Thank old Alfred for his letter which was an unexpected pleasure. I like to hear of him and you once or twice in the year: but I know he is no dab at literature at any time, poor fellow. "Paltry Poet"--Let him believe it is anything but want of love for him that keeps me out of the Isle of Wight: nor is it indolence neither.--But to say _what it is_ would make me write too much about myself. Only let him believe what I _do_ say. Their relations were always of this playful, intimate kind, resting on long acquaintance. If FitzGerald was amused by "Alfred," Tennyson, on the other hand, was well used to his old friend's humour. When we spoke about him, he dwelt, I recollect, on this particular trait, and told me, to illustrate it, the story which is now, I think, pretty well known, how, when some common acquaintance had bored them with talking about his titled friends, "Old Fitz," as at last he took up his candle to go to bed, turned to Tennyson and said, quietly and quaintly, "I knew a Lord once, but he's dead." When Tennyson spoke of _Omar_ he said, what he has said in verse, that he admired it greatly: Than which I know no version done In English more divinely well; A planet equal to the sun Which cast it. But of course he was aware that it was by no means always faithful to the original. It is indeed a liberal, rather than a literal translation--how liberal, all know who have been at the pains to compare FitzGerald's poem with any of the many literal versions to which it has given rise. In quite the early Twickenham days, just after their marriage, he would invite himself to dine or stay with Tennyson and his wife, nay more, would ask to bring friends to see them, such as the Cowells and W. B. Donne. In 1854 he stayed at Farringford for a fortnight, a visit he always remembered, and often referred to, with pleasure. Together he and Tennyson worked at Persian. He also sketched, and botanized with the Poet. But he could not be got to repeat the visit; and indeed, as he said himself, it was the last of the kind he paid anywhere, except to Mrs. Kemble. When he reached London, just after this visit, he wrote to Tennyson: 60 LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, _June 15th, 1854_. MY DEAR ALFRED--I called at Quaritch's to look for another Persian Dictionary. I see he has a copy of Eastwick's Gulistan for _ten shillings_: a translation (not Eastwick's, however, but one quite sufficient for the purpose) can be had for five shillings. Would you like me to buy them and send them down to you by the next friend who travels your way: or will you wait till some good day I can lend you _my_ Eastwick (which is now at Oxford)? I could mark some of the pieces which I think it might not offend you to read: though you will not care greatly for anything in it. Oh, such an atmosphere as I am writing in!--Yours, E. F. G.