ration. "From the top of the
highest downs," he wrote in his second letter (28th of July) "there are
views which are only to be equalled on the Genoese shore of the
Mediterranean; the variety of walks is extraordinary; things are cheap,
and everybody is civil. The waterfall acts wonderfully, and the sea
bathing is delicious. Best of all, the place is certainly cold rather
than hot, in the summer time. The evenings have been even chilly. White
very jovial, and emulous of the inimitable in respect of gin-punch. He
had made some for our arrival. Ha! ha! not bad for a beginner. . . . I
have been, and am, trying to work this morning; but I can't make
anything of it, and am going out to think. I am invited by a
distinguished friend to dine with you on the first of August, but I have
pleaded distance and the being resident in a cave on the sea shore; my
food, beans; my drink, the water from the rock. . . . I must pluck up heart
of grace to write to Jeffrey, of whom I had but poor accounts from
Gordon just before leaving. Talfourd delightful, and amuses me mightily.
I am really quite enraptured at his success, and think of his happiness
with uncommon pleasure." Our friend was now on the bench; which he
adorned with qualities that are justly the pride of that profession, and
with accomplishments that have become more rare in its highest places
than they were in former times. His elevation only made those virtues
better known. Talfourd assumed nothing with the ermine but the privilege
of more frequent intercourse with the tastes and friends he loved, and
he continued to be the most joyous and least affected of companions.
Such small oddities or foibles as he had made him secretly only dearer
to Dickens, who had no friend he was more attached to; and the many
happy nights made happier by the voice so affluent in generous words,
and the face so bright with ardent sensibility, come back to me
sorrowfully now. "Deaf the prais'd ear, and mute the tuneful tongue."
The poet's line has a double application and sadness.

He wrote again on the first of August. "I have just begun to get into
work. We are expecting the Queen to come by very soon, in grand array,
and are going to let off ever so many guns. I had a letter from Jeffrey
yesterday morning, just as I was going to write to him. He has evidently
been very ill, and I begin to have fears for his recovery. It is a very
pathetic letter, as to his state of mind; but only in a tranquil
co