LOCKS OF SIR WALTER SCOTT'S HAIR, SENT TO A LADY BY CAPT. BASIL HALL. Slough, 23 March 1832. Single sheet (half a sheet of cut writing-paper: 7 3/16" x 4 1/2", 183mm x 114mm) mounted to heavier stock. With a small (ca. 8mm) patch of red wax affixing a dozen or so short strands of "Sir Walter Scott's/ Hair. 1831" at lower-left. Sometime folded in three. Cockling at the gluing-spots; else fine. Captain Basil Hall (1788-1844) traversed the world with the Royal Navy, first aboard HMS Endymion in the Napoleonic Wars (Napoleon was a friend of his father's, and he used the connection to land an interview with the First Consul) and eventually to South Africa and on to China, Japan and Korea. He wrote wildly popular accounts of his travels, including one of the first Western accounts of Korea. In the late 1820's he traveled through the United States with his wife. From 1831 he published nine volumes of Fragments of Voyages and Travels, which cemented his place in the public imagination. The present letter from his hand, therefore, sees him at the peak of his popularity. The context is a party, presumably at the home of Sir John Frederick William Herschel (1792-1871) and his wife Lady Herschel (Margaret, née Brodie Stewart; 1810-1884), the previous evening, Thursday the 22nd of March, 1832. Herschel was a dynamic intellectual force, active in chemistry, astronomy and photography (including the invention of the blueprint) inter alia. Herschel and Hall both lived in Slough, and were frequent correspondents. Hall writes to a lady -- the envelope is sadly gone -- whom he met that evening and who confessed to her hostess that she wanted Hall's autograph -- but did not ask him directly. Lady Herschel told him of this lady's desire, and mentioned as well that she was "so nearly connected with Sir Joshua Reynolds." Herschel reveals in the letter that "there is no person respecting whose private life I feel more anxious to gain some information." The identity of the addressee cannot be ascertained, but might it have been the painter Theophila Gwatkin (1757-1848), the niece of Sir Joshua Reynolds? That would explain Hall's hope -- note that he strikes out "possible" in favor of "probable that [she] possess some of Sir Joshua's hair" -- of offering some hair of Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) by anticipated exchange. The Gwatkins and the Herschels were friends, even including a brief engagement. Hall and Scott, both Scotsmen, were also old friends. When Scott's health was failing, it was Hall who arranged the writer's passage abroad, and sailed with him -- doubtless the point at which the hairs were taken. [Full transcription available.]
