FONTHILL

Susan Euphemia Beckford, daughter of William Beckford of Fonthill, had married the 10th Duke of Hamilton in 1810. The recipient Charlotte Stuart (d.1867) was the daughter of Margaret, Lady Pulteney, by her first husband Andrew Stuart of Torrance. In 1830 she married Robert Harington, son of Sir John Edward Harington of Ridlington, 8th Baronet. The present item is two closely written pages, 4to. On bifolium of wove paper with watermark 'C WILMOT | 1822'. In good condition, lightly aged. Closely and neatly written over 63 lines.

12mo: 3 pp. Bifoilum. Thirty-six lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with several pin holes, light spotting, and a 1 cm closed tear along a fold. A lighthearted epistle, beginning 'Dear Everard, Dear Everard | The Cistercians make an awful mistake in giving free meals. My Charity-organisation Society temperament rises in wrath: if they wd only apply the labour test for an hour or less - but free meals! I have watched the moral ravages of free meals and feel more strongly abt that kind of thing than about Home rule or Mediaeval Brases.

12mo, 4 pp. Good. A bifolium, attached by a strip along the inner margin to a leaf removed from an autograph album, docketed 'Mrs. Hobart Hampden, Authoress of "The Changed Cross" '. Postscript written vertically across the upper part of the first page. Concerns a photograph of the recipient's mother: a 'sweet souvenir of such a rare & precious jewel as your dear & beautiful Mother; whom we feel it such a privelidge [sic] to see and to know'.