She was
able, with her large hospitality, to give me what I most desired. She
drove with Samuel Brown and myself to call on De Quincey, who was then
living most uncomfortably in lodgings with a landlady who persecuted
him continually. While I was staying at Mrs. Crowe's, De Quincey
arrived there one evening, after being exposed to various vicissitudes
of weather, and latterly to a heavy rain. Unhappily Mrs. Crowe's
apparently unlimited hospitality was limited at pantaloons, and poor
De Quincey was obliged to dry his water-soaked garments at the
fireside."
Emerson read much also that was interesting of Tennyson and of
Carlyle. Of the latter he said that the last time he was in England he
drove directly to his house. "Jane Carlyle opened the door for me, and
the man himself stood behind and bore the candle. 'Well, here we are,
shoveled together again,' was his greeting. Carlyle's talk is like a
river, full and never ceasing; we talked until after midnight, and
again the next morning at breakfast we went on. Then we started to
walk to London; and London bridge, the Tower, and Westminster were all
melted down into the river of his speech."
After the reading that evening there was singing, and Emerson listened
attentively. Presently he said, when the first song ended, "I should
like to know what the words mean." The music evidently signified
little to his ears. Before midnight, when we were alone, he again
reverted to Tennyson.
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