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WW has been trying to find RJ all around the country: 'I had trusted to revive many old and acquire many new ideas: and more especially just now when I have cleared away the obstacles that stood between me and the speculations about wh. we used to talk I had anticipated much edifying discourse upon the past[,] the present and the future'. WW wanted to talk to RJ about 'the Review wh. Rose [Hugh James Rose] says is again labouring into existence' - WW does not think they 'have strength for it' yet.

RJ looked at the appearance of a friend's first book with great pleasure [WW, 'An Elementary Treatise on Mechanics', 1819]: 'The Book they tell me is pronounced good but the introduction a puzzle - in truth I think while writing it you forgot for a moment the thick darkness by which you are surrounded - 9 tenths of the people old and young at Tonbridge I take it know exactly nothing about the question as to constant precessions of phenomena efficient courses[,]etc. and you have earnt nothing but abuse and curses by paying them the compliment of supposing they did - for myself I find fault with you for using the term necessary truth as applied to physical conclusions for thinking you escape, from what even you mean in spite of your former pretty promises to think the blot of an experimental foundation to your statics'. RJ believes WW does this by resorting to metaphysics. He thinks that one must always suppose some sort of experiment and induction before one can get through it to a physical conclusion - 'will you fight?'. RJ's Rectorship in Wales has been postponed. Rose [Hugh Rose] has been preaching at RJ's with 'great applause from the better sort as well as the mob'. Rose tells RJ 'that the old mathematics have died and faded away with scarcely an audible groan before the bright flood of analytic love which has been poured in upon them and you therefore I take it have been revelling uncontrolled in the luxury of long brackets filled with cabalistical characters - I give you joy but alas for the poor geometers! methinks I hear their mutterings loud and deep echo through the sympathising courts of St. Johns and Queens'.

HJR has taken on the Editorship of a Biographical Dictionary which was projected by his late brother [Hugh James Rose]. A considerable part of the early part has been prepared for the press. HJR wants eminent men acquainted with the subjects contained in the Dictionary 'to do me the favor of giving me any list of names, which they will be kind enough to undertake'. HJR wants to extend the project to 12-14 volumes. Could WW send him some names which he would consider contributing: 'I thought perhaps there might be a hope that Newton and some of the greater luminaries of Trinity might hold out one inducement to you...a sort of tribute of household piety towards the glorious institution to which they belonged'. The publishers are the same as those of the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana.

HJR poses two optical difficulties: (1). concerning the spokes on a carriage wheel and (2.) an effect involving a candle, plane reflector and a common magnifying glass. HJR has been attending Sir Joseph Banks's evening parties. He has seen a good deal of Charles Babbage: 'Babbage is what Babbage was - but he is acquiring the respect of all the better part of the scientific world by his total absence of all quackery or pretension[.] MacCulloch [John MacCulloch] the geologist is a constant resident nearly in this house and I wish very much you could come and discuss Sir Humphrey Davy with him'. MacCulloch does not think Davy's discoveries are scientific but rather the product of chance. Has WW seen Jeremy Bentham's 'Church of Englandism [Jeremy Bentham, 'Church of Englandism and its Catechism Examined', 1818] It is half suppressed - Such a book - but I cannot in this letter give you an account of it. I believe I shall be introduced to him in a few days'.

HJR rejoices at hearing that WW's book is out [ 'An Elementary Treatise on Mechanics', 1819]: 'My brother has already purchased one for me - but I feel no anxiety about it'. Can WW tell him where he can get information about Barford: 'Do not think I am such a fool as to retain any College antipathy to him - in fact I have lately known a great deal of good of him - and I believe him to be a very good tho' a disagreeable man'. HJR has done a great number of his inscriptions: 'Professor Bockh has sent me one very curious one and will send more ['Inscriptiones Graecae Vetustissianae', 1825]. I had a letter from Payne Knight concerning a reply HJR had from a French man - he says that the man has taken hold of two or three weak points not affecting the main argument[.] I have fully satisfied myself as to Knights's being quite right about them'. HJR is to 'publish a few pages for distribution among the poor in the shape of a sermon - on the folly of reading blasphemous books - which I preached about a fortnight ago ['The Folly of Reading Irreligious Publications', 1819]. I am shockingly hard driven and generally write my sermons on Saturday night - but they do well enough for my County Blockheads'. HJR is keen to do more in Divinity. When WW next writes could he let him know if he thinks the Cambridge Philosophical Society is likely to answer. Where will WW be spending Christmas?

Where is Julius Hare's address?: 'I want to get from him the exact title of Bockh's book on the Athenian finances'. Will WW be in Cambridge for the BA examination? Can WW spend a few days with HJR over the vacation? When WW gets a moment could he see whether certain texts [names attached] are in the library, if not HJR will reluctantly have to spend a few days in London.

Will WW let HJR know whether his two pupils - George Wedderburn and Robert Maitland - are entered at Trinity College.

HJR was unable to see WW yesterday as he was suddenly called away due to his wife having an accident. However she is fine and he would still like WW to come and visit on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Horsham - Can WW find out at Cambridge University Press whether they have anything more than the common Greek letters, or if they can as in Germany print all the Greek numerals. An engraving of each of the Athenian marbles would cost HJR a great deal ['Inscriptiones Graecae Vetustissiamae', 1825]. It is very difficult to get the book you require, and minor German publications are particularly rare in London and Paris. HJR wants 'to know how you modern philosophers believe on one subject. It is pretty clear that the doughty Scotchmen's remedy against Berkeley and Hume is not worth a farthing. Pray then, do you philosophers rest on Berkeley and Hume's conclusions or if not how do you get rid of them?' HJR would like to see a sound volume of Platonism published which would 'put the whole herd of you to the rout. Coleridge does not mean, I hear, to give us his book on the Logos till after his death - so you shd. pray for his life, for when that comes out you will be all utterly demolished'.

Horsham - Instructions to WW to take to the printers. HJR has written to James H. Monk - a member of the Cambridge Press Syndics - to see if he can have access to the press at or after Christmas. However Monk is too busy on his honeymoon to answer, so can WW find out. WW is 'a lost heretic in Metaphysics. However you are not it seems a regular follower of that Scotch school which has been forming away for the last twenty years and after doing nothing but proposing new divisions of the faculties and cheating itself with words is ending at last in smoke. What most provokes me is to hear the prate of its defenders and its opposers when they come to the connexion of it with Religious matters as if both it and the Locke system did not alike lead to the most hopeless scepticism as to the existence of a first cause and I hate both alike as leading to the cultivation of the sensible part of man instead of his spiritual and teaching people to occupy themselves with the theory of differences and the knowledge of formulae, which if a man knew all about them that was or can be known about him just where he was, not wiser but fuller, not with a more enlarged but with a more occupied understanding, very much instead the same sort of thing as Babbage's calculating machine. Indeed I believe that the approximation of the operations of the mind and of machinery is a very fit occupation for the Mechanics School'.

Horsham - Information and a query concerning his work on inscriptions ['Inscriptiones Graecae Vetustissianae', 1825]. HJR would be curious to attend Julius Hare's lectures: 'I suppose that Plato illustrated by Coleridge with excursuses on Kant will be the least of Hare's feats'. If HJR is at the Cambridge election he will vote for Lord Hervey. HJR is pleased Richard Jones is not going to marry - 'the woman is old[,] ugly, stupid[,] vulgar, poor, in bad health and beset by brothers and sisters who are really too horrible'.

Can WW attend a party at HJR's. He is pleased with the election result.

Horsham - HJR has just received a letter from Professor Huschke [Immanuel Gottlieb Huschke] of Rostock, who is about to undertake an edition of Maurus Terentianus. HJR has been hoping to hear from Augustus Hare: 'Will you ask him what he says in reply to my proposal as to Deighton - and whether he is making any preparations? I do wish to bring out a first No. in the present year'. HJR has had offerings from two or three contributors: 'Wordsworth has offered a translation of Virgil - a little perhaps out of our way - but such an offering cd. not be refused'.

Horsham - Could WW ascertain from Mr Pricket [Marmaduke Prickett] what his views are as to a curacy. Obviously if he decides to sit for a fellowship again there is an end to the matter, but if not would he be interested in HJR's curacy? He has been ill and reading Napier's [William F. P. Napier] 'Peninsular War': 'What for a man! as my friends the Germans say - A coldblooded, long headed, Scotch Whig! What a combination of detestables! The cold admission that the war was unjust - the regular determination to defend every French act of atrocity as necessary severity - and to systematize the outbreakings of Spanish indignities as mere savage ferocity - the resolute and cold hearted depreciation of all the heroic efforts of the Spaniards at the beginning - and (with all their defects) their unbroken resolution and constant rallying under defeat'. Napier 'is a Scotchman writing for the Duke of Wellington and therefore determined to make him everything and the Spaniards nothing'. HJR would like to know what Charles W. Le Bas is preaching about: 'I envy you all being able to hear him'. HJR expects 'Eastlake [Charles Lock Eastlake] the painter here everyday and wish you could meet him'.

They would be more than happy to see WW at the time he plans. Has WW 'seen Keble's [Thomas Keble] Christian Year? If not, do buy it at once. It is (saving a little obscurity and want of neatness in bringing out the thoughts) the most delightful book I have seen for an age'. Conversely HJR is 'rather in a fever as to Pusey's book'.

Brighton - HJR has been very interested in WW's Memoir and condoles with him over his disappointment [WW's and George Airy's problematic attempt to measure the earth's density - 'An Account of Experiments Made at Dolcoath Mine in Cornwall', 1828]. Could WW help him with a library request: 'you know that Pusey [Edward Pusey] has published against me - and you may imagine my surprise when in the January No. of a New York magazine containing a report of Schrockh's lectures, I found a large part of Pusey's book almost word for word. I have had friendly communication with him and have now sent to tell him this and asked him to account for it '. Could WW look up Schrockh and see if he can find certain extracts [list given]: 'This looks formidable' but if WW looks at the index it may only take him a couple of minutes to cast his eyes over the rest. All this 'occurs both in Pusey and Schrockh with the same order, strange to say'. HJR thinks Pusey is a possible plagiarist: 'it is a main part of my argument against him that his reflections on the over-orthodoxy of the old German school (which he makes the cause, by reaction of the Rationalists) are not the fair result of his own examination - but that the tone and the view are those of the modern historians - this I told him before all these strange facts came out'.

Thanks WW for aiding his research [see HJR to WW, 29 Sept. 1828]: 'The MS of the German found was as Mr P. [Edward Pusey] tells me now himself... a MS of Schrockh's lectures. and the excuse for copying from it not only pages of facts, but the only reflections of real value in the book without reference is that Shrockh did not wish his name to be mentioned and that reference to all anonymous MS wd. have given no authority to the statements made'. HJR describes the politics and events which led to this occasion. 'It is curious too that Schrockh is supposed to be what we shd. call a hot evangelical - much connected with our Religious societies - and one of those who is urging the King of Prussia to interfere by force'. Ironically this 'is Pusey's particular friend and authority - and yet his book is full of denunciations of precisely the things which Schrockh most recommends - the interference of the Governments - of forming Religious societies etc'.

Bury St Edmunds - If WW has the time he should introduce himself to 'Mr Froude, a fellow of Oriel. I have just had a paper on Eccle. Architecture from him'. Knowing WW's interests in architecture HJR thought he may wish to contact the man.

Hadleigh - Thanks WW for his book ['Astronomy and General Physics Considered with Reference to Natural Theology', 1833]: 'I could not at all excuse for the delight with which I have read and am reading it. That it will at once take its due place as one of the standards of English Literature, I cannot for a moment doubt. What qualities deserve such a position which are not found here? Range of knowledge coextensive with science itself - and in that range, a selection of details calculated at once to convince the understanding and gratify the imagination - true philosophy - all dogmatism avoided - all placed on solid foundations. And then the beauty, eloquence and ease of the style. I told you that your treatise on optics wanted close attention. This book commands close attention, but requires none that is painful - you have indeed been very kind to us poor ignoramuses. Yr. chapter on a Resisting Medium is a noble bit of eloquency - and your distinction between the Discoverers and the mere Mathematicians, with the reasons for it, as true as truth itself. This will at once put an end to all the talk on this subject because you allow what is to be allowed and vindicate science as she deserves. The way in which you speak of the non-importance of the opinions of mere mathematicians, coming from a person of your station in science is indeed very important'. HJR notes that WW has 'contented yourself and lightly (I think with asserting the strength of proof from contrivance to a contriver without arguing against the denial of that truth. Will you tell me where that is best done'.

Durham - Thanks WW for his 'hints as to study which appear to me most sound and valuable' [regarding the new Anglican University of Durham]. For HJR 'The difficulty is to keep ones eye intent on the point that a course of study is valuable only in proportion as it fits here for their future state, temporal and eternal. In itself, it can be of no consequence whether distinction of any kind is attained'. HJR regrets the superiority natural philosophy has gained over the Classics and Literature.

St. Thomas's - HJR has enjoyed reading WW's pamphlet 'as it is it contains wisdom most rare and instruction most precious for us at all times' ['Remarks on Some Parts of Mr Thirlwall's two Letters on the Admission of Dissenters to Academical Degrees', 1834]. 'The more I think of Thirlwall's pamphlet [Connop Thirlwall, 'A Letter to the Rev. Thomas Turton, on the Admission of Dissenters to Academical Degrees', 1834] the more mischievous in every way do I think it. The theory is bad as you have shown - the feeling is bad, the tone is bad and the arguments resorted to (as in the Master's Sermon) unfair and not worthy of a gentleman'.

HJR has been so weak that he has been prevented from thanking WW for all his 'valuable works'. HJR is to leave for a warmer climate during which time Mr Lonsdale is to be acting Principal till he returns. 'Our [presumably Durham University] scheme (a foolish brat of mine) seems to promise excellently'.

5 Tavistock Terrace, Upper Holloway. - Is 'the most unfortunate author in... literary history'; Milnes must sympathise on reading enclosed statement; also encloses note from Rev. John P. Wilson. Is humiliated by having to seek aid in this way despite endorsement of a bishop. Postscript: last Saturday's Oxford Herald contains appeal by the Fellows of Magdalen; appends list of donors.

'Extraordinary Statement addressed to the patrons of Literature in behalf of a well-known historian', containing copies of letters from the bishops of St. David's, London and Llandaff, Lords Ashley and Brougham, the Earls of Clarendon and Haddington, Lord Francis Egerton and Hugh James Rose, Mar.-Jun. 1841, as well as critical opinions on Dunham's writings. Printed, 2 ff. [1842?]

Letter from John Posthumous Wilson to Dunham, 17 Apr. 1842, Magdalen College, Oxford. Sends £4; he and Mr Faber will advertise case in the Oxford Herald. 2 ff.

Herstmonceux, Hailsham - JCH has received a parcel from WW and Connop Thirlwall [WW, 'Additional Remarks on some parts of Mr Thirlwall's Two Letters on the Admission of Dissenters to Academical Degrees', 1834. CT had produced a pamphlet entitled 'A Letter to the Rev. Thomas Turton on the Admission of Dissenters to the University of Cambridge', 1834, as a response to the House of Lords rejecting a Bill to abolish tests and to Thomas Turton's, Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, defence of religious disqualification's in his 'Thoughts on the Admission of Persons, without regard to their Religious Opinions, to Certain Degrees in the Universities of England', 1834 ]: 'It used to be a source of great satisfaction to me to think that I had left you Thirlwall as a colleague. My grief however was overpowered by indignation on learning yesterday that the master had not only required him to give up his place in the tuition, but had also recommended his resigning his fellowship. Surely this is a most outrageous step. The high church party seem all gone stark-mad, and to have been all seized with a fanatical desire of martyrdom at all costs and risks. Else I should be utterly unable to comprehend how the master could be guilty of such a piece of insolence and folly. I conceive that, in making this recommendation, he was urging what he has no authority to enforce: and assuredly the pamphlet contains nothing to warrant such a proceeding. I long to hear what the fellows will do in consequence. It seems to me that, in addition to your private answers to Thirlwall's circular, there ought at least to be a general protest, if not a general address to him. Is it true that what the master has done has been prompted by Rose [Hugh James Rose]? I cannot believe it. If it had, he ought never to be admitted into any room in the college again'. However where CT attacked compulsory chapel service it was right that he should be made to resign: 'For it seems to me that the officers in any executive body are bound not to proclaim the defects of the system they are appointed to execute, unless in concert with their brother officers, and with a reasonable hope of correcting the defects they complain of'. JCH regrets as much as WW what CT says about chapel attendance: Still is not the fact of his speaking in such a way about the practice a strong argument against it? I think you strain the argument from antiquity, though of course I concur heartily with what you say about such an argument. In ancient times the practice of the colleges was in unison with that of all the rest of the country. Daily religious worship was then general'. Students on the whole see chapel going not as a religious duty but more as a muster-roll which is injurious. JCH gives his opinion on Christian Dissenters: 'I was very glad to see what you said in defence of 'prescribed exercises', and against the 'full consciousness of freedom'. It is so strange that a person who weighs his words, and knows their meaning, like Thirlwall, (unlike C. Wordsworth) and have been led by his abhorrence of 'compulsory religion', into arrant quakerism: that is to say, quakerism in the idea; for of course the quakers, out of their hatred of all forms, become the greatest formalists among mankind. It is strange that he should have overlooked the difference between 'compulsory religion', and religion into which one is led, and in which one is strengthened, by moral influences. Though force is destructive of religion, these influences, being cognate to it, are not. Alas one cannot have a fortnight in the care of a parish without finding that to talk about 'the full consciousness of freedom 'as necessary to religion is totally inapplicable to the present condition of mankind'. Theology may be installed into a man but not religion. 'It is [awful?] to think of the breaking up of that singularly happy delightful society which we enjoyed for so many years at Trinity. But how could one expect that it would be privileged to last for ever?' Who did not foresee that the Reform Bill 'was to shake every institution and to loosen every tie throughout the country!' How can WW say he stands completely outside the conflict? and should he?: 'You who have so much influence with both parties, who see through their delusions, who have so many qualifications for mediating between them?' In fact WW's pamphlet shows that he cannot abstain. Hopefully the forthcoming vacation will cool men's minds and induce the master to apologise to CT. 'Have you heard anything lately of William Wordsworth? He will be grieved to hear of these college quarrels'. John Sterling has been lately with JCH - 'whom I know not whether more to admire for his genius, or to love for his simplicity, his gentleness, his frankness, and his noble mind'. Sterling tells JCH of the 'very good effects produced by the abridgement of the service at Corpus. If something of the kind were done, it might give the service more the character of family prayer and I think a great deal of good might be done by having a sermon more short, and bore upon the condition of the congregation, somewhat of the manner of Arnold's [Matthew Arnold] admirable Rugby sermons. This would be much in associating religious feelings with the place'.

A bound volume of 42 letters which have been catalogued separately in item records attached to this catalogue record. A letter from H. A. Rose to Mr Jackson dated 28 May 1917 is tipped in the front of the volume, accompanied by a printed flysheet headed "Utopia University, 1816", a parody of an examination paper sent to Whewell in 1816, also tipped in. At the front of the volume is a lithograph of Whewell by E. U. Eddis, 1835.

WW hopes RJ is securely sworn in as Commissioner [Commission on Tithes]. WW has been asked to recommend one candidate to RJ's notice for a place as one of the assistant Commissioners: 'The candidate is W. Wordsworth junior son of the poet. I know nothing of him personally, but he is of a good stock and it would give me great pleasure to forward any wish of his father'. The application comes via Rose [Hugh James Rose] 'who has scruples (but not angry ones) about applying to you himself'.

Preston - WW rejoices again at RJ's appointment as Commissioner [see WW to RJ, 12 Aug. 1836]. WW was encouraged by the account RJ gave of Rose's [Hugh James Rose] 'probable promotion; and indignant to find, at the end of your letter, that it was likely to be defeated by that insatiable Lonsdale. I have heard nothing more, so I am still hoping Rose will be the man. I do not doubt that if he were comfortably seated in the office he would mollify his prejudices and dislikes and work it well. I hope he is tranquil again about your appointment. I wrote to him, explaining in as justly a manner as I could, how invincible your claims were, and how much the clergy ought to rejoice at them as well'. The BAAS meeting has gone on well: 'Charles Dupin was with us and spoke repeatedly. Buckland [William Buckland] talked such philosophy that the ladies wanted to toss him in a blanket; and your statistician Stanley of Alderly next made such a speech as almost to make me despair of the fortunes of the next meeting of which he is to be vice-president'.

Trinity College - WW has just returned from his German trip [see WW to RJ, 25 June 1825]. He will keep an eye out for Attree [William W. Attree - RJ's nephew]. WW will make time to read RJ's political economy if he sends it to him. He has 'got hundreds of mineralogical maggots in my head which I found in Germany and which may crawl into daylight hereafter - but now mind this my injunction - Do not go and conspire with Peacock [George Peacock] or any body else to tell our friends that I am bedeviled with german philosophy, as you once raised an essay with the accusation of a priori metaphysics [see WW to RJ, 16 August 1822]. If you do so you may easily give people an impression which you will not be able to remove when I have convinced you, as I certainly shall at the first opportunity, that everything which I believe is most true, philosophical, and inductive. Another injunction I also would give you. Do not imagine I am doing all for the material sciences with my mineralogy. If I do not fail altogether, it will be seen that this is one of the very best occasions to rectify and apply our general principles of reasoning; and my science shall, without ceasing to be good and true mineralogy, be also a most profitable example of that higher philosophy of yours which legislates for sciences - Remember also that we have got to do something for that same philosophy one day'. The talk of Cambridge is the Greek professorship - 'Rose [Hugh Rose] and Hare [Julius Hare] are considered the most likely candidates'.

Concerning the papers of his uncle Hugh James Rose.

WW gives his opinion of possible tutors. He is having trouble settling into his new abode - JCH's old rooms. The fact 'there is no longer a Hyde Hall [the old home of the Malcolms] within reach is enough of itself to make it very doubtful whether the future can be as happy as the past'. WW is concerned that as more and more of his old friends - especially 'you and Worsley [Thomas Worsley] and Rose [Hugh Rose]' - leave the college he is becoming faster fixed. WW must see John Herschel before he departs to the Cape of Good Hope: 'I cannot look at so long an absence of a man whom I admire and love so much, without dear regret'.