130

THURSDAY

JULY 29, 1971

543 Collins (Wilkie): 2 A.L.S.S. to G. S. Fraser, 7th and 22nd November 1876, mostly concerned with the fortunes of a struggling writer, one Mackensie, the first letter agreeing to look over a manuscript, the second enclosing a sum of money and returning the proffered article, "the haphazard life of the poor fellow only too faithfully reflected in his writing", on a more personal note Collins grumbles at having to go to Brighton where the damp brings on his rheumatism, "But I have got a 'galvanic belt' ... and I make a better fight of it against the enemy than I did", together 8¼ pp., 8vo. (2)

544 Kipling (Rudyard): A.L.S. to Mr. Stephens, 17 May 1918, thanking him for a gift of a salmon, "he makes a sensation in our valley like Jonah's Whale. I did not look in his mouth. He looked into mine ... We are full of salmon and gratitude—real gratitude, that springs from a much more sacred place than the heart", 1½ pp., 12mo., and a L.S. to the same, 15 February 1923, 1 p., 8vo. (2)

545 Norton (Caroline): Series of 10 A.L.S.S. to Mrs. Catherine Gore, only one bearing a date, 26 October 1836, probably the first of the series, 4 others approximately dateable by references to Mrs. Gore's drama "Dacre of the South" published in 1840 and her novel "The Banker's Wife" published in 1843, and to Bulwer-Lytton's "Night and Morning" published in 1841, another alluding to an advertisement by her husband probably refers to his attack on her in the "Times" in 1853, together 3 pp., 4to., and 31 pp., 8vo. (two signatures cut away, with loss of text from reverses)

Several letters contain references to Mrs. Norton's difficulties with her husband, and his interference with her attempts to see her children. On 26 October 1836 [this is shortly after Norton's failure in a lawsuit against her and Lord Melbourne] she writes, "My affairs remain pretty much at a stand-still. I have never but once been allowed to see my children ... I do think if ever there was a hard and unjust law, it is that which enables a man to take such young children from ... their Mother". Another letter speaks of his advertisement attacking her, "He never was a gentleman in anything but name". There is gossip about mutual acquaintances and literary matters, "how can I like you so well if you don't like 'Riche et Pauver'? ... As to Bulwer it is a pity when he took the idea he made so little of it ... I will dramatise 'Riche et Pauver' and no one shall perceive any similarity in it to 'Money'". There is much discussion of Mrs. Gore's daughter 'Cissy' [Cecilia] and her social successes, and an attack upon her by Lady Bulwer