Letter from Edward FitzGerald, Lowestoft, to Anna Biddell, 1875 January 18 : autograph manuscript signed.

Sending her a copy of Fraser's Magazine in which an essay by Thomas Carlyle appears; saying "I am sending you a Treat. The old Athenæum told me there was a Paper by 'Mr. Carlyle' in this month's Magazine ; & never did I lay out 2.6 better. And you shall have the Benefit of it; if you will. Why, Carlyle's Wine, so far from weak evaporation, is only grown better by Age : losing some of it's former fierceness, and grown mellow without losing strength. It seems to me that a Child might read & relish this Paper, while it w'd puzzle any other Man to write such a one. I think I must write to T.C. to felicitate him on this truly 'Green Old Age' - Oh, it was good too to read it here, with that old Sea (which also has not sunk into Decrepitude) rolling in from that North : and, as I looked up from the Book, there was a Norwegian Barque beating Southward, close to the Shore, & nearly all Sail set. Read - Read! You will, you must be pleased; & write to tell me so. This Place suits me, I think : at this time of year " there [is] Life about me : & that Old Sea is always talking to one - telling it's ancient Story. Your Cousin Miss Airy wrote to ask me if I knew whose were two Lines which she quoted. She thought them to be either Burns' or Cowper's : So (I thought) they might have been, & of 500 People beside. But they touched on some peculiar Chord in herself, she said; & that made them seem more precious than to me they do seem. My niece Luisa goes hence some ten Days hence, upon a Visit to some old Friends hereabout. After all that, she will go to Boulge : & further I know not as yet, nor she neither."