212520_The_Adve ... _Way_Through_The_World.pdf - OUDL Home

INTRODUCTION xxiii
as a surgical operation, and do it so that a ship's captain at sea,
who had not a doctor on board, would be able to take a sailor's
leg off by reading your description.' Having heard in a letter from
your father, signed ' Yours, in trouble,' that the article was lost,
I was very glad to learn by an envelope addressed to me with the
following words, 'The leg is found. "W. M. T.,' that the manuscript
had come to light. The article finally appeared with a
new title. When your father had read it, it struck him that the
paper he had asked for might be somewhat painful, so he wrapped
it up in something sweet for the British public to take, and called
it ' Under Chloroform.' I had brought the anaesthesia to the front
for the same purpose. ..."
We give the facsimile of a letter of congratulation which my
father wrote to this old friend for whom he had so great an
admiration.
The charming letter written at this time by Tennyson has been
published in his " Memoir." It was written in answer to a request
for a poem, and in February 1860 "Tithonus" appeared in the
Cornhill.
But an editor's work is full of uncertainty, and I find that much
of the correspondence is to say why the writer cannot do as my
father wishes ; for of course people don't send long letters when
they agree to your wishes. Such denials as this one from Mr.
Motley must have been not all disappointment to the receiver :—
The Hon. J. L. MOTLEY to W. M. T.
"... Your letter, with its magnificent illustration, was at
once pounced upon by my daughter, and it is enrolled among her
most precious archives.
"I wish I could give a favourable answer to your flattering
request, but, most unfortunately for myself, I have been so long
engaged in the slow and heavy business, that I could do nothing in
the light and airy line worth your acceptance.
" I daresay that you think it as simple as good-day to write a
Roundabout Paper in half-an-hour that shall be the delight of the
billion readers of The Cornhill Magazine ; but I am obliged for my
part to confess, like Aguecheek, that 'I have no more wit than a
Christian or an ordinary man.' I feel sure that I should be voted