Loan 96 RLF 4/17

Contains records of the Literary Fund Anniversary Dinners held between 1864 and 1869. These files are generally less detailed than those for previous years, with many letters that were formerly kept instead being abstracted and listed. The records are organised by year. For each year, there are a number of folders detailing different aspects of the dinner. For 1864 there are four folders, for the subsequent years only two, the first containing correspondence regarding the chairman, the second containing administrative records, correspondence and copies of the stationary created for each dinner. The contents of the individual folders are listed below; contents are also listed on the front of the folders themselves.

1864 (Chairman: His Royal Highness Albert Edward, Prince of Wales):

1: Correspondence regarding the chairman, from Sir William Thomas Knollys, Frederick Waymouth Gibbs, Sylvain Van de Weyer, Earl Stanhope, Octavian Blewitt and Maurice Holzmann; with additional correspondence respecting a guard of honours and a band from Earl Stanhope, Octavian Blewitt, the Duke of Cambridge, Sir William Thomas Knollys and [?] Lambert.

2: Reports and minutes of the anniversary committee; correspondence with officers, namely Sir Henry Ellis, Benjamin Bond Cabbell, Earl Stanhope, Robert Bell and William Henry Harrison; correspondence respecting the tavern from William Donald (of St James’s Hall), Octavian Blewitt, the Comtesse Heloise de Manin, Earl Stanhope, Messrs Willis and M Warne; correspondence respecting music and reporters from George Frederick Kiallmark, Reed, Robertson & Woodward, William Henry Harrison and Thomas A Reed.

3: Notes of anniversary correspondence; list of members and others invited to become stewards (subsections: Vice Presidents, Peers on the List of Members, Members of Parliament on the list; Literature; Science and Art; Other Members, Subscribers, The Government, The Court, the Prince’s Council, Other Persons and Ambassadors); list of circulars sent to officers, members &c; stewards’ applications for tickets; list of officers’ and members’ tickets; applications of non-members for tickets; parties of stewards and their friends to sit together; printed list of stewards; forms of invitation to stewards; honorary invitation ticket; circulars to officers, members, donors and stewards; dinner tickets; correspondence with Sir Thomas Phillips respecting a table to be reserved for the Society of Ancient Britons; secretary’s draft report on proposed list of stewards, with Earl Stanhope’s notes thereon.

4: Newspaper reports and articles on the dinner; correspondence respecting the alteration of the advertisement and date by the Athenaeum for the purpose of making a false announcement that the Prince would not preside, from Earl Stanhope, Robert Bell, Lord Houghton, John Murray, Alexander James Beresford Beresford Hope, William Frederick Pollock, John Winter Jones, and Martin Farquhar Tupper; toast list; correspondence respecting speeches from Maurice Holzmann, the Duke of Cambridge, the Marquis of Salisbury, Sir Alexander Milne, Sylvain Van de Weyer, Edward Cardwell and Lord Houghton; plan of tables (lithograph); plan of ladies gallery; menu; donations and subscriptions announced; subscription papers; correspondence respecting subscriptions from William Frederick Pollock and Sir Edmund Antrobus, with a letter of thanks to Messrs Coutts &Co; printed list of subscriptions and donations.

1865 (Chairman: William Thomson, Archbishop of York):

1: Correspondence regarding the chairman, including Committee resolutions inviting Alfred Tennyson and Earl Russell and letters from William Frederick Pollock, Earl Stanhope, Earl Russell, William Henry Harrison and the Archbishop of York, with a resolution of thanks to the Archbishop.

2: Correspondence respecting the tavern, from Earl Stanhope, Messrs Staples, Octavian Blewitt, William Henry Harrison and Sir Henry Ellis; circulars to stewards, officers, members and subscribers; invitation ticket to stewards; honorary invitation ticket; dinner tickets; toast list; correspondence respecting speeches from William Frederick Pollock, George Gilbert Scott, William Henry Harrison, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (the Dean of Westminster), Dudley Fortescue, Edward Hayes Plumptre, George Biddell Airy and Ulick de Burgh (the Marquis of Clanricarde); plan of tables; subscription papers; printed list of donations and subscriptions announced; newspaper reports; list of persons invited to be steward; list of honorary invitations; list of money tickets issued.

1866 (Chairman: Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton):

1: Correspondence regarding the chairman, from Lord Houghton and William Henry Harrison, with resolutions of the Committee inviting and thanking Baron Houghton.

2: Correspondence respecting the tavern and music, from Messrs Willis, Octavian Blewitt and George Frederick Kiallmark; minutes of anniversary committee; card of invitation to stewards; honorary invitation card; circulars to stewards, officers, members and subscribers; letters from William Henry Harrison and Sir Henry Ellis; dinner ticket; list of persons invited to be steward; list of honorary invitations; ticket list; toast list; correspondence respecting speeches from Samuel Baker, Vincent Eyre, Sir Willoughby Jones, Charles Kingsley, Frederic Leighton, Manockjee Cursetjee, Matthew H Marsh, Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, Connop Thirlwall (the Bishop of St David’s), Sir John Simeon, Algernon Charles Swinburne, John Tyndall and Robert Whiston; plan of the tables; donations and subscriptions announced; subscription papers; newspaper reports.

1867 (Chairman: Henry Hart Milman, the Dean of St Paul’s):

1: Correspondence regarding the chairman, from Henry Hart Milman and Octavian Blewitt, with resolutions of the Committee inviting and thanking Milman.

2: Correspondence respecting the tavern, from Messrs Willis and Octavian Blewitt; toast list; correspondence respecting speeches from Anthony Trollope, William Smith, Sir Henry Holland, Alexander James Beresford Beresford Hope, Octavian Blewitt, Charles Newdigate Newdigate, Lord Strangford, Sir Robert Phillimore, Henry Alford, Henry Hart Milman, Earl Stanhope, John Morley, Edward Dicey, Sir John Simeon, Sir John Francis Davis, Sir Francis Doyle, and William Fairbairn; correspondence with officers, namely Sir Henry Ellis, William Henry Harrison and George Frederick Kiallmark, ticket of invitation to stewards; honorary invitation ticket; circulars to stewards, officers, members and subscribers; dinner ticket; plan of the tables; subscriptions and donations announced; subscription papers; printed list of subscriptions and donations; newspaper reports; list of persons invited to become stewards; list of honorary invitations; ticket list.

1868 (Chairman: The Right Honourable Benjamin Disraeli, MP):

1: Correspondence regarding the chairman, from Earl Stanhope, Montagu Corry, Benjamin Disraeli and William Henry Harrison, with resolutions of the Committee inviting and thanking Disraeli and correspondence on altering the wording of invitations from ‘Chancellor of the Exchequer’ to ‘First Lord of the Treasury’ on Disraeli’s becoming Prime Minister in February 1868.

2: Correspondence respecting the Freemasons’ Tavern from Charles Gosden; correspondence with officers, namely Earl Stanhope and William Henry Harrison; ticket of invitation to stewards; honorary invitation ticket; circulars to stewards, officers, members &c.; dinner ticket; toast list; correspondence respecting speeches from Sir Stafford Henry Northcote, Earl Beauchamp (Frederick Lygon), Lord Houghton (Richard Monckton Milnes), Sir Joseph Napier, William George Clark, Sir William Hutt, Lord Ravensworth (Henry Thomas Liddell), George Godwin and William Bovill; plan of the tables; donations and subscriptions announced; subscription papers; printed list of donations; newspaper reports; list of persons invited to become stewards; list of honorary invitations; ticket list.

1869 (Chairman: Edward Henry Stanley, Lord Stanley):

1: Correspondence regarding the chairman, from Robert Lowe, the Duke of Argyll, Earl Stanhope, William Frederick Pollock, Anthony Trollope, Lord Stanley and [?] Rother, with resolutions of the Committee inviting Lowe, Argyll and Stanley and thanking Stanley.

2: Correspondence respecting Willis’s Rooms from Messrs Willis; correspondence with officers and others, namely John William Kaye, William Henry Harrison, William Frederick Pollock and Thornton Leigh Hunt; card of invitation to stewards; honorary invitation card; circulars to stewards, members, subscribers and officers; dinner ticket; toast list; correspondence respecting speeches from Earl Stanhope, William Ellerby Green, Lord Stanley, Alexander James Beresford Beresford Hope, John Stuart Blackie, Lord Colchester (Reginald Charles Edward Abbot), William Fairbairn, Sir John Simeon, Sherard Osborn, William Frederick Pollock, Russell Sturgis, Sir George Markham Giffard, Lord Lawrence (John Lawrence), Sir John Burgoyne, Wilbraham Egerton, Sir William Stirling Maxwell, Lord Stratford de Redcliffe (Stratford Canning) and T Littleton Holt; plan of the tables; donations and subscriptions announced; subscription papers; printed list of donations and subscriptions; newspaper reports; list of persons invited to become stewards; list of honorary invitations; ticket list.