the author's handwriting on the half-title: 'To
Miss E. M. A. Savage this first copy of _Erewhon_ with the author's best
thanks for many invaluable suggestions and corrections.'" When Mr.
Cockerell inquired for the book it was sold. After Miss Savage's death
in 1885 all Butler's letters to her were returned to him, including the
letter he wrote when he sent her this copy of _Erewhon_. He gave her the
first copy issued of all his books that were published in her lifetime,
and, no doubt, wrote an inscription in each. If the present possessors
of any of them should happen to read this sketch I hope they will
communicate with me, as I should like to see these books. I should also
like to see some numbers of the _Drawing-Room Gazette_, which about this
time belonged to or was edited by a Mrs. Briggs. Miss Savage wrote a
review of _Erewhon_, which appeared in the number for 8th June, 1872, and
Butler quoted a sentence from her review among the press notices in the
second edition. She persuaded him to write for Mrs. Briggs notices of
concerts at which Handel's music was performed. In 1901 he made a note
on one of his letters that he was thankful there were no copies of the
_Drawing-Room Gazette_ in the British Museum, meaning that he did not
want people to read his musical criticisms; nevertheless, I hope some day
to come across back numbers containing his articles.

The opening of _Erewhon_ is based upon Butler's colonial experiences;
some of the descriptions remind one of passages in _A First Year in
Canterbury Settlement_, where he speaks of the excursions he made with
Doctor when looking for sheep-country. The walk over the range as far as
the statues is taken from the Upper Rangitata district, with some
alterations; but the walk down from the statues into Erewhon is
reminiscent of the Leventina Valley in the Canton Ticino. The great
chords, which are like the music moaned by the statues are from the
prelude to the first of Handel's _Trois Lecons_; he used to say:

"One feels them in the diaphragm--they are, as it were, the groaning and
labouring of all creation travailing together until now."

There is a place in New Zealand named Erewhon, after the book; it is
marked on the large maps, a township about fifty miles west of Napier in
the Hawke Bay Province (North Island). I am told that people in New
Zealand sometimes call their houses Erewhon and occasionally spell the
word Erehwon which Butler did not intend