[Lord Macaulay [Thomas Babington Macaulay], great British historian.] Two Autograph Letters Signed and Autograph Note in third person to Lady Theresa Lewis, with Autograph envelope, including one letter written within sixteen days of his death.

See his long and appreciative entry in the Oxford DNB, with that of the recipient Lady [Maria] Theresa Lewis (1803-1865), who lived in Kent House in Knightsbridge with her second husband Sir George Cornewall Lewis, Bart, her first husband having been the novelist Thomas Henry Lister (1800-1842). All items in good condition, lightly aged, with the letters folded for postage. ONE (6 July 1853): 1p, 12mo. ‘Dear Lady Theresa, / I will breakfast with you on Monday, and, in order to do so, will postpone my departure from town till the afternoon of that day. / Most truly yours, / T B Macaulay’. TWO: Autograph Note in the third person, 8 December 1859. 1p, 12mo. ‘Lord Macaulay will do himself the honor of waiting on Sir G Cornewall and Lady Theresa Lewis to dinner next Tuesday’. THREE: Envelope for Item Two, with printed pink penny stamp. Three postmarks, one from London on front and one from Kensington on back. Addressed to ‘The / Lady Theresa Lewis / Kent House / Knightsbridge / SW’, and initialed at bottom left ‘M.’ FOUR: Autograph Letter Signed, 12 December 1859. 2pp, 12mo. This letter would be poignant in any event, but as the Oxford DNB notes, at the time of writing he was well aware that he did not have long to live. Written by Macaulay on the first leaf, with the recipient’s autograph note on the recto of the second leaf: ‘The last letter I received from Ld Macaulay. / He died Wednesday Decr. 28. / 1859’. The letter reads: ‘Dear Lady Theresa Lewis, / I caught so bad a cold at the British Museum on Saturday that I am now condemned to slops and blisters, and that I have not the faintest hope of being able to get to Kent House to morrow I am extremely concerned that it should be so. Ever, dear Lady Theresa, / Yours most faithfully, / Macaulay’. See Image.