CARLYLE, Jane Baillie Welsh (1801-1866). Wife of Thomas Carlyle.
Two Autograph Letters Signed to Jane [Donaldson], 8 pages 8vo (rather brittle and with one small chip missing), 5 Cheyne Row, 2 April 1860 where dated. With a very long but apparently incomplete letter to her godmother, Jess Donaldson, after 1857, 8 pages 4to, no date, perhaps a copy.
The Donaldson family were early and close friends of the then Jane Welsh, and these letters are full of affectionate family news and reminiscence. The dated letter refers to a letter that Jane had received from Jane Howden about the death of an elderly member of the family, and comments with surprise that Jess 'the invalid of the family survived them all'. The second letter has much family news, and mentions that Jane had received a letter 'from my "illegitimate" cousin'. The longest letter, to Jess, has much about her comfort and health (health is a large concern in all of the letters), but is largely taken up with a long account of the affair of the Lennoxes of Lennox Castle and their involvement, at first on the Nile, with Lord Strangford (George Augustus Frederick Percy Sydney Smythe, seventh Viscount, 1818-1857) who had died very soon after reluctantly marrying one of the Miss Lennoxes.
[No: 22452]