MR. HENRY JAMES writes:
‘The Dovecote, Rye.
‘I have no hesitation in saying, that if it had been, what I might call my splendid destiny, to read, in early life, bang through these hundred magnificent volumes, with their robust, almost brutal, perspicacity and frankness, as of a battering-ram, I think it is beyond question, that the number of those of my readers who now are able to grasp my meaning, such as it is, and follow my drift, would be sensibly augmented.’
THE RT. HON. JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., writes: ‘I feel that it ought to be known generally that when I sustained my recent injury in a hansom I was hurrying home to resume the perusal of the engaging biography of Mr. Kruger in your new volumes. Had I only taken it to the Colonial Office with me, as Austen wished me to, the volume would have saved me a severe contusion by acting as a buffer.’
DR. ROBERTSON NICOLL writes: ‘Capital reading.... Please send me two more sets. Claudius wants one, and the Man of Kent another. I will O. O. for them.’
LORD HUGH CECIL writes: ‘That unfortunate delay in the division lobby has never, I fancy, been properly explained. The fact was, I couldn’t tear myself away from your picture of my friend, Sir Richard Calmady, with his prize Oxford Down ram, illustrating your alluring article on agriculture.’