[ Sir George Cornewall Lewis, Liberal politician. ] Commencement of Autograph Letter to Lady Monteagle, expressing his distress and that of his wife [ over a death in her family ].

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium with mourning border. Ends abruptly at the end of the fourth page, and without signature. For the period an unusually frank expression of distress, apparently over the death of his wife's elder daughter He thanks her for calling on him with books - 'when you so kindly came to that House though I had intended so very much to see you I felt all my courage fail - & that I s[houl]d. only distress you & do myself harm if I saw you'. Being in the country has done him 'a great deal of good'; he is 'quite a different creature', and has 'taken even to drawing!' Turning to his wife Lady Maria Theresa Lewis [née Villiers] (1803-1865) he writes: 'Theresa has been less well, for to her the change has brought most painful associations. Leaving London having always been the happy time when she had more of his society. However she is now better again & we can only pray to God to bring her through this dreary time of sorrow'. He was not able to read her books in London, but has been doing so 'by bits' in Watford. There are references to 'Griffith's book' and 'the poem' before the abrupt end.