S&SWM PR papers L1869

Hope | "Nottinghamshire | Alabastermen"

Soc. Antiq. Lond. | Burlington House, Piccadilly. W. | Trinity Sunday 1897

Dear General Pitt Rivers

Your alabaster carvings do not belong to my Nottingham "alabastermen's" school at all, nor are they English work. I shld imagine they belong to the 17th century, but whether they be Flemish or not I cannot tell. They are certainly curious & amusing, at least the Noah's Ark one is. I shall be curious some day to see yr. collection of Noah's Arks. I do not myself remember the plank; it must I think have become extinct.

I hope you are better. Many of us are looking forward to seeing & hearing you at Dorchester

Yours very truly

W.H. St John Hope

I have been spending Whitsuntide in excavating at the Charterhouse at Mount Grace, near Northallerton, a most charming place, still retaining amongst other things the shell of the church & the ruins of the cells or little houses, with their gardens, surrounding the great cloister

One of these at least is Add.9455vol9_p2352 /5, the Noah's Ark has not been identified.

Transcribed for Rethinking Pitt-Rivers project by AP July 2011