one day of a Boston +man that he was "east-wind made flesh." Leigh Hunt was exactly the +opposite of this; he was compact of all the spicy breezes that blow. In +his bare cottage at Hammersmith the temperament of his fine spirit +heaped up such riches of fancy that kings, if wise ones, might envy his +magic power. + + "Onward in faith, and leave the rest to Heaven," + +was a line he often quoted. There was about him such a modest fortitude +in want and poverty, such an inborn mental superiority to low and +uncomfortable circumstances, that he rose without effort into a region +encompassed with felicities, untroubled by a care or sorrow. He always +reminded me of that favorite child of the genii who carried an amulet in +his bosom by which all the gold and jewels of the Sultan's halls were no +sooner beheld than they became his own. If he sat down companionless to +a solitary chop, his imagination transformed it straightway into a fine +shoulder of mutton. When he looked out of his dingy old windows on the +four bleak elms in front of his dwelling, he saw, or thought he saw, a +vast forest, and he could hear in the note of one poor sparrow even the +silvery voices of a hundred nightingales. Such a man might often be cold +and hungry, but he had the wit never to be aware of it. + +Hunt's love for Procter was deep and tender, and in one of his notes to +me he says, referring to the meeting my memory has been trying to +describe, "I have reasons for liking our dear friend Procter's wine +beyond what you saw when we dined together at his table the other day." +Procter prefixed a memoir of the life and writings of Ben Jonson to the +great dramatist's works printed by Moxon in 1838. I happen to be the +lucky owner of a copy of this edition that once belonged to Leigh Hunt, +who has enriched it and perfumed the pages, as it were, by his +annotations. The memoir abounds in felicities of expression, and is the +best brief chronicle yet made of rare Ben and his poetry. Leigh Hunt has +filled the margins with his own neat handwriting, and as I turn over the +leaves, thus companioned, I seem to meet those two loving brothers in +modern song, and have again the benefit of their sweet society,--a +society redolent of + + "The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, + And all the sweet serenity of books." + +I shall not soon forget the first morning I walked with Procter and +Kenyon to the famous house No 22 St. James Place, overlooking the Green +Park, to a breakfast with Samuel Rogers. Mixed up with this matutinal +rite was much that belongs to the modern literary and political history +of England. Fox, Burke, Talleyrand, Grattan, Walter Scott, and many +other great ones have sat there and held converse on divers matters with +the banker-poet. For more than half a century the wits and the wise men +honored that unpretending mansion with their presence. On my way thither +for the first time my companions related anecdote after anecdote of the +"ancient bard," as they called our host, telling me also how all his +life long the poet of Memory had been giving substantial aid to poor +authors; how he had befriended Sheridan, and how good he had been to +Campbell in his sorest needs. Intellectual or artistic excellence was a +sure passport to his _salon_, and his door never turned on reluctant +hinges to admit the unfriended man of letters who needed his aid and +counsel. + +We arrived in quite an expectant mood, to find our host already seated +at the head of his table, and his good man Edmund standing behind his +chair. As we entered the room, and I saw Rogers sitting there so +venerable and strange, I was reminded of that line of Wordsworth's, + + "The oldest man he seemed that ever wore gray hair." + +But old as he was, he seemed full of _verve_, vivacity, and decision. +Knowing his homage for Ben Franklin, I had brought to him as a gift from +America an old volume issued by the patriot printer in 1741. He was +delighted with my little present, and began at once to say how much he +thought of Franklin's prose. He considered the style admirable, and +declared that it might be studied now for improvement in the art of +composition. One of the guests that morning was the Rev. Alexander Dyce, +the scholarly editor of Beaumont and Fletcher, and he very soon drew +Rogers out on the subject of Warren Hastings's trial. It seemed ghostly +enough to hear that famous event depicted by one who sat in the great +hall of William Rufus; who day after day had looked on and listened to +the eloquence of Fox and Sheridan; who had heard Edmund Burke raise his +voice till the old arches of Irish oak resounded, and impeach Warren +Hastings, "in the name of both sexes, in the name of every age, in the +name of every rank, as the common enemy and oppressor of all." It +thrilled me to hear Rogers say, "As I walked up Parliament Street with +Mrs. Siddons, after hearing Sheridan's great speech, we both agreed that +never before could human lips have uttered more eloquent words." That +morning Rogers described to us the appearance of Grattan as he first +saw and heard him when he made his first speech in Parliament. "Some of +us were inclined to laugh," said he, "at the orator's Irish brogue when +he began his speech that day, but after he had been on his legs five +minutes nobody dared to laugh any more." Then followed personal +anecdotes of Madame De Stael, the Duke of Wellington, Walter Scott, Tom +Moore, and Sydney Smith, all exquisitely told. Both our host and his +friend Procter had known or entertained most of the celebrities of their +day. Procter soon led the conversation up to matters connected with the +stage, and thinking of John Kemble and Edmund Kean, I ventured to ask +Rogers who of all the great actors he had seen bore away the palm. "I +have looked upon a magnificent procession of them," he said, "in my +time, and I never saw any one superior to _David Garrick_." He then +repeated Hannah More's couplet on receiving as a gift from Mrs. Garrick +the shoe-buckles which once belonged to the great actor:-- + + "Thy buckles, O Garrick, another may use, + but none shall be found who can tread in thy shoes" + +We applauded his memory and his manner of reciting the lines, which +seemed to please him. "How much can sometimes be put into an epigram!" +he said to Procter, and asked him if he remembered the lines about Earl +Grey and the Kaffir war. Procter did not recall them, and Rogers set off +again:-- + + "A dispute has arisen of late at the Cape, + As touching the devil, his color and shape; + While some folks contend that the devil is white, + The others aver that he's black as midnight; + But now't is decided quite right in this way, + And all are convinced that the devil is _Grey_." + +We asked him if he remembered the theatrical excitement in London when +Garrick and his troublesome contemporary, Barry, were playing King Lear +at rival houses, and dividing the final opinion of the critics. "Yes," +said he, "perfectly. I saw both those wonderful actors, and fully agreed +at the time with the admirable epigram that ran like wildfire into every +nook and corner of society." "Did the epigram still live in his memory?" +we asked. The old man seemed looking across the misty valley of time for +a few moments, and then gave it without a pause:-- + + "The town have chosen different ways + To praise their different Lears; + To Barry they give loud applause, + To Garrick only tears. + + "A king! ay, every inch a king, + Such Barry doth appear; + But Garrick's quite another thing,-- + He's every inch _King Lear!_" + +Among other things which Rogers told us that morning, I remember he had +much to say of Byron's _forgetfulness_ as to all manner of things. As an +evidence of his inaccuracy, Rogers related how the noble bard had once +quoted to him some lines on Venice as Southey's, "which he wanted me to +admire," said Rogers; "and as I wrote them myself, I had no hesitation +in doing so. The lines are in my poem on Italy, and begin, + + "'There is a glorious city in the sea.'" + +Samuel Lawrence had recently painted in oils a portrait of Rogers, and +we asked to see it; so Edmund was sent up stairs to get it, and bring it +to the table. Rogers himself wished to compare it with his own face, and +had a looking-glass held before him. We sat by in silence as he regarded +the picture attentively, and waited for his criticism. Soon he burst out +with, "Is my nose so d----y sharp as that?" We all exclaimed, "No! no! +the artist is at fault there, sir." "I thought so," he cried; "he has +painted the face of a dead man, d--n him!" Some one said, "The portrait +is too hard." "I won't be painted as a hard man," rejoined Rogers. "I am +not a hard man, am I, Procter?" asked the old poet. Procter deprecated +with energy such an idea as that. Looking at the portrait again, Rogers +said, with great feeling, "Children would run away from that face, and +they never ran away from me!" Notwithstanding all he had to say against +the portrait, I thought it a wonderful likeness, and a painting of great +value. Moxon, the publisher, who was present, asked for a certain +portfolio of engraved heads which had been made from time to time of +Rogers, and this was brought and opened for our examination of its +contents. Rogers insisted upon looking over the portraits, and he amused +us by his cutting comments on each one as it came out of the portfolio. +"This," said he, holding one up, "is the head of a cunning fellow, and +this the face of a debauched clergyman, and this the visage of a +shameless drunkard!" After a comic discussion of the pictures of +himself, which went on for half an hour, he said, "It is time to change +the topic, and set aside the little man for a very great one. Bring me +my collection of Washington portraits." These were brought in, and he +had much to say of American matters. He remembered being told, when a +boy, by his father one day, that "a fight had recently occurred at a +place called Bunker Hill, in America." He then inquired about Webster +and the monument. He had met Webster in England, and greatly admired +him. Now and then his memory was at fault, and he spoke occasionally of +events as still existing which had happened half a century before. I +remember what a shock it gave me when he asked me if Alexander Hamilton +had printed any new pamphlets lately, and begged me to send him anything +that distinguished man might publish after I got home to America. + +I recollect how delighted I was when Rogers sent me an invitation the +second time to breakfast with him. On that occasion the poet spoke of +being in Paris on a pleasure-tour with Daniel Webster, and he grew +eloquent over the great American orator's genius. He also referred with +enthusiasm to Bryant's poetry, and quoted with deep feeling the first +three verses of "The Future Life." When he pronounced the lines:-- + + "My name on earth was ever in thy prayer, + And must thou never utter it in heaven?" + +his voice trembled, and he faltered out, "I cannot go on: there is +something in that poem which breaks me down, and I must never try again +to recite verses so full of tenderness and undying love." + +For Longfellow's poems, then just published in England, he expressed the +warmest admiration, and thought the author of "Voices of the Night" one +of the most perfect artists in English verse who had ever lived. + +Rogers's reminiscences of Holland House that morning were a series of +delightful pictures painted by an artist who left out none of the +salient features, but gave to everything he touched a graphic reality. +In his narrations the eloquent men, the fine ladies, he had seen there +assembled again around their noble host and hostess, and one listened in +the pleasant breakfast-room in St. James Place to the wit and wisdom of +that brilliant company which met fifty years ago in the great _salon_ of +that princely mansion, which will always be famous in the literary and +political history of England. + +Rogers talked that morning with inimitable finish and grace of +expression. A light seemed to play over his faded features when he +recalled some happy past experience, and his eye would sometimes fill as +he glanced back among his kindred, all now dead save one, his sister, +who also lived to a great age. His head was very fine, and I never +could quite understand the satirical sayings about his personal +appearance which have crept into the literary gossip of his time. He was +by no means the vivacious spectre some of his contemporaries have +represented him, and I never thought of connecting him with that +terrible line in "The Mirror of Magistrates,"-- + + "His withered fist still striking at Death's door." + +His dome of brain was one of the amplest and most perfectly shaped I +ever saw, and his countenance was very far from unpleasant. His +faculties to enjoy had not perished with age. He certainly looked like a +well-seasoned author, but not dropping to pieces yet. His turn of +thought was characteristic, and in the main just, for he loved the best, +and was naturally impatient of what was low and mean in conduct and +intellect. He had always lived in an atmosphere of art, and his +reminiscences of painters and sculptors were never wearisome or dull. He +had a store of pleasant anecdotes of Chantrey, whom he had employed as a +wood-carver long before he became a modeller in clay; and he had also +much to tell us of Sir Joshua Reynolds, whose lectures he had attended, +and whose studio-talk had been familiar to him while he was a young man +and studying art himself as an amateur. It was impossible almost to make +Rogers seem a real being as we used to surround his table during those +mornings and sometimes deep into the afternoons. We were listening to +one who had talked with Boswell about Dr. Johnson; who had sat hours +with Mrs. Piozzi; who read the "Vicar of Wakefield" the day it was +published; who had heard Haydn, the composer, playing at a concert, +"dressed out with a sword"; who had listened to Talleyrand's best +sayings from his own lips; who had seen John Wesley lying dead in his +coffin, "an old man, with the countenance of a little child"; who had +been with Beckford at Fonthill; who had seen Porson slink back into the +dining-room after the company had left it and drain what was left in the +wineglasses; who had crossed the Apennines with Byron; who had seen Beau +Nash in the height of his career dancing minuets at Bath; who had known +Lady Hamilton in her days of beauty, and seen her often with Lord +Nelson; who was in Fox's room when that great man lay dying; and who +could describe Pitt from personal observation, speaking always as if his +mouth was "full of worsted." It was unreal as a dream to sit there in +St. James Place and hear that old man talk by the hour of what one had +been reading about all one's life. One thing, I must confess, somewhat +shocked me,--I was not prepared for the feeble manner in which some of +Rogers's best stories were received by the gentlemen who had gathered at +his table on those Tuesday mornings. But when Procter told me in +explanation afterward that they had all "heard the same anecdotes every +week, perhaps, for half a century from the same lips," I no longer +wondered at the seeming apathy I had witnessed. It was a great treat to +me, however, the talk I heard at Rogers's hospitable table, and my three +visits there cannot be erased from the pleasantest tablets of memory. +There is only one regret connected with them, but that loss still haunts +me. On one of those memorable mornings I was obliged to leave earlier +than the rest of the company on account of an engagement out of London, +and Lady Beecher (formerly Miss O'Neil), the great actress of other +days, came in and read an hour to the old poet and his guests. Procter +told me afterward that among other things she read, at Rogers's request, +the 14th chapter of Isaiah, and that her voice and manner seemed like +inspiration. + +Seeing and talking with Rogers was, indeed, like living in the past: +and one may imagine how weird it seemed to a raw Yankee youth, thus +facing the man who might have shaken hands with Dr. Johnson. I ventured +to ask him one day if he had ever seen the doctor. "No," said he; "but I +went down to Bolt Court in 1782 with the intention of making Dr. +Johnson's acquaintance. I raised the knocker tremblingly, and hearing +the shuffling footsteps as of an old man in the entry, my heart failed +me, and I put down the knocker softly again, and crept back into Fleet +Street without seeing the vision I was not bold enough to encounter." I +thought it was something to have heard the footsteps of old Sam Johnson +stirring about in that ancient entry, and for my own part I was glad to +look upon the man whose ears had been so strangely privileged. + +Rogers drew about him all the musical as well as the literary talent of +London. Grisi and Jenny Lind often came of a morning to sing their best +_arias_ to him when he became too old to attend the opera; and both +Adelaide and Fanny Kemble brought to him frequently the rich tributes of +their genius in art. + +It was my good fortune, through the friendship of Procter, to make the +acquaintance, at Rogers's table, of Leslie, the artist,--a warm friend +of the old poet,--and to be taken round by him and shown all the +principal private galleries in London. He first drew my attention to the +pictures by Constable, and pointed out their quiet beauty to my +uneducated eye, thus instructing me to hate all those intemperate +landscapes and lurid compositions which abound in the shambles of modern +art. In the company of Leslie I saw my first Titians and Vandycks, and +felt, as Northcote says, on my good behavior in the presence of +portraits so lifelike and inspiring. It was Leslie who inoculated me +with a love of Gainsborough, before whose perfect pictures a spectator +involuntarily raises his hat and stands uncovered. (And just here let +me advise every art lover who goes to England to visit the little +Dulwich Gallery, only a few miles from London, and there to spend an +hour or two among the exquisite Gainsboroughs. No small collection in +Europe is better worth a visit, and the place itself in summer-time is +enchanting with greenery.) + +As Rogers's dining-room abounded in only first-rate works of art, Leslie +used to take round the guests and make us admire the Raphaels and +Correggios. Inserted in the walls on each side of the mantel-piece, like +tiles, were several of Turner's original oil and water-color drawings, +which that supreme artist had designed to illustrate Rogers's "Poems" +and "Italy." Long before Ruskin made those sketches world-famous in his +"Modern Painters," I have heard Leslie point out their beauties with as +fine an enthusiasm. He used to say that they purified the whole +atmosphere round St. James Place! + +Procter had a genuine regard for Count d'Orsay, and he pointed him out +to me one day sitting in the window of his club, near Gore House, +looking out on Piccadilly. The count seemed a little past his prime, but +was still the handsomest man in London. Procter described him as a +brilliant person, of special ability, and by no means a mere dandy. + +I first saw Procter's friend, John Forster, the biographer of Goldsmith +and Dickens, in his pleasant rooms, No. 58 Lincoln's Inn Fields. He was +then in his prime, and looked brimful of energy. His age might have been +forty, or a trifle onward from that mile-stone, and his whole manner +announced a determination to assert that nobody need prompt _him_. His +voice rang loud and clear, up stairs and down, everywhere throughout his +premises. When he walked over the uncarpeted floor, you _heard_ him +walk, and he meant you should. When _he_ spoke, nobody required an +ear-trumpet; the deaf never lost a syllable of his manly utterances. +Procter and he were in the same Commission, and were on excellent terms, +the younger officer always regarding the elder with a kind of leonine +deference. + +It was to John Forster these charming lines were addressed by Barry +Cornwall, when the poet sent his old friend a present of Shakespeare's +Works. A more exquisite compliment was never conveyed in verse so modest +and so perfect in simple grace:-- + + "I do not know a man who better reads + Or weighs the great thoughts of the book I send,-- + Better than he whom I have called my friend + For twenty years and upwards. He who feeds + Upon Shakesperian pastures never needs + The humbler food which springs from plains below; + Yet may he love the little flowers that blow, + And him excuse who for their beauty pleads. + + "Take then my Shakespeare to some sylvan nook; + And pray thee, in the name of Days of old, + Good-will and friendship, never bought or sold, + Give me assurance thou wilt always look + With kindness still on Spirits of humbler mould; + Kept firm by resting on that wondrous book, + Wherein the Dream of Life is all unrolled." + +Forster's library was filled with treasures, and he brought to the +dinner-table, the day I was first with him, such rare and costly +manuscripts and annotated volumes to show us, that one's appetite for +"made dishes" was quite taken away. The excellent lady whom he afterward +married was one of the guests, and among the gentlemen present I +remember the brilliant author of "The Bachelor of the Albany," a book +that was then the Novel sensation in London. Forster flew from one topic +to another with admirable skill, and entertained us with anecdotes of +Wellington and Rogers, gilding the time with capital imitations of his +celebrated contemporaries in literature and on the stage. A touch about +Edmund Kean made us all start from our chairs and demand a mimetic +repetition. Forster must have been an excellent private actor, for he +had power and skill quite exceptional in that way. His force carried him +along wherever he chose to go, and when he played "Kitely," his ability +must have been strikingly apparent. After his marriage, and when he +removed from Lincoln's Inn to his fine residence at "Palace-Gate House," +he gave frequent readings, evincing remarkable natural and acquired +talents. For Dickens he had a love amounting to jealousy. He never quite +relished anybody else whom the great novelist had a fondness for, and I +have heard droll stories touching this weakness. For Professor Felton he +had unbounded regard, which had grown up by correspondence and through +report from Dickens. He had never met Felton, and when the professor +arrived in London, Dickens, with his love of fun, arranged a bit of +cajolery, which was never quite forgotten, though wholly forgiven. +Knowing how highly Forster esteemed Felton, through his writings and his +letters, Dickens resolved to take Felton at once to Forster's house and +introduce him as _Professor Stowe_, the _port_ of both these gentlemen +being pretty nearly equal. The Stowes were then in England on their +triumphant tour, and this made the attempt at deception an easy one. So, +Felton being in the secret, he and Dickens proceed to Forster's house +and are shown in. Down comes Forster into the library, and is presented +forthwith to "_Professor Stowe_." "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is at once +referred to, and the talk goes on in that direction for some time. At +last both Dickens and Felton fell into such a paroxysm of laughter at +Forster's dogged determination to be complimentary to the world-renowned +novel, that they could no longer hold out; and Forster, becoming almost +insane with wonder at the hilarious conduct of his two visitors, +Dickens revealed their wickedness, and a right jolty day the happy trio +made of it. + +Talfourd informs us that Forster had become to Charles Lamb as one of +his oldest companions, and that Mary also cherished a strong regard for +him. It is surely a proof of his admirable qualities that the love of so +many of England's best and greatest was secured to him by so lasting a +tenure. To have the friendship of Landor, Dickens, and Procter through +long years; to have Carlyle for a constant votary, and to be mourned by +him with an abiding sorrow,--these are no slight tributes to purity of +purpose. + +Forster had that genuine sympathy with men of letters which entitled him +to be their biographer, and all his works in that department have a +special charm, habitually gained only by a subtle and earnest intellect. + +It is a singular coincidence that the writers of two of the most +brilliant records of travel of their time should have been law students +in Barry Cornwall's office. Kinglake, the author of "Eothen," and +Warburton, the author of "The Crescent and the Cross," were at one +period both engaged as pupils in their profession under the guidance of +Mr. Procter. He frequently spoke with pride of his two law students, and +when Warburton perished at sea, his grief for his brilliant friend was +deep and abiding. Kinglake's later literary fame was always a pleasure +to the historian's old master, and no one in England loved better to +point out the fine passages in the "History of the Invasion of the +Crimea" than the old poet in Weymouth Street. + +"Blackwood" and the "Quarterly Review" railed at Procter and his author +friends for a long period; but how true is the saying of Macaulay, "that +the place of books in the public estimation is fixed, not by what is +written _about_ them, but by what is written in them!" No man was more +decried in his day than Procter's friend, William Hazlitt. The poet had +for the critic a genuine admiration; and I have heard him dilate with a +kind of rapture over the critic's fine sayings, quoting abundant +passages from the essays. Procter would never hear any disparagement of +his friend's ability and keenness. I recall his earnest but restrained +indignation one day, when some person compared Hazlitt with a diffusive +modern writer of notes on the theatre, and I remember with what +contempt, in his sweet forgivable way, the old man spoke of much that +passes nowadays for criticism. He said Hazlitt was exactly the opposite +of Lord Chesterfield, who advised his son, if he could not get at a +thing in a straight line, to try the serpentine one. There were no +crooked pathways in Hazlitt's intellect. His style is brilliant, but +never cloyed with ornamentation. Hazlitt's paper on Gifford was thought +by Procter to be as pungent a bit of writing as had appeared in his day, +and he quoted this paragraph as a sample of its biting justice: "Mr. +Gifford is admirably qualified for the situation he has held for many +years as editor of the 'Quarterly' by a happy combination of defects, +natural and acquired." In one of his letters to me Procter writes, "I +despair of the age that has forgotten to read Hazlitt." + +Procter was a delightful prose writer, as well as a charming poet. +Having met in old magazines and annuals several of his essays and +stories, and admiring their style and spirit, I induced him, after much +persuasion, to collect and publish in America his prose works. The +result was a couple of volumes, which were brought out in Boston in +1853. In them there are perhaps no "thoughts that wander through +eternity," but they abound in fancies which the reader will recognize as +agile + + "Daughters of the earth and sun." + +In them there is nothing loud or painful, and whoever really loves "a +good book," and knows it to be such on trial, will find Barry Cornwall's +"Essays and Tales in Prose" most delectable reading. "Imparadised," as +Milton hath the word, on a summer hillside, or tented by the cool salt +wave, no better afternoon literature can be selected. One will never +meet with distorted metaphor or tawdry rhetoric in Barry's thoughtful +pages, but will find a calm philosophy and a beautiful faith, very +precious and profitable in these days of doubt and insecurity of +intellect. There is a respite and a sympathy in this fine spirit, and so +I commend him heartily in times so full of turmoil and suspicion as +these. One of the stories in the first volume of these prose writings, +called "The Man-Hunter," is quite equal in power to any of the graphic +pieces of a similar character ever written by De Quincey or Dickens, but +the tone in these books is commonly more tender and inclining to +melancholy. What, for instance, could be more heart-moving than these +passages of his on the death of little children? + + "I scarcely know how it is, but the deaths of children seem to me + always less premature than those of elder persons. Not that they are + in fact so; but it is because they themselves have little or no + relation to time or maturity. Life seems a race which they have yet + to run entirely. They have made no progress toward the goal. They + are born--nothing further. But it seems hard, when a man has toiled + high up the steep hill of knowledge, that he should be cast like + Sisyphus, downward in a moment; that he who has worn the day and + wasted the night in gathering the gold of science should be, with + all his wealth of learning, all his accumulations, made bankrupt at + once. What becomes of all the riches of the soul, the piles and + pyramids of precious thoughts which men heap together? Where are + Shakespeare's imagination, Bacon's learning, Galileo's dream? Where + is the sweet fancy of Sidney, the airy spirit of Fletcher, and + Milton's thought severe? Methinks such things should not die and + dissipate, when a hair can live for centuries, and a brick of Egypt + will last three thousand years! I am content to believe that the + mind of man survives (somewhere or other) his clay. + + "I was once present at the death of a little child. I will not pain + the reader by portraying its agonies; but when its breath was gone, + its _life_, (nothing more than a cloud of smoke!) and it lay like a + waxen image before me, I turned my eyes to its moaning mother, and + sighed out my few words of comfort. But I am a beggar in grief. I + can feel and sigh and look kindly, I think; but I have nothing to + give. My tongue deserts me. I know the inutility of too soon + comforting. I know that _I_ should weep were I the loser, and I let + the tears have their way. Sometimes a word or two I can muster: a + 'Sigh no more!' and 'Dear lady, do not grieve!' but further I am + mute and useless." + +I have many letters and kind little notes which Procter used to write me +during the years I knew him best. His tricksy fancies peeped out in his +correspondence, and several of his old friends in England thought no +literary man of his time had a better epistolary style. His neat elegant +chirography on the back of a letter was always a delightful foretaste of +something good inside, and I never received one of his welcome missives +that did not contain, no matter how brief it happened to be, welcome +passages of wit or affectionate interest. + +In one of his early letters to me he says:-- + + "There is no one rising hereabouts in literature. I suppose our + national genius is taking a mechanical turn. And, in truth, it is + much better to make a good steam-engine than to manufacture a bad + poem. 'Building the lofty rhyme' is a good thing, but our present + buildings are of a low order, and seldom reach the Attic. This piece + of wit will scarcely throw you into a fit, I imagine, your risible + muscles being doubtless kept in good order." + +In another he writes:-- + + "I see you have some capital names in the 'Atlantic Monthly.' If + they will only put forth their strength, there is no doubt as to the + result, but the misfortune is that persons who write anonymously + _don't_ put forth their strength, in general. I was a magazine + writer for no less than a dozen years, and I felt that no personal + credit or responsibility attached to my literary trifling, and + although I sometimes did pretty well (for me), yet I never did my + best." + +As I read over again the portfolio of his letters to me, bearing date +from 1848 to 1866, I find many passages of interest, but most of them +are too personal for type. A few extracts, however, I cannot resist +copying. Some of his epistles are enriched with a song or a sonnet, then +just written, and there are also frequent references in them to American +editions of his poetical and prose works, which he collected at the +request of his Boston publishers. + +In June, 1851, he writes:-- + + "I have encountered a good many of your countrymen here lately, but + have been introduced only to a few. I found Mr. Norton, who has + returned to you, and Mr. Dwight, who is still here, I believe, very + intelligent and agreeable. + + "If all Americans were like them and yourself, and if all Englishmen + were like Kenyon and (so far as regards a desire to judge fairly) + myself, I think there would be little or no quarrelling between our + small island and your great continent. + + "Our glass palace is a perpetual theme for small-talk. It usurps the + place of the weather, which is turned adrift, or laid up in ordinary + for future use. Nevertheless it (I mean the palace) is a remarkable + achievement, after all; and I speak sincerely when I say, 'All honor + and glory to Paxton!' If the strings of my poor little lyre were not + rusty and overworn, I think I should try to sing some of my nonsense + verses before his image, and add to the idolatry already existing. + + "If you have hotter weather in America than that which is at present + burning and blistering us here, you are entitled to pity. If it + continue much longer, I shall be held in solution for the remainder + of my days, and shall be remarkable as 'Oxygen, the poet' (reduced + to his natural weakness and simplicity by the hot summer of 1851), + instead of Your very sincere and obliged + + "B.W. PROCTER." + +Here is a brief reference to Judd's remarkable novel, forming part of a +note written to me in 1852:-- + + "Thanks for 'Margaret' (the book, _not_ the woman), that you have + sent me. When will you want it back? and who is the author? There is + a great deal of clever writing in it,--great observation of nature, + and also of character among a certain class of persons. _But_ it is + almost too minute, and for _me_ decidedly too theological. You see + what irreligious people we are here. I shall come over to one of + your camp-meetings and _try_ to be converted. What will they + administer in such a case? brimstone or brandy? I shall try the + latter first." + +Here is a letter bearing date "Thursday night, November 25, 1852," in +which he refers to his own writings, and copies a charming song:-- + + "Your letter, announcing the arrival of the little preface, reached + me last night. I shall look out for the book in about three weeks + hence, as you tell me that they are all printed. You Americans are a + rapid race. When I thought you were in Scotland, lo, you had touched + the soil of Boston; and when I thought you were unpacking my poor + MS., tumbling it out of your great trunk, behold! it is arranged--it + is in the printer's hands--it is _printed_--published--it is--ah! + would I could add, SOLD! That, after all, is the grand triumph in + Boston as well as London. + + "Well, since it is not sold yet, let us be generous and give a few + copies away. Indeed, such is my weakness, that I would sometimes + rather give than sell. In the present instance you will do me the + kindness to send a copy each to Mr. Charles Sumner, Mr. Hillard, Mr. + Norton: but no--my wife requests to be the donor to Mr. Norton, so + you must, if you please, write his name in the first leaf and state + that it comes from '_Mrs_. Procter.' I liked him very much when I + met him in London, and I should wish him to be reminded of his + English acquaintance. + + "I am writing to you at eleven o'clock at night, after a long and + busy day, and I write _now_ rather than wait for a little + inspiration, because the mail, I believe, starts to-morrow. The + unwilling Minerva is at my elbow, and I feel that every sentence I + write, were it pounded ten times in a mortar, would come out again + unleavened and heavy. Braying some people in a mortar, you know, is + but a weary and unprofitable process. + + "You speak of London as a delightful place. I don't know how it may + be in the white-bait season, but at present it is foggy, rainy, + cold, dull. Half of us are unwell and the other half dissatisfied. + Some are apprehensive of an invasion,--not an impossible event; some + writing odes to the Duke of Wellington; and I am putting my good + friend to sleep with the flattest prose that ever dropped from an + English pen. I wish that it were better; I wish that it were even + worse; but it is the most undeniable twaddle. I must go to bed, and + invoke the Muses in the morning. At present, I cannot touch one of + their petticoats. + + "A SLEEPY SONG. + + "Sing! sing me to sleep! + With gentle words, in some sweet slumberous measure, + Such as lone poet on some shady steep + Sings to the silence in his noonday leisure. + + "Sing! as the river sings, + When gently it flows between soft banks of flowers, + And the bee murmurs, and the cuckoo brings + His faint May music, 'tween the golden showers. + + "Sing! O divinest tone! + I sink beneath some wizard's charming wand; + I yield, I move, by soothing breezes blown, + O'er twilight shores, into the Dreaming Land! + + "I read the above to you when you were in London. It will appear in + an Annual edited by Miss Power (Lady Blessington's niece). + + "Friday Morning. + + "The wind blowing down the chimney; the rain sprinkling my windows. + The English Apollo hides his head--you can scarcely see him on the + 'misty mountain-tops' (those brick ones which you remember in + Portland Place). + + "My friend Thackeray is gone to America, and I hope is, by this + time, in the United States. He goes to New York, and afterward I + _suppose_ (but I don't know) to Boston and Philadelphia. Have you + seen _Esmond_? There are parts of it charmingly written. His pathos + is to me very touching. I believe that the best mode of making one's + way to a person's head is--through his heart. + + "I hope that your literary men will like some of my little prose + matters. I know that they will _try_ to like them; but the papers + have been written so long, and all, or almost all, written so + hastily, that I have my misgivings. However, they must take their + chance. + + "Had I leisure to complete something that I began two or three years + ago, and in which I have written a chapter or two, I should reckon + more surely on success; but I shall probably never finish the thing, + although I contemplated only one volume. + + "(If you cannot read this letter apply to the printer's + devil.--Hibernicus.) + + "Farewell. All good be with you. My wife desires to be kindly + remembered by you. + + "Always yours, very sincerely, + + "B.W. PROCTER." + + "P.S.--Can you contrive to send Mr. Willis a copy of the prose book? + If so, pray do." + +In February, 1853, he writes:-- + + "Those famous volumes, the advent of which was some time since + announced by the great transatlantic trumpet, have duly arrived. My + wife is properly grateful for her copy, which, indeed, impresses + both of us with respect for the American skill in binding. Neither + too gay to be gaudy, nor too grave, so as to affect the theological, + it hits that happy medium which agrees with the tastes of most + people and disgusts none. We should flatter ourselves that it is + intended to represent the matter within, but that we are afraid of + incurring the sin of vanity, and the indiscretion of taking + appearances too much upon trust. We suspend our conjectures on this + very interesting subject. The whole getting up of the book is + excellent. + + "For the little scraps of (critical) sugar enclosed in your letter, + due thanks. These will sweeten our imagination for some time to + come. + + "I have been obliged to give all the copies you sent me away. I dare + say you will not grudge me four or five copies more, to be sent at + your convenience, of course. Let me hear from you at the same time. + You can give me one of those frequent quarters of an hour which I + know you now devote to a meditation on 'things in general.' + + "I am glad that you like Thackeray. He is well worth your liking. I + trust to his making both friends and money in America, and to his + _keeping_ both. I am not so sure of the money, however, for he has a + liberal hand. I should have liked to have been at one of the dinners + you speak of. When shall you begin that _bridge_? You seem to be a + long time about it. It will, I dare say, be a bridge of boats, after + all.... + + "I was reading (rather re-reading) the other evening the + introductory chapter to the 'Scarlet Letter.' It is admirably + written. Not having any great sympathy with a custom-house,--nor, + indeed, with Salem, except that it seems to be Hawthorne's + birthplace,--all my attention was concentrated on the _style_, which + seems to me excellent. + + "The most striking book which has been recently published here is + 'Villette,' by the authoress of 'Jane Eyre,' who, as you know, is a + Miss Bronte. The book does not give one the most pleasing notion of + the authoress, perhaps, but it is very clever, graphic, vigorous. It + is 'man's meat,' and not the whipped syllabub, which is _all_ froth, + without any jam at the bottom. The scene of the drama is Brussels. + + "I was sorry to hear of poor Willis. Our critics here were too + severe upon him.... + + "The Frost King (vulg. Jack Frost) has come down upon us with all + his might. Banished from the pleasant shores of Boston, he has come + with his cold scythe and ice pincers to our undefended little + island, and is tyrannizing in every corner and over every part of + every person. Nothing is too great for him, nothing too mean. He + condescends even to lay hold of the nose (an offence for which any + one below the dignity of a King--or a President--would be kicked.) + As for me I have taken refuge in + + "A SONG WITH A MORAL. + + "When the winter bloweth loud, + And the earth is in a shroud, + Frozen rain or sleety snow + Dimming every dream below,-- + There is e'er a spot of green + Whence the heavens may be seen. + + "When our purse is shrinking fast, + And our friend is lost, (the last!) + And the world doth pour its pain, + Sharper than the frozen rain,-- + There is still a spot of green + Whence the heavens may be seen. + + "Let us never meet despair + While the little spot is there; + Winter brighteneth into May, + And sullen night to sunny day,-- + Seek we then the spot of green + Whence the heavens may be seen. + + "I have left myself little space for more small-talk. I must, + therefore, conclude with wishing that your English dreams may + continue bright, and that when they begin to fade you will come and + _relume_ at one of the white-bait dinners of which you used to talk + in such terms of rapture. + + "Have I space to say that I am very truly yours? + + "B.W. PROCTER." + + +A few months later, in the same year (1853), he sits by his open window +in London, on a morning of spring, and sends off the following pleasant +words:-- + + "You also must now be in the first burst and sunshine of spring. + Your spear-grass is showing its points, your succulent grass its + richness, even your little plant [?] (so useful for certain + invalids) is seen here and there; primroses are peeping out in your + neighborhood, and you are looking for cowslips to come. I say + nothing of your hawthorns (from the common May to the classic + Nathaniel), except that I trust they are thriving, and like to put + forth a world of blossoms soon. + + 'With all this wealth, present and future, + The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose,' + + you will doubtless feel disposed to scatter your small coins abroad + on the poor, and, among other things, to forward to your humble + correspondent those copies of B---- C----'s prose works which you + promised I know not how long ago. 'He who gives _speedily_,' they + say, 'gives twice.' I quote, as you see, from the Latins. + + "I have just got the two additional volumes of De Quincey, for + which--thanks! I have not seen Mr. Parker, who brought them, and who + left his card here yesterday, but I have asked if he will come and + breakfast with me on Sunday,--my only certain leisure day. Your De + Quincey is a man of a good deal of reading, and has thought on + divers and sundry matters; but he is evidently so thoroughly well + pleased with the Sieur 'Thomas De Quincey' that his self-sufficiency + spoils even his best works. Then some of his facts are, I hear, + _quasi_ facts only, not unfrequently. He has his moments when he + sleeps, and becomes oblivious of all but the aforesaid 'Thomas,' who + pervades both his sleeping and waking visions. I, like all authors, + am glad to have a little praise now and then (it is my hydromel), + but it must be dispensed by others. I do not think it decent to + manufacture the sweet liquor myself, and I hate a coxcomb, whether + in dress or print. + + "We have little or no literary news here. Our poets are all going + to the poorhouse (except Tennyson), and our prose writers are + piling up their works for the next 5th of November, when there will + be a great bonfire. It is deuced lucky that my immortal (ah! I am De + Quinceying)--I mean my humble--performances were printed in America, + so that they will escape. By the by, are they on foolscap? for I + forgot to caution you on that head. + + "I have been spending a week at Liverpool, where I rejoiced to hear + that Hawthorne's appointment was settled, and that it was a valuable + post; but I hear that it lasts for three years only. This is + melancholy. I hope, however, that he will 'realize' (as you + trans-atlantics say) as much as he can during his consulate, and + that your next President will have the good taste and the good sense + to renew his lease for three years more. + + "I have not seen Mrs. Stowe. I shall probably meet her somewhere or + other when she comes to London. + + "I dare not ask after Mr. Longfellow. He was kind enough to write me + a very agreeable letter some time ago, which I ought to have + answered. I dare say he has forgotten it, but my conscience is a + serpent that gives me a bite or a sting every now and then when I + think of him. The first time I am in fit condition (I mean in point + of brightness) to reply to so famous a correspondent, I shall try + what an English pen and ink will enable me to say. In the mean time, + God be thanked for all things! + + "My wife heard from Thackeray about ten days ago. He speaks + gratefully of the kindness that he has met with in America. Among + other things, it appears that he has seen something of your slaves, + whom he represents as leading a very easy life, and as being fat, + cheerful, and happy. Nevertheless, _I_ (for one) would rather be a + free man,--such is the singularity of my opinions. If my prosings + should ever in the course of the next twenty years require to be + reprinted, pray take note of the above opinion. + + "And now I have no more paper; I have scarcely room left to say that + I hope you are well, and to remind you that for your ten lines of + writing I have sent you back a hundred. Give my best compliments to + all whom I know, personally or otherwise. God be with you! + + "Yours, very sincerely, + + "B.W. PROCTER." + +Procter always seemed to be astounded at the travelling spirit of +Americans, and in his letters he makes frequent reference to our +"national propensity," as he calls it. + + "Half an hour ago," he writes in. July, 1853, "we had three of your + countrymen here to lunch,--countrymen I mean, Hibernically, for two + of them wore petticoats. They are all going to Switzerland, France, + Italy, Egypt, and Syria. What an adventurous race you are, you + Americans! Here the women go merely 'from the blue bed to the + brown,' and think that they have travelled and seen the world. I + myself should not care much to be confined to a circle reaching six + or seven miles round London. There are the fresh winds and wild + thyme on Hampstead Heath, and from Richmond you may survey the + Naiades. Highgate, where Coleridge lived, Enfield, where Charles + Lamb dwelt, are not far off. Turning eastward, there is the river + Lea, in which Izaak Walton fished; and farther on--ha! what do I + see? What are those little fish frisking in the batter (the great + Naval Hospital close by), which fixed the affections of the enamored + American while he resided in London, and have been floating in his + dreams ever since? They are said by the naturalists to be of the + species _Blandamentum album_, and are by vulgar aldermen spoken + carelessly of as _white-bait_. + + "London is full of carriages, full of strangers, full of parties + feasting on strawberries and ices and other things intended to allay + the heat of summer; but the Summer herself (fickle virgin) keeps + back, or has been stopped somewhere or other,--perhaps at the + Liverpool custom-house, where the very brains of men (their books) + are held in durance, as I know to my cost. + + "Thackeray is about to publish a new work in numbers,--a serial, as + the newspapers call it. Thomas Carlyle is publishing (a sixpenny + matter) in favor of the slave-trade. Novelists of all shades are + plying their trades. Husbands are killing their wives in every day's + newspaper. Burglars are peaching against each other; there is no + longer honor among thieves. I am starting for Leicester on a week's + expedition amidst the mad people; and the Emperor of Russia has + crossed the Pruth, and intends to make a tour of Turkey. + + "All this appears to me little better than idle, restless vanity. O + my friend, what a fuss and a pother we are all making, we little + flies who are going round on the great wheel of time! To-day we are + flickering and buzzing about, our little bits of wings glittering in + the sunshine, and to-morrow we are safe enough in the little crevice + at the back of the fireplace, or hid in the folds of the old + curtain, shut up, stiff and torpid, for the long winter. What do you + say to that profound reflection? + + "I struggle against the lassitude which besets me, and strive in + vain to be either sensible or jocose. I had better say farewell." + +On Christmas day, 1854, he writes in rather flagging spirits, induced +by ill health:-- + + "I have owed you a letter for these many months, my good friend. I + am afraid to think _how_ long, lest the interest on the debt should + have exceeded the capital, and be beyond my power to pay. + + "You must be good-natured and excuse me, for I have been ill--very + frequently--and dispirited. A bodily complaint torments me, that has + tormented me for the last two years. I no longer look at the world + through a rose-colored glass. The prospect, I am sorry to say, is + gray, grim, dull, barren, full of withered leaves, without flowers, + or if there be any, all of them trampled down, soiled, discolored, + and without fragrance. You see what a bit of half-smoked glass I am + looking through. At all events, you must see how entirely I am + disabled from returning, except in sober sentences, the lively and + good-natured letters and other things which you have sent me from + America. They were welcome, and I thank you for them now, in a few + words, as you observe, but sincerely. I am somewhat brief, even in + my gratitude. Had I been in braver spirits, I might have spurred my + poor Pegasus, and sent you some lines on the Alma, or the + Inkerman,--bloody battles, but exhibiting marks not to be mistaken + of the old English heroism, which, after all is said about the + enervating effects of luxury, is as grand and manifest as in the + ancient fights which English history talks of so much. Even you, + sternest of republicans, will, I think, be proud of the indomitable + courage of Englishmen, and gladly refer to your old paternity. I, at + least, should be proud of Americans fighting after the same fashion + (and without doubt they _would_ fight thus), just as old people + exult in the brave conduct of their runaway sons. I cannot read of + these later battles without the tears coming into my eyes. It is + said by 'our correspondent' at _New York_ that the folks there + rejoice in the losses and disasters of the allies. This can never be + the case, surely? No one whose opinion is worth a rap can rejoice at + any success of the Czar, whose double-dealing and unscrupulous + greediness must have rendered him an object of loathing to every + well-thinking man. But what have I to do with politics, or you? Our + 'pleasant object and serene employ' are books, books. Let us return + to pacific thoughts. + + "What a number of things have happened since I saw you! I looked for + you in the last spring, little dreaming that so fat and flourishing + a 'Statesman' could be overthrown by a little fever. I had even + begun some doggerel, announcing to you the advent of the + white-bait, which I imagined were likely to be all eaten up in your + absence. My memory is so bad that I cannot recollect half a dozen + lines, probably not one, as it originally stood. + + "I was at Liverpool last June. After two or three attempts I + contrived to seize on the famous Nathaniel Hawthorne. Need I say + that I like him _very_ much? He is very sensible, very genial,--a + little shy, I think (for an American!)--and altogether extremely + agreeable. I wish that I could see more of him, but our orbits are + wide apart. Now and then--once in two years--I diverge into and + cross his circle, but at other times we are separated by a space + amounting to 210 miles. He has three children, and a nice little + wife, who has good-humor engraved on her countenance. + + "As to verse--yes, I have begun a dozen trifling things, which are + in my drawer unfinished; poor rags with ink upon them, none of them, + I am afraid, properly labelled for posterity. I was for six weeks at + Ryde, in the Isle of Wight, this year, but so unwell that I could + not write a line, scarcely read one; sitting out in the sun, eating, + drinking, sleeping, and sometimes (poor soul!) imagining I was + thinking. One Sunday I saw a magnificent steamer go by, and on + placing my eye to the telescope I saw some Stars and Stripes + (streaming from the mast-head) that carried me away to Boston. By + the way, when _will_ you finish the bridge? + + "I hear strange hints of you all quarrelling about the slave + question. Is it so? You are so happy and prosperous in America that + you must be on the lookout for clouds, surely! When you see Emerson, + Longfellow, Sumner, any one I know, pray bespeak for me a kind + thought or word from them." + +Procter was always on the lookout for Hawthorne, whom he greatly +admired. In November, 1855, he says, in a brief letter:-- + + "I have not seen Hawthorne since I wrote to you. He came to London + this summer, but, I am sorry to say, did not inquire for me. As it + turned out, I was absent from town, but sent him (by Mrs. Russell + Sturgis) a letter of introduction to Leigh Hunt, who was very much + pleased with him. Poor Hunt! he is the most genial of men; and, now + that his wife is confined to her bed by rheumatism, is recovering + himself, and, I hope, doing well. He asked to come and see me the + other day. I willingly assented, and when I saw him--grown old and + sad and broken down in health--all my ancient liking for him + revived. + + "You ask me to send you some verse. I accordingly send you a scrap + of recent manufacture, and you will observe that instead of + forwarding my epic on Sevastopol, I select something that is fitter + for these present vernal love days than the blaster of heroic verse:-- + + "SONG. + + "Within the chambers of her breast + Love lives and makes his spicy nest, + Midst downy blooms and fragrant flowers, + And there he dreams away the hours-- + There let him rest! + Some time hence, when the cuckoo sings, + I'll come by night and bind his wings,-- + Bind him that he shall not roam + From his warm white virgin home. + + "Maiden of the summer season, + Angel of the rosy time, + Come, unless some graver reason + Bid thee scorn my rhyme; + Come from thy serener height, + On a golden cloud descending, + Come ere Love hath taken flight, + And let thy stay be like the light, + When its glory hath no ending + In the Northern night!" + +Now and then we get a glimpse of Thackeray in his letters. In one of +them he says:-- + + "Thackeray came a few days ago and read one of his lectures at our + house (that on George the Third), and we asked about a dozen persons + to come and hear it, among the rest, your handsome countrywoman, + Mrs. R---- S----. It was very pleasant, with that agreeable + intermixture of tragedy and comedy that tells so well when + judiciously managed. He will not print them for some time to come, + intending to read them at some of the principal places in England, + and perhaps Scotland. + + "What are you doing in America? You are too happy and independent! + 'O fortunatos Agricolas, sua si bona norint!' I am not quite sure of + my Latin (which is rusty from old age), but I am sure of the + sentiment, which is that when people are too happy, they don't know + it, and so take to quarrelling to relieve the monotony of their + blue sky. Some of these days you will split your great kingdom in + two, I suppose, and then-- + + "My wife's mother, Mrs. Basil Montagu, is very ill, and we are + apprehensive of a fatal result, which, in truth, the mere fact of + her age (eighty-two or eighty-three) is enough to warrant. Ah, this + terrible _age_! The young people, I dare say, think that we live too + long. Yet how short it is to look back on life! Why, I saw the house + the other day where I used to play with a wooden sword when I was + five years old! It cannot surely be eighty years ago! What has + occurred since? Why, nothing that is worth putting down on paper. A + few nonsense verses, a flogging or two (richly deserved), and a few + white-bait dinners, and the whole is reckoned up. Let us begin + again." [Here he makes some big letters in a school-boy hand, which + have a very pathetic look on the page.] + +In a letter written in 1856 he gives me a graphic picture of sad times +in India:-- + + "All our anxiety here at present is the Indian mutiny. We ourselves + have great cause for trouble. Our son (the only son I have, indeed) + escaped from Delhi lately. He is now at Meerut. He and four or five + other officers, four women, and a child escaped. The men were + obliged to drop the women a fearful height from the walls of the + fort, amidst showers of bullets. A round shot passed within a yard + of my son, and one of the ladies had a bullet through her shoulder. + They were seven days and seven nights in the jungle, without money + or meat, scarcely any clothes, no shoes. They forded rivers, lay on + the wet ground at night, lapped water from the puddles, and finally + reached Meerut. The lady (the mother of the three other ladies) had + not her wound dressed, or seen, indeed, for upward of a week. Their + feet were full of thorns. My son had nothing but a shirt, a pair of + trousers, and a flannel waistcoat. How they contrived to _live_ I + don't know; I suppose from small gifts of rice, etc., from the + natives. + + "When I find any little thing now that disturbs my serenity, and + which I might in former times have magnified into an evil, I think + of what Europeans suffer from the vengeance of the Indians, and pass + it by in quiet. + + "I received Mr. Hillard's epitaph on my dear kind friend Kenyon. + Thank him in my name for it. There are some copies to be reserved of + a lithograph now in progress (a portrait of Kenyon) for his American + friends. Should it be completed in time, Mr. Sumner will be asked + to take them over. I have put down your name for one of those who + would wish to have this little memento of a good kind man.... + + "I shall never visit America, be assured, or the continent of + Europe, or any distant region. I have reached nearly to the length + of my tether. I have grown old and apathetic and stupid. All I care + for, in the way of personal enjoyment, is quiet, ease,--to have + nothing to do, nothing to think of. My only glance is backward. + There is so little before me that I would rather not look that way." + +In a later letter he again speaks of his son and the war in India:-- + + "My son is _not_ in the list of killed and wounded, thank God! He + was before Delhi, having _volunteered_ thither after his escape. We + trust that he is at present safe, but every mail is pregnant with + bloody tidings, and we do not find ourselves yet in a position to + rejoice securely. What a terrible war this Indian war is! Are all + people of black blood cruel, cowardly, and treacherous? If it were a + case of great oppression on our part, I could understand and + (almost) excuse it; but it is from the _spoiled_ portion of the + Hindostanees that the revengeful mutiny has arisen. One thing is + quite clear, that whatever luxury and refinement have done for our + race (for I include Americans with English), they have not + diminished the courage and endurance and heroism for which I think + we have formerly been famous. We are the same Saxons still. There + has never been fiercer fighting than in some of the battles that + have lately taken place in India. When I look back on the old + history books, and see that _all_ history consists of little else + than the bloody feuds of nation with nation, I almost wonder that + God has not extinguished the cruel, selfish animals that we dignify + with the name of men. No--I cry forgiveness: let the women live, if + they can, without the men. I used the word 'men' only." + +Here is a pleasant paragraph about "Aurora Leigh":-- + + "The most successful book of the season has been Mrs. Browning's + 'Aurora Leigh.' I could wish some things altered, I confess; but as + it is, it is by far (a hundred times over) the finest poem ever + written by a woman. We know little or nothing of Sappho,--nothing to + induce comparison,--and all other wearers of petticoats must + courtesy to the ground." + +In several of his last letters to me there are frequent allusions to +our civil war. Here is an extract from an epistle written in 1861:-- + + "We read with painful attention the accounts of your great quarrel + in America. We know nothing beyond what we are told by the New York + papers, and these are the stories of _one_ of the combatants. I am + afraid that, however you may mend the schism, you will never be so + strong again. I hope, however, that something may arise to terminate + the bloodshed; for, after all, fighting is an unsatisfactory way of + coming at the truth. If you were to stand up at once (and finally) + against the slave-trade, your band of soldiers would have a more + decided _principle_ to fight for. But-- + + "--But I really know little or nothing. I hope that at Boston you + are comparatively peaceful, and I know that you are more + abolitionist than in the more southern countries. + + "There is nothing new doing here in the way of books. The last book + I have seen is called 'Tannhauser,' published by Chapman and + Hall,--a poem under feigned names, but _really_ written by Robert + Lytton and Julian Fane. It is not good enough for the first, but (as + I conjecture) too good for the last. The songs which decide the + contest of the bards are the worst portions of the book. + + "I read some time ago a novel which has not made much noise, but + which is prodigiously clever,--'City and Suburb.' The story hangs in + parts, but it is full of weighty sentences. We have no poet _since_ + Tennyson except Robert Lytton, who, you know, calls himself Owen + Meredith. Poetry in England is assuming a new character, and not a + better character. It has a sort of pre-Raphaelite tendency which + does not suit my aged feelings. I am for Love, or the World well + lost. But I forget that, if I live beyond the 21st of next November, + I shall be _seventy-four_ years of age. I have been obliged to + resign my Commissionership of Lunacy, not being able to bear the + pain of travelling. By this I lose about L900 a year. I am, + therefore, sufficiently poor, even for a poet. Browning, as you + know, has lost his wife. He is coming with his little boy to live in + England. I rejoice at this, for I think that the English should live + in England, especially in their youth, when people learn things that + they never forget afterward." + +Near the close of 1864 he writes:-- + + "Since I last heard from you, nothing except what is melancholy + seems to have taken place. You seem all busy killing each other in + America. Some friends of yours and several friends of mine have + died. Among the last I cannot help placing Nathaniel Hawthorne, for + whom I had a sincere regard.... He was about your best prose writer, + I think, and intermingled with his humor was a great deal of + tenderness. To die so soon! + + "You are so easily affronted in America, if we (English) say + anything about putting an end to your war, that I will not venture + to hint at the subject. Nevertheless, I wish that you were all at + peace again, for your own sakes and for the sake of human nature. I + detest fighting now, although I was a great admirer of fighting in + my youth. My youth? I wonder where it has gone. It has left me with + gray hairs and rheumatism, and plenty of (too many other) + infirmities. I stagger and stumble along, with almost seventy-six + years on my head, upon failing limbs, which no longer enable me to + walk half a mile. I see a great deal, all behind me (the Past), but + the prospect before me is not cheerful. Sometimes I wish that I had + tried harder for what is called Fame, but generally (as now) I care + very little about it. After all,--unless one could be Shakespeare, + which (clearly) is not an easy matter,--of what value is a little + puff of smoke from a review? If we could settle permanently who is + to be the Homer or Shakespeare of our time, it might be worth + something; but we cannot. Is it Jones, or Smith, or ----? Alas! I + get short-sighted on this point, and cannot penetrate the + impenetrable dark. Make my remembrances acceptable to Longfellow, to + Lowell, to Emerson, and to any one else who remembers me. + + "Yours, ever sincerely, + + "B.W. PROCTER." + +And here are a few paragraphs from the last letter I ever received in +Procter's loving hand:-- + + "Although I date this from Weymouth Street, yet I am writing 140 or + 150 miles away from London. Perhaps this temporary retreat from our + great, noisy, turbulent city reminds me that I have been very + unmindful of your letter, received long ago. But I have been busy, + and my writing now is not a simple matter, as it was fifty years + ago. I have great difficulty in forming the letters, and you would + be surprised to learn with what labor _this_ task is performed. Then + I have been incessantly occupied in writing (I refer to the + _mechanical_ part only) the 'Memoir of Charles Lamb.' It is not my + book,--i.e. not my property,--but one which I was hired to write, + and it forms my last earnings. You will have heard of the book + (perhaps seen it) some time since. It has been very well received. I + would not have engaged myself on anything else, but I had great + regard for Charles Lamb, and so (somehow or other) I have contrived + to reach the end. + + "I _have_ already (long ago) written something about Hazlitt, but I + have received more than one application for it, in case I can manage + to complete my essay. As in the case of Lamb, I am really the only + person living who knew much about his daily life. I have not, + however, quite the same incentive to carry me on. Indeed, I am not + certain that I should be able to travel to the real Finis. + + "My wife is very grateful for the copies of my dear Adelaide's poems + which you sent her. She appears surprised to hear that I have not + transmitted her thanks to you before. + + "We get the 'Atlantic Monthly' regularly. I need not tell you how + much better the poetry is than at its commencement. Very good is + 'Released,' in the July number, and several of the stories; but they + are in London, and I cannot particularize them. + + "We were very much pleased with Colonel Holmes, the son of your + friend and contributor. He seems a very intelligent, modest young + man; as little military as need be, and, like Coriolanus, not baring + his wounds (if he has any) for public gaze. When you see Dr. Holmes, + pray tell him how much I and my wife liked his son. + + "We are at the present moment rusticating at Malvern Wells. We are + on the side of a great hill (which you would call small in America), + and our intercourse is only with the flowers and bees and swallows + of the season. Sometimes we encounter a wasp, which I suppose comes + from over seas! + + "The Storys are living two or three miles off, and called upon us a + few days ago. You have not seen _his_ Sibyl, which I think very + fine, and as containing a _very great_ future. But the young poets + generally disappoint us, and are too content with startling us into + admiration of their first works, and then go to sleep. + + "I wish that I had, when younger, made more notes about my + contemporaries; for, being of no faction in politics, it happens + that I have known far more literary men than any other person of my + time. In counting up the names of persons known to me who were, in + some way or other, _connected_ with literature, I reckoned up more + than one hundred. But then I have had more than sixty years to do + this in. My first acquaintance of this sort was Bowles, the poet. + This was about 1805. + + "Although I can scarcely write, I am able to say, in conclusion, + that I am + + "Very sincerely yours, + + "B.W. PROCTER." + +Procter was an ardent student of the works of our older English +dramatists, and he had a special fondness for such writers as Decker, +Marlowe, Heywood, Webster, and Fletcher. Many of his own dramatic scenes +are modelled on that passionate and romantic school. He had great relish +for a good modern novel, too; and I recall the titles of several which +he recommended warmly for my perusal and republication in America. When +I first came to know him, the duties of his office as a Commissioner +obliged him to travel about the kingdom, sometimes on long journeys, and +he told me his pocket companion was a cheap reprint of Emerson's +"Essays," which he found such agreeable reading that he never left home +without it. Longfellow's "Hyperion" was another of his favorite books +during the years he was on duty. + +Among the last agreeable visits I made to the old poet was one with +reference to a proposition of his own to omit several songs and other +short poems from a new issue of his works then in press. I stoutly +opposed the ignoring of certain old favorites of mine, and the poet's +wife joined with me in deciding against the author in his proposal to +cast aside so many beautiful songs,--songs as well worth saving as any +in the volume. Procter argued that, being past seventy, he had now +reached to years of discretion, and that his judgment ought to be +followed without a murmur. I held out firm to the end of our discussion, +and we settled the matter with this compromise: he was to expunge +whatever he chose from the English edition, but I was to have my own way +with the American one. So to this day the American reprint is the only +complete collection of Barry Cornwall's earliest pieces, for I held on +to all the old lyrics, without discarding a single line. + +The poet's figure was short and full, and his voice had a low, veiled +tone habitually in it, which made it sometimes difficult to hear +distinctly what he was saying. When in conversation, he liked to be very +near his listener, and thus stand, as it were, on confidential ground +with him. His turn of thought was cheerful among his friends, and he +proceeded readily into a vein of wit and nimble expression. Verbal +felicity seemed natural to him, and his epithets, evidently unprepared, +were always perfect. He disliked cant and hard ways of judging +character. He praised easily. He had no wish to stand in anybody's shoes +but his own, and he said, "There is no literary vice of a darker shade +than envy." Talleyrand's recipe for perfect happiness was the opposite +to his. He impressed every one who came near him as a born gentleman, +chivalrous and generous in a marked degree, and it was the habit of +those who knew him to have an affection for him. Altering a line of +Pope, this counsel might have been safely tendered to all the authors of +his day,-- + + "Disdain whatever _Procter's mind_ disdains." + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Yesterdays with Authors, by James T. Fields + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK YESTERDAYS WITH AUTHORS *** + +***** This file should be named 12632.txt or 12632.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/6/3/12632/ + +Produced by Keren Vergon, David Cortesi and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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