Last words of Thomas Carlyle - Warburg Institute

;258 LETTEES WEITTEN BY THOMAS CAELYLE TOhad, and none that was not kindand pleasant, fromHerrn Varnhagen ; for all which, accept gratitude ifwe have nothing better !—The other evening MissWynne was with us ; and we hoped to have persuadedher again to-morrow; but she decides to pass thisChristmas day, the first after her Father's death, insolitude and silence. Which also we reckon to begood.—You will be rejoiced to learn that, since thisfinal consummation and winding up of her manytoils and sorrows, her health appears decidedly tobegin improving; and friends look forward withassurance towards better days for this excellent andamiable person. Of Milnes,' Bolte,^ &c. I say nothing;for I suppose you hear of them much oftenerthan I do, at this season of the year.But let me state my special errand before mypaper end. I have a favour to ask on this occasion' Monckton Milnes, afterwards (since 186B) Lord Houghton.* The lately (November 1891) deceased German authoress AmelyBolte, who, while she lived in London, was intimate with Carlyle andhis wife. Engaged by Carlyle to collect autographs for Varnhagen,with whom she was in correspondence since 1844, and, after his death,published his letters to her in a book entitled Varnhagens Briefe aneine Freundin, Leipzig, 1860. Carlyle gives her in a note to the Lettersand Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle a character not altogether'flattering : This was a bustling, shifty little German governess,who, in a few years, managed to pick up some modicum of moneyhere, and then retired with it to Dresden, whoUy devoting herself toliterature.' His wife's opinion, given in a letter written to him August'13, 1843, is more kindly : In the evening I had Miss Bolte till aftertea . . . she is really a fine manly Uttle creature, with a deal ofexcellent sense, and not without plenty of German enthusiasm, forall so humdrum as she looks.' (Vol. i. p. 234 sg.)