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The majority of this archive consists of letters by Duff to members of his family, viz.: (A): to his wife Laura, 45 letters, 1897-1909; (B): to his son Alan, 356 letters, 1909-1933; (C): to his son Patrick, 96 letters, 1909-1934; (D): to his son James, 4 letters, 1909-1916; (E): to his daughter Hester, 8 letters, 1933-1934; (F): to his daughter Mary, 1 letter, 1911.

There are also 68 letters (G) from Laura Duff to her son Alan, 1915-1940, and three (H) to her husband J.D. Duff, relating to their son James's entrance examinations for Wellington College in 1910. J, K and L are letters written by their sons: 3 letters and a postcard from Alan Duff to his mother, 1909-1920 (J), a letter from James Duff to Alan Duff, 1911 (K), and a letter from Patrick Duff to J. F. Duff, relating to J. F. Duff winning a scholarship to Trinity in 1916 (L).

The final group of letters (M) are by various authors: one from J. D. Duff to Diana Frances Crawley, future wife of his son Alan, on the death of her father, 1933; letters to A. C. Duff from W. G. Collett (1911) and R. Moore (1913) at Wellington College; letter to J. D. Duff from G. M. Trevelyan, 1934 about Edward Fitzgerald's letters; letter to Laura Duff from the Postmaster at Cambridge, 1923, relating to a telegram from Cairo.

Miscellaneous material (N) comprises: copy of the marriage certificate of James Duff Duff and Laura Lenox-Coningham, 1895; page torn from a notebook with short phrase in Ancient Greek; memoir, "Lemnos" of an army camp, probably by A. C. Duff, with envelope addressed to J. D. Duff.

Finally there are twenty eight of J. D. Duff's pocket diaries (usually by Lett's) dating from 1888-1912, 1915-1918, 1922-1926, and 1931-1934; the earliest are kept as appointment books, with brief notes of college and social occasions, but Duff's entries later expand to be fuller records of his days, typically recording weather, reading material, pastimes and family news. A notebook with A. C. Duff's name and address at the front contains 'Extracts from F[ather's] Diary'.

Largely drawn from Fitzgerald's letters, with dates.

On Boccaccio and Don Quixote.

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.

Two letters. He declines to propose Robert Burn to membership at the Athenaeum; reflects on the death of Edward FitzGerald, mentions a recent visit to Trinity, and his negative opinion of Thomas Woolner.

Bank Street. Norwich - children better but Mrs Donne still unwell, paid Christrnas bills, FitzGerald speaks of reading Plato and of the consolation of cigars

Mentions Edward FitzGerald.

In Robert Hindes Groome's hand?

Lower Sydenham, S. E. - Liked Wright's [Letters and Literary Remains of Edward] Fitzgerald, which Macmillans have sent him, very much; praises Wright's editing. FitzGerald's 'remarks on music are very interesting - ! don't always agree: but he often goes to the root of the matter'.

A note with the letter by C[harles] Ganz, 1932, suggests the author.

Trinity College, Cambridge. - Sends a copy of FitzGerald's letter, 'or of the part of it Munro had written out on the flyleaf of his book'. Does not understand the penultimate sentence, but has copied it correctly, and is unsure whether the last sentence 'belongs to the letter or not' as there are no quotation marks at the end.

With extracts from the FitzGerald letter on separate sheet, on Lucretius

59 Montagu Square, W. - Is glad Wright will write the [death] notice for Edward FitzGerald: he is 'quite the best person for it'.

Quotes from a note he received this morning from Tennyson: 'I had no true friend - he was one of the kindliest of men & I have never known one of so fine & delicate a wit'. I had written a poem to him the last week, a dedication, which he will never see. There are now left to me only two or three of my old college companions & who goes next?'

Letter from the 1830s[?] from FitzGerald to Hilton written after a misunderstanding brought about by an epigram he left at Hilton's door; refers to quarrelling regularly with [William] Airy as a means of preserving friendship; invites him to breakfast despite his cough. Three ink and pencil sketches, one dated 1829, are unsigned, and are possibly by FitzGerald or by Hilton. Two other ink sketches dated 1829 are also unsigned but identified by a caption as by William Makepeace Thackeray.

Accompanied by a letter from A. M. Terhune to Mrs E. Armitage about the FitzGerald letter, and an offprint of an article, "Carlyle with the late Mr Edward FitzGerald" from the Ipswich Journal, 17 July 1883.

Largely drawn from Fitzgerald's letters, with dates.

ADD.MS.a/6/48 quotes from a FitzGerald letter of 26 Jan [1872] on 'Shakespeare's names'.
ADD.MS.a/6/52 gives quotes from FitzGerald letters on W. B. Donne; Boulge Hall, Lord Tennyson and [Sir Frederick?] Pollock.

Cowper School, Olney, Bucks. - Noticed Aldis Wright's lettter to the Athenaeum and sent a reply [see ADD.MS.a/6/24]; the letter will not be printed in full, so thinks he should write. Regrets that it is too late to have Aldis Wright's opinion that the Keepsake verses which T. Wright attributed to Edward FitzGerald in his biography were in fact by Edward Marlborough FitzGerald printed in the second edition of the biography; will certainly include this if there is a third edition.

The printed heading of the notepaper advertises the forthcoming publication of Thomas Wright's Life of Walter Pater

24 Cheyne Row, Chelsea. - Apologizes for not answering his 'kind letter' sooner. Her uncle [Thomas Carlyle] has been more ill than she has ever seen him before for 'some weeks', but she is glad that he has now recovered and 'back into his old ways', except for being forced to drive out in the afternoon instead of taking his usual walk. They have hired a fly for the drives; he keeps on his dressing gown with a fur coat on top, and with 'hot water at his feet, he never will allow that the weather is cold even the mercury fall below the freezing point'. At home he reads, and she sometimes has trouble getting to go to bed at one or two in the morning.

He 'remembers Miss Crabbe very well'; wishes that FitzGerald had come to see him when 'so near'. She read [George Crabbe's] Tales of the Hall when around fifteen, though she 'did not understand them & as was natural found them dull*. Can 'read Scott very well', but is 'by no means an enthusiastic admirer'; her 'uncle's opinion has nothing to do with mine (!)' and he always tell her she should be ashamed to say she 'never could get to the end of Waverley, which fascinated him so much that he read it straight through almost at one sitting'.

Her uncle sends his 'kindest regards'.

23 Rudall Crescent, Hampstead. - Is sorry that she cannot find the FitzGerald he asks about; it is not with the 'drawings of Naseby', which she has safe. Would 'not like to say the letter is not here', since though she has to some extent got her uncle's papers arranged, but finds 'every day, in what neat confusion they are. It is not easy to get them into order when the rubbish as well as the valuable things of some seventy years are neatly docketted in paper bags'; her uncle seems to have destroyed nothing and she does not like to destroy what he has preserved. Will send the letter on if she finds it.

23 Rudall Crescent, Hampstead. - Will be happy to forward the letters of Edward FitzGerald; asks whether she should send them to Beccles or Cambridge.

Allington Lodge, Merton, Surrey. - On the recent move from Cheyne Row; her children; her husband's school. Has been 'trying to arrange and copy' her uncle [Thomas]'s letters, so that when 'Mr Froude gives up the remainder of them and everybody has finished writing his little "Articles" about him they may be all correctly printed (without almost any notes or comments) & allowed to speake for themselves. Knows little about the 'matter of the statue [of Thomas Carlyle] on the Embankment'; has written to the Rector of Chelsea [Gerald Blunt] asking whether the subscription list is closed, and will send his reply on to FitzGerald. Postscript saying she encloses Mr Blunt's letter [Add.MS.a/6/45].

Monk Soham Rectory, Wickham Market, Suffolk - Hardly ever keeps letters, so has none of Edward FitzGerald's; indeed, generally only had notes or cards from him since they lived near to each other and 'kept our topics for such times as we met and talked them out'. Suggests John Allen, Dean Blakesley, Dean Merivale, the Master of Trinity and Mrs Thompson as people who could supply letters, but has 'misgivings whether such letters should be published, good and pleasant as they may be', questioning whether FitzGerald 'would have sanctioned it? He, who carefully tore up letters almost as soon as he received them'.

Encloses a letter from John Allen [ADD.MS.a/6/23?]. Thanks Crabbe for congratulations on the engagement of his son William to [Emma] Colvin.

Will not go to the auction, but would like to have catalogues. Mrs Ritchie (Miss Thackeray) should have some, as two of her father's drawings are on sale. 'Also Mowbray Donne, Allen and Crowfoot cum multis aliis'.

'She told me that not long before Thackerary's death she said to him "Father, which one of all your friends have you loved best?" and he replied "Why, old Fitz to be sure, and Brookfield"'

Merton. - His daughter will be at Ely at 10.36 on Tuesday, if all goes well; hopes to go with her so far on his way to London. Sends Robert Groome [Add.MS.a/6/41?] and Archdeacon Allen's [Add.MS.a/6/23?] letters, and asks Wright to burn them. Does not think that FitzGerald would have objected to his letters being published, 'so far as they relate to public subjects'.