Denny Lane Papers Descriptive List (Ref. U611)

U611/

Letter, from Charles Gavan Duffy, 12 Boulevard Victor Hugo, Nice, France to ‘Dear Mrs. Lane’ (Mary Francis Lane, wife of Denny Lane. Duffy offers his condolence of the loss of ‘your generous and gifted husband. I knew him for fifty years, and never met a more honourable or upright man. He was one of a class not growing plenty in Ireland…who thought always first of the country, and last of himself…and [with] intellectual and social gifts not easy to match…’ 3pp 152 31 December 1895 Letter, from Charles Gavan Duffy, 12 Boulevard Victor Hugo, Nice, France to ‘Dear Mrs. Lane’. He agrees that there ought to be a collection of Denny Lane’s works, which ought to be preceded by a brief memoir. Offers to write some reminiscences of him ‘at the period when I was associated with him, but a memoir would not be possible, as he has not been in Cork in nearly fifty years, never saw Lane with his wife and children, ‘nor seen him at all since 1849, except in brief , snatches…’. Offers advice concerning the publication of such a work, and that it might be best done by subscription, ‘and his popularity would probably ensure a thousand subscribers’. Duffy would offer more aid if he were younger, but he is nearly 8o years of age and ‘busy winding up the tangled business of life’. 4pp 153 [1895] Letter, from Charles Gavan Duffy, 12 Boulevard Victor Hugo, Nice, France to ‘Dear Mrs. Lane’, Fairy Hill, Monkstown, Co. Cork. You never told me what you finally determined to do about the writings of your husband’. He thinks a little volume entitled ‘The Life and Literary Remains of Denny Lane’ would be a good sale. The Library of Ireland ends with the 12 th volume now being printed. Duffy could give some letters of Lane’s ‘if the work were undertaken by a competent person’. His health has not been good, ‘it is hard to be the survivor of all my old comrades, but perhaps it will not be for long…’. He gives regards to Mrs. Lane’s daughter, whom he met in Dublin fifteen years ago. 3pp

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