1. Autograph letter signed from John Lewis Mallet to Katharine Murray Horner, Hampstead, 16 September [no year]. Mallet finds a very kind tone of the wise old man in corresponding with the young friend. – I. (16 Sept. [1856?]): “I have so little to communicate from this small quiet Domestic circle, & this little I have to say is made so unintelligible by my infirm hand that I believe I should have thrown myself on your indulgence and awaited your return to thank your for your kind recollection of me, had not Lucy intended to join a few lines which may have more interest for you than my poor scrawl. One thing I can say however, which I am sure will give you pleasure. I never saw M. & Mrs Horner looking better and in better spirits than I did last Sunday, when I felt most thankful to think of your dear Brother’s entire recovery. We also thought Susan improved, tho’ I fear that the sword will ever bear but this scabbard, & the spirit within keep[s] her thin. They will tell you that they found all here very well, & that we gave them better news of Louis, who is at Ryde. Your accounts of your own little domestic circle were very agreable to us, tho’ we wish you could have said, in regard to yourself, that you had as much benefited by the change, as we wished. The happiness of your dear children in a country state, with so many new objects to amuse them, must be a source of enjoyment to you all [...]”.

2. Autograph letter signed from John Lewis Mallet to Katharine Murray Horner, Hampstead, 24 September 1856: “I was very sensible to the kindness of your letter, tho’ I wished it had conveyed more comfortable news of your dear brother & your children, but a letter from our Charles, received yesterday, gives a much better acc.t of Mrs. Horner, who, by this time is, I apprehend on her way home. [...] Indeed Charles mentions an Evening at Leonora’s, where were congregated all the most brill[i]ant stars of the Berlin scientific world: and altho’ one does not much benefit by the conversation of these men, in their several lines of genius, on thus meeting them in general society, it is very agreable, when one gets older and less able to move about in the world, to recall such recollections. You had more to see at Berlin as well as Col. Lyell, than your Sisters had, because you had not been there before; and you have, it seems, accordingly seen much that had interested you, and above all you have had the great satisfaction of se[e]ing dear Leonora in her happy home and surrounded by an affectionate family and valuable friends. Lady Lyell’s drawing doom seems to have captured itself into Dresden, & from there into Berlin, & I wish Charles had had an introduction to Mr Ticknor, for as I sent Mr Ticknor a Copy of my Father’s Memoirs, he might perhaps have taken some notice of his grandson. I am glad that Dr Tait had the attention of informing your Father of his promotion to the See of London. In fact you knew it before we did. [...] I envy you this satisfaction of se[e]ing Humbol[d]t even at his advanced age. I have been reading again his personal narrative[s] of his travels in south America, which convey the impression, (independently of his extraordinary requirements) of a most truthful, amiable, simple kind character). God bless you my dear young friend [...]”.