Loan 96 RLF 5/6/8

Contains letters relating to applications for the post of Secretary of the Literary Fund from George Miller, William Freeling Jerdan (supported by his father, William Jerdan) and Octavian Blewitt (with picture). Blewitt was appointed, with sureties provided by William Tooke, George Herbert and Edward Gandy. Also contains a great deal of correspondence relating to Blewitt’s tenure as Secretary, mostly in relation to the makeup and conduct of the Committee, including letters from Blewitt himself and from Lord Fitzalan, Charles Murray, John Richardson Major, John Herman Merivale, Charles Augustus Murray, G Simms, Patrick Fraser Tytler, Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas, William Hodge Mill, Lord John Manners, Richard Monckton Milnes, James Prior, Sir William Abraham Chatterton, Joseph Gwilt, William Henry Harrison, Frederic Ouvry and William Smith. Also contains a letters expressing sorrow at Blewitt’s death from Reginald Laurence Antrobus, private secretary to Edward Henry Stanley, Earl of Derby (with a response from Ann Roper Blewitt), William Frederick Pollock and Alexander James Beresford Beresford Hope, as well as letters from 1888 to Arthur Llewelyn Roberts on the death of Mrs Blewitt from Edward Harris, P W Richardson, William Smith, Anne Roper Blewitt and Harriet Leaf. Includes a handwritten contents list by Nigel Cross.