[‘The most famous newspaper correspondent the world has ever seen': W. H. Russell [Sir William Howard Russell] of The Times.] Autograph Letter Signed, in French, to M. Barbotte, requesting a hotel room, and mentioning the ‘temps terrible’ of 1870.

According to Russell’s entry in the Oxford DNB, while reporting on the Civil War, he was described by one American newspaper as ‘the most famous newspaper correspondent the world has ever seen'. The inscription on his memorial in St Paul’s Cathedral calls him ‘'the first and greatest of War Correspondents'. He coined the phrase ‘thin red line’, was instrumental in the sending of Florence Nightingale to the Crimea, and is said to have written the report that inspired Tennyson to write ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’. The recipient was the proprietor of the Hotel and Restaurant Henry IV, Saint-Germain-en-Laye (which, according to an advertisement in Galignani’s ‘New Paris Guide for 1879’, was ‘The only Hotel on the Terrace. / Highly recommended, and old-established / Louis XIV. was born in this House on the 5th Sept. 1638.’). The present item is 2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, aged and worn, with thin strip of glue from mount along the gutter. Folded twice. Signed ‘W H Russell’. He enquires after ‘un petit apartment libre pour le lundi ou mardi en cas de besoin’, at a price ‘convenable à ma fortune’. He describes the specifications he requires before noting that M. de Blonetz ma dit ce que j’ai entendu avec plaisir que vous avez garde des souvenirs aimables de moi depuis cet temp terrible 70. 71’. In a postscript he expresses anxiety that ‘il y aura une grande foule à St Germain le lundi pour les courses’. It may be that Russell attended the racing with the future King Edward VII: he was, as the Oxford DNB states, ‘a member of the Prince of Wales's circle, though his relationship with the prince fluctuated, and he deplored the depravity and obscenity of some of his set’.