Charles Crompton to Arthur Llewelyn Davies - 1890

Description

Letter from Charles Crompton to his nephew Arthur on his engagement to Sylvia, 27 March 1890.

[No original available]

Transcription

Liverpool
27th March, 1890. Thursday.

Dear Arthur,
I am writing in great haste, but I must send you a line to give you every possible congratulations on your engagement. I heard the news from Maurice today, and I think it the best news I've heard for many a long day. I am sure you deserve every possible happiness, and I hope that every such happiness may be yours.
How you will enjoy taking Miss D (I use the initial as I'm not quite certain of the spelling) to Kirby Lonsdale! I have heard what a charming person the young lady is, and I hope before long to make her acquaintance.
Will this make any difference in your plan of settling down in Liverpool? I hope not, as I'm sure you will do well here, and you will have a much better chance of getting on quickly here than in London. I have been making inquiries about rooms, but the chambers of everyone in good practice seen to be full. I think the best thing you can do is to come down and make acquaintance with the men and then get a room somewhere in the midst of them all. They will soon be glad to make use of you, and I think you will find something to do for yourself at once.
I return to London tomorrow, but go down to S. Wales on Monday.
Ever your affte. uncle,
C.C.
Was it as Mawdle or Postlethwaite that you won such a treasure?

Peter's comment in his family "Morgue":

For the benefit of future generations who may not be readers of the old Punchs, Mawdle and Postlethwaite were two of the grotesquely comical characters in this series of drawings and jokes in which George du Maurier satirised the greenery-yellery Oscar Wilde, blue-China-collecting, Pre-Raphaelite, arty-crafty movement. Mawdle, I think, was the poet, and Postlethwaite the painter, and they were part of the circle of Mr and Mrs Cimabue Brown, all very willowy and intense and about as unlike C.C.'s nephew as possible.
C.C. was Charles Crompton, QC, Mary Llewelyn Davies' eldest brother. For some notes about him, see earlier part of record. He was, at this time, a widower without children.