St John’s Vicarage, Torquay.—Sends a notebook compiled by his father, containing Keysoe words and phrases and other material relating to that place. Is sending his second boy (Reginald) to ‘try for something’ at Trinity next week.
(Sent with a notebook containing Add. MS b. 74/5/13.)
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Transcript
St John’s Vicarage, Torquay.
Oct. 28. 1895.
Dear Mr Vice-Master,
I have not forgotten my promise to send you the Keysoe “words and phrases” collected by my father {1}.
I am sorry to find that they are not nearly as numerous as I supposed.
I might have copied them for you, there is in the note-book which contains them a short history of the endowment of Keysoe, &c, which may interest you, as also a map of the glebe and other farms at the end made with my father’s accustomed neatness & precision. There were a great many loose papers of note in the book, from which I conclude that my father intended to write a history of Keysoe. I have left a few there, which might be of interest—the various spellings, the inscription on the Font, and some of the early Views. Where the loose papers are, marks the place where the “words and phrases” begin.
Please use the book as you like, and if it is of any use to you, do not trouble to return it.
I am sending my second boy {2}, now at Westminster, to try for something at Trinity next week. I can’t say how earnest my wish is that he may obtain something. I have a great yearning that my line of the family shall go on at Trinity, but alas! I can’t afford to continue it, unless the boy gets something. He is the last chance. My other boy {3} failed to get anything at Cambridge (he was not good enough to try at Trinity) but got a good Exhibition at Exeter, Oxford; he is, I believe, the first of his family to deviate from Cambridge since Henry Airy (Ayray) was Provost of Queens in 1598. He was not a direct Ancestor, but a collateral of our ancestors.
With much regard, | believe me Yours very truly
Basil R: Airy
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{1} William Airy, vicar of Keysoe, Beds., 1836-7.
{2} Reginald. He was admitted at Trinity as a sizar on 1 October the following year.
{3} William Shepley. He was elected to a college exhibition at Exeter College, Oxford, on 12 May 1894.
