“Your kind note of the 12th came to me at the Euston Hotel this morning, when I was in the act of sallying forth to join the train which brought me here two hours ago. So you see I could not possibly thank you any earlier, for your kind inquiries; nor gratify myself by the interesting pilgrimage to Green-street, which I should otherwise have undertaken with such a deep devotion of feeling. I hope yet to live, however, to commune with my heart at that shrine.* I am glad that Eddis has been so successful. For calm and true expression, and the rendering of what is moral, rather than passionate, in our natures, I think he is the first of our living artists. I have indeed been very ill and recover but slowly, though I have little actual suffering, and hope to be a little less feeble and shabby yet before I die. Notwithstanding, I have no anxiety, nor low spirits, though the animal vitality is at times low enough, God knows. My affections and the enjoyment of beautiful nature, I thank
* A portrait of my father, which Mr. Eddis had just painted for my mother. |
| MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. | 417 |
“Give my true and tender love to my dear Emily. I often think of her in her early home at Foston, and in that still earlier Yorkshire home, where she tempted me to expose myself on the jackass.*
“With kind remembrances to Hibbert and all his descendants, God bless you all, and always.
