[William Charles Macready, celebrated actor, friend of Charles Dickens.] Autograph Letter Signed ('W. C. Macready.') [to 'Hawtrey'], regarding Prince Albert, the education of the poor, and the recipient's brother's school.

4pp., 16mo. Bifolium with mourning border, on paper embossed with the Macready crest. In fair condition, lightly aged, with torn hole to one corner of the first leaf (not affecting text), presumably caused by removal from mount. The recipient is clearly a member of the Hawtrey family (and presumably a relation of Edward Craven Hawtrey of Eton), as the letter concludes with the Macready family's best wishes 'to Mrs. Hawtrey'. It must date from before Macready's departure for Cheltenham in 1860. The letter begins: 'My dear Sir | I am very much obliged to you for the account of your Brother's School, of which I had heard some interesting description from Mr. Henry Hawtrey. I shall read it with profit I am sure, and it is to me a great gratification and a sustaining hope to see such efforts, whilst at the same time we have to lament such adverse movements as this little town affords us the spectacle of.' He next mentions 'a Meeting announced with Prince Albert to preside to take the subject of the education of the poor into consideration'. He fears that, 'with all good will', the 'promoters' are 'too far removed from the poor to know the remedies required for the existing evil'.