134. Longfellow (Henry Wadsworth, poet, 1807-82) Autograph Letter signed to Henry Robertson Sandbach, 2pp. & envelope, 8vo, Langham Hotel, London, 21st July 1869, thanking his correspondent for his invitation, "but alas! we are so pressed for time that it will be quite impossible", mounted in a gilt cloth folding case.
est. £100 – £150
Longfellow had been a correspondent of the Sandbach family since the early 1850s and was a great admirer of the poetry of Margaret Sandbach (1812-52), granddaughter of William Roscoe. Her husband Henry Sandbach was a wealthy Liverpool shipowner and West Indies merchant with a large London house overlooking Hyde Park.
In the summer of 1869 Longfellow was coming to the end of a hugely successful and no doubt exhausting European tour. Honorary degrees had just been conferred on him by both Cambridge and Oxford.