10 November 1872 • London, England (MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00831)
Livy darling, it was flattering, at the Lord Mayor’s dinner,1explanatory note tonight, to have the nation’s honored favorite, the Lord High Chancellor of England,2explanatory note in his vast wig & gown, with a splendid, sword-bearing lackey, following him & holding up his train, walk me arm-in-arm through the brilliant assemblage, & welcome me with all the enthusiasm of a girl, & tell me that when affairs of state oppress him & he can’t sleep, he always has my books at hand & forgets his perplexities in reading them! And two other be-g be-wiggedⒶemendation & gowned great state judges of England told me the very same thing.
And it was pleasant in such an illustrious assemblage to overhear people talking about me at every step, & always complimentarily—& also to have these grandees come up & introduce themselves & apologize for it. You will heartily enjoy your English welcome when you come here. With a world of love,
in ink: Mrs. S. L. Clemens | Cor Forest & Hawthorne | Hartford | Conn. in upper left corner: America. | flourish postmarked: london w 7 no 11 72 and new york nov 23Ⓐemendation paid all
On Saturday, 9 November, “Sir Sydney Waterlow, the new Lord Mayor, was escorted from the Guildhall to Westminster, with all the accustomed pomp, to be presented to the Barons of the Exchequer, in accordance with ancient usage.” When the grand procession, known as the Lord Mayor’s Show, arrived at West-minster, the new mayor took his oath of office. In the evening, the “usual State banquet was given by the Lord Mayor and the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex at Guildhall. The Lord Mayor received the guests on their arrival in the new Library. Covers were laid for between 800 and 900” (“Lord Mayor’s Day,” London Times, 11 Nov 72, 10; Weinreb and Hibbert, 482–84).
Sir Roundell Palmer, Lord Selborne (1812–95), became lord chancellor on 15 October 1872. He was educated at Oxford, where he performed brilliantly, and entered the practice of law in 1837. He served as solicitor-general (1861), attorney general (1863–66), and was twice lord chancellor (1872–74, 1880–85). Knighted in 1861, he was made Baron Selborne of Selborne in October 1872.
References
- University of California, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, Berkeley
- Machlis, Paul, ed. Union Catalog of Clemens Letters. Edited by Paul Machlis. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press. [In some cases, UCCL catalog numbers cited in this volume supersede those assigned in 1986 and reflect corrections or additions to the catalog since publication. An updated version of the catalog can be consulted via the Letters Search page at MTPO.] 1986
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 5: 1872–1873. Edited by Lin Salamo and Harriet Elinor Smith. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 1997
- Wecter, Dixon. The Love Letters of Mark Twain. Edited by Dixon Wecter. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1949
- Davis, Chester L., Sr. “The Book That Was Never Written (Another Unpublished Letter).” Twainian 37 (May-June): 1–2. 1978
- Weinreb, Ben, and Christopher Hibbert. The London Encyclopaedia. London: Macmillan London. Citations are to the 1986 reprint edition, Bethesda, Md.: Adler and Adler. 1983
MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).
L5 , 221–222; LLMT , 181–82; Davis 1978.
see Samossoud Collection in Description of Provenance.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.