A group of ALS by explorer and geographer Sir Clements Markham dated 1891-1896

MARKHAM, Sir Clements Robert (1830–1916). Explorer, geographer and President of the Royal Geographical Society. One autograph letter signed to historian Edward A. Freeman and then two letters to his daughter, Miss Freeman.
 
21 Eccleston Square, S.W., 23 March 1891, 6 May 1892, and Brasted High Alton, Kent, 17 October 1896.
 
Together 6 pp, on crested stationery with the arms of the Royal Geographical Society in blue, all neatly penned and well preserved. A near fine group.
 
An interesting series of letters linking two Victorian men of letters — Sir Clements R. Markham, explorer, geographer, and President of the Royal Geographical Society, and Edward Augustus Freeman, Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford (1823–1892).
 
In the earliest, Markham writes warmly to Freeman on receipt of his latest volumes and maps, and describes his own projected book on the early arts and crafts of Sicily, persuaded by “Mr. Conroy … to attempt a volume of about 300 pages on the arts and crafts of the inhabitants of this island … from our first glimpse of them to the beginning of Roman influence,” a project combining archaeological and geographical study.
 
In the 1892 letter, written shortly after Freeman’s death, Markham expresses his deep sympathy to Miss Freeman, remarking that it is “difficult to realize that he is gone in the very height of his great powers.” He explains that he has written a paper on “the debt that geography owes to your father,” and asks permission to quote from her letters and notes for inclusion in the Proceedings of the Geographical Society.
 
Finally, in 1896 he thanks her for sending a copy of her father’s Comparative Politics, adding that he has been travelling abroad for several months. A rare set of letters.