212 MEMOIR OF DR. HARVEY. 



CHAPTER XL 



HOME LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



To Dr. A. Gray. 



T. C. D., Dublin, May 16, 1850. 

 I got home on Sunday morning last, after a passage of 

 thirteen days. We had a slight accident at sea, which detained 

 us some hours, otherwise we should have come in two days 

 earlier- 

 It is delightful to get home, but I shall scarcely be settled for 

 a month to come. I think of going to London next week for a few 

 days. Hooker writes me that the garden is looking magnificent, 

 and that Pinguicula lutea, which I sent in quantity from North 

 Carolina, is blooming beautifully on an artificial sphagnum bed, 

 where a great variety of bog-plants are grouped together. 



My conversazione is fixed for the 30th. I hope it may 

 succeed. 



To Mrs. Harvey, Neiv YorJc. 



Trinity College, Dublin, June 21st, 1850. 

 S. used to say I never had a good word for your country ; 

 but since I returned home I have had many times to combat 

 prejudices and ignorances of a deep dye, so that I am considered 

 " quite American " by many. I do not plead guilty to the 

 charge, in the large sense they give it, but I certainly wish to 

 speak fairly on the subject. I am loath to confess (to myself 

 even) a certain deterioration, which my constitutional principles 

 have experienced since my transatlantic journey. You know 

 I am not a Republican in any degree, yet I must allow that 

 certain anomalies in our system of government have struck me 

 since my return as they never did before ; and I am sometimes 



