[STOCKTON & DARLINGTON RAILWAY] 3rd Earl of Darlington : autograph letter, signed. Raby Castle, 13 September 1825.

Manuscript in ink, written on the first two sides of a bifolium of watermarked wove paper, 180 x 110 mm; headed ‘Raby Castle, Sepber. 13 1825’, the letter is addressed simply ‘Dear Sir’, and is signed at the foot ‘your very obedt. Servant, Darlington’; original folds, extremely well preserved, the last side with some paper adhesions at one edge from where the letter was once tipped onto an album leaf.

This hitherto unpublished autograph letter was written by the Earl of Darlington at Raby Castle just two weeks before the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway on 27 September 1825, when Locomotion No. 1, built by George Stephenson at his son Robert’s company, would become the world’s first steam locomotive to carry passengers on a public line. The Earl of Darlington – a passionate hunting enthusiast – had for years vigorously opposed the construction of the line by the Stockton and Darlington Railway Company, even after original plans for it to pass through his estate were altered; his efforts included the presentation of a petition to Parliament, and an ingenious scheme to bankrupt the local Quaker-owned Backhouse Bank, which was a financial backer of the project. Ultimately, his efforts were all in vain (no pun intended).

In his letter, addressed to an unidentified male, Darlington apologises profusely for the fact that he will not be able to wait upon them at a dinner planned for the 27 September – the day of the opening of the railway – possibly because he anticipated he would be crying into his claret in the opulent surroundings of his magnificent stately home, on what was surely to have been one of the blackest days of his life. The precise details of the meeting and dinner referred to in the letter are not clear, though it does seem highly unconventional for an aristocrat to be “waiting upon” guests, whatever the occasion.

‘Dear Sir,

It is with much regret that I can not do myself the Honor of waiting upon you at the Dinner of the 27th Inst. – but I beg you to assure the Meeting of my good wishes for the Success of their undertaking, & request yours & their acceptance of a Haunch of Venison which I shall order to be address’d to you wherever you may inform me to send it. I remain, Dear Sir, your very obedt. Servant, Darlington’. 

Provenance: Autograph album compiled by Jane Emma Murphy (Balcombe) (1854-1924), “The Briars”, Mornington, Victoria, philanthropist, socialite and suffragist; à Beckett family, Melbourne (by descent).