Loan 96 RLF 4/21

Contains detailed records of the Royal Literary Fund’s Centenary Dinner in 1890, which was attended by over seven hundred people. The records consist principally of letters and administrative documents, but also include materials such as table plans, menus and newspaper reports. The contents of the eight individual folders are listed below; contents are also listed on the fronts of the folders themselves.

1890: (Chairman: His Royal Highness Albert Edward, Prince of Wales):

1: Correspondence regarding the chairmanship from Frederick Waymouth Gibbs, Sir Francis Knollys, the Earl of Derby (Edward Henry Stanley) and Albert Edward, Prince of Wales; correspondence regarding the tavern from the manager of the Holborn Restaurant, the manager of the Criterion, J Roberts of the St James’s Hall Restaurant, Sir Francis Knollys, Arthur Llewelyn Roberts and W Paget Bowman; invitations to stewards; honorary invitations; stewards’ invitation card; honorary invitation card; circular to stewards; circulars to members; printed list of stewards; dinner tickets; ticket for the prince’s table; ladies ticket; plans of the tables (including handwritten notes); toast lists; letter from Sir Francis Knollys regarding toasts; menu cards; printed list of guests; address to the Prince of Wales; letter from William Smith on the address; correspondence of the dinner from Sir Francis Knollys, Henry Charles Burdett, Joseph Charles Parkinson, J Roberts (to Parkinson on the quality of the dinner), John Noble, Sir William Thomas Charley, Alfred Schiff, Sir Arthur Otway, Earl Stanhope (Arthur Philip Stanhope), Joshua Whitehead Butterworth and Frederic William Farrer; correspondence regarding the speeches from John Murray, Frederick Macmillan, the Marquis of Salisbury (Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil), Sir Francis Knollys, the Earl of Derby, the Bishop of Rochester (Anthony Thorold), the Bishop of Lichfield (William Maclagan), Thomas A Reed, Colonel A FitzGeorge, Admiral Sir Vesey Hamilton and the Bishop of Ripon (William Boyd Carpenter); subscription paper.

2: Correspondence with the anniversary committee, from Thomas Norton Longman, the Dean of Westminster (George Bradley), Crosby Lockwood, T Nelson, William Blackwood, Andrew Chatto, Frederick Miles, William Cooke, Percy Melville Thornton and John Murray; minutes of the anniversary committee; correspondence on the music with Major [?] Davidson; memorial to the Worshipful Companies; correspondence with the city companies, namely the Corporation of London (from Sir J Monckton), the Merchant Taylors’, the Fishmongers’, the Mercers’, the Grocers’, the Salters’, the Cordwainers’ and the Skinners’, with further letters from Robert Pott, Sir Polydor de Keyser, Ralph Copeland, Charles Herbert Shoppe, Daniel Watney, James Tyler, H Trower, Lewis J M Mason, Charles Leap, George Shaw, the Duke of Rutland (John Manners), Sir John Whittaker Ellis and William Sawyer, with related letters from John Peter Gassiot and Coutts & Co; administrative letters from William Smith and the Earl of Derby; newspaper reports (a great number thereof).

3: Letters from stewards accepting invitations (A to C): Sir Frederick Abel, Louis Abelson, Lord Aberdare (Henry Austin Bruce), William Mitchell Acworth, John Couch Adams, Arthur C Ainger, the Attorney General (Sir Richard Webster), Alfred Austen, Sir Benjamin Baker, Edwin Bale, T Graham Balfour, Edward Balston, Frank Pratt Barlow, the Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells (Arthur Charles Hervey), T Henry Bayliss, S H Beddington, Fritz B Behr, George Bell, Sir Lowthian Bell, George Bentley, Richard Bentley, Walter Besant, Sir George Birdwood, William Blackwood, William Hardwick Bradbury, David Brandon, Henry A Brassey, the Lord Brassey (Thomas Brassey), Sir Frederick Napier Broome, Joseph Brown, Oscar Browning, John Collingwood Bruce, George Earle Buckle, Sir Edward Herbert Bunbury, Henry Charles Burdett, Joshua Whitehead Butterworth, Sir Fowell Buxton, Thomas Buzzard, Ingram Bywater, Earl Cadogan (George Henry Cadogan), the Archbishop of Canterbury (Edward Benson), Lord Carlingford (Chichester Samuel Parkinson-Fortescue), Lord Eustace Cecil, Evelyn Cecil, the Sub-Dean of the Chapels Royal, Frederick Chapman, Sir William Thomas Charley, Samuel Cheetham, the Dean of Christchurch (Henry Liddell), Richard Copley Christie, Lord Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill, Robert Clark, Hyde Clarke, Charles John Clay, Sir Oscar Clayton, E A Clowes, William Clowes, Winchester Clowes, W C Knight Clowes, the Lord Colchester (Reginald Charles Edward Abbott), the Lord Coleridge (John Duke Coleridge), Sidney Colvin, William Cooke, William Henry Corfield, H R Cox, George Lillie Craik, the Lord Crewe (Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes), Thomas Francies Dillon Croker, Newton Crosland and James Crowdy.

4: Letters from stewards accepting invitations (D to K): George Dalziel, Lord Darnley, Sir Horace Davey, Sir Polydor de Keyser, Sir George Denman, Viscount de Stern (Herbert Stern), Baron Henry de Worms, Lewis T Dibdin, Walter Dickson, Sir Henry Doulton, Edward Dowden, Edmund Downey, Earl Ducie (Henry John Reynolds-Moreton), the Lord Egerton of Tatton (Wilbraham Egerton), Sir John Whittaker Ellis, Joseph Elis, the Dean of Ely (Charles Merivale), John Eric Erichson, the Lord Esher (William Baliol Brett), the Provost of Eton (James John Hornby), John Evans, Edward R Fairfax, Robert Ferguson, James Figgins, James Fleming, William Forsyth, Dudley Francis Fortescue, Sir John Fowler, Sir Robert Nicholas Fowler, Patrick Fraser, Sir William Fraser, John T Freeman, the French Ambassador (William Henry Waddington), James Anthony Froude, Thomas Dixon Galpin, Herbert Gardner, Richard Garnett, John Peter Gassiot, William Duguid Geddes, Frederick Waymouth Gibbs, Henry Hucks Gibbs, Edward Carr Glyn, Sir Julian Goldsmid, John Henry Grain, William Ellerby Green, Arthur Griffiths, Francis Seymour Haden, Henry Rider Haggard, Sir James Hannen, Edward Hansen, [?] Harris, Robert Harvey, Sir John Hawkshaw, Charles Heneage, Joseph M Hennesey, Sir Prescot G Hewett, Andrew K Hichens, Sir Clement L L Hill, Frank H Hill, the Lord Hillingdon (Charles Mills), J Stewart Hodgson, John Hollams, William Gunston Howell, the Mayor of Hull (James Sherborn), Henry George Bonavia Hunt, Alfred Henry Huth, Thomas Henry Huxley, William Ince, Constantine A Ionides, Henry Irving, Sir Henry James, Louis John Jennings, William Jennings, Evan R Jones, Sir Arnold Burrowes Kemball, William Knighton, Stuart Knill and Lord Knutsford (Henry Thurstan Holland).

5: Letters from stewards accepting invitations (L to R): The Earl of Lathom (Edward Bootle-Wilbraham), Sir John Lawrance, Sir Trevor Lawrence, Edward Lawson, Harry Lawson Webster Lawson, John Temple Leader, William Edward Hartpole Lecky, Sir Frederic Leighton, J M Lely, the Earl of Leven and Melville (Ronald Ruthven Leslie-Melville), Hayter Lewis, Sir William Lewis, the Lord Bishop of Lichfield (William Maclagan), the Dean of Lichfield (Edward Bickersteth), Sir Joseph Lister, the Dean of Llandaff (Charles John Vaughan), Crosby Lockwood, Frank Lockwood, Sir Henry Longley, G Alan Lowndes, Arthur Lucas, Francis A Lucas, the Earl of Lytton (Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton), John William Maclure, Edmund Macrory, Charles Brinsley Marlay, Wilfred George Marshall, Edward Marston, Sir Theodore Martin, John Maxwell, Henry Churchill Maxwell-Lyte, Frederick Miles, William Henry Milman, Alfred Williams Momerie, Charles James Monk, James Monro, Walter Vaughan Morgan, Henry Morley, Sir John Robert Mowbray, Arthur Oliver Mudie, John Murray, John Murray, W E Norris, the Mayor of Nottingham (Edward Goldschmidt), Herbert Parry Okeden, Sir Arthur Otway, Sir James Paget, Francis Turner Palgrave, Joseph Charles Parkinson, Coventry Patmore, Thomas Edgar Pemberton, the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery (George Herbert), Sir John Pender, Edward Augustus Petherick, Arthur Wing Pinero, R H Pinhey, the Mayor of Plymouth (Henry John Waring), Richard Quain, John Rae, William Fraser Rae, Henry Reeve, Sims Reeve, Thomas Weymiss Reid, the Marquis of Ripon (George Frederick Samuel Robinson), the Lord Bishop of Ripon (William Boyd Carpenter), Briton Riviere, Charles Robert Rivington, Francis Hansard Rivington, Edward Robert Robson, the Lord Bishop of Rochester (Anthony Thorold), Sir Albert Rollit, the Lord Rothschild (Nathaniel Mayer de Rothschild), Alfred de Rothschild, Leopold de Rothschild, Robert W Routledge, G W Rusden, Lord Arthur Russell and the Duke of Rutland (John Manners).

6: Letters from stewards accepting invitations (S to Y): The Bishop of St Asaph (Alfred Edwards), the Master of St John’s College Cambridge (Charles Taylor), the Dean of St Paul’s (Richard William Church), George Saintsbury, George Augustus Sala, the Marquis of Salisbury (Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil), Fleetwood Sandeman, Reuben D Sassoon, Sir Edwin Saunders, Alfred George Schiff, General G A Schomberg, Thomas Teignmouth Shore, J Henry Shorthouse, Hawley Smart, Samuel Smiles, the Solicitor General (Sir Edward George Clarke), Henry Southern, Sir John Stainer, Edward Stanford, Earl Stanhope (Arthur Philip Stanhope), Lord Stanley of Alderley (Henry Stanley), William Stebbing, E Steinkopff, William Richard Stephens, Sir James Stirling, Julian Sturgis, Sir Arthur Sullivan, James Joseph Sylvester, Hallam Tennyson, Sir Henry Thompson, Edward Maunde Thompson, Lord Thurlow (Thomas John Hovell-Thurlow-Cumming-Bruce), Alfred Chenevix Trench, William Trotter, Henry Trower, E Owen Tudor, Richard Twining, Thomas Fisher Unwin, Sir J R Somers Vine, John Van Voorst, Henry Wace, Sir Thomas Francis Wade, Frederick Warne, Edmond Warre, John Arthur Warwick, C Knight Watson, William Wayte, the Mayor of Wednesbury, the Dean of Wells (Edward Hayes Plumptre), the Duke of Westminster (Hugh Grosvenor), the Dean of Westminster (George Granville Bradley), Joseph Whitaker, Sir Arnold White, Henry White, Sir Samuel Wilson, the Dean of Windsor (Randall Thomas Davidson), Viscount Garnet Joseph Wolseley, Charles W Wood, Henry Woodward, Richard Heber Wrightson, George Wyndham and Edmund Yates.

7: Officers and members attending: Henry Spencer Ashbee, S B Bancroft, Herbert Bentwich, John Stuart Blackie, Demetrius Charles Boulger, M Buchanan, James Alexander Campbell, John Clay, W Covington, Henry Craik, Alfred L Cohen., James Cundy, Moir T Stormouth Darling, Sir George Elliot, Messrs Griffith, Farraf & Co, C A Fennell, H Buxton Forman, Alfred G L’Estrange, Sidney J Low, J G MacAlister, Erick Mackay, George A Macmillan, James Macaulay, Howard Marsh, W Marshall, Cosmo Monkhouse, Lewis Morris, Frank Moss, Raymond Payley, John Phené, Guy Pym, the Press Association, Hormuzd Rassam, Charles F Rideal, William H Ridgeway, John Russell Reynolds, F Manley Sims, F Sherlock, Walter William Skeat, William Smith, Henry Sowton, Evan Spicer, E Squire Sprigge, the Assistant Editor of the Times, Edward Waters, Joseph Vernon Whitaker, Arthur Cerdic Whitaker, Henry White, Henry Williams and William Aldis Wright.

8: Honorary invitations: acceptances from The Duke of Cambridge (Prince George), Major General R Bateson, the Greek Minister, Admiral Sir Vesey Hamilton, the Hawaiian Charge d’Affaires, Friedrich Max Müller, Captain [?] Nelson, Surgeon T H Parke, Lord Revelstoke (Edward Charles Baring), the Servian Charge d’Affaires, the Servian Consul General and Lieutenant William Grant Stairs, and letters declining from the King of the Belgians (Leopold II), the Chinese Minister and Henry Morton Stanley.