It is a cold wintry day here—a hard frost, with snow on the ground & occasional showers of snow flakes whirling & dancing in the air.
I have just finished my morning's round of visits, had dinner & seen the folk in
the surgery & as
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this is mail night I thought I would sit down & write a line
or two to you, just to cheer you up a little in your sickness &
your—perhaps—loneliness. For it must be lonely for you at times in spite
of all the dear & kind friends near you, & I wish you to take this letter
as a token of my continued & unchanged affection for you & of my
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heartfelt sympathy in your illness.
You are much in my thoughts at all times & I long with a great inexpressible longing to help you But if I cannot help you I can at least love you & that will perhaps help you—who knows?
From the cables' silence we conclude that you are at least holding your own against
that pros loc.02539.004_large.jpgtrating
attack—and the Doctors! You'll "beat them"
all yet!
Later
I had got thus far with my letter when I was called away to take in a box wh. had come by rail
Opening it I found it contained the Clay Head2 of yourself from Costelloe3
I have hastily unpacked it & placed it upon my table where it now stands at my elbow and
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seems to look at me as I write this & it dominates the whole room with
its Homeric massiveness & rugged grandeur.
It is a great prize for the College & I am proud to be honoured by the custody of such a treasure—for of course I recognise no actual ownership in it. It is ours & I am its custodian.
But I must thank you for your great kindness in ordering it to be sent to us &
this I do most cordially. It is a
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noble gift & we will all value it very highly indeed
Thanks, & again thanks to you for it!
7p.m.
Wallace4 has been in to tea & to see the Head & has just left for home by train.
He too is delighted with it & sends his thanks to you with his love
I sincerely trust that you are keeping better & that we shall soon hear good news about you
With kindest regards to Warry5 Mrs D6 & Harry7 & with best love to yourself
I remain Yours affectionately J Johnston [1892]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).