Concerning libel action.
25 Oxford Street, Plymouth. - George Keats has taken legal steps to prevent publication of his brother's poems; can they be considered anybody's property fourteen years after the author's death? Believes he has copies of all Keats' poems. Has written nothing for several weeks owing to a bruised back and abstinence from snuff: 'The act of writing without snuff in my nose, gives me the sensation of not having had a wink of sleep for a week'; doctors warned him to give it up when he suffered a fit in the street and injured his back. Is living with his half-sister and niece and prefers this place to Italy; [his son] Carlino is working at mathematics for a civil engineer's profession. Landor writes from London; asks why he has returned; reports from Florence state that 'Mrs Landor was abusing me with all her might - this is vastly shocking, but one comfort is that I must be even with her'.
6 Alfred Place, Blackfriars. - Knows the Howitts, W. S. Landor, Macready and Freiligrath; has no means to support his invalid wife, though has been helped by Disraeli and Peel; gave up tutorship in classics last year to edit a 'new London Weekly Newspaper' which made him ill with over-work and failed; is ineligible for Literary Fund aid as he has not yet published anything independently; poems contributed to Howitt's Journal have been published in America but are delayed here owing to depression of the times; will resume teaching but needs funds; encloses letters [return requested]. Mr Howitt has been ruined by a literary speculation.
Cad Hill House, Upton-St-Leonards, Glos. - Thanks Bob for the translations from Latin and Greek [this year's "From the Shiffolds"], particularly the "Moretum", which gives an idea of how good Bob's translation of the "Georgics" must be: asks if he ever finished 'that lovely thing'. Asks whether Bob thinks Virgil wrote the "Moretum". The [Homeric] "Hymn to Pan" is 'most beautiful'. The 'news about the Marlowe fragment' ["The Stream"] is 'sensational': it is 'now said to be by Jervis [Gervase] Markham'; the '24 lines seem much the best of those quoted (in the "Times Lit. Sup.)' [see John Crow. "Marlowe Yields to Jervis Markham."" The Times Literary Supplement", 4 Jan. 1947, p. 12]. Is having difficulty writing as three of his children are 'playing rampageously in the room'. Hopes Bessie, Julian, and Ursula are well. Is renting a small house on the edge of the Cotswolds; wishes Bob was within walking distance. Thanks Bob for the gift of "Gebir" [by Walter Savage Landor], which although uneven is a 'noble poem'; is now re-reading Boswell's life of Johnson. Cold and stormy weather, and the normally good views are affected by fog. Was re-reading Bob's translations of Juvenal recently, which are 'perfectly done'; thinks he should translate the sixth "Satire" if he has not already done so. Adds postscript to say Diana would send love if she were not out.
Embossed notepaper, 'Palace, Abergwili, Carmarthen'. - Recollections of figures commemorated in Monographs, including 'the excellent renegade who treated us with anecdotes of Napoleon' [Suleiman Pasha?] at one of Houghton's breakfasts; accounts of von Humboldt and Whewell are surprisingly charitable. Landor well represented; 'I met him at Whewell's table. He unfolded his ideas of the most pressingly needed reforms of the Church. "I would give every Bishop £500 a year. The Bishop of London only should have £1000. And I would make it a capital felony for any Bishop to leave his Diocese." Whewell got very hot indeed and we narrowly missed a scene'. Sydney Smith's antipathy to Bishops appeared to be aggravated by seeing Thirwall.
36 Wilton Crescent, S.W. (on Wallington headed paper). - Is pleased that Lady Trevelyan likes his book ["Atalanta in Calydon"]; it was finished just after Landor's death which he much regrets. Much enjoyed the composition of the poem, which 'was very rapid and pleasant'; thinks it is 'pure Greek, and the first poem of the sort in modern times': feels that Shelley's "Prometheus [Unbound]", though 'magnificent', is 'un-Hellenic', and gathers from Lewes's life of Goethe that his "Iphigenia in Tauris" is also 'impregnated with modern morals and feeling"; also dismisses [Matthew] Arnold's "Merope". Is 'raging in silence' about the delayed publication of [Thomas] Carlyle's volumes: the subject [Frederick the Great] 'was always a hero' of Swinburne's who is impressed by his 'clear cold purity of pluck', which is not inspired by faith. Frederick seems free of 'perverse Puritan Christianity' on the one hand, and 'the knaveries and cutpurse rascalities' of the Buonapartes on the other; Swinburne can almost forgive him his bad poetry. Is very glad to hear good news of Sir Walter and the building projects; wishes she were in London for [Ford] Madox Brown's exhibition, which is 'superb'. Is currently staying at the house his father has taken in London for the winter, and is looking for rooms for himself; his father has completed the purchase of Holm Wood [Holmwood] in Oxfordshire. Feels that Tennyson should have made a better choice of his "Selections": feels that "Boadicea" should have 'served as prelude to the book'; thought Tennyson's 'volume of last summer' ["Enoch Arden"] a 'new triumph'.
On embossed notepaper, 20 Brunswick Square, Brighton. - Thanks for comments on wording of Landor's epitaph as queried by his Classical friend [i.e. Rev. A. W. Chatfield]; enjoyed article in the Edinburgh Review.
Containing information re W. S. Landor and William Blake.
Xerox copy of a MS copy possibly made by Hare's sister-in-law Lucilla Powell. The original is a semi-epistolary travel diary recounting a trip to Italy in 1832-1833 in the company of his friends Walter Savage Landor and Thomas Worsley.
Distad, Norman Merrill (b 1946) librarian and historianSerjeant's Inn. - Seeks forgiveness such as that felt by Guizot towards book thieves, because they wished to read the book: has brought Houghton's book to wider notice by lending it out; no wealthy woman ever buys a book. Does not care for Suleiman Pasha but likes Lady Ashburton; Lord Ashburton was a lesser man than Houghton suggests, 'no amount of the most careful and ingenious training could make a horse out of what nature had meant for a poney'. Did not read notice of Landor, whom he despised; regrets he is unable to dine on the 'Eve of St Epsom'.
Drayton Nurses Institution, 1 Drayton Terrace, South Kensington, S.W.5. - Thinks it is 'disgusting and scandalous' that Trevelyan has to pay for publication; would talk to Heinemann if he were up. His knee gets better slowly. Envies Trevelyan's forthcoming trip to Greece, and tells him not to worry about publishers while he is there; reassures him that his work is deeply appreciated by a small public, and the young are 'begging to recognise its quality'. Compares him to [Walter Savage] Landor.
On embossed notepaper, 'Athenaeum, Pall Mall.' - Landor monograph. Refers Houghton to passage in Book III of *Ulysses in Argiripa relating to Landor's 'vexatious Welsh tenants' at Llanthony.
On embossed notepaper, '23 Rutland Street, Edinburgh'. - Fine sketch of the 'noble savage' [Landor]; its superiority to Forster's 'big and bumptious book'; glad Forster has been chastised in Temple Bar for his biography of Dickens. Houghton's moving sketch of Heine. Is sending a book, a 'curious record of Scottish character' and a drollity of Sir Walter [Scott's] friend Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe' which is 'quite Rabelaisian'.
Enclosed: photograph of sketch by C. K. Sharpe of 'A Sucking Seal Exhibited at Dalkeith June 1839', annotated by Brown.
Printed notepaper: University, St Andrews, N.B.]. - Thanks Houghton for agreeing to Wordsworth Society's request to join Council. Has discovered several unpublished poems by Wordsworth; believes there is one called 'The Eagle and the Dove' in A. F. Rio's *La Petite Chouannerie..', published in 1842, to which Houghton, Mrs Norton, and Landor also contributed; can Houghton point him towards a copy?
'From a sketch by Robert Faulkner in Lord Houghton's possession'.
Westridge Farm House, Streatley, Berks. - Sends 'rather belated' thanks for Bob's translations ["Translations from Horace, Juvenal and Montaigne, with Two Imaginary Conversations"] and for the "Epistle [to Joan Allen]" he sent to Binyon and [his wife] Cicely. Cicely has been suffering from erysipelas; it is a 'very debilitating disease', and he had to take her to stay with her brother [Valentine?]in Sussex; they returned last week. Congratulates Bob on the 'suppleness of the verse', just right for translating Horace; would have liked Bob to translate some of the "Odes", but expects he is right that it is 'quite impossible to repeat the miracles of placing [emphasised]' in an uninflected language like English. Much enjoyed the "Imaginary Conversations", and thinks them a 'pleasant way of writing literary criticism'; encourages Bob to do more, as he 'write[s] such excellent prose (like all good poets)'; asks if Bob feels he is 'trespassing on Landor'. Thinks he has succeeded in 'suffusing all the elements of the book... with a wholeness of atmosphere, wise and mellow'; enjoys this, though he cannot share in it completely, since he does not 'really feel at home in the Roman world', and has an 'obstinate streak of the mystic' which he is sure Bob would disapprove of. Had already given a copy of the book to his son-in-law [Humphrey HIggens], a teacher at St Paul's school, who has read some of the Horace with his pupils and 'much admired' Bob's translations. Only has one more canto of [Dante's] "Paradiso" to translate, but Macmillan has 'lost so heavily' on the first two volumes of the Divine Comedy that he is not keen to publish the last at the moment; however, he has agreed to publish a new book of Binyon's poetry "[The North Star"], which Binyon will send Bob when it come out, perhaps in spring. Knows Bob must mind not being able to take his usual trip to Italy; expect he has heard about their five months in Greece last year, which were 'very enjoyable and interesting', though Binyon would have found Athens a 'dull place' if he had not been so busy with his lectures and the weather was bad much of the time. They flew home all of the way. Supposes Bob hears nothing direct from B.B. [Bernard Berenson]; hears Mrs [Eugénie?] Strong has been 'turned out of her flat in Rome'. Asks how Bessie is; he and Cicely send their love to her, and to the [Sturge] Moores if they are still with the Trevelyans.
Hagley. - Further corrections for subsequent editions of Monographs. Does not see enough of Houghton's desired 'unity of impression' to justify the tile. Houghton is too generous to Landor: 'E. Cheney told me Landor called Christ & the Apostles "that impostor with his 12 ragamuffins"'. Miss Berry's imaginary epitaph. Houghton's wicked attack on the Penny Post. Objects to omission from Selected Poems.
Embossed notepaper, 'Hagley Hall, Stourbridge'. - Does not condemn Monographs except for its title, 'which your present explanation makes much worse'; especially values its embodiment of Houghton's heartiness and friendliness. Lyttelton long ago secured his own immortality by having a Colonial town named after him. Houghton should say nothing to his son about Latin verses.
Letter from Milnes, 21 Jan. 1857, contains copy of Landor's epigram on Bulwer Lytton, and encloses a letter from Henry Hart Milman to Milnes, 20 Jan. 1857.
93 Great Russell Street. - All the Landors Houghton ordered are sold out except Popery: British and Foreign, which he has sent; will continue search for others.
The Sheiling, Silverdale, Carnforth, Lancs. - Thanks Bob for his 'Christmas Leaves' ["From the Shiffolds"]; everything is 'engaging, coming to its height in the epistle to Monna Ursula [Wood].. old Aeschylus - and (probably) Dream-Truth'. Says that Bob writes very 'like another Landor' in his 'old age - but more sure footed than Landor ever was'. Knows his 'Reciprocation' [originally enclosed] will not please Bob as much, but it conveys as much love to him and Bessie 'as it would if it were much better'; he and Emily hope to see them in the New Year.
Clifton. - Pledges £10 for 'poor Hood'; dined with Landor yesterday at Eagles's
48 letters to W. H. Thompson dated 1831-1866, and 1 letter addressed to [John] Allen dated 24 Aug. 1840. Names mentioned in the accompanying calendar of the letters include Henry Alford; John Allen; Robert Leslie Ellis; Edward FitzGerald; Arthur Hallam; Walter Savage Landor; Samuel Laurence; Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton; Stephen Spring Rice; Sir Henry Taylor; Robert John Tennant; Alfred, Lord Tennyson; Charles Tennyson [later Turner]; and William Wordsworth. Spedding also refers to his work on Francis Bacon.
With a further 35 letters to William Aldis Wright and William George Clark, dated 1862-1881. Letters to William George Clark date from 1862 to 1864 and relate to collations of Shakespeare's plays. Letters from 1881 to William Aldis Wright relate to Frederick James Furnivall, with copies of Spedding's letters to Furnivall, and one letter from Furnivall to Spedding dated 26 Feb. 1881. Accompanied by a mechanical copy of the Northumberland Manuscript.