ave sent off by John Chapman a Copy of the _Life of Sterling,_
which is all printed and ready, but is not to appear till the
first week of October.... Along with the _Sheets_ was a poor
little French Book for you,--Book of a poor Naval _Mississippi_
Frenchman, one "Bossu," I think; written only a Century ago, yet
which already seemed old as the Pyramids in reference to those
strange fast-growing countries. I read it as a kind of defaced
_romance;_ very thin and lean, but all _true,_ and very
marvelous as such.

It is above three weeks since my Wife and I left London, (the
Printer having done,) and came hither with the purpose of a month
of what is called "Water Cure"; for which this place, otherwise
extremely pleasant and wholesome, has become celebrated of late
years. Dr. Gully, the pontiff of the business in our Island,
warmly encouraged my purpose so soon as he heard of it; nay,
urgently offered at once that both of us should become his own
guests till the experiment were tried: and here accordingly we
are; I water-curing, assiduously walking on the sunny mountains,
drinking of the clear wells, not to speak of wet wrappages,
solitary sad _steepages,_ and other singular procedures; my Wife
not meddling for her own behoof, but only seeing me do it. These
have been three of the idlest weeks I ever spent, and there is
still one to come: after which we go northward to Lancashire,
and across the Border where my good old Mother still expects me;
and so, after some little visiting and dawdling, hope to find
ourselves home again before September end, and the inexpressible
Glass Palace with its noisy inanity have taken itself quite away
again. It was no increase of ill-health that drove me hither,
rather the reverse; but I have long been minded to try this
thing: and now I think the result will be,--_zero_ pretty
nearly, and one imagination the less. My long walks, my
strenuous idleness, have certainly done me good; nor has the
"water" done me any _ill,_ which perhaps is much to say of it.
For the rest, it is a strange quasi-monastic--godless and yet
_devotional_--way of life which human creatures have here, and
useful to them beyond doubt. I foresee, this "Water Cure," under
better forms, will become the _Ramadhan_ of the overworked
unbelieving English in time coming; an institution they were
dreadfully in want of, this long while!--We had Twisleton* here
(often speaking of you), who is off to America ag