[‘The best private Collection in the Kingdom’: William Lowther, 2nd Earl of Lonsdale.] Autograph Letter Signed regarding excavations at Moresby Hall, Cumbria, and his ‘collection of Statues in Roman & Greek antiquities’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Signed ‘Lonsdale’. Recipient (‘Dear Sir’) not named. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin neat strip of windowpane mount at edges. Folded twice for postage. He has received the recipient’s letter, and is ‘sorry on different accounts the excavations have not arrived at a better success. As the miners say, I fear the old man has been there before us, the Broughams & Fletchers & other possessor of Moresby Hall have had their digging ages ago.’ (Moresby Hall had descended through the Moresby and Fletcher families until sold to Sir John Brougham of Scales in 1720, who sold it to Sir James Lowther 1737.) He thinks that, ‘when the work across the Camp in search of the Forum is completed, & some fittings about the angles made’, ‘It will be well to abandon it for the year & reflect upon what has been done, & whether there is sufficient prospect to do any thing further.’ He has ‘lately discovered at [Thorp?] Abbey some carved reliefs in stone, old stone [Coffins?] which are interesting’. He ends by thanking the recipient ‘for the time you have directed to this interesting subject. As you have a taste for antiquities, I shall be glad to show my collection of Statues in Roman & Greek antiquities. I believe it is the best private Collection in the Kingdom. They are not all at Lowther at present. Some are at my villa at Barnes. But they will all be at Lowther in the Spring.’