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

[175] a great many times when we have spoken of it since. We shall think of you much when we pass the bright coasts of your island in June; we shall think of you still more when we are amidst our own home, and always with great pleasure and much gratitude. . . .

In Scotland we saw the Alisons often, and it brought us near to you; for you may remember that it was under your hospitable roof we made their agreeable acquaintance. We saw, too, Abbotsford, which is still more intimately associated with you in our minds. But I cannot tell you how sad a place it is, so deserted, so cold, so full of heart-rending recollections and memorials. We did not feel half so bad when we stood by its master's grave at Dryburgh. Indeed, I almost wish it were burnt up, or destroyed in some way, for it is a monument of the weakest part of Sir Walter's character; that love of a magnificence beyond his means, which, by causing his pecuniary embarrassments, caused his premature death. It is altogether a most painful, melancholy place. The very air seemed oppressive as we went through it. . . . .

And now, farewell. I do not despair of seeing you in the course of this world's chances and changes yet once more, for there is a greater chance that I shall be in Europe three times now, than there was originally that I should come once. So, I still say au revoir.

Yours faithfully and affectionately,

G. Ticknor

Reaching London on the 22d of May, Mr. Ticknor was again plunged, for two weeks, into the excitements of ‘the season.’ On the day after his arrival he received and paid some visits, and thus describes Lord Brougham:—

He has gained a good deal of flesh since I knew him in 1818-19, and is even improved in that particular since I saw him at York three years ago. But in other respects I do not think he is changed for the better. He showed a very disagreeable disposition when he spoke of Jeffrey and Empson . . . . . It was really ungentlemanlike and coarse to speak as he did, of two persons who were formerly his associates, and are still, in all respects of general intercourse, his equals. What struck me most, however, was his marvellous memory. He remembered where I lodged in London in 1819, on what occasions he came to see me, and some circumstances about my attendance on the committee of the House of Commons on Education; which I had myself forgotten, till he recalled them to me. Such a memory,