Autograph Letter Signed ('E Cobham Brewer') from Rev. Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, author of 'Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable', to 'My dear Ethel', concerning a coincidence regarding a paper knife, and his liking for 'promptness'.

2pp., 12mo. 24 lines. On the rectos of two leaves of a bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with neat thin strips of paper from mount adhering at head and tail of second page. He begins by acknowledging the safe receipt of the paper knife, and thanking her 'for the kindness & promptness of carrying out my wish. I certainly thought the article could not be entirely strange that it could not be discovered in six weeks'. He opened her letter 'at breakfast time & we were all speaking your praises, when Mr Hayman remarked, there is another packet for me, & handed over a small parcel, which on examination contained an ivory knife and bill from Allen & Co.' He asks if she mentioned the matter to Mrs Stubbs: 'otherwise the coincidence is remarkable'. He concludes: 'Certainly I do like promptness, it shows a willing spirit & business habit of mind. Thanks, many many thanks. The coincidence makes the present the more valuable, & gives to it a tale to be told to many.'