We spent the winter in Leamington, whither we had come from the
sea-coast in October. I am sorry to say that it was another winter of
sorrow and anxiety.... [The allusion here is to illness in the family,
of which there had also been a protracted case in Rome]. I have engaged
our passages for June 16th.... Mrs. Hawthorne and the children will
probably remain in Bath till the eve of our departure; but I intend to
pay one more visit of a week or two to London, and shall certainly come
and see you. I wonder at your lack of recognition of my social
propensities. I take so much delight in my friends, that a little
intercourse goes a great way, and illuminates my life before and
after....
Your friend,
NATH. HAWTHORNE.
These seven years in Europe formed, outwardly, the most opulently happy
part of Hawthorne's life. Before he left America, although he had been
writing--with several interruptions--for twenty-four years, he had only
just reached a meagre prosperity. I have touched upon the petty clamor
which his Custom-House pictures aroused, and the offensive political
attacks following the Life of Pierce. These disagreeables, scattered
along the way, added to the weary delay that had attended his first
efforts, made the enthusiastic personal welcome with which he everywhere
met in England, and the charm of highly organized society, with its
powerful artistic classes centred upon great capitals there and in
Italy, a very captivating contrast. Still there were drawbacks.
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