Stuk 11 - Letter from W. K. Clifford to William Clifford

1 folded sheet

(Cambridge.)—Sends birthday greetings. He had intended to send him a gun, but it will have to wait, as the Government has decided to send them to Gibraltar to see the eclipse after all. They leave on Saturday fortnight, but he hopes to be back by Christmas.

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Transcript

Dearest Papa

I write to wish you very many and very happy returns of the day, each bringing more honours and more contentment with them. I meant to have been able to send you a gun in time, but I could not manage it; and now it must wait till Christmas, because it appears that the government is going to send us to Gibraltar to see the Eclipse after all. The expedition starts on Saturday fortnight}, {1} and I hope to be back in time to spend Xtmas day with you. Charley Frost {2} says he never enjoyed a day so much as that one when we went to S. Ives. When Brown gets his living he may be made to return you your pocket handkerchief. I have just come from lecture†, and have got 5 minutes to catch the post. Goodbye, and believe me

Your most loving son
W. K. Clifford.

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{1} 29 November.

{2} Perhaps a relative of Percival Frost, Clifford’s private tutor while an undergraduate at Trinity. See ‘William Kingdon Clifford’, Nature, 13 Mar. 1879, pp. 443-4.

† Sic.