[‘it rejoices our Household’: Linley Sambourne, ‘First Cartoonist’ with Punch magazine.] Autograph Letter Signed, congratulating George Meredith on receiving the Order of Merit.

See the entries on Sambourne and Meredith in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged and folded twice for postage. Addressed ‘To George Meredith Esquire / O.M.’ and signed ‘Linley Sambourne’ with the usual five underlinings. Begins: ‘Dear Mr Meredith, / I venture to write & let you know how very much it rejoices our Household that his majesty has confered [sic] on you the Order of Merit. I, amongst countless others have always felt the incompleteness of that most distinguished body with your name absent. / Long may you live to adorn the order & have the Honour added to though an addition is hardly possible as it is at the top of everything. It is so many years since I had the pleasure of speaking to you but in those [back?] years you had ever a kind word of sympathy to me in [works?] that it is a double pleasure to me at the excuse for this letter.’ From the autograph album of Meredith's daughter Marie Eveleen (‘Mariette’; 1871-1933), later the wife of Henry Parkman Sturgis (1847-1929), American-born banker and Liberal politician. Note: Extracted from an Album of Autograph Letters created by Meredith's daughter which included letters to George Meredith from distinguished fellow-writers (as here) such as Henry James, George Eliot but also from people of distinction (such as Wellington and Clemenceau) to other correspondents