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I enclose a letter from
Judge Story, who wishes to secure you at dinner, immediately after your return to
Boston.
We shall all be glad to see you back; but I fear
Boston will be Mantuan to you after the bustle of New York, and that you will miss the exciting condiments of town life.
‘Dread winter comes and shuts the scene,’ in earnest.
We have snow on the ground, the jingle of bells, and the sleigh-rides of which you have heard.
Shall we give you an upset in a snowbank?
Your passage from New York to
Boston will be dismal.
The direct route will be by steamer, which leaves New York at five o'clock in the afternoon, and reaches
terra firmaand the railroad about two o'clock at night; by this, you will reach
Boston at seven o'clock in the morning.
If you do not incline to this penance, you can go up the
Hudson, stopping at
West Point,— which I wish you to see; then at the town of
Hudson, and from
Hudson come down by the railway, which you have tried once.
Or, you may take still a third way (the boat to New Haven),—a very pretty place in the summer, embowered in trees, and the seat of a flourishing American university; then ascend the
Connecticut River to
Springfield, thence by railroad to
Boston.
Ever and ever yours,
To Lord Morpeth, New York.
my dear Morpeth,—Yours of Dec. 3 was duly received; and so, we may expect you Thursday morning. My dear friend
Longfellow, whom you have seen once at his rooms, in the old seat of
General Washington,—a Professor of our Cambridge University, and the head of our
Parnassus,— wishes you to dine with him on the evening of your arrival.
You will meet
Allston and
Prescott and one or two academics, whose talk and the associations of the place will ‘outdo the meats;’ for the fare will be simple in the extreme.
I hope you will feel able to go. I promise you much pleasure in the repast, and the warm welcome you will find.
Prescott is anxious to see you, and will expect you to dine with him while in
Boston.
You will like him as well as his book; and also his venerable father, a lawyer
emeritus, who has the rare felicity of living to see the fame of his son. I am expecting your speech in honor of St. Nicholas.
Which in the calendar shall you serve next?
Ever most sincerely yours,
