[Sir Stratford Canning [Lord Stratford de Redcliffe], diplomat.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Stratford de R.') to Lord Monteagle, giving his 'dog-latin' inscription for the tomb of the Duke of Wellington's brother Lord Wellesley ('Duke of Hindostan').

The four-line Latin poem in this letter by Lord Stratford de Redcliffe (better known as Sir Stratford Canning and cousin of Prime Minister George Canning) is apparently unknown, and certainly unpublished. The letter is 3pp, 16mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. It begins: 'My dear Lord Monteagle, | The interesting anecdote you told me in the steamer last night of Lord Wellesley, followed me home, and buzzed about my pillow.' Jokingly referring to Wellesley as 'the “Duke of Hindostan”', he wonders what he would have said, 'if you had proposed, as an appropriate inscription for his tomb something like the dog-latin lines which I submit to you below?' The four-line poem (apparently referring to Wellesley and his younger brother the Duke of Wellington) is written across the two central pages of the bifolium. It begins: 'Frater ego illius, qui, per tot bella triumphans, | Europam implevit laude Asiamque suâ, | [...]'.