LEWIS (MATTHEW GREGORY, 1775-1818, author of the 'Monk') FINE LONG AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED, containing a sustained attack upon the town of Kidderminster, to Lord Henry Petty, later Marquess of Lansdowne, and Chancellor of the Exchequer 1806-1807, where he had been forced to stay on his journey to Inverary, having taken that road rather than the Worcester-Litchfield- Wolverhampton route; he also furnishes a description of the Lake District ('...the Sun lighted up Windereme and Grasmere in the greatest perfection...'), gives an account of an adventure by Lord John Campbell in Germany ('...she drest him in a suit of Women's cloaths, took him by the arm, and walked out of the Town with him boldly and unsuspected...'), asks Petty to thank his father for the kindess of his reception at Bowood ('...for a Man whose eloquence could persuade the Calnites that it would be prudent in them to lay down their money and get their throats cut, cannot fail to stamp conviction on a truth so simple...'), sends his 'best remembrances' to Miss Fox and Mrs Romilly ('...if [her] bright eyes still shine upon Bowood...') with a jovial message for the latter, and mentions the forger John Hatfield's execution and the reaction of Mary [Robinson, the 'Buttermere Beauty', whom he had duped and married] ('...Mary seemed quite aloof and unconcerned; an account, which has greatly offended the sensibility of all the female part of Inveraray Castle, who maintain that in perfect propriety she ought to have died of a broken heart some weeks ago; but that at any rate she should be out of her senses at present...'), 4 full pages, quarto, Inveraray Castle, 10 September 1803

'...I was persuaded to go by Kidderminster-and-be-damned-to-it...I do warn you Lord Henry Petty, in order that you may warn all other Lord Henry Petties even unto the fiftieth Generation, not to suffer any human considerations, neither interest, flattery, nor force, to entice you into the limbo of Kidderminster. Do you happen to have ever heard of any very enormous crime committed by the Inhabitants? for that the place is accurst of heaven is past a doubt. the Roads are all sand; the Hills are all brick-dust colour; the Houses are all dirty; the Children are all ugly; the Men are all stupid; and I do verily believe in my conscience, that all the Women are born old...I became quite proud of my own powers of imprecation, and admired the choice of expressions and variety of modes, in which I contrived to make the Devil a present (in the fullness of my generosity) of Kidderminster and all the Kidderminsterienses, past, present, and to come. Had I possest the Wand of a Sorcerer, I should certainly have ordered the ground to open, and swallow up this detestable Town...what a fine thing it would have been, when Kidderminster should be discovered in the reign of George the Tenth, like a second Herculaneum! How Prince Prosperity would have chuckled over and wondered at the treasures contained in the House of mine Host of the Black Lion!...'

Letters by 'Monk' Lewis are rare: no publication of this letter has been traced.

£1,800