150 A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, xi 



Carlyle sitting in a corner of the drawing-room, the rest 

 being filled with furniture, the house in the hands of plast- 

 erers and painters, the picture of discomfort. She has no 

 maid, only a child, and can get no dinner, so I humanely 

 gave her one to-day. I have but one pleasure here, being 

 able to stretch my legs to their fullest extent, which I have 

 done without ceasing. Excuse the enormous length of this 

 letter, but what can I do, with every book I have in the 



world packed up ? i? -n 



Jcj. U. 



The allusion to the pleasure of stretching his legs means 

 that, owing to his great height, he constantly found the beds 

 at inns too short, and was miserably uncomfortable in conse- 

 quence. Lying flat on his sofa, he looked longer than anyone 

 I ever saw. 



Fanny Allen to her niece Elizabeth Wedgwood. 



IVY BUSH HOTEL, CARMARTHEN [Autumn, 1852]. 



MY DEAR ELIZABETH, 



It is but a short time since I parted from you, though 

 i t seems long since my last look at your dear face. When shall 

 I see it again I wonder ? The journey is but a little thing, 

 when once one grapples with it. This time yesterday I had 

 scarcely left the platform of the Three Bridges [Station] and 

 here I am to-day at the same hour at more than 250 miles 

 apart from you ! I wish life were not made up of partings. 

 The next generation may avoid much of this evil, if they 

 choose, by roosting near each other, and taking advantage 

 of railroads. I had exceUent company, fashionable ladies 

 apparently, as they kept quite mute all the way. There 

 was a dense fog at London Bridge Station, which did not 

 show off the old Babylon to the best advantage to us 

 travellers come fresh from France 1 and its fine picturesque 

 old towns. It was however almost sublime from its smoke 

 and fog, as it looked as if you had got to a subterranean 



Fanny Allen had been to Aix-les-Bains, accompanied by Elizabeth 

 Wedgwood. 



