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[Stating his belief that this copy of The Autocrat of the Breakfast Tableis "the presentation copy which Oliver Wendell Holmesmade to his mother."]

[Stating that the book [ Oliver Wendell Holmes' The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table] was given to her by her brother.]

[Child turns down a request to contact Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmesabout an unspecified matter, partly because of the recent death of Holmes' son.]

[Letter accompanied autobiographical sketch requested Secor. Thanks for payment; mentions his "Autobiography, Poems, Sketches" by Private Dalzell; asks if there is any monetary value for letters he has from John Hay, John Greenleaf Whittier, Frederick Douglass, Rutherford B. Hays, James Garfield, William McKinley, Benjamin Henry Harrison, Theodore Roosevelt, Daniel Sickles, Robert Lincoln, Henry Wilson, General Hawley, Horace Greeley, Joe Medill, M. Holsbotle, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ulysses S. Grant, and William Tecumseh Sherman; requests pictures of Secor for his family.]

[Approves his collection of autographic poems; confirms ownership of "Abou ben Adam"; refers to Palmer's admirer, the "Auyocrat [sic] of the Breakfast Table ( Oliver Wendell Holmes)."]

[Requests contribution for the Critic, honoring 75th birthday of Oliver Wendell Holmes. ]

[Remembers his visit to the Duke of Westminster's stables but does not recall his friend who found him "noice but not orsey." He also writes, "If it had been later in my English visit, after I had seen the Duke's Ormonde win the Derby, and about Plenipotentiary, whom I saw win the Derby in 1834, fifty-two years before Ormonde, I might have talked orse with the chief of the stables to his satisfaction and my credit."]

[Says he is pleased by comment about poem; includes AN on verso, initialed W. M., 1892, describes when Holmes gave Mitchell the poem and letter.]

[Says he found his recent letters thought-provoking and pithy; comments on violets and how flowers affected the temperaments of Oliver Wendell Holmesand John Keats; compliments him on his critical and intellectual abilities; discusses his life at Copse Hill; feels he has benefited greatly from his withdrawal from society; comments on his daily observation of nature; thanks Spencer for criticism of his work; considers Southern Magazinethe only "trustworthy" critical magazine; feel The Atlanticand The New York Nationare imperfect; responds in detail to Spencer's evaluation of his poems, including " Daphles: An Argative Story, " " Renewed, " " The Wife of Brittany, " " Krishna and his Three Handmaidens, " " Under the Pine (To the Memory of Henry Timrod), " and " The Dream of the South Winds, " " The Bonny Brown Hand, " and " Fire Picture"; discusses the creation of " The Wife of Brittany" which involved a modernization of Chaucer mixed with the influence of Dryden and Keats.]

[Says the violets he sent to Spencer have been a great success; talks about the strange spiritual delight he gets from this flower; remarks how different temperaments are affected by certain plants, Oliver Wendell Holmesby the box-tree, Keats by jissamine; quotes part of a Keats poem; Says he is happy to have found a friend to whom he can turn; says he is very alone; praises Spencer's work at length and in detail; responds to Spencer's critical evaluation, upon his request, of his poems; says The Southern Magazineis the only trustworthy one; thinks little of The Atlantic Monthlyand The Nation; expresses gratitude to William Hand Brownefor introducing him.]