OSBORNE, Francis, fifth duke of Leeds (1751-1799). Politician.
Autograph Letter Signed [to Francis Webb], 1 page 4to (lower left hand corner cut away), St James's Square, 31 August 1796. Thanking his anonymous correspondent for 'your very Elegant Hymn to the Dryads'.

'... As to the Debt of honor you suppose to have incurr'd, I beg it may end as it began in a laugh, it was in truth, as near what is called a Bubble Bett that I should not have much hopes of recovering a farthing of it from a Jury of the Jockey Club, the only Tribunal competent to decide on so important a case.'

Francis Webb (1735-1815, General Baptist minister and writer), in his retirement a member of the duke's circle, had published his Hymn to the Dryads in 1796. Oxford DNB describes it as revealing the limitations of his poetic gift.
Provenance: from a collection formed by A.M. Broadley in 1903.

£65 [No: 24712]