George Ticknor, Life, letters and journals of George Ticknor
George Hillard, Ed.

To Hon. E. Everett.

Park Street, December 10, 1858.

my dear Everett,—. . . If I had known that you intended to use Mr. Dowse's account of his youth to me in your most agreeable and interesting lecture last night, ¹ I would have given it to you in writing. One or two of the items of his economies I cannot remember; but for the others I will give you, on the next leaf, what I believe are the ipsissima verba of the old man, as he stood just by where I am now writing and leaned on the table. One item I have recalled since I repeated them to you, and if I could remember the others, the accumulation would be a little humorous and very striking. ‘But old, old, Master—’ not Shallow, though Falstaff has it so.

Yours sincerely,

Geo. Ticknor.

[Mr. Dowse's account of his own youth.]

‘Mr. Ticknor, when I was twenty-eight years old I had never been anything better than a journeyman leather-dresser; I had never had more than twenty-five dollars a month; I had never paid five dollars to be carried from one place to another; I had never owned a pair of boots; I had never paid a penny to go to the play or to see a sight, but I owned above six hundred volumes of good books, well bound.’

To Hon. Edward Twisleton.

Boston, January 18, 1859.

my dear Twisleton,—I thank you for the correction you have taken the pains to send me of an error in my ‘History of Spanish Literature,’ which I immediately entered in the margin of the copy from which I intend speedily to reprint it. I only wish my other friends would be equally observant and kind. Von Raumer sent me one correction much like yours,--telling me that ‘Ferdinand,’ whom —in note 10 to Chapter XI. of the First Part—I had called ‘father of John I.’ of Portugal, was, in fact, his half-brother. But this is all, and I mention it because it is so, as well as from its odd similarity to the one you have suggested. Even in the notes to the German and Spanish translations few mistakes have been pointed out. Now all this would be very consoling,—even very gratifying,—if it were not for one circumstance, viz. that I have found out so many mistakes myself,