England, though he promised absolutely to write on his arrival at Rome, and if his intentions were fulfilled, he must have been a resident there for many weeks. Do you see Talfourd? Does he prosper in his profession? What family has he? etc., etc. But I will not particularise persons, but include all in one general inquiry. . . . Tell us of all whom you know, in whom you know us also to be interested, but above all, be very minute in what regards your own dear selves, for there are no persons in the world, exclusive of members of our own family, of whom we think and talk so frequently, or with such delightful remembrances. Your removal to London (though to my thought London is scarcely London without you) shall not prevent my seeing you both in your own cottage, if I live to go there again; but at present I have no distant plans leading me thither.

Now that Mr Monkhouse 1 is gone, we females have no absolute home there, and should we go it will probably be on our own way to the Continent, or to the southern shores of England. Wishes I do now and then indulge of at least revisiting Switzerland, and again crossing the Alps, and even strolling on to Rome. But, there is a great change in my feelings respecting plans for the future. If we make any, I entertain them as an amusement perhaps for a short while, but never set my heart upon anything which is to be accomplished three months hence, and have no satisfaction whatever in schemes. When one has lived almost sixty years, one is satisfied with present enjoyment

1 Mr. Thomas Monkhouse, a valued friend, whose hospitable home in London had always been open to his friends.

and thankful for it, without daring to count on what is to be done six months hence.

My brother and sister are both in excellent health. In him there is no failure except the tendency to inflammation in his eyes, which disables him from reading much, or at all by candle-light; and the use of the pen is irksome to him. However, he has a most competent and willing amanuensis in his daughter, who takes all labour from mother's and aged aunt's hands. His muscular powers are in no degree diminished. Indeed, I think he walks regularly more than ever, finding fresh air the best bracing to his weak eyes. He is still the crack skater on Rydal Lake, and, as to climbing of mountains, the hardiest and the youngest are yet hardly a match for him. In composition I can perceive no failure, and his imagination seems as vigorous as in youth; yet he shrinks from his great work, and both during the last and present winter has been employed in writing small poems. Do not suppose, my dear friend, that I write this boastingly. Far from it. It is in thankfulness for present blessings, yet always with the sense of the possibility that all will have a sudden check; and, if not so, the certainty that in the course of man's life, but a few years of vigorous health and strength can be allotted to him. For this reason, my sister and I take every opportunity of pressing upon him the necessity of applying to his great work, and this he feels, resolves to do it, and again resolution fails. And now I almost fear habitually that it will be ever so.

I have told you she is well-and indeed I think her much stronger than a few years ago—and (now that I am

for the whole of this winter set aside as a walker) she takes my place, and will return from an eight miles' walk with my brother unfatigued. Miss Hutchinson, and her sister Joanna, are both with us.1 Miss H. is perfectly well, and Joanna very happy, though she may be always considered an invalid. Her home is in the Isle of Man, and, with the first mild breezes of spring, she intends returning thither, with her sailor brother Henry - they two (toddling down the hill) together. She is an example for us all. With the better half of her property, she purchased Columbian bonds, at above 70, gets no interest, will not sell, consequently the cheapness of the little isle tempted her thither on a visit, and she finds the air so suitable for her health, and everything else so much to her mind, that she will, in spite of our unwillingness to part with her, make it her home. As to her lost property, she never regrets it. She has so reduced her wants that she declares she is now richer than she ever was in her life, and so she is. . . I believe you never saw Joanna, and it is a pity; for you would have loved her very much. the good qualities of the Hutchinsons. very active, and her father's helper at domestic concerns she takes all the trouble from her mother

She possesses all My niece Dora is all times; and in

We live in a strange sort of way in this country at
Professor Wilson invited thirty per-

the present season.

1 Two sisters of Mrs. Wordsworth.

sons to dine with him the other day, though he had neither provisions nor cook. I have no doubt, however, that all passed off well; for contributions of eatables came from one neighbouring house, to my knowledge, and good spirits, good humour, and good conversation would make up for many deficiencies. In another house, a cottage about a couple of miles from the Professor's, were fifty guests how lodged I leave you to guess - only we were told the overflow, after all possible cramming, was received in the offices, farm-houses, etc., adjoining. All this looks more like what one has been told of Irish hospitality than aught that the formal English are up to.

TO SIR W. ROWAN HAMILTON

LOWTHER CASTLE, September 26, 1830.

Did I tell you that Professor Wilson with his two sons and daughter have been, and probably still are, at Elleray? He heads the gaieties of the neighbourhood, and has presided as steward at two regattas. Do these employments come under your notions of action as opposed to contemplation? Why should they not? Whatever the high moralists may say, the political economists will, I conclude, approve them as setting capital afloat, and giving an impulse to manufacture and handicrafts- not to speak of the improvement which may come thence to navigation and nautical science.

There is another acquaintance of mine also recently gone a person for whom I never had any love, but with whom I had for a short time a good deal of intimacy — I