Part 16 (1/2)

Stafford. Also to Mrs. Whitman.

Yours affectionately,

BEATRICE C. GILCHRIST.

LETTER XLVIII

ANNE GILCHRIST TO WALT WHITMAN

_112 Madison Ave.

March 18, 1879._

MY DEAREST FRIEND:

I hope you are enjoying this splendid, suns.h.i.+ny weather as much as we are--the atmosphere here is delicious. In the morning Giddy and I set at home busy with needle work, letter writing, and reading. After lunch we go out for a walk or to pay visits--and of an evening very often to receptions (but they are not half so jolly as our evenings at Philadelphia). Still we have a lively, pleasant time. I like Miss Booth very much, with her kindly, generous character and active practical mind.

So I do Mrs. Croly--she is more impulsive and enthusiastic. Kate Hillard often goes with us, & she is always good company. I had a note from Edward Carpenter the other day brought by a lady who had been living near him at Sheffield--an American lady with two very fine little girls who has lately lost her husband in England and was on her way back to her parents' home in Pennsylvania--somewhere beyond Pittsburg. She is one who loves your poems, & has great hopes of seeing you in New York. She told me her little girls were so fond of Carpenter he of them--he is first rate with children. I hope you will not put off coming to New York till we are returning to Philadelphia, which will be some time in May. I find Beatrice is so anxious to get further advantages for study in England or Paris before she begins to practise, and Herby is so strongly advised by Mr.

Eaton, of whose judgment & experience he thinks very highly, to study in Duron's Studio in Paris for a year, that I have made up my mind to go back, for a time at any rate, this summer; but I shall leave my furniture here, and the question of where our future home is to be, open. Herby is making great progress. I wish you could see the head of an old woman he has just painted--and I wish he had had as much power when he had such splendid chances of painting you. I cannot tell you how vividly and pleasantly Chestnut St. on a sunny day rose before me in your jottings.

Love from us all. Tell your sister I often think of her & shall enjoy a chat ever so.

A. G.

LETTER XLIX

ANNE GILCHRIST TO WALT WHITMAN

_112 Madison Ave.

March 26, '79._

MY DEAREST FRIEND:

It seems quite a long while since I wrote, & a _very long_ while since you wrote. I am beginning to turn my thoughts Philadelphia-wards that we may have some weeks near you before we set out on fresh wanderings across the sea; and though I feel quite cheery about them, I look eagerly forward to the time beyond that when we have a fixed, final nest of our own again, where we can welcome you just when and as you please. Whichever side the Atlantic it is, you will come surely? for you belong to the one country as much as to the other. And I shall always feel that I do too. I take back with me a deep and hearty love for America--I came indeed with a good deal of that, but what I take back is different--stronger, more real. I went over to see friends in Brooklyn yesterday, & it was more lovely than I can tell you on the Ferry--in fact, it was just your poem, ”Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”. Herby still painting away _con amore_, & making good progress. I met Joaquin Miller at the Bigelows last week, & he was very pleasant (which isn't always the case) and said some very good things to me.

Thursday we are going to lunch with Mrs. Albert Brown--perhaps you may have heard of her as Bessie Griffiths. She was a Southern lady who, when she was about 18, freed all her slaves & left herself penniless. On Sunday we take tea at Prof. Rood's of Columbia College. Kate Hillard we often see & have lively chats with. We meet also & see a good deal of General Edward Lee--a fine soldierly looking man, & I believe he distinguished himself in the war & was afterwards sent to organize the new Territory of Wyoming, & was the first governor. I wish very much that if you or your brother knew him or know anything about him, you would tell me--for reasons that I will tell you by & bye. Bee is seeing a great deal of the educated coloured people at Boston--was at the meeting of a literary club--the only white among 20 or 30 coloured ladies--likes them much.

Write soon, dear Friend. Meanwhile, best love & good-bye.

ANNE GILCHRIST.

No letters from England this long while.