this earlier time, from whose many attractive and original qualities our great master of fiction drew that new and delightful creature of his fancy. In the letter thanking me for my Life of Cromwell (April 1839) Landor had sent his first message to Dickens. "Tell "him he has drawn from me more tears and more "smiles than are remaining to me for all the rest of "the world, real or ideal." It cannot be always the Boythorn laugh, in the world either of fact or fancy; Landor in both had his ample share at all times of the tears as well as of the smiles; and neither few nor transient were the shadows that fell across his present enjoyments, as well in summer as winter days, from remembrances of Italy. The change from Fiesole had of course tried him. the most in winter. With amusing heat he wrote to me of one of his Bath Novembers: "We have had only four "hours of sun in six weeks; never since the creation "of the world has this happened before." And this had befallen him after a July which he had thus described to me: "I could not get salt-bathing quite so near at "hand as yours" (I was then at Brighton); "but I can "get a fine fresh bath, or even swim, every day before 66 my window. Never had we such continued rain. I "doubt whether there are any trout in the grand canal "before my house, but its ripples would tempt any "stranger to look over his collection of flies and try his "tackle." Nor was his trouble always from the climate merely, but sometimes from the ill-provision made against it. When Francis Hare came over to England the year before his death, and Landor visited him (January 1839) for the last time at Westwood-Way house in Berkshire, he described it as a house that would have done passably well for Naples, but better for Timbuctoo. 1836-57. Everything around him but his friend's cheerful greeting was congealed; and into so enormous a bed was he put to sleep, such a frozen sea of sheets stretching out on every side of him, that for once he envied the bed of Procrustes. These were country inconveniences, and town-streets were worse. "In this weather," he wrote to me on another occasion (21st December 1840), "no"body can be quite well. I myself, an oddly mixt "metal with a pretty large portion of iron in it, am "sensible to the curse of climate. The chief reason is, "I cannot walk through the snow and slop. My body, "and my mind more especially, requires strong exercise. "Nothing can tire either, excepting dull people, and they weary both at once. The snow fell in Italy at "the end of November, and the weather was severe "at Florence. Lately, from the want of sun and all "things cheerful, my saddened and wearied mind has "often roosted on the acacias and cypresses I planted. "Thoughts when they're weakest take the longest "flights, and tempt the wintery seas in darkest nights. "How is it that when I am a little melancholy my "words are apt to fall into verse ? Joy has never such an effect on me. In fact, we hardly speak when we 66 meet, and are at best but bowing acquaintance." It was always so when he thought of Fiesole. 66 66 A few months later, after many disappointments in that direction, he heard from Fiesole of a proposed visit to him, and at once eagerly went over to Paris to meet and bring back his second son; when occasion was taken there to show him some civilities that pleased him. Imagine my surprise," he wrote to me (6th May 1841), "that any among the literary men knew even "of my existence. Nothing can exceed the attention "I receive from them. If their civilities are sufficient "to make a place agreeable, I ought to be quite con"tented at Paris. Mignet has invited me this even"ing to a sitting of the Institut." Victor Cousin was in the chair, Mignet delivered the oration, and Thiers was among those who attended. It was soon after Darmes had fired at Louis Philippe; and Landor mentions his introduction to "Ledru the advocate," whom he describes as having undertaken the defence of the "wretched fools" who conspired against the king. He was also present at the trial in the house of peers, when he heard "the maddest of all mad regicides, and "surely the most impudent," make reply to the chancellor's question if he had any accomplices: "I tell you "again, sir, that when I fired at the Duke of Orleans "I was quite alone." He called afterwards on Ledru, with whom he found a client that interested him not a little, the celebrated Vidocq; "about sixty years of age, wonderfully strong, and of a physiognomy mild "and intelligent: Ledru told me he was so, and very "trustworthy; having on a former occasion undertaken "his defence on condition of his giving a thousand "francs to the poor, when he performed his engage"ment honourably." Landor's interest was the greater in this new acquaintance from a parallel into which he had been led in one of his letters just before, on reading the Vidocq Memoirs, between "the great thief" the master and "the great thief-taker" the man: one of them frightening all the good, the other all the bad; one betraying all his employers, the other all his accomplices; one sacrificing the hopeful to ambition, the other the desperate to justice: a comparison or corollary to be as easily made in the seventh of a minute as in seven years, but requiring another century of honesty and wisdom for discovery of which was best of the two. The 1836-57. whole race of moral swindlers and ring-droppers would have to be taken up first. Beyond all others in the great city, however, one visit gave him the greatest satisfaction. Playfully replying to a remonstrance of kind Bath friends against the old hat he had taken with him on his journey, he thus mentioned this visit to Miss Rose Paynter. "Being "somewhat hot-headed, is not an old hat likely to fit me better than a new one? I wish you had seen it "in all its glory. What think you of my talking with 66 a king and queen, and displaying it before them? "Such, in the most legitimate sense, are the Prince "and Princess Czartoryski, he having been proclaimed 66 King of Poland by the deputies of the nobility and "people. Knowing my devotion to royalty, but prob"ably more attracted by my hat than by me, he con" versed with me the greater part of the evening." On his return from Paris with his son, who, upon arrival in London, paid a promised visit to his aunts at Richmond, Landor passed some days with me, while the whigs were making their last unsuccessful resistance to Peel; and it was in my library, as he always afterwards said, he composed the shortest of all his Conversations. It was sent to Kenyon.* This was the time also, he would amusingly protest, when he failed in the only attempt he ever made on ministerial patronage. He had written to tell Lady Blessington that, now the tories were coming in and he was growing old, he should like the ap* Landor. Kenyon, I've written for your delectation A short Imaginary Conversation. Kenyon. Landor, I much rejoice at the report; FATHER AND CHILD. Father. What, my boy, is the rhyme to whig? Child. pointment of road-sweeper from Gore-house across to Hyde-park: nobody could dispute his claims, because he had in print avowed himself a conservative; he knew however there must be many names down, and he could wait; only she was to be particular in saying that the place he wanted was for removing dirt, or else there might be some mistake. The mistake must have occurred after all, he said, for the thing was not given to him. He visited, before his return to Bath, the mother and sisters of his wife at Richmond. "I might have 66 expected some degree of shyness, at the least on her "mother's part. However, nothing of the kind. Nei"ther she nor any one of her daughters was less cordial "with me than they had been formerly. Not a single "word on those matters which rendered my stay in "Italy quite impossible, and equally so my return to "the only habitation in which my heart ever delighted." "Excellent creatures!" he wrote to Kenyon. "They "received me with indescribable kindness, and gave me "a couple of dormice. These are great blessings." The reader will remember Mr. Boythorn's canary. VI. DEATH OF SOUTHEY. Southey's last letter to Landor was dated at the close of March 1839. It told his friend that the portrait of Savonarola which he had sent was safely lodged at Keswick; spoke of an epitaph for a proposed monument to Chatterton; and made another announcement, for which the proper place will shortly present itself. His wife Edith had died two years before, having been for many previous years dead to him; but, long as the event had been looked for, it fell heavily at last, and it |