Item 12 - Letter from Henry Sidgwick to Mary "Minnie" Benson

1 doc

Refers to their lack of correspondence, to Edward, and to 'the latest news from Wellington College'. Announces that he is going to see their mother the following day, and plans to go to Paris at some point. States that if he goes, it will probably be with Graham Dakyns, 'who is desirous of learning French in order to qualify himself for a Government Clerkship.' Claims that the only real method of combining amusement with instruction 'is by learning a foreign language on it's [sic] proper soil.' States that he remembers firmly resolving to write to her on the twentieth of the previous month 'to condole with [her] on coming of age. Relates a humorous incident that occurred to him that day involving his addressing himself to the wrong man in Macmillans [bookshop?] Tells her to write to her in Leamington, and mentions the kinds of things he likes to read about in letters. Reports that he has not been doing anything literary that term, and has been 'lazily absorbing philosophy, history and politics.' Claims that he is 'engaged on a Great Work', but explains that he has invented this explanation as a reply to those who ask him what he is doing. [Incomplete].