UAB

English

William Hone to William Upcott, 14 May, 1823

[1780-1818] - [1818-1824] - [1825-1832] - [1832-1842] - Hone Correspondence

William Hone to William Upcott, 14 May, 1823.1-TEI-

Ludgate hill

14 May 1823
My dear Sir

On Monday night & yesterday morning I visited the never-sufficiently-by-the-Citizens-venerated, and if time and circumstance permit, ever, after three Centuries hence, most venerable Institution2 with the hope of seeing you—but whither strays the collector?

Now mark me—in the palm. I have a heavy payment to make this forenoon, and, that being a weighty matter, I say most seriously, that if you possibly can let Ben have Sixty Pounds it will permit me to finish the subscribing of my Mysteries3 with which I get on capitally — and that interruption will take place if you cannot, for instead of finishing the West End & delivering the books at 12 o'clock I must go dunning, & have a storm from the booksellers who have already subscribed, past all bearing by one who is author as well as publisher.

Do then my dear fellow oblige me with the needful — and let the Mysteries unfold themselves to public view in the Booksellers windows. Money is the forceps of delivery without pain.

Yours most truly
W Hone
Notes
1
Huntington Library, San Marino, CA. Shelfmark: UP 264. [return]
2
i.e. the London Institution where Upcott served as assistant librarian. The London Institution was an educational foundation which for a few decades was instrumental in disseminating scientific and academic knowledge, particularly among the dissenters who were barred from the public universities. [return]
3
Hone's Ancient Mysteries Described which was just being published in May of 1823. [return]
William Hone. Date: 2014-03-25