[John Wilson, Scottish author, the 'Christopher North' of Blackwood's Magazine.] Three Autograph Letters Signed to the novelist Thomas Henry Lister, conveying Edinburgh dinner invitations.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, which states that he lived in Gloucester Place from 1825. The recipient is the novelist Thomas Henry Lister (1800-1842), and the item is from the papers of his wife, Lady Theresa Lewis (1803-1865): both also have ODNB entries. The three letters are in good condition; each 2pp, 12mo, and on the first leaf of a bifolium, and all lightly aged and folded for postage, with slight damage from mount to the second leaves of each (all carrying the address in Wilson’s hand). All three with Wilson’s sprawling signature ‘John Wilson’. Wilson’s handwriting is atrocious and the following readings are in consequence tentative. ONE (‘Tuesday Evening’): Addressed to ‘Mr Lister / 17 Heriot Row’. He was ‘from home’ when the recipient called at Gloucester Place. He invites him to dinner, when ‘Mr Taylor, [the future Sir Henry Taylor] author of Philip of Ortevell [in fact ‘Philip van Artevelde’, 1834] is to be with us’. TWO (‘Thursday’): Same address as One. He invites him to dinner the following day. ‘Mr Henry Taylor, from London, is to be with us. I beg to be respectfully remembered to Thos Lister’. In the latter part of the letter he appears to say that his daughters have been kept at home by their mother, for an indisposition that is not serious. THREE (‘Saturday’): Addressed to ‘T H Lister Esqr / Gibbs’ Hotel’. Another dinner invitation. ‘Mrs Wilson having had a bad cold lately, does not at present leave home; but my daughter will accompany me at an early hour, [?] to wait on Thos Lister’.