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British Library, Add MS 30928. Not previously published.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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Have you got the ‘“Academy of Compliments’”?
More books, – but hear why & judge if I can keep troubling you, – luckily too it will not
be any difficulty to find them.
My Uncle writes to urge me to hasten with all possible expedition the portion of
my work which relates to Brazil, the times being as he truly says South America mad.xxx replies that it relates to the wrong side of S. America for their immediate views, – but that so far from wishing
to keep any such information private Government would rather encourage me to publish it, & strongly advise me to lay every
thing else aside, & come out with my History of Brazil while the state of the public mind & the political circumstance of
the world will secure me so great a sale. About this you will say nothing. But it is obvious that I have no time to lose, – &
my reason for troubling you is for the few books relating to the subject at Bristol.
They will easily be found, being these. All the MSS. – there are I believe five volumes all in small folio – two of
these lettered Memorias Antigasdone this found
these & boxed them off by waggon, refer once more to the Academy of Compliments, & apply all the thanks you can find there
to yourself – & then be assured that I do thank you in my heart more heartily than all those forms can
express.
I have written to Rickman for all the materials in his hands, &
have luckily a large cargo here also.
You saw Tom I conclude on his way to Plymouth – as you may suppose I miss him much. Herbert grows but suffers more from wind than ever child was known to do & hardly gets any rest day or night – still he thrives. My daughter is my delight – & would be yours if you were here.
I shall beg Martha when Edith writes, to get some trusty person to wipe all the books from the mould. The price of labour for three or four days will be well laid out.
The extent of this work of mind I cannot well estimate – probably two quartos – honest ones they shall be. I have
materials for a far better map than has ever appeared – & shall copy a few necessary prints of costume from the old
travellers. I have the plan of the work in my head – which is no little thing, the materials being of so disjointed a nature – but
a very curious book it will be, & of great importance. There is but one person in Europe who has such materials,