[Sir Theodore Martin, Scottish poet and author.] Two Autograph Letters Signed: one declining to contribute to E. B. Nicholson’s ‘proposed magazine’; the other to ‘Mr Lowe’, regarding a ‘vulgar’ response to Princess Mary’s bereavement.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Both items are in good condition, and each folded once. The second carries the merest trace of grey paper from a mount at one corner. ONE: To E. B. Nicholson, 3 November 1881. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium. Nicholson’s letter has been forwarded to him ‘here in my country house, where I am for a few days’. It is out of his power ‘to promise any assistance to your proposed Magazine. I write very little for the press, having very scanty leisure - and my time being already forestalled by engagements which will occupy whatever leisure I can spare for literature’. TWO: To ‘Mr. Lowe’. 2pp, 12mo. Lowe had presumably published his opinion with regard to the death of Princess Mary of Teck’s fiancé Prince Albert Victor. ‘I cannot refrain from thanking for [sic] your admirable note last note [sic] on the vulgar & heartless proposition to make a purse for the Princess Mary as a solatium for her bereavement. What are we coming to, that any journal pretending to represent British feeling & opinion should have given place in their columns to such a proposition! I am sure that numberless people who are not dead to the instincts of good feeling will thank you for what you said.’ He knows that some of those who obtained subscriptions ‘for her wedding gifts’ welcomed Lowe’s words ‘with the warmest feeling’. He ends: ‘In many cases all the subscriptions have already been returned to the donor.’