Labelled as 'Press photo' and dated on back by Bertha Wright. Reference number '9496' in pencil.
Arlington Court, Barnstaple. - Called away from London by illness of stepson; hopes to visit Paris in April; anxious to see George Coleman's [Rodiad?]; shared stories of 'birch practice' with him in latter years; an acquaintance of Coleman's ascribed his own madness to childhood flogging. Longs to see Milnes's 'maître and maîtress' [an erotic porcelain group]; describes a china clock incorporating a flogging scene offered for sale at Brighton a few years ago; summoned courage to buy it after two days but found it had been sold to Lord Petre. In 1828 the Marquis d'Aligre showed him a Sèvres figure of Madame Dubarry supervising a birching, with other identifiable possessions, which was not in his possession when he died; recounts court anecdote alleged to have inspired the model; 'my friend the General', a cousin of the Marquis, did not know what had become of the group but thought it might have passed to Louis Philippe. Will get the work Milnes recommends. Exchanges erotic French books with 'a young [female] friend in Bryanston Square'; his 'clerical friend' is limited to English works but she has not yet read Fanny Hill.
Was not able to attend her lecture, wishes she "could make women feel their minds are worth cultivation".
Sans titreRoyal Institution Special Afternoon Lecture.
On the mount is written, 'Presented to H. Babington Smith Esqr. C. S. I. | Private Secy. to H. E. the Viceroy and G. G. [i.e. Governor General] of India.'
Article by Thoms on the difficulty of establishing historical facts, quoting example of discrepancy in evidence concerning handwriting in the Tichborne case. Published in Notes and Queries, 4th series XII, Jul. 12, 1873.
Typescript and photomechanical copies of typescript pages of tables of information relating to King's Hall (a) long-tenured King's Hall fellowships, (b) evidence for survey of probable geographical origins of King's Scholars, (c) Cambridge civil law graduates (late thirteenth to mid-fifteenth century, (d) list of all known King's Hall commoners and semi-commoners, (e) list of King's Scholars who took the M.A. and/or degrees in the superior faculties between 1317 and 1450, (f) list of children and clerks of the chapel royal admitted to the King's Hall between 1382 and 1417, (g) evidence for numerical analysis of committees of King's Hall seneschals, (h) lists of King's Hall ex-fellow pensioners.
A note on the first page records that the material was placed here after it was decided to omit these intended appendices from the printed book.
Corrected draft: unidentified hand.