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Trinity College, Cambridge.—Sends birthday greetings and congratulates him on his appointment as magistrate. The heads of houses have decided against letting students go down for the election, so he will not be able to run down to Exeter for the day.

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Coll: SS: Trin. Cantab.
Nov. 17/68

My dearest Father

This is to wish you loads upon loads of happy returns of the day, and that every one may find you more prosperous and happy than the last. I am very vexed about some photographs I got in Dresden and meant to have sent you now: the photographer sent two short to Fraülein† Kretschmer’s, and there have been subsequent confusions so that they have not come yet. I must bring them to you at Christmas.

I have to congratulate you also on your new magisterial duties: and hope you won’t be too hard on me if I am ever brought up before you. The little holiday I was expecting has not come off; but I have had to scold several men for their bad taste in cutting my lecture to see the British Public nominate its elegant representatives. {1} It would have been very jolly to run down for a day—but I suppose the Heads of Houses thought the men would get into much greater rows at home if they were sent there. I hope your affairs will have passed off quietly, and that you have not got into any more danger from the independent electors. Very best love to dear Mama & the little ones from

Your most affectionate son
W. K. Clifford

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Letter-head of the Cambridge Union Society.

{1} A general election was held this year between 17 November and 7 December. Nominations of candidates in the various constituencies were held on 16 November.

Cambridge.—Comments on the parliamentary news from Exeter. Has met a Swiss student who is a fine gymnast. There are six vacancies for fellowships. Pollock is not back yet and Crotch is going away, so he will have little to do. Will try to get a quieter room. Uncle McLeod and Aunt Annie say that Charlie is better.

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Cambridge, Saturday
Sep. 12/68

Dear Papa and Mama

I have never thanked you for the bundle of Exeter papers, which amused me immensely on the journey home. You seem likely to have great fun with the election. I suppose Karslake and Coleridge must get in, and then we shall have two awfully swell members. {1} There is a Swiss here studying Natural Science—a very nice man, and a perfect gymnast, only all the skin is already off my hands because of the rosin which he puts on the bars. There are six vacancies for fellowships it seems. Fred Pollock is not yet come back. Crotch is going down for a fortnight so I shall be very quiet—the gymnasium will be shut up and there will be nothing to do in the afternoons—except go to Grantchester {2}. I shall try to get a room somewhere away from College to avoid being called upon next term—it becomes rather a nuisance to live on the ground floor. I have told you all the news already, and must now go and read Puiseux in the Varsity Library before it shuts up. I casually met Uncle McLeod and Aunt Annie in the Metropolitan railway. They said Charlie was quite well again.

Very best wishes to all the little ones from

Your most affectionate son
+W. K. Clifford.

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Letter-head of the Cambridge Union Society.

{1} Sir John Karslake and J. D. Coleridge were candidates for the parliamentary constituency of Exeter, which elected two members till 1885.

{2} Probably to the Nimmos' house. Cf. CLIF A1/13.

C/o Fräulein Kretschmer, 8 Räcknitz Strasse, Dresden.—The weather is hot. His party have been to the opera with relatives of Emerson and have put on an ‘entertainment’. Tomorrow they are going to Saxon Switzerland. Describes their usual activities on Sundays and other days.

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Fraülein† Kretschmer, 8 Räcknitz Str.
Dresden, Friday July 24/68

Dear Papa and Mama

The chief thing to be noticed is that it is awfully hot. Today, indeed, there is a slight improvement: one can sit in one’s bath to read without absolutely getting boiled. We never dream of wearing any clothes after tea, but even so it is too hot. By all accounts you seem to suffer in the same way in England. In the morning we wear Alpaca coats without waistcoats—if I can get a decently small front I shall leave off shirts also. The opera is of course quite insupportable. On Tuesday we went to Masaniello {1} with some Yankees who have been staying here. They are called Emerson, are relatives of the great philosopher, and come from Boston. After the opera, Kitty Emerson and I contrived to lose ourselves in the Grosse Garten, and did not come back till everybody had been out to look for us. Next morning, Mr Emerson wanted to speak to me privately after breakfast. Conceive my dismay, and the ill-concealed exultation of the rest! He only wanted to pay for the tickets, however. On Wednesday evening we had everybody up here to see a grand entertainment, conjuring, a German charade, and electro-biology, concluded with God save the Queen on two combs and an opera-hat. Yesterday the Emersons went away. There are plenty of nice people left, though; a Mr & Mrs Watts, and the Skrines, an English family living in the town to whom we have been introduced; besides the people belonging to the house, fr. Anna von Zschüschen and Clärchen von something else. Our own party consists of the two Pollocks, {2} Pryor, Forrest, and I. Pryor keeps going into the country to see some naturalistic friends of his: comes back suddenly with two edible frogs five lizards and a green snake. Forrest is the son of that Indian officer Colonel Forrest who fastened the bags of powder to the gate of Delhi and was shot down but not killed. {3} The only thing against him is that he writes for the Daily Telegraph. Tomorrow we make an excursion to the Saxon Switzerland, so called because it is the least mountanous† part of Bohemia. The Emersons went there about a week ago, and brought back glowing accounts. Fraülein† Kretschmer’s part of the house consists of two flats; we are located on the upper one. We go to the Hof-Kirche (Court-Church; where the King goes when he is at home) to hear high mass on Sunday morning, then stroll through the Picture-gallery till dinner-time, which is 2 on Sundays: sleep till six: keep an open-air concert till tea-time, and after that go to look at the dancing at one of the saloons. No one has yet ventured to join in, though we have been getting dancing lessons, which are great fun. The Vienna waltz is a deux-temps at just double the ordinary pace! It would send everybody spinning if one tried it in England. On other days we read in the morning, German or Gymnastics in the afternoon, dance, concert, or theatre in the evening. So glad all the little ones are well. With very best love to them believe me to remain

Your most affectionate son
W. K. Clifford.

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{1} La Muette de Portici, ou Masaniello (1828), an opera by Daniel Auber.

{2} Fred and Walter.

{3} Captain (sic) George Forrest (1803/4-59), of the Bengal artillery, was one of three surviving officers awarded the Victoria Cross for the defence of the Delhi magazine on 11 May 1857. He died of his injuries two years later.

† Sic.

Cambridge.—Sends birthday greetings. Has ordered a pipe for him.

(Dated Saturday. For the date assigned cf. A1/9.)

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Cambridge, Saturday

Dear Papa

As there is no post from here which is delivered at Exeter on Monday, I must wish you many happy returns of that day {1} prematurely. You know all the amount of my wishes for you, dear Papa, so there is no need to enumerate them. May you have long life, and happiness, and rest, and whatever there is more—to wish all this is quite selfish on my part, because it is wishing for my own pleasure. I ordered a pipe to be sent you from Soutter’s in Regent Street—I hope they will remember to book it to-day. It was difficult to find what to send you, because any of the ordinary things that one gives away would be to you like coals to Newcastle. All my love to dear Mama and the little ones. I must get more leisure next week to write to you. Now there is hardly time to catch the post—all the pups {2} on today. I must endeavour to write tomorrow—then there will be plenty of time.

Believe me, dear Papa,
ever your most affectionate son
+W K Clifford.

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{1} 18 November.

{2} Pupils? See OED, s.v. pup, n.2.

(Marked ‘Your own dear Daddy’. The Duke of Edinburgh, mentioned on the company’s label, received that title in 1866.)

Trinity College, Cambridge.—Sends birthday greetings. ‘I suppose you went to see Kean, and enjoyed him very much.’ Describes measures taken by the men of Trinity to observe the meteor shower. Has been for a walk with Mathison. The new Master has given an eagle (lectern) to the Chapel. Has been told (mistakenly) that the Prince of Wales is dead.

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Coll: SS: Trin: Cantab:
Nov 17/66

My dear Papa

I wish you many many happy returns of the day, and that each one may give fairer hopes of its successors. Moreover I wish in particular that I may contribute to your happiness myself more than I have done before. I don’t know that I could wish you very much more than that I may be able to repay ever so small a part of what I owe you. So again, dear Papa, many many happy returns of the day.

I suppose you went to see Kean, and enjoyed him very much {1}. What did he play? We had great fun here looking at the meteors {2}. The Great Court was full of men who clapped and encored whenever there was a good display. The Pleiads were distinctly seen to give chase to one of the brightest, but the couldn’t catch him, and so returned to their places. Conybeare, Leeke {3}, & I, got well wrapped up and lay in respective gutters on the roof of the New Court, where we could see everything. Challis, the astronomer, thought the show was a very good one. I went for a walk with Mathison the other day; we were mutually affable. My bedmaker was surprised to see him call; she said he hadn’t done so since Mr Fitzwilliam was in the rooms, and then it was beautiful to see him with his head on that gentleman’s shoulder just as if he had been his father. “Was he a fellow-commoner?” said I. “Oh yes, sir.”—The tone of this was perfect; she hates Mathison because he dropped on to her for not being here when a certain freshman came up. The new Master has given an eagle to the Chapel for the lessons to be read from {4}. Somebody told me last night that the Prince of Wales was dead; I don’t know if it’s true {5}. With best love to dear Mama and all the little ones—as Moule {6} puts it, “with warmer love than this scrawl indicates”—believe me to be

Your very affectionate son
+W. K. Clifford.

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{1} There are no references in The Times to performances by Charles Kean during this month, but the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography records that he and his wife drew crowded houses in the provinces in September.

{2} A notable meteor shower occurred on the night of the 13th. See The Times, 12 Nov., p. 10; 15 Nov., p. 10, etc.

{3} Several Leekes were at Trinity at this time. It is unclear which one is referred to here.

{4} W. H. Thompson had been admitted as Master on 17 April. This ‘eagle’, or brass lectern, was presented to the college by Thompson and his wife. See Willis and Clark, Architectural History of the University of Cambridge, vol. ii, pp. 590-1.

{5} A telegram from St Petersburg scotching this rumour was printed in The Times on the 19th (p. 10).

{6} H. C. G. Moule.

(Place of writing not indicated.)—‘He says it will cost a shilling if I have it registered, and then I can have as many more as I like for a shilling each. I suppose you will not want any more, and so they need not be registered …’

(Signed ‘your very affectionate son’.)

Trinity College, Cambridge.—Thanks them for a dressing-gown. Is feeling better, and got through his Whewell lecture without ill effects. There is concern that the Tests Bill will be shelved again, but the evidence presented by the Master and Appleton is good. Maxwell comes to see him and gives him ideas. Hopes they are both better.

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Trinity College, Cambridge
Saturday
May 6

Dear Papa & Mama

How very kind of you to send me such a lovely thing. I have been wearing it nearly ever since. The only thing I regret is that I cannot go out of doors in it—I should look so swell if I walked around the paddock plunged in deep thought and a dressing gown. I am very much better, and have been nearly free from pain for several days: on Thursday I went for quite a long walk with Cayley, and yesterday I went out while it was sunny without being muffled up. Also I got through the Whewell lecture (one of a course that Sidgwick has organized) without ill effects. It rather frightened me, being much harder than my ordinary lectures; viz:, an hour and a half of steady talk about philosophical subjects where one had to be very careful of one’s terms. We are in a great state of mind about the Tests Bill, lest if the Lords should adopt the recommendations of the committee and stick to them, they may gain time enough to get it shelved again. The evidence of our master before the committee is very good; and Appleton’s is lovely. {1} I am so sorry you can’t come up. The sun is quite bright today, and it looks so tempting—on the other hand I burn to be at some equations which I know only want shaking to give lots of Theorems. Maxwell comes often to see me and gives me ideas. Good bye. I hope you are both better. Give my love to Eliza. Kate is to stay with you when I am at home.

your most loving son
Willie.

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{1} The House of Lords went into committee to discuss the University Tests Bill some time before 9 May 1871. The evidence presented to the committee by C. E. Appleton is referred to in The Times of that day (p. 5).

Trinity College, Cambridge.—He came up safely, but caught a cold on the way. Miss Fison was married on Thursday. Discusses a suitable time for his parents to visit. Encloses photos of scenes from their play.

(Undated, but evidently written shortly after Clifford came up for the beginning of Easter Term 1871, which began on 14 April. Anna Fison’s marriage probably took place on the 13th, and the letter was probably written at the weekend.)

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Trin. Coll. Camb.

Dear Papa and Mama

I can’t find any larger paper though I know I have got a lot somewhere. I came up safely on Monday, but caught a little cold on the journey and more from the smoking of my bedroom chimney which made me arise in the middle of the night, take up my bed and walk into the sitting room. But this is over now, and my face has been tolerably free from pain for a day or two. Miss Fison (Mrs Potts’s sister) was married on Thursday {1}—they wanted me to go there in the evening, but of course I am only able to go out a little in the middle of the day. I want to know when you would like to come up and see me, because you must do it before I leave my rooms. There are some nice lodgings nearly opposite me that I can have. One course of my lectures will be over quite early—by about the last week in May—and perhaps that will be the best time if if suits you. The Long Vacation is difficult to arrange yet, and if I come up here at that time I shall probably be very busy about my things. There are 2 bedrooms and a sitting room in the lodgings. I enclose 2 photos of scenes from our play. the† shirts should be red of course, but they do not look well when coloured. My very best love to all the little ones.

Your most loving son
Willie.

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{1} Anna Fison married David Walter Thomas, a Welsh clergyman, at Cambridge in the second quarter of this year. She was still unmarried on 2 April, the date of the census. Her sister Jeannetta was the second wife of the mathematician Robert Potts.

† Sic.

(Cambridge.)—Sends birthday greetings. He had intended to send him a gun, but it will have to wait, as the Government has decided to send them to Gibraltar to see the eclipse after all. They leave on Saturday fortnight, but he hopes to be back by Christmas.

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Dearest Papa

I write to wish you very many and very happy returns of the day, each bringing more honours and more contentment with them. I meant to have been able to send you a gun in time, but I could not manage it; and now it must wait till Christmas, because it appears that the government is going to send us to Gibraltar to see the Eclipse after all. The expedition starts on Saturday fortnight}, {1} and I hope to be back in time to spend Xtmas day with you. Charley Frost {2} says he never enjoyed a day so much as that one when we went to S. Ives. When Brown gets his living he may be made to return you your pocket handkerchief. I have just come from lecture†, and have got 5 minutes to catch the post. Goodbye, and believe me

Your most loving son
W. K. Clifford.

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{1} 29 November.

{2} Perhaps a relative of Percival Frost, Clifford’s private tutor while an undergraduate at Trinity. See ‘William Kingdon Clifford’, Nature, 13 Mar. 1879, pp. 443-4.

† Sic.

Trinity College, Cambridge.—Was sorry to hear of Uncle John’s death. Hopes Kitty (his sister) was not hurt much by the swing. Has heard from Mr Heywood and seen Tovey. Romilly has died.

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Coll: SS: Trin: Cantab:
Aug: 20/64

My dear Papa and Mama

I was very sorry and surprised to hear of poor Uncle John’s death. It is no wonder that you are not well. You say he was well enough the Saturday before to go to Starcross {1} and stay with Aunt Lizzie. Is it not very like what one has heard of the flicker of a candle before it goes out? I remember having noticed it in other cases. It must be a consolation to think that he had no suffering during the week, and was conscious so long. And, if I may say anything of this kind, ought we to think that the mercy which we should ourselves accord can be greater than the Infinite mercy? It seems to take away all the benefit of the Incarnation, if the Compassion of our Lord is not at least as great as that of men.

I do hope dear little Kitty was not much hurt by the swing. I know it can knock very hard, because Clement hurt his knee there very much once. I have been scratching myself in bathing. About a fortnight ago I knocked my elbow against a rough post in diving, but it is nearly well now.

I have heard from Mr Heywood, who was in Paris on the 13th, and seems to be enjoying himself. Mrs Heywood is with him, and he says they have had delightful weather. I saw Tovey in a boat last night. You will see by the Paper that Mr Romilly, one of our Dons, has just died {2}.

Please to give my love to Mitchell, and say I hope he has not lost the opportunity of making interesting experiments as to the nature of physical pain. It is such a waste of trouble if he has.

With best love to all the little ones, and hopes that you are much better, believe me to remain

your very affectionate son
+W: K: Clifford.

P:S: I have at last borrowed a machine for mending pens, and my writing is rapidly improving under its influence. You should see the two awful tables of the Inequalities of the Moon’s Radius Vector and Longitude, which I have to read over every day, so as to get them by heart.

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On the back of the letter are two addresses in an unidentified hand: ‘W | 59 Cannon St | London’ (‘City’ struck through before ‘London’), and ‘2 Elm Grove | New North Rd’. The latter is an address in Exeter.

{1} A village in Devon, eight miles south-east of Exeter.

{2} Joseph Romilly died of heart failure on 7 August, while on holiday at Great Yarmouth.