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Letters dated 25 Nov. 1854 and 29 Oct. 1862.

Re memorial to John Keble.

27 Rutland Street, N.W. - Has given his friend Sir Charles Nicholson, who is travelling to Egypt in November and will pass through Italy an introduction to Browning. Had an invitation from Carlyle two days ago to meet some friends of Browning, the Twisledons [Twisletons] but was not free; Carlyle is evidently recovered. Another friend of Browning's, Mrs Cust, has called on Woolner, wanting him to cast her hand as a gift for a sister who is going to India; found she was an old friend of the Trevelyans.

Has done little since he last saw Browning but work on his bust of Tennyson; has 'worked upon it closely for nearly 9 weeks and have fully a month's work yet before it can be completed'; complains about lack of time spent on most works of art nowadays, particularly sculpture. Rossetti is soon going to paint an altarpiece for Llandaff Cathedral; he is travelling to Wales with Seddon, the architect responsible for repairing the building, 'so that probably he will not be long before he commences it - but as to finishing? -'

David Masson asks in which paper Browning's article on Chatterton is to be found. Story about Thackeray's recent lectures at the Glasgow Athenaeum. Does not 'hear much spoken of in the literary world except [Elizabeth Barrett Browning's] Aurora Leigh'.

62 Portland Gate. - Believes there is no doubt that Edward Twisleton committed suicide; 'the Report of the Doctor to Lord Saye & Sele was evidently concocted in order to conceal the truth from Lady S. & S.' Twistleton lived for three days, 'for he had not divided the carotid artery', which allowed the doctor to say he died of 'cerebral effusion': Reeves does not doubt there was 'pressure on the brain'.

Does not 'at all' agree with Houghton about the Conynghams: 'If people choose to accept the position & emoluments of a King's Mistress, they must take the consequence, & Lady Conyngham is not more sacred to me than Madame de Montespan or Madame du Barri'.

Literary Society dinners begin on Monday, but is afraid Houghton will not be there; asks if he would rather be proposed as member of 'The Club' 'with the possibility of not being elected or not being proposed at all'. 'The Club' has lost Van de Weyer and Twisleton this year, and Reeve would gladly propose Houghton when it meets in February.

Embossed notepaper, Privy Council Office. - It is a 'very curious thing that Dr Dechannel should report thus, if poor T[wistleton] really committed suicide. He heard the story from Lady Minto, who 'had the details from Lady Elizabeth Romilly', but everyone he has seen in town 'such as Lacaita, [Abraham?] Hayward etc believed in the fact of the suicide'. Is just back from Christchuch where his work is going on well'; did not buy the roan mare. Encloses note from Montagu Smith [no longer present].

Letter incomplete.

Grosvenor Hotel, Park St. - [His brother] Edward Turner Boyd Twistleton was with him in early August, and was a member of a party from Broughton Castle to Edgehill, where 'he explained the Bearings of the Fight with all the Precision of one who had been in it'; he 'never saw him again'. Edward 'had evidently been ailing, tho he told noone of it, both in Eye Sight, the Liver, and the Head'. Thinks these symptoms led his brother to cross the Channel 'that he might trouble no one'. Lord Saye and Sele's son received a telegram from the landlord of the Hotel des Bains at Boulogne on 4 Oct., summoning him over; he found Edward 'sinking' and he did not survive the evening of the 5th.

Transciption of the report of the Chief Physician of the hospital at Boulogne, Dr Dehannel, 18 Oct. 1874, which found that the primary cause of symptoms and death was 'Cerebral Affection localised at the point where the Optic Nerves take root'.

Since it is 'no longer a secret', mentions that in 1860 Lord Granville offered Edward the Clerkship of the Council now held by Sir Arthur Helps, on the resignation of Mr Bathurst.

Entitled 'Postscript'.

Westminster Palace Hotel, S.W. - Declines invitation for next Sunday. His own Monograph now off his hands; comparison with Houghton's 'healthy charming volume'. Hopes to go to Vienna via South Germany; met Arthur Hallam and his father on the hill from Ischl towards Salzburg nearly forty years ago.

Boulogne. - Thanks Doyle for his 'Epitaph'; in return sends list of words which he recently noticed as 'occurring in the Odyssee [sic] but not in the Iliad. Does not think this proves the Odyssey was not written by the author of the Iliad, but it should be noted, as 'if there were very many such points of difference in language, this might be important'. Wishes Doyle would follow up his 'impression' that the structure of the hexameters in the two poems differ and 'analyse' it; suggests lines of enquiry, and compares the way the structure of Shakespeare's blank verse differs from the early to late plays.

Has been reading Virgil, for whom he feels 'something like a personal affection'; acknowledges that he is 'very inferior to Homer' in inventive and dramatic power, but considers him to have been 'in every fibre a Poet'.

Copied onto notepaper for Fryston Hall, Ferrybridge.

Thanks WW for writing to the Public School Commissioners and for accompanying it with a copy of his work on University Education ['On the Principles of English University Education', 1837: See ETBT to WW, 4 Nov. 1862]. The Oxford University Commissioners acted very nearly in accordance with WW's views respecting instruction in the physical sciences in dealing with Winchester College. However the Warden of Winchester who corresponded with the Oxford University Commissioners is dead and the Fellows claim that they never saw the Warden's letter. Likewise the Head Master claims he never saw the correspondence between the Warden and the Commissioners: 'The effect of this is that in November 1862 the Public School Commissioners are almost precisely at the point where the Oxford University Commissioners thought they were in December 1857. Five years have been lost'.

The Public School Commissioners would like WW's views: 'I am very anxious that you should place on record your opinion in connexion with the Report of the Commissioners'.