Beschreibung:

GURWOOD, Fanny (d.1872). A collection of approximately 120 letters to Fanny Gurwood and her daughter Adèle (a few to other addressees), by various correspondents, London, Paris and elsewhere, 7 April 1811 - 23 April 1906 (many undated); and 3 memoranda by Colonel Gurwood, together with other papers and correspondence addressed to Gurwood, and a letter by Mrs Gurwood, altogether approximately 294 pages, mostly 8vo (address panels, blanks), tipped on guards into an album, half morocco, gilt lettering on spine; [ and :] LYTTON, Edward Robert, 1st Earl of Lytton (1831-1891). Eleven autograph letters signed ('R.Lytton', 'R' and, from February 1873, 'Lytton'), and seven autograph letters signed by his wife, Edith, to Adèle Gurwood (daughter of Colonel John Gurwood), Vienna, London, Torquay, Knebworth, Paris and India, 7 May 1872 - 19 March 1879; and eleven letters by members of the Bulwer and Lytton families and other correspondents (of which 4 to Mrs Gurwood), altogether approximately 106 pages, mostly 8vo (autograph envelopes, blanks), tipped on guards into an album, half pigskin, gilt lettering on spine. Provenance : Adèle Gurwood; her half-sister Eugénie, Viscountess Esher; and by descent. The first correspondence includes autograph letters signed by the Duke of WELLINGTON (2 to Mrs Gurwood after her husband's death, 1846); NAPOLEON III (3); Prince NAPOLEON (son of Jerôme Bonaparte, known as 'Plon Plon', 3 to Mrs Gurwood, signed 'Napoleon Bonaparte' and 'Bonaparte'); LOUIS PHILIPPE (one); Sir Robert PEEL; Lady BLESSINGTON (2); the Comte d'ORSAY (2); Alfred de VIGNY (to an unidentified correspondent); the Duc de NEMOURS (signed with initial 'N', 4 to Guerard); Edward Bulwer LYTTON (1st Baron Lytton, 2, acknowledging some flowers and inviting Mrs and Miss Gurwood); Lord RUSSELL; Robert BROWNING (5 to Miss Gurwood); Emile de Girardin (8), Alexis de Tocqueville, Lord Mahon (to Mrs Gurwood referring to Mr Lockhart and a printing matter), Robert Owen (to 'My excellent and kind friend' on the 'great general Revolution', 25 May 1849), John Bright, Charles Kean, the Duke of Devonshire (3 to Mrs Gurwood), and letters to Miss Adèle Gurwood by correspondents including Lady Morgan, General Viscount Wolseley (7), members of her family and others; [and] papers relating to Colonel Gurwood's service in the Peninsula War and his edition of the Duke of Wellington's Dispatches , and a Laissez-passer for [Monsieur] Kreilssammer [a member of Mrs Gurwood's family] to visit London (23 February 1871). Colonel Gurwood's papers include a transcript of a letter by Wellington to the Prince Regent declining to release a serving officer to please a young lady, 'I have never yet known of a young lady dying of love' (1811); a list of officers at the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo and a related letter; a draft defending Wellington's conduct over the shooting of Marshal Ney; correspondence relating to his edition of Wellington's Dispatches ; a letter from the Portuguese ambassador announcing his appointment to the Portuguese Order of the Tower and Sword. Those by the Duke of Wellington include an autograph annotation on a letter asking for Gurwood to be allowed to relieve the Governor of the Tower; and a certified copy of a deed of assignment granting Gurwood and his heirs the copyright of the Dispatches ; two autograph letters (3rd person) by Wellington to Mrs Gurwood [after her husband's suicide] conveying in the first surprise and regret at a report that Gurwood used to keep memoranda of what Wellington had said in confidence which, if true, would be fatal to Gurwood's reputation: 'The Duke does not believe that there is an instance in history of a similar act. It is anti-social, it puts an end to all the charms of society, to all the familiar and private communication between man and man' (29 January 1846); the second (on receiving her letter of rebuttal of the alleged grounds for this rebuke, saying that 'from an overstrained sense of delicacy towards Your Grac