Loan 96 RLF 4/18

Contains records of the Literary Fund Anniversary Dinners held between 1870 and 1874. The records are organised by year; for each year, there are a number of folders detailing different aspects of the dinner; for most years there are 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. There are more detailed records for the large 1872 dinner, which was presided over by Leopold II of Belgium.

1870 (Chairman: Frederick Temple Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, Marquess of Dufferin):

1: Correspondence regarding the chairman, from William Frederick Pollock, Earl Stanhope, Lord Dufferin, Octavian Blewitt and Jacob Luard Pattison, with resolutions of the Committee inviting and thanking Lord Dufferin.

2: Correspondence respecting the tavern, from Frederick Willis (of Willis’s Rooms), S Mitford, J C Downing (of the Freemasons’ Tavern), Octavian Blewitt and Edgar Dolby (of Willis’s Rooms); stewards’ invitation ticket; honorary invitation ticket; circulars to stewards, officers, members and subscribers; dinner ticket; toast list; correspondence respecting speeches from Lord Dufferin, Sir William Stirling Maxwell, George Godwin, Sir Digby Wyatt, Sir William Mansfield, Colonel Lagard (from the Nawab Nazim of Bengal) and Cavaliere Cadorna (the Italian Minister); plan of tables; donations and subscriptions announced; subscription papers; newspaper reports; Miss E Faithful to Octavian Blewitt, ‘respecting the Ladies at Dinner’; list of persons invited to be stewards; list of honorary invitations; ticket list; letter from William Frederick Pollock to Octavian Blewitt on a letter from William Michael Rossetti; letter from William Michael Rossetti to Octavian Blewitt.

1871 (Chairman: Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Winchester):

1: Correspondence regarding the chairman, from Earl Stanhope and the Marquis of Lorne, with resolutions of the Committee inviting the Marquis of Lorne and thanking Samuel Wilberforce.

2: Correspondence respecting the tavern, from Newton Crosland, Frederick Willis (of Willis’s Rooms), Charles Elme Francatelli (of the Freemasons’ Tavern) and Octavian Blewitt; correspondence with officers, namely Edward Thomas, William Henry Harrison, Charles Shaw, Octavian Blewitt and John P Lindsay; steward invitation ticket; honorary invitation ticket; circulars to stewards, officers, members and subscribers; dinner ticket; toast list; correspondence respecting speeches from Benjamin Moran, Sir William Stirling Maxwell, John MacGregor, Lord Hylton (William George Hylton Jolliffe), Samuel Wilberforce (the Bishop of Winchester), Louis-François-Michel-Reymond Wolowski, Lord Claud Hamilton, Benjamin Ward Richardson, Chandos Wren Hoskyns and Thomas A Reed; correspondence respecting music from George Frederick Kiallmark, with programme of music; plan of tables; donations and subscriptions announced; subscription papers; newspaper reports; list of persons invited to be steward; list of honorary invitations; ticket list.

1872 (Chairman: Leopold II, King of the Belgians):

1: Correspondence regarding the chairman, from Earl Stanhope, Sylvain Van de Weyer, Russell Sturgis, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (copies), Baron Beaulieu, Jules de Vaux and Lord Sydney, with resolutions of the Committee inviting Longfellow and inviting and thanking Leopold II and suggestions on the address from Theodore Martin.

2: Honorary invitations accepted: Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh (with correspondence from Frederick Waymouth Gibbs, Sir Thomas Biddulph, Earl Stanhope and Colonel Colville), Prince Arthur (with correspondence from Colonel Fitzgerald and Earl Stanhope), Prince George, Duke of Cambridge (with correspondence from James Macdonald and Earl Stanhope), the Austrian Ambassador (Count Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust), the Netherland Minister (Count Bylandt), the Danish Minister (General de Bülow), the Italian Minister, the Persian Minister, the Spanish Minister, the Portuguese Minister (the Duke of Saldanha), the Swedish Minister and the United States Minister; with Leopold II’s suite, Baron Beaulieu, Arthur Van de Velde, Georges de Vaux, Leon van den Bossche, Hadelin de Liedekerque-Beaufort and Octave Delepierre; and Colonel Henderson and Lieutenant Colonel Mapleson.

3: Correspondence respecting the tavern, from William Grieve (of St James’s Hall), George Leslie, Messrs Willis, Octavian Blewitt, and Robert Cooke, with the minutes of the anniversary committee respecting the dinner; correspondence with anniversary committee and officers, namely William Henry Harrison, George Clowes, Charles Lewis Gruneisen, Charles Shaw, Robert Cooke, William Longman, John Mitchell, Joshua Whitehead Butterworth, Sir John William Kaye, Sir Frederick Pollock, Earl Stanhope, Octavian Blewitt and Benjamin Richardson; Octavian Blewitt to Colonel Henderson, on the police; William Holl to Octavian Blewitt, respecting clerkship; Frederick William Pellatt to Octavian Blewitt; toast list (Sylvain Van de Weyer’s draft and printed final list); correspondence respecting speakers from Earl Stanhope, Count Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust, Colonel Colville, William Thomson (Archbishop of York), Archbishop Henry Edward Manning, Edward Cardwell, Lord Bury (William Coutts Keppel), Sir Augustus Clifford, the Duke of Cleveland (Harry George Powlett), Sherard Osborn, John Van Schaick Lansing Pruyn and Sir William Stirling Maxwell; correspondence respecting music from George Frederick Kiallmark, Charles Lewis Gruneisen, Colonel Wilkinson, [?] Smyth (bandmaster) and Sir Julius Benedict, with the programme and a resolution of the Committee thanking Sir James Benedict, Colonel Mapleson and Messrs Broadwood; correspondence with John Timbs respecting the engraving for the Times.

4: Minutes of the anniversary committee for the year; minutes of the anniversary correspondence; statistics of invitations to stewards and honorary visitors; list if members to be invited as stewards; list of tickets issued; list of honorary invitations; printed list of stewards; donations and subscriptions announced; subscriptions papers; printed list of subscriptions and donations; correspondence respecting arrears between Octavian Blewitt and Frederic Ledger, Sir James Duke, Frederick Grey, Peter Merrick Hoare and F W Ramsay.

5: Engraving from the Illustrated News; advertisements; newspaper reports and articles on dinner; forms of invitation to peers, MPs and members; stewards’ invitation ticket; honorary invitation ticket; circular to members, stewards &c.; dinner tickets (the King’s Entrance in Regent Street, members’ entrance in Piccadilly and vouchers for tickets); ladies’ tickets; menu; plan of tables; plan of ladies’ gallery.

1873 (Chairman: the Right Honourable William Ewart Gladstone):

1: Correspondence regarding the chairman, from Earl Stanhope, Sylvain Van de Weyer, Octavian Blewitt, William Brampton Gurdon, Sir Frederick Pollock, William Henry Harrison, Anthony Trollope, William Beamont, Robert Cook, Sir Henry Anderson, an anonymous postcard sender, Catherine Gladstone and William Ewart Gladstone , with resolutions of the Committee on the selection of the chair and thanking Gladstone.

2: Correspondence respecting the tavern, from Henry Reeve, Charles Elme Francatelli (of the Freemasons’ Tavern), Earl Stanhope, Frederick Willis, Francis Bennoch and William Henry Harrison; minutes of anniversary committee; correspondence with officers, namely William Henry Harrison, Sir Frederick Pollock, Earl Stanhope and Robert Fletcher; stewards’ invitation ticket; honorary invitation ticket; circulars to stewards, officers, members and subscribers; dinner tickets; toast list; correspondence respecting speeches from William Smith, Earl Stanhope, John Lothrop Motley, the Bishop of Derry (William Alexander), John Walter and Henry James; correspondence respecting music from Charles Lewis Gruneisen, Sir Frederick Pollock, Earl Stanhope and William Henry Harrison; plan of the tables; subscriptions and donations announced; subscription papers; newspaper reports, and articles on the dinner; correspondence respecting arrears with Monsignor Capel, Sir George Harvey and Jonah Cressingham; list of persons invited to become stewards; list of honorary invitations; ticket list.

1874 (Chairman: Chief Justice John Duke Coleridge):

1: Correspondence regarding the chairman, from Henry Reeve, Sir Frederick Pollock, John Duke Coleridge and Octavian Blewitt, with a resolution of the Committee thanking Coleridge.

2: Correspondence respecting the tavern from Frederick Willis, Octavian Blewitt, Messrs Spiers and Pond and Charles Elme Francatelli; minutes of the anniversary committee; correspondence with officers, namely Sir Frederick Pollock, James Craigie Robertson, Charles Shaw, George Godwin and Henry Graves; stewards’ invitation ticket; honorary invitation ticket; circulars to stewards, officers, members and subscribers; dinner ticket; toast list; correspondence respecting speeches from Lord O’Hagan (Thomas O’Hagan), Sir Barnes Peacock, John Hawley Glover, John Duke Coleridge, Sir George Mellish, Sir Archibald Alison, Sir James Hannen, Sir John Holker and William Henry Harrison; correspondence respecting music from Charles Lewis Gruneisen, and William Henry Harrison, with a resolution of the Committee; programme of the music; plan of the tables; donations and subscriptions announced; subscription papers; newspaper reports; list of honorary invitations; list of persons invited to be stewards; ticket list.