875. On the 4th December of that year, Carlyle attained
his eightieth year, and this anniversary was signalised by some of the
more distinguished of his friends and admirers by striking a medal,
the head being executed by Mr. Boehm, whose noble statue of Carlyle,
exhibited in the Royal Academy in the previous year, had won so much
merited praise from Mr. Ruskin and others. The medal was accompanied
by an address, signed by the subscribers. Carlyle seems to have been
much gratified with this honour, which took him quite by surprise, and
he expressed his acknowledgments as follows:--

"This of the medal and formal address of friends was an altogether
unexpected event, to be received as a conspicuous and peculiar honour,
without example hitherto anywhere in my life.... To you ... I address
my thankful acknowledgments, which surely are deep and sincere, and
will beg you to convey the same to all the kind friends so beautifully
concerned in it. Let no one of you be other than assured that the
beautiful transaction, in result, management, and intention, was
altogether gratifying, welcome, and honourable to me, and that I
cordially thank one and all of you for what you have been pleased
to do. Your fine and noble gift shall remain among my precious
possessions, and be the symbol to me of something still more _golden_
than itself, on the part of my many dear and too generous friends, so
long as I continue in this world.

"Yours and theirs, from the heart,

"T. CARLYLE."

Carlyle's last public utterances were a letter on the Eastern
Question, addressed to Mr. George Howard, and printed in the _Times_
of November 28, 1876, and a letter to the Editor of the _Times_, on
"The Crisis," printed in that journal on May 5, 1877.

He was now beginning to feel the effects of his great age. Yearly and
monthly he grew more feeble. His wonted walking exercise had to be
curtailed, and at last abandoned. He was affectionately and piously
tended during these last years by his niece, Mary Aitken, now Mrs.
Alexander Carlyle. In the autumn of 1879 he lost his brother, Dr. John
Aitken Carlyle, the translator of Dante's "Inferno."

The end came at last, after a long and gradual decay of strength. The
great writer and noble-hearted man passed away peacefully at about
half-past eight o'clock on the morning of Saturday, February 5, 1881,
in the eighty-sixth year of his age.

His remains were conveyed to Scotland, and were laid in the
burial