[On headed notepaper for 40 Ennismore Gardens, SW]. Has been taking his 'tonic', but has already finished one bottle so will need another by the end of the week. Mr A[rnold] 'will probably come down tomorrow [after being ill]', but will not resume 'all his usual work for some time'. Thinks his mother might be able to visit next week, 'certainly not this week'; will let her know next Sunday if Mr Arnold is well enough. It was half-term last Friday. Yesterday there was a 'fall of snow', but it 'hardly lay at all'. Wrote to 'Grandpapa P[hilips] today. They [Robert and George] are 'both getting on very well'. Is reading a book lent to him by Mr Arnold, Froude's Oceana which is 'about the colonies, and is very interesting'. Is glad Charlie is getting well at Harrow.
Bideford. - Agrees Lord P[almerston] must be told his antecedents; has asked [Lord?] Stanley to give opinions; believes his wife's Parliamentary relatives [if Froude stands for Oxford History Professorship?]; hopes Vaughan will not resign after all - he is odd but very able.
5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea. - Sorry for the trouble FitzGerald has had with the Naseby monument; hopes the enterprise will be satisfactorily completed next year. Comments on Forster's Life of Dickens: finds in it 'a veritable Photograph of all the days of the years of Dickens, which will be held in some remembrance so long as Dickens himself is considered worth remembering'. Can send Froude's book on Ireland, 'an excellent work', if FitzGerald wishes
[Not in Carlyle's own hand].
Chelsea. - Is glad that FitzGerald is 'astir on the Naseby-Monument question; and that the auspices are so favourable'; thinks inscription will do; advice on the monument; asks FitzGerald to let him bear half of the expence. 'Pollock has told you an altogether flattering tale about my strength &c. It is nearly impossible for any person still on his feet to be more completely useless.'.
Partly written in J. A. Froude's hand, as per postscript: 'J. A. Froude (just come to walk with me) scripsit'
2 Webster Street, Green Heys, Manchester. - Disappointed by Manchester: will leave in summer. Seeks tutor's post 'where my belief or want of belief would not be offensive'.
Allington Lodge, Merton, Surrey. - On the recent move from Cheyne Row; her children; her husband's school. Has been 'trying to arrange and copy' her uncle [Thomas]'s letters, so that when 'Mr Froude gives up the remainder of them and everybody has finished writing his little "Articles" about him they may be all correctly printed (without almost any notes or comments) & allowed to speake for themselves. Knows little about the 'matter of the statue [of Thomas Carlyle] on the Embankment'; has written to the Rector of Chelsea [Gerald Blunt] asking whether the subscription list is closed, and will send his reply on to FitzGerald. Postscript saying she encloses Mr Blunt's letter [Add.MS.a/6/45].
Letters from 1842-1844 largely concern FitzGerald's investigations at Naseby and Cromwell's progress on his edition of Oliver Cromwell's letters and speeches. Also includes letters from J. A. Froude and John Ruskin to FitzGerald, letter from C. E. Norton to Carlyle, and notes and transcripts by FitzGerald and Carlyle.
Typed sheet headed 'Carlyle and FitzGerald' pasted in at front, explaining the circumstances of their first meeting in Sept. 1842.
Sin títuloBrighton. - Is not selling his pictures for the benefit of Froude but because of losses in the West Indies caused by Government folly. £15 or £20 is a large sum to find, and Froude is not a personal friend. Details of Coningham's wife's health. Sending Froude to Germany would be the ruin of him; he would be better working for the press or going to America.
Seeks opinion of Spanish translations in Poems and Songs dedicated to Houghton in 1863; hopes to induce J. A. Froude to publish them in Fraser's Magazine: it carried Mason's article on early Spanish poetry last June but Mr Froude is now hesitating.
5 Onslow Gardens, S.W. - Is sorry to hear of Edward FitzGerald's death; did not know him personally, but 'many of my friends held him in high esteem'. FitzGerald sent Froude letters to be used for his biography of Carlyle; will be going through his papers in the summer and autumn, and will send FitzGerald's letters to Wright as soon as he can.
Letter 46 re Charles Welsh Mason.
1 Stratton St., Piccadilly. - Thanks for forwarding Monographs; Lord Houghton merely mentioned sending a note when they met at a concert given here by the Baroness last Friday. Froude showed her a copy of Monographs lent to him by Carlyle. Nervousness about impending visit by the Shah, who is said to scatter his food around. The Baroness and Mrs Brown are at a slave trade meeting. Enjoyed Ristori in Maria Stuart but she looks too old and stout for the role. Asks Miss Milnes to forward her book to Pound in July. Other guests here. Might travel in September, 'if Cook's projected tour takes in more of India than his first trip'; must attend autumn manoeuvres on Dartmoor.
Review of J. A. Froude's Thomas Carlyle: a history of his life in London, 1834-1881.
Re the Froude affair, Coningham cannot give as much as Milnes suggests because Froude is wilfully pursuing the wrong course: 'He requires a practical belief to live by - the Germans can only fling him headlong into materialism, the slough of despond of feeble minds, or intoxicate him with an unpractical mysticism...'
Re Oxford Professorship of Modern HIstory.
62 Rutland Gate. - Unable to discover when last volumes of Hogg's Shelley are to be published as Moxon has taken the secret to his grave; what a reception Rogers will give Moxon for the Table Talk; [unnamed] contributor ('almost as deeply read in the Russian Classics as yourself') is preparing an article on the Emancipation of Russian serfs. Tourgeneff should provide useful material. Milnes' opposition to attak on Froude's defence of Henry VIII. Starting for Rome next week. Longman will send Shelley if it appears.
Review of J. A. Froude's Thomas Carlyle: a history of his life in London, 1834-1881.
Review of J. A. Froude's Thomas Carlyle: a history of his life in London, 1834-1881.
Review of J. A. Froude's Thomas Carlyle: a history of his life in London, 1834-1881.
38 Belgrave Square. - Obtained Record Commission publications from the late Government; asks if Milnes will approach Lord Stanley, as he now needs more and must save expense where possible. Postscript: address to J. W. Parker, 445 Strand.
Taplow House, Bideford. - Hopes to take up Milnes' invitation next year; must begin work; 'I hate what I am about so cordially that I am afraid to stop for fear I should not have the heart to begin again'; difficulty of finding accurate historical accounts; has heard nothing from Wheatstone. Postscript: could not obtain Heine's last poem: would like to transcribe Milnes' translation.
Concerning publication of Thomas Carlyle's memoir of Jane Carlyle.
5 Onslow Gardens, S. W. - FitzGerald's parcel has reached him; the letters and the MS book shall be safely kept and returned; does not know whether he can 'go into the question of the Squire Papers - The story has already been substantially told by Squire himself. It is a very strange one, and I, for one, can form no opinion about it. Some of the Naseby letters I think I shall be able to use'. Hopes to see FitzGerald at some point and discuss 'many things'.
Spedding was his cousin; Froude 'looked up to him as a model of perfection from the time when I was a little boy. I hardly know what harm his friends are doing him. Four or five years ago he said to me with peculiar sadness that everything which he did was doomed to be a failure'; Froude fears that 'even the Evenings with a Reviewer will only be read by those who knew him. The spoilt taste of the modern Public will not swallow food which is perfectly genuine'.
Note by FitzGerald at the end that he is sending this letter [to W. Aldis Wright?] 'because of the Spedding part' and does not want it back; it can be shown to the Master [W. H. Thompson?] if he has not yet left Cambridge.
Replying to Mary Carlyle's letter of the previous day.