Autograph Letter Signed 'Sutherland' and dated 'Dunrobin Sept. 15 1883'. With two contemporary photos.

SUTHERLAND-LEVESON-GOWER, George Granville William

About this Item

Letter by George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 3rd Duke of Sutherland (1828-1892) to 'My dear M'. 4 p. With a letter by Charles Longuet Higgins (1806-1885) to 'My dear Lady' pinned to the first leaf. Some spots and traces of glue (for an album), some creasing. Extensive letter (59 lines) written fast and not very clearly about the possibilities of meeting, traveling between 'L. Never' or 'Inver' and (castle) Dunrobin, and various commitments ('The Ds. [Duchess] must be again here - for the Poultry show on the 27th'). In the attached letter, dated 'May 23rd 1881', Charles Longuet Higgins (a wealthy landowner from Bedford near London, 1806-1885) offers 'St. Anne's Society polling paper' to 'My dear Lady'. This possibly concerns the Royal Asylum of St. Anne's Society, a large London children's asylum, funded by rich Britons. The letters come with two rather creased and damaged, contemporary original photos, one of the Duke of Sutherland in a cap holding a large piece of game, a dog at his side; the other shows a coach with four passengers, two personnel and two draft animals. From the letter collection of John Arlott. And with a carte-de-visite portrait photo (in very good condition) of long-bearded George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower when in his fourties, made by W. & D. Downey in Newcastle on Tyne. The 3rd Duke of Sutherland (in Scotland), who was an extremely rich landowner, lived separated of his wife for many years and had a mistress, Mary Caroline Blair (1848-1912), the wife of his agent Captain Arthur Blair. This letter to My dear M! could well be addressed to Mary Blair when Lord Sutherland was occupied with finding a window to meet each other between appointments and obligations. Arthur Blair was to die mysteriously in a shooting accident on October 3, 1883, thought to be a suicide (or worse) - only 18 days after this letter. Sutherland married Mary Blair four months after his wife s death in 1888. After his passing and after some testament hitches, she became an immensely rich widow with a yearly income of a hundred thousand pounds.

Seller Inventory # 272941

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Autograph Letter Signed 'Sutherland' and dated 'Dunrobin Sept. 15 1883'. With two contemporary photos.
• Seller catalogs:
  • Letter Signed - Brief - Lettre - Doc - TLS-ALS
  • 19th Century - 19e eeuw
  • Scotland
  • Signed-Signiert-Gesigneerd