Four Autograph Letter Signed (all 'E. Monson.') to Beresford Hope, concerning his father's ill-health, the two correspondents' diplomatic careers, the duties and recreations of a British attaché in Constantinople, and the recent revolution there.

All items clear and complete, and good, on lightly-aged paper. An interesting set of letters, from one scion of a leading British diplomatic family to another. Letter One (4 December 1906): 12mo, 4 pp. Written after his father Sir Edmund Monson's stroke. He finds it 'very hard to say whether my father is better or worse' as he never sees the doctor himself. 'I am never sure if my mother tells me everything, or if she keeps things back for fear of frightening me. She is apt still to look upon me as a child.' Regarding where the family will live when his father 'can move' he writes 'We shall probably install ourselves in the house in Richmond Park [a grace and favour residence], partly in order to escape the fogs in London'. It also 'appears that his life largely depends on his keeping quite quiet & never getting any excitement whatever'. That evening he has 'to go to a dinner and dance', an engagement which he 'would gladly escape', though he does not wish to 'lose an opportunity of "creating relations" for myself, as the French say'. Letter Two (24 January 1907): 12mo, 4 pp. Discusses, with references to 'Boothby' and 'Crawley', Hope's examination for the diplomatic service. For his part Monson does not wish to go abroad: 'I don't want to leave till my pater is in a less critical condition'. Letter Three (22 June [1907]): 12mo, 4 pp). He sends 'heartiest congrats' on Hope's 'fine performance' in the examination. He would like Hope to join him, but expects that 'if they do send any attaché here it will be Mervyn Herbert, who has been travelling about here & whose brother was here before as hon. attaché'. Mentions Boothby's failure: 'I have lost a pipe to him over it. | Am having a very good time here. Tennis in the early morning, then a dip in the Bosphorus, then work till lunch, after which we are usually free again. We had a game of cricket the other day, which was a great rag, as most of us can't play a bit. There is also polo, but that is beyond my means, though I hope to be able to manage it next year when I get my screw'. Letter Four (18 December 1908): 12mo, 6 pp. Apologises profusely for not replying sooner to Hope's 'splendid effort': 'Your letter was one of the most amusing I have ever read, & I took it upon myself to shew it to some other members of the staff, who were all delighted with your American sketch. [Hope had been seconded to the British Embassy in Washington.] Even Vernon, our Hon. Att., who is half an American, was so amused that he could not be annoyed.' He is 'in a bewildered state of mind' at 'the topsy-turviness of this country' and its 'wonderful revolution' 'Externally, of course, our life in the European city of Pera is much the same as in any other, but all the time one feels, or at least I do, that there is something absolutely different underneath, something so strange and incomprehensible as to baffle description. This curious thing is the mind of the Oriental, especially the Turk', whom he finds 'a complete enigma'. '[E]ven those who have mixed with Turks for years say they don't know them. [...] in everything they say they seem to approach their subject from the most unlikely point of view. [...] I suppose the most extraordinary thing about the revolution is the quietness and bloodlessness of it. [...]'