CONVERSATION WITH CARLYLE.

63

out of a cupboard, many years ago:-'Doesn't remember any earthly pleasure equal to what he had over that.' Remembers in particular, one sentimental story in imitation of Sterne, The Sentinel. A wife had lost her husband in battle, and wished to see his dead body; the sentinel harshly refused; the indignation of the bystanders and relater. In the last degree vapid and watery, doubtless. But I (Carlyle) went altogether along with it. Think it was the Lady's Magazine. But I remember no plates.'

'Recollects afterwards, reading Roderick Random, with utmost delight. Remembers the day and hour; the mossy bank on which he sat; the golden rays of the setting sun; and an old Irishman he met on his way home, who had been a soldier. A remarkable man, who lived despised by his fellow-creatures, as a Papist and Irishman recalls his appearance that day. Only an odd volume, the first: when he returned to the shop, the man was obliged to confess he had not the other; but never rested till he got it.

Remembers a year later first reading Robertson's Preliminary Dissertation to Charles V.,' with utmost delight and wonder. Opened to him new worlds of knowledge to be attained; vistas in all directions. Never seen it since: doubtless weak enough; the first book he got any good out of; did not get any good out of the others.

"Carlyle possessed an extraordinary appetite for, love and delight in books during the first part of his life. This lasted for clever books till middle life. Then his appetite began to get ticklish, and now no

book at all can give him delight. 'Hard work the reading a book now. Much power in the hands of those who have the giving of books to young persons. Deserves thinking of.'

Carlyle praised All the Year Round; worth reading. Dickens seemed to get hold of sensible, brief accounts of men's experience's out in the East Indies. Wondered where he got hold of such. I mentioned my wife's article on the Gorilla. Carlyle had read it. 'A strange, horrible beast that gorilla, clutching hold of men out of trees, and killing for mere malice.'

[Our Poor Relation was the essay referred to. The article pleased Dickens, who showed it to the Carlyles. A trifle that drew forth the remark from Jane Carlyle, and you know, my dear, you write very nicely!']

"Carlyle mentioned seeing Madame Vestris with Mathews some years ago, in a burlesque of Planchè's, after Lewes's play; declared there was 'real genius' in her, which made its impression on him despite adverse prepossessions. . .'

During one of Alexander Gilchrist and Thomas Carlyle's midnight walks together, the latter "spoke of the curious persons who came to London in Hogarth's time; William Emerson for one, who wrote books on mathematics still valuable, some of which Carlyle has. 'A strange character; living in the country on £70 a year; his wife spinning with her distaff while her husband wrote: and his treatise written, he would come up to London to sell it. Got bald; could not bear the idea of wearing other people's hair, so made a wig of

A POOR BARBER.

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flax and clapped it on his head.-Burnt his shins with sitting close to the fire (as Carlyle remembers seeing many old people's shins marbled): contrived some kind of shield, which he called shin-covers! The Duke of Manchester took Emerson up; got him to come and live with him;-offered him a seat in his carriage. Emerson asked, what did the Duke want with that whim-wham? He would walk. The country people thought him a soothsayer. An old woman came to ask what had become of her husband (long gone away), she wishful perhaps to be free. 'He has been in hell

these three years past.'

"Emerson was a free-thinker, who looked on his neighbour the parson as a humbug. He seemed to have defended himself in silence the best way he could against the noisy clamour and unreal stuff going on around; retreating to his mechanics and fluxions, which he knew to be real,'

Carlyle spoke of Arkwright as worthy a biography or essay. 'None good hitherto. A wonderful manrather of wonderful results to England. A poor barber, who bethought himself of the loom, the threads then shifted by hand. This great invention so simple, a wonder no one had thought of it before.' Carlyle minutely described the loom, using his hands freely to do so. He also told how the weavers set upon Arkwright, "You son of Belial! will you not let us live?” and drove him out of the village :-how his wife destroyed his model one night when he was asleep, thinking he ought to attend to his razors and suds, as the more profitable; how he told her to be off and sent her

F

adrift out of his house, for fear of a worse thing; probably giving her a licking first.

"Strutt, a neighbouring yeoman, found money for the first weaving mill: he was grandfather of the present Lord Belper. Carlyle had seen the mill-deserted and not at work then. Strutt showed the ability of a Frederick in ordering his men and economising their labour; his descendants immensely wealthy, worth millions. . .

Anne Gilchrist, encouraged by her husband, began to ply her pen. "A Glance at the Vegetable Kingdom," a short paper printed in Chambers (1857), was soon followed by "Electricity," an essay which was accepted by the editor of Once a Week. She also wrote to Alexander's dictation, which together with housewifely duties fully occupied her time.

Mrs. Watson (Gillman's grand - daughter) spent many happy afternoons and evenings at Chelsea. Mrs. Gilchrist was one of those wonderful women one reads of, for she combined high intellectual attainments with careful attention to domestic duties. As a girl I used to be struck with the charm of her manner and conversation-the result of a cultivated mind and varied reading; her ready sympathy with the studies or occupations of others; and a persistent kindness in endeavours to be useful to her friends. I remember Mr. Gilchrist saying to me, "I can rarely persuade Annie to take a holiday or to go into society; "the wife's bright smile is before me as she replied, "Oh, yes! I do go out as much as I wish; but I do not need rest as some do; a change of work or occupation is rest for me.'

JANE WELSH CARLYLE.

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On the 16th of January, 1859, Anne Gilchrist brought into the world her youngest child, Grace. The mother experienced a serious (though temporary) relapse, as we shall see from Jane Carlyle's letter:

"DEAR MR. GILCHRIST: Your note has shocked and grieved us both extremely. We hadn't a notion of this! Every time I have sent to ask for your wife, the answer has been that she was doing nicely' or that she was 'better' or had had a better night,' except once, when Charlotte brought back word of her having been very poorly the day before, but that she had had a better night.'

"I trust in God you will soon be out of anxiety about her; nature doing for her restoration what the Drs. don't know to do!

Meanwhile, depend on my taking all possible pains to keep things quiet. I have tied up our knocker, and the dog shall be carried out and in-Indeed it is only his master that has no authority over him to stop his barking. I had been fearing that he might annoy your wife; without knowing how ill she was, and have several times run down to pick him up-after the mischief was done-But he shall be carried quite out of the street.

"If I can be of the least use to you in any way— Taking charge of the children-when the servants are busy-going to shops-or anything-I should really take it kind of you to tell me. I have, you know, a great debt of gratitude to your poor wife for very much kindness and help to myself in sickness.

Yours very sincerely

JANE W. CARLYLE."