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LevelItem
Finding Number (Click this to view full catalogue structure)HMLAdd/207
TitleLetter from Harriet Martineau to Thomas Martineau
Extent1 item
Date13 March 1855
DescriptionRefers to Mr Saunders and Mr Atkinson; Harriet's prohibition about publishing her private letters; discusses the publication of Harriet's memoir, instructions concerning the publication and her wish that Mr Chapman should publish it. Harriet writes ‘The memoir is so sure to be a profitable book that I dare say any eminent publisher (except Murray, who has his hands tied by the clergy) wd easily get over any difficulty about the heresies of the subject: & if poor Chapman is out of the question, I dare say Mr Saunders & you will find no difficulty in getting the book out with every advantage’. Harriet discusses how she managed to write about 'the difficult subject of my relations with your uncle James'. Speculating on the health of Chapman; discusses the sale of a cow and Mrs Turner's involvement; updates on family news. Includes the envelope addressed to Thomas Martineau at Cherry Street, Birmingham.
Access StatusOpen
Administrative HistoryThomas Martineau was Harriet Martineau's nephew. In 1845 Martineau had moved from Tyneside to the Lake District for her health. Ambleside’s fresh air and bucolic lifestyle seem to have agreed with her, and she took to animal husbandry. In 1850 she had published 'Two letters on cow-keeping', as well as contributing to 'The Zoist: A Journal of Cerebral Physiology & Mesmerism', regarding her treatment of her cow, Aislie, with mesmerism. This letter involves a dispute about the sale of a cow, but it is unclear whether this cow and that are one and the same.
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