Time may do more for us; at least, I am of an age and temper to encourage hope.
All here are perfectly yours.
Adieu! my dear friend,
Your affectionate
Ed. Rivers.
LETTER CLXVI.170.
To Mrs. Temple, Pall Mall.
Silleri, Aug. 6.
The leave of absence for my father and Fitzgerald being come some weeks sooner than we expected, we propose leaving Canada in five or six days.
I am delighted with the idea of revisiting dear England, and seeing friends whom I so tenderly love: yet I feel a regret, which I had no idea I should have felt, at leaving the scenes of a thousand past pleasures; the murmuring rivulets to which Emily and I have sat listening, the sweet woods where I have walked with my little circle of friends: I have even a strong attachment to the scenes themselves, which are infinitely lovely, and speak the inimitable hand of nature which formed them: I want to transport this fairy ground to England.
I sigh when I pass any particularly charming spot; I feel a tenderness beyond what inanimate objects seem to merit.
I must pay one more visit to the naiads of Montmorenci.