[Gladstone and photography: ‘It is a process he particularly dislikes’.] Autograph Letter Signed from his private secretary Spencer Lyttelton [to A.G.L. Rogers, Secry, Liberal Publications Dept], conveying Gladstone's refusal to sit for a portrait.

Lyttelton was Gladstone’s private secretary during three of his terms as prime minister. The recipient Arthur George Liddon Rogers (1864-1944, son of the editor of the economist Thorold Rogers) is not named, but the item is from his papers, and was written while he was Secretary of the Liberal Publication Department, a position to which he was appointed in November 1891. 2pp, 12mo. Signed ‘Spencer Lyttleton.’ In good condition, lightly aged and folded for postage. Begins: ‘Dear Sir / I am afraid I cannot ask Mr Gladstone again to sit for his photograph according to your suggestion in the letter to Mr H. Gladstone [the prime minister’s son Herbert]. It is a process he particularly dislikes, & the moment is specially unfavourable as it was only yesterday that he was taken by Messrs. Valentine.’ As ‘most admirable portaits’ of Gladstone ‘exist & can very easily be procured’, Lyttelton does not see the necessity of another. He concludes: ‘Your photographer is quite at liberty to take what views he wishes of the Castle & grounds.’