CHAPTER I

Summary

“Six months' tumbling about the world will do you no harm,” was the inducing phrase which Thackeray used when he kindly asked me to accompany him as his factotum and amanuensis on his forthcoming journeyings in the United States. When he noticed my hesitation as to acceptance of the post, arising in a great measure from my doubts as to my having the proper capacity—or “spryness,” as he expressed it—for organising and arranging the business part of the lecturing, he pointed out that another half-year would elapse before his departure, and that I could try my 'prentice-hand, first, during these months, in the same capacity. 'Twas thus I found myself installed in doing secretarial work at his pleasant Kensingtonian home in Young Street. The emblem of office, a knowing-looking green dispatch-box, of which the outer leather case bore many traces of long and honourable use in Continental travel, was presented to me by the owner, then possessor of a more splendid desk. I retain it now—not only as a valued memento and gift of the owner, but as reminding me of the many pleasant epistolary, documentary, and sketching fragments it contained during my subsequent stay in America. A selection of these sketches has been made, upon which the following text may be taken as merely a running commentary.