HOME LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 343 



between the following letters, but tliey are sufficient to give to 

 the reader a graphic and touching picture of his declining years, 

 to which the editor feels that she can add but little by any 

 words of her own. 



May 19th, 1862. 



My dear Mrs. Gatty, 



What a long time since we saw the scratch of your pen ! It 

 feels like the first shower on the Karroo after a long drought 

 which brings out the flowers that had been locked up in the 

 clay for so many months. 



You hope I am not lecturing, do you ? Happy to tell you that 

 I am lecturing — that I gave thirteen last week — hope to give 

 eight this week — thirteen the week following, and so on till the 

 middle of June, when the weekly supply will fall to three. End 

 of June, "a silver spoon!" — that is to say, "otium cum dig." 

 Beginning of July, " off we fly ;" and first to Sheffield if you don't 

 object. Thence to London, and so forth. I should like much to 

 'scort you through Kew, and perhaps we may travel to town 

 together if you are then going up. Ask all your questions when 

 we go. If I cannot answer them, I shall hide my ignorance by 

 yawning, and then you will be too polite to press me further, and 

 will say, " Poor fellow, how wearied he is !" 



To Miss Harvey. 



Dublin, October 18, 1862. 

 Your welcome letter of September only reached me this 

 morning, and now after tea, by our own fireside, I set about 

 answering it. Why have I not written ? Simply procrastina- 

 tion from day to day, and from week to week, till I had stifled 

 mv conscience thus : Wait till I go to London, and then I shall 

 have lots to tell. We only returned a week ago, having left 

 home early in July, so we have just been three months on our 

 tour, six weeks of which we had lodgings at Kew. We after- 

 wards went to the north of England to pay a visit to our friends 

 at Ecclesfield. 



You ask me to tell you of the Exhibition. All Exhibitions 

 have a similar character as a whole, but the excitement this 

 year was wholly unlike the "World's Fair" in 1851: then 

 there was the charm of novelty, and the active superintendence 



