Autograph letter signed by writer, Thomas Ingoldsby (Richard Barham) dated 1841

BARHAM, Richard (as Thomas Ingoldsby). Autograph letter signed, replying to a reader, through his publisher's Bentley, dated “May 29. 41”.
 
Single leaf, 180 × 115 mm, written on one side only; signed at foot. Heavy mounting residue on the verso, leaving a rectangular area of paper; light overall handling, otherwise clean and legible. Good.
 
The letter reads in substance:
“Your letter of the 20th was forwarded from Mr Bentley’s but did not reach me till yesterday, owing to my absence from home. I am sorry to say that I am entirely unacquainted with all the gentlemen whose names are contained in the list enclosed. Believe me to be, Yours very truly, Thos. Ingoldsby.”
 
Bentley is almost certainly Richard Bentley, Barham’s publisher, indicating that the correspondent had written to “Ingoldsby” via the publishing house. By 1841 it was widely known in literary circles that “Thomas Ingoldsby”, author of the Ingoldsby Legends, was the pseudonym of the Reverend Richard Harris Barham (1788–1845), yet Barham continued on occasion to reply in the persona of his fictional cleric.