Part 22 (2/2)

_12 Well Rd., Hampstead, Eng.

July 20, '85._

MY DEAREST FRIEND:

A kind of anxiety has for some time past weighed upon me and upon others, I find, who love & admire you, that you do not have all the comforts you ought to have; that you are perhaps sometimes straightened for means. We have had letters from several young men, almost or quite strangers to us, asking questions on this subject; and we hoped & thought that if this were so, you would permit those who have received such priceless gifts from you to put their grat.i.tude into some tangible shape, some ”free-will offering.” Hence the paragraph was put into the _Athenaeum_ which I send with this, and we were proceeding to organize our forces when your paper came to hand this morning (the _Camden Post_, July 3), which seems decisively to bid us desist. Or at all events wait till we had told you of our wishes and plan. One thing would, I feel sure, give you pleasure in any case; and that is to know that there is over here a little band--perhaps indeed it is now quite a considerable one, for we had not yet had time to ascertain how considerable--who would joyfully respond to that Poem of yours, ”To Rich Givers.”

A friend and near neighbour of ours, Frederick Wedmore, is coming over to America this autumn, and counts much on coming to see you. He is a well-known writer on Art here--a friendly, candid, open-minded man with whom, I think, you will enjoy a talk.

I am on the lookout for Miss Smith[43]--shall indeed enjoy a talk with a special friend of yours, dear Walt. I hope she will not fail to come.

Giddy is away at Haslemere. Herby just going to write for himself to you.

That is a very graphic bit in the _Post_--the portrait of Hugo, the canary & the kitten--I like to know all that--as well as to hear the talk.

My love, dear Walt.

ANNE GILCHRIST.

So far as can be ascertained this is the last letter. Anne Gilchrist died Nov. 29th, 1885.

THE END

THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y.

Footnotes:

[1] Reprinted from the _Radical_ for May, 1870.

[2] Reprinted from ”Anne Gilchrist, Her Life and Writings,” by her son Herbert H. Gilchrist--London, 1887.

[3] Reprinted from Horace Traubel's ”With Walt Whitman in Camden,” I, 219-220. Although addressed to Rossetti, this letter is evidently intended as much for Mrs. Gilchrist, whose name was not at this time known to Whitman.

[4] Alexander Gilchrist.

[5] Mrs. Gilchrist's emotion here apparently prevents her memory from doing complete justice to her own past. For a very different expression of her feelings toward Alexander Gilchrist, written at the time of her betrothal, see her letter announcing the engagement which she sent to her friend, Julia Newton, and which is to be found on pp. 30-31 of her son's biography.

[6] William Michael Rossetti.

[7] To W. M. Rossetti. See _ante_, p. x.

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