[ Sir Kenelm Digby of the Home Office. ] Six Autograph Letters Signed and two Typed Letters Signed to Sir Richard Harington, on topics including the Radnorshire Police Enquiry. With letter from secretary F. J. Dryhurst.

The collection of ten items (six ALsS, two TLsS, one secretarial letter signed, and one letter from Dryhurst) is in good overall condition, with light signs of age and wear. Digby's two typed letters, both 1897, are both formal letters on behalf of the Home Secretary, regarding the Radnorshire Police Enquiry, the first being the 'official thanks' (see below). The content would appear to largely concern the Radnorshire Police Enquiry. There are a couple of references to 'Mackenzie' (Muir Mackenzie, Permanent Secretary to the Lord Chancellor, three of whose letters to Harington are offered elsewhere), 'the A. G.' (Attorney General) and 'Ld C.' (Lord Chancellor). The earliest of the ALsS is also the longest (3 August 1895; 7pp., 12mo). In it Digby lists three written items he is sending, with an offer to send more., before continuing: 'The Proceedings of the recent Conference at Paris are not likely to be published for some time, but Mr. Ruggles-Brise, Chairman of the Prisons Board, who was the English Delegate to the Conference, tells me that he hopes to complete his Report to the Secretary of State in the Course of next month; and when it is ready, I will send you a copy for your confidential use. This will probably tell you all you will want to know of the scope of the discussion and the nature of the decisions arrived at. | I shall also be glad to send you an order to visit a Convict Prison, if you will let me know to which – Portland or Dartmoor – it wd. Be most convenient to you to go.' On 12 April 1897 he thanks him for a letter 'which is important […] I cannot imagine who can have got the impression that there was the smallest amount of dissatisfaction about your conduct of the Radnorshire case. Certainly nothing that any one in the Office has said or thought can have given rise to it. The absolute contrary is the truth. The official thanks which were sent you is the sincere expression of what we all feel as to your mode of dealing with a very difficult & disagreeable matter.' A letter of 8 July 1897 begins: 'Many thanks for your letter to which though I cannot criticize in detail you will have gathered from what I said the other night I do not wholly dissent.' The letter from Frederick John Dryhurst (d.1931), written in 1895, concerns one Harington 'in reference to the Home Office Circular as to the Medical Examination of prisioners'. From the Harington papers.