NPG 1350 (1a)

 

Selected Letters Letter from William Edward Hartpole Lecky to G.F. Watts, dated 1 May 1881, asking the artist if he would like to contribute to a memorial for Thomas Carlyle.
 

38 Onslow Gardens,
S.W.
May 1. 1881

Dear Mr. Watts
I wonder whether you w[oul]d help a little towards the Carlyle Memorial w[hic]h we are trying to get up? It is to be a statue by Boehm on the Embankment & (if sufficient is subscribed) also a bust in W[estminster] Abbey. The Committee are particularly anxious to get representative names & w[oul]d value your greatly. I think you will agree

 

with me that a writer who has himself published some 30 most excellent volumes sh[oul]d not be prized solely or mainly by Reminiscences w[hic]h he did not publish or mean to publish & (illegible) w[hic]h he said that if anything in them was worthy of offering in print it must only be after a very careful revisal - a revisal w[hic]h was never bestowed on them. Pray do not take the trouble to answer this letter but if you w[oul]d kindly give any help towards "the Carlyle Memorial Fund" please send it to Messrs Drummond's Bank Charing Cross.

I hope you will forgive me for troubling you

    & (illegible) me
Yours sincerely
WEH Lecky.
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