Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Letter from Uvedale Price, Foxley, to Sir George Beaumont, 1804 July 10 : autograph manuscript signed.

BIB_ID
414302
Accession number
MA 1581.124
Creator
Price, Uvedale, Sir, 1747-1829, sender.
Display Date
Foxley, England, 1804 July 10.
Credit line
Purchased from Benjamin Ifor Evans, 1954.
Description
1 item (4 pages, with address) ; 22.4 x 18.2 cm
Notes
Written from Foxley, Price's estate near Yazor, Herefordshire.
Address panel with postmarks: "Sir George Beaumont Bart / Coleorton Hall / near / Loughborough."
This item was formerly identified as MA 1581 (Price) 58.
This letter is from a large collection of letters written to Sir George Howland Beaumont (1753-1827) and Lady Margaret Willes Beaumont (1758-1829) of Coleorton Hall, and to other members of the Beaumont family.
Provenance
Purchased as a gift of the Fellows from Benjamin Ifor Evans, 1954.
Summary
Complimenting Sir George's verses, both as delivered by him in person and written down: "I now therefore confirm the opinion I gave you when & I were riding on the Dickey between St Albans & Woburn; that it is a most excellent supplement to Goldsmith. But this is not all; I have two female critics in the house, & as sharp a pair of critics as ever scratched an author, as I know by experience, & they both most highly approve; & I must tell you that after L[ad]y Caroline had read them, & had given me back the letter, she desired to have it again, & read them a second time with the same pleasure, & made a copy of them: & moreover they are to be written on a vacant leaf of Goldsmith's works in my very best hand"; mentioning encountering a Mr. and Mrs. Rice near Coleorton; saying that Lady Margaret has undoubtedly received his "Philippic on the proposed compression of the house" (see the previous letter, MA 1581.122); remarking on other changes they have made; adding "I perfectly agree with you that a pool so near the house should be dressed, & that the banks should not be left rude"; discussing the technique of "undermining" which he believes is "the only method by which you can artificially make a painter's broken foreground"; saying that he looks forward to visiting them and seeing "the effect of all that has been pulled down, & all that has been put up, provided always there is no compression, & that I can stand in the bow window of the drawing room, & see the best hill in the best place"; adding some minor criticisms of Beaumont's verses; copying down lines from Beaumont's poem with the changes incorporated and saying "You will be surprised when you open this letter to cast your eye on your own verses, but I hope will not be angry that your friend has attempted to garble & mend them."