I send you my best & warmest thanks for that transcendantly kind letter2
you sent to us by last mail &
which has stirred our hearts to their very depths, so overwhelming did we feel its
influence—That you
should undertake the trouble & brave the exhaustion & prostration which the effort induced, &
all for us is
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one of the most overpowering proofs of your affection for us that we have ever had & we appreciate
the tremendous compliment to the full.3
Thanks & again thanks to you, our noble and generous–hearted Benefactor!
We took the words "facsimile from America" to imply that you would like the letter to be facsimiled
& copies sent to each of your English friends. Accordingly I have placed it in the hands of a
lithographer & ordered him to strike off some
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copies for us & I expect to be able to send some off to you by next mail.
We are sorely grieved to learn of your continued bad physical condition of of your "fearful sufferings" & send you our continued & deeply felt sympathy & love
It cheers us to know that you are so well looked after & so kindly treated by all & sundry
The visit of your dear friend Col Ingersoll4 wh.
Horace5 told us about would cheer & delight you greatly
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I have just returned from a flying visit to the home of my dear
sister6—near Carlisle, 100 miles
from here—who is ill & the journey there & back in 18 hours & my work
today have tired me somewhat.
Wallace7 & I had a four mile walk through the snow together the other night & enjoyed a long & loving talk about you
I hope you are easier tonight. Good night to you Good sleep to you & God bless you.
Please give my kindest regards to Warry8 & to Mrs Davis9.
With best heart–love to you & again thanks I remain Yours affectly J JohnstonCorrespondent:
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).