BIB_ID
128745
Accession number
MA 8730
Creator
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine), 1834-1924.
Display Date
1864 Sept. 2.
Description
1 item (4 pages) : ill. ; 17.8 x 11.2 cm
Notes
Removed from the collection of J. Pierpont Morgan papers September 30, 1947.
The letter is in an envelope inscribed in the autograph of Mrs. J. Pierpont Morgan "Mrs. Frank Johnston's letter from Mr. Baring-Gould."
With three pen and ink illustrations in the body of the letter. The first is illustrating a riddle he has written, the second of a student or master in academic robes and mortarboard walking next to a "Canadian Indian" holding a tomahawk in one hand and dressed in a loin cloth and the third of a freckled figure, facing forward, in a monk's robe and with bare feet.
Joseph Leicester Lyne, known as Father Ignatius of Jesus, was an Church of England monk, who created a community at Elm Hill, Norwich in the Benedictine tradition and later established the Llanthony Abbey in Wales.
The letter is in an envelope inscribed in the autograph of Mrs. J. Pierpont Morgan "Mrs. Frank Johnston's letter from Mr. Baring-Gould."
With three pen and ink illustrations in the body of the letter. The first is illustrating a riddle he has written, the second of a student or master in academic robes and mortarboard walking next to a "Canadian Indian" holding a tomahawk in one hand and dressed in a loin cloth and the third of a freckled figure, facing forward, in a monk's robe and with bare feet.
Joseph Leicester Lyne, known as Father Ignatius of Jesus, was an Church of England monk, who created a community at Elm Hill, Norwich in the Benedictine tradition and later established the Llanthony Abbey in Wales.
Summary
Expressing his hopes that he is doing well after a recent "scrape;" saying "You are like Job, scrape, scrape, scrape: however I hope you are all right now, & restored to your ab-normal condition, Which will last a few days it is to be hoped;" giving him a riddle and commenting "I do not suppose that mortal man much less a hulking boy could guess it, so here is the answer;" providing a pen and ink illustration with the answer of a man and woman riding a horse; telling him he would "be very glad to hear any news of Hurst (Hurstpierpoint) from you & to hear what the next scrape is you have got into, also how you are getting on with your arithmetic;" telling him he has heard "on good authority that you have picked up as a bosom-friend a Canadian Indian & that you & he are always to be seen together - I have been imaging that you must be like this;" inserting a pen and ink drawing of a student walking arm-in-arm with a man dressed in a loin cloth, wearing a headdress and carrying a tomahawk in his raised right hand; asking the name "of the savage? How does Mr. Badgley get on with him;" asking if he "heard Ignatius during the holidays. He was preaching at S. Mary Magdalens...I fancied that he might produce such an effect on you that the next I should hear of you would be that you were to be found at Norwich in his Benedictine Monastery with bare feet, no trowsers [sic], & a shaved head, & that you had renounced for ever the inexpensive luxury of washing...& that if ever I saw you again, you would be like this, only to be recognized by the never to be forgotten freckles;" inserting a pen and ink drawing of a figure, facing forward, in a monk's robe, with bare feet, large pointed ears and a very freckled face; concluding with an epigram "The world of fools has such a store / That he who would not see an ass, / Must stay at home, bolt up the door / And break his looking glass;" asking to be remembered to his "fellow-mischief maker Jackie"; adding, in a postscript, a riddle, "What animal would you like to be on a cold day? A little otter of course!" and asking him to "Give the enclosed note to Jesse Forman."
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