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10 letters. Item 2 includes a transcription of a letter from Oliver Cromwell to Thomas Hill 23 Dec. 1649 (Harleian MS 7053 ff. 153b)

Heidelberg [on printed notepaper for Garden Corner, West Road, Cambridge]. - Bessie's letter and enclosures reached him abroad; he and Mary have had a 'very nice 4 days at the Hague', where he found many letters from Marlborough to Heinsius in the Archives. Janet has joined them now, and they are on their way to Blenheim [Blindheim]. Thanks Bessie for sending the 'old papers'; the one on Pitt was 'not much use', but he is glad to have the 'famous pamphlet' advocating the murder of [Oliver] Cromwell, "Killing No Murder", which he may have bound when he gets home. So, 'it is the last of Welcombe'; hopes it 'won't become a Popery-hole', but everything else is 'most satisfactory'; glad it is 'off [Bessie's] hands'.

1 loose sheet at front: 'Copies. Letters from Carlyle - on "Cromwell", Extract of Letters from S[avile] M[orton]'

'Edward Fitzgerald. Littlegrange. Woodbridge' written on flyleaf, recto; on verso 'Letters from Thomas Carlyle, chiefly concerning Cromwell'

ff 1-36r: Copies by FitzGerald of letters from Carlyle, dated mid-Sept 1842-6 Nov 1874, with occasional notes and annotations by FitzGerald. Most letters written directly into book, though ff 34-36 (letter of 6 Nov 1874, not in FitzGerald's hand) pasted in.

ff 36v: Note by FitzGerald on 'the following Enquiries concerning th[e] one Long Parliament Election on record', sent to him by Carlyle in about 1846 or 1847 [in fact in 1844] 'to be answered & elucidated by Mr Davy, an old Suffolk Gentleman then residing in... Ufford near Woodbridge'. Davy was 'duly acknowledged & complimented as "Dryasdust"' in the paper Carlyle published on the subject in Fraser's Magazine [Oct 1844].

ff 37-39: Copy of the enquiries on the Long Parliament election (as above) sent by Carlyle to FitzGerald.

Reading from other end of book: 'Extract from letters of Savile Morton' written on flyleaf, verso; Morton's name later crossed out and 'an ill-starred Man of Genius'. 'Finished copying out at Midnight, Sunday May 27, 1866. Edward FitzGerald, Market-hall, Woodbridge' is legible below despite further crossing out. A loose sheet is pasted to the bottom of the flyleaf, on which Fitzgerald has written 'Fragments of some Letters from an ill-starred Man of Genius'' and added in pencil below 'for a Notice of Morton see at th[e] end of th[e] Letters'; other notes in pencil are probably in another hand.

ff i-iii: Three sheets bound together with tape found loose after flyleaf, containing a biographical note on Morton in FitzGerald's hand.

ff 1-61r: Copies by FitzGerald of letters from Morton, dated 28 Oct [18]40-Jul 1845, with occasional notes and annotations by Fitzgerald. Occasional pages have been cut out, and a series of stubs (about 11 ff) follows f 61. The letters themselves, or portions of them, are sometimes pasted in, particularly to include illustrations by Morton, as follows:

f 5r: 'Petrarch's Chair', pen and ink illustration
f 16r: Part letter of 10 Sept 1842 (once pasted in, now loose)
f 17r: Part letter with pen and ink sketch of ruins in Rome
f 23r: Pen and ink sketch of lamp.
f 50: Part letter, discussing Keats.

Several of the letters refer to Thompson's British Museum colleague T. N. Nichols' investigations into the shorthand alleged by William Squire to have been written by Cromwell. 60/248 is a letter from Nichols to Thompson, 11 Feb 1886, sent on by Thompson to Wright on 12 Feb 1886.

On embossed notepaper, Bottesford Manor, Nr Brigg. - Is sending a sale catalogue which includes a book containing a sketch by Oliver Cromwell; has examined the book and believes it to be a genuine sketch of the Battle of Naseby; no other details known; historical importance; hopes Milnes will advise about Society of Antiquaries in due course.

Veronica, Silverdale, nr Carnforth. - Thanks Bob for sending his "New Parsifal"; will get him to write his name in it when he comes north. Read it with much 'zest and enjoyment' as if he had never done so before; thinks it has all 'come quite fresh and delightful'. Sure it is 'first rate and... will last a long time'; eager to see what the reviewers say, as soon as Bob has a 'bundle of cuttings' he can spare'. The 'Chiswicks [Chiswick Press] have managed the cover very well'; the 'arrangement with Bickers' [printers and booksellers] sounds good, and will probably be 'more efficient' than Longmans or 'liitle [Charles Elkin?] Matthews'. Will remember all this for "Mrs Lear" [his forthcoming "King Lear's Wife"], but thinks he should try Heinemann first as Bob suggests. Thanks Bob for taking the trouble to see [Edward] Marsh and writing; will follow up this opening as soon as he can; unfortunately the typescript [of "King Lear's Wife"] is not yet ready, since he has had a 'few bed-days', and there is an 'Old-Man-of-the-Sea of a plumber here' who makes work 'impossible'. The house is ready to move into; they are going to Allithwaite on Friday, on to Well Knowe for a fortnight, then 'back here for ever. This is a 'damned place, full of old maids collecting for the provision of woollen comforters for deep sea fishermen'.; mentions the suggestion in the local directory that Silverdale is named after 'Soever', a 'hardy Norseman'. Promises Bob that 'Mrs Lear' will be his 'Lenten task', and to get the typescript to Marsh by Easter.

Had a letter from [John] Drinkwater three weeks ago, who said he had seen Bob, and also asked for the 'refusal' of 'Mrs Lear'; have therefore promised to send him a typescript too. Drinkwater sent his [play] "[Oliver] Cromwell....."; Bottomley at length replied he was 'on his side about King Oliver', but that Drinkwater should not 'write poetry like a partisan'. Ernest Newman was 'offensive and vulgar' about [Wagner's] "Parsifal"; loathed' him as Bob did. Wishes he could have seen the opera with Bob. As it has just gone out of copyright, has bought a cheap score; expected it to be 'good but vegetarian and flabby' so was glad to see it 'so much huger' than expected; thinks 'the Amfortas... more moving than anything else in Wagner'. Has got hold of a Bohn edition of the Grimm "Fairy Tales" 'just like' Bob's, and now he and his wife read them out loud in the evening. Very glad that Julian is better: 'suppressed influenza' seems to have been a great danger for children recently, and Lady A[lice] Egerton says her little niece almost died of it. Hopes Sir George is also better. Adds a postscript to say that the French musical review S. I. M. ["Société internationale de musique"] for 1 January has a 'good portrait' of R[alph] Vaughan Williams and a piece on "Les Post-Elgariens" by Marcel Boulestin.

Cutting from unidentified newspaper. Refers to Houghton's specimens of Cromwell, Robespierre and General Grant. With news agency label addressed to 2nd Lord Houghton.

Shortened version of HOUG/DF/1/63. Refers to Houghton's specimens of Cromwell, Robespierre and General Grant. With news agency label addressed to 2nd Lord Houghton.