Three letters.
Correspondence, notes, and printed material largely relating to W. Aldis Wright's work as Secretary of the Old Testament Revision Company. Some letters addressed to the Dean of Westminster, A. P. Stanley; to Canon Selwyn, and to others. Includes letters from: Connop Thirlwall, Bishop of St David's; G. C. M. Douglas; E. H. Browne, Bishop of Ely then of Winchester; Frederick Field; John Dury Geden; A. P. Stanley, Dean of Westminster; Alfred Ollivant, Bishop of Llandaff; Hormuzd Rassam; William Selwyn; J. Troutbeck; Duncan H. Weir, James Cartmell; Bartholomew Price; Philip Schaff. Several copies/drafts of letters by W. Aldis Wright to others. Much material regarding the relationship between the British and American Revision Committees.
Wright, William Aldis (1831-1914), literary and biblical scholarDeanery, Westminster. - Euphemia Boswell's name does not appear on registers; has forwarded Houghton's query to an American [Joseph Lemuel Chester] who is preparing an edition.
Asks Sidgwick if he can come in the vacation. Gives details of his movements; he is to stay where he is until 26 December, when he will go to Bath and Clifton, where he will stay until 31 December. On Monday 2 January he plans to go to Freshwater, and then on to London, and intends to be back about 14 January. Assures Sidgwick that his arrangements could be modified to suit his visit. Asks if there is any chance of his being in London during the week in which he will be there. Announces that he will be staying at [ ]'s house at Croydon. Expresses regret that he was not 'at the last dying speech and confession of the F[ree] C[hristian] U[nion]'. Refers to the fact that Martineau is to preach for Fr [Seeffield] the following day. Remarks that 'Stanley's plan is fairly open to the objections which Baldwin Brown urged against it.' Declares that they are 'in the throes of having either to give much more aid to Schools than has ever been given, or be rated.' Wishes the parish to accept the [ ] [ ] system 'freely and frankly', but fears they will try to keep the school as it is at present, 'but not liberally enough to avoid eventually coming on the rates.' Refers to the strangeness of '[t]he sort of sentimental affection without reality which men have for the Church of England'. Supposes that Sidgwick is glad to see Bradley's election, and remarks that it must be a great blow for the [ ]-Bright party.
On the spine is stamped ‘Philobiblon Society’ and, at the foot, ‘1863 | 1876.’ The contents are minutes of meetings, etc. (as in Crewe MS 17).
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.
p. v: Printed title: ‘Transactions of the Philobiblon Society 1854’ (sic).
p. vii: Printed section title: ‘Meetings.’
p. 1: Minutes of a meeting on 28 Feb. 1863 at the Deanery, St Paul’s (the residence of H. H. Milman).
p. 3: Minutes of a meeting on 28 Mar. 1863 at 1 Park Square, Regent’s Park (the residence of R. S. Turner).
p. 5: Minutes of a meeting on 25 Apr. 1863 at 128 Park Street, Grosvenor Square (the residence of William Stirling).
p. 7: Minutes of a meeting on 6 June 1863 at 16 Upper Brook Street (the residence of Richard Monckton Milnes).
p. 15: Minutes of a meeting on 27 June 1863 at Orleans House, Twickenham (the residence of the Duke of Aumale).
p. 20: Minutes of a meeting on 11 July 1863 at Dufferin Lodge, Highgate (the residence of Lord Dufferin).
(Dated Saturday, 11 June, by mistake.)
p. 22: Minutes of a meeting on 20 Feb. 1864 at 66 Russell Square (the residence of J. B. Heath).
p. 27: Minutes of a meeting on 12 Mar. 1864 at 50 Albemarle Street (the residence of John Murray).
p. 29: Minutes of a meeting on 28 May 1864 at 24 Arlington Street (the residence of Robert Curzon).
p. 33: Minutes of a meeting on 16 July 1864 at 16 Upper Brook Street.
p. 37: Note of a meeting on 24 July 1864 at 27 Belgrave Square (the residence of Lord Taunton).
p. 38: Minutes of a meeting on 1 Apr. 1865 at 30 Prince’s Gate (the residence of Henry Huth).
p. 40: Minutes of a meeting on 29 Apr. 1865 at 1 Park Square West, Regent’s Park.
p. 42: Minutes of a meeting on 27 May 1865 at Newstead, Wimbledon Park.
p. 44: Minutes of a meeting on 17 June 1865 at Orleans House, Twickenham.
p. 50: Minutes of a meeting on 1 July 1865 at Farnborough Hill, Hampshire (the residence of Thomas Longman).
Bound in after p. 50: Letter from Sydney Smith to Mrs Longman, c. 11 Nov. 1833.
Submits a humorous plan of a dinner of insects and bugs, which he thinks will be agreeable to ‘Kirby & Spence’ (the authors of An Introduction to Entomology, 4 vols., 1815–26, which was published by Longmans).
(Postmarked at Maddox Street and with the date 11 Nov. 1833. Directed to Mrs N. Longman, Garden Mount, Hampstead.)
p. 53: Minutes of a meeting on 24 Feb. 1866 at the Deanery of Westminster (the residence of Arthur P. Stanley).
p. 56: Minutes of a meeting on 24 Mar. 1866 at 30 Prince’s Gate.
p. 58: Minutes of a meeting on 28 Apr. 1866 at 128 Park Street, Grosvenor Square.
p. 60: Minutes of a meeting on 2 June 1866 at 36 Eaton Place (the residence of Sir Erskine Perry).
p. 62: Minutes of a meeting on 23 June 1866 at St Dunstan’s, Regent’s Park (the residence of Henry H. Gibbs).
p. 66: Minutes of a meeting on 23 Feb. 1867 at the Deanery of Westminster.
p. 68: Minutes of a meeting on 18 Mar. 1867 at 14 Bruton Street (the residence of Lord Delamere).
p. 70: Minutes of a meeting on 1 June 1867 at Newstead, Wimbledon Park.
p. 72: Minutes of a meeting on 29 June 1867 at Orleans House, Twickenham.
p. 76: Minutes of a meeting on 27 July 1867 at 1 Park Square.
p. 79: Minutes of a meeting on 16 May 1868 at 66 Russell Square.
p. 83: Minutes of a meeting on 13 June 1868 at 30 Curzon Street (the residence of Lord Dartrey).
p. 85: Minutes of a meeting on 27 June 1868 at 21 Arlington Street (the residence of Sylvain Van de Weyer).
p. 88: Minutes of a meeting on 11 July 1868 at St Dunstan’s, Regent’s Park.
p. 92: Minutes of a meeting on 27 Feb. 1869 at the Deanery of Westminster.
p. 96: Minutes of a meeting on 20 Mar. 1869 at 4 Audley Square (the residence of Edward Cheney).
p. 111: Minutes of a meeting on 24 Apr. 1869 at 72 Eaton Place (the residence of Sir John Simeon).
p. 115: Minutes of a meeting on 8 May 1869 at 16 Upper Brook Street.
p. 118: Minutes of a meeting on 12 June 1869 at Newstead, Wimbledon Park.
p. 127: Minutes of a meeting on 24 July 1869 at 1 Carlton Terrace (the residence of George Tomline).
p. 129: Brief notes of meetings on 5 Mar. 1870 at (5) Onslow Gardens (the residence of J. A. Froude); 30 May 1870 at (21) Arlington Street; 16 June 1870 at Arklow House (the residence of Alexander Beresford Hope); 30 June 1870 at Orleans House; 9 July 1870 at Dorchester House (the residence of R. S. Holford); 16 July 1870 at Strawberry Hill (residence of Chichester Fortescue); and 28 July 1870 at (16) Upper Brook Street.
(The notes begin: ‘This Book having been mislaid, there is no record of the Proceedings of the Society during 1870 beyond the following official record.’ The start of this period coincides with the appointment of Sir John Simeon as honorary secretary.)
p. 133: Minutes of a meeting on 4 Mar. 1871 at 67 Brook Street (the residence of Kirkman Hodgson).
p. 135: Minutes of a meeting on 25 Mar. 1871 at 14 Grosvenor Square (the residence of E. J. Stanley).
p. 138: Printed menu-card for a dinner on 29 Apr. 1871.
p. 139: Minutes of a meeting on 29 Apr. 1871 at 10 Upper Grosvenor Street, W. (the residence of Sir William Stirling Maxwell).
p. 143: Minutes of a meeting on 25 May 1871 at 45 Berkeley Square (the residence of the Earl of Powis).
p. 146: Minutes of a meeting on 1 July 1871 at Newstead, Wimbledon Park.
p. 148: Minutes of a meeting on 11 May 1872 at 6 Clifford Street (the residence of Lord Houghton).
p. 152: Minutes of a meeting on 1 June 1872 at St Katherine’s Lodge, Regent’s Park (the residence of C. Brinsley Marlay).
p. 157: Minutes of a meeting on 15 June 1872 at 55 Portland Place (the residence of Walter Sneyd).
p. 164: Minutes of a meeting on 26 June 1872 (at St Dunstan’s, Regent’s Park).
(The place of meeting is identified simply as ‘the house of Mr Gibbs’.)
p. 166: Minutes of a meeting on 3 July 1872 at 1 Park Square, Regent’s Park.
p. 168: Minutes of a meeting on 15 Mar. 1873 at 6 Clifford Street.
p. 171: Minutes of a meeting on 17 May 1873 at 10 Upper Grosvenor Street.
p. 174: Minutes of a meeting on 31 May 1873 at 30 Curzon Street.
p. 176: Minutes of a meeting on 28 June 1873 at (21) St James’s Square (the residence of the Bishop of Winchester, Samuel Wilberforce).
p. 178: Minutes of a meeting on 12 July 1873 at Hatfield House (Herts.).
p. 181: Minutes of a meeting on 30 July 1873 at 14 Grosvenor Square.
p. 183: Minutes of a meeting on 9 May 1874 at 10 Upper Grosvenor Street.
p. 187: Minutes of a meeting on 20 June 1874 at Newstead, Wimbledon Park.
p. 190: Minutes of a meeting on 18 May 1875 at 66 Russell Square.
p. 197: Minutes of a meeting on 29 May 1875 at St Dunstan’s, Regent’s Park.
p. 201: Minutes of a meeting on 12 June 1875 at St Katherine’s Lodge, Regent’s Park.
p. 205: Minutes of a meeting on 26 June 1875 at 1 Sussex Square, W. (the residence of Lord Coleridge).
p. 207: Minutes of a meeting on 1 Apr. 1876 at 6 Clifford Street.
p. 209: Minutes of a meeting on 13 May 1876 at 27 Queen’s Gate, Kensington (the residence of F. W. Cosens).
p. 211: Minutes of a meeting on 27 May 1876 at 55 Portland Place.
p. 215: Minutes of a meeting on 10 June 1876 at 61 Prince’s Gate.
p. 217: Minutes of a meeting on 24 June 1876 at Dorchester House.
Philobiblon Society4 Woodchurch Road, Claughton, Birkenhead. - Houghton has previously received a volume of poems by her husband [Francis R. Statham] and must sympathise with his present suffering; own evidence of her husband's true nobility of character makes present stigma the more astonishing; his endurance of public prejudice argues great self-knowledge; his complete honesty as to life story; Matthew Arnold and the Deans of Chester and Westminster have faith in his abilities; believes Houghton's support will help him regain public esteem.
Enclosed: account by Francis Statham of his early career in Liverpool, failure in business and circumstances of his criminal conviction for removing a large sum of money from the country; offers medical explanation of former mental condiion, now alleviated by a happy marriage and devotion to literature. Copy letters from J. S. Howson, Dean of Chester (13 Jul. 1874), Henry Percy Smith (7 Sept. 1874), and P. W. Clayden (20 Jul. 1874).
Re memorial to Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of Westminster.
16 Upper Brook Street. - Philobiblon books should be distributed soon, including to the newest member, [A. P.] Stanley; sends manuscripts for printing - care must be taken with Mr Gibson's; proofs of Greville's journal should be sent to Henry Reeve. Postscript: will addd name and forward Dean Stanley's copies if they can be sent here.
6 Grosvenor Crescent. - Condolences on the death of Lady Houghton; this was the 'first news [her brother] Arthur saw when he landed on Wednesday from Russia'.
Barton End House, near Nailsworth. - was secretary to Sydney Dobell; his death; she and Dobell's widow wish his great virtues to be recognised; asks if Houghton can persuade Dean Stanley or Mr. Stopford Brooke to perform burial service at HIghgate Cemetery. Dobell wished to express sympathy at Houghton's bereavement but illness made letter-writing impossible; he was never separated from his own wife. Hopes Houghton will write obituary.