had large estates of this sort:--

"When I was a beggarly boy,
I lived in a cellar damp,
I had not a friend, nor a toy,
But I had Aladdin's lamp.

"When I could not sleep for the cold,
I had fire enough in my brain,
And I built with their roofs of gold
My beautiful castles in Spain."

And so too, he, the friend of us all, whose presence makes us all glad
to-night, and whom we always greet with all love and honor, has had
possessions in the same fair land:--

"How much of my heart, O Spain,
Went out to thee in days of yore!
What dreams romantic filled my brain,
And summoned back to life again
The Paladins of Charlemagne,
The Cid Campeador?"

How many "castles in Spain not built of stone" has he dwelt in, and with
what delightful hospitality has he welcomed us as guests within their
spacious and splendid halls! And even you, sir, for whose sake we have
met to-night, even you, modest as your retirement has seemed to be in
that quiet home, which you have made dear to the lovers of poetry and
purity and peace, you have privately had your speculations in real
estate in that land of romance, from which you have drawn large
revenues. You will pardon me for reminding you of one of them, where--

"On the banks of the Xenil, the dark Spanish maiden
Comes up with fruit of the tangled vine laden."

I have sometimes fancied that even the Concord River had its springs
somewhere in the snowy Sierras of Estremadura, toward which the windows
of the sage-poet's dwelling were turned, and from whose heaven-reaching
summits he has so often caught the fresh airs of celestial breath. Few
of us, indeed, have had the good fortune to add to their vast real
estates in Spain any substantial articles of personal property, but one
of us, rich in the gifts of Don Quixote's land, has actually a piece of
plate, a silver punch bowl, which at times, when filled, has, I doubt
not, given him assurance of undisputed rights in the most magnificent
castles:--

"A Spanish galleon brought the bar--so runs the ancient tale--
'Twas hammered by an Antwerp smith, whose arm was like a flail."

And even you and I, Mr. Editor, and all the rest of us, possess, as I
have said, our smaller domains in that distant land, all of them with
castles; but not all the castles, I fear, in good repair or quite
habitable; and some of us would be perplexed to say if they lay in
Granada or Andalusia, La Mancha--or to tell exac