It gave me, as always, the greatest pleasure to hear from you. Your
letter found me at my Mother's house, at Ham, close to Richmond; a really
lovely place, and neighbourhood, though I say it who am all prejudiced
against London and 'all the purtenances thereof.' But the copious woods,
green meadows, the Thames and its swans gliding between, and so many
villas and cheerful houses and terraced gardens with all their
associations of Wits and Courtiers on either side, all this is very
delightful. I am not heroic enough for Castles, Battlefields, etc.
Strawberry Hill for me! I looked all over it: you know all the pictures,
jewels, curiosities, were sold some ten years ago; only bare walls
remain: the walls indeed here and there stuck with Gothic woodwork, and
the ceilings with Gothic gilding, sometimes painted Gothic to imitate
woodwork; much of it therefore in less good taste: all a Toy, but yet the
Toy of a very clever man. The rain is coming through the Roofs, and
gradually disengaging the confectionary Battlements and Cornices. Do you
like Walpole? did you ever read him? Then close by is Hampton Court:
with its stately gardens, and fine portraits inside; all very much to my
liking. I am quite sure gardens should be formal, and unlike general
Nature. I much prefer the old French and Dutch gardens to what are
called the English.
I saw scarce any of our friends during the three weeks I passed at Ham.
Though I had to run to London several times, I generally ran back as fast
as I could; much preferring the fresh air and the fields to the smoke and
'the wilderness of monkeys' in London. Thackeray I saw for ten minutes:
he was just in the agony of finishing a Novel: which has arisen out of
the Reading necessary for his Lectures, and relates to those Times--of
Queen Anne, I mean. He will get 1000 pounds for his Novel. He was
wanting to finish it, and rush off to the Continent, I think, to shake
off the fumes of it. Old Spedding, that aged and most subtle Serpent,
was in his old haunt in Lincoln's Inn Fields, up to any mischief. It was
supposed that Alfred was somewhere near Malvern: Carlyle I did not go to
see, for I really have nothing to tell him, and I have got tired of
hearing him growl: though I do not cease to admire him as much as ever. I
also went once to the pit of the Covent Garden Italian Opera, to hear
Meyerbeer's Huguenots, of which I had only heard bits on the Pianoforte.
But the first Act was so noisy, and ugly, that I came away, unable to
wait for the better part, that, I am told, follows. Meyerbeer is a man
of Genius: and works up _dramatic_ Music: but he has scarce any melody,
and is rather grotesque and noisy than really powerful. I think this is
the fault of modern music; people cannot believe that Mozart is
_powerful_ because he is so Beautiful: in the same way as it requires a
very practised eye (more than I possess) to recognize the consummate
power predominating in the tranquil Beauty of Greek Sculpture. I think
Beethoven is rather spasmodically, than sustainedly, grand.
Well, I must take to my third side after all, which I meant to have
spared you, partly because of this transparent paper, and my more than
usually bad writing. I came down here four days ago: and have this
morning sketched for you the enclosed, the common that lies before my
Bedroom window, as I pulled up my blind, and opened my shutter upon it,
early this morning. I never draw now, never drew well; but this may
serve to give a hint of poor old dewy England to you who are, I suppose,
beginning to be dried up in the South. W. Browne, my host, tells me that
your Grimsby Rail is looking up greatly, and certainly will pay well,
sooner or later: which I devoutly hope it may.
I do not think I told you my Father was dead; like poor old Sedley in
Thackeray's Vanity Fair, all his Coal schemes at an end. He died in
March, after an illness of three weeks, saying 'that engine works well'
(meaning one of his Colliery steam engines) as he lay in the stupor of
Death. I was in Shropshire at the time, with my old friend Allen; but I
went home to Suffolk just to help to lay him in the Grave.
Pray do send me your Poems, one and all: I should like very much to talk
them over with you, however much you might resent me, who am no Poet,
presuming to advise you who as certainly are one. That you ought to
publish some of these Poems (as I think, somewhat condensed, or, at
least, curtailed) I am more and more sure, having seen the very great
pleasure, and deep interest, some of them have caused when read to
persons of very different talents and tastes.
And now, my dear Frederic, farewell for the present. Remember, you
cannot write to me too often, as far as I am concerned.
Don't write Politics--I agree with you beforehand.
_To W. B. Donne_.
BOULGE, _August_ 10/52.