
After the experiences of the last three days I "feel to" address you thus—
I have so much to tell you in this letter that I scarcely know where & how to begin. Suppose we begin at the beginning!
Our dear friend J. W. Wallace arrived at Liverpool by the City of Berlin on Friday last (Novr 13th) & intimated his arrival by sending me a telegram—
"How's your health?"
to which I replied—"Brawly, thank'ee for speirin,' hoo's a' yersel'?"
He stayed with Will Law (who lives at Liverpool) all night & next morning he went direct home to Anderton as he had got a little cold during the severe storm of Queenstown wh. prevented them calling there as usual & he wanted to rest awhile.
On Sunday Fred Wild went over to see him (I being too busy to get away) & on Monday he came by arrangement to Bolton.
I met him at the Station
& oh wasn't it a gladsome reunion after our twelve weeks' separation?
Arm in arm the dear good fellow & I walked down the street; & then
were opened the flood gates of our long
pent up talk, the rim of whose vast ocean we seem even now to have merely edged.
It will take weeks to explore it & to put me upon equal terms with him.
I brought him here to tea & to stay the night with us & just
as we sat down to tea I received
your kind p.c. of Novr 5th
in wh. you say "We all miss him" (J.W.W.) "& hate to have him go."
Pointing to that sentence I said—"Do you see that,
Will?" "Yes" he replied "and I'm proud of that I tell you."
Coming so opportunely your p.c. seemed like a personal greeting from you to us both & I now thank you very heartily for your kindness in sending it.
We were both pleased to receive it & to note that you were then "about the same" wh,
under your circumstances is good news tho' not the best we desire to hear.
After tea Will Law came in from Liverpool & at 7 p.m.
we all made our way to the house of W.A.
Ferguson who had kindly invited all the boys there
to give Wallace our Reception upon his return from America.
There was a good muster, those present being:—J.W. Wallace,
Fred Wild, R.K. Greenhalgh, Sam Hodgkinson,
W.A. Ferguson, Thos Shorrock
George Humphreys, W.M. Law,
J.B. Johnstone Wentworth Dixon
& self—FRC Hutton was absent thro' slight illness.
After the bustle & excitement of mutual greetings &c were over
J.W. Wallace opened his bag & distributed the various presents
he had brought with him for the boys—something for each &
every one—copies of the pocketbook edition of
L of G,
"Good Bye"
Dr Bucke's "Man's Moral Nature"
(the Dr sent one to each
of the boys that he met while here) & his "Walt Whitman" as
well as copies of your autograph portraits & of one that
J.W.W. got at London, Ont.
Each book had an
appropriate inscription—most of them being in your own dear
handwriting—& great was the joy of the boys at receiving
these tokens of your love & I think some of them will be writing to thank you.
But the pick of the good things fell to my lot—a copy of
the Centennial (1876) Edition of L. of G.
& Two Rivulets (2 vols) from you;
a copy of the first edition of L of G
from J.W.W. wh he
got from Johnston of New York (who I am glad to know
hails originally from my dear old Annandale)
a piece of granite rock from the tomb
sent by Mrs Davis & the two
portraits similar to those the others got,—a perfect
embarras de richesse indeed!
I cannot hope to be able to express my feeling to you, my good dear old friend,
for your munificent gifts. That I am
indeed profoundly grateful I would have you believe & that I feel
your unexampled kindness to me in a way
that I cannot tell you of I can but assure you
"Poor in wealth I am ever poor in thanks."
But I know you will take the will for the deed & add as much to the words "I thank you"
as you deem fitting.—You have enriched my library as you had previously
enriched my life & you have again filled my heart
to overflowing—God bless you now & always!
The "prise distribution" over we had supper after which settled down to enjoy a regular, old fashioned "College meeting."
Will Law (whom Dr Bucke described as "a whole circus") sang a song
I had written about "The Masther in Ameriky" (Will said he had received it
from Lord Tennyson!) after which
W.A. Ferguson called upon J.W. Wallace & made a little speech.
The master thereupon rose & entertained us for an hour & a half
by reading extracts from his diary, referring mainly to his visits
to Camden & to you which were listened to with great
interest & much enjoyed by us all To me the notes were an entrancing
delight & I followed every line with an interest wh. no other
there could possibly feel—for didn't I know almost every place
he mentioned & couldnt I hear you
speaking & couldn't I feel your dear presence all the time?
Yes I did relish that hour & half
I tell you & it tasted good.
Since then JWW has kindly lent me his notes & I have read a great part of them & I can honestly say that I have not read any thing for a very long time wh has so fascinated me & held me spell bound

But revenons à nos moutons. After the reading of the notes we had speeches, very short & pithy from several of the boys, & songs—two of these original ones by W. Dixon & self of welcome home to the Master into the singing of which we put the full complement of college enthusiasm.
Then more talk till 11.30 p.m. when we all left & came home by train. Before leaving
W.A. Ferguson opened a bottle of sparkling moselle & we all
drank the healths of Walt Whitman, JW Wallace & Mr &
Mrs Ferguson; & thus
ended another of our pleasant social evenings & a very memorable one too.
JWW is looking well and seems to be much better than when we last saw him. He is also in pretty buoyant spirits & is very enthusiastic about you & all the good folks who treated him so kindly at Camden

Last Sunday night I went to St George's Church of wh F.R.C. Hutton is the vicar when—it being Mayor's Sunday—he preached to the Mayor & corporation. At the conclusion of his sermon he gave a long quotation from the "Song of the Universal" mentioning you by name. Several of the boys were there & it was a pleasant experience for us to hear you quoted from the pulpit of one of the principal churches in the town of Bolton—the first fruits of your great harvest.

I am sending Horace a short letter, but as I have not time to give him the details of our proceedings I would like you to show this letter to him at your convenience.
Also such parts of it to Mrs D. & Warry as you think may be of interest to them. It is a wretched scrawl I know but I have had to hurry over it to get it off by this mail. So please pardon it & its imperfections.
With best love to you always
I remain Yours affectly J JohnstonPS I omitted to say that JWW also read to us Dr B's account of his "spiritual experience"

