We in the Country are having the best of it just now, I think, in these fine Days, though we have nothing to show so gay as Covent Garden Market. I am thinking of my Boat on the River. . . . You say I did not date my last letter: I can date this: for it is my Birthday. {153} This it was that made me resolve to send you the Photos. Hey for my 65th year! I think I shall plunge into a Yellow Scratch Wig to keep my head warm for the Remainder of my Days. * * * * * In September 1863 Mr. Ruskin addressed a letter to 'The Translator of the Rubaiyat of Omar,' which he entrusted to Mrs. Burne Jones, who after an interval of nearly ten years handed it to Mr. Charles Eliot Norton, Professor of the History of Fine Art in Harvard University. By him it was transmitted to Carlyle, who sent it to FitzGerald, with the letter which follows, of which the signature alone is in his own handwriting. * * * * * CHELSEA, 14 _April_, 1873. DEAR FITZGERALD, Mr. Norton, the writer of that note, is a distinguished American (co-editor for a long time of the North American Review), an extremely amiable, intelligent and worthy man; with whom I have had some pleasant walks, dialogues and other communications, of late months;--in the course of which he brought to my knowledge, for the first time, your notable _Omar Khayyam_, and insisted on giving me a copy from the third edition, which I now possess, and duly prize. From him too, by careful cross-questioning, I identified, beyond dispute, the hidden 'Fitzgerald,' the Translator;--and indeed found that his complete silence, and unique modesty in regard to said meritorious and successful performance, was simply a feature of my own _Edward F._! The translation is excellent; the Book itself a kind of jewel in its way. I do Norton's mission without the least delay, as you perceive. Ruskin's message to you passes through my hands sealed. I am ever your affectionate T. CARLYLE. _Carlyle to Norton_. 5 CHEYNE ROW, CHELSEA, 18 _April_ 1873. DEAR NORTON, It is possible Fitzgerald may have written to you; but whether or not I will send you his letter to myself, as a slight emblem and memorial of the peaceable, affectionate, and ultra modest man, and his innocent _far niente_ life,--and the connexion (were there nothing more) of Omar, the Mahometan Blackguard, and Oliver Cromwell, the English Puritan!--discharging you completely, at the same time, from ever returning me this letter, or taking any notice of it, except a small silent one. _FitzGerald to Carlyle_. (Enclosed in the preceding.) [15 _April_ 1873.] MY DEAR CARLYLE,