Autograph letter signed ("Benjn. West"), to Charles Burney, Jr, regarding Fuseli's lectures to the Royal Academy

Newman Street [London], 1803. 1 p. Addressed on blank conjugate leave, stamped. 8vo. Bifolium. Some wrinkling and old folds. 1 p. Addressed on blank conjugate leave, stamped. 8vo. Regarding Fuseli's lectures. In part: "I am sorry you should not have been present at Mr. Fuseli's two preceeding lectures in the Royal Academy; he will give one tomorrow night ... and the inclosed card [not present] will admit you ... Your station in the Royal Academy gives you the right of entrance into that Society at all public lectures ... I shall be happy to see you in your place tomorrow evening...." West became the second president of the Royal Acedemy in 1792, following the death of Reynolds, and still held the post at the time of this letter.
Charles Burney (1757-1817)--son of the famous music historian of the same name--was a celebrated classicist, book collector, and headmaster of a school in Greenwich. His library of over 13,000 printed volumes was acquired by the British Museum in 1818 for the considerable sum of £13,500-- all the more remarkable considering in his youth he was expelled from Cambridge for pilfering Elzevirs from the library and selling them to London book dealers. He was the brother of the writer Fanny Burney and the explorer James Burney, who accompanied Cook on his second and third voyages. Burney was elected to the Royal Society in 1802, the year before this letter.