Most heartily do I thank you for yr kindness in sending me the p.c of June 12th2
which I received on June 25th—the same day upon which Wallace3 recd yours of the 16th.4 This looks like
another of the "faults
of the p.o." of which you complain & thro' which I fear several of your
communications have gone loc.02490.002_large.jpg astray.
Yes, I recd your letter of June 1st5 & I trust that by this time you have read the two lots of the facsimile copies which I sent to you.6
I note that on June 12th you were "much the same" & that on June 16th you were standing the oppressively hot weather "pretty well, so far."
This is welcome news for us but we hope to receive better before long.
We too, have had a spell of hot weather loc.02490.003_large.jpg here lately. The glorious,
sunshiney days of the beginning of the week were followed by severe storms of
thunder & lightning with heavy rain—the lightning display being
exceptionally brilliant & prolonged—
Bolton is now having a respite from the Influenza scourge & I take every
opportunity of escaping from the hot & noisy town into the refreshing Country
for an hour with nature, alone. One of these sweet hours I am now enjoying in loc.02490.004_large.jpg Raikes
Wood—the nearest bit of natural wood to my house & one of my favourite
haunts—where I draft this letter, sitting upon a fallen tree trunk.
As I write the birds are singing blithely upon the sycamores, oaks and ash trees all
around me—a blackbird & a thrush being especially vociferous with their
melody; a bonnie wee bird is preening its feathers while another is cheeping plaintively beside it; a corncrake is crake crake-ing in the meadow across the brook loc.02490.005_large.jpg which, inky
black tho' it alas! is, mirrors the blue sky & its own green tree-fringed
banks, where a lot of sparrows are jabbering noisily, a butterfly (a "straw-coloured
psyche")7 has just fluttered past me & a tiny ladybird is creeping along the tree
trunk on which I am seated.
The wood is carpeted with long slender grass—whose blades are now all diamonded
with glistening rain drops—horsetails & wild rhubarb through which I have
had loc.02490.006_large.jpg to wade knee
deep to get to my sylvan throne. Here & there occur blue wreaths of wild
hyacinths intermingled with the pretty, pink flowers of the "ragged robin."
There is no sun & hardly any wind to move the lovely arboreal screen which hides me & the air is fragrant with woodland scents so refreshing to a town dweller—
Here I spent a sacredly happy hour—"happiness pervades the open
air"8—until a sudden shower of rain loc.02490.007_large.jpg came pattering on the leaves,
temporarily silencing the birds & sending me home.
I send you a little souvenir of that visit to my wood.
I also send you two copies of my facsimile of your mask photograph, which I hope you will like; as well as two papers in which your name occurs.
Many thanks to you for telling us about the "fuller report of the Birthday Spree"9
that is to appear in loc.02490.008_large.jpg
Lippincott,10 which we shall read with great interest, &
for your kindness in promising me the half dozen copies of "Good Bye,"11 the price
of which I expect you will let me know.
June 27th 1891
This morning I met with what might have been a serious accident. While driving in the phaeton one of the shafts became loose frightening the horse into running away & upsetting the coachman & me on to the pavement.
Fortunately beyond a severe shaking for us both loc.02490.009_large.jpg a cut arm & bruised shoulder
for him & a bruised hip & leg for me we did not sustain any serious injury.
The trap was damaged but the horse escaped unhurt & I am thankful things are no
worse with us.
I sincerely trust that the next news we hear of you will be favourable
God bless you now and always!
With kindest regards to all your household & with best heart love to yourself
I remain Yours affectionately J JohnstonPS I return H.L.T's12 letter, omitted from my last to you—
PPS. Please convey my kindest remembrances to H.L.T. when you see him
JJYesterday afternoon, at Buckingham Palace, representatives of the matrons, sisters and nurses of the United Kingdom presented Princess Louise of Schleswig-Holstein with a diamond crescent and a set of the Poet Laureate's poems as wedding gifts. Lord Tennyson has written these lines in the first volume of his works:—
Take, lady, what your loyal nurses give, Their full "God bless you," with this book of song, And may the life which heart in heart you live With h im you love, be cloudless and be long.Correspondent:
Dr. John Johnston (1852–1927)
of Annan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, was a physician, photographer, and avid
cyclist. Johnston was trained in Edinburgh and served as a hospital surgeon in
West Bromwich for two years before moving to Bolton, England, in 1876. Johnston
worked as a general practitioner in Bolton and as an instructor of ambulance
classes for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railways. He served at Whalley Military
Hospital during World War I and became Medical Superintendent of Townley's
Hospital in 1917 (John Anson, "Bolton's Illustrious Doctor Johnston—a man
of many talents," Bolton News [March 28, 2021]; Paul
Salveson, Moorlands, Memories, and Reflections: A Centenary
Celebration of Allen Clarke's Moorlands and Memories [Lancashire
Loominary, 2020]). Johnston, along with the architect James W. Wallace, founded
the "Bolton College" of English admirers of the poet. Johnston and Wallace
corresponded with Whitman and with Horace Traubel and other members of the
Whitman circle in the United States, and they separately visited the poet and
published memoirs of their trips in John Johnston and James William Wallace, Visits to Walt Whitman in 1890–1891 by Two Lancashire
Friends (London: Allen and Unwin, 1917). For more information on
Johnston, see Larry D. Griffin, "Johnston, Dr. John (1852–1927)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998).