[Lady Jane Davy, widow of the chemist and inventor Sir Humphry Davy.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Mr. Stirling’, regarding her ‘project for Spain’ and the suitability of Stirling’s former courier Jose Medina.

See her husband’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 16mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with traces of mount on blank reverse of second leaf. Addressed to ‘Dear Mr. Stirling’ and signed ‘Jane Davy’. She begins by asking him if he considers Jose Medina, the courier he had in Spain, ‘intelligent, active, & willing’. She adds: ‘I should now & then like my own way; will he allow me such an indulgence?’ She also wants to know if Medina is ‘fairly honest’, by which she means ‘that he will not allow others to cheat me. He asks me if my project for Spain is realized, Ten Pounds per month, & travelling expenses in Spain, when I have my own little Establishment, his food is to be in my Kitchen ones.’ She will be grateful for any information, and appeals to his charity, ‘as it would be a good deed to assist an old Lady Traveller. My projects are more uncertain than my inclinations, for I really pine to see Seville & other Cities in the Spain all Travellers love.’ She will be there ‘some weeks’, but ‘as early an answer as may be convenient’ to him would be valuable. Docketed at foot of final page in a Victorian hand ‘Wife of Sir Humphry Davy’. See Wikipedia entry: was a rich widow who had travelled in Europe and she moved to Edinburgh where she established herself at the centre of Scottish literary society.[2] It was said that she had inspired the character of Corinne who was the protagonist in Anne Louise Germaine de Staël's 1807 novel. She had met Germaine de Staël but that influence is more reliably assigned to Diodata Saluzzo Roero.[3]She turned down a proposal to become the wife of the elder Professor John Playfair and instead accepted the proposal of the celebrity scientist Sir Humphry Davy.[2] The new couple travelled to Paris, Florence and then Rome accompanied by Michael Faraday. During the trip Davy received a medal from Napoleon and Davy and Faraday proved that diamonds were flammable. They returned to England when Napoleon escaped from Elba. They continued to travel in Europe, but increasingly they travelled separately as they had a difficult relationship. Nevertheless, Lady Davy travelled to Rome when she heard that her husband had been taken ill there, and she accompanied him to Geneva where he died in 1829.