Disraeli, Benjamin, first Earl of Beaconsfield.

many describing with evident pleasure his life at Hughenden Manor, which he contrasts to the pressure of London life ("...once we get to town we are in general, chained to the galleys..."), but one letter expressing his enjoyment at exploring the metropolis ("...a much more wonderful thing than those who pass their lives in a dozen streets & a couple of squares, can comprehend: such miles of villas, all of different architecture, such a prodigious number of beautiful churches, & I grieve to add, gorgeous gin-palaces..."), also discussing his wife's declining health, his loneliness after her death ("...I have been here [Hughenden] a fortnight, in absolute solitude, without interchanging a word with human beings scarcely heard a voice except that of the peacocks screeching on the terraces...", 18 April 1873), and his subsequent need to find a new London home ("...I suppose it will end in taking refuge in an hotel..."), 59 pages, chiefly 8vo, Hughenden Manor, Grosvenor Gate, and St George St, Hanover Square, 17 August 1868 to 15 June 1873



[with:] an autograph letter signed by Disraeli to the artist G.F. Watts, expressing his wish to visit his studio, 4 pages, 5 July 1871, with an accompanying note on a planned portrait, an autograph letter signed, to Miss Cavendish, 2 pages, 10 October 1878, and one other letter

A highly personal correspondence written at a low ebb in Disraeli's life, when he was in opposition and his wife terminally ill. Disraeli's correspondent was Henrietta Frances, wife of William George Cavendish, 2nd Lord Chesham, a close relative of the Duke of Devonshire. Before being elevated to the peerage on the death of his father in 1863, Cavendish had been an MP for Buckinghamshire. Disraeli himself was one of the other two members for the county.