STANHOPE (HESTER) Group of twelve autograph letters, all but one to Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Ande...

STANHOPE (HESTER) Group of twelve autograph letters, all but one to Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Anderson (1767-1851), including several long letters from Syria and Lebanon, some written prior to her departure after the death of Sir John Moore, comprising: i) Autograph letter unsigned, vexed that '...the French still contrive to occupy the attention of the world...', going on to describe the country ('...of all the people, the Arabs, the Bedouin Arabs interest me the most, & I have taken great pains to be friends with them. I spent a week with the Emir Mahanna El Fadel in the desert... Imagine... twelve thousand camels...'), on Arab horses ('...so thin but excellent, & will gallop along the desert for 40 hours without stopping...'), feeling safe amongst the Arab people ('...all rascals, & robbers, but have a sense of honor, & keep their word, therefore I consider myself safe amongst them... I am the Queen everywhere...'), adopting their dress ('...sometimes as a Turk, sometimes as an Arab, & riding as I do like a man...'), commenting '...even a man in English dress wd be stoned at Damascus...', followed by great crowds ('...2,000 people have gathered at times to stare at me get upon my horse... you wd laugh so much to see the figure I sometimes am... to travel it is a good dress, & I ride on one of those most quizzical saddles much at my ease...') and despite the heat feeling '...better than I thought possible...', on honours paid her by Pashas and great men, complaining about her marmaluke Selim ('...he taught my other Turks to drink...'), going on '...My general knowledge about horses... has been more useful than you can imagine...', and much else, integral address panel, remains of red wax seal, 6 pages, dust-staining, outer leaf stained and torn with losses, 4to (318 x 200mm.), Hamar [Hamah], Syria, 22 January 1813; ii) Autograph letter signed with initials ('HLS'), on her journey into the desert at Palmyra ('...I have seen many curious things... a most extraordinary people. I was crowned queen of the desert under the triumphal arch at Palmyra , & conducted with great pomp to the Temple of Lun. It was the most beautiful sight you ever beheld, quite like a scene in a play...'), drinking angelica tea against the plague ('...more than 150,000 [dead] at Constantinople...'), her horse ('...quite a companion...'), and on General Oakes ('...a great change may be fatal to his health...'), stating she intends to '...leave this coast in the course of two month...', integral address panel, remains of red wax seal, 6 pages, dust-staining, seal tear with some loss, 4to (250 x 205mm.), Latakia, 15 July 1813 [erroneously dated 1803]; iii) Autograph letter, signature excised, probably to Colonel Missett, British Resident at Alexandria, recovering from her illness ('...lost the use of my limbs... being obliged to be carried about like a child...'), now intending to stay another year, on Captain Macdonald of the East India Company sent to gather information ('...unable to advance and days journey into the desert & frightened to death at the Arabs...'), difficulties in getting provisions at Abra, mentioning Dr Sligo and Lady Elgin ('...coming out to Greece...'), etc., 8 pages, dust-staining and marks, slits for silk ties, creasing and some loss, 4to (300 x 210mm.), Convent of Abra, near Seyde [Sidon], 25 February 1814; iv) Autograph letter signed ('HL Stanhope'), reporting she is recovering well with good appetite: '...This place is a little way up Mount Lebanon it has been lent me by The Patriarch of Antioch, who is vastly civil to me... & the Sheik who commands the troops... he gets off his horse out of respect... & kiss my hand, a general order has been given by these two great men that every order I send to any of the villages is to be obeyed & every attention & respect paid me... I am very comfortable you may imagine...', marked 'Private', 4 pages, dust-staining, creasing, slits for silk ties, 4to (300 x 210mm.), Convent of Abra, near Seyde, 10 March 1814; v) Autograph letter signed with initials ('HLS'), anxious about her brother, has had the plague but still weak ('...I did not ride on horseback, but I wd ride on horseback, but I would ride an ass...one of my Turks... used to take me up on this left hand, & take hold of my right ankle with the other, & put me on just like a little boy of four years old...') but now '...Voila! My active self again...', much on a curative stone she described in a letter to General Oakes which is effective against the plague ('...tried it myself upon a boy of 12 years old... This I hope will turn out a valuable discovery. I have written to Sir J. Banks about it... I take all proper precautions and leave the rest to God...'), praising Col. Missett, on getting strength back in her limbs ('...I patiently was rubbed by an Arab woman for 3 or 4 hours a day, not in the stupid English fashion... but laying on a bed on the ground...'), on a devoted Arab servant ('...he was the only one in my family who treated me with tenderness... they have told me for these two years that he is a great rascal...), deluged with visitors '...from all parts of the world...', saying she will remain there for now ('...The Emir... treats me with the greatest consideration & I am everything on this mountain...'), 4 pages, dust-staining and marks, creasing, slits for silk ties, folio (300 x 210mm.), Convent of Mar Elias, Mt Lebanon, 1 June 1814; vi) Autograph letter signed with initials ('HLS'), thanks God her brother is well and happy and sending letters to the Governor in a box, reassuring him '...they are all clean...', one page on a bifolium, dust-staining and marks, slits for silk ties, 8vo (228 x 160mm.), Convent of Mar Elias, Mount Lebanon, 1 July 1814; vii) Five autograph letters and a note signed with initials ('HLS'), written after the death of Sir John Moore and prior to her departure for the East, the first enclosing a letter of introduction to General Miranda [present]; enquiring about the exact number of troops which marched from Lisbon with General Moore; a note asking him to dine and giving him '...full power over my rooms, gig, stores, wine etc...' at Builth ('...probably I shall never see that part of the world again...'); about to sale in the Jason under Captain King, calling James Moore '...a shabby dog...'; on arrival in Gibraltar, praising and recommending he be friends with Cadoza, and news of James Stanhope, remains of black and red wax seals, later annotations in ink probably by James C. O'G Anderson, 20 pages, dust-staining, discolouration, seal tears, 4to (228 x 184mm.) and smaller, Montagu Square, Portsmouth, The Convent, Gibraltar, [1809] to 2 April 1810; viii) Autograph letter signed ('Stanhope') confirming Anderson's appointment as Hester's executor and residuary legatee ('...I learn from Consul Moore that her Debts in Syria are believed to amount to £7,000 & her Assets in that country to be worth about £400... sum in the hands of her Bankers will be nearly £2,000... some Trinkets and other articles... a silver gilt Coffee Pot & stand, a gold Powder Horn which had belonged to Tippoo Saib, & a Pearl Locket containing Mr Pitt's hair...'), concerned that the papers should fall '...into improper hands...', wishing to prevent them being published by those who '...might be induced from her celebrity & the curiosity which she excited...', 3 pages, 4to, Chevening, 17 October 1839; with a retained copy of Anderson's reply, agreeing that the papers should be kept safe ('... most of them were written when her Ladyship was very angry with many of her family...'), 3 pages, 8vo, 29 October 1839; For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing