Oscar Browning had extremely wide interests and concerns, a long life in which to indulge them, and a body of correspondents so numerous and varied as to form a cross-section of British society of his time. He seems methodically to have preserved virtually every communication that he received, including dinner invitations and replies, and correspondence with tradesmen. The largest section of the present correspondence concerns his work as a teacher and educational reformer. Because of the disappearance of the papers taken by Wortham, his Eton years are not as well represented as his time at King's, although there are many letters from his former pupils and their parents. There is a large body of correspondence relating to the Cambridge History Tripos and the development of teacher training, reflecting the respective viewpoints of dons, undergraduates, educational administrators, schoolmasters and journalists. The correspondence is also informative about Browning's leisure activities, with particular reference to his participation in a wide range of clubs and societies, and about his interest in helping undergraduates and young friends to find suitable careers, his financial aid to needy relations and former servants, his payment of the school fees of sons of Cambridge townspeople, and his employment of poor but intelligent young men as secretaries. Many of Browning's correspondents were prominent political or literary figures, and included all the leading Liberal and many Conservative politicians of his day (some of whom, such as Rosebery and Curzon, had been his pupils). His literary correspondents represented in the present collection include Lecky, Pater, Wilde, John Addington Symonds and Frederic Harrison. Only one letter from George Eliot survives as part of this collection, for he lost many of the letters which he received from her (see his 'George Eliot', p97). In old age Browning sold letters from Tennyson, Newman, Wilde and George Eliot for their autograph value (see the letters from Christopher Millard and Robson and Co., through whom some of the sales took place).