A LETTER written by the literary genius who wrote the Dictionary of the English Language was sold for nearly four times its estimated price at auction. 

Dr Samuel Johnson's letter to Sophia Thrale had been logged as 'present location unknown' for around two centuries, despite its contents being published in The Letters of Samuel Johnson in 1994.

However, it was recently rediscovered by complete coincidence during a routine valuation by Chorley's auction specialists at an ancestral home in Gloucestershire. 

Dr Johnson originally penned the three-page letter to the 12-year-old daughter of renowned British author and friend  Hester Lynch Thrale in 1783.

Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard: The envelope of the letter The envelope of the letter (Image: Chorley's Auctioneers)

It was valued at between £8,000 and £12,000 pounds but was bought by an unnamed museum for a hammer price of £30,000 at Chorley Auctioneers in Prinknash Abbey Park, Gloucester.

Director at Chorley's auction house Werner Freundel said: "Initially, I was asked to value a collection of books and rugs for a family who had recently taken over their ancestral family home.

"I spent a long afternoon between the library and drawing room, collating volumes of Tillotson, Defoe, Kipling and Scott that had been separated throughout the years, during their time in the various generations of the family.

Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard: Dr Johnson's letter Dr Johnson's letter (Image: Chorley's Auctioneers)

"One of the cupboards in the library yielded several manuscript volumes detailing the household expenditure during the late 18th and 19th centuries.

"I then came across a volume of over 100 letters that the family weren’t aware of and I asked if I could take them away to go through.

"We were thrilled to discover that it was a missing letter written by Dr Johnson himself to Sophia Lynch Thrale, which is currently listed as ‘current location unknown.’

"We felt honoured to handle such a historic document by one of the greatest contributors to the history of English.

"Johnson developed what we know as the English dictionary, not as a student’s tool, but as a literary work.

"It is a complete mystery as to how the letters came into possession of the family."