MEREDITH'S LAST LETTER

Horowhenua Chronicle, 27 April 1916, Page 2

MEREDITH'S LAST LETTER

WRITTEN TO FOOTE THREE WEEKS BEFORE DEATH. George Meredith's friends a.mTcorrespondent* included all sorts audi L'onditions ol people, as appears from h s .son's collection ol' ''Letters" published by Messrs. Constable four years ago. One of his early and stanch admirers -w as G. "\\\ Foote, the secularist and associate of Charles JiarWaugli ancl James Thomson ("B. V."), the autnor of "the City of Dreadful Night." Itlr. Foote died last year, and his library his been bought by Messrs. Dobell, >»t Charing-eross-road. The late Air. Bertram Dobell andi Foote were friends for over 30 ■ years. The most interesting feature of tn> library consists of eight autograph letters from Meredith to Foote. in the earliest, which is dated August I< J, 1878, and consists of four full pages, Meredith writes:— To feel that men like you and "B. V." read andi have a taste ior what 1 produce is full of encouragement to me to write on with s?ootl heart. ... i . As to my poems, 1 liavo lost the ardtour for publishing them; perhaps in a-year to two they may appear: lam well content to remain unpublished while the poems of "B. V." are withheld. In an unpublished letter of 3J pages, dated February 24, 1908, Meredith enclosed a subscription for the funds of the Secular Education Movement, saying that it was one of jfche "certainties of the proximate future," and speaks of Foote's "valiant fight that is distilled for" Victory.'; lii another letter dated April 23, 1909, he gays, 'As a. question of supporting your paper ny name is at your disposal,'' and in a postscript he refers to Swinburne's funeral—"Watts-Dunton, as 1 suppose, was ill and feeble at the time of the funeral." In the published volumQ of "Letters" it i<s stated that Meredith's last letter was to AVatts-Dtin-t-on, and is' dated April 13, 1909. But this letter to Foote, with the original envelope in Meredith's hand, was written ten days later, and. only about three weeks before his death. The library also includes a copy or Meredith's "Poems and Lyrics oi the Joy of Life," 1883, inscribed "G. W. Foote, Esq re., with the author's compliments.—<s.M." This was sent to Foote when he was in Holloway Prison for "blasphemy.",.