URQUHART

[Arethusa Gibson on Thackeray: 'Is he not a little odd?'] Autograph Letter [from her to her mother Lady Cullum], expressing uncertainty about 'Mr Thackery', mocking MP and diplomat David Urquhart, and praising the 'Turkish Chargé d'Affaires'.

Author: 
Arethusa Gibson [née Susannah Arethusa Cullum] (1814-1885), society hostess, wife of Thomas Milner Gibson (1806-1884), Liberal politician [William Makepeace Thackeray; David Urquhart]
Publication details: 
No place or date, but circa 1846-1848, when Thackeray was publishing under the pseudonym 'Michael Angelo Titmarsh'. On letterhead of 'Arethusa'.
£250.00

See the separate entries on the Gibsons in the Oxford DNB, which notes 'her eclectic salons, attended by diplomats, writers, politicians, and, after 1848, European exiles. Regular guests included Dickens, Thackeray, Hugo, Lady Morgan, the Disraelis, Cobden, and Louis Napoleon'. (Dickens wrote part of his last novel, 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood', at the Gibsons' London house.) The present item is from the papers of Arethusa's mother Lady Ann Cullum (1807-1875), wife of Rev. Sir Thomas Gery Cullum (1777-1855) of Hardwick House. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium.

[Rev. David Henry Urquhart.] Autograph Letter Signed from his wife Eliza Urquhart to his publishers [Cadell & Davies], urging them to send proofs [of his 'Commentaries on Classical Learning'] more quickly, or 'the Season will inevitably be lost'.

Author: 
Rev. David Henry Urquhart (c.1754-1829), Prebendary of Lincoln [Cadell & Davies, London publishers; Thomas Cadell (1773-1836); William Davies; Andrew Strahan (1750-1831), printer; Spottiswoode]
Publication details: 
Doncaster. 5 May [1803].
£100.00

1p., 4to. On aged paper, with damage and discoloration to one margin. Eliza Urquhart begins her letter: 'Gentlemen, | Mr Urquhart has desired me to acquaint you that he thinks it would be adviseable immediately to see Mr Spotswood [i.e. Spottiswoode, then an employee of the book's printer Andrew Strahan] on the subject of accelerating the printing of his work, as from the present tardiness with which the proofs are sent, he thinks the Season will inevitably be lost'.

Typed Letter Signed from Major A. M. Urquhart, Royal Artillery, to Rev. William Henderson Begg, giving a summary (as President of the Committee of Adjustment) of what has been done regarding his brother Captain Robert Henderson Begg's estate in India

Author: 
Major A. M. Urquhart, Royal Artillery [Rev. William Henderson-Begg (1877-1934), Rector of St Paul's and Canon of Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh; Captain Robert Henderson Begg (d.1915); Siege of Kut
Publication details: 
The Arsenal, Ferozepore, India. 27 April 1916.
£56.00

2pp., foolscap 8vo. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper. Captain Begg had died at the Siege of Kut Al Amara, Mesopotamia (now Iraq), and Urquhart begins by informing the Rev. Begg that the inventory which he sent of his brother's effects has 'gone astray'. 'In order to save any further delay I am forwarding you a complete list including some things recently recovered from Kirkee Arsenal. Would you kindly point out what you wish returned to you. The remaining items will be sold by auction here.' He continues with 'a summary of what has been done up to date'.

Syndicate content