Prince August thanks Goethe for sending him two letters and a copy of Mahomet. He notes that he has been as sick as last Spring and 1796 since 28th November, adding that he feels so weak that it is as if he helped Napoleon to settle and unpack the Egyptian pyramids in St Claud. He claims that this is why he can’t compare Mahomet wit the original, instead looking at it as a German masterpiece; Voltaire made Muhammad too evil a companion.

Prince August apologises for the late return of his family book on the part of himself an the undersigned (W. Schlick, M.A. von Thümmel, Frackenbergs, and S.), making especial note of an entry by one ‘S.S.’ dated 8th April. He notes that he recruited a well-known prosaic and poetic writer, Voltaire, whom he highly values for the performance, quoting from Voltaire’s Stances Irregulières. He then turns to politics, mentioning Napoleon, before returning to the family book, noting that nobody understood the deep meaning of S.S.’s entry for they could not recognise the forest for the trees. He ends with references to the witch’s meal in Faust.

Contains Landor’s thoughts and opionions on various aspects of life and literature. There are comments on old age, on Napoleon, and on a host of writers and poets including Shakespeare, Milton, Tennyson, Pope, Byron, Wordsworth, Gibbon, Sterne, Coleridge, Otway, and Voltaire. There are also passages on Elizabethan poets, and on the progress of poetry in general, with a tribute to Sir Walter Scott.

The first dated 3 January 1814, describes a new acquaintance, Mrs Lewen, and discusses her reading matter. The second, dated 16 January 1813 or 1814, criticises Voltaire; praises Byron; and mentions her seven-year old son, Francis, having drawn a picture of Napoleon and of Portsdown Fair. The third letter is undated, but is a copy of part of 23M93/30/1/18 below. The fourth is a mere fragment, concerning the taking of spa waters, for health. The final one focuses on acquiring a wife and a profession. She recounts an unhappy tale of adultery, faked suicide and murder by a family whose girls were pupils of Mrs Wollstonecraft [Mary Wollstonecraft 1759-1797]. Then she rebukes him for writing a complaining letter to Lord Clancarty, claiming his father lost a peerage owing to a similar letter to Lord Buckingham. [Accompanied by a copy in the hand of Richard Chenevix Trench, of part of the final letter].

The letter primarily concerns events between Praed and Edward Bulwer Lytton, however Edward Robert Lytton also states a query he has about a quotation that is either by Voltaire or Napoleon. He thanks Charles Kent for the gift of cards for his children and sends his good wishes for the festive season.