1. In Past and Present bk. 2, ch. 3, TC had concluded his history of Bury St. Edmunds with these words: “All this that thou now seest, and namest
Bury Town, is properly the Funeral Monument of St. or Landlord Edmund. The present respectable Mayor of Bury may be said,
like a Fakeer (little as he thinks of it), to have his dwelling in the extensive, many-sculptured Tombstone of St. Edmund;
in one of the brick niches thereof dwells the present respectable Mayor of Bury” (Works 10:56–57). In reply to this TC received two letters purporting to be from the present and immediate past mayors of Bury St.
Edmunds, both postmarked 22 Nov. 1843. “Marmaduke Wright” wrote, 21 Nov., absurdly expressing his pleasure at the allusion and “hoping for future favours”; while “Geo. Hobson” wrote, 22 Nov., complaining of TC's “insolent calumnies” and threatening legal action. Perhaps they were inspired by TC's friend John William
Donaldson (1811–61; ODNB), headmaster of Bury St. Edmund's grammar school; see TC to JWC, 31 Aug. 1842.
