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Call Number:
MSS 59
Holdings:
[Request]
Creator:
Lear, Edward, 1812–1888
Title(s):
Edward Lear letter to Hallam Tennyson
Date:
1884 September 18
Classification:
Archives and Manuscripts
Series:
Correspondence
Part of Collection:
Box 1, folder 9
Provenance:
Yale Center for British Art, Gift of Donald C. Gallup, Yale BA 1934, PhD 1939, Gallup's collecting of Edward Lear material is described in: Gallup, Donald C. "Collecting Edward Lear." The Yale University Library Gazette 61, no. 3/4 (1987): 125-42. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40858913. And in: Wilcox, Scott. Edward Lear and the art of travel. New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, 2000.
Conditions Governing Access:
The materials are open for research.
Conditions Governing Use:
Copyright Undetermined

The collection is the physical property of the Yale Center for British Art. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the Archives Department.
Scope and Content:
Lear writes from Villa Tennyson in Sanremo to Hallam Tennyson, at first apologizing for the delay, explaining that the letter traveled quite too far, due to “my frequent change of place owing to ill health, uncomfortable or unsuitable quarters, - quarantines, cordons, & whatnot.” Lear notes that the previous letter included a poem, and “as you tell me to criticize, I must do so.” His criticism of the poem, however, is lighthearted: he first explains that maize does not grow in this part of Italy—which the poem describes—and therefore “your allusion to Maize would cause only AMaizement to those who know this part of Italy.” He later uses the romantic depictions of the region to launch into a discussion of its recent changes, writing, “its rocky promontories [are] all hacked & tunneled into monotonous walls, its trees cut down & replaced by lodging houses & warehouses.” Lear advises Hallam not to visit, as the danger of cholera “make[s] travelling a bore” and as his own health is not good. He is, however, busy with illustrations, and he closes with a quotation from Alfred Tennyson.
Additional Notes:
Written in black ink.
Physical Description:
1 folded sheet (4 pages) : autograph letter, signed ; 21 x 27 cm, folded to 21 x 14 cm
Genre:
Correspondence , Pen and ink drawings, and Lists
Subject Terms:
Description and travel
Moore, Thomas, 1779-1852. By that lake, whose gloomy shore
Associated Places:
Italy
Mediterranean Region
Associated People/Groups:
Lear, Edward, 1812-1888
Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron, 1809-1892
Tennyson, Hallam Tennyson, Baron, 1852-1928
Finding Aid Title:
Edward Lear archive
Collection PDF:
https://ead-pdfs.library.yale.edu/11283.pdf
Archival Object:
https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/2896665
Metadata Cloud URL:
https://metadata-api.library.yale.edu/metadatacloud/api/aspace/repositories/3/archival_objects/2896665?mediaType=json&include-notes=1&include-all-subjects=1