Eton College - ECH looks forward to seeing WW and Cordelia Whewell on the 18th of May. If Lord John Russell is not careful with regard to his investigations concerning the University, he will 'excite a spirit of extreme dislike to his government in a Body of very great and very just influence in this country'. ECH is delighted to hear that Sir James Stephen's lectures are so popular. He has just received a paper outlining a series of charges against JS's opinions on several mysterious points. 'Stephen is the best of men, and it is nothing but his boundless love for all that is good among men of various sects and opinions that has led him to assume a latitudinarianism in his Essays which, I believe, greatly exceed his private convictions'.
Eton College - Thanks WW for his translations ['Verse Translations from the German, including Lenore, Schiller's Song of the Bell', 1847] which he read with great pleasure. ECH is not really qualified to comment on WW's view of Aristotle but agrees with what WW has said. The Times - 'that clever but unprincipled favourer of the majority in Power' - has made ECH fear Lord John Russell's projected plan for the University: 'But it is better not to anticipate evil, which will come soon enough'.
Eton College - Thanks WW for his congratulations, but ECH 'was quite right in not coming to Kings'. Richard Okes is a more suitable person while 'Eton is, I think, better suited to me'.
On the spine is stamped ‘Philobiblon Society’ and, at the foot, ‘1854 | 1859.’ The contents are mainly minutes of meetings of the Society. These meetings were usually held at the residence of one or other of the members, and the minutes were usually written up by the host. Each set of minutes typically records the date and place of the meeting, followed by a description of books and other articles exhibited. Additions were sometimes made by one of the secretaries.
In the list below, only the first page of each item is indicated. The addresses are in London unless indicated otherwise. The member associated with each address is identified only on its first occurrence.
(Loose after the free endpaper.) Note on Society members, by Lord Houghton.
p. vii: Printed title: ‘Transactions of the Philobiblon Society 1854’.
p. ix: Printed section title: ‘Rules.’
p. 1: Printed rules.
p. 8a: Printed section title: ‘Members.’
p. 9: Signatures of members.
p. 20a: Printed section title: ‘Meetings.’
p. 21: Minutes of a meeting on 25 Mar. 1854 at 128 Park Street, Grosvenor Square (residence of William Stirling).
p. 25: Minutes of a meeting on 29 Apr. 1854 at 123 Park Street, Grosvenor Square (residence of Richard Ford).
p. 29: Minutes of a meeting on 13 May 1854 at 59 Grosvenor Street (residence of the Earl of Gosford).
p. 33: Minutes of a meeting on 27 May 1854 at Orleans House, Twickenham (the residence of the Duke of Aumale).
p. 47: Minutes of a meeting on 9 June 1854 at 50 Portland Place (the residence of Sylvain Van de Weyer).
p. 55: Minutes of a meeting on 24 June 1854 at the Lodge, Eton College (the residence of Edward Craven Hawtrey).
p. 59: Memorandum of alterations to the rules of the Society.
p. 61: Minutes of a meeting on 8 July 1854 at 16 Upper Brook Street (the residence of Richard Monckton Milnes).
p. 71: Minutes of a meeting on 3 Feb. 1855 at the Deanery, St Paul’s (the residence of H. H. Milman).
p. 73: Minutes of a meeting on 3 Mar. 1855 at 50 Albemarle Street (the residence of John Murray).
p. 79: Copy of a letter from Henry Ellis to R. Monckton Milnes, 14 Mar. 1855. British Museum.—Acknowledges the receipt of the first volume of the Society’s Miscellanies, and thanks them for it.
p. 80: Copy of a letter from Bulkeley Bandinel to R. Monckton Milnes, 26 Mar. 1855. (Bodleian Library, Oxford.)—Acknowledges the receipt of the first volume of the Society’s Miscellanies, and thanks them for it.
p. 82: Minutes of a meeting on 31 Mar. 1855 at 36 Eaton Place (the residence of Sir Erskine Perry).
p. 89: Minutes of a meeting on 28 Apr. 1855 at Bridgewater House (the residence of the Earl of Ellesmere).
p. 93: Minutes of a meeting on Saturday, — May 1855, at Stoke Park, near Slough (the residence of Henry Labouchere).
p. 96: Minutes of a meeting on 30 June 1855 at Orleans House, Twickenham.
p. 100: Minutes of a meeting on 21 July 1855 at (1) Addison Road, Kensington (the residence of Charles Richard Fox).
p. 120: Minutes of a meeting on 10 Nov. 1855 at 16 Upper Brook Street.
p. 127: Minutes of a meeting on 23 Feb. 1856 at 128 Park Street, Grosvenor Square.
p. 135: Printed leaves containing the rules of the Society and a list of its members for 1855–6.
p. 149: Minutes of a meeting on 15 Mar. 1856 at 8 Sussex Square (the residence of Thomas Longman).
p. 157: Minutes of a meeting on 26 Apr. 1856 at 50 Portland Place.
p. 161: Minutes of a meeting on 17 May 1856 at 7 Grafton Street (the residence of Robert Curzon).
p. 169: Minutes of a meeting on 7 June 1856 at Newstead, Wimbledon Park (the residence of John Murray).
p. 171: Minutes of a meeting on 21 June 1856 at Orleans House, Twickenham.
p. 175: Minutes of a meeting on 14 Feb. 1857 at the Deanery, St Paul’s.
p. 179: Minutes of a meeting on 25 Apr. 1857 at the Clarendon Hotel.
p. 204: Minutes of a meeting on 23 June 1857 at 50 Portland Place.
p. 209: Minutes of a meeting on 30 June 1857 at Dufferin Lodge, Highgate (the residence of Lord Dufferin).
(Dated Saturday, 20 June 1857, by mistake.)
p. 212: Minutes of a meeting on 18 July 1857 at Orleans House, Twickenham.
p. 216: Minutes of a meeting on 27 Feb. 1858 at the Deanery, St Paul’s.
p. 219: Minutes of a meeting on 20 Mar. 1858 at 7 Fitzroy Square (the residence of Sir Charles Eastlake).
p. 222: Minutes of a meeting on 8 May 1858 at Arklow House, Connaught Place (the residence of Alexander Beresford Hope).
p. 224: Minutes of a meeting on 22 May 1858 at 45 Berkeley Square (the residence of the Earl of Powis).
p. 231: Minutes of a meeting on 26 June 1858 at 18 Eaton Terrace (the residence of Evelyn Philip Shirley).
p. 235: Minutes of a meeting on 10 July 1858 (at 16 Upper Brook Street).
The place of meeting is identified simply as ‘the house of Mr Monckton Milnes’.
p. 243: Minutes of a meeting on 19 Mar. 1859 at 50 Portland Place.
p. 245: Minutes of a meeting on 25 June 1859 at Newstead, Wimbledon Park.
p. 247: Minutes of a meeting on 23 July 1859 at Orleans House, Twickenham.
Philobiblon SocietyIn several hands, not Whewell's.
Eton College - ECH will prepare for WW a number of introductory letters for his forthcoming trip to Paris. ECH is 'afraid Lord John Russell, who began with the best wishes of his majority of the Church has, by his want of moral fear, which poor Sydney Smith so well described, has roused a storm which he will not easily allay.
Eton College - The change in Paris since WW's visit 'is indeed terrible'. The only hope is the army since they are the only ones who can put down the armed mob which rules Paris. All the news he hears from France is 'gloomy'.
Eton College - ECH's friend, Charles Knight, is very anxious to be introduced to WW, with a view of exciting WW in favour of a new enterprise: 'He proposes to bring out another edition of his Cyclopedia (which I hope he will cease to call Penny) in a new form. He wishes to give it all the improvements which are required by the advances of art and science since the first publication was completed...He has already assured himself of the support of some great names, and he is very anxious to induce you to become one of his contributors'.
Re. Milman's memoir of Thomas Babington Macaulay.