and other, similarly
depressing circumstances, the nightly receipts
were about L60, the expenses being L80; and on
the last--an author's--night, there was an
excellent and enthusiastic house, yielding, to
the best of my recollection, about L140, but
certainly between L120 and L140. And with that
night--the sixth or seventh--the experiment
ended."

[Sidenote: Mr. Walter Savage Landor.]

TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _January 7th, 1854._

MY DEAR LANDOR,

I heartily assure you that to have your name coupled with anything I
have done is an honour and a pleasure to me. I cannot say that I am
sorry that you should have thought it necessary to write to me, for it
is always delightful to me to see your hand, and to know (though I want
no outward and visible sign as an assurance of the fact) that you are
ever the same generous, earnest, gallant man.

Catherine and Georgina send their kind loves. So does Walter Landor, who
came home from school with high judicial commendation and a prize into
the bargain.

Ever, my dear Landor, affectionately yours.

[Sidenote: The Hon. Mrs. Watson.]

TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Friday, January 13th, 1854._

MY DEAR MRS. WATSON,

On the very day after I sent the Christmas number to Rockingham, I heard
of your being at Brighton. I should have sent another there, but that I
had a misgiving I might seem to be making too much of it. For, when I
thought of the probability of the Rockingham copy going on to Brighton,
and pictured to myself the advent of two of those very large envelopes
at once at Junction House at breakfast time, a sort of comic modesty
overcame me. I was heartily pleased with the Birmingham audience, which
was a very fine one. I never saw, nor do I suppose anybody ever did,
such an interesting sight as the working people's night. There were two
thousand five hundred of them there, and a more delicately observant
audience it is impossible to imagine. They lost nothing, misinterpreted
nothing, followed everything closely, laughed and cried with most
delightful earnestness, and animated me to that extent that I felt as if
we were all bodily going up into the clouds together. It is an enormous
place for the purpose; but I had considered all that carefully, and I
believe made the most distant person hear as well as if I had been
reading in my own