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.
Plymouth - Failure of Tennant and Spedding, his family's new house, organ within, misgivings as to the capacity and honesty of the cabinet, Chancery and Parliamentary reform bills, poor heroic Poles, capture of Warsaw, still has not been given a curacy, application for the Mastership of King's College School, impressed by Tennyson's poetry.
Munich - would like more of his Homeric essay sent to him at Milan, vanity of Wiss, Wiss' opinion of Tennyson, a good history of the constitution is needed, Sterling's marriage, Blakesley's visit to Portsmouth, Hare's sister, Blakesley should go into the legal profession, profitability of Tennyson's poems, German character and philosophy, Colville and Dashwood have returned from Heidelberg to England via the Netherlands, Tennant, would like news of new Apostles