Mrs. Massey's, Manchester, 2 Fenny Place, Fenny St.
November 5, 1847
Ah! my dear friend, all these days have gone, and you have had no
word from me, when the shuttles fly so swiftly in your English
loom, and in so few hours we may have tidings of the best that
live. At last, and only this day for the first day, I am
stablished in my own lodgings on English ground, and have a fair
parlor and chamber, into both of which the sun and moon shine,
into which friendly people have already entered.
Hitherto I have been the victim of trifles,--which is the fate
and the chief objection to traveling. Days are absorbed in
precious nothings. But now that I am in some sort a citizen, of
Manchester, and also of Liverpool (for there also I am to enter
on lodgings tomorrow, at 56 Stafford Street, Islington), perhaps
the social heart of this English world will include me also in
its strong and healthful circulations. I get the best letters
from home by the last steamers, and was much occupied in
Liverpool yesterday in seeing Dr. Nichol of Glasgow, who was to
sail in the "Acadia," and in giving him credentials to some
Americans. I find here a very kind reception from your friends,
as they emphatically are,--Ireland, Espinasse, Miss Jewsbury, Dr.
Hodgson, and a circle expanding on all sides outward,--and Mrs.
Paulet at Liverpool. I am learning there also to know friendly
faces, and a certain Roscoe Club has complimented me with its
privileges. The oddest part of my new position is my alarming
penny correspondence, which, what with welcomes, invitations to
lecture, proffers of hospitality, suggestions from good
Swedenborgists and others for my better guidance touching the
titles of my discourses, &c., &c., all requiring answers,
threaten to eat up a day like a cherry. In this fog and
miscellany, and until the heavenly sun shall give me one beam,
will not you, friend and joy of so many years, send me a quiet
line or two now and then to say that you still smoke your pipe in
peace, side by side with wife and brother also well and smoking,
or able to smoke? Now that I have in some measure calmed down
the astonishment and consternation of seeing your dreams change
into realities, I mean, at my next approximation or perihelion,
to behold you with the most serene and sceptical calmness.
So give my thanks and true affectionate remembrance to Jane
Carlyle, and my regards also to Dr. Carlyle, whose precise
address please also to send me.
Ever your loving
R.W.E.
The address at the top of this note is the best for the present,
as I mean to make this my centre.