SNEYD HONORA Autograph Letter Signed H Sneyd to Nancy [poet

Sale 2296 - Lot 120

Price Realized: $ 132

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 200 - $ 300

SNEYD, HONORA. Autograph Letter Signed, "H: Sneyd," to Nancy [poet Anna Seward?], reporting on her visit to Bristol. 4 pages, 8vo, written on a single folded sheet; separations at folds with tape repairs, hinge remnants at center fold, minor edge wear. (JMR) Bristol [England], 5 September [1772?]

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Additional Details

Written to a very close friend, likely Anna Seward. Having lived in Seward's household for more than ten years, she could write "You know everybody I love as well as I do myself." The letter expresses an intense attachment: "I have liv'd upon your letter since I receiv'd it. . . . The little present you sent me, I have kiss'd a hundred times." Much of the letter recounts her recent travels: "Tomorrow Mrs. Morrits, Mr. Disney, my father & myself set out on our ramble into Wales, to see Piercefield &c. . . . "
Though Honora Sneyd was a significant supporting character in Johnsonian England, none of her other letters have been traced.
Honora Sneyd Edgeworth (1751-1780) was best known as the step-sister, muse, and possible lover of English poet Anna Seward. In 1771, she rejected a marriage proposal from John André, who then joined the British military. As Benedict Arnold's contact, he was later hung for spying. She married author Richard Lovell Edgeworth in 1773.