[Boston—Tuesday, 18 October 1870]
Tuesday. Mr. Thomas Hughes came to town to attend a meeting of the Women’s Club. J and I both went, meeting there Mr. Mundella also a liberal M.P. who has been elected in the place & over the head of Roebuck our enemy. We invited him to come to us in the evening to a little supper we were to give Mr. Hughes. The company was—Hughes, Longfellow, Holmes, Hoar, Alexander Rice, Dana, Rawlins, C.C. Perkins, Lowell, Mundella—J. & I. They sat opposite in the order I have named. Hughes had an enormous house & made a grand success with his lecture upon Jonathan to John. It was touching to see his manly feeling, once he quite broke down, but he stood with bent head, lowered with applause until he was sure of his voice & then went bravely on with steady strength. He was truly affectionate and manly in all his ways. Lowell he is deeply attached to. His admiration as well as his attachment were quite evident throughout the lecture. He and Mundella are warm friends. As for Rawlins who accompanies Mr. Hughes, he is a fine young fellow & won all hearts. He is but 24 but has taken all honors at Eton and Oxford where he has just graduated as double-first. Mr. Hughes says he shall return to America when Memorial Hall, whose corner stone he saw laid, here be completed. He talked chiefly with Dr. Holmes at the supper in a low tone so I had small opportunity to report what was said, if indeed it were worth while, but he was fatigued, and when I left the table which was at an early hour, Lowell and Hughes, Rawlins, Longfellow & Perkins all withdrew. Then it was the Mundella shone. He remained until after midnight impressing all who heard him. “I never saw Holmes listen before” said J. They were all in raptures over his manly good sense. He preached away against the wicked waste of America, for which he thinks the people must suffer.
