Autograph letter signed by Bishop of St Johns, Cape Colony Joseph Williams 1902

WILLIAMS, Joseph Watkin (1857–1934). Bishop of St John's Kaffraria. Autograph letter signed written “on trek”, Cape Colony, November 20, 1902.
 
Three page autograph letter on blue-tinted laid paper, folded to form four sides; approx. 180 × 115 mm. Minor foxing and light spotting, folds as sent, with mounting residue on the last page; otherwise in very good condition.
 
A personal letter from Joseph Watkin Williams, third Bishop of St John’s, Kaffraria (later the Anglican Diocese of Mthatha), written during episcopal travel in the Cape Colony shortly after the end of the Second Boer War. The recipient is more likely than not Edward Lyttelton (1855–1942), the soon to be Headmaster of Eton College and a central figure in the Anglican church. 
 
Williams thanks Lyttelton for his assistance with fundraising for his cathedral, discusses the intention to send a cheque to Bishop Blyth (delayed by having left his cheque book behind), and expresses the hope of thanking Lyttelton in person on his return.  The letter is written in a light, self-deprecating tone, including a Dickensian reference to Mr Winkle and his skates from The Pickwick Papers.