1 Autograph Letter Signed from W[illiam?] Maugham to Percy Gye.

Provides invaluable information on the traditions of Charterhouse, the ancient charitable London institution. Maugham may well be the translator of Charles Tilt's 1828 edition of Friedrich Christian Accum's A Practical Essay on Chemical Re-agents. 4 pages, 16mo, grubby but in otherwise good condition. The first page has a mourning border. 'Saturday was the anniversary of the feast devoted to the memory of the founder, and the brothers, in health, feasted in the banquetting hall, and I dare say enjoyed themselves. I am on the sick list and was happily excused. I had my dinner in my own room, and, along with it, they sent me half a pint of good Port. To day there will be at seven o'clock a dinner in the same Hall, when the Governors and Master along with numerous nobility and men of importance will no doubt be present. To-day they have sent to me another extra dinner of good things & half a pint of Port.' He asks his correspondent about a reference to 'travellers', whom he guesses are or were bound for Italy. 'We can receive anything here, and we can take away whatever has once been sent to our rooms, except our gown, which we are expected to take care of for two years and then it becomes our own, & is replaced by a new one. We only wear the gown at dinner and in the chapel; but we can wear it all day within the premises. If any one should go outside in his gown, he would be fined £2 to be paid out of his quarterly allowance. Besides a comfortable room with firing and candles and attendance abundant, we receive 10£ quarterly for clothes, &c. Tea, Sugar, and all groceries we must find ourselves, as well as wine, spirits, &c. We have to find our crockery & many other things. We are found bed and bedding, one table and one chair, all the rest we have to find ourselves. One day when I first came here, seeing my bare oak boards, an old friend of mine, a country gentleman, went and ordered me at a warehouse a Brussels carpet so that the room now is more comfortable.' Discusses a promise made by Gye's father to supply him with shirts. He would like to hear news of Ernest, Lionel and Herbert. 'We can do whatever may be to our benefit. I may teach or write so as to increase my income. The translator of Dumas' works is here, and there are several other literary brothers, poets, &c.' In a postscript he says 'A hamper should always be sealed [underlined] with Wax. | My room is No 80 Cloisters. Mrs. Stone the Matron has her suite of rooms on the floor beneath me.'