
I arrived here yesterday & this morning your dear good letter of Sept 10th& 11th reached me along with welcome letters from Warry & Horace Traubel.
I cannot tell you what a joy it is to me to receive a letter from you while I am
staying in my dear Father's house & I thank you most heartily for your kindness in sending
it. I am indeed glad to know that you were not losing much ground—that you were
"feeling much the same"—for which small mercy tho' it is I am very
thankful
Glad also that you like the photos I sent & that the underclothing was "just what you wanted." I will convey your thanks to Samuel Hodgkinson.
Thanks to you too for your loving salutation & benediction to us all.
I spent three delightful days at Blackpool, which I left on Sept 21st for Corby
or Cumberland, on the bank of the beautiful Eden, where my dear sister & her husband live
with their charming little boy of whom I am very fond, for he is a dear little chap.
I am writing this sitting in the room in which I was born (still called "John's room")
overlooking the little garden where from the apple & plum trees hang great bunches of
ripening fruit. A robin is trilling his matins & a red rose—almost the
last rose of summer—is peeping in at the window. My dear good old father is in
the garden, which is his peculiar care, my brother (a lawyer) is reading
his morning letters & my dear old mother is busy with domestic duties.
Looking far out I can see the top of old Criffel—a hill often mentioned by Carlyle; for you will remember that Carlyle received his early education at Annan & taught in Annan Academy which figures in "Sarton Resartus" & this is called Carlyle's Place. Annan is also the birthplace of his great friend, Edward Irving to whose memory a statue is now proposed to be erected.
I must ask you to pardon my writing more at present as it is nigh mail time
My best wishes for your welfare
Yours affectionately J Johnston.PS I return to Bolton on the 26th
JJ
