Letters to and from The Times Newspaper
A miscellaneous group of letters, c.1886 to 1921 where dated. Principally correspondence (to and from) Delane and Buckle, the fifth and seventh editors. Including a fine Crimea letter of William Howard Russell, letters from the prime ministers Balfour and Rosebery and of others, often offering letters for publication, and displaying the day to day business of a major newspaper.

John Thadeus Delane (editor 1841-1877)

ALS (Autograph Letter Signed) to Louisa ?Court, 3½ pages 8vo on black-edged paper, rather reluctantly, and at some length, arranging for a review of her friend's books.
ALS to ?Lansley, regretting that he will not see him that day.
ALS to D. Roberts, 3 December [1858], agreeing to publish a letter.
2 ALS to James ?Crowdey, inviting him to call and perhaps share his pheasant, and assuring him that his nephew 'has made it all safe for you now'.
ALS to Egerton, asking for the name of the new Italian 'Minister to this Court'.
ALS to the Duke of Wellington (presumably Arthur Richard, 1807-1884, second duke): '... A clerk in the Counting House in the absence on holiday of his superior gave himself critical airs. He has persisted in torture. You might have heard his screams at Apsley House but for the deafness you sometimes affect. ... Will the Emperor go to war for Sanctions? If not, how is he to bear the refusal of his demand?'
ALS to Mrs Sheridan, sending 'a very big box for tomorrow's Pantomime'.
Long ALS to Lucas thanking him for his kindness and engaging in a round of name-dropping: '... So far from being, as these silly people would have the world believe, devoted to Palmerston, I have lived ever since 1841 [when he first became Editor] in the most familiar social intimacy with Lyndhurst & Disraeli and still more so with Palmerston's great opponent, Aberdeen. In the same way, I know ?Malmedy as well as Clarendon & Shaftesbury & Stanhope as well as Rothschild. ...'
ALS to an unnamed correspondent (laid down), asking for a copy of Ryall's 'Conservative Statesmen'.
ALS to Dr [?John] Forbes Watson, asking him to call the following day.
ALS to Moffat, sending a confidential enclosure (no longer present); 'you will be consoled for your own ill success at Newark.'
ALS to an unnamed correspondent returning correspondence received a few days previously 'which has now lost much of its interest as to be scarcely fit for publication in a newspaper'.
ALS to an unnamed correspondent: 'Please to construct a paragraph out of the bundle of papers enclosed'.
Good letter to Delane from William Howard Russell, the 'Times' war correspondent in the Crimea, 2 page 8vo closely written (small tears not affecting the text), Constantinople, 2 July ['1855' in another hand], during the siege of Sevastopol. A gloomy letter, describing his difficult voyage and commenting on various military commanders. A passage marked out for extraction, perhaps by Delane: 'Poor Lord Raglan - no man ever won so many friends by an inexpresible charm of manner, by perfect polish, & exquisite urbanity, but he was hard as marble to all, but his own & theirs - of dear [William Henry] Stowe¹ I have no more to say. He died tranquilly as one who had trust & faith in Heaven. I expect my wife every day, but it is hard to find a place for her & I see nothing open, but our expensive & dirty hotel. ... Alas these deaths have made me very selfish & desponding - Stowe's inexpressible shocksome. No one but a great general can relieve us ...'

George Earle Buckle (editor 1884-1912).

ALS to Mrs Cookson, crying off a dinner engagement on the grounds of his wife's ill health.
ALS to J.H. Balfour Browne, 25 January 1884, conveying the information that Chenery would not be able to use an article 'on the Ship Canal Scheme'.
ALS to Gaskell, 12 March 1894, asking him whether he would be free to play in a match.
A letter written on behalf of the editor, 21 march 1870, declining an offer.
ALS from Frederick T. Dalton to Sir H.H. Howarth, 10 September 1896, at Buckle's request, enunciating a paragraph he intends to omit from Howorth's letter, and adding, perhaps carelessly, that 'The omission does (sic) interfere in any way with the course of your argument'.

Letters to Buckle

Lord Rosebery (later prime minister): 2 ALsS ('R') to [John Brainerd] Capper, Assistant Editor of The Times under Buckle, June and October 1887, hoping to welcome him as a neighbour at Mentmore, and thanking him for the return of some reports.
Arthur James Balfour (prime minister 1902-1905): LS and ALS to Buckle, 10 Downing Street and House of Commons, 1892 and 1907, inviting him call at Downing Street, and in 1907 to find space for his reply to a letter in that day's paper.
[William Hillier Onslow], 4th Earl of Onslow: ALS asking for a notice of his appointment as KCMG to be published.
[George Curzon], 1st Marquess of Curzon: ALS submitting 'the enclosed [no longer] on a minor topic of some interest'.
Baroness Burdett Coutts: AL3 to the Acting Editor, 2 pages 8vo with envelope (lightly attached), Stratton Street, 10 September 1886. Hoping to see Buckle but wishing to see the Acting Editor that same evening.
William Vernon Harcourt: 2 ALS to Buckle, 2 pages 8vo, Lyndhurst and London, both asking him to publish letters.
Second Earl of Lytton: ALS, 12 August 1908, asking for a letter to be published ('The near future is going to witness a battle between two rival temperance policies and the terms of the controversy are contained in this correspondence'.)
The Earl of Carlisle: brief ALS submitting a letter, 13 September 1910 and hence probably to Buckle.

Miscellaneous
Two typewritten letters to Lord Northcliffe, 1904 and 1921, and one from him (secretarially signed), 1911; TLS from Eugene Sandow, the professional 'Strong Man', to H.G. Price of The Times, 22 August 1919, offering to help the nation; a third person letter from Mr Walter, 1885, perhaps a descendant of the founder, and a brief note from Lord Hugh Cecil.

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1. Stowe had travelled to the Crimea in 1855 on behalf of The Times which had organised a fund for the relief of the sick and wounded in the British Army. He also sent letters to the newspaper describing the health of the army, the state of the hospitals, and the bombardment of Sevastopol. Two of his letters were published in Russell's The War (1855). He succumbed to camp fever on 22 June 1855 and was buried at Balaklava.
[No: 26720]