Loan 96 RLF 4/19

Contains records of the Literary Fund Anniversary Dinners held between 1875 and 1881. The records are organised by year; for each year, there are two folders, the first containing correspondence regarding the chairman, the second containing administrative records, correspondence and copies of the stationary created for each dinner (the first of these folders is missing for the year 1879). The contents of the individual folders are listed below; contents are also listed on the front of the folders themselves.

1875 (Chairman: Chichester Samuel Parkinson-Fortescue, Baron Carlingford):

1: Correspondence regarding the chairman, from Earl Stanhope, the Comte de Jarnac, Henry Reeve, William Smith, Sir Frederick Pollock, Benjamin Ward Richardson, Octavian Blewitt and Lord Carlingford, with a Committee resolution inviting Comte de Jarnac, a clipping for the Times on his ill health and death and a summons to a special Committee meeting to decide on his replacement.

2: Correspondence respecting the tavern from Frederick Willis (of Willis’s Rooms); minutes of anniversary committee; correspondence with officers and members, namely Charles Shaw and Monsignor Capel; circulars to stewards, officers, members and subscribers; stewards’ invitation ticket; honorary invitation ticket; dinner ticket; toast list; correspondence respecting speeches from Count Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust, Thomas Brassey, Sir George Bowyer, Sir George Bowen, Lord Carlingford (Chichester Fortescue), Lord Colchester (Reginald Charles Edward Abbot), Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy, Sir Richard Malins, William Smith, General Robert C Schenck and Lord Stanley of Alderly (Edward John Stanley); correspondence respecting music from Charles Shaw and George Perren; plan of tables; menu; donations and subscriptions announced; subscription papers; newspaper reports; list of persons invited to be stewards; list of honorary invitations; ticket list.

1876 (Chairman: Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, Earl of Carnarvon):

1: Correspondence regarding the chairman, from Anthony Trollope, Earl Derby, Thomas Henry Sanderson, Arthur A Pearson, Montagu Frederick Ommanney and William Smith, with a resolution of the Committee thanking Lord Carnarvon.

2: Correspondence respecting the tavern from Frederick Willis (of Willis’s Rooms); minutes of anniversary committee; correspondence with officers and members, namely Charles Shaw, Lord Houghton (Richard Monckton Milnes), E H Pearson and Miss Ellen Heaton; stewards’ invitation ticket; honorary invitation ticket; circulars to stewards, officers, members and subscribers; dinner ticket; toast list; correspondence respecting speeches from B W Bax, Verney Lovett Cameron, Samuel Cheetham, Benjamin Disraeli, Baron Hochschild (the Swedish and Norwegian Minister), Count Steinbock, Lord Houghton (Richard Monckton Milnes), Richard Hengist Horne, Sir Henry James, Donald MacLeod, Lord O'Hagan (Thomas O'Hagan), General Lord Sandhurst (William Rose Mansfield), Baron M Henri Solvyns (the Belgian Minister) and Lord Tenterden (Charles Stuart Aubrey Abbott); correspondence respecting music from Charles Lewis Gruneisen, Frederick Godfrey, J Smyth and the Assistant Adjutant General; plan of tables; menu; subscriptions and donations announced; subscription papers; newspaper reports; list of persons invited to be stewards; list of honorary invitations; ticket list.

1877 (Chairman: Edward Henry Stanley, Earl of Derby):

1: Correspondence regarding the chairman, from Anthony Trollope and the Earl of Derby, with a resolution from the Committee thanking the Earl.

2: Correspondence respecting the tavern, from Messrs Willis, Robert Cooke and William Rivington; minutes of anniversary committee; stewards’ invitation ticket; honorary invitation ticket; circulars to stewards, officers, members and donors; dinner tickets; toast list; correspondence respecting speeches from Robert Cooke, Sir Henry Maine, Alexander James Beresford Beresford Hope, Henry James, Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, Sir Thomas Wade, Samuel Halliday Macartney, the US Minister (Robert C Schenck), Henry Reeve, Sir Joseph Whitworth, John Evans, Sir Henry Anderson, Alexander Baillie Cochrane, Lewis Morris, William Smith, Heinrich Schliemann, William Edward Hartpole Lecky and the Earl of Derby; correspondence respecting music from J Smyth and the Assistant Adjutant General; plan of the tables; menu; subscriptions and donations announced; subscription papers; newspaper reports; list of persons invited to be stewards; list of honorary invitations; ticket list.

1878 (Chairman: Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of Westminster):

1: Correspondence regarding the chairman, from Frederick Waymouth Gibbs, Sir Howard Elphinstone, Anthony Trollope, Walter Arnold, Robert Cooke, William Smith, William Edward Forster, Benjamin Ward Richardson, James Anthony Froude, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Walter Arnold and the Earl of Derby, with a resolution from the Committee thanking Arthur Penrhyn Stanley.

2: Correspondence respecting the tavern, from Messrs Willis; minutes of anniversary committee; correspondence with anniversary committee and officers, namely John Stoughton, Samuel Birch, Anthony Trollope, Sir Henry James, Edward Thomas, Robert Cooke and Charles Shaw, with a list of suggested honorary visitors by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley and Frederick Locker; stewards’ invitation ticket; honorary invitation ticket; circulars to officers, stewards, members and donors; postcard to members, announcing William Edward Forster’s accident, which prevented him from taking the chair; dinner tickets; toast list; correspondence respecting speeches from Frederick Waymouth Gibbs, Friedrich Max Müller, Theodore Martin, Henry Morton Stanley, Lord O’Hagan (Thomas O’Hagan), Sir Francis Hastings Charles Doyle, General Sir John Bisset and Robert Cooke; plan of the tables; menu; subscriptions and donations announced; subscription papers; newspaper reports; list of persons invited to be stewards; list of honorary invitations; ticket list.

1879 (Chairman: Lord Chancellor Hugh McCalmont Cairns):

1: Minutes of the anniversary committee; correspondence with members of the anniversary committee, namely Edward Thomas and Robert Cooke; circulars to stewards, officers and members; stewards’ invitation ticket; honorary invitation ticket; dinner ticket; list of persons invited to be stewards; list of honorary invitations; ticket list; toast list; correspondence respecting speeches from Baron de Bulow (the Danish Ambassador), Hugh McCalmont Cairns, Robert Cooke, the Earl of Derby, Edward Dicey, James Anthony Froude, Bret Harte, Sir Henry T Holland, William Ralston Shedden-Ralston, General G A Schomberg, Lord Shand (Alexander Burns Shand), William Spottiswoode, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley and John Welsh, (the United States Minister); plan of the tables; menu; subscriptions and donations announced; subscription papers; correspondence respecting subscriptions from Joseph Vernon Whitaker; miscellaneous correspondence from Oscar Browning, Robert Ferguson, Henri Logè, [?] Schidrowitz, and Ellen Heaton; correspondence respecting arrears from Octavian Blewitt and Lord Ellenborough; newspaper reports.

1880 (Chairman: John Everett Millais):

1: Correspondence regarding the chairman, from Octavian Blewitt, Frederick Waymouth Gibbs, Sir Howard Elphinstone, William Smith, Prince Leopold, Anthony Trollope, John Everett Millais (many letters) and the Earl of Derby, with a resolution from the Committee thanking John Everett Millais.

2: Correspondence respecting the tavern from Messrs Willis and Octavian Blewitt; minutes of the anniversary committee; correspondence with Committee and officers, namely Robert Cooke, Frederick Locker, Charles Shaw, Russell Sturgis and Anthony Trollope; summary of letters issued and received; circulars to stewards, officers, members &c; dinner ticket; stewards’ invitation ticket; honorary invitation ticket; list of persons invited to be stewards; list of honorary invitations; ticket list; toast list; correspondence with speakers, namely Sir George Bowyer, Samuel Cheetham, General Sir William John Codrington, Robert Cooke, the Earl of Derby, Sir William Milbourne James, Sir Frederic Leighton, Lord O’Neill (William O’Neill), Sir Charles Pearson, James Sant, Sir Henry James, Archibald Henry Sayce, Tom Taylor and Anthony Trollope; plan of tables; menu; subscriptions and donations announced; subscription papers; newspaper reports.

1881 (Chairman: James Russell Lowell, the US Minister):

1: Correspondence regarding the chairman, from Frederick Waymouth Gibbs, Russell Sturgis and James Russell Lowell, with a resolution from the Committee thanking Lowell.

2: Correspondence respecting the tavern from Messrs Willis; correspondence with members of the Committee and the anniversary committee, namely Russell Sturgis, Robert Cooke, Charles Shaw, Frederick Locker and John Murray; minutes of the anniversary committee; list of persons invited to be stewards; list of honorary invitations; list of money tickets issued; stewards’ invitation ticket; honorary invitation ticket; dinner ticket and lady’s ticket; forms of circulars; plan of tables; toast list; correspondence with speakers, namely Judah Philip Benjamin, Charles Parker Butt, Arthur Cohen, Lord Colchester (Reginald Charles Edward Abbot), Lord Coleridge (John Duke Coleridge), the Earl of Dalhousie (John William Maule Ramsay), the Earl of Derby (Edward Henry Stanley), Viscount Enfield (Henry William John Byng), Admiral Sir John Dalrymple Hay, Sir Farrer Herschell, Sir Frederic Leighton, James Russell Lowell, Justin McCarthy, Lord John Manners, Sir Nathaniel Mayer de Rothschild, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Leslie Stephen, Julian Russell Sturgis, Sir Richard Temple, Henry Wace and Sir Garnet Wolseley; list of donations and subscriptions announced; subscription papers; newspaper reports; ticket list; correspondence complaining of the dinner and the ladies’ collation, from Robert Dyer, George Potticary, Edward Robert Robson, George A Macmillan and Charles Shaw.