Elizabeth Reid, 21 York Terrace, London, to Henry Crabb Robinson, [London], 22 March 1856.

21 York Terr.  R. P.

My dear Mr Robinson,  

       I cannot wait till tomorrow Evening to thank you for your munificent & quite unlooked for gift of Fifty Pounds for our College. It is indeed impossible to convey to your mind, as a gentleman, the happiness it gives me because a woman only can know the true value of it, the great good such a sum will do us as an Institution, & the incalculable good even a poor beggarly Institution like ours is actually doing – the pure happiness it is diffusing around &, perhaps even more, the Evil it is preventing.

       I would not have said all this had you not drawn it forth by your generous aid, but it is the simple truth, I beg you to accept it as such to your heart as the best reward.

       Believe me every my dear excellent Friend very affectionately yours

            Elizth J. Reid

I ought to have said before that my Sister unites with me in every sentiment I have expressed.

                                      E. J. R.

Saturday

22d March. 1856.

Text: BC RF/103/13, Archives, Royal Holloway University of London.