Letter from William Bodham Donne, Bury St. Edmunds, to Frederick Walpole Keppel, 1850 November 7 : autograph manuscript signed.

Explaining that he has been too busy writing for periodicals, editing Tacitus, and writing entries for a geographical dictionary, to write; commenting on the reaction in England to the expected arrival of "the scarlet woman" in London (a reference to Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman, the newly appointed Archbishop of Westminster, dispatched from Rome to restore a diocesan hierarchy in England), and remarking on a lecture he gave on the subject of Guy Fawkes, in which he did not "abuse Romanism", but gave his audience, instead, "a lecture on the duty of toleration"; asking Keppel if he could persuade a suitable family to take Mattishall "for a term of years", as Donne is not likely to return there for a while, as he is trying at present for a position in London and is hoping to teach at the London University; noting that they will have more frequent opportunities to visit one another in London, and that his position as Examiner of Plays allows him to take his friends to the theater gratis; stating that he has heard the (Rev. Thomas) Paddon is suffering from shingles.