Edward Burne-Jones letter to Cormell Price, 1856 January 9

Burne-Jones asks why Price has not yet sent the "MS," presumably a piece for The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine. He tells him that Burne-Jones's aunt has been Price's "champion all along," transcribing a humorous conversation he had with her at breakfast the previous day, in which Burne-Jones describes Price as a "reprobate" and "a dissolute little creature" while "Auntie" defends him as a "dear little fellow." Burne-Jones says he does not want to hurry Price over the magazine but that they should "make a work of it, and not a mere pastime." Burne-Jones instructs Price to send his piece to him.

He laments a previous issue's article on Charles Kingsley, saying that although the group plans to amend the piece in future copies of the article, it has "already done us a great deal of harm, especially in the Universities." He notes that Harry MacDonald has sent a "very severe letter" to Wilfred Heeley about the matter.

Burne-Jones states that William Morris (referred to here as "Topsy") has passed on editorship powers to William Fulford, remarking that the move "will be a good thing for all of us, and a great relief to Topsy." He describes a dinner he had with Morris and MacDonald at Brompton which he says was "like old times." Burne-Jones gleefully comments that he will "get an awful showing up in the Guardian ... for that wretched affair on Kingsley." He ends by telling Price about an upcoming boxing match (?), which he says will be followed by a "general challenge to Universal Pigdom, for the championship -- odds, Ten to one, on the side of Truth and, O.C.M."