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Archival description
Add. MS a/718 · Item · 1807-1944
Part of Additional Manuscripts a

Green leather volume, with embossing and gold decoration. Printed illustration from 'Happy New Year' card pasted to inside front cover. Bookplate, 'Ex Libris Bryan William James Hall', with coat of arms and illustration, pasted to front free endpaper.

Numerous autographs, mostly in the form of ends of letters and addresses on envelopes, pasted into book. Notes beneath items (sometimes also pasted in) often identify writers. Complete letters etc have been described in individual records dependent to this one, referenced by their folio numbers; signatures and addressees are referenced by linked authority record only. Some names remain undeciphered or unidentified.

Compiled by a sister of C. W. King, see part letter from King on f. 14r, 'I enclose the autograph of a distinguished Grecian for your book. With love I am, my dear Sister, yours affect[ionate]ly C. W. King'. Although no first name appears, C. W. King's only sister appears to have been Anne, sometimes known as Annette (1824-1874). A letter from W. G. Clark to C. W. King, preserved on the verso of the flyleaf, was sent with 'some autographs for your friend', and there are also envelopes and letters addressed to William Aldis Wright and other members of Trinity suggesting King was actively gathering material for his sister. The bulk of the collection appears to have been assembled between the late 1860s and early 1870s.

King, Anne Hawes (c 1822-1874), sister of Charles William King
R./2.40A/1 · Item · 20 Dec. 1902
Part of Manuscripts in Wren Class R

Trinity Lodge, Cambridge.—Encloses six letters (2–7) written by Lord Byron to Henry Drury, which have been bequeathed to the college by the son of the recipient.

—————

Transcript

Trinity Lodge, Cambridge
Dec. 20. 1902

My dear Vice-Master,

On Thursday last {1} I had a visit of some hours from Mr L. M. Stewart, nephew and executor of the late Mr “Ben Drury,” of Caius {2}.

He read to me the enclosed letters of Byron to Mr Drury’s father, “Old Harry” as he was called at Harrow, a Son of Dr Joseph Drury the Head Master.

He left out one sentence in one letter about the Turks, which he told me was disgusting {3}, and I have not seen it.

The letters date between 1807 {4}, when the Hours of Idleness were published, and 1815 soon after Byron’s Marriage.

As there are numerous references to my Father, it may be well just to point out that my Father succeeded Dr Drury at Easter, 1805, and that Byron left the School that summer, i.e. I suppose, at the end of July. Consequently, their relation as Master and Pupil lasted only some 12, 13, or 14 weeks. How a reconciliation came about, and how the “gold pen” was given, I do not know, but our family tradition vouches for both facts, to say nothing of Moore’s Biography.

You will observe that the letter of 1810, in wh. the {5} reference to the “gold pen” occurs, describes the famous swim from Sestos to Abydos, and adds—what I had either not known or forgotten—that the swimmer had made a previous attempt which failed.

May I ask you and Dr Sinker kindly to take Charge of the letters, which Mr Benjamin Drury bequeathed to our Library, and to consider where and in what form they may best be kept. The fact that they are a bequest should be specially recorded.

Perhaps it might also be recorded that Dr Joseph Drury, the Grandfather of the Testator, was himself a Trinity man. His Son, “Old Harry,” to whom Byron wrote the letters, was at Eton and King’s.

I am, my dear Vice-Master,

Most truly yours
H. Montagu Butler

—————

2 folded sheets.

{1} The 18th.

{2} Benjamin Drury’s sister Emily (1813–1902) married Stewart’s father, Lestock Wilson Stewart (1824–1876), an army doctor, in India in 1852.

{3} See the letter of 3 May 1810 (R.2.40A/4). Stewart may well have omitted more than one sentence.

{4} The earliest of the letters (R.2.40A/2) in fact dates from 13 January 1808, but it was misdated 1807.

{5} ‘1810’ struck through.