e this--an event in one's Life. It was not the Town
itself--or even the Church--that touched me most: but the old Footpaths
over the Fields which He must have crossed three Centuries ago.

Spedding tells me he is nearing Land with his Bacon. And one begins to
think Macready a Great Man amid the Dwarfs that now occupy his Place.

Ever yours sincerely

E. F.G.

XI.

_September_ 18/73.

DEAR MRS. KEMBLE,

I have not forgotten you at all, all these months--What a Consolation to
you! But I felt I had nothing to send among the Alps after you: I have
been nowhere but for two Days to the Field of Naseby in Northamptonshire,
where I went to identify the spot where I dug up the Dead for Carlyle
thirty years ago. I went; saw; made sure; and now--the Trustees of the
Estate won't let us put up the Memorial stone we proposed to put up; they
approve (we hear) neither of the Stone, nor the Inscription; both as
plain and innocent as a Milestone, says Carlyle, and indeed much of the
same Nature. This Decision of the foolish Trustees I only had some ten
days ago: posted it to Carlyle who answered from Dumfries; and his Answer
shows that he is in full vigour, though (as ever since I have known him)
he protests that Travelling has utterly discomfited him, and he will move
no more. But it is very silly of these Trustees. {28a}

And, as I have been nowhere, I have seen no one; nor read anything but
the Tichborne Trial, and some of my old Books--among them Walpole,
Wesley, and Johnson (Boswell, I mean), three very different men whose
Lives extend over the same times, and whose diverse ways of looking at
the world they lived in make a curious study. I wish some one would
write a good Paper on this subject; I don't mean to hint that I am the
man; on the contrary, I couldn't at all; but I could supply some [one]
else with some material that he would not care to hunt up in the Books
perhaps.

Well: all this being all, I had no heart to write--to the Alps! And now
I remember well you told me you [were] coming back to England--for a
little while--a little while--and then to the New World for ever--which I
don't believe! {28b} Oh no! you will come back in spite of yourself,
depend upon it--and yet I doubt that my saying so will be one little
reason why you will not! But do let me hear of you first: and believe me
ever yours

E. F.G.

XII.

[WOODBRIDGE, 1873.]

DEAR MRS. KEMBLE,

You must attribute this th