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.

Autograph letter signed : Ashley-Combe, to [Charles Babbage?], "Tuesday" [1844?] Oct. 22 .

BIB_ID
80559
Accession number
MA 52.27
Creator
Lovelace, Ada King, Countess of, 1815-1852.
Display Date
"Tuesday" [1844?] Oct. 22 .
Credit line
Acquired before 1923.
Description
1 item (4 p.) ; 19.6 cm
Notes
David Brewster founded the Edinburgh Journal of Science in 1824 and with Charles Babbage helped to create the British Association for the Advancement of Science which first met in 1831. Brewster was a physicist, mathematician, astronomer and science writer.
Part of a collection of autograph letters written by Lord Byron, Lady Byron, Catherine Gordon Byron, Contessa Guiccioli, Ada King Lovelace and others from 1788 to 1855. Items in the collection have been described individually in separate catalog records; see collection-level record for more information.
The letter is simply addressed to "My dear Friend" but it seems very likely from the contents of the letter that she is writing to Charles Babbage.
The year of writing is not given however it is likely that the year was 1844; October 22nd fell on a Tuesday in 1844 and the year seems appropriate to its placement within the collection and the contents of the letter.
Summary
Expressing her happiness at receiving his letter; saying that "a startled conscience so easily takes fright. I knew that in some respects, I had deserved to have sunk in your esteem and confidence; consequently every little circumstance has appeared to me a proof that I had done so. You may accept my thanks; but forgiveness is uncalled for. Nothing can be more natural & explicable than what has occurred. You do not say however that you will again come & pass some time with us here; perhaps next year. And yet, day by day, as I walk up & down the Babbage terrace, do I think of this;" discussing what he said about Sir D. Brewster and asking if he would "transmit to him the following observations: viz: that I feel rather sorry he is going to write on the Engine, because I have had a kind of [illegible] intention of addressing him (during some weeks past), to consult him about writing for the Edinburgh, an account of the engine, which should be founded on the Article in it of 1835, & on Menabrea's Paper (with my Note); but which should also embrace several points of view not considered in those two publications. I should much like Sir D.N. to know this. Not that I want, for the world, to interfere with anything he has undertaken. If Sir David could indicate to me some other scientific Article, likely to be acceptable to the Edinburgh, I would at once undertake it, if it is a subject I should feel myself competent to treat as yet. Perhaps he could suggest to me a choice. I rather think some physiological topics would suit me as well as any."