Prince of Wales embossed blind stamp to top corner of pages ...

Hammer

€280

Prince of Wales embossed blind stamp to top corner of pages of a handwritten letter, from Lord George Hill to a recipient, who seems certain to be Thomas Carlyle, inviting him to visit Gweedore. Letter dated July 20. Hill mentions that he arrived back from Gweedore to find a letter of Introduction (from Carlyle) and that there was no need of a letter of Intro as he has seen of his (Carlyle) arrival in Dublin in the newspapers. He (Carlyle) should travel to Galway, Castlebar and Ballina where he would see the “Country which had suffered much during the late famine” The letter continues advising him to visit Letterkenny, Derry, Stranorlar, among people mentioned in the letter they include John Vandeleur Stewart, Captain Pitt Kennedy, Sir Charles James Napier. Thomas Carlyle visited Ireland in the summer of 1849 and he travelled to Donegal and in his memoirs described "Lord George - Excellent polite, pious hearted, healthy man." although Carlyle was not impressed by the "black dismal twenty two miles of road" even though he conceded that the landlords improvements to his estate had been manifold, he also noted "sprinkled in ragged clusters the huts of the inhabitants, wretchedest 'farmers' that the sun now looks upon, I do believe." A controversial and colourful character, Hill also married two sisters who were Jane Austen’s nieces.