[Robert Gooch, physician, obstetrician and Librarian to George IV.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Robt Gooch'), inviting the recipient to his house to talk 'for an hour or two about Yarmouth news'.

Author: 
Robert Gooch (1784-1830), physician, obstetrician, Librarian to George IV, friend of poet laureate Robert Southey
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£100.00
SKU: 21701

1p, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to the second leaf, which has been cut down the middle vertically, resulting in loss to one of the two postmarks, as well as to Gooch's addressing of the letter: '[...]ent Esqre | […] Webb Street | […] Borough –'. Gooch begins his letter: 'Dear Sir, | I shall be very happy to see you at my House, and I have deferred writing to say so because I could not fix a time for it.' He suggests a time for him to dine on the following Sunday, adding: 'I shall be quite alone and happy to talk with you for an hour or two about Yarmouth news.' He concludes with thanks for the 'Pheasants', which were 'very fine'. From the distinguished autograph collection of the psychiatrist Richard Alfred Hunter (1923-1981), whose collection of 7000 works relating to psychiatry is now in Cambridge University Library. Hunter and his mother Ida Macalpine had a particular interest in the illness of King George III, and their book 'George III and the Mad Business' (1969) suggested the diagnosis of porphyria popularised by Alan Bennett in his play 'The Madness of George III'.