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(Transcript in Turner’s hand. At the head is written, ‘The original is among Autographs, Series B.’)

Secretary's Office, Hunt's Bank, Manchester. - Enclosing extract from the minutes of the proceedings of the Board of Directors of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company, Manchester, 2 Sept. 1885, expressing their regret at the death of 'their highly valued colleague the late Lord Houghton'.

(Transcript in Turner’s hand. At the head is written, ‘The original is among Autographs, Series B.’)

36 Warrender Park Terrace, Edinburgh. - Remembers now that the name of the artist [who sent back the seeds from the rose on the grave of Omar Khayyám] was Simpson, but did not know it was Quaritch to whom the seeds were sent. Asks if Quaritch can have a scion of the rose-tree planted at FitzGerald's grave in Boulge; knows FitzGerald's nephew and executor Colonel Kerrich would gladly have it done, having mentioned the idea to him a few months ago when he heard about the rose from Mr Clodd. Could also photograph Bredfield Hall and Farlinghay if Quaritch requires it. Groome's father knew Aldis Wright, but he himself does not.

Adds postscript: Fanny Kemble's reminiscences, as they first appeared in the Atlantic, had many references to FitzGerald. Groome knows an old lady at Ipswich who has a fine engraving of FitzGerald's mother.

Transcript

Yarmouth;
Monday, 9 Dec[embe]r 1799.

Sir Herbert Croft returns Mr Bush {1} the vol. of Johnson containing the life of Young, {2} with many thanks. He will thank Mr B. to say to Mr Turner, the banker, that, from what he has heard of him in different quarters here, it w[oul]d afford Sir H. C. much pleasure to have the honour of making the acquaintance of Mr Turner, & to show him something that he is writing. But he, first, wishes Mr Turner to look at a book he publish’d on the continent; that he may see, by that & by the french dedication at the end to Sir H. C., how he has employ’d his time abroad; &, by the copy of Bishop Douglas’s letter at the beginning, that he has no occasion to blush for what drove him abroad. {3}—On account of his situation (w[hic]h he trusts will end very shortly, when Lord & Lady Dysart & Lady Croft come from the Isle of Wight to Helmingham in Suffolk), {4} Sir H. C. wishes the liberty he has thus taken with Mr Turner not to be known; especially, too, as the jealousy of others, here, might take offence.

—————

Letters missing from words abbreviated by superscript letters have been supplied in square brackets.

{1} Frederick Bush, a Yarmouth bookseller, who reprinted Croft’s Chatterton and ‘Love and Madness’ in 1800.

{2} The life of Edward Young in Johnson’s Lives of the Poets was written by Croft himself. Croft’s Letter from Germany (see below) contains an epigraph from Young’s sixth Satire. It may be that he was obliged to borrow a copy of the book because his library had been sold in 1797 to defray some of his debts.

{3} The book referred to, a copy of which appears to have accompanied the present letter, was probably A Letter from Germany to the Princess Royal of England on the English and German Languages, which Croft published at Hamburg in 1797. This does not contain a letter from Bishop Douglas or a French dedication but it is possible that those items were copied in by hand. According to Gilbert Burgess (Introduction to The Love Letters of Miss H and Mr R, 1775-1779), there is a letter in the British Museum (Egerton MSS 2185) from Croft to Bishop Douglas, ‘in which he complains of having been cold-shouldered by Pitt, whose favour he had tried to gain by offering to insert verses in favour of that politician in book he was writing’, and another (Egerton MSS 2186, ff. 88-93) to Bishop Douglas’s son, the Rev. W. Douglas, ‘written from Exeter Gaol, “the common prison—pudet hoc opprobria!” as Croft says, where he was imprisoned for a debt of £40, which he hopes Mr Douglas will send at once.’

{4} Lady Dysart and Lady Croft were sisters. Lady Dysart’s husband Wilbraham had succeeded to the earldom earlier in the year (on 20 February), and Helmingham Hall was one of the properties he inherited.

(Appended are extracts from a letter to Molini, in French, dated at Florence, 30 Oct. 1819.)

From [Cambridge?] Independent Press, 4 Jan. 1862. Four lines of English verse, perhaps in Richard Shilleto's hand, written at the end: 'A Master - a Martyr - the Headship's enough - / There's a Stall too - the matter may be compromised /The "Master" shall have of the "Cat" quantum suff / But surely the "Martyr" might be "canonized"'.