but without Fechter, who has been very ill. The doctor's dismissal of him to Paris, however, and his getting better there, enables him to get up the play there. He and Wilkie missed so many pieces of stage-effect here, that unless I am quite satisfied with his report, I shall go over and try my stage-managerial hand at the Vaudeville Theatre. I particularly want the drugging and attempted robbing in the bedroom scene at the Swiss inn to be done to the sound of a waterfall rising and falling with the wind. Although in the very opening of that scene they speak of the waterfall and listen to it, nobody thought of its mysterious music. I could make it, with a good stagecarpenter, in an hour. My dear love to Fields once again. Same to you and him from Mamie and Georgy. I cannot tell you both how I miss you, or how overjoyed I should be to see you here. Ever, my dear Mrs. Fields, Your most affectionate friend. DCXXXVI. W. C. MACREADY GAD'S HILL, Wednesday, June 10, 1868. MY DEAREST MACREADY, Since my return from America, I have been so overwhelmed with business that I have not had time even to write to you. You may imagine what six months of arrear are to dispose of; added to this, Wills has received a concussion of the brain (from an accident in the hunting-field), and is sent away by the doctors, and strictly prohibited from even writing a note. Consequently all the business and money details of "All the Year Round" devolve upon me. And I have had to get them up, for I have never had experience of them. Then I am suddenly entreated to go to Paris, to look after the French version of "No Thoroughfare on the stage. And I go, and come back, leaving it a great success. I hope Mrs. Macready and you have not abandoned the idea of coming here? The expression of this hope is the principal, if not the only, object of this present note. May the amiable secretary vouchsafe a satisfactory reply! Katie, Mary, and Georgina send their very best love to your Katie and Mrs. Macready. The undersigned is in his usual brilliant condition, and indeed has greatly disappointed them at home here, by coming back "so brown and looking so well." They expected a wreck, and were, at first, much mortified. But they are getting over it now. To my particular friends, the noble boy and Johnny, I beg to be warmly remembered. Ever, my dearest Macready, Your most affectionate. DCXXXVII. JAMES T. FIELDS GAD'S HILL PLACE, Tuesday, July 7, 1868. MY DEAR FIELDS, I have delayed writing to you (and Mrs. Fields, to whom my love) until I should have seen Longfellow. When he was in London the first time he came and went without reporting himself, and left me in a state of unspeakable discomfiture. Indeed, I should not have believed in his having been here at all, if Mrs. Procter had not told me of his calling to see Procter. However, on his return he wrote to me from the Langham Hotel, and I went up to town to see him, and to make an appointment for his coming here. He, the girls, and Appleton, came down last Saturday night and stayed until Monday forenoon. I showed them all the neighbouring country that could be shown in so short a time, and they finished off with a tour of inspection of the kitchens, pantry, wine-cellar, pickles, sauces, servants' sitting-room, general household stores, and even the Cellar Book, of this illustrious establishment. Forster and Kent (the latter wrote certain verses to Longfellow, which have been published in "The Times," and which I sent to Dcame down for a day, and I hope we all had a really "good time." I turned out a couple of postilions in the old red jacket of the old red royal Dover Road, for our ride; and it was like a holiday ride in England fifty years ago. Of course we went to look at the old houses in Rochester, and the old cathedral, and the old castle, and the house for the six poor travellers who, "not being rogues or proctors, shall have lodging, entertainment, and fourpence each." Nothing can surpass the respect paid to Longfellow here, from the Queen downward. He is everywhere received and courted, and finds (as I told him he would, when we talked of it in Boston) the working-men at least as well acquainted with his books as the classes socially above them. Last Thursday I attended, as sponsor, the christening of Dolby's son and heir a most jolly baby, who held on tight by the rector's left whisker while the service was performed. What time, too, his little sister, connecting me with the pony, trotted up and down the centre aisle, noisily driving herself as that celebrated animal, so that it went very hard with the sponsorial dignity. Wills is not yet recovered from that concussion of the brain, and I have all his work to do. This may account for my not being able to devise a Christmas number, but I seem to have left my invention in America. In case you should find it, I am going up to town to-day to dine And now, my dear Fields, you know all please send it over. with Longfellow. about me and mine. You are enjoying your holiday? and are still thinking sometimes of our Boston days, as I do? and are maturing schemes for coming here next summer? A satisfactory reply to the last question is particularly entreated. I am delighted to find you both so well pleased with the Blind Book scheme.1 I said nothing of it to you when we were together, though I had made up my mind, because I wanted to come upon you with that little burst from a distance. It seemed something like meeting again when I remitted the money and thought of your talking of it. The dryness of the weather is amazing. All the ponds and surface-wells about here are waterless, and the poor people suffer greatly. The people of this village have only one spring to resort to, and it is a couple of miles from many cottages. I do not let the great dogs swim in the canal, because the people have to drink of it. But when they get into the Medway it is hard to get them out again. The other day Bumble (the son, Newfoundland dog) got into difficulties among some floating timber, and became frightened. Don (the father) was standing by me, shaking off the wet and looking on carelessly, when all of a sudden he perceived something amiss, and went in with a bound and brought Bumble out by the ear. The scientific way in which he towed him along was charming. Ever your loving. 1 A copy of The Old Curiosity Shop, in raised letters for the use of the blind, had been printed by Charles Dickens's order at the "Perkins Institution for the Blind" in Boston, and presented by him to that institution in this year. DCXXXVIII. J. E. MILLAIS, R. A. GAD'S HILL PLACE, HIGHAM BY ROCHESTer, Kent, MY DEAR MILLAIS, — I received the inclosed letter yesterday, and I have perhaps unjustly— some vague suspicions of it. As I know how-faithful and zealous you have been in all relating to poor Leech, I make no apology for asking you whether you can throw any light upon its contents. You will be glad to hear that Charles Collins is decidedly better to-day, and is out of doors. Believe me always, faithfully yours. DCXXXIX. MRS. HENRY AUSTIN GAD'S HILL PLACE, HIGHAM BY ROCHESTer, Kent, Tuesday, July 21, 1868. MY DEAR LETITIA, You will have had a telegram from me to-day. I received your sad news1 by this morning's post. They never, without express explanation, mind "Immediate " on a letter addressed to the office, because half the people who write there on business that does not press, or on no business at all, so mark their letters. On Thursday I have people to see and matters to attend to, both at the office and at Coutts's, which, in Wills's absence, I cannot forego or depute to another. But, between ourselves, I must add something else: I have the greatest objection to attend a funeral in which my affections are not strongly and immediately concerned. I have no notion of a funeral as a matter of form or ceremony. And just as I should expressly prohibit the summoning to my own burial of anybody who was not very near or dear to me, so I revolt from myself appearing at that solemn rite unless the deceased were very near or dear to me. I cannot endure being dressed up by an undertaker as part of his trade show. I was not in this poor good fellow's house in his lifetime, and I feel that I have no business there when he lies dead in it. My mind is penetrated with sympathy and compassion for the young widow, but that feeling is a real 1 On the death of Mr. Henry Austin, cousin and adopted child of Mr. and Mrs. Austin. -to my thing, and my attendance as a mourner would not be self. It would be to you, I know, but it would not be to myself. I know full well that you cannot delegate to me your memories of and your associations with the deceased, and the more true and tender they are the more invincible is my objection to become a form in the midst of the most awful realities. With love and condolence from Georgina, Mary, and Katie, Believe me, ever your affectionate brother. DCXL. MRS. GEORGE CATTERMOLE GAD'S HILL, Wednesday, July 22, 1868. MY DEAR MRS. CATTERMOLE, memorial to the Academy. If you take either of the Landseers, certainly take Edwin (1, St. John's Wood Road, N. W.). But if you would be content with Frith, I have already spoken to him, and believe that I can answer for him. I shall be at "All the Year Round" Office, 26, Wellington Street, London, to-morrow, from eleven to three. Frith will be here on Satur day, and I shall be here too. I spoke to him a fortnight ago, and I found him most earnest in the cause. He said he felt absolutely sure that the whole profession in its best and highest representation would do anything for George. I sounded him, having the opportunity of meeting him at dinner at Cartwright's. Ever yours affectionately. DCXLI. MR. SERLE GAD'S HILL, Wednesday, July 29, 1868. MY DEAR SERLE, I do not believe there is the slightest chance of an international copyright law being passed in America for a long time to come. Some Massachusetts men do believe in such a thing, but they fail (as I think) to take into account the prompt Western opposition. Such an alteration as you suggest in the English law would give no copyright in America, you see. The American publisher could buy no absolute right of priority. Any American newspaper could (and many would, in a popular case) pirate from him, as soon as they could get the matter set up. could buy no more than he buys now when he arranges for He |