#MC13
1877
Duodecimo (ca. 15,5x10 cm). 2 pp., with an integral blank leaf. Brown ink on laid paper. Mild fold marks, traces of old mount on verso of the second blank leaf, but overall a very good letter.
A private letter by famous African explorer Samuel Baker written in his Sandford Orleigh estate in Newton Abbot, Devon. Baker writes that “it is most kind of Sir Charles and Lady Graves Sawle to extend their hospitality to me (to them a stranger,) and if I should be honored with an invitation from them I shall accept it with pleasure.” The persons mentioned by Baker are Sir Charles Brune Graves Sawle, 2nd Baronet of Penrice (1816-1903) and his wife Lady Rose (1818-1914), a friend of the poet Walter Savage Landor. The couple made a trip up the Nile in 1875-1876, which could explain their friendship with Baker. Lady Rose mentioned in her memoire that Samuel Baker and his wife visited Graves-Sawle’s estate in Penrice (Cornwall) several times (Grawes Sawle, R. Sketches from Memories, 1833-1896. London, 1908, p. 125-128).
