Mr. Ticknor, like all young men of full minds and warm hearts, was a frequent and copious correspondent. Of the letters written to his friends before his departure for Europe, many are still preserved, and of these two are given as specimens of his intellectual activity and the warmth of his affections. The‘ [41] attempting to fulfil it to-day, was not very courteous to a stranger, an equal, and one who is so truly inclined to honor his talents and learning. It is a manner which I am persuaded he did not learn in the polite circles in Europe, to which he referred, and which I sincerely wish he had forgotten there, wherever he may have learnt it.’ Mr. Pinkney replied in a few words of cold and inefficient explanation, which only made me think yet less well of him, and impelled me to feel almost sorry that I had been obliged so much to admire his high talents and success.
1Baltimore, March 1, 1815.I called this morning on the venerable Archbishop Carroll. The good old man was employed in writing a pastoral letter to his Massachusetts diocesan. By his side was a beautiful copy of Tasso's ‘Jerusalem Delivered,’ open on a frame, an apt indication of the union of letters with official duties. He recollected me, inquired after Mr. Jefferson and his library, and seemed interested in what I told him. When I came away he bestowed a patriarchal benediction upon me. I dined at Mr. Robert Oliver's, with a large company of some of the more considerable men of Maryland; the most distinguished being Mr. Charles Carroll, the friend of Washington, one of the three surviving signers of the Declaration of Independence, at one time Senator of the United States, and the richest landholder, I suppose, in the country. At eighty he reads and enjoys his classical books more than most young men of the present generation. He is a specimen of the old regime, one of the few who remain to us as monuments of the best bred and best educated among our fathers. He wears large gold buckles in his shoes and broad lace ruffles over his hands and bosom, the fashion, I suppose, of the year ‘60. His manner has a grave and stately politeness, and his tact and skill in conversation lead him to the subjects most familiar to his hearer; while he is so well read that he appears to have considered each himself.
This text is part of:
Mr. Ticknor, like all young men of full minds and warm hearts, was a frequent and copious correspondent. Of the letters written to his friends before his departure for Europe, many are still preserved, and of these two are given as specimens of his intellectual activity and the warmth of his affections. The
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1 The case in which Mr. Pinkney and Mr. Emmett came into collision, described in this letter, was the Nereide, reported in 9 Cranch, 388. That spoken of in the previous letter, in which Mr. Dexter was opposed to Mr. Pinkney and Mr. Emmett, must have been The Frances, 9 Cranch, 183.
Boston, J. R. Osgood and company, 1876.
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