PATON, Sir Joseph Noel.
Autograph Letter Signed to David Douglas,
Mainly about his ballad “The Last of the Eurydice“ “which certainly came from the heart–however little the head may have had to do with its composition!“ Reports with annoyance his obligation to attend an event at the Antiquaries that night and thus miss papers by Messrs. Skene and Anderson. A bad cold has kept him confined to quarters for a week, but his son Diarmuid will deliver this letter.
With what appears to be a proof printing of the poem, with a pin hole at the head, printed on good quality thin laid paper, and traces of mounting on the left margin: Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem on the same tragic shipwreck is better known, with its invocation of “beetling baldbright cloud” and seamen “of lovely manly mould”.
