LETTERS AND PAPERS OF KITTY MAXSE, NEE LUSHINGTON

7854/5/1 LETTERS TO KITTY LUSHINGTON FROM VERNON LUSHINGTON, c.1880-1911
Many letters are undated by year. They have been grouped according to the location of the writer.

7854/5/2 LETTERS TO KITTY LUSHINGTON FROM JANE LUSHINGTON, 1877

7854/5/3 LETTERS TO KITTY LUSHINGTON FROM MARGARET LUSHINGTON, 1880s-1890s
Kitty Lushington was born in 1867. In 1890 she married Leopold James Maxse. Their engagement took place at Talland House, Cornwall where they were staying with the Stephen family [see 7854/5/3/54]. Kitty died in 1922. Margaret Lushington was born in 1869. In 1895 she married Stephen Massingberd of Gunby Hall, Lincolnshire. She died in 1906. A letter to Kitty from Margaret has been placed with letters to Susan Lushington catalogued as 7854/4/5/164a-b as it was with two other letters from Margaret in Germany. Items 7854/5/3/140-170 are letters from Margaret Lushington to her sisters Kitty and Susan. It has not been possible to identify the recipient. Very few of the letters are dated. They are therefore arranged by the place from which they were sent.

7854/5/4 LETTERS TO KITTY LUSHINGTON FROM SUSAN LUSHINGTON, c.1880-1912
Many letters are undated by year. They have been grouped according to the location of the writer.

7854/5/5 LETTERS TO KITTY LUSHINGTON FROM FRIENDS, 1889-1894

In 1890 Katherine 'Kitty' Lushington (1867-1922), daughter of Vernon and Jane Lushington, married Leopold Maxse the journalist and political writer whose family then lived at Dunley Hill near Effingham, Surrey. She became a well-known London hostess. The Maxse family were friends of George Meredith who lived nearby at Box Hill. Kitty's friendship with Virginia Woolf resulted in her being used as the model for 'Mrs Dalloway'. Kitty and Leo were engaged at Talland House in Cornwall which was the summer residence of the Stephen family. Woolf later used events at the summer house parties at Talland as the basis of her novel 'To The Lighthouse'.

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Deposited by Mr R Norris of London through David Taylor of Cobham in October 2005 and January 2014.

An item level description of the archive is available on the Surrey History Centre online catalogue