To Miss Grace Norton.
11 Dover Street, Piccadilly,
Aug. 4, 1872.
...Dublin interested me much.... From Dublin to Chester, where we stayed five days, and where Charles Kingsley (who is a canon there) was very kind. We had the advantage of going over the Cathedral with him, and over the town with the chief local antiquary. We fell quite in love with it and with the delightful walk round the walls. We arrived in London night before last.
Affectionately yours,
Llumbago Llowell.
To C. E. Norton.
11 Dover Street, Piccadilly,
13 August, 1872.
Give my love to Grace and relieve the anxiety of her mind by telling her I have found J. H. at the Tavistock Hotel, Covent Garden, where he is Mr. ’Omes. I have tried in vain to get him up hither. He goes to Dresden on Thursday to meet some friends whom he learned to know at the Fosters’ and whom he likes. Then he is coming round slowly to Paris, where we are to meet and decide on plans. Meanwhile I have resolved to stay here till you come, if you come soon enough.[49] If not, I shall cross over to you. I go down to Yorkshire (I mean Cumberland) on Friday or Saturday to see the Storys. I can show Fanny York, Durham, and Fountain’s Abbey on the way,—and Ripon, though I did not think it much twenty years ago. We shall spend a few days with the Storys at “Crosby Lodge on Eden” (which has a pleasant name, as if it stood in a garden of cucumbers), and then work downward through the Lake Country and so back to London. We have very central lodgings here, with what I value above all, a pleasant landlady. Our rooms are very small, but they can be smoked in, being bachelor apartments construed into the dual. As it is not the season, we shall probably have no trouble in getting them again when we come back. Now if you are coming over early in September, you see it would be better for us to stay till you come.
We have been having a very pleasant time thus far, though I have not yet quite got over the feeling of the ball and chain. It will take a good while. I do not know whether I told you I had resigned my professorship? I did so the night before we sailed that there might be no discussion. I found that at any rate my salary ceased during my absence, and so I thought it a good chance. I do not altogether like this matter of the salary. It prevents any professor who has not some private fortune of his own from having any vacation at all.[50] But I am glad it happened so, for it just turned the scale with me in favor of the wiser decision,—as I think it is. I cannot yet get over the dulness it ground into me. I begin to think I am too old ever to shake it wholly off....
We have been seeing all sorts of things (persons are out of town) since we have been here. The Hogarths delight me again, and I have twice seen the Rake’s Progress, which I did not get at when I was here before. Hogarth’s color is as fine as his invention and dramatic powers. He astonishes me always by his soft brilliancy and harmony. I have lots of things to talk over when we meet.