Four Autograph Letters Signed to Edward Draper.

According to Frederic Boase's Modern English Biography William Ball (1785-1869) was the composer of 'hundreds of comic and sentimental songs', the most famous of which, 'Jack's lament for the loss of his tail', being 'one of the most popular songs of the day ever written'. All four letters 16mo, that of 22 January 1856 of 8 pages and the others of 4 pages. All are somewhat grubby with minor spotting but the overall condition is good. An extremely informative and intimate correspondence in a very close hand. There is some evidence of aristocratic interest in the first letter: 'About the Literaries & Scientifics. I beg of you to believe, with reference to my having "letters of thanks" &c that the grace has not been wanting of which you speak - tho' not to the end your royal Wittiness would imply.' After thanking Draper for his enquiries he describes his state of health in florid terms before saying that he feels 'very much pleased with the attention so flatteringly shewn me by "young Westminster" [Duke of Westminster?], (- We all love to be flattered a little now and then, - "Come down!" says Dr Johnson to Garrick - "Come down, Davy, and I'll flatter you!") The juvenile powers of the Institution have never omitted to send me, in the most courteous manner, a letter of - of - what shall I call it? - of recognition of the interest I sincerely take in witnessing their struggles for improvement". He praises his correspondent in the third person: 'He is charming, - his nimble wit and his "most excellent fancy", might be distributed among many & set up a whole class". More in the same vein follows. In the second letter Ball explains how he has 'scarcely been out of doors above three or four times in as many weeks, and indeed have been so much cast down by various shocks & inflictions, that I seem no longer to see, hear, or know any thing of what is being done either in doors or out, with any thing, by any body'. He describes 'the result of the Election at Fremason's Hall. I was placed, by 858 votes, on the Pension List of The National Benevolent Institution, for £25 a Year. I was not there, being quite helpless in Bed at the time [...] | No apartments, however, in Kensington, Hampton Court, or St. James's Palace.' He agrees to have his photograph taken by Charles Quin in the City '[t]he first day that I am sufficiently alive again'. In the third letter Ball complains once again that he has been 'confined to my "sullen couch" [...] To-day I ventured out, on an imperative errand to South-molton Street, but I could not accomplish the distance, so had to turn back and take to my pillow again. [...] It was but last night that "The Train" [a magazine - edited by Draper?] was brought to me, tho' I ordered it last week. I have been gratified by it greatly beyond my expectations. [...] Godfrey Turner's Ballad is very striking, and shews what a bright fire is in him [...] The spirit, the style, & the condensing talent with which you have served us up your "Wilkes" [essay by Draper] are admirable' | Exception has been taken, I perceive by the Papers, to the coarse tone which has found its way into the "Noctes" [...] The criticisms so lately pronounced on the ill-judged reproduction of the "Ambrosiana", so rank in dead nettles and other offensive weeds, should methinks have invited & gracefully called forth an amended treatment of that form of writing for a Maga of a professedly superior class [Blackwoods Magazine, in which the Noctes Ambrosianae was published], which was to shew what gentlemanly wit and humour could do on starting the present year of Grace.' The letter ends with more on health matters: "The Doctor who was sent for, to come to me, found my pulse at so low an ebb, that, he says, another day might perhaps have found me past recall. I am thinking of leaving London altogether, to go & give up my poor ghost "in sad silence" [!] out of every one's way: but I should like to see you ere I depart.' The last letter provides a fascinating insight into domestic arrangements in nineteenth-century London. Ball talks of his 'fourth removal here, on the Terrace [...] | Be pleased therefore to accept this new index to the "whereabout" of your old friend. | I have had a great deal of trouble and interference with my time and temper athrough this interim: - my Irish Landlady (a Miss Parsons) went off to Dublin, as she said, before Midsummer, "for a few days only", - and never returned. | She left, in the house, for my accommodation, a Servant Girl who had a most abounding faith in smart bonnets and an equally expanded devotion to Crinoline; while with her "pickers and stealers" she pilfered every thing from me she could, and broke open my locks to get at what was put away. An Execution being threatened for Miss Parsons' Rent, I was warned by the House Agent to get out of the place as soon as I might, and the Landlady of No. 5 made application to me to return to my former quarters, - a proposition at once accepted, and so "Here we are again!" as tht other Tom Fool says in the Pantomime [...] | Mrs. Browne thought, when she got rid of me in April last, with the view of taking-in Exhibition Visitors at double rates that she was doing a very notable thing. She did not let her rooms at all, - and "sarved her right!" Four items,