Author:
Mark Pattison (1813-1884), academic, Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford, candidate for the original of Edward Casaubon in George Eliot's Middlemarch [Reginald Lane Poole (1857-1939), historian]
Publication details:
7 May 1883; on letterhead of Lincoln College, Oxford.
3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. The recipient is not named, but the conclusion of the letter makes it clear it is Poole. Written in a shaky hand a little over a year before Pattison's death. The context of the letter makes clear that as a married man, Poole is attempting to take advantage of the previous year's revision of the Oxford college statutes enjoining celibacy. It begins: 'Dear Sir | You seem to be under a misapprehension as to the historical lectureship for which you wish to become a candidate.