Some Unpublished Letters of Lord Chesterfield

Some Unpublished Letters of Lord Chesterfield brings to light twenty-six previously unknown letters of the fourth Earl, written largely during the final months of his life. Preserved in handsome quarto volumes once belonging to the Earl of Carnarvon and now in private hands, these letters, ten in Chesterfield’s own script and the remainder dictated to his trusted valet James Walsh, provide rare insights into his last years. They reveal a mind undimmed by illness or age—sharp, trenchant, and characteristically unsentimental—continuing to offer witty judgments on men and events. Several letters are enriched by Walsh’s postscripts, reflecting both the intimacy of his service and Chesterfield’s reliance upon him when deafness and infirmity curtailed his activities. The collection is further augmented by three manuscript drafts outlining Chesterfield’s evolving educational program for his godson and heir, which culminated in the long French letter of instruction to Georges Deyverdun, Edward Gibbon’s friend and the chosen governor of the young Philip Stanhope.

The letters deepen our understanding of Chesterfield not by altering his established image but by filling in its contours. They show him skeptical of fashionable charlatans such as Dr. William Dodd, yet resigned to the limits of his ward’s promise. They also document his persistent distrust of Italy as a site for moral training, his preference for Geneva or Leipzig as centers of study, and his concern that the governor guide without smothering the youth. Alongside these specific plans, the letters continue to sparkle with the stylistic brilliance that made Chesterfield’s Letters to His Son a classic, combining worldly counsel with ironic candor. Edited with attention to textual fidelity—Walsh’s eccentric spellings normalized but Chesterfield’s holographs preserved—the volume offers both scholars and general readers a vivid supplement to the well-known corpus, providing a last glimpse of a statesman-philosopher facing decline with wit, realism, and dignity.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1937.