Item 2 - Letter from W. K. Clifford to William Clifford

1 folded sheet

Trinity College, Cambridge.—Sends birthday greetings. ‘I suppose you went to see Kean, and enjoyed him very much.’ Describes measures taken by the men of Trinity to observe the meteor shower. Has been for a walk with Mathison. The new Master has given an eagle (lectern) to the Chapel. Has been told (mistakenly) that the Prince of Wales is dead.

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Transcript

Coll: SS: Trin: Cantab:
Nov 17/66

My dear Papa

I wish you many many happy returns of the day, and that each one may give fairer hopes of its successors. Moreover I wish in particular that I may contribute to your happiness myself more than I have done before. I don’t know that I could wish you very much more than that I may be able to repay ever so small a part of what I owe you. So again, dear Papa, many many happy returns of the day.

I suppose you went to see Kean, and enjoyed him very much {1}. What did he play? We had great fun here looking at the meteors {2}. The Great Court was full of men who clapped and encored whenever there was a good display. The Pleiads were distinctly seen to give chase to one of the brightest, but the couldn’t catch him, and so returned to their places. Conybeare, Leeke {3}, & I, got well wrapped up and lay in respective gutters on the roof of the New Court, where we could see everything. Challis, the astronomer, thought the show was a very good one. I went for a walk with Mathison the other day; we were mutually affable. My bedmaker was surprised to see him call; she said he hadn’t done so since Mr Fitzwilliam was in the rooms, and then it was beautiful to see him with his head on that gentleman’s shoulder just as if he had been his father. “Was he a fellow-commoner?” said I. “Oh yes, sir.”—The tone of this was perfect; she hates Mathison because he dropped on to her for not being here when a certain freshman came up. The new Master has given an eagle to the Chapel for the lessons to be read from {4}. Somebody told me last night that the Prince of Wales was dead; I don’t know if it’s true {5}. With best love to dear Mama and all the little ones—as Moule {6} puts it, “with warmer love than this scrawl indicates”—believe me to be

Your very affectionate son
+W. K. Clifford.

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{1} There are no references in The Times to performances by Charles Kean during this month, but the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography records that he and his wife drew crowded houses in the provinces in September.

{2} A notable meteor shower occurred on the night of the 13th. See The Times, 12 Nov., p. 10; 15 Nov., p. 10, etc.

{3} Several Leekes were at Trinity at this time. It is unclear which one is referred to here.

{4} W. H. Thompson had been admitted as Master on 17 April. This ‘eagle’, or brass lectern, was presented to the college by Thompson and his wife. See Willis and Clark, Architectural History of the University of Cambridge, vol. ii, pp. 590-1.

{5} A telegram from St Petersburg scotching this rumour was printed in The Times on the 19th (p. 10).

{6} H. C. G. Moule.