Letters from Henry Holland to Maria Edgeworth and Richard Lovell Edgeworth

Title

Letters from Henry Holland to Maria Edgeworth and Richard Lovell Edgeworth

Shelfmark

MS. 16087/2

Summary

Comprises letters from Henry Holland to Maria Edgeworth [unless otherwise stated]. Most endorsed with date in another hand if not clearly dated, some numbered in pencil.

From 3 Lothian Street, Edinburgh, 19 Dec 1809. Refers to: initiating correspondence; 'Edinburgh worthies' (including Mrs Hamilton, Mr Alison and Walter Scott); works of Maria Edgeworth and Richard Lovell Edgeworth; and paper on feelings for the medical society in Edinburgh [repaired].

From 2 West Register Street, Edinburgh, 30 Jan 1810. Refers to: Essays on Professional Education; expedition to Iceland; Edinburgh society including Mr and Mrs Alison, Dr Gregory; Southey's new poem The Curse of Kehama; Walter Scott; Dr Thomas Brown, Chair of Moral Philosophy; the Simond family from New York; and present occupations [repaired].

From 3 Lothian Street, Edinburgh, 20 Feb 1810. Refers to: Essays on Professional Education; German philosopher Gall; paper on feelings; Miss Baillie's new Tragedy; and expedition to Iceland [repaired].

From Edinburgh, 19 Apr 1811. Refers to: further Tales from Maria Edgeworth; Patronage; dissertation on the 'History and Literature of Iceland'; the Edinburgh Review and Southey's poem; Mrs Grant's Essays on the Superstition of the Highlands of Scotland; Mr Davy; Elton Hammond; Mr Alison; Mr Stewart; Mrs Hamilton; the Edinburgh Review and British Review; and Sir James Hall.

From Edinburgh, 2 Aug 1811. Refers to: Patronage; Hardy's biography of Lord Charlemont; Edinburgh society; the Alisons; Walter Scott's poem, Don Roderick; Mrs Grant's Essays on the Superstitions of the Highlanders; own work on Iceland; William Edgeworth; Mr Davy; Dublin Society's Mineralogical Professorship; future plans; and Edgeworth publications [repaired].

From Knutsford, 8 Jan 1812. Refers to: being created Doctor of Medicine and thesis on 'the Diseases of the Icelanders'; Kinneal House; Mrs Hamilton; future plans of residence and travel; published volume on Iceland; review of Professional Education in the Quarterly Review; Miss Baillie's plays; and system of 'memoria technica'.

From 11 York Street, St James's Square, London, 16 Mar 1814. Refers to: professional success; patronage (and ( Patronage); late travels; London acquaintances, including Lords Landsdowne and Carrington; Madame de Staël; Byron; iodine; Humphrey Davy; and geology.

From 11 York Street, St James's Square, London, 22 May 1814. Refers to: Richard Lovell Edgeworth's health; Captain Beaufort; Sir William Gell; work on own book; professional prospects and connections; London parties; Madame de Staël; imminent royal visitors to London; the royal family; the actor [Edmund] Kean; lectures of [Johann] Spurzheim; visitors to Paris meeting 'scientific men'; Sir Humphrey Davy; and the Duke of Wellington.

From York Street, London, 16 Jun 1814. Refers to: Richard Lovell Edgeworth's health; Paris and the French people; M. Dumont; Lady Holland; Lady Stafford; London and visiting royalty; Dr Wollaston; Sir Humphrey Davy; and Dr Spurzheim.

From 112 Mount Street, Berkeley Square, 26 Feb 1816. Addressed to Richard Lovell Edgeworth. Refers to: Richard Lovell Edgeworth's health; professional prospects; politics; Lord Byron; books about Paris; Major Stewart; physical science; Davy's coalmining [safety] lamps; Lady Davy; Benjamin Constant; Lord Elgin; and the addition of the [Parthenon or Elgin] marbles to the British Museum.

[fragment, 1816]. Refers to: Lord Longford; Lord and Lady Byron's separation; and royal wedding.

From Knutsford, 24 Aug 1816. Refers to: return to England and time abroad in Europe, including the Royal Court of Naples [repaired].

From Mount Street, London, 18 Dec 1816. Addressed to Richard Lovell Edgeworth. Refers to: Richard Lovell Edgeworth's health; progress at Spa and society there; journey back to England via Verona; practice in London; London news; politics; scientific progress; Lord Byron's poems; Walter Scott; and Casti's Animali Parlanti.

From London, 18 Jan 1818. Refers to: visiting Knutsford; professional progress; visits to Spa; the Prince of Orange; Rob Roy; Sir James Mackintosh; new publications; polar expeditions; book by Madame de Staël; Lord Byron's Childe Harold; lack of recent scientific progress; controversy over Sir Humphrey Davy's safety lamp; and Miss Aikin's work on the history of Queen Elizabeth's life and reign. Includes pencil sketches of animals on reverse.

From London, 30 Jun 1818. Refers to: Mary Sneyd; William Edgeworth's health; leaving London for Spa; and request of Mrs Gaskell regarding the story of Frank.

From London, 7 Jul 1819. Refers to: gift of lettercase; Lady Elizabeth Whitbread; the Carrs; fashionable marriages; Tales of my Landlord, Mazeppa, Crabbe's Tales of the Hall and other new literary works; 'comet-gazing'; and French chemist Thénard's new discovery.

From London, 10 Nov 1819. Refers to: Francis Edgeworth; the Mrs Sneyds; departure from Spa; volcanoes; European travels; the Spa season; books about Italy; radicalism; and national finances.

From London, 22 Jan 1820. Refers to: weather; London; politics; the Royal Divorce and favourites; Ivanhoe and The Monastery; Southey's Tale of Paraguay; Sir Humphrey Davy and the papyri at the Museum at Naples; Daru's Histoire de... Venise; Playfair's dissertation in the supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica; article in the Edinburgh Review on the comparative industry of France and England; and Burkhardt's Travels in Egypt and Nubia and other explorations.

From Mount Street, 27 Jun 1820. Refers to: Fanny Edgeworth's health; Peter Holland's visit to London; the Queen; politics; scandal; and members of the Royal Society.

From Mount Street, 29 Dec 1820. Refers to: William Edgeworth; Sir James Mackintosh; Belzoni's Travels in Egypt; Lieutenant Lyon; polar exploration; Sir Humphrey Davy and the Royal Society; and Mont Blanc.

From London, 22 Mar 1821. Refers to: subject of liberty in Italy and in Ireland; French funds; Memoirs of Lord Waldegrave and Horace Walpole; Lord Byron; Southey's A Vision of Judgement; Joanna Baillie's Metrical Legends; Mr Hope's work on the Principles of Taste; Dr Copplestone's work on fate and free-will; Northwest [passage] exploration; Captain Lyon and the Niger/Nile; other literary works; Walter Scott; and lack of recent scientific discoveries.

From London, 30 Jun-2 Jul 1821. Refers to: William Edgeworth and proposed journey; Mrs C. Sneyd's health; weather and occupation; the coronation; new books; Lord Byron; few new scientific discoveries; and Humphrey Davy.

From London, 23 Aug-24 Aug 1821. Refers to: travel plans for the autumn; Mrs Sneyd; royal visit to Ireland; illness and death of Queen Caroline; Madame de Staël's Ten Years' Exile; Lord Byron; Humboldt's Travels; Dr MacCulloch's Western Isles of Scotland; and Humphrey Davy.

From London, 11 Sep 1821. Refers to: difficulties of absence from work; and Dugald Stewart's dissertation in the supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica.

From Mount Street, London, 15 Oct 1821. Refers to: travels in England (including seeing Wordsworth and Southey in the Lake District, Walter Scott at Abbotsford, and friends in Edinburgh); visiting Lord Darnley at Cobham Park [Hall]; Humphrey Davy; Captain Sabine; death of [John] Rennie; the Marcets; and purchase of house in Lower Brooke Street.

From Lower Brook Street, 24 Jul 1822. Refers to: professional engagements; Bessy's health; news of acquaintances including the Davys; new books; statue of Achilles in Hyde Park [dedicated to the Duke of Wellington]; William Edgeworth; progress of Maria Edgeworth's Travellers; and his approaching marriage.

London, 14 Aug 1822. Refers to: suicide of Lord Londonderry [Castlereagh] and possible new Leader of the House of Commons; Canning; William Edgeworth; Conybeare and Phillips' The Geology of England and Wales; Walter Scott; furniture; and marriage of Lord Liverpool.

From London, 21 Nov 1822. Refers to: marriage; professional progress; new work of Lord Byron and others; Mackintosh; Dr Marcet's death; the Royal Society, including election of Mr Edgeworth; Mrs Siddons' version of Milton; and Blanco's Letters from Spain.

From London, 3 Jan 1823. Refers to: [metallic] hailstones and eruption of Vesuvius; Babbage's Logarithmic Machine; scientific progress; Buckland; Champollion's hieroglyphic discoveries; new books on Bonaparte; Southey's A History of the Peninsular War; various new works; Sir James Mackintosh's election as Rector of the University of Glasgow; Angelo Mai's De Republica; and politics.

From London, 13 May-15 May 1823. Refers to: Perkin's Steam Engine; carbonic acid gas; death of Dr Marcet; professional life; new books; Dr Gall; Lord Dudley; and poets in London.

From Lower Brook Street, 31 Aug 1823. Refers to: Maria's health and steps to cure/prevent bilious fever; Abbotsford; Washington Irving; the loss of the Somervilles' eldest daughter; Makintosh; the Edinburgh Review; and visit to Ramsgate.

From London, 6 Nov 1823. Refers to: Fanny's health; sisters Mary and Bessy; Captain Parry's book and engagement with Miss Brown; [Commander] Lyon; African exploration; new scientific discoveries; Humphrey Davy; the Somervilles and various aquaintances.

From St James's Square, London, 5-10 Mar 1824. Refers to: Lord Titchfield's health (and death); words of congratulations [upon Sophia Edgeworth's engagement]; pamphlet on 'Modern Miracles'; political economy; [Francis, Lord] Jeffrey; [Sir James] Mackintosh; the Literary and Scientific Club; Humphrey Davy's new method of copper sheathing ships; double and triple stars; Parry, Franklin and Lyon's expedition to the North West; and Mrs Holland's expected confinement.

From London, 9 Apr 1824. Refers to: Walter Scott; visit of Wordsworth; modern poets; book relating to Parry's voyage; [Charles] Dupin's Force Commerciale de la Grande-Bretagne; Mr Graham's book on South America and other new books; Sydney Smith's sermons; Sir Humphrey and Lady Davy's separation; Lydia White; and Mrs Holland's expected confinement.

From London, 28 May-31 May 1824. Refers to: birth of his daughter; the University Club's new Club House and fête; the Foxes; the loss of Mrs Beddoes; Maria's health; the Literary and Scientific Club (the Athaenaum); Sir Humphrey and Lady Davy; Lydia White; news of scientific developments; the King and Queen of the Sandwich Islands; narrative of Captain [John Dundas] Cochrane; and Lord Byron's autobiography.

From London, 18 Jul 1824. Refers to: summer in London; limited vacation due to profession; steam vessels; the abolition of slavery in the West Indies; [Robert] Wilmot-Horton's proposal of 'transplanting' Irish people to Canada; the death of the King and Queen of the Sandwich Islands; the trading situation there; Morris's journey to Mexico; South America; [Thomas] Spring Rice; various acquaintances including Washington Irving; [François] Magendie's experiments; Miss Aikin; Lord Bacon and experimental philosophy; tributes to [James] Watt at the Freemasons' Hall; the Bishop of Limerick's speech in vindication of the Irish Clergy; domestic concerns; and Lord Byron's autobiography.

From Lower Brook Street, 8 Nov 1824. Refers to: Fanny's health and proposed journey; Miss H. Edgeworth's visit to town and health; Captain [Medina's] book; Lord Byron; books by Washington Irving and others; London acquaintances including Lydia White; Lord Dudley; Sir Humphrey and Lady Davy; Perkins and steam power; and domestic concerns.

From Lower Brook Street, 25 Jun 1825. Refers to: gift of books; professional occupation; [Henry] Hallam; Ireland; various books including Walter Scott's Tales of the Crusades and Pepy's Memoirs; Mr Herschel's discoveries; Sir Humphrey Davy; Sydney Smith; Lord Dudley, Lydia White and other acquaintances; Coleridge; family matters and expectation of another child.

From Lower Brook Street, 26 Jul 1825. Refers to: Mrs Holland's expected confinement; problems of taking leave with professional commitments; Sir Humphrey Davy and possible creation of an university; publication of Milton's De Doctrina Christiana and various other works; [Henry] Hallam's accident in Killarney; and Harry and Lucy.

From Lower Brook Street, 12 Dec 1825. Refers to: visit to Ireland; domestic affairs; [Henry] Hallam's recovery; Sir James Mackintosh and various acquaintances; Lord Dudley; John William's marriage; Lydia White; Sir Humphrey and Lady Davy; the Royal Society; financial speculations, failing banks and credit; new books and anonymous novels.

From Lower Brook Street, 19 Apr-20 Apr 1826. Refers to: Mr Ruxton; Mr Jephson of Leamington; Lord Apsley; Walter Scott; the Quarterly Review; Denham and Clapperton's Travels and various other new works, including Granby; the Catholic Question; Parry's explorations to the North Pole; Sir Humphrey Davy; and Spa.

From London, 21 Jul-22 Jul 1826. Refers to: approaching marriage [of Harriet Edgeworth]; family matters and Mrs Holland's approaching confinement; publishers, including Murray; new books; author of Diary of an Ennuyée; Southey; state of the country; Sir James Mackintosh; [Henry] Hallam, Lydia White and other acquaintances.

From Lower Brook Street, 16 Nov 1826. Refers to: health of the Duke of York; Greek Loans; discovery of 'Brome' [bromine]; Sir Humphrey and Lady Davy; Sir James Mackintosh; [Henry] Hallam; Walter Scott; Mignet's History of the French Revolution; and visit to the Loire valley.

From Lower Brook Street, 24 Mar 1827. Refers to: Count Ludolf; [Albert] Gallatin; Mr Canning; politics (including Catholic Question); Maria's abandonment of the Travellers; new books; Sir Humphrey Davy; Lydia White's death; and various acquaintances.

From Lower Brook Street, 29 Jul 1827. Refers to: political events; Lord Lyndhurst; Walter Scott's Life of Napoleon Buonaparte; [Henry] Hallam's Constitutional History of England; new books; the London University; and Sir James Mackintosh.

From Lower Brook Street, 18 Aug 1827. Refers to: death of Mr [George] Canning; and the new ministry.

From Lower Brook Street, 5 Oct 1827. Refers to: maleria; Irish bogs; visits to Ireland and Knutsford; and Sir James Mackintosh.

From Lower Brook Street, 2[5] Jan 1828. Refers to: health; deaths of Mr Canning, Lord Guilford and his uncle; birth of a son; politics; Charles Bell's article on 'Animal Mechanics'; new books; Sydney Smith; and lack of scientific news.

From Lower Brook Street, 9 Nov 1828. Refers to: political state of Ireland; war between Russia and Turkey; news of scientific acquaitances; Airy and Whewell's Cornish mine experiments; London University and rival College; the Reviews and magazines; Dr Wollaston; his father [Peter Holland] and children; and travels.

From Lower Brook Street, 26 Dec 1828. Refers to: [marriage of Fanny Edgeworth to] Lestock Wilson; convalescence at Downing College, Cambridge and 'eminent men' there; and death of Dr Wollaston.

From Lower Brook Street, 6 Mar 1829. Refers to: the Catholic Question; and Mrs Lestock Wilson.

From Lower Brook Street, 18 May 1829. Refers to: death [of William Edgeworth]; Captain Beaufort's appointment at the Admiralty; death of Dr Young; Mr [Richard] Chevenix and mesmerism; and Mrs Lushington.

From Lower Brook Street, 14 Aug 1829. Refers to: death of daughter Elinor; [Dr Brewston?]; the Royal Society; politics; and Mrs Wilson's health.

From Lower Brook Street, 10 Nov 1829. Refers to: his wife [Emma]'s health; Maria's health; visit to Galway; excursion to Guernsey and South Wales; politics; and Lady Davy.

From Lower Brook Street, 8 Jan 1830. Refers to: his sister Bessy [broken engagement/rejection of marriage proposal]; happy event in Edgeworth family; Ireland; and his health.

From Lower Brook Street, 3 Aug 1830. Refers to: visit of sister to Edgeworthstown; Mrs Wilson's health; general election; own health; events in France; Sir James Mackintosh's work on the 'History of the Moral Sciences'; and Mrs Heber's marriage to [Count Demetrius] Valsamachi.

From Lower Brook Street, [22] Jan 1833. Refers to: politics; Irish elections; Miss Martineau; [Henry] Hallam's writing; progress in science, including Faraday's discoveries in electro-magnetism; and summer visits to Scotland and Normandy.

From Lower Brook Street, 26 Feb 1833. Refers to: medical advice for plot line.

From Lower Brook Street, 11 Feb-13 Feb 1834. Refers to: his recent marriage to Saba [Smith]; Miss Helen Stanley; and Helen.

From Lower Brook Street, 3 Jun 1834. Refers to: Mrs Wilson's pregnancy; marriage to Saba; politics; and new books, including Mrs Somerville's.

From Lower Brook Street, 23 Jun 1834. Refers to: Henry Taylor; privately printed work of [Henry] Hallam, Remains, in Verse and Prose, of Arthur Hallam; and Mrs Wilson.

From Lower Brook Street, 19 Oct 1835. Refers to: Mr Ticknor; Mrs Wilson's stay at [Bad] Ems; vacation and travel at home and abroad; his children; politics; Lord Brougham and Natural Theology; [Henry] Hallam's new history; Robert [James] Mackintosh's Life of Sir James Mackintosh; viewing planet with [James] South's telescope; visiting the deepest mine (Sampson Silver mine in Andreasburg); and attending Pozzo di Borgo, the Russian Ambassador.

From Lower Brook Street, 25 Dec 1837. Refers to: family life; the Landsdownes; [Henry] Hallam; 'strange' book by Babbage [ Ninth Bridgewater Series]; Whewell's History of the Inductive Sciences; Mrs Trollope's The Vicar of Wrexhill; Miss Martineau's American volumes; visit to Ireland; politics; [John Gibson] Lockhart; Mrs Wilson; and medical writing.

From Lower Brook Street, 4 Jun 1838 [dated incorrectly 1837 in pencil]. Refers to: coronation; work of [William Rowan] Hamilton; invention; Sir John Herschel; animal magnetism; freezing 'fixed air'; posthumous work of [John] MacCulloch; The life of William Wilberforce; politics; and birth of daughter Edith.

From Lower Brook Street, 17 Nov 1838. Refers to Captain Beaufort's marriage.

From Lower Brook Street, 7 Dec 1838. Addressed to Mrs Beaufort. Refers to: death of youngest child [Edith]; and offer of congratulations.

From Lower Brook Street, 9 Jul [1839]. Refers to: Holland's published volume on the practice of medicine [ Medical Notes and Reflections]; [Henry] Hallam's work [ An Introduction to the Literature of Europe]; Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella; Americans in London; new steamship [the British Queen] and electricity; Lady Flora Hastings; and profession.

From Lower Brook Street, 3 Feb-6 Feb 1843. Refers to: his children; Mrs Wilson; second edition of book; British and French politics, including Corn Laws and Lord Melbourne's illness; Dr Franklin's map; Charles Dicken's American tour and new book; Macaulay's History of England; poem and papers on photography and thermography by John Herschel; and excursions abroad. Stamp removed.

From Lower Brook Street, 22 May 1843. Refers to: [marriage of Lucy Jane Edgeworth to Dr Thomas Romney] Robinson; astronomers; his 'Medical Notes'; daughter 'Coo' and Barring Out; and Mrs Wilson. Penny red stamp.

From Lower Brook Street, 30 Dec 1845. Refers to: Maria's erysipelas; Dr [Arthur] Wigan's Duality of the mind; Miss Martineau and mesmerism ['mesmerice']; Henry Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter; Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation; [Thomas] Talfourd's Vacation Rambles and Thoughts; family visits abroad; and Sydney Smith's illness. Penny red stamp.

From 25 Brook Street, 17 Jul 1846. Refers to: present of Memoirs; editions of Macaulay; and various other works.

From Breslau, Silesia, 7 Oct 1846. Refers to: details of discovery of new planet Neptune to pass onto Dr Robinson.

From Lower Brook Street, 12 Dec 1846. Refers to: Mrs Edgeworth and Mrs F. Edgeworth; Mr Lockhart's daughter's marriage; Bishop of Norwich [Edward Stanley] and Owen Stanley's voyages; and [Captain John] Franklin.

From Lower Brook Street, 23 Dec 1846. Refers to: visiting America (including meeting President Polk); and politics at home. Penny red stamp.

From Lower Brook Street, 29 Apr-6 May 1847. Refers to: recent published article; profession; sons; article on the new planet in the North British Review and [John Couch] Adams; Irish politics; and literary news. Penny red stamp.

From Brook Street, 11 Apr 1848. Refers to: petition [Great Chartist Meeting] in London and baffling of [potential] revolution; M. Guigot; and death of Major Egerton. Penny red stamp.

From Lower Brook Street, [6] Aug 1848. Refers to: European politics; proposed travel to Denmark and Norway; son's prospective legal career; M. Guigot; article on 'Modern Chemistry' in the Quarterly Review; [Anthony Richard] Blake; Lord Hervey's journal; and European politics [briefly]. Stamp removed.

From 25 Brook Street, 13 Dec 1848. Refers to: ter-oxyd of iron as an antidote to arsenic; Irish poor law; European politics; visit to Norway; and Macaulay's work.

From 25 Brook Street, 25 Apr 1849. Refers to: Maria's letter and Macaulay's potential Irish journey; Mrs Gaskell and Mary Barton. Penny red stamp.

Letter from Saba Holland, 1847. Refers to: Henry Holland's letters and allowing Maria to 'work your work' on them; his return home from 'the Desert'; her [step] sons; fog; and national financial situation.

Two 20th-century manila envelopes.

Date

1809-1849

Language

English

Physical extent

1 box (3 folders)