AUTOGRAPH LETTER TO MRS. MARY FORD OF PENCARROW SIGNED BY THOMAS MICHELL, ATTACHE AT THE BRITISH EMBASSY IN ST. PETERSBURG AND AUTHOR OF THE RUSSIAN MURRAY. by Michell, Thomas, F.R.G.S. (1835-1899). Attache at the British Embassy in St. Petersburg and author of the Russian Murray - [1870s-1880s].

London: circa [1870s-1880s]., [1870s-1880s].. Very good. - Autograph letter penned on both sides of a 6 inch high by 4-3/8 inch wide sheet of cream notepaper with a crest in brown at the top. Signed "Michell". Tipped onto the left edge of the letter is a newspaper article mounted on stiff paper, describing a grand state occasion in St. Petersburg from which "Mr. Michell" was mysteriously absent. Very good,

Michell writes accepting an invitation from Mrs. Mary Ford: 'I am under orders at present to sail on Tuesday, but...I am in great hopes of obtaining the leave of absence which I so much require."

Thomas Michell [1835-1899] was born in Cronstadt, Russia. In 1860 he was appointed attache to the British Embassy in St. Petersburg and in 1866 was promoted to Consul. He is best known as the author of the 1865 edition of the Murray "Handbook for Travellers in Russia,Poland, and Finland '. In the preface to the 1968 edition he states that his work is the "result of personal travel and observation during a residence of many years in Russia". The last third of the newspaper article referred to above is devoted to jocular speculation on the absence of "Mr. Michell" from the state event:"'Where is Mr. Michell!' Every Englishman relies on his 'Murray', but Mr. Michell is the author of the Russian 'Murray', How much more, then, were all his friends warranted on relying upon him! But he is not in St. Petersburg, and many have been the stories invented to account for the absence at such a time of the most invaluable of Embassy secretaries, of an Englishman who has lived in the land till he has become a Russian of Russians."