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

[427] been promised three successive years; then we went to New York to buy carpets, missing Cogswell, or, as he pretends, avoiding him by a day; then we went to some friends on the North River; and now we are just come back from Savage's, ¹ where we have been due since 1855. Of course the few intervening days at home have been busy enough. The practical result, however, of the whole is, that we have had an uncommonly pleasant summer,—generally a gay one for old folks,—and that we are now in excellent health, gathered comfortably to our own hearthstone, with good pluck to encounter a New England winter, which the two Annas like less than I do.

Touching the Prince's visit,—of which you speak inquiringly,—I think you know just about as much as I do . . . . Everything, however, has, I believe, been done circumspectly, and is likely to turn out as well as can be expected. My whole service, I suppose, will be to conduct Anna to the ball,—her mother refusing absolutely to go, —for, as Judge Shaw will not be vis-à--vis to the Prince, neither Sparks nor I, nor any of the other gay young fellows associated with us, can aspire to that distinction . . . .

Thank you very much for your kind invitation; but my migrations for the rest of the year can hardly be more than the good Vicar's, from the blue bed to the brown. You must come here. You are due some time before winter, and the sooner you come the better. Meantime, we all send love and kindest wishes.

G. T.

To Sir Edmund Head.

Boston, Tuesday, October 23, 1860.

The Prince's visit went off as well as possible . . . . . Two things strike me in the whole affair. The first is, the deep ground of the cordiality on the part of the masses. It is, I believe, that they felt they could show their good-will, without any fear of its being misconstrued into flattery. When we were young and weak, our pride made us sensitive, and we were not disposed to such exhibitions of feeling. The ill — will of the War of Independence continued long; continued, indeed, until lately; and there has been a strong sense—produced by the ignorance and indiscretion of reviews and newspapers—that we were undervalued by your nation. But the coming of your Prince among us was a compliment not to be misinterpreted or misunderstood, and showed a confidence in our good feelings, which a people,