Henry Crabb Robinson, 30 Russell Square, London, to Dawson Turner, [Yarmouth], 29 November 1849. 

30 Russell Square

29th Nov: 49

My dear Sir,

       Your late letter has given me great pleasure – As well on account of the kind & therefore flattering language you address to me, as because it is written in a better that is a more hopeful spirit and youthful spirit than the preceding – It is utterly removed a disagreeable impression on my part which I delight in thinking I ought never to have received – That it was practically removed the printed paper shews for it existed before the letter arrived –

      You ask how & when the subscription shall be remitted – As to the When: In answer to the same question a few days since by one of our Council I said – “We have no want of money for there is lyeing at Messrs Herries F & Co more than £300 only you must give me your word of honour that you wont fraudulently leave the World till you have given me the money – As three have done Viz: Lord Auckland Dr. Gosling & Chas. Tulk (Flaxman’s poet friends) have done – he laughed & gave me a cheque

       As to the How – You as a banker must know that better than I do – You have your Town Agents of course And I should have thought therefore that you would order them to pay the money to the “Flaxman Gallery” into Herries bank But perhaps as their house is not in the city, there is not the exchange of cheques at the clearing house as with the city bankers – Otherwise I am in the habit of going to Barclays for money on order from the Bury bank – Or you may send me a note Anyhow except a post office order against which I protest & which you would never have thought of –

       I hope to see you Soon for a chat, but not to take you to the gallery I went there ^yesterday^ and found some casts placed up unwashed & merely by way of experiment I am afraid they wont be visible till Spring – It is singular that within an hour after opening your letter on Tuesday at the Athen: I saw your Son in law W [   ] Mark my inat candour or is it want of sensibility? – I am not ashamed of my senile infirmity – being like you 74 years of age I forget all names – I might at the Athenaeum have filled up the blank but I confess I cannot recollect the present name of the late Mr Aiken. This is a daily inconvenience.

               I am faithfully your’s

                              H. C. Robinson

Dawson Turner Esqr

[Printed sheet attached: FLAXMAN GALLERY. Fund for defraying the expense of preserving the works of Flaxman [etc – explain that his adopted daughter Miss Maria Denman has given plaster casts of works that no longer exis to UCL, which must now be cleaned and repaired]

No address page or endorsement. 

Text: Turner Papers, O.14.47/192 (1849), Trinity College, Cambridge University.