present friends--came in of an evening,
and sat and drank and talked, and I enjoyed their talk very
much, since they discussed of what they understood, which is
more than I can say generally of the fine folks I occasionally
(very occasionally now) meet in London. I should have said more
about your book, only I wish to keep it for print: and you
don't need to be told by me that it is very good.--With best
regards to Mrs. Borrow and Miss Clarke, I am, yours ever truly,

W. B. DONNE.

The last letter from FitzGerald to Borrow is dated many years after the
correspondence I have here printed,[219] and from it we gather that
there had been no correspondence in the interval.[220] FitzGerald writes
from Little Grange, Woodbridge, in January 1875, to say that he had
received a message from Borrow that he would be glad to see him at
Oulton. 'I think the more of it,' says FitzGerald, 'because I imagine,
from what I have heard, that you have slunk away from human company as
much as I have.' He hints that they might not like one another so well
after a fifteen years' separation. He declares with infinite pathos that
he has now severed himself from all old ties, has refused the
invitations of old college friends and old schoolfellows. To him there
was no companionship possible for his declining days other than his
reflections and verses. It is a fine letter, filled with that
graciousness of spirit that was ever a trait in FitzGerald's noble
nature. The two men never met again. When Borrow died, in 1881,
FitzGerald, who followed him two years later, suggested to Dr. Aldis
Wright, afterwards to be his (FitzGerald's) executor, who was staying
with him at the time, that he should look over Borrow's books and
manuscripts if his stepdaughter so desired. If this had been arranged,
and Dr. Aldis Wright had written Borrow's life, there would have been no
second biographer.[221]

FOOTNOTES:

[205] This was said by FitzGerald to his friend Frederick Spalding.

[206] Edward FitzGerald to George Borrow, in Knapp's _Life_, vol. ii. p.
346.

[207] _The Works of Edward FitzGerald_, vol. ii. p. 59 (Macmillan).

[208] FitzGerald was staying with his friends Mr. and Mrs. W. K. Browne.
There is no letter other than this one to Borrow to recall that visit,
which is, however, referred to in the _FitzGerald Correspondence_
(Works, vol. ii. p. 75) by the following sentence:--'When in
Bedfordshir