Letter from William Bodham Donne, London, to Frederick Walpole Keppel, 1857 September 13 : autograph manuscript signed.

Reassuring Keppel that a professional surveyor accompanies him when inspecting theaters "so if any Samson shd. pull the house down my conscience is clear", relating a humorous anecdote concerning a manager who justified the addition of the prefix "Royal" to the name of his saloon with a claim that it tended "to elevate the morals of the neighborhood" ("might not the practice be extended to graver matters, and our parish churches be denominated Royal also?"), recommending M. Guizot's Life of Richard Cromwell, commenting on the Bishop of Oxford's (Samuel Wilberforce) threat to meet any of his clergy who consent to marry divorced individuals with an inhibition, remarking on Keppel's upcoming "pilgrimage" to a music festival and his friend's general indifference to singing and instrumental music, and noting that he has not attended a Norwich (music) festival for "14 or 15 years"; describing his children's recent theatrical activities, humorously suggesting that, should Keppel convert his library to a theater, he should visit to play "Shylock, Overreach & George Barnwell", noting that he "had once quite a reputation for the two former characters.", and giving an account of some amateur theatricals which took place at the present Dean of Westminster's country house in which he himself was prevailed upon to play Caesar.