468 hildebrand's drawing. 



face still as plainly as I can see yours. I was but 

 eighteen when I visited England for the first time. It 

 was during the trial of Warren Hastings, which I fre- 

 quently attended. I remember that I heard Edmund 

 Burke, Pitt, and Sheridan, all speak on the same night.' 



"I shall not repeat his account of the Congress of 

 Verona, or his anecdotes of Alexander I. of Russia, 

 whom he knew intimately, as I am not certain whether 

 I have a right to do so at present. After the visitors 

 left, I remained with him until it was time for him to 

 prepare for the dinner given to Alexander II., to which 

 he was bidden. ' You will pass through Berlin on your 

 way to Moscow ?' said he. ' Yes.' ' Well — I must be 

 polite enough to live until then. You must bring your 

 wife with }^ou. Oh, I know all about it, and you must 

 not think, because I have never been married myself 

 that I do not congratulate you.' After these cordial 

 words, and a clasp of the hand, in which there was 

 nothing weak or tremulous, I parted from the immortal 

 old man. 



" I was glad to learn from Seifert, that Hildebrand's 

 admirable water-colour drawing of Humboldt in his 

 library is soon to be printed in chromotint, so that very 

 accurate copies of it can be obtained at a moderate price. 

 As I have not only seen the original but the room and 

 man that it represents, I can testify to its entire fidelity, 

 and would suggest to Humboldt's admirers in America 

 that they cannot procure a bettor illustration of him. I 

 suppose copies of it will be sent to America for sale. 

 Herr Mollhausen, Seifert's son-in-law, who is now 

 attached, as artist, to the expedition for the survey of a 

 wagon-road to the Pacific, prepared for the press, before 



