224 AN OCTOBER ABROAD. 



FROM LONDON TO NEW YORK. 



I HAD imagined that the next best thing to seeing 

 England would be to see Scotland ; but as this latter 

 pleasure was denied me, certainly the next best thing 

 was seeing Scotland's greatest son. Carlyle has been 

 so constantly and perhaps justly represented as a 

 stormy and wrathful person, brewing bitter denunci- 

 ation for America and Americans, that I cannot for- 

 bear to mention the sweet and genial mood in which 

 we found him a gentle and affectionate grandfather, 

 with his delicious Scotch brogue and rich melodious 

 talk, overflowing with reminiscences of his earlier 

 life, of Scott and Goethe and Edinburgh, and other 

 men and places he had known. Learning I was 

 especially interested in birds, he discoursed of the 

 lark and nightingale and mavis, framing his remarks 

 about them in some episode of his personal ex- 

 perience, and investing their songs with the double 

 charm of his description and his adventure. 



" It is only geese who get plucked there," said my 

 companion after we had left a man who had known 

 Carlyle intimately for many years ; " silly persons who 

 have no veneration for the great man, and come to 



