NO. 16, WELLINGTON STREET, NORTH STRAND, _Wednesday, April 12th, 1854._
I know all the walks for many and many miles round about Malvern, and delightful walks they are. I suppose you are already getting very stout, very red, very jovial (in a physical point of view) altogether.
Mark and I walked to Dartford from Greenwich, last Monday, and found Mrs. ---- acting "The Stranger" (with a strolling company from the Standard Theatre) in Mr. Munn"s schoolroom. The stage was a little wider than your table here, and its surface was composed of loose boards laid on the school forms. Dogs sniffed about it during the performances, and _the_ carpenter"s highlows were ostentatiously taken off and displayed in the proscenium.
We stayed until a quarter to ten, when we were obliged to fly to the railroad, but we sent the landlord of the hotel down with the following articles:
1 bottle superior old port, 1 do. do. golden sherry, 1 do. do. best French brandy, 1 do. do. 1st quality old Tom gin, 1 bottle superior prime Jamaica rum, 1 do. do. small still _Isla_ whiskey, 1 kettle boiling water, two pounds finest white lump sugar, Our cards, 1 lemon, and Our compliments.
The effect we had previously made upon the theatrical company by being beheld in the first two chairs--there was nearly a pound in the house--was altogether electrical.
My ladies send their kindest regards, and are disappointed at your not saying that you drink two-and-twenty tumblers of the limpid element, every day. The children also unite in "loves," and the Plornishghenter, on being asked if he would send his, replies "Yes--man," which we understand to signify cordial acquiescence.
Forster just come back from lecturing at Sherborne. Describes said lecture as "Blaze of Triumph."
H. W. AGAIN.
Miss--I mean Mrs.--Bell"s story very nice. I have sent it to the printer, and ent.i.tled it "The Green Ring and the Gold Ring."
This apartment looks desolate in your absence; but, O Heavens, how tidy!
F. W.
Mrs. Wills supposed to have gone into a convent at Somers Town.
My dear Wills, Ever faithfully yours.
[Sidenote: Mr. B. W. Procter.]
TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Sat.u.r.day Night, April 15th, 1854._
MY DEAR PROCTER,
I have read the "Fatal Revenge." Don"t do what the minor theatrical people call "despi-ser" me, but I think it"s very bad. The concluding narrative is by far the most meritorious part of the business. Still, the people are so very convulsive and tumble down so many places, and are always knocking other people"s bones about in such a very irrational way, that I object. The way in which earthquakes won"t swallow the monsters, and volcanoes in eruption won"t boil them, is extremely aggravating. Also their habit of bolting when they are going to explain anything.
You have sent me a very different and a much better book; and for that I am truly grateful. With the dust of "Maturin" in my eyes, I sat down and read "The Death of Friends," and the dust melted away in some of those tears it is good to shed. I remember to have read "The Backroom Window"
some years ago, and I have a.s.sociated it with you ever since. It is a most delightful paper. But the two volumes are all delightful, and I have put them on a shelf where you sit down with Charles Lamb again, with Talfourd"s vindication of him hard by.
We never meet. I hope it is not irreligious, but in this strange London I have an inclination to adapt a portion of the Church Service to our common experience. Thus:
"We have left unmet the people whom we ought to have met, and we have met the people whom we ought not to have met, and there seems to be no help in us."
But I am always, my dear Procter, (At a distance), Very cordially yours.
[Sidenote: Mrs. Gaskell.]
TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _April 21st, 1854._
MY DEAR MRS. GASKELL,
I safely received the paper from Mr. Shaen, welcomed it with three cheers, and instantly despatched it to the printer, who has it in hand now.
I have no intention of striking. The monstrous claims at domination made by a certain cla.s.s of manufacturers, and the extent to which the way is made easy for working men to slide down into discontent under such hands, are within my scheme; but I am not going to strike, so don"t be afraid of me. But I wish you would look at the story yourself, and judge where and how near I seem to be approaching what you have in your mind.
The first two months of it will show that.
I will "make my will" on the first favourable occasion. We were playing games last night, and were fearfully clever. With kind regards to Mr.
Gaskell, always, my dear Mrs. Gaskell,
Faithfully yours.
[Sidenote: Mr. Frank Stone, A.R.A.]
TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _May 30th, 1854._
MY DEAR STONE,
I can_not_ stand a total absence of ventilation, and I should have liked (in an amiable and persuasive manner) to have punched ----"s head, and opened the register stoves. I saw the supper tables, sir, in an empty state, and was charmed with them. Likewise I recovered myself from a swoon, occasioned by long contact with an unventilated man of a strong flavour from Copenhagen, by drinking an unknown species of celestial lemonade in that enchanted apartment.
I am grieved to say that on Sat.u.r.day I stand engaged to dine, at three weeks" notice, with one ----, a man who has read every book that ever was written, and is a perfect gulf of information. Before exploding a mine of knowledge he has a habit of closing one eye and wrinkling up his nose, so that he seems perpetually to be taking aim at you and knocking you over with a terrific charge. Then he looks again, and takes another aim. So you are always on your back, with your legs in the air.
How can a man be conversed with, or walked with, in the county of Middles.e.x, when he is reviewing the Kentish Militia on the sh.o.r.es of Dover, or sailing, every day for three weeks, between Dover and Calais?
Ever affectionately.
P.S.--"Humphry Clinker" is certainly Smollett"s best. I am rather divided between "Peregrine Pickle" and "Roderick Random," both extraordinarily good in their way, which is a way without tenderness; but you will have to read them both, and I send the first volume of "Peregrine" as the richer of the two.
[Sidenote: Mr. Peter Cunningham.]
TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _June 7th, 1854._
MY DEAR CUNNINGHAM,
I cannot become one of the committee for Wilson"s statue, after entertaining so strong an opinion against the expediency of such a memorial in poor dear Talfourd"s case. But I will subscribe my three guineas, and will pay that sum to the account at Coutts"s when I go there next week, before leaving town.
"The Goldsmiths" admirably done throughout. It is a book I have long desired to see done, and never expected to see half so well done. Many thanks to you for it.
Ever faithfully yours.
P.S.--Please to observe the address at Boulogne: "Villa du Camp de Droite."
[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.]