TC-JH [JAHA], 8 July. MS: sold at auction, American Art Assoc., 14–15 April 1937, 2 pp. James Hannay (1827–73; ODNB; see TC to MAC, 3 Oct. 1849, and TC to TE, 12 July 1852), miscellaneous writer; dismissed from the navy, 1845, for insubordination. His first book, Biscuits and Grog (1848), had paid tribute to TC and Thackeray; his novel King Dobbs (1856) was dedicated to Thackeray who had taken him on as an assistant to help him prepare English Humourists (1851) for publication. He was to die an alcoholic in Barcelona.

1. Satire and Satirists. Six Lectures (1854). Hannay replied, 11 July, from Ridge, nr. Barnet: “I am now directing my reading more to positive History, than I used to do, with the hope of some day illustrating some man or period in an useful manner. I still feel a strong direction towards the ancient worlds, which was first strengthened in me by my many months spent among the sites of its civilization: yet I feel, also, that the doings of our own ancestors have the superior right to our time and thought … . I remember your urging in talk, the need of a good Baronage … elucidating of the early barons of England and Scotland … . I ought indeed to have called on you before this. I shall make no further professions, but hope to set myself right in that particular before too long.” Hannay called at Cheyne Row, 2 Aug., and noted their conversation in his diary; see George J. Worth, “Three Carlyle Documents,” PMLA, 71 (1950):543–44.