HAMLEY (Lieutenant General Sir Edward Bruce, 1824-1893, Soldier and Writer. M.P.)

Long Autograph Letter Signed to "My dear STORY" (William Wetmore, 1819-1895, American Sculptor, Art Critic, Poet and Editor) saying that he has to "go to Ericksen ... Your drama is very agreeable and entertaining to read, and runs very smoothly. It is quite of the style of those that were so successful at the P. of Wales's. What I am uncertain about is whether there is sufficient incident to maintain the interest of the audience. All that happens to the principal characters is the exchange of lovers - and I am not sure how far it will please, to see a young lady made twice happy by different men in the short space of three acts. However, this is a point of which I shd think you might implicitly take Bancroft's opinion - why not forward the piece to him? The chief incident at present is the exposure of the secondary personage, the Count. In order that the audience should rejoice at it, it wd be necessary that he should do something more deserving of chastisement than anything he previously does. As it is, it comes as a surprise anda does not carry the idea of retribution because he has passed ... for what he pretends to be - Couldn't you set him about some villainy affecting some of the principal characters - I think the present framework seems well adapted to admit of stronger action ... and is, indeed, of itself a very pretty story ....", 4 sides 8vo.,Athenaeum Club headed paper, 10th August no year

From 1879 to 1881 Hamley was British commissioner successively for the delimitation of the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria, Ottoman Empire in Asia and the Russian Empire, and Ottoman Empire and Greece, and was rewarded with the KCMG. Promoted colonel in 1863, he became a lieutenant-general in 1882, when he commanded the 2nd division of the expedition to Egypt under Lord Wolseley, and led his troops in the Battle of Tel el-Kebir, for which he received the KCB, the thanks of Parliament, and 2nd class of the Order of Osminieh. During the war Hamley contributed to Blackwood's Magazine an admirable account of the progress of the campaign, which was afterwards republished.
After 1850 Story lived in Rome and devoted himself to Sculpture. There he was intimate with the Brownings and with Walter Savage Landor. I His apartment, in Palazzo Barberini, became a central location for Americans in Rome. During the American Civil War his letters to the Daily News in December 1861 and his articles in Blackwood's, had considerable influence on English opinion. His daughter Edith Marion (1844-1907) the Marchesa Peruzzi de' Medici, became a writer.

Item Date:  1860

Stock No:  38873      £225

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