16 Autograph Letters Signed and 2 Autograph Cards Signed to William Toynbee, editor of the diaries of his father William Charles Macready.

Macready's entry in the Oxford DNB states that he destroyed his diary and personal papers after the publication of his memoirs in 1924, and that of his father notes that he dealt with William Charles Macready's ‘copious and uninhibited diaries’ in similar fashion in 1914 - two years after the appearance of Toynbee’s edition. The present collection of eighteen items is in good condition, lightly aged, and folded for postage. All signed 'C F N Macready' and addressed to 'My dear Toynbee'. The text of the letters totals 35pp (compising 1p, 8vo; 25pp, 12mo; 9pp, 16mo). No dates are given, but a card from the Victoria Hotel, Manchester is in its envelope, postmarked 6 July 1911 and addressed to ‘W. Toynbee Esq / 30. South Eaton Place / London S.W.’ In it Macready complains that he has been ‘bundled off here to stop the strikers at two hours untill [sic] last night’. (In November of 1910, according to the Oxford DNB, he had been ‘sent to command troops in support of police dealing with possible disorders arising from a miners’ strike’. The three longest and most interesting letters, from 16, 22 and 28 November [1924], with the letterhead of the Grand Hotel des Lecques, Plage des Lecques, St Cyr-sur-Mer, all refer to the recent publication of his autobiography. In the first he writes that ‘The agents say it is well turned out. Personally I think the price to high for a big sale but that of course is Hutchinson’s [the publisher] affair.’ He was ‘rather amused at the review in Times of 14th. The writer I should say is rather more of a purely litterary [sic] stamp than of military habits.’ As ‘the galley proofs are destroyed’ he asks Toynbee’s advice on the charge of £14 from ‘King Hall & Arbuthnot’, ‘for the alterations you & I made apart from printers’ errors’. He complains that his hotel has been invaded by a ‘party of Americans’, and comments on his recent reading: ‘He mauls Randolph Churchill badly, & legitimacy in royal & upper circles seems rather the exception than the rule!’ In the second of the three he comments on reviews and complains of printers’ errors. ‘Your praise of the work is very gratifying as from “one who knows”, & you have made a friend for life of the lady who slaved at the typing, who, I always tell her, is prejudiced.’ There is reference to a wed. ding at St Maur and ‘Letty’, and there are further complaints about Americans at the hotel. He concludes, with reference to a London scandal known as the ‘Robinson Cheque Case’: ‘That Robinson case is pretty lurid - I presume the potentate is the Shah of Persia - It should make a good plot for the next Empire Review. Lady Diana Duff Cooper (Manners) in the role of Mrs. Robinson and Angela Forbes as Mrs. Bevan!’ He returns to the scandal in the third letter: ‘I am wondering if the “Rajah” in the Robinson case could be Rhanjitsinghi - the cricketer. It looked at first rather like the Shah. No doubt he followed the practices of “the cities of the plain”. Elsewhere in the letter he expresses satisfaction with Hutchinson’s advertising, and the reviews he is receiving: ‘I am having all the Press notices suck in my m.ss. books’. Regarding the printing costs ‘Arbuthnot wrote me that he had received your note & was fighting H., whom he had got the better of on a former occasion for an extortionate charge.’ Regarding ‘Dougherty’s effusion yesterday’ he writes: ‘No I am quite sure I had not confused him with anyone else - I can see him before me now “screaming” & waving his arms. My difficulty is that I am away from all my notes, especially the Royal Com[missio]n. proceedings on the Howth incident, which I had written for.’ In an earlier letter, evidently written after the 1912 publication of his father’s diaries, he refers to a ‘Miss Hogarth’, who ‘mentions one slip, probably the result of the handwriting in the diaries’. In another letter, with a reference to the recent death of the actor Laurence Irving which dates it to 1914, Macready announces his return to London (from Ireland), ‘for how long - only Providence & the Cabinet know! & I doubt they do. I am fairly tired of it all & the impossibility of seeing a yard ahead. [...] I was quite shaken by the news of poor Laurence Irving’s death - a very great loss to the stage.’ Just before Christmas of 1913 he expresses a fear of ‘what - politically - [1914] may bring us, so let us hope we may find compensation in our private lives!’ In the same letter he suggests that the Marquis Cornwallis’s correspondence ‘throws a shadow before on what may happen, though I still maintain that means will be found to prick the bladder & let the noxious gas out before an explosion occurs’. A letter of 7 October [1923] begins, with a reference to his autobiography: ‘Here I am having done the last paged proof & handed in the Index wh. Hutchinson [the book’s publisher] is screaming for. Directly I get the proof of it I will send you a wire in case you may be able to run up & have a look at it. It has been a Tough job but I think it pretty full, though I had absolutely refused to check the pages again. Someone else can do that!’ He concludes with the query: ‘I wonder who the next lot of political place warmers will be? There is not much change between any of them.’ On 8 March [1927] he thanks Toynbee for the gift of his book ‘Phases of the Thirties’.