| Description | A transcript of the letter can be found below:
Private
Dear Edward [L'Anson]
But that I have been overwhelmingly busy I would have answered your note sooner. From that note I gather that you are under a misapprehension about the manner in which invitations are issued. They do not emanate from me but are the result of a ballot in Council; you see therefore that the matter is in no way under my control. The name of Sheriff Woolloton might indeed be proposed, and voted on, but this year owing to our having received hardly any refusals - and unusual thing - we shall have some difficulty I suspect in placing those who are already invited and I know that others with definite special claims will be left in the cold. Nobody is more highly respected than Sheriff Woolloton - but I fancy that even were there [-] some opposing votes would be recorded on the more of absence of definite qualification. The great municipality which he represents is indeed always [-] at our Board but in the person of its head the Lord Mayor - limited space forbids us to do more on that claim.
You know my dear Edward that if it were merely a personal kindness to you you were asking I should on that ground alone wish to accede to your request.
Yours very sincerely
Fred Leighton
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