International Autograph Auctions Ltd.
Lot 168
HOLMES OLIVER WENDELL: (1809-1894) American Physician, Poet, Professor and Author. A.L.S., O W Holmes, three pages, 8vo, Edinburgh, 27th June 1886, to Mr. Broadbent. Holmes responds to his correspondents letter, curtly stating 'I have found no time to answer the letters which have followed one at different intervals… but you , of course, know nothing of the fatigued condition in which your letter finds one.' Continuing 'The simple truth is I have been overworked in London… After Commemoration Day at Oxford I hope to be allured to “take mine ease in mine inn” or as such place of quiet as I may chance to find, and refit and replenish after the wear and tear and exhaustion of laborious enjoyments.' Concluding 'I hope to have a little quiet interval in England and then perhaps slip away to the continent, where any friends are less numerous and less pressing in their hospitality and their claims on my time and attention. Believe me.' With blank integral leaf. VGOn Commemoration Day (30th June 1886) Holmes received his third honorary degree from Oxford. Holmes subsequently visited the continent and upon his return to the United States, published a travelogue entitled Our One Hundred Days in Europe (1887)'Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn?' William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I (c. 1597), Act III, scene 3, line 92.
