Ashfield. - Gives details of her father Henry's school career; her mother has requested further information from his sisters; his Rugby and Cambridge friends; association with Dr Masters and the Gardeners' Chronicle; thinks hie did not know the Gaskells when young; many of Mrs Gaskell's letters here, including one seeking advice on how to address him. Allan left for Buenos Aires last week; Hughie is looking better.
Ashfield. - Encloses list of manuscripts collected by her father; he particularly valued a MS volume of writings by American authors; it was exchanged with Mr Fields of Boston for Mayall's photograph of Hawthorne, of which only one impression was taken of the time; does not know of items relating to American independence but most of the Presidents were represented, though Mr Randolph Robinson did not quite succeed in filling all the gaps; her father also had some interesting stamps. [Letter incomplete: end missing].
Enclosure: 'MSS at Ashfield' [incomplete list by Elizabeth Bright, end missing. 1884?].
Letters to Lord Houghton from: Elizabeth P. Bright, 14 Dec. 1884; Mary E. Bright, 4 Jul. [1885?]; Samuel Whitbread, 29 Aug. 1884; George Melly [between May & Nov. 1884]. Also a letter from Edmond Scherer to Henry Arthur Bright, 11 Jan. 1881.
Ashfield. - Her father read his paper 'A Historical Sketch of Warrington Academy' to the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire on 11 Nov. 1858; he based it upon rescued memoranda of the Rev. J. Seddon; can send a copy, or Houghton might care to visit; her father's own copy is embellished with interesting letters and notes about Warrington. Cannot send 'Use of Books to Working Men' as their only perfect copy is bound with other items; it was a lecture to the Tuckerman Institute of Liverpool on 14 Feb. 1855. Encloses two hymns [no longer present], a sonnet on Longfellow and one on Mr Green; her father did not wish them to be republished. No news of Allan yet.
Enclosure: Copy of Henry Bright's verse 'To Longfellow in England, 1868', "as it appeared in Mr Hall Caine's Sonnets of Three Centuries" [copy made 1884?].