The Letters of Anne Gilchrist and Walt Whitman Part 16

Stafford. Also to Mrs. Whitman.

Yours affectionately,

BEATRICE C. GILCHRIST.

LETTER XLVIII

ANNE GILCHRIST TO WALT WHITMAN

_112 Madison Ave.

March 18, 1879._

MY DEAREST FRIEND:

I hope you are enjoying this splendid, suns.h.i.+ny weather as much as we are--the atmosphere here is delicious. In the morning Giddy and I set at home busy with needle work, letter writing, and reading. After lunch we go out for a walk or to pay visits--and of an evening very often to receptions (but they are not half so jolly as our evenings at Philadelphia). Still we have a lively, pleasant time. I like Miss Booth very much, with her kindly, generous character and active practical mind.

So I do Mrs. Croly--she is more impulsive and enthusiastic. Kate Hillard often goes with us, & she is always good company. I had a note from Edward Carpenter the other day brought by a lady who had been living near him at Sheffield--an American lady with two very fine little girls who has lately lost her husband in England and was on her way back to her parents' home in Pennsylvania--somewhere beyond Pittsburg. She is one who loves your poems, & has great hopes of seeing you in New York. She told me her little girls were so fond of Carpenter he of them--he is first rate with children. I hope you will not put off coming to New York till we are returning to Philadelphia, which will be some time in May. I find Beatrice is so anxious to get further advantages for study in England or Paris before she begins to practise, and Herby is so strongly advised by Mr.

Eaton, of whose judgment & experience he thinks very highly, to study in Duron's Studio in Paris for a year, that I have made up my mind to go back, for a time at any rate, this summer; but I shall leave my furniture here, and the question of where our future home is to be, open. Herby is making great progress. I wish you could see the head of an old woman he has just painted--and I wish he had had as much power when he had such splendid chances of painting you. I cannot tell you how vividly and pleasantly Chestnut St. on a sunny day rose before me in your jottings.

Love from us all. Tell your sister I often think of her & shall enjoy a chat ever so.

A. G.

LETTER XLIX

ANNE GILCHRIST TO WALT WHITMAN

_112 Madison Ave.

March 26, '79._

MY DEAREST FRIEND:

It seems quite a long while since I wrote, & a _very long_ while since you wrote. I am beginning to turn my thoughts Philadelphia-wards that we may have some weeks near you before we set out on fresh wanderings across the sea; and though I feel quite cheery about them, I look eagerly forward to the time beyond that when we have a fixed, final nest of our own again, where we can welcome you just when and as you please. Whichever side the Atlantic it is, you will come surely? for you belong to the one country as much as to the other. And I shall always feel that I do too. I take back with me a deep and hearty love for America--I came indeed with a good deal of that, but what I take back is different--stronger, more real. I went over to see friends in Brooklyn yesterday, & it was more lovely than I can tell you on the Ferry--in fact, it was just your poem, "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry". Herby still painting away _con amore_, & making good progress. I met Joaquin Miller at the Bigelows last week, & he was very pleasant (which isn't always the case) and said some very good things to me.

Thursday we are going to lunch with Mrs. Albert Brown--perhaps you may have heard of her as Bessie Griffiths. She was a Southern lady who, when she was about 18, freed all her slaves & left herself penniless. On Sunday we take tea at Prof. Rood's of Columbia College. Kate Hillard we often see & have lively chats with. We meet also & see a good deal of General Edward Lee--a fine soldierly looking man, & I believe he distinguished himself in the war & was afterwards sent to organize the new Territory of Wyoming, & was the first governor. I wish very much that if you or your brother knew him or know anything about him, you would tell me--for reasons that I will tell you by & bye. Bee is seeing a great deal of the educated coloured people at Boston--was at the meeting of a literary club--the only white among 20 or 30 coloured ladies--likes them much.

Write soon, dear Friend. Meanwhile, best love & good-bye.

ANNE GILCHRIST.

No letters from England this long while.

Please give friendly greetings from me to your brother & sister.

LETTER L

ANNE GILCHRIST TO WALT WHITMAN

_Glasgow Friday, June 20, 1879._

MY DEAREST FRIEND:

We set foot on dry land again Wednesday morning after a good pa.s.sage--not a very smooth one--and not without four or five days of seasickness, but after that we really enjoyed the sea & the sky--it was mostly cloudy, but such lovely lights and shades & invigorating breezes! and as we got up into northern lat.i.tudes, daylight in the sky all night through. The last three days we had glorious scenery--sailed close in under the Giant's Causeway on the north coast of Ireland--great sort of natural ramparts & bastions or rock, wonderfully grand. Then we sailed on Lough Fozle to land a group of Irish folk at Moville--some of them old people who had not seen Ireland for forty years, and who were so happy they did not know what to do with themselves. And what with this human interest, and the first getting near land again and the rich green-and-golden gorse-covered hills & the setting sun streaming along the beautiful lough with golden light, it was a sight & a time I shall never forget. Then we entered the Firth of Clyde & sailed among the islands--mountainous Arran, level Bute--& on the other hand the green hills of Ayr, with pleasant towns nestled under them, sloping to the Clyde--this was during the night--we did not go to bed at all it was so beautiful--& then came a gorgeous sunrise--& then the landing at Greenock & a short railway journey to Glasgow, the tide not serving to bring our big s.h.i.+p up so far. We had very pleasant (& learned withal) companions on the voyage--the Professor of Greek & of Philosophy from Harvard and a young student from Concord, all of whom we have seen since we landed and hope to see often again, especially the young student, Frank Bigelow, who is a very nice fellow. Herby enjoyed the voyage much & so did Giddy. Glasgow is a great, solidly built city, very pleasant [in]

spite of smoky atmosphere--full of st.u.r.dy, rosy-cheeked people with broad Scotch accent. We have been rus.h.i.+ng about shopping--have not yet seen Per.--shall meet him at Durham in a week's time & spend a month together there where he will be superintending your works. Meanwhile we are going to Edinburgh for a few days. I kept thinking of you on the voyage, dear friend, & wondering how you would like it--& whether you could stand being stowed away in the little box-like berth at night. I should recommend any American friend coming over to try this line--we had a fine s.h.i.+p--fine officers & crew--& the latter part, fine scenery. Love to your Brother & Sister & to Mr. Burroughs. Address to me for the present.

Care Percy C. Gilchrist Blaenavon Poutzpool Mon.

Love from us all. I shall write soon again. Good-bye dear Friend.

A. GILCHRIST.

LETTER LI

ANNE GILCHRIST TO WALT WHITMAN

_Lower s.h.i.+ncliffe Durham August 2d, '79._

DEAREST FRIEND:

I am sitting in my room with my dear little grandson, the sweetest little fellow you ever saw, asleep beside me. Giddy and Norah (my 3d daughter) are gone into Durham to do some shopping. Bee is up in London on her way to Berne in Switzerland, where she has finally decided to complete her medical studies. Herby is, I think, staying with Eustace Conway at Hammersmith just now. He has been spending a week at Brighton with Edward Carpenter & his family--but I will leave him to tell his own news. We are lodging in this little village with its red-tiled roofs & gray stone walls, lying among wooded hills, corn fields, meadows, and collieries on the banks of the Weir, for the sake of being near Percy & his wife. He is superintending here the erection of some kilns for making the peculiar kind of basic firebricks needed in his dephosphorization process. Durham Cathedral, which was mainly built soon after the Norman conquest, is in sight, crowning a wooded hill that rises abruptly from the river-side. It looks as solid, majestic, venerable as the rocks & hills--the interior is of wonderful grandeur & beauty. When you enter one of these cathedrals you are tempted to say architecture is a lost art with us moderns so far as sublimity is concerned--except in vast engineering works. You would not dignify the Weir with the name of a river in America--it is no bigger than Timber Creek--but it winds about so capriciously through the picturesque little city as to make almost an island of the hill on which the castle & cathedral stand & to need three great solid stone bridges within a quarter of a mile of each other, & with its steep wooded sides carrying nature right into the heart of the old town. But the rainy season (we have scarcely seen the sun since we have been in England & I believe it is the same in France & Italy) and the great depression in trade, especially the coal & iron, which chiefly concerns this district, seem to cast a gloom over everything. There are whole rows of colliers' cottages in this village empty. Where they go to no one knows, but as soon as the collieries reopen they will all reappear. We often meet Colliers returning from work--they look as if they had just emerged from Hades, poor fellows--their faces black as soot--their lean, bowed legs bare--I believe the mines are hot here; they work with little on--but they are really the cleanest of all workmen, as they take a bath every night on their return before supping. The speech here is almost like a foreign tongue to any one from the south or middle of England. I wonder if you have yet read Dr.

Bucke's book.[29] It is about the only thing I have read since my return.

It suggests deeply interesting trains of thought.

I wonder if you are at Camden, taking your daily trips across the ferry & strolls up Chestnut St. I hardly realized till I left it how dearly I love America--great sunny land of hope and progress--or how my whole life has been enriched with the human intercourse I had there. Give my love to those of our friends whom you know & tell them not to forget us. I have had a long letter from Emma Lazarus. I suppose Hattie and Jessie are spending their holidays at Camden & that Hattie has pretty well done with school. We have been chiefly busy with needlework since we came--preparing dear Bee for Berne. I miss her sadly--had quite hoped we should have all been together at Paris this winter--but it seems the course is much longer & more arduous [there]. We spent a week in Edinburgh before we came on here. It is by far the most beautiful city I have ever seen. The journey between it and Berwick-on-Tweed lies through the richest & best cultivated farm land in Britain--the sea sparkling on one side of us & these fertile fields dotted with splendid flocks & herds--with large comfortable-looking farmhouses, & here & there an old castle; it was singularly enjoyable. How I have wished everywhere that you were with us to share the sight--and the best is that you would return home more than ever proud & rejoicing in America. It is a land where humanity is having, and is going to have, such chances as never before. Giddy sends her love. Mine also & to your brother & sister. Good-bye, dear Friend.

A. GILCHRIST.

Please write soon; I am longing for a letter.

LETTER LII[30]