Showing 54 results

Copies of five original letters dated 7 Jan. 1694/5, 14 Jan. 1694/5, 16 Feb. 1695/6, Quinquagesima 1695/6, 22 Mar. 1695/6.

Copies of two original letters dated 24 Oct. 1697, 25 Dec. 1697.

Garden Corner, West Road, Cambridge. - Marked 'Private'. Wants to tell Bob and Bessie before they see it in the press that he is to be Master of Trinity: the Prime Minister's letter came today and he will reply with his acceptance on Sunday. The Fellows are anxious for him to accept, particularly as it is not clear 'whom Winston would appoint' if George refused and there are some plausible candidates they do not want. 'Everybody concerned has been so kind' that George 'cannot leave them in the lurch'; Janet insists he must accept, though he knows she 'will be the loser'. He 'did not want to be Master', and doubts he would ever have accepted if peace had continued, but he feels that he has 'no other war work... of any real importance', and Hallington has been taken over by the R.A.F.; feels he must try. Finds it a 'tragi-comic irony' that the 'crash of civilization' has put him in the Lodge of 'Montagu Butler and Whewell and Bentley''; though they will not move in until January 'and meanwhile it may be destroyed by a bomb!'.

Copies of two original letters dated 23 Oct. 1697 and 16 June 1700.

Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Glad to hear that Robert has landed safely; 'awful to read' of the passengers on the cross-Channel boats kept at sea all night by bad weather; asks 'is even Assisi worth such a price?'. Would love to see Arezzo again and wants to know what the hotel was like; it used to be spoken of as the 'best hotel between Florence and Rome', before Brufani [at Perugia], and he thinks his parents and sister were 'the first names in the hotel book'. Notes what Robert says about [Samuel Butler's] "Fair Haven" and will see to it. Cannot 'manage Conrad as a novelist', nor Chesterton as an essayist. has been reading about the Phalaris controversy with great 'interest and amusement'; George gave him a copy of Attenbury's 1698 book a while ago, and he got Bentley's "Phalaris" as a prize at Harrow; they bear out everything that [Thomas] Macaulay says. Good to be 'in company with so strong and able a man as Bentley', whatever the topic; he is an even greater controversialist than Newman, Porson, Gibbon or Pascal.

Copy of original letter dated 13 Sept. 1719.

Copy of three original letters: from Isaac Newton to Roger Cotes dated 5 Mar. 1713, with an addition from Bentley, with a letter from Cotes dated 25 June 1713 to Samuel Clarke.

Copy of a letter dated 12 Mar. [1713].

Copy of three original letters: from Cotes to Bentley 10 Mar. 1713, from Bentley to Cotes, undated, and from Isaac Newton to Cotes 5 Mar. 1713.

Copy of original letter dated 8 June 1706.

Copy of original letter dated 29 Jan. 1695.

Copy of original letter dated 25 Sept. 1697.

Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Their 'most loving Christmas wishes' to Robert, Elizabeth and Julian; sends Robert an article from the American "Nation". Is more than half-way through the "Iliad" for the first time in, he thinks, fifty years; he used to read it 'pretty regularly' before then. In the library here, there is a copy of [Joshua] Barnes's 1711 "Homer", the edition which 'called forth Bentley's inimitable letter'; has that with him for the line-by line translation into Latin, and works from his beautiful Grenville. Sends a letter from Jackson; worth noting his advice a classical bookshop. Has had a 'most workmanlike and informing' letter from old Mr [Robert] Bowes, who was at Macmillan's in Cambridge when Sir George used to go 'about his Cambridge squibs and verses'.

Thanks Monk for his gift of the life of Bentley, the letters of Phileleutherius Lipsiensis [Bentley]

Copy of original letter dated 31 Mar. 1691.

Remembers his promise to Evelyn and Samuel Pepys to publish his sermons and will do so as soon as he is able.

Copies of three original letters dated [1695] and 22 Feb. and 18 Mar. 1696.

Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Thanks Robert for his letter full of news: Robert 'happy to have seen Rodin [before his death]'; President Wilson has got Sargent to paint him; America, as shown by the 'article on Lincoln's statue' [mentioned in 12/280] is a country of which the 'Ruler' should insist on being painted only by the best - expressed by a quotation in Latin [from Horace Epistles 2.1]. Read Robert's translations from Lucretius yesterday 'with great sympathy and admiration'. Quotes, in Latin with English translation, what is said to be a translation by Cicero from Epicharmus on death. Edinburgh is a 'wonderful city'; Uncle Tom [Macaulay's] three favourite cities were Edinburgh [though he 'had enough of it' in the end], Oxford, and Genoa, which was the first Italian city he saw. Comments on the fates of Venice and Jerusalem being 'in the balance'; his 'most pathetic regrets' about destruction caused by the war are for Dinant, which he had seen, and the Cloth Hall at Ypres, which he had never seen. Is reading, and is much entertained by, Monk's "Life of Bentley". Loved Sir Charles Holroyd [who has recently died], and his 'heart bleeds for Rosebery' [over the death of his son Neil Primrose].

Cannot find Sir Joseph Thomson's letter [see 12/287] but will send it to Robert when he does; Thomson writes 'in generous and eager appreciation of Monk's "[Life of Richard] Bentley' and shows he is a 'true scholar'. Does send a letter from [Henry] Jackson; is very glad he confirms his own impression about Plato's letters, against Grote and Murray. Written on the back of a largely printed letter, acknowledging receipt of Sir George's letter, from Messrs Drummond [his bankers], 27 Feb 1918.

Begins with a quotation in Ancient Greek [from Theocritus Idyll 1] to praise Eddie's [recently published] translations of Horace into English, 'outstanding' for their 'unfailing musical charm'. Has not read them all yet, but is 'amazed' how often Eddie has found 'a felicitous solutions to what seems an impossible difficulty'. Lists some of his favourites; mentions a criticism of "Quis desiderio..." [Odes 1.24]; discusses the text of "Aequam memento" [Odes 2.3] with reference to the edition which belonged to Macaulay annotated with Bentley's readings - Bob finds A.W.V. [Arthur Woollgar Verrall] 'unconvincing' here. Generally the book makes what Bob said about Horace being 'really untranslatable... look rather foolish'; he has himself found them so, whatever method he has tried, but Eddie has 'indeed made an artistic success' of his method. Does not know whether Eddie is still in Derbyshire, but is sure this will be forwarded if not.

Copies of three original letters dated 1725, Decr. 18 1725, and Novr. 16 1725.

Copy of an original letter dated 6 July 1708.

Copy of original letters dated 7 Kal. Jan. 1719 and Dec. 29, 1719.