HOLLAND, Sir Henry, 1st Baronet (1788-1873). Physician and traveller.
Autograph Letter Signed to ?Thomas Allom, 2 pages 8vo (address-leaf removed), L[ower] Brook Street, 'Monday', dated in pencil in another hand '1833'. Conveying the news that their mutual friend has lost his son Arthur Hallam to a sudden illness while they were travelling in Vienna (1833), and asking him to pass on the news to Lord and Lady Holland.

'You will, I know, lament to hear that our poor friend Hallam has lost his son Arthur at Vienna - suddenly, & (as I conceive from the details sent me of the symptoms & of the exams after death,) from an attack of apoplectic nature. ... Will you communicate this to Lord & Lady Holland, whose friendship & regard for Hallam will give them every sympathy with him. ...'

Arthur Hallam is still best known for his association with the poet Alfred Tennyson and as the inspiration for Tennyson's In Memoriam, although some now recognise his own talent as a poet and critic. His father was the historian Henry Hallam, who moved in Whig circles and was a frequent guest at Holland House during this time. Lord and Lady Holland had created a brilliant circle of Whig politicians and men of letters following their marriage in July 1797. Emily Eden observed, in May 1833,

'Lady Holland has certainly organised a good system of society - ten people every day at dinner, and a few in the evening, and there is always an author for the good of one's mind, and a doctor to prevent one's dropping down dead ...'

It is likely then that Sir Henry Holland as a physician would have frequented these events, and that his correspondent was Thomas Allom, the architect and topographical illustrator (1804-1872).

£450 [No: 26496]