had gathered these materials for the purpose of vindicating the character and advancing the fame of his honored friend; but, as related by Lord Houghton, "the accident of attending a meeting on the subject of colonization of New Zealand altered all Mr. Brown's plans, and determined him to transfer his fortunes and the closing years of his life to the Antipodes." Before leaving, however, he transferred to Lord Houghton all his materials, and surely he could not have left them in better hands.

During the summer of 1820, Keats had another attack of spitting of blood, and returned to Wentworth Place, where he was nursed by Fanny Brawne and her mother. He grew worse, however, and was advised to go to Italy. Severn agreed to go with him, and in September they set out on their journey, Keats thoroughly despondent and hopeless, as may be seen from his letter to Brown, written on the 28th, "Off Yarmouth, Isle of Wight." He says he was glad of an opportunity to write, "for time seems to press." He sees and feels the end approaching; he "eternally sees her figure eternally vanishing." "Land and sea, weakness and decline, are great separators; but Death is the great divorcer for ever."

Mr. Severn's journal furnishes the best account of the sad trip to Italy, the months of sickness and painful ending. This journal relates that after a storm Keats read the shipwreck scene in "Don Juan," and throwing the book in disgust upon the floor, exclaimed: "How horrible an example of human nature is this man, who has no pleasure left him but to gloat over and jeer at the most VOL. II.

D

awful incidents of life. Oh! this is a paltry originality, which consists in making solemn things gay, and gay things solemn; and yet it will fascinate thousands by the very diabolical outrage of their sympathies. Byron's perverted education makes him assume to feel and try to impart to others those depraved sensations which the want of any education excites in many."

At Naples, Keats got a letter from Shelley inviting him to Pisa, but the invitation was not accepted. The two friends went on to Rome, where Keats was put under the care of Dr. (afterward Sir James) Clark. Dr. Clark procured a lodging for his patient in the Piazza di Spagna, in the first house on the right as you ascend the steps of the "Trinita del Monte." Dr. Clark was most kind, but his skill was unavailing, and Keats died on the 23d of February, 1821. In the volume containing Keats's letters Severn's journal will be found, and in it is a most tender and pathetic record of the last few weeks of the young poet's life. He was buried in the Protestant cemetery at Rome. During his illness, he one day said that one of his intensest pleasures had been to watch the growth of flowers; and on another occasion he said: "I feel the flowers growing over me." Ten weeks after Keats's death, Severn wrote from Rome: "Poor Keats has now his wish -his humble wish; he is at peace in the quiet grave. I walked there a few days ago and found the daisies had grown all over it. It is one of the most lovely, retired spots in Rome. You cannot have such a place in England. I visit it with a delicious melancholy, which relieves my sadness.

When I recollect for how long Keats had never been for one day free from ferment and torture of mind and body, and that now he lies at rest with the flowers he so desired above him, with no' sound in the air but the tinkling bells of a few simple sheep and goats, I feel indeed grateful that he is here, and remember how earnestly I prayed that his suffering might end, and that he might be removed from a world where not one grain of comfort remained for him."

Several years ago, some English admirers of Keats and some of Keats's American kindred had the badly dilapidated head-stone marking Keats's grave repaired, and the grave now is as represented in the etching in one of these volumes. A medallion portrait, made by Mr. Warrington Wood, was also placed on the wall which cuts off the old cemetery where Keats was buried from the new one now in use, and beneath the medallion was engraved the following acrostic, written by General Sir Vincent Eyre:

"Keats, if thy cherished name be writ in water,'
Each drop has fallen on some woman's cheek -
A sacred tribute such as hero's seek,
Though oft in vain, for dazzling deeds of slaughter.
Sleep on! not honoured less for epitaph so meek."

The inscription on the head-stone had become almost illegible, and the tall grass nearly hid the stone from sight; but now all has been restored, and this inscription, written by Severn, has been cut deep into the stone, where it will last for many years: