BIB_ID
429665
Accession number
MA 23289.51
Creator
Heard, William Augustus, Rev., 1847-1921.
Display Date
Eastbourne, England, 1889? December.
Credit line
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1908.
Description
1 item (4 pages) ; 20.2 x 12.8 cm
Notes
The year of writing is not provided; however, the letter concerns an invitation to Knight by "the family" to be a pall bearer at the interment of Robert Browning at Westminster Abbey. See also MA 23289.2 dated December 25. Browning died December 12, 1889 and was interred in Poet's Corner on December 31, 1889.
Written from "The Grand Hotel Eastbourne" on the hotel stationery.
Acquired as part of a large collection of letters addressed to William Angus Knight, Chair of Moral Philosophy at the University of St. Andrews and Wordsworth scholar. Items in the collection have been individually accessioned and cataloged.
Written from "The Grand Hotel Eastbourne" on the hotel stationery.
Acquired as part of a large collection of letters addressed to William Angus Knight, Chair of Moral Philosophy at the University of St. Andrews and Wordsworth scholar. Items in the collection have been individually accessioned and cataloged.
Provenance
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan from William Angus Knight, 1908.
Summary
Concerning the invitation by Browning's family for Knight to be a pall bearer; informing Knight that he was successful in getting him "... a special Ticket for the South Transept. But Smith & Elder subsequently informed him that the family had asked you to be a pall bearer - which I was most glad to hear & accordingly I offered to return the ticket...If, as is most unlikely, you do not accept the invitation of the family, I have arranged with [illegible] that you shall sit in the Choir with me. Smith & Elder said they had not received your reply - but I pointed out that you were perhaps out of St. Andrews for the day & that it was practically quite certain you would accept. I am very pleased at this invitation, because as I may tell you at least one pall bearer practically asked not once but twice to be appointed. This is between ourselves. I wrote to you very hastily yesterday & fear I did not thank you with half the gratitude I feel for your great exertions about Fettes. I return to town on Monday. One man to whom I shewed my testimonials was wonderfully struck with yours."
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