Letters of Edward FitzGerald | Page 3

Farming
of any Part of England he had been in. Did you know all the Dawson
Turner Letters?
I see Spedding directs your Letter: which is nearly all I see of his MS.:
though he would let me see enough of it if there were a good Turn to be
done.
Please to give my best Remembrances to Mrs. Carlyle, and believe me
yours sincerely,
EDWARD FITZGERALD.
To Mrs. Charles Allen.
LOWESTOFT, October 16/59.
MY DEAR MRS. ALLEN,
In passing through London a week ago I found a very kind letter from
you directed to my London Lodging. This will explain why it has not
been sooner answered. As I do not know your Address, I take the
Opportunity of enclosing my Reply to John Allen, of whom I have not
heard since May.

I have been in these Suffolk and Norfolk Parts ever since I left London
in March to see my poor Lad die in Bedford. The Lad I first met in the
Tenby Lodging house twenty-seven years ago--not sixteen then--and
now broken to pieces and scarce conscious, after two months such
suffering as the Doctor told me scarce any one would have borne for a
Fortnight. They never told him it was all over with him until [within]
ten Days of Death: though every one else seem'd to know it must be
so--and he did not wish to die yet.
I won't write more of a Matter that you can have but little Interest in,
and that I am as well not thinking about. I came here partly to see his
Widow, and so (as I hope) to avoid having to go to Bedford for the
Present. She, though a wretchedly sickly woman, and within two
months of her confinement when he died, has somehow weathered it all
beyond Expectation. She has her children to attend to, and be her
comfort in turn: and though having lost what most she loved yet has
something to love still, and to be beloved by. There are worse
Conditions than that.
I am not going to be long here: but hope to winter somewhere in
Suffolk (London very distasteful now)--But here again:--my good
Hostess with whom I have lodged in Suffolk is dead too: and I must
wait till that Household settles down a little.
If it ever gives you pleasure to write to me, it gives me real Pleasure to
hear of you: and I am sincerely grateful for your kind Remembrance of
me.
'Geldestone Hall--Beccles' or 'Farlingay Hall, Woodbridge,' are pretty
sure Addresses. Please to remember me kindly to your Husband and
believe me
Yours very sincerely,
EDWD FITZGERALD.
BATH HOUSE, LOWESTOFT. October 26 [1859].

DEAR MRS. ALLEN,
I must thank you for your so kind Letter, and kind Invitation. But if I
was but five Days with my old College Friend after twelve years'
Promise, and then didn't go just on to Teignmouth to see my Sister, and
her Family, I must not talk of going elsewhere--even to Prees--where
John is always good enough to be asking me: even in a Letter To day
received.
By the way, Last Saturday at Norwich while I was gazing into a Shop,
a Woman's Voice said, 'How d' ye do, Mr. FitzGerald?' I looked up: a
young Woman too, whom (of course) I didn't know. 'You don't
remember me, Andalusia Allen that was!' Now Mrs. Day. I had not
seen her since '52, a Girl of, I suppose, twelve, playing some Character
in a Family Play. John's Letter too tells me of his son going to College.
But Tenby--I don't remember a pleasanter Place. I can now hear the
Band on the Steamer as it left the little Pier for Bristol, the Steamer that
brought me and the poor Boy now in his Grave to that Boardinghouse.
It was such weather as now howls about this Lodging when one of
those poor starved Players was drowned on the Sands, and was carried
past our Windows after Dinner: I often remember the dull Trot of Men
up the windy Street, and our running to the Window, and the dead
Head, hair, and Shoulders hurried past. That was Tragedy, poor Fellow,
whatever Parts he had played before.
I think you remember me with Kindness because accidentally
associated with your old Freestone in those pleasant Days, that also
were among the last of your Sister's Life. Her too I can see, with her
China-rose complexion: in the Lilac Gown she wore.
I keep on here from Week to week, partly because no other Place offers:
but I almost doubt if I shall be here beyond next week. Not in this
Lodging anyhow: which is wretchedly 'rafty' and cold; lets the Rain in
when it Rains: and the Dust of the Shore when it drives: as