November 29 Saturday – Sam spoke at St. Andrew’s Society, Salutation Tavern, London, replying to the toast of “The Guests” (see this reply MTL 5: 491). The speech was printed in the Hartford Daily Courant, Dec. 20, 1873, p2 as “Mark Twain on Scotland.” It may also be found in The Twainian, Nov.-Dec. 1957 p4 as “Mark Twain Toasts the Scotch.” Note: this is “that Scotch dinner” Sam referred to in his Nov.
November 28 Friday – Sam wrote from London to George H. Fitzgibbon. Sam thanked him for his “timely hints & suggestions,” and that he had written a ten-minute speech that he enclosed. Sam wrote the speech for a dinner on Monday, Dec. 1, attended after his lecture [MTL 5: 489].
November 27 Thursday – Livy’s 28th birthday.
November 26 Wednesday – Charles Kingsley (1819-1875), the canon of Westminster and author of several historical novels and other works wrote to Clemens:
My dear Sir / I tried in vain, when you were last in London, to have the great pleasure of introducing myself to you. I called—hearing that you had returned—at the Langham Hotel today: but was too meek to intrude on you—even had you been at home.
November 25 Tuesday – Andrew Chatto’s letter to Clemens of this date introduced him as the successor to John Camden Hotten, who died on June 14. Chatto enclosed “a set of the sheets of a volume of your writings, in order that you may (as I understand you expressed a desire to do) correct certain portions of the contents” [Welland 31].
November 24 Monday – Sam wrote from London to Livy.
“Dolby is the same jolly good fellow, & says heaps of pleasant things about you & Clara—among the rest that you, in face & nature & everything, are the most perfect woman he ever saw or knew—which is simply what any one would say, & so it does not surprise me.”
Primrose Hill is a Grade II listed public park located north of Regent's Park in London, England, first opened to the public in 1842.[3]
November 23 Sunday – Sam wrote from London to Livy, of the “very sunny & bright & cheery” weather. He and Stoddard had walked through Regent’s Park and to the top of Primrose Hill and back. Stoddard had been spending time at Oxford University and brought Sam an invitation to speak there.
November 22 Saturday – From the Langham, Sam dictated a short note to Charles Warren Stoddard for Henry Lee. Sam was busy preparing for his lectures, which would begin Dec. 1 and could not promise to “go down to Croydon on Wednesday next” [MTL 5: 481].
November 21 Friday – Sam wrote from London to Livy. He’d gone shopping and purchased an overcoat, some meerschaum pipes, a “particularly nice” umbrella, a hat, a hatbrush, a couple of razors, and ordered “some patent leather shoes at a considerably higher price than one pays in Hartford for such things” [MTL 5: 480].