AUTOGRAPH LETTERS OF CARLYLE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20642, 14 February 1929, Page 10

AUTOGRAPH LETTERS OF CARLYLE.

GIFT TO SCOTTISH NATIONAL LIBRARY. (From Qua Own Correspondent.) LONDON, December 21. The trustees of the National Libi’ary of Scotland have received the magnificent gift of over TOO autograph letters ,of Thomas Carlyle. The donor of this unique collection is Miss Margaret Carlyle Aitken, daughter of Carlyle’s sister Jean. Miss Aitken, whose home is in Dumfries, and who is now 84 years of age, takes a keen interest in the fame of her distinguished uncle. When making the gift she expressed satisfaction that the letters would now ho permanently preserved as e national possession. The fact that many of them are addressed to her mother adds to the significance of the gift. It was to Mrs Aitken’s daughters that Carlyle turned for help after his wife’s death. Miss Mary Aitken, the donor’s sister, went to keep house for her uncle at Choyne Row. There Miss Margaret Aitken was a frequent visitor, and she has many reminiscences of the distinguished visitors to that house.

The letters are arranged chronologically, covering the years fom 1821 to 1869. Six. hundred and sixty-seven are dated, 14 are undated, and 62 are imperfect. The largest number for any one year is 07, witten during 1851. There arc also some interesting drafts of letters in Carlyle’s handwriting, a galley proof of “ The History of Frederick the Great,” with the author’s corrections, a manuscript page of “ Past and Present,” one of his bookplates, and various odd notes and scraps of writing. The letters may ho described as Carlyle’s “Familiar Letters,” written to the various members of his family.