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[418] did not come, now volunteered, and I added my friend Kenyon, and Henry Taylor.1 Mr. Smith was in great spirits, and amused us excessively by his peculiar humor. I do not know, indeed, that anything can exceed it, so original, so unprepared, so fresh. Taylor said little, but Kenyon produced quite an impression on Mr. Smith, who was surprised as well as pleased, for they knew each other very little before. It was a rare enjoyment.

When it was over we went regularly to see some of the London sights, which all strangers must see. . . . We arrived at home just in season to dress ourselves, and reach Kent House before dinner, where we had a most agreeable and quiet time, dining without company, with Mrs. Villiers and Mr. and Mrs. Lister, excellent and pleasant people, the two last well known by their lively books, which have been reprinted in America. While A. was listening to Mrs. Lister's music, and looking over her beautiful drawing, I made a short visit at Lord Holland's, thus making the range of our day's work extend from ten in the morning to eleven at night, and from the Thames Tunnel to Holland House, a space of nine miles.


On the 25th of July, after these three weeks of excitement and fatigue, Mr. Ticknor set out with his family for a tour through England and Wales, which, with the modes of travelling then in use, consumed much more time than would now be employed, but was, perhaps, all the more charming where every step was full of interest. Mr. Ticknor had purchased a large travelling-carriage, more like the covered ‘drag’ of the present day than like any other vehicle now seen, and, foreseeing a long use for it, had caused it to be fitted with many comforts and conveniences which English ingenuity provided for such demands. In this, always with four post-horses, he travelled for the next two years and a half, till it had become like a family mansion, to be at last given up with regret.

On the 26th of July Mr. Ticknor thus describes a visit to Miss Mitford, in the neighborhood of Reading:—

Journal.

We found Miss Mitford living literally in a cottage, neither ornee nor poetical,—except inasmuch as it had a small garden crowded


1 Author of ‘Philip Van Artevelde.’

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