•«>^ o. aO' .*^:.^ . ";^. -V ,*;2-^', ^;^, ^-i.- ^<^ ''.It' ^ SOME LITERARY AUTOGRAPHS SOME LITERARY AUTOGRAPHS ABOUT A GREAT BOOK WITH SOME LITERARY AUTOGRAPHS PRIVATELY PRINTED AT CEDAR RAPIDS IOWA FOR THE FRIENDS OF LUTHER ALBERTUS AND ELINORE TAYLOR BREWER CHRISTMAS NINETEEN FOURTEEN ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY- FIVE COPIES PRINTED ILLUMINATED INITIAL BY ELINORE TAYLOR BREWER 1 COPYRIGHT 1914 BY LUTHER A. BREWER THE TORCH PRESS CEDAR RAPIDS IOWA D[C;>:!9!4 ABOUT THE CLOISTER AND THE HEARTH AND SOME OTHER THINGS CLOISTER AND THE HEARTH NE of the world's great books is Charles Reade's The Cloister and the Hearth, It is also one of our favorite mes — precious to us for two sons: Because of the contents, ecause we read it together for /] the first time in those tender days whei^love was young and the future years" looked rosy and full of bright promise. The book was first published in London in 1861, in four volumes, as was the custom with English novels at that time. The parts as originally issued were found by us one hot July day four years ago in the cellar of an old bookshop in Oxford street, Lon- don. They were ragged and dirty, and one not a book lover would have given at most but a few pennies for them. They were quickly "attached" to the present owners but at a pretty good sum considering their shabby condition. Within an hour the prec- ious sheets were placed in the hands of London's best binders, Sangorski & Sutcliffe, and two or three months later they were sent across the ocean "clothed and in their right mind," and they now are books that need not hang their heads in shame in any collection. Since then, as opportu- nity offered, original autograph let- ters of the author have been picked up and inserted as frontispieces in the four volumes. The thought has come to your two friends that at this mellowest season of the year you may not consider it amiss to share with us some of the 8 pleasures we have enjoyed in the possession of this great book as now embellished. Hence this booklet telling of the letters it now contains and giving choice extracts from the book itself. To the first volume we have at- tached an especially characteristic letter, one that gives evidences of that fighting spirit so dominant dur- ing all the years of Charles Readers life, 1 8 14- 1 874. He was a militant chap, ever busy in efforts to right some real or fancied social wrong. Most of his novels were written to that end. In Hard Cash he takes up the abuses of the insane asylums; in Ifs Never Too Late to Mend he preaches against the English prison system ; in Put Yourself in His Place he treats of abuses connected with trades-unions and labor conditions. In The Cloister and the Hearth he pictures with vivid reality the social conditions of the fifteenth century. With rare insight and great power of sympathy he makes the old times live again. We here find pictures of what the lives of men and women of that period must have been. As an appreciative critic has said: "His book is truer than history; for while based on historical records, it reflects with life and color, not alone out- ward fact but also the workings of minds and hearts." Reade warred continually with critics and publishers. His attitude toward the latter may be judged by this letter which is the insert in vol- ume one: 92 St. George's Road S. Belgravia July 2nd. [1865] Dear Sir: Without the words "during the legal term of copyright" the half profit agreement is "a partnership at will," and either party can dissolve 10 that partnership : this done the copy- right rests in the author, & he can treat with another publisher. But the sly insertion of the words "during the legal term of the C[opyright] make[s] it not a partnership at will, but a partnership for a definite period to-wit 42 years at least, & a partnership on terms singularly un- just to the author, & favorable to the publisher, for under it you cant com- pel him to publish fresh editions of your work yet he can hinder you from publishing through any other channel. I should advise you to draw a pencil through the words & substitute for Longman's considera- tion these words "so long as Mr. Longman shall be willing to pro- duce fresh editions" or words of that kind. As to profits you will not get £10 under a half profit agreement. These agreements are one-sided & the well known & often exposed cover for fraudulent charges & statements in the printing, paper, advertising, & sales. You had much better offer L 11 the Copyright for £50. down, if it is only a short tale. Yrs vy truly Charles Reade Then he adds after his signature these words: You must not interpret this to the personal disadvantage of Mr. Long- man. No publisher has ever sent an author an honest account in the memory of man; nor ever will: And the half profit agreement leaves the author at the mercy of the Pub's in- tegrity, which has no existence in matters of acct. In volume two we have inserted this letter which has a direct refer- ence to The Cloister and the Hearth : Oct 25 [1861] Dear Sirs, There is a run on "Cloister & Hearth" and I shall be much obliged if you will arrange with Mr. Day so as to lose not an hour unneces- sarily. I am Yrs sincerely Charles Reade 12 Please number the volumes of sec- ond edition more clearly as some mistakes have been made. In the third volume has been placed the following theatrical let- ter. Reade wrote plays himself and all his life had much to do with the stage. This letter shows him in the light of a thrifty business manager: Queen's Theatre March 25, Dear Sir, As requested I enclose a private Box for Mrs. Seymour's Benefit. At 7. Rachel the reaper. At 8.20 The Wandring Heir. The packet I sent to you consisted of two distinct things. Free admis- sions for tomorrow, and cards for Mrs. Seymour's Benefit on Friday. The latter we sell you : therefore if we have sent too many, please return the superfluous ones. I sent several amphitheatre cards : because our am- phitheatre is only IS. and a respecta- 13 ble workman, of whom you have so many is very comfortable there. Yours very truly &c With thanks Charles Reade This letter was written to E. Pigott, an examiner of plays, and can now be found in the fourth volume of our set I 19 Albert Gale Knightsbridge Aug 24 Dear Piggott, Many thanks for your most kind and friendly letter. I am quite aware you can render me no direct assistance in cases of Piracy. But there is no reason why you should be cheated out of your fees, nor I out of the right of pirati- cal MSS. Here we can help each other. I believe 100 unlicensed plays are played every year and now I have a friend in the Lord Chamber- lain's office I shall go into that business irrespective of my personal interests. 14 Meantime. Here are two more unlicensed rascalities for you. Queen's Theatre Dublin Lessee Fitzroy Wallace "destroyed by Drink" Adelphi Theatre Liverpool Lessee E Trevanion Crime and Virtue or the effect of Drink. Pray extort your dues and a MS. from these caitiffs, and by and by perhaps I may catch one of these jail-birds out of bounds. At present I am Yrs. very truly Charles Reade excerpts from the cloister and the hearth Extracts from a book, no matter how well made they may be, give one but a faint idea of the contents. This is quite true with reference to The Cloister and the Hearth. There are 15 however many quotable things in this book and we offer no apology for the following extracts. If the read- ing of them here will introduce you to the book itself we will feel we have not made the excerpts in vain. Not a day passes over the earth, but men and women of no note do great deeds, speak great words, and sufifer noble sorrows. Of these ob- scure heroes, philosophers, and mar- tyrs, the greater part will never be known till that hour, when many that are great shall be small, and the small great; but of others the world's knowledge may be said to sleep : their lives and characters lie hidden from nations in the annals that record them. What God takes from us still seems better than what he spares to us: that is to say, men are by nature unthankful — and women silly. The house is never built for less than the builder counted on. The Hollanders were always an 16 original and leading people. They claim to have invented printing (wooden type), oil-painting, liberty, banking, gardening, etc. Above all, they invented cleanliness. Where there have been no pains there needs no reward. A heart to share joy and grief with is a great comfort to man or woman. The beginning of a quarrel, where the parties are bound by affection though opposed in interest and senti- ment, is comparatively innocent; both are perhaps in the right at first starting, and then it is that a calm, judicious friend, capable of seeing both sides, is a gift from Heaven. For, the longer the dissension en- dures, the wider and deeper it grows by the fallibility and irascibility of human nature: these are not confined to either side, and finally the invaria- ble end is reached — both in the wrong. Women are creatures brimful of courage. Theirs is not exactly the same quality as manly courage; that would never do, hang it all; we 17 should have to give up trampling on them. No ; it is a vicarious courage. They never take part in a bull-fight by any chance; but it is remarked that they sit at one unshaken. Chattering tongues mar wisest counsels. Affection sharpens the wits; and often it has made an innocent person more than a match for the wily. Where is the woman that cannot act a part? Where is she who will not do it, and do it well, to save the man she loves? Nature on these great occasions comes to the aid of the simplest of the sex, and teaches her to throw dust in Solomon's eyes. Sweetest of all her charms is a woman's weakness to a manly heart. The courage, like the talent, of common men, runs in a narrow groove. Take them but an inch out of that, and they are done. Strange that things beautiful should be terrible and deadly. The eye of the boa-constrictor while fascinating its prey is lovely. Life and liberty, while safe, are 18 little thought of: for why? They are matters of course. Endangered, they are rated at their value. In this, too, they are like sunshine, whose beauty men notice not at noon when it is greatest, but towards evening when it lies in flakes of topaz under shady elms. Yet it is feebler then; but gloom lies beside it, and contrast reveals its fire. A little affability adorns even beauty. A friend like thee, where on earth's face shall I find another. He was a Frenchman, and despised every other nation, laws, inmates and customs included. Men of any spirit at all are like the wild boar; he will run from a superior force; owing perhaps to his not being an ass : but if you stick to his heels too long, and too close, and, in short, bore him, he will whirl, and come tearing at a multitude of hunters, and perhaps bore you. Well-a-day, the sands how swift they run when the man is bent over earthly toys. 19 All we see around us calls for faith. Have then a little patience! We shall soon know all. Alas! here is a kind face I must never look to see again on earth; a kind voice gone from mine ear and my heart forever. There is nothing but meeting and parting in this sor- rowful world. Our travellers on their weary way experience that, which most of my readers will find in the longer jour- ney of life, viz., that stirring events are not evenly distributed over the whole road, but come by fits and starts, and, as it were, in clusters. To some extent this may be because they draw one another by links more or less subtle. But there is more in it than that. It happens so. Life is an intermittent fever. Men look forward to death, and back upon past sickness, with differ- ent eyes. Item, when men drive a bargain, they strive to get the sunny side of it; it matters not one straw whether it is with man or Heaven they are bargaining. 20 ^ Trust then to me ; these little doves they are my study day and night; happy the man whose wife taketh her fling before wedlock; and who trip- peth up the altar-steps instead of down 'em. Marriage, it always changeth them for better or else for worse. Making others wretched had not made him happy. It seldom does. An old woman, that has seen life and all its troubles, is a sovereign blessing by a sorrowful young wo- man's side. She knows what to say, and what to avoid. She knows how to soothe her and interest her. You know how foolish those are that love. Some are old in heart at forty, some are young at eighty. Strange as it may appear to the unobservant, our hearts warm more readily to those we have benefited than to our benefactors. Certainty is often painful, but sel- dom, like suspense, intolerable. Life is a school, and the lesson ne'er done; we put down one fault 21 and take up t'other, and so go blun- dering here, and blundering there, till we blunder into our graves, and there's an end of us. Gunpowder has spoiled war. War was always detrimental to the solid interests of mankind. But in old times it was good for something; it painted well, sang divinely, fur- nished Iliads. But invisible butch- ery, under a pall of smoke a furlong thick, who is any better for that? What the servant says the master should still stand to. In matters of honest craft things can not be done quick and well. Each sex has its form of cruelty; man's is more brutal and terrible; but shallow women, that have neither read nor suffered, have an unmuscu- lar barbarity of their own (where no feeling of sex steps in to overpower it). This defect, intellectual per- haps rather than moral, has been mitigated in our day by books, es- pecially by able works of fiction; for there are two roads to that highest effort of intelligence. Pity; Experi- 22 ence of sorrows, and Imagination, by which alone we realize the grief we never felt. Gratitude is not a thing of words. Happy the man who has two chain-cables; Merit, and Women. "Plutarch, he had a wondrous art, Francesco." "Give me the signor Boccaccio." "An excellent narrator, Capitano, and writeth exquisite Italian. But in spirit a thought too monotonous. Monks and nuns were never all un- chaste : one or two such stories were right pleasant and diverting; but five score paint his time falsely, and sad- den the heart of such as love man- kind. Moreover he has no skill at characters. Now this Greek is su- preme in that great art: he carveth them with pen : and, turning his page, see into how real and great a world we enter of war, of policy, and busi- ness, and love in its own place; for with him, as in the great world, men are not all running after a wench. With this great open field compare me not the narrow garden of Boccac- 23 cio, and his little mill-round of dis- honest pleasure." Nay, I care not to be adored by an old man. I would liever be loved by a young one : of my own choosing. A woman has her own troubles, as a man has his. It is a great thing to open a good door in a heart. One good thing follows another through the aperture. A Catherine is not an unmixed good in a strange house. The gov- erning power is strong in her. She has scarce crossed the threshold ere the utensils seem to brighten; the hearth to sweep itself; the windows to let in more light; and the soul of an enormous cricket to animate the dwelling-place. But this cricket is a Busy Body. And that is a tremen- dous character. It has no discrim- ination. It sets everything to rights, and everybody. Now many things are the better for being set to rights. But everything is not. Everything is the one thing that won't stand be- ing set to rights ; except in that calm and cool retreat, the grave. 24 Maternity. You, who know what lies in that word, enlarge my little sketch, and see the young mother nursing and washing, and dressing and undressing, and crowing and gambolling with her first-born. In the valley of Grindelwald the traveller has on one side the perpen- dicular Alps, all rock, ice, and ever- lasting snow, towering above the clouds, and piercing to the sky; on his other hand little every-day slopes, but green as emeralds, and studded with cows, and pretty cots, and life; whereas those lofty neighbors stand leafless, lifeless, inhuman, sublime. Elsewhere sweet commonplaces of nature are apt to pass unnoticed; but, fronting the grim Alps, they soothe, and even gently strike, the mind by contrast with their tremendous op- posites. Penitence abroad is little worth. There where we live lie the tempta- tions we must defeat, or perish. Not fly in search of others more showy, but less lethal. Easy to wash the feet of strangers, masked ourselves. 25 Hard to be merely meek and chari- table with those about us. A resolute woman is a very resolute thing. When ye seek favors of the great, behoves ye know the very thing ye aim at. Words never yet painted a likeness of despair. Humility and a teachable spirit are the roads to wisdom. Priest, monk, hermit, call thyself what thou wilt, to her [mother] thou art but one thing; her child. The Almighty loves him who thinks of others. And to think that there are folk in the world that have all the beautiful things which I have here, yet not content. Let them pass six months in a hermit's cell, seeing no face of man ; then will they find how lovely and pleasant this wicked world is; and eke that men and women are God's fairest creatures. Charity profanes nothing; not even a church: soils nought, not even a church. 26 WE HAVE A HOBBY We have a hobby. Our friends know it, and most of them long ago ceased to pity. But we have no apologies to make. We believe in hobbies. Our days have been hap- pier because, in the few hours of leisure in a somewhat busy and stren- uous life, we have had a few hobbies the pursuit of which has yielded recreation and pleasure. One who possesses a hobby leads a more full life. We do not care what that hob- by may be — whether it is a passion for the collection of snails and bugs, or a fondness for books and prints. The man with a hobby is a better man than he who is without this solace. And right here permit us to say 29 that these fellows with hobbies — these collectors of things out of the ordinary — are as a rule a benevolent lot. While there is a peculiar pleas- ure in the thought that you have something no one else possesses or can possess, yet the true collector is ever willing to share his joy with the less fortunate. We know there are Philistines even in this day who hold the contrary. As a class we are looked upon as selfish, as living lives apart from the many. We are point- ed at in places where people congre- gate; sometimes we are designated as peculiar. It has even been charged that we are not averse to acquiring treasures by the process of adhesion if we can't get them by the usual means of gift or purchase. True, some of our class, weaker than others, at times may acquire a much desired prize for less than its true value. But we should not be anathematized for 30 adding to our possessions that which does not make the seller the poorer while enriching the buyer. We could not — the vast majority of us — re- main in business if deprived of the privilege of acquiring seeming bar- gains. For let it be remembered the poor man is entitled to his hobby as well as the rich man. There are more poor men than rich men. And bargains are a necessity to the former as well as a joy to the latter. But we are wandering. To prove that collectors are free from selfish- ness we are at this holiday time giv- ing our friends the privilege of shar- ing with us the pleasures to be found in one small line of our collecting — that of autograph letters. Our chief aim is to secure those written by liter- ary celebrities. So far as can be done, such letters only are acquired as contain some reference to the busi- ness of authorship or to books of the 31 writers. This rule, however, is not adhered to rigidly, as will be noted in the case of the letter of Thomas Moore, reproduced in this book. This letter is in some ways a charm- ing one, showing, as it does, the human side of this rollicking, be- loved Irish poet. It brings us in closer touch with him. We are given to understand that he was human like the rest of us. We have in mind in the purchase of these letters certain books in which they may be inserted. If we have on our shelves a first edition of an author who has arrived, then the search is made leisurely for a letter for that particular volume. Sometimes we may even buy a book in which to place a letter that appeals to us and that can be had for a reasonable sum. The rule has been adhered to that we lay out no extravagant sums for any writer's autograph. The pleasure of 32 collecting and embellishing is not necessarily an expensive one. In truth there's more zest in modest effort than in lavish expenditure. Those people who buy books and autographs en bloc, many times through dealers who have been given orders without limitations, have our pity. Every individual collection should grow with the collector. It should evidence the stages of his de- velopment, the changes in his likes and dislikes. It should represent the slow accumulations of the years of his life. The following letter is one of the most treasured in our collection. It was picked up in London some two years ago. Data for a proper under- standing of it were lacking. For- tunately, we were able to get the proper knowledge from the writer himself while he was a guest at our home in January, 1914. As Mr. 33 Noyes has kindly noted in the corner of the original letter, it was written in 1902 to Grant Richards of London, the publisher of his first book, The Loom of YearSj now a very scarce volume, and had to do with this pub- lication itself. Mr. Noyes told us at the time of his visit that we were not likely to be able to secure a copy of this book. Perhaps he did not grasp fully what a persistent American collector can accomplish when his heart is set on a certain thing. With- in a month the coveted volume was in our possession. It now differs from every other of the five hundred copies in the edition in that within its cov- ers it holds this letter with its inter- esting notation : Exeter College Oxford Dear Sir I enclose a cheque for £25 ; I am sorry for the delay. In the mean- time I have been so successful in 34 obtaining subscribers to the book here in Oxford that I should be glad to know how you would arrange for a 2nd edition, if the first is exhausted. Would a preface, a short one, by Laurence Binyon, be of any value to the sale of the book. If it would, I think I can get one. I am Yours sincerely Alfred Notes. Evidently the proposition for a preface by Mr. Binyon, who was con- nected with the British Museum, was vetoed, for the volume does not con- tain a preface. The notation made by Mr. Noyes on the corner of his original letter reads : Letter written about first book to the publisher. Grant Richards, 1902, The Loom of Years. A. N. He who has not in days of youth made the acquaintance of Thomas Moore (1779-1852) has missed some 35 delightful moments. While it is said that ^'Tommy dearly loved a lord," nevertheless this must be taken in the light of the fact that he was courted by the aristocracy for his wit and gayety and was found often in their salons. Professor Wilson in those charming volumes, Recreations of Christopher North^ does not hesitate to say: 'Wow, of all the song-writ- ers that ever warbled, or chanted, or sung, the best, in our estimation, is verily none other than Thomas Moore." Fond as he was of dining and dancing, he was also a hard worker. His financial returns were adequate, but he was a good spender and at times was hard-pressed for money. For writing his Irish Melo- dies from 1807 to 1834 he received £500 a year. Longman, the publish- er, agreed to pay him £3000 for Lalla Rookh without having seen the manuscript. In his latter years he 36 was given by the government a pen- sion of £300 a year. He was the friend of Byron, and this poet makes several references to him in his writ- ings; e.g., What are you doing now, Billing or cooing now, Sighing or wooing now. Which, Tommy Moore? The following letter, attached to a volume of Moore's poems read by us from ''kiver to kiver" in the days of youth and possessing for us consid- erable sentimental value, lets us into the secret that poets are but human, after all, like the rest of us : Thursday July 24.^^ 181 8 My dear Sir— In your various characters of Bill- Accepter, Fish-Agent, &c. &c. I keep you always fully well employed — I now want you to dispatch me, by tomorrow night's coach, a good dish 37 of fish for Saturday's dinner — Lord Lansdowne comes to eat a family dinner with us, & a Lord's family dinner is a poet's best one, you know — So I shall depend upon you, and it must come by the mail, or at least some coach that arrives at Devizes early — make sure of this — Salmon, I should suppose, would be best, and Lobster. I have done another song since, prettier still than the other — & I am in hopes I shall be able by complet- ing the five without them, to keep these two for some of our future col- lections — You perceive we have got rid of our large bill — all by the Fudges — I shall however in the course of a few days make use of your name for a small shot of forty pounds or so — Truly yours T. Moore There not being room at the bot- tom of the sheet for a postscript, Moore adds one at the top of the page: 38 If you could buy me a little good Coffee for Bessy, I should be glad you would send it at the same time — a Box, too, of Cinnamon lozenges. Bessy was his wife, and a splendid one, too. Until his death Moore gave her all the devotion of an ardent lover. The following Ruskin letter has a fit abiding place, as we think. It is incorporated in a first edition of his Queen of the Air, published in 1869, a study of Greek myths of cloud and storm. In the same volume, as a frontispiece, we have placed an orig- inal pen and ink drawing made by Ruskin while lecturing on art at Ox- ford. The book has a binding de- signed and executed by Cobden-San- derson, and bears his autograph. Thus embellished, the book is unique — a joy to handle and a volume it is a delight to possess. 39 John Ruskin (i8 19-1900) created the literature of art; he taught peo- ple to see the beauties in nature. As John C. VanDyke puts it: "He has taught several generations to see with their eyes, think with their minds, and work with their hands." Char- lotte Bronte regarded him as "one of the few genuine writers of the age." 24th November 58. Dear Miss Raine I got a kind letter from your father sometime ago — which I grieve not to have answered, and grieve still more at the ill news it contained, of his health. Pray tell him how sorry I am that this should be so : — I wish indeed I could come and see him, and lecture & do all you would have me, but I am not well myself — a fit of successive coughs & colds having come upon me v/ith unusual sharp- ness, and I dare not come north at present — I gave a short address at Cambridge the other day: but in go- 40 ing about the College cloisters, lost my voice, and have been hoarse ever since — (three weeks, nearly) — I am getting better — but I shall have to give up going about for the pres- ent. Be sure if I come north at all — I will not pass Durham: and will make myself as useful there as your father and you think I ought — or can. — Present my sincere regards to your father and to your sisters when you write to them & with kindest re- membrances from my father & moth- er believe me Most truly yours, John Ruskin "Leigh Hunt, most vivid of poets and most cordial of critics," is the way Prof. John Wilson puts it in his Recreations of Christopher North. Hunt (1784-1859) was the friend of Lamb, and Shelley, and Keats, and Byron. Like his own Abou Ben Adhem, he was a man who loved his fellow-men, and the pleasant letters we have in his autograph are highly 41 prized. One adorns a first edition of The Months^ 1821 ; the other is in- serted in a first edition of Men, Wo- men and Booksj 1847. Here are his letters : Hammersmith — April 7. My dear Sir. I have seen and looked through the Life of Campbell, as well as read the particular passages relating to the Pleasures of Hope, and I find no mention made of the object of your enquiry. Should you like however to see the book yourself, and examine it more closely than I have just now time to do, I will do myself the pleas- ure of sending it to you. Very sincerely yours, Leigh Hunt Kensington — Jan.y ist [1848] My dear Sir. A happy new year to you, & a thousand more kind greetings & thanks. I should have sent you them the moment I received your notice of my letter, but was in the act of writ- 42 ing against time, & am so still. In- deed I happen to be in a perfect "sea of troubles," with business, & haste, & influenza (to take the muscle out of it) & illness in my family, & unsettledness (looking out for a house) ; but towards the spring, I reckon upon emerging; & I shall then, with your leave, come & shake you by the hand, & ask you to become the personal as well as literary friend of Your truly obliged humble servant, Leigh Hunt. Robert Bridges (1844 — ) ^^Y not have gained a wide reputation or have written for a large circle, but his position as present poet-laureate of England makes this letter of inter- est. It is inserted in a first edition of his Eros & Psyche^ 1885. Yattendon Newbery Dec 6. 90. Dear Sir I am much obliged to you for your letter. I had seen Mr. Watson's re- 43 view, which was sent to me by an- other friend of his, and I sh^ have written to thank him for it if I had thought that I had any right to do so. I sh^ be glad if you w^ convey my thanks to him, and tell him that the two stanzas which he very justly ob- jected to as being incomplete in them- selves were the original two first stanzas of "The Windmill" a poem he will find not far off. I sh^ have noted that they were a fragment. But I thought it was sufficiently ap- parent. I have instructed the printer to add a few words to the note at the end of the volume in the next edition to this effect. With many thanks believe me Yours truly ROBT Bridges. J. D. Ford Esq. Liverpool. P. S. Excuse my writing so short a note. I am very busy just now. Thomas Hardy (1840 — ) furnish- es us with a short note which some 44 day may be inserted in a first edition of Desperate Remedies^ if we ever get enough money to buy that book. From Thos. Hardy, lo : 4 : '06 Max Gate, Dorchester. Dear Sir: I am unable to recommend any handbook for the cultivation of the Poetic Faculty. Reading good poet- ry is the usual course. Your pupil might also read the articles on "Poet- ry" in the Encyclopedia Brittannica, & in Chamber's Cyclopedia. Yours truly T. H. Christina G. Rossetti (1830- 1894) ranks as a poet with Elizabeth Bar- rett Browning. The work of the latter is probably more widely known, but that of the former has a higher degree of artistic finish. Both won positions high up in that temple of fame in which are enthroned the greatest poets of the Victorian era. 45 This brief .note in Miss Rossetti's handwriting shows she took an in- terest in things other than poetry: 1 66 Albany St. N. W. Saturday night. Dear Sir I fear, unless you have heard direct from Mrs. Knox or Miss Parkes, that we must give up hope of their favor- ing the Association's volume with contributions, as I have not received aught from them. Mr. Scott has written me a most kind note of sym- pathy in the good cause but does not find anything to send us. Wishing you all good success I remain Faithfully yours Christina G. Rossetti. This letter written by Coventry Patmore (1823- 1896), a mystic who wrote mostly for the elect, some day will, we hope, find an abiding place in a copy of his Angel in the House, a finished piece of writing; according to John Ruskin '^the sweetest analysis 46 we possess of quiet, modern domestic feeling": British Museum January 4th 1864. Dear Sir, I am glad you like my books so much that you think my signature worth having. I am, Dear Sir, Yours faithfully, Coventry Patmore. A. Vogue, Esq The following letter of Sir F. Sey- mour Haden (1818-1910), an etcher who ranks with Whistler, some day will be framed with an etching we possess by this great artist: 62 Sloan St. S. W. July 8, 1874 Dear Sir: If you can favour me with a visit to my Studio No 11, The Avenue^ Fulham Road on Sunday afternoon at about 5 p. m. I will, with much pleasure, show you what Etchings I have by me. 47 The Avenue is a row of trees with- in a gateway immediately opposite the steps of the Cancer Hospital. I am, dear sir Yr faithful servant F. Seymour Haden We pity the type-setters whose duty it was to put in type the writ- ings of Bulwer Lytton (1803- 1873) if the chirography of the letter we possess is a fair sample. Bulwer Lytton was a versatile genius — nov- elist, poet, dramatist, politician, ora- tor. And he made good in all these lines. This letter was written to the editor of The Sun^ London, and re- fers to the arrangement of a collected edition of his works : Poste restente Sep. 6 1867 Eaux Bonnes Pyrenees France My dear Kent Here I am. I caught cold by the way which fell on my chest as usual & has delayed the taking the waters. But I am now better & begin today. The Place is very pretty but very dull. Please to send me The Sun directed here. Not a newspaper (English) to be had in the place — also send me Bentleys memorandum of agreement — I am sadly at a loss to arrange the best mode of printing the contents of my books. But on the whole agree with Fowler that the Caxtoniana be- ing the best & maturest should begin but that name be dropped. I pro- pose omitting the last short paper in Caxtoniana on the theory of conser- vatism — & printing instead a long & elaborate Dialogue on the Influ- ence of Love upon Literature & Life — it is perhaps rather too learned but is good & carefully composed — it is long & will take 60 pages — It has not been yet published tho I have it in type. It was omitted from Cax- toniana the vol. being large eno' without. The Student might follow Caxtoniana, & the Criticisms come last — followed only by Blanchard & 49 Schiller should I think the last [can't decipher it]. I left all material with Fowler except that Life of Schiller & Blackwood writes me word that he cant find a copy anywhere. I have written to Fowler to see if he has not a copy & if so to send it. And if he has not one Bentley must try & hunt up one — & send it here — When the mem is signed & he has the Books I should like his idea of the order of arrangement & title — I hope this will find you quite recov- ered — God bless you Ever affectionately yrs Lytton 50 THE LETTERS // /w^ . ^.^ ^^^^ /f^s^ ^^^_^ /-^-^^ ^^^i^ ^ ^au.^ yU^ ^^^^^'^^ ^ -yi HyIJ^" ^'^ '^'^ ^^ y ^/7. ^^^'z^. ^^-^ J a^ ^i'^'ocs ythy/ ^^ a^^-i^^^-^ ^^(^C. ^c/ 3d^ ^Jf^^^C^^^ 4^^^^'^ ^ X ^ :i ^ ^ 4 ^ ^ ^ 0-:$ ^ -i Vl '^ 'v 1^ ^1 ■^ ^ x^ ^ 11^ N? M (X i 4^^^1 K: V^ \ N^, It I < ^.:^l 1:^x1 !X t V V ^ ^ V, ^ ^; ^ M ^' I \. ^ ^ c ^ i^ '^€ ^' &/^^ /^/ / :?>C^.^^ /c . ^r/ 7' r 1 /.^4^4^/m ^^.K^-^^ ^--- f--6 ^- "^-' ^^^^ /i.-. j ^ . iL^ (U^ fr^r^ 1^-' it- u fXU. L^^^<-~^ -pLr^^ f~t/^^ ^^.aZJ^ he ^v -^ t"^ 4 ,t,^i-^^^t^j^ ,. >— r..„..0^^^ /U (^^-ulc^ ,.-^t Amtv ^>e^ /-^ 3--^_ -% 7 ^'^ ^ - ^ / / / / / V 1 ytinciiiD /fert 4*-? pO''^ /Pu^c4 >n^ ^^^ /Wt// At^t*^,^-- Ji'^^ ^^J^ C*nr^^^ry^ X ^^H^i*^ ^ J / &ec^ /^^ 1 ^^ /"-^>25. 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