Norton (Caroline) Group of letters

A group of autograph letters signed ('Caroline Norton' or 'CN') to various recipients, including: four letters to Elizabeth ('Lily') Motley, wife to the Liberal and Opposition leader Sir William Harcourt, on several subjects, from the chaos following a concert at Crystal Palace ("...The confusion was so great, - that even my customary treachery of a shilling to some sprightly looking railways porter, - and the most unmatron-like swift race after his meteoric fittings thro' the crowd, to a possible place in the carriages, - only brought me home at 1/2 past Nine, too tired to open more than four of my eyelashes at Chinese looking bridge of Chelsea station") to plans for the following day ("As to tomorrow, I really think it would be foolish to go for country jaunt such a day as this"), her health condition ("I was so ill, so low and had so much neuralgic pain in my arm that...went away for a few days, but I hope I shall be back before you leave town...My arm is so bad I can scarcely write") and a visit to the country seat of the Earl of Eglinton, 14 pages in total, Chelsea, Glastonbury, and Eglinton Castle, [c.28 June] to 8 October [1860]; two letters to studio photographer John Watkins, the first saying "I wrote to you the same morning that I received the first batch of photographs. I should not have been so discourteous as not to have acknowledged their receipt and thanked you for your punctuality. They arrived just as everyone was hurrying to the grounds where the bazaar tents were preparing to open for sale, and I gave my letter to the servants to post. It is quite possible that in the confusion of that morning, it may have been cast aside and forgotten - there was a great crowd and much to do" and adds she would be unable to meet Watkins in London as she is hurrying to visit her son who has been reported sick in Naples and had been unable to receive news "on account of the telegrams to Southern Italy being stopped when Garibaldi was taken", three pages, mounted onto card; the second letter acknowledges receipt of some daguerreotypes and says "My son the one in profile coloured. I would wish the original sent here...My son admired the copy very much and was quite content with it but I meant him to have the original. Let me know the prices, and whether they vary according to size", three pages, 3 Chesterfield St., n.d., mounted on flyleaf of a copy of The Dream and Other Poems, half dark blue morocco with spine gilt, 8vo, Henry Colburn, 1840; also included in the lot is a carte de visite photographic portrait of Norton, by Watkins, 87 x 58mm, mounted on card. (8)

***The four letters to Elizabeth Motley have been published in The Selected Letters of Caroline Norton (Routledge, 2020), Vol 3. , pp. 42-46, edited by Marie Mulvey-Roberts and Ross Nelson

Dimensions:v.s.