Item 16 - Letter from Clarissa Hester Cattermole to Lord Houghton

4 ff.

32 Osborne Terrace, Clapham Road. - Is the widow of the illustrator George Cattermole; encloses letter to Gladstone seeking pension [no longer present]; has no friend since the death of Dickens; Lord Lytton does not support the present Government and Mr [Henry Austen?] Layard is at Munich; offers to send original unsuccessful pension drawn up by Dickens; Mrs Thomas the artist's widow received a pension at the time. Postscript: original petition signed by artists and writers was intended for Disraeli; a copy was sent to Gladstone in January 1869 after Disraeli left office.