12 and 13 June 1873 • London, England (MS: CtHSD and Schwalb, UCCL 00924)
It was just like me. I wrote Sir Cordy Burrows2explanatory note last Sunday that Miss Spaulding wouldn’t be able to go again to Brighton, her sight-seeing time being so circumscribed, & therefore my wife couldn’t go because she would be left Ⓐemendationforlorn & dreary in that Brighton hotel so long—consequently I would have to lose the pleasure of going myself, under the circumstances, & remain here & help the ladies do other sight-seeing Ⓐemendation. Then I said to myself Ⓐemendation, I will write Lee also—but I suppose I forgot it. No—now I remember, I didn’t forget it. I Ⓐemendationargued that I would see you several times during the week & would tell you.
Don’t you be offended, old friend, for I didn’t mean to forget, & I’ve been moving night & day since I saw you. I want Mrs. Clemens to see the aquarium, & I mean that she shall see it, but I must not let her visit there be spoiled by a dreary & lonely interval in a hotel. So we want to go down some time when you are going & when I won’t have to leave her lying around loose at all.3explanatory note
When can you go to Hampton Court?4explanatory note We have had a day or two open, but Mrs. Clemens & Miss Spaulding have both said pretty emphatically that they particularly wish to go when you can go & they are very ready to wait till you have leisure. So I have said, “All right, if you are more satisfied fascinated with that venerable naturalist than you are with the subscriber, I am willing to wait, too, because I find his company rather pleasant myself.” Miss Spaulding said, several times, coming home, “I do think so much of Mr. Lee.” I don’t think you ever showed kindnesses to any lady that more heartily & gratefully appreciated them than she did.
Midnight F Ⓐemendation—Your note just arrived—sent you a telegram at once to say I had written Sir Cordy last week.5explanatory note Saturday I dine at the Savage to–morrow night Ⓐemendationwith Joaquin Miller—wish you could be there.6explanatory note
Henry Lee Esq | 43 Holland st, Blackfriars Road | London, S.E. in upper left corner: Personal postmarked: London • w 6 ju13 73 and London • se Ⓐemendation lv ju13 73 7explanatory note
For the date of this letter, see note 7.
John Cordy Burrows (1813–76), a surgeon, was a leading citizen and former mayor of Brighton; he was knighted in February 1873 for his services on behalf of that city. He had probably met Clemens through their mutual friend, Henry Lee.
Lee was the naturalist of the Brighton Aquarium, which Clemens had visited in September 1872 (13 Sept–11 Nov 72 to Lee, n. 1click to open link). He soon accompanied the Clemenses on a visit, for Thompson recalled: “The President of the Brighton Aquarium took our party down in a special car, dined them and showed them the Aquarium, the greatest in the world at that time I believe. I overslept and was too late for that” (Thompson, 98). The “party” may well have included Clara Spaulding after all. If so, the Brighton trip had to have occurred before she departed for the Continent on 26 June (6 July 73 to Fairbanks, n. 1click to open link).
Hampton Court Palace, some fifteen miles southwest of London, is one of the finest examples of Tudor architecture in Britain. Begun by Cardinal Wolsey in 1514, it was greatly enlarged and embellished by the succession of monarchs who resided there. Queen Victoria opened it to visitors, who enjoyed the art treasures on display in the state apartments, as well as the extensive gardens (Weinreb and Hibbert, 359–61).
None of these communications survives.
Clemens’s dinner appointment with Miller at the Savage Club was for Saturday, 14 June (11 June 73 to Millerclick to open link).
Although the envelope and the letter manuscript are now in separate collections (see the textual commentary), the outgoing and incoming postmarks—both for 13 June—together with Clemens’s reference to his dinner engagement with Miller “to-morrow night” (14 June), strongly suggest that the two belong together. Clemens’s apology was something he might well have marked “Personal” on the envelope. Furthermore, the reason for the apology—the failure to write sooner—rules out the possibility that the envelope belonged to some other letter, now lost, sent earlier the same day. Clemens’s dateline implies that he wrote before and after midnight, on Friday (13 June) and Saturday (14 June). His revisions in the postscript (after the signature), however, offer ample evidence that he was confused about the day. On balance, it seems most likely that he wrote the letter on 12 and 13 June and mailed it on the morning of 13 June.
MS, Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Hartford (CtHSD), is copy-text for the letter. MS facsimile is copy-text for the envelope; the editors have not seen the MS, which is in the collection of Bruce Schwalb.
L5 , 380–381.