Acquired as part of a large collection of letters addressed to William Angus Knight, Chair of Moral Philosophy at the University of St. Andrews and Wordsworth scholar. Items in the collection have been individually accessioned and cataloged.
Written from Heath's Court, Lord and Lady Coleridge's country seat near the town of Ottery Saint Mary in Devon.
On mourning stationery. John Coleridge died on June 14, 1894 and was buried at Ottery Saint Mary on June 22.
Apologizing for not having responded earlier, but explaining that she has been "too bewildered to write"; thanking Knight for his "kind sympathy"; writing of her husband's death: "... it is indeed a crushing blow to come at the end of those six weary weeks of suffering. I suppose the doctors did not let me know all they knew, but after the first ten days we had such good hope that my darling Chief was going to recover. It is so sad here. I do not know how I endure it from day to day, but I have a great deal to do"; telling Knight that if he needs to see some volumes currently in her home in London before she returns to the city, she can give instructions to her housekeeper to let him in: "I would rather not send the books away, as I know Lord Coleridge would not have liked that, but of course this is only sentiment; the present Lord Coleridge has nothing to do with them, as all the library is left to me."