Author: Hamley, Sir Edward Bruce. (1824-1893). British general and literary figure
Title: Autograph Letter Signed on House of Commons Letterhead, and Manuscript Leaf from His Novel "Lady Lee's Widowhood
Description: [London, U.K.]: 22 June 1888. 1888. [London, U.K.]: 22 June 1888. 1888. Very good. - Letter: small octavo [7-3/8 inches high by 4-3/4 inches wide]. 128 words penned in black ink on all 4 sides of a folded, 4-sided sheet of House of Commons letterhead with the Commons seal at the top of the first side. Signed "Yours sincerely / Edward Hamley". There is occasional very light foxing to the letterhead & 2 pieces of mounting tape adhere to the right margin of the 4th side where the letter has been removed from an album. Folded once for mailing. Very good.

Manuscript leaf: small quarto [9 inches high by 7 inches wide]. 83 words penned in black ink on one side of a sheet of cream watermarked paper. Folded 3 times with slight darkening down the top end of 1 vertical fold. 2 small pieces of tape adhere to the verso of the sheet where it has been removed from an album. Very good.

The letter addressed to "My dear Mrs. Ford" expresses his regret that he missed her when he called on her. He congratulates her on becoming "the Mistress of Pencarrow", her family's estate and her childhood home. He goes on to complain about the House of Commons workload, though "we are not quite such slaves as we were last year.."

The manuscript leaf is from Hamley's novel "Lady Lee's Widowhood" and is headed "Chap. II." The page, which ends in mid-sentence describes the morning toiletries of two women characters. The first sentence of the extract reads: "Rosa, constitutionally an early riser, used to be always up before Orelia in the morning, until the latter took it into her head to have a shower-bath fitted up in the closet that opened from their room.."

Sir Edward Bruce Hamley [1824-1893] served in the Crimean War. He was professor of military history at the Staff College, Sandhurst from 1858 to 1877 and was Commandant of the College from 1870-1877. He was chief of the commission for the delimitation of the Balkan and Armenian frontiers [1879-80] and commanded a division in the Egyptian war of 1882. He was promoted to General in 1890. Hamley was Member of Parliament for Birkenhead from 1885 until his death in 1893.

In addition to works on the Crimean War and his military manual "The Operations of War", Hamley was a short-story writer and poet, a translator of French verse, and the author of a novel "Lady Lee's Widowhood". He was a valued contributor to Blackwood's Magazine, wherein the novel first appeared in 1853. It was subsequently published in two volumes by William Blackwood and Sons in 1854. [Sadleir 1103; Wolff 2949].

Both the letter and the manuscript come from the autograph collection of Mrs. Mary Ford, widow of Richard Ford who wrote the popular "Handbook for Travellers in Spain". The autograph collection [known as the Pencarrow Collection] was formed from the 1850s onwards, largely by Mary Ford in her long period of widowhood. Very good .

Keywords: LITERATURE; MILITARY; BRITISH GENERAL; BRITISH AUTHOR; MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT; SIR EDWARD BRUCE HAMLEY; NOVEL; LADY LEE'S WIDOWHOOD; MANUSCRIPT LEAF; AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED; ALS; A.L.S.; SIGNATURE; MRS. MARY FORD; NINETEENTH CENTURY; 19TH CENTURY.

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