't mean a Hymn at all,--
I think the Devil's in you all.'

I say, if you don't know this, it is worth your knowing, and making known
over the whole Continent of America, North and South. And I am your
trusty and affectionate old Beadsman (left rather deaf with that blessed
Bronchitis)

E. F.G.

XIX.

LITTLE GRANGE: WOODBRIDGE, _July_ 21, [1874.]

DEAR MRS. KEMBLE,

I must write to you--for I have seen Donne, and can tell you that he
looks and seems much better than I had expected, though I had been told
to expect well: he was upright, well coloured, animated; I should say
(_sotto voce_) better than he seemed to me two years ago. And this in
spite of the new Lord Chamberlain {48a} having ousted him from his
Theatrical post, wanting a younger and more active man to go and see the
Plays, as well as read them. I do not think this unjust; I was told by
Pollock that the dismissal was rather abrupt: but Donne did not complain
of it. When does he complain? He will now, however, leave Weymouth
Street, and inhabit some less costly house--not wanting indeed so large
[a] one for his present household. He is shortly going with his
Daughters to join the Blakesleys at Whitby. Mowbray was going off for
his Holiday to Cornwall: I just heard him speaking of Freddy's present
Address to his father: Blanche was much stronger, from the treatment of a
Dr. Beard {48b} (I think). I was quite moved by her warm salutation when
I met her, after some fifteen years' absence. All this I report from a
Visit I made to Donne's own house in London. A thing I scarce ever
thought to do again, you may know: but I could not bear to be close to
him in London for two days without assuring myself with my own Eyes how
he looked. I think I observed a slight hesitation of memory: but
certainly not so much as I find in myself, nor, I suppose, unusual in
one's Contemporaries. My visit to London followed a visit to Edinburgh:
which I have intended these thirty years, only for the purpose of seeing
my dear Sir Walter's House and Home: and which I am glad to have seen, as
that of Shakespeare. I had expected to find a rather Cockney Castle: but
no such thing: all substantially and proportionably built, according to
the Style of the Country: the Grounds well and simply laid out: the woods
he planted well-grown, and that dear Tweed running and murmuring still--as
on the day of his Death. {49a} I did not so much care for Melrose, and
Jedbur