Item 14 - Letter from Harriet Maria Gordon Smythies to Lord Houghton

4 ff.

Vernon House, Ventnor, Isle of Wight. - Writes on advice of Lord Clanricarde, a family friend; has small annuity but must otherwise support consumptive son by writing; will Houghton assist her application to the Literary Fund? Has received £200 from the Fund over 22 years; describes her literary output; was first encouraged by 'The great genius whom the Nation mourns' but latterly he felt his differences with the Fund would harm her interests; lost a great friend in Robert Bell; was born to affluence but has suffered through an imprudent marriage; 'but for the Muses [I] must long since have perished of grief and want'.