[ Lady Strangford. ] Manuscript letter to her, in French, signed by the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire [ Mahmud Nedim Pasha ], with Autograph copies in English and French of her reply.

Author: 
Lady Strangford [ Emily Anne Smyth (née Beaufort), Viscountess Strangford ] (c.1826-1887), military nurse and founder of hospitals [ Mahmud Nedim Pasha (c.1818-1883), Grand Vizier ]
Publication details: 
The letter from the Grand Vizier on letterhead of the Grand-Vézirat of the Sublime Porte, 14 October 1875. Strangford's draft and copy both undated.
£950.00
SKU: 18741

All in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The Grand Vizier's letter, addressed to 'The Lady Strangford' and written in a secretarial hand, is 1p., 8vo, on the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium; the autograph copy of Strangford's reply is on both sides of the second leaf of the same bifolium. The English copy of her reply is 2pp., 8vo, on a separate leaf. The Grand Vizier, on behalf of the Imperial Government, is sending, as 'un témoignage particulier' of its appreciation of 'les qualités qui vous distinguent' and of 'les sentiments sympathiques dont vous etes animée envers notre pays', 'un bracelet enrichi de brillants'. He asks her to keep it 'comme un Souvenir de votre séjour a Constantinople'. In reply she states that she 'received His Majesty's gift with a personal feeling of pleasure and gratitude; it will accompany me to England as a precious souvenir of my last visit to His Majesty's capital, - to which, I hope, Inshallah, to return'. She hopes that the Sultan will 'believe that he never bestowed a souvenir upon one whose heart was more devoterdf to the welfare of the Turkish Empire than myself, or to a more ardent supporter of the Ottoman sceptre. These sentiments I inherit from my husband who laboured, in the service of this country all his life in Constantinople and London. To him is due all the warm affection I bear to the country my husband loved so dearly.' She is returning to England, where shge will 'watch with intense interest the progress of those reforms upon the execution of which the welfare of this great Empire actually depends.' She ends in discussion of the 'good wishes' the English feel towards the Turks.