Item 46 - Letter from Mary Carlyle to Edward FitzGerald

1 letter (4pp: 1 bifolium)

24 Cheyne Row, Chelsea. - Apologizes for not answering his 'kind letter' sooner. Her uncle [Thomas Carlyle] has been more ill than she has ever seen him before for 'some weeks', but she is glad that he has now recovered and 'back into his old ways', except for being forced to drive out in the afternoon instead of taking his usual walk. They have hired a fly for the drives; he keeps on his dressing gown with a fur coat on top, and with 'hot water at his feet, he never will allow that the weather is cold even the mercury fall below the freezing point'. At home he reads, and she sometimes has trouble getting to go to bed at one or two in the morning.

He 'remembers Miss Crabbe very well'; wishes that FitzGerald had come to see him when 'so near'. She read [George Crabbe's] Tales of the Hall when around fifteen, though she 'did not understand them & as was natural found them dull*. Can 'read Scott very well', but is 'by no means an enthusiastic admirer'; her 'uncle's opinion has nothing to do with mine (!)' and he always tell her she should be ashamed to say she 'never could get to the end of Waverley, which fascinated him so much that he read it straight through almost at one sitting'.

Her uncle sends his 'kindest regards'.