20 ALS and 2 autograph manuscripts by Chandos Leigh, first Baron Leigh of Stoneleigh. Almost all of the letters were written during his travels on the Continent. Ten were written to his parents and sister in 1818-19 while he was on the grand tour. Letters from Switzerland and the Alps describe the scenery, particularly near Vevey and Lake Como, and refer to the writings of Rousseau, Byron, and Thomas Moore. Letters from Florence and Rome detail his responses to art and architecture, particularly the Venus de Medici, the sculpture of Canova and Thorvaldsen, and "the pride, pomp and circumstance" of Roman Catholic churches and ceremonies, which "must disgust the severe taste of the English traveller." Leigh also mentions Lord Byron, Lady Drury and Lord Beauchamp, the "set of regular English Dandies" and English ladies in Rome, the unattractiveness of Roman women, and his own purchase of a Salvator Rosa painting and Three letters to Sir Egerton Brydges, written during the Leigh family's stay in Switzerland in 1837, concern Leigh's poetry, his health, and a possible visit. His letters to his nephew Frederick Colvile contain news of his health and family; travel descriptions; and advice on Colvile's education. A March 1836 letter announces that the trustees of Rugby School have "unanimously decided in favour of Dr. Arnold;" a December 1837 letter comments that "Dr. Newman's book" (Lectures on Justification?) "contains much that is...to an ordinary man unintelligible." Other topics include the 1850 death of Sir Robert Peel and Leigh's own Liberal Party politics. The collection also contains autograph manuscripts of two poems by Leigh: "The First Days of Spring" and "Hymn for the Consecration of the Church on Westwood Heath."
Description:
Chandos Leigh (1791-1850) was educated at Harrow School, where he met Lord Byron, and Christ Church, Oxford, following which he made the grand tour with Philip Shuttleworth. A distant cousin of Jane Austen's, and a generous literary patron to Leigh Hunt and others, Leigh privately published over two dozen collections of his own poems and essays. He was created Baron Leigh of Stoneleigh in May, 1839. Leigh traveled several times to the Continent for his heath, but died of apoplexy in Bonn in September of 1850; he was succeeded by his eldest son, William Henry Leigh. and Accompanied by a container list.
Subject (Geographic):
Europe., Alps, Florence (Italy), Italy, Rome (Italy), and Switzerland
Subject (Name):
Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron, 1788-1824., Brydges, Egerton, Sir, 1762-1837., Canova, Antonio, 1757-1822., Colvile, Frederick Leigh, 1819-1886., Leigh, Chandos, 1791-1850., Leigh, Chandos, 1791-1850, Leigh, James Henry, 1765-1823., Leigh, Julia, d. 1871., Leigh, Julia Twisleton, d. 1843., Newman, John Henry, Saint, 1801-1890., Peel, Robert, 1788-1850, Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712-1778, Thorvaldsen, Bertel, 1770-1844., Catholic Church, and Rugby School.
Subject (Topic):
Books and reading, Death and burial, Influence, Customs and practices, Authors, English, Dandies, English literature, Grand tours (Education), Tourism, Travelers' writings, English, Description and travel, Social life and customs, and Religious life and customs
Manuscript, in a multiple hands, of a collection of newspaper articles, prints, drawings, letters, and autobiographical text, primarily relating to Grimstone's published writing. The volume includes "my first prose [which] was the following letter inserted in the Polemical Inquirer. The Editors letter to me is on the oppposite side," numerous pieces of prose and verse which appeared in "The Ladies Monthly Museum" and "The Theatrical Inquisitor," and printed musical scores, of which she notes, "Part of my engagement with the proprietors of the Ladies Monthly museum, was to supply new words to the Irish melodies and other airs," as well as numerous business correspondence with editors and personal letters. The volume is prefaced by an introduction in which Grimstone gives an account of her recent "nervous disorder" during which she destroyed much of her writing. She declares, "My Own Scrap Book in which i mean to be as egotistical as I can and talk of nothing but myself, or what relates to myself. If I live to see the hundred and odd years, I am promised; I & this book shall like to converse together when perhaps few others will care to give me companionship. If I die early, then this book will be still a part of me remaining and speaking to those that loved me."
Description:
In English., Laid in at end: letters and scraps of paper with printed poems., Laid in at beginning: typed list of works attributed to Grimstone in the British Museum Catalogue., and Binding: half calf.
Subject (Geographic):
England and Great Britain
Subject (Name):
Grimstone, Mary Leman (Rede)
Subject (Topic):
English literature, English poetry, Letters, Music, Women authors, Women, Conduct of life, Periodicals, and Social life and customs
