ichard Warner (apparently from
the original) in the Appendix to his Literary Recollections.
He was not, I suppose, aware that it had been printed
before. Warner was ordained in the North, and his work will
throw some light upon the state of things in those regions
at a period close upon Sterne's time. You will find it worth
while to glance over it. If I can be of any help to you I
shall only be too happy.

Believe me ever, most sincerely yours,

W. ELWIN.

There is something touching in this deep affection, exhibited by so
rough and sturdy a nature and maintained without flagging for so many
years. With him it was "the noble Elwin," "the good Elwin," "as ever,
most delightful," "kinder and more considerate than ever." "Never were
letters so pleasant to me as yours," he wrote in 1865, "and it is sad
to think that from months we are now getting on to years with barely a
single letter." "My dear fellow," he wrote again, "with the ranks so
thinning around us, should we not close up, come nearer to each other?
None are so dear to us at home as Mrs. Elwin and yourself and all of
you." One of the last entries in his diary was, "Precious letter from
dearest Elwin. December 10th, 1875."

Elwin had, perhaps, a colder temperament, or did not express his
devotion. But his regard would seem to have been as deep-seated; as
indeed was shown in the finely drawn tribute he paid him after his
death, and which is indeed the work of an accomplished writer and
master of expression. "He was two distinct men," wrote Elwin to John
Murray the elder, in 1876, "and the one man quite dissimilar from the
other. To see him in company I should not have recognised him for the
friend with whom I was intimate in private. Then he was quiet,
natural, unpretending, and most agreeable, and in the warmth and
generosity of his friendship he had no superior. Sensitive as he was
in some ways, there was no man to whom it was easier so speak with
perfect frankness. He always bore it with gentle good nature."[2]

[Footnote 2: To Elwin Forster left L2,000 and his gold watch, no doubt
the one bequeathed by Dickens. Forster appointed him, without
consulting him, one of his executors, but knowing well that he could
rely on his good will, and the legacy no doubt was intended as a
solatium for the labour thus enforced. Lord Lytton and Justice Chitty
were the other executors. As Lord Lytton was in India the whole burden
fell on t