Volume I Part 36 (1/2)
G.o.d be with us all!
Ever your affectionate.
[Sidenote: Mr. H. A. Layard.]
OFFICE OF ”ALL THE YEAR ROUND,”
_Sat.u.r.day, 13th March, 1869._
MY DEAR LAYARD,
Coming to town for a couple of days, from York, I find your beautiful present.[100] With my heartiest congratulations on your marriage, accept my most cordial thanks for a possession that I shall always prize foremost among my worldly goods; firstly, for your sake; secondly, for its own.
Not one of these gla.s.ses shall be set on table until Mrs. Layard is there, to touch with her lips the first champagne that any of them shall ever hold! This vow has been registered in solemn triumvirate at Gad's Hill.
The first week in June will about see me through my present work, I hope. I came to town hurriedly to attend poor dear Emerson Tennent's funeral. You will know how my mind went back, in the York up-train at midnight, to Mount Vesuvius and our Neapolitan supper.
I have given Mr. Hills, of Oxford Street, the letter of introduction to you that you kindly permitted. He has immense local influence, and could carry his neighbours in favour of any good design.
My dear Layard, ever cordially yours.
[Sidenote: Miss Florence Olliffe.]
26, WELLINGTON STREET, _Tuesday, 16th March, 1869._
MY DEAR FLORENCE,[101]
I have received your kind note this morning, and I hasten to thank you for it, and to a.s.sure your dear mother of our most cordial sympathy with her in her great affliction, and in loving remembrance of the good man and excellent friend we have lost. The tidings of his being very ill indeed had, of course, been reported to me. For some days past I had taken up the newspaper with sad misgivings; and this morning, before I got your letter, they were realised.
I loved him truly. His wonderful gentleness and kindness, years ago, when we had sickness in our household in Paris, has never been out of my grateful remembrance. And, socially, his image is inseparable from some of the most genial and delightful friendly hours of my life. I am almost ashamed to set such recollections by the side of your mother's great bereavement and grief, but they spring out of the fulness of my heart.
May G.o.d be with her and with you all!
Ever yours affectionately.
[Sidenote: Mr. James T. Fields.]
ADELPHI HOTEL, LIVERPOOL, _Friday, April 9th, 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 rather think that when the 12th of June shall have shaken off these shackles,[102] 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 G.o.d! 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 pa.s.senger. I like to think of your being in _my_ s.h.i.+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.