THE EYDALIAN PATPJAECHS. 2H 



TO THE EEV. JOHN SYM. 



" Thorny How, Oct. 2, 1849. 

 " My deae Pastoe, — I am standing, or trying to stand, 

 ,n a room with a score of trunks, parcels, packing boxes, 

 and portmanteaus, and have scarcely a place for the sole 

 f my foot. We leave this to-morrow morning. I have 

 almost more to do (as usual with me of little things) than 

 I can overtake, and yet I cannot help, ever and anon, 

 going to door or window, and what pictures are all around 

 us ! A gorgeous autumn day, cool, clear, and tranquil, is 

 brightening the ' pastoral melancholy ' of the green moun- 

 tains, while crags, and corries, and the gorgeous wood- 

 lands, in light or shade, are — it does not matter what, for 

 you have seen them. I passed a farewell hour yesterday 

 with the great poet of Eydal Mount, certainly the most 

 remarkable man, intellectually considered, alive in Britain. 

 He is now in his eightieth year, and his wife and beloved 

 sister are almost as advanced in years. They have no 

 youthful scions growing up around them to support their 

 feeble steps. It was to me a very affecting thing. to 

 witness the great love of these three most aged people for 

 each other — how fresh their feelings of affection, as if 

 only now for the first time gushing forth, and unimpaired 

 by what are so often the chilling influences of so long a 

 life. To me this great love seemed beautiful exceedingly, 



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