Part 14 (2/2)
_39 Somerset St.
Boston Nov. 13, '78._
MY DEAREST FRIEND:
I feel as if I didn't a bit deserve the glorious budget you sent me yesterday, for I have been a laggard, dull correspondent of late, because, leading such an unsettled kind of life, I don't seem to have got well hold of myself. Beautiful is the t.i.tle prose poem--the glimpse of the autumn cornfield: one smells the sweet fragrance, basks in the suns.h.i.+ne with you--tastes all the varied, subtle outdoor pleasures, just as you want us to. A lady who has just been calling on me--Miss Hillard--no relation of the odious Dr. H.--said, ”Have you seen a lovely little bit about a cornfield by Walt Whitman in a New York paper?” She did not know your poems, but was so taken with this. By the bye, I am not quite American enough yet to enjoy the sound of the locusts & big gra.s.shoppers--ours are modest little things that only make a gentle sort of whirr--not that loud bra.s.sy sound--couldn't help wis.h.i.+ng for more birds & less insects when I was at Chesterfield--but I like our English name ”ladybird” better than ”ladybug”. Do your children always say when they see one, as ours do, ”Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home: your house is on fire, your children are flown”? But for the rest--I believe I am growing a very good American; indeed, certain am I there is no more lovable people to live amongst anywhere in the world--and in this respect it has been good to give up having a home of my own here for awhile--for I have been thrown amongst many more intimately than I could have been otherwise. What you say of Herby's picture delights me, dear Friend. I have been grieving he was not with us, sharing the pleasant times we have had and enlarging his circle of friends--but after all he could not have been doing better--he must come on here by & bye. I wonder if you are as satisfied with his portrait of you as with the landscape. I suppose he is gone on to New York to-day.
I have sighed for dear little Concord many times since I came away--beautiful city as Boston is & many the interesting & kindly people I am seeing here: but the outdoor life & the entirely simple, unpretending, cordial, friendly ways of Concord & its inhabitants won my heart altogether--one of them came to see me to-day & to ask us to go and spend a couple of days with them there again before we leave & I could not say nay, though our time is short. There are some portraits in the Art Museum here, which interested me a good deal--of Adams, Hanc.o.c.k, Quincy, &c.,--& of some of the women of that time--they would form an excellent nucleus of a national portrait gallery, which (together with good biographies while yet materials & recollections are fresh & abundant) would be a very interesting & important contribution to the world's history.--Tennyson's letter is a pleasure to me to see--considering his age & the imperfection of his sight through life, matters are better rather than worse with him than one could have expected. Since that was written a friend (Walter White) tells me they--the Tennysons--have taken a house in Eaton Sq., London, for the winter. And last, not least, thanks for Mr. Burroughs's beautiful letter--that young man is indeed, as he says, like a bit out of your poems.
There are two or three fine young men boarding here, & Giddy & I enjoy their society not a little. Love to your Brothers & Sister. I shall write soon as I am settled down in New York to her or Hattie. Love to Mrs.
Stafford. And most of all to you.
Good-bye, dear friend.
A. GILCHRIST.
I will send T's letter in a day or two.
LETTER XLIII
ANNE GILCHRIST TO WALT WHITMAN
_112 Madison Ave.
New York Jan. 5, '79._
MY DEAREST FRIEND:
Herby has told you of our difficulties in getting comfortable quarters here--and also that we seem now to have succeeded--not indeed in the way I most wished & hoped we had--in 19th St., taking rooms & boarding ourselves--so that we could have a friend with us when & as we pleased. It seems as if that were not practicable unless we were to furnish for ourselves. Certainly our experiences there of using another's kitchen were discouraging--it was so dirty and uncomfortable that we were glad to take refuge in a regular boarding house again before one week was out. It seems to me more difficult to get anything of a medium kind in New York than elsewhere I have been--if it isn't the best, it is very uninviting indeed.
Herby is enjoying his work and companions.h.i.+p at the League very much. We stand the cold well--how does it suit you? Is your arm free from rheumatic pains? When you come to Mr. J. H. Johnstons, which will be very soon I hope, we shall be quite handy, and have a pretty, sunny room--a sitting room by day!--with a handsome piece of furniture which is metamorphosed into a bed at night--and a large dressing closet with hot & cold water adjoining--all very comfortable. O how wistfully do I think of one evening in Philadelphia, last winter. I shan't begin really to like New York till you come and we have had some chats together. I have news from England which makes me rather anxious. The Blaenavon Co., to which Per. is chemist, has gone into liquidation--& I don't know whether it will continue to exist--or how soon in these dull times he may find a good opening elsewhere. Should things go badly for him, either Giddy and I will return to England to share [our] home with him there, or else I want him to take into serious consideration coming out here, instead of our going back. Of course it would be a risky thing for him to do with wife & child, in these times, unless some definite opening presented itself, but I cannot help thinking that, being an expert in his profession, with first rate training & experience, and iron work & metallurgy promising here to have such enormous developments, he would be sure to do well in the end; and meanwhile we could rub on together somehow. However, we shall see. I have laid the matter before him, he & his dear little wife wrote me a very brave, cheery letter when they told me the bad news--& I shall have an answer to mine, I suppose, by the end of the month. Kate Hillard read an amusing paper on Swinburne at a meeting of the Woman's Club in Brooklyn--& we had some fine music too. For the rest, I have not yet presented any introductions here.
Have had some beautiful glimpses of the North & East River effects of the s.h.i.+pping at sunset, &c.--Have subscribed to the Mercantile library,--& are beginning to feel at home. Herby & Giddy had been to hear Mr. Frothingham this morning, & were much interested. Bee missed us sorely at first--but writes--when she does write, which is but seldom--pretty cheerily.
Friendly remembrance to your brother & sister. I wonder where Hattie & Jessie are spending their holidays. Love from us all. Good-bye, dear friend.
A. GILCHRIST.
Had a letter from Mr. Marvin--all well--he is doing the Was.h.i.+ngton letter of a N. Eng. paper. Hopes & trusts you are really going to Was.h.i.+ngton.
LETTER XLIV
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