William Hone to Rev. Samuel Butler, 12 February, 1824: An Electronic Edition An Electronic Edition William Hone Kyle Grimes

For publication in the Hone Correspondence section of the William Hone BioText, http://honearchive.org. The letter is published under a Creative Commons license, details of which are accessible from the BioText homepage.

Transcribed from original in the British Library, Add. MS 34585 f. 318.
William Hone to Rev. Samuel Butler, 12 February, 1824.British Library, Add. MS 34585, f. 318. [return] — -TEI-
45 Ludgate hill, London
12th February 1824. Reverend Sir

Deeming it uncourteous that you should be first acquainted with the mention of your name, in a pamphlet by me,The letter accompanied a copy of Aspersions Answered, Hone's response to the scurrilous ad hominem reviews of his Apocryphal New Testament (1820) in the Quarterly Review. Hone's defence also includes an extended rebuttal of Butler's critique which had appeared in The Genuine and Apocryphal Gospels Compared: A Charge Delivered to the Clergy and Archdeaconry of Derby (Shrewsbury, 1822). Despite their theological differences, Hone and Butler maintained a very warm and mutually appreciative correspondence. [return] through the ordinary course of publication, and presuming that you will be pleased to regard my enclosure of a copy to you in Shrewsbury, before the tract is issued in London, as a mark of civility, I take the liberty of forwarding one, with this, by the mail.

I have the honour to be, Reverend Sir, Your most humble, and very obedient Servant, W Hone [Addressed:] The Venerable The Archdeacon Butler D. D.