Autograph Letter Signed from the dramatist and editor of 'Punch' Tom Taylor to Francis Mewburn of Darlington, announcing his retirement from the Northern Circuit, and describing his appointment as Assistant Secretary of the Board of Health.

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Good, on aged paper, with remains of stub along one edge. Written in a difficult hand. Taylor begins: 'Dear Mr Mewburn, I shall not be at Sessions [as a barrister on the northern circuit] any more. I have just accepted an appointment as legal Assistant Secretary to the Board of Health, and I enter on the duties of the place on Monday. The salary is £500 per: an: to begin with, with the prospect of increase. I think the work will suit me, and I am sure that the situation will be one of increasing responsibility and duties every day more onerous & useful.' He hopes this step will meet with Mewburn's approval, and asks to be remembered 'most affectionately to all at Larch field'. He concludes 'My vacations in future will be short - but I hope, nevertheless, to be able to spend the first of them, or part of it, in Darlington.'