[ Henry Richmond Droop, Victorian Mathematician. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('H. R. Droop') [ to E. Meyrick Goulburn, Dean of Norwich ], presenting a copy of his book 'The Edwardian Vestments', and discussing its contents. With the book itself.

LETTER: 8pp., 12mo. On two bifoliums. In good condition, lightly aged, and tipped-in onto the half-title of Item Two below. Begins: 'Sir | I met a few days ago with your letter to the Bishop of Lincoln "the Confessions of a reticent Dean" and am tempted to send you the accompanying pamphlet - which some years ago, I collected all the materials I could find as to how the ornaments rubric was understood before & at the time of the Revision of 1661-2 The conclusion I came to was that the views you attribute to the Revisers were only to be found in Cosin's unpublished notes & were contradicted by other passages in those notes, & that every other High Churchman or Moderate Churchman who wrote on the subject regarded the Advertisements & Canons as the law & the rubric as to ornaments as somehow reconciled with them.' He proceeds to discuss the matter at great length and in great detail. He concludes: 'I am taking a very considerable liberty in writing to you at such length. I am not altogether opposed to a compromise but I am <?> anything on the basis that the Review of 1661 intended to restore vestments or that the judgements in the Purchas Ridsdale cases were biassed by policy. These premises conceded would carry you further than you desire | I dont at all expect you to trouble to answer this letter.' BOOK: [4] + 104pp., 8vo. In good condition, but disbound. The following autograph note by Droop is on p.10: 'This is not so. The original MS (Lansdown MSS) has “some with surplice & cope” which Strype printed as “surplice & cap” | This was discovered by Mr. T. W. Perry, & I first heard of it during the Ridsdale case in 1877.' Droop is said to have devised the Droop quota in the Single Transferable Vote voting system, and to have pre-empted Duverger's Law.