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  My Dear Old Friend,

By this mail I send you the current number of The Strand Magazine—a new English periodical—mainly because it contains (p. 41) portraits of your old friend Tennyson, at two different periods of his life, which I thought might interest you.

J.W.W. called at my surgery this morning & read to me the draft of a letter to you concerning Ruskin which I think will please you. This is the most sacred of days to him (JWW), being the anniversary of his mother's death, which was at once the greatest calamity of his life & his most valuable experience   He was just returning from the cemetery where he had probably been placing a wreath upon her grave.

It is a constant source of regret to his friends here that his health continues so indifferent—he is looking better tho' still complaining of a lack of nerve energy—this enforced absence form the Monday night weekly meetings of "The College" has been a misfortune for our little society of friends, among whom he is facile princeps, & who are proud to acknowledge him Master.

"The dear fellow!" you exclaimed while reading the letter from him that I handed to you last July in your "Mickle St den." Yes, he is a dear fellow! How dear & how good no one knows better than I who am privileged to enjoy his closest personal   intimacy—He is a man of sterling worth & his qualities of mind & heart have endeared him to all who really know him—Few men possess a better knowledge than he of what is essentially the highest & best in Literature, or a more keen & penetrating insight into the heart & meaning of the Deliverances of the Great ones of Earth, the "conscience conserving, God inculcating, inspired achievers" the "powerful & resplendent" poets, scientists & seers of the glorious past & the equally & perhaps more glorious present.

He is really an all round splendid fellow, intellectually & morally. Gifted with a mind of a superior order he is endowed with an exalted moral nature & has attained true nobility of character.

I cannot tell you all he has been to me or how much   I owe to his good influence; for he has been one of three good genii of my life—the other two being yourself & my own, dear, good old father. I have no truer friend—our friendship originated in & has been fused & welded into intimate &, I trust, life long cohesion mainly through our mutual love for you—and you have no warmer, whole-heart-and-soul-devoted admirer, appreciator & lover than he.

Pardon my writing thus about my friend but "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." & I know that my words will need no apology to you since it is in great measure thro' you that I have learned to appreciate & love such as he.

 

Jan 21st 91—This morning I recd a p.c. from W Sloane Kennedy, of which the following is a copy:—

Thank you very much for the delightful poem on Walt W. I read it through with zest. Why didnt you come & see me? I like you—yr naïveté—you are one of us I can see I had a nice visit w. Dr Bucke last summer. I don't understand all the allusions to a band of you in Bolton What does we mean? Send me any good word

W.S. Kennedy"

The weather here has been very erratic. Yesterday a   general thaw seemed to have set in & the ice & snow were rapidly disappearing, but this morning King Frost returned in all his rigour & donned his ermine robe. It has been snowing most of the day & it has not yet (8pm) ceased.

The Curator of the Bolton Museum has just been in to make arrangements for the removal of my Sidney Morse painting of you to the walls of the Exhibition this week

I trust you are keeping better & are free from pain & distress   As it is now close upon mail time I mustn't write more at present

With my kindest regards to all your household & with best heart love to yourself

I remain Yours affectionately J Johnston To Walt Whitman

P.S I have heard that J.W.W. cannot send you his letter on Ruskin until next mail

JJ