Chapter VII: The Literary Autographs of Three Centuries

=From the days of Shakespeare and Spenser to those of
Thackeray, Dickens, Tennyson, and Meredith--The value of
literary autographs and MSS.=

In a man's letters, you know, Madame, his soul lies naked--his
letters are only the mirror of his heart.--DR. JOHNSON to MRS.
THRALE.

Political interest is ephemeral, but literary interest is
eternal.--ADRIAN H. JOLINE, "Meditations of an Autograph
Collector."

By a felicitous coincidence two literary autographs of more than ordinary interest have come to light at the moment I was preparing to write the present chapter. The first is the discovery in the Record Office by Dr. Wallace of the signed deposition of Shakespeare in an early seventeenth-century lawsuit, under the circumstances picturesquely set forth in the issue of _Harper's Monthly Magazine_ for March, 1910. Without conceding to Dr. Wallace's "find" the supreme importance claimed for it by this able and patient examiner of ancient MSS., there can be no doubt that it deals a fatal and final blow to the Baconian theory. On the very day I read Dr. Wallace's article, Mr. J. H. Stonehouse[43] showed me several fictitious Shakespeare signatures fabricated by W. H. Ireland nearly forty years after the appearance of "Vortigern," for the avowed purpose of demonstrating his ability to imitate them. I cannot help thinking that Dr. Wallace's article lends increased interest to the letter of the Shakespearean actor, Dowton, which has already been alluded to in these pages.[44] In the elaborate essay in which the fifth Shakespeare signature has been enshrined will be found reproductions of the other four.[45]

Mr. Adrian Joline's theory as to the "eternity of interest" in literary autographs receives support from the exceptionally high prices they have commanded from the early days of the collection of MSS., when the signatures of kings and statesmen were almost at a discount. "I shall now," writes the chronicler of autograph prices in 1827, "set poetry, philosophy, history, and works of imagination against sceptres, swords, robes, and big-wigs.... Addison is worth £2 15s., Pope £3 5s., and Swift £3. Thomson has sold for £5 10s. and Burns for £3 10s. Churchill, the abuser of his compatriots, is valued at £1 18s. In philosophy Dr. Franklin reaches £1 17s.; in history, Hume is valued at £1 18s. and Gibbon at only 8s. The sturdy moralist Johnson ranks at £1 16s., the graceful trifler Sterne at £2 2s., Smollett at £2 10s., and Richardson at £1. Scott only yields 8s." In the half-century which intervened between 1827 and 1877 the prices of literary autographs had risen by leaps and bounds. In his catalogue of 1876 Mr. Waller asked £8 10s. for a short Latin essay of Thomas Gray, while Longfellow is priced at £1 18s., George Borrow at £3 3s., and Wordsworth at £1 1s. A fine letter of Schiller's is priced at £2 5s. In the next catalogue (1878) I find the following: Gibbon (a fine A.L.S.) £4 4s.; Voltaire (a 2 pp. A.L.S.) £3 15s.; Rousseau, a series of letters, including one of the philosopher, £3 10s.; five verses by Scott, £4 4s.; William Cowper, A.L.S., £3 7s. 6d.; Gray, a bundle of printed matter including one hundred lines of MS., £6 6s. In the late Mr. Frederick Barker's catalogues of the same period we have Edmund Burke (A.L.S.), £3 3s.; Thomas Hood (A.L.S.), £2 2s.; Voltaire (A.L.S.), £4 4s.; Horace Walpole (A.L.S.), £3 5s.; and a love-letter from John Keats to Fanny Brawne, £28.

In cataloguing the last-named item Mr. Barker says "that one of these celebrated letters realised by auction a short time since no less than £47." He also prices two A.L.S. of Robert Burns at £35 and £32 respectively. It will be remembered that in 1827 the price for a Burns letter was £3 10s. only. For a letter of Schiller (4 pp., 8vo, 1801) Mr. Barker asks £7 7s. In several catalogues of this period I find Keats letters averaging £20 to £30. The interesting catalogue issued by Mr. Barker in 1891 is remarkable for its wealth of literary _rariora_. Autograph letters are priced in it as follows: Schiller, £10 10s.; Burns, £25; Wordsworth, £3 3s.; Thackeray, £25. The last-named letter is worth describing. It was addressed to Miss Holmes, with a postscript on the inside of the envelope, and on the third sheet a clever sketch of Thackeray and Bulwer Lytton standing behind a lady seated at a piano. The letter itself runs thus:--

There is a comfortable Hotel in this street, kept by a
respectable family man, the charges are Beds gratis,
Breakfasts, thank you, dinner and tea, ditto, servants
included in these charges. Get a cab from the station, and
come straightway to No. 13. I dine out with the Dean of St.
Paul's (you have heard of a large meeting house we have between
Ludgate Hill and Cheapside, with a round roof?). Some night we
will have a select T party, but _not_ whilst you are staying
here. When you are in your lodgings. Why I will ask Sir Edward
George Earle Lytton, Bulwer Lytton himself. Bulwer's boots are
very fine in the accompanying masterly design (refer to the
sketch), remark the traces of emotion on the cheeks of the
other author (the notorious W. M. T.), I have caricatured Dr.
Newman (with an immense nose) and the Cardinal too, you ought
to know that.

This letter would be now worth quite £50, and some of the fine illustrated Thackeray letters now in possession of Mr. Frank Sabin would probably be cheap at £100 each. Mr. Sabin's collection of the Thackerayana is probably unrivalled both as regards the United Kingdom and America.[46]

In Mr. Barker's 1891 catalogue there are four letters of Shelley, priced at £18 18s., £19 19s., £10 10s., and £9 9s. respectively. There is also a Schiller at £25, and an Alexander Pope covering one page 8vo only at £8. Darwin is already at £1 10s., Disraeli at 18s., and the Dickens letters average about £2. A letter of Dr. Priestley, worth perhaps 5s. in 1827, is now offered at £2 2s.

(In the collection of Messrs. Ellis.)]

I am permitted by Mr. F. Sabin to reproduce a very early literary letter addressed in 1690 by John Evelyn to Samuel Pepys. It must not be forgotten that Evelyn was one of the earliest collectors of MSS.

DEPFD, 25--7:--90.

'Tis now (methinks) so very long since I saw or heard from my
Ex^{t} Friend: that I cannot but enquire after his Health: If he
aske what I am doing all this while? _Sarcinam compono_, I am
making up my fardle, that I may march the freer: for the meane
time--

Do you expect a more proper Conjuncture than this approaching
Session, to do yourself Right--by publishing that which all
good men (who love and honour you) cannot but rejoice to see?
you owe it to God, to your Country & to yr Selfe, and therefore
I hope you seriously think of & resolve upon it.

I am just now making a step to Wotton to Visite my good Brother
there, Importunately desiring to see me: himselfe succumbing
apace to Age and its Accidents: I think not of staying above a
week or ten daies, & within a little after my returne be almost
ready to remove our small family neerer you for the winter, In
which I promise myselfe the Hapynesse of a Conversation the
most Gratefull to

S^{r}
Your Most Humble
Faithfull Servant
J EVELYN

I rent this page from the other before I was aware, and now tis
to full to begin againe for good man̄ers.

Give my most Humble Service to Dr. Gule.

(In the collection of Mr. Frank Sabin.)]

Milton, to a certain extent, was a contemporary of both Pepys and Evelyn, but he had been dead sixteen years at the date of the letter now quoted. The value of Milton's autographs is fully discussed by Dr. Scott in the pages of _The Archivist_.[47] When the subject first attracted my attention early in 1904 much excitement was caused by the appearance in Sotheby's Salerooms of what was alleged to be 32 pp. of the MS. of "Paradise Lost." The value of the document was warmly discussed at the time and sensational bidding was anticipated. It was bought in, but I believe it was ultimately sold to an American collector for £5,000 or thereabouts. Mr. Quaritch now possesses a very fine Milton deed, which is priced at £420, and is dated November 27, 1623. It is signed by John Milton, as one of the witnesses to the Marriage Covenant between Edward Phillips of London and Anne, daughter of John Milton, Citizen and Scrivener of London.

Letters of Dryden and Cowley have fetched very high prices,[48] and the autograph of Edmund Waller is also rare, but Alexander Pope's letters are abundant, although they are much less valuable than those of Swift. A good letter of Pope can be obtained for from £7 to £10. The late Mr. Frederick Barker told me he was once asked as an autographic expert to advise a well-known nobleman, Lord H., who said he had a bundle of letters written by _one of the Popes_ in his possession and desired to ascertain their value, but as they were merely signed "A Pope" he did not know which of the Holy Fathers was responsible for them! Mr. Barker of course identified the "bard of Twickenham" as their author. They were bound up under his supervision, and fetched over £200, but still the owner was not quite satisfied! Of the four Pope letters in my collection, only one has ever been published, and that but partially. It is of such manifest historical interest that I do not apologise for reproducing it in its entirety:--

_Alexander Pope at Twickenham to Ralph Allen, Esq., Widcombe, Bath._

(_November 2. 1738._)

DEAR SIR,--I trouble you with my answers to the Inclosed wch
I beg you to give to Mr Lyttelton as I wd do him all ye Good
I can, wh the Virtues I know him possest of, deserve; and
therefore I wd Present him with so Honest a Man as you, and
you with so Honest a man as he: The Matter concerning Urns I
wd gladly leave in yr Care, and I desire four small ones with
their Pedestals, may be made, and two of a size larger. I'l
send those sizes to you and I send a Draft of ye two sorts,
4 of one and 2 of ye other. I am going to insert in the body
of my Works, my two last Poems in Quarto. I always Profit
myself of ye opinion of ye publick to correct myself on such
occasions. And sometimes the Merits of particular Men, whose
names I have made free with for examples either of Good or of
Bad, determine me to alteration. I have found the Virtue in you
more than I certainly knew before till I had made experiment
of it, I mean Humility! I must therefore in justice to my own
conscience of it bear testimony to it and change the epithet I
first gave you of _Low-born_, to _Humble_. I shall take care
to do you the justice to tell everybody this change was not
made at yours, or at any friends request for you: but my own
knowledge (of) you merited it. I receive daily fresh proofs of
your kind remembrance of me. The Bristol waters, the Guinea
Hens, the Oyl and Wine (two Scripture benedictions) all came
safe except ye wine, wch was turned on one side, and spilt at
ye Corks. However tis no loss to _me_ for that sort I dare not
drink on acct of ye Bile, but my friends may and that is the
same thing as if I did. Adieu! Is Mr Hook with you? I wish I
were, for a month at least; for less I wd not come. Pray advise
him not to be so modest. I hope he sees Mr. Lyttelton. I must
expect your good offices with Mrs. Allen, so let her know I
honour a good woman much but a good Wife more.

I am ever, yours faithfully,
A. POPE

Twitnam. _Nov 2 (1738)._

My other three Pope letters are unknown. They are addressed to Mr. Bethel on Tower Hill, London, Mr. Charles Ford in Park Place, and Mr. Jonathan Richardson, of Queen Square, London. The last-named was catalogued last year as written to _Samuel_ Richardson. I gave £5 for it. Mr. Barker valued it at £8 in 1891. It provides an antidote to the unkind things Pope wrote about "Sulphureous" Bath on other occasions:--

_BATH. November 14. 1742._

DE SIR,--The whole purpose of this is only to tell you that
the length of my stay at this distance from you, has not made
me unmindful of you; and that I think you have regard enough
for me to be pleased to hear, I have been, and am, better than
usual. In about a fortnight or three weeks I hope to find you
as little altered as possible at yr age, as when I left you, as
I am at mine. God send you all Ease, philosophical and physical.

I am your sincerely-affectionate friend and servant,
A. POPE

My services to yr Son.

The letters of Horace Walpole, who generally wrote for posterity, are valuable,[49] but by no means as costly as those of Thomas Gray. Mr. Quaritch lately showed a group of holograph letters, illustrating the "quadruple alliance" of Gray, Walpole, West, and Ashton, which began at Eton. It included two fairly long letters of Gray and Walpole. I consider the collection very cheap at £55. Here is a characteristic unpublished note written by Horace Walpole to Hannah More, while the latter was staying with the Garricks in the Adelphi:--

_Horace Walpole to Hannah More._

_March 11._

I heard at Mrs. Ord's last night that you are not well. I
wou'd fain flatter myself that you had only a pain in your
apprehension of the coaches full of mob that were crowding the
streets, but as I do not take for granted whatever will excuse
me from caring, as people that are indifferent readily do, I
beg to hear from yourself how you are. I do not mean from your
own hand, but lips--send me an exact message, and if it is a
good one it will give real pleasure to yours most sincerely,

H. WALPOLE.

PS.--Mrs. Prospero, who is my Miranda, was there last night
with a true blue embroidered favour, that cast a ten times more
important colour on her accents and made her as potent in her
own eyes as Sycorax.

To Miss More at the Adelphi.

The value of Johnson's letters has varied very little during the past quarter of a century, an A.L.S. of exceptional interest often bringing £40 or £50. Possibly his historic letters to Macpherson and Chesterfield or his ultimatum to Mrs. Thrale would now fetch considerably more. In the Haber Sale at New York a 2 pp. 4to A.L.S. dated April 13, 1779, to Cadell brought £17. I possess several Johnson letters, many of them unpublished and written during the last year of his life. The following A.L.S. to Mr. Ryland was seemingly unknown to Dr. Birkbeck Hill:--

_To Mr. Ryland, Merchant in London._

DEAR SIR,--I have slackened in my diligence of correspondence,
certainly not by ingratitude or less delight to hear from my
friends, and as little would I have it imputed to idleness,
or amusement of any other kind. The truth is that I care not
much to think on my own state. I have for some time past grown
worse, the water makes slow advances, and my breath though
not so much obstructed as in some former periods of my disorder
is very short. I am not however heartless. The water has, since
its first great effusion, invaded me thrice, and thrice has
retreated. Accept my sincere thanks for your care in laying
down the stone[50] w^{h} you and young Mr. Ryland have done. I
doubt not of finding [it] well done, if ever I can make my mind
firm enough to visit it. I am now contriving to return, and
hope to be yet no disgrace to our monthly meeting[51] when I
shall be with you, as my resolution is not very steady and as
chance must have some part in the opportunity, I cannot tell.
Do not omit to write, for your letters are a great part of my
comfort.

I am,
Dear Sir
Your most humble servant
SAM JOHNSON

Pray write.

Lichfield, _Oct. 30, 1784_.

Six months before his death he writes thus to Mr. Nicoll on the subject of Cook's voyages:--

To Mr. Nicoll,
Bookseller,
In the Strand, London.

You were pleased to promise me that when the great Voyage
should be published, you would send it to me. I am now at
Pembroke College, Oxford, and if you can conveniently enclose
it in a parcel, or send it any other way, I shall think the
perusal of it a great favour.

I am,
Sir
Your most humble servant
SAM JOHNSON
_June 8 1784_

Curiously enough, one of the last subjects upon which Johnson concentrated his waning energies in 1783-84 was that of the possibilities of the balloon, which he persistently called "ballon."[52]

* * * * *

For some years I have been an assiduous collector of the letters and MSS. of George Crabbe. I now possess his two historic letters to Edmund Burke. It was in the earliest of these (once the property of Sir Theodore Martin) that he made his despairing appeal for pecuniary aid to save him from suicide or starvation. Fifty-one years later, George Crabbe, Rector of Trowbridge, lay a-dying. He receives in his sick-chamber the following letter from John Forster:--

_John Forster to George Crabbe._

[Letter franked by Edward Lytton Bulwer.]

4 BURTON ST.
BURTON CRESCENT, LONDON
_Jany 20 '32_

REVD. SIR,--I beg, very respectfully to submit to your
inspection the enclosed paper.[53] May I venture to
hope that your sympathy with the cause of the world of
letters--independently of considerations unfortunately still
more urgent, will induce you to lend the favour of your
distinguished name to a project now become necessary to rescue
Mr. Leigh Hunt from a hard crisis in his fortune

With the greatest respect,
I am, Sir,
Your very ob^{dt}. servant
JOHN FORSTER.

After Crabbe's death the following almost illegible draft of a reply was found amongst his papers:--

It w^{d} ill become me who have been so greatly [much] indebted
to the kindness of my Friends, that [I should refuse to do what
I could] disregard [not respond to] the application you are
so good as to make on behalf of Mr. Leigh Hunt. My influence
I fear is small [living] residing as, I do, where little
except Cloth is made, little except Newspapers read. This is,
however, not without exceptions. [It is] I consider it as doing
myself Honour to join [however feebly] my [name with those
endeavouring] attempt to serve [a distinguished member of] a
man for whose welfare [those] such distinguished persons are
interested [whose names are connected] to the [printed copy]
paper [of the paper] printed [destined] for general Circulation

I am Sir ----

History had repeated itself, only the rôles were reversed. In 1832 the benefactor was Crabbe, and the distressed man of letters Hunt!

I have elected to speak of Burke amongst the writers, although he can claim a high place amongst the statesmen. His letters are always valuable, although the price fetched for two exceptionally fine specimens at the Haber Sale (New York, December 10, 1909) was disappointing. A long letter, written in his twentieth year, brought only £4 8s.; a splendid letter from Bath a short time before his death was sold for £6 8s. The following letter from Edmund Burke to Mrs. Montagu (one of many I have the good fortune to possess) has a distinct vein of American interest:--

WESTMINSTER,
_MAY 4 1776, Friday._

DEAR MADAM,--I was in hopes, that I might have sent you,
together with my acknowledgement for your kindness, the only
reward you desire for acts of friendship, an account of the
full effect of them. Mrs. James's letter was undoubtedly
what it ought to be on application from you. We have nothing
to complain of Mrs. J. in point of civility but there is no
further result of your indisposition. As yet indeed we do not
despair. But to give the application its full effect on him, if
in answer to Mrs. J. you keep the matter in some degree alive,
I do not question but that it will succeed at last. Almost all
the others are secure.

I cannot at all express how much obliged I am for the extremely
friendly manner in which you take up my friends Mr. Burke's
case. He is himself as sensible, as he is worthy of your
goodness. It is something to be distinguished by the regards of
those who regard but few. But to have a distinguished part in
the mind where all have their places is much more flattering.

We have now almost finished our tedious Sessions; and I hope
to make you my acknowledgement when you return, somewhat
more at leisure. The news from America is not very pleasing.
Indeed I know of no News but that of Peace which can be so,
to any well-disposed mind. General Howe has been driven from
Boston, partly by scarcity, partly by a sharp Cannonade and
Bombardment. He therefore made his disposition so well that
they had not induced his return soon enough to give him any
disturbance. He has collected everything with him and he has
retired to the only place we have now on that extensive coast,
Halifax, where, I doubt, for some little time at least he will
not be much better commanded in point of provision though he
will be practically out of reach of an enemy. Mrs. Burke joins
me with all the rest of the family in faithful pledge to you,
in the best compliments to yourself and to your most agreeable
Miss Gregory.

I am, with the most sincere regard and highest esteem
Dear Madam,
Your sincere friend
and very obliged and humble servant,
EDM. BURKE.

Passing to the nineteenth century, which was to witness the eclipse of the art of letter-writing as well as the disappearance of the frank, we come to the age of Keats, Shelley, Byron and Lamb. It was at the beginning of this eventful epoch that Goethe wrote the lines to Blücher, which form one of the shortest autographs I possess, but not the least curious or valuable:--

In Harren
und Krieg
in Sturz
und Sieg
bewust und gros
So riss er uns
Von Feinden los

My friend, Mr. G. L. de St. M. Watson, gives me a forcible metrical translation:

In warring or tarrying,
In victory or woe,
He towers; and through him
We're freed from the foe.

Goethe was an enthusiastic collector of MSS. as well as a poet. Of the autograph cult he wrote:--

As I personally possess a considerable collection of autographs
and often take occasion to examine and reflect upon them,
it seems to me that every one who directs his thoughts to
this subject may succeed in taking several steps in the
right direction, which may lead to his own improvement and
satisfaction, if not to the instruction of others.

The value of Keats, Shelley, Byron and Scott letters I have already spoken of. In the Haber Sale a Keats letter brought £500! Letters of Charles Lamb range from £4 to £10 or more in price. I purchased the following note to Hone for £2 2s. and believe I secured a bargain:--

_To Mr. Hone._

45 LUDGATE HILL

DEAR SIR,--I was not very well or in spirits when your pleasing
note reached me or should have noticed sooner. Our Hebrew
Brethren seem to appreciate the good news of this life in more
liberal latitude than we to judge from frequent graces. One
I think you must have omitted "After concluding a bargain."
Their distinction of "fruits growing upon trees" and "upon the
ground" I can understand. A sow makes quite a different grunt
_her grace_ from eating chestnuts and pignuts. The last is a
little above Ela with this and wishing grace be with you,

Yours
C. LAMB
_9 Nov. 1821._

Of the literary autograph letters and MSS. of the Victorian era the highest prices are obtained for those of Alfred Tennyson and George Meredith. In a catalogue lately issued by Messrs. Sotheran[54] the author's copy of Tennyson's "Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington," with thirty lines of MS. additions and a large number of alterations and corrections, is priced at £120. The MS. draft of his famous dedication to Queen Victoria published in 1853, and consisting of eight four-line verses, is considered a little more valuable. An ordinary 8vo letter of one page frequently fetches as much as £2 or £3. George Meredith's MSS. have been lately sold for several hundred pounds, and an ordinary letter would be cheap at anything between £2 and £3. Through the kindness of my friend Mr. Clement Shorter I am able to give a specimen of Meredith's handwriting.

(In the collection of Mr. Frank Sabin.)]

(By kind permission of Mr. Clement K. Shorter.)]

W. M. Thackeray and Charles Dickens were both voluminous letter-writers. The letters of the former now command higher prices than those of any Victorian writer. He also frequently illustrated his witty notes with amusing sketches in pen and ink and other oddities. One of these (from the splendid collection of Mr. Sabin) forms one of the illustrations of this volume. Into another he introduces a typical Scotch "sandwich-man" carrying on his back the advertisement of the Thackeray Lectures at Merchants' Hall, Glasgow. From my own collection I give a very interesting example of Thackeray's wit, in the shape of a letter addressed to Count d'Orsay, on the subject of the proposed publication of a sacred picture by the famous dandy. On the back of the circular announcing its appearance he wrote:--

MY DEAR COUNT,--This note has just come to hand, and you see I
take the freedom with you of speaking the truth. I dont like
this announcement at all. Our Saviour and the Count d'Orsay
ought not to appear in those big letters. It somehow looks
as if you and our Lord were on a par, and put forth as equal
attractions by the publisher. Dont mind my saying this, for
I'm sure this sort of announcement (merely on account of the
unfortunate typography) is likely to shock many honest folks.

Yours always faithfully
W M THACKERAY.

In the earlier part of his career, Thackeray wrote a running hand very different to the upright calligraphy of his later life.

Early Dickens letters of any length are eagerly sought for, and sell for nearly three times as much as those written between 1850 and his death. I am able to give illustrations of some exceptionally early Thackeray and Dickens letters, which came into the possession of Mr. George Gregory, of Bath, through whose hands the Autograph Album of the first Mrs. Sheridan recently passed. The earliest Dickens letter, of the fifteen autographs in my collection, was written when he was in his twenty-ninth year. It is interesting as containing a frank exposition of his political creed:--

_Charles Dickens at Broadstairs to Frederick Dickens, Commissariat, Treasury, Whitehall._

_Sunday September Twelfth 1841._

MY DEAR FRED,--The wording of the Minute is certainly
discouraging. If I saw any way of helping you by coming up
to town, I would do so, immediately. But I cannot possibly
apply to the Tories for _anything_. I daresay they would
be glad enough if I would, but I cannot with any regard to
honor, consistency, or truth, ask any favour of people whom
politically, I despise and abhor. It would tie my hands, seal
my lips, rob my pen of its honesty, and bind me neck and heels
in discreditable fetters.

_Is_ Archer in Town? If so, have you spoken to him? If not,
when is he coming? You should speak to him certainly. I have
told you before, that I am much afraid you have not treated him
with that show of respect, which he has a right to claim. Why
in the name of God should he have a personal dislike to you,
but for some such reason as this?

If you think, and I see no objection to your asking Mr. Archer
the question, that without doing anything improper, you might
memorialise the Treasury, I will draw a memorial for you.
If you have reason to think this would be unofficial and
ill-advised, I know of nothing better than waiting and hoping.

I should be as sorry as you, if you were to lose this step. Let
me hear from you by return

Affectionately always
C. D.

(First style of handwriting in 1836.)]

The touching letter recording his feelings at the death of his little daughter is, I think, a human document of more than ordinary interest:--

_Charles Dickens to Thomas Mitton._

DEVONSHIRE TERRACE
_Nineteenth April 1851_

MY DEAR MITTON,--I have been in trouble, or I should have
written to you sooner. My wife has been, and is, far from well.
Frederick caused me much vexation and expense. My poor father's
death caused me much distress--and more expense--but of that,
in such a case I say nothing. I came to London last Monday to
preside at a public dinner--played with little Dora my youngest
child before I went--and was told, when I left the chair, that
she had died in a moment. I am quite myself again, but I have
undergone a great deal.

I send you all the papers I have relating to Thompson's affair.
I am in town again now and shall be at home on Monday, Tuesday,
Friday and Saturday mornings. I am not going back to Malvern,
but have let this house until September, and taken the Fort at
Broadstairs.

Y^{rs} faithfully
C. D.

Here is one of the last letters he ever wrote, to which I have already alluded as a rare specimen of a valuable autograph written in duplicate:--

_Charles Dickens to J. B. Buckstone._

GAD'S HILL PLACE,
HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT
_SUNDAY Fifteenth May 1870._
5 HYDE PARK PLACE W.

MY DEAR BUCKSTONE,--I send a duplicate of this note to your
private address at Sydenham in case it should miss you at the
Haymarket.

For a few years past, I have been liable, at wholly uncertain
and incalculable times, to a severe attack of Neuralgia in
the foot, about once in the course of the year. It began
in an injury to the finer muscles or nerves, occasioned by
over-walking in deep snow. When it comes on, I cannot stand
and can bear no covering whatever on the sensitive place. One
of these seizures is upon me now. Until it leaves me I could no
more walk into St. James's Hall than I could fly in.

I hope you will present my duty to the Prince, and assure
His Royal Highness that nothing short of my being (most
unfortunately) disabled for the moment, would have prevented my
attending as a Trustee of the Fund, at the dinner, and warmly
express my poor sense of the great and inestimable service his
Royal Highness renders to a most deserving Institution by so
very kindly commending it to the public.

Faithfully your's always
CHARLES DICKENS

J. B. BUCKSTONE EQR

(Now in the collection of Mr. Peter Keary.)]

Carlyle's letters vary in price from £2 2s. to £5 5s. or more. The following note explains how the specimen of his calligraphy I reproduce was obtained for an autograph hunter by his nephew in 1877:--

NEWLANDS COTTAGE
_7th December 1877_

MY DEAR SIR,--I was much pleased to have your's of the 4th
inst. I enclose card of admission to the Install^{n} at
Edinburgh which I cribbed from the Gov^{r's} Sunday coat long
after its date, and which to tell the truth I did not intend to
part with; but I think it so thoroughly what your friend would
like that I have resolved to send it.

All Uncle Tom's late letters _to his relatives_ are written on
scraps of paper that might be at hand when he finished work for
the day and signed 'T. C.' only--all full signatures in letters
in my possession have long ago been clipped off....

Always faithfully your's
JAMES CARLYLE.

The letters of Whistler have quadrupled in value since his death. I possess several of them, but only give as an illustration of his handwriting a post-card from Lyme Regis bearing by way of signature the once familiar butterfly. "Mark Twain" was also a very amusing letter-writer. The following postscript is characteristic of his humour:--

Since penning the foregoing the "Atlantic" has come to hand
with that most thoroughly and entirely satisfactory notice of
"Roughing it," and I am as uplifted and reassured by it as a
mother who has given birth to a white baby when she was awfully
afraid it was going to be a mulatto. I have been afraid and
shaky all along, but now unless the N. of "Tribune" gives the
book a black eye, I am all right.

With many thanks
TWAIN

George Augustus Sala and Edmund Yates were friends and contemporaries of Charles Dickens, and survived him. They are both entitled to a place amongst the last of the Victorian letter-writers. The minute handwriting of Sala was even more distinct than that of Thackeray. Here is a typical Sala letter:--

HOTEL DE FLANDRE, MONTAGNE DE LA COUR, BRUSSELS,
_Thursday November Twenty Seventh 1884._

DEAR LADY WOLSELEY,--My wife who during my absence is my
Postmistress General, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Secretary of
State for Home and Foreign Affairs and Chief Commissioner of
Works all rolled into one, has forwarded me your note, and has
scribbled on the margin "with two lovely photographs." I hasten
to thank you for the graceful and thoughtful kindness which
has prompted your welcome gift. I am proud to believe that you
_know_ how much I admire and esteem your illustrious husband;
how eagerly I have followed the course of his splendid and
well-deserved fortunes, and how highly I value the friendship
with which during so many years he has honoured me. It is
really to me a pleasure to have grown old when I remember that
amongst my most prized relics at home are a visiting card
inscribed "_Major_ Wolseley, for Mr. Sala, St. Lawrence Hall,
Montreal 1863"; the walking stick which _Sir Garnet_ Wolseley
brought me home from South Africa; the letter which _Lord_
Wolseley wrote me from the Kremlin, Moscow on Coronation Day
1883, to which I am now able to add "two lovely photographs"
and your kind note. Were I going alone on my long and arduous
journey, my abiding hope would be, of course, to come home
safe and sound to my wife. Happily we are not to be separated
(although the friendly but cynical solicitor, who made my will
just before I left town was good enough to remark _you must add
a codicil in case you are both drowned_); so we shall both,
during our wanderings be able to nourish the pleasant hope that
we shall be permitted on our return to pay our homage to the
_Earl_ and _Countess_ Wolseley. I have, dear Madam, in my time,
prophesied a great deal more in print about your Lord than you
are aware of, and I am confident that my latest prediction
will come true--_and more than true_. Meanwhile, I am,

Your Ladyship's faithful and obliged servant
GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA

Some hundreds of Edmund Yates's letters are in my possession, and I have utilised them to extra-illustrate his "Recollections" which I have extended to seventeen volumes. In the last edition of his entertaining book he alludes to the pleasure a letter from Mr. Charles Kent, the friend of Dickens, gave him in "troublous times." More than twenty years after I gladly gave 5s. for the original in the auction room:--

To Charles Kent Esq

1 Campden Grove, Kensington, W

Ah! my dear old friend, how good and thoughtful of you and what
a perfectly acceptable gift!

'though fallen on evil days
on evil days though fallen and evil tongues'

(vide to-day's _Times_)

I am receiving such evidences of love and sympathy from my
friends, and such kindness from officials here, that I am
fairly broken down by them.

God bless you
EDMUND YATES

_HOLLOWAY, Jany 17 '85_

FOOTNOTES:

[43] Manager of Messrs. Sotheran's, 37, Piccadilly.

[44] See _ante_, Chapter IV., p. 109.

[45] See my own article in _The Outlook_, March, 1910.

[46] See _post_, p. 220.

[47] March, June, September, and December, 1892.

[48] From £30 upwards.

[49] From £3 to £10.

[50] Anna Williams's Memorial.

[51] Mr. Ryland was associated with Johnson in the formation of the last Club which owed its existence to Johnson's initiative and support.

[52] See _Outlook_, March 5, 1910. Article on Johnson and balloons.

[53] Appeal for subscription for the relief of Leigh Hunt (1784-1859). It reached Trowbridge January 23rd. On February 3rd Crabbe died.

[54] 37, Piccadilly, W.

VIII

NAVAL AND MILITARY AUTOGRAPHS