Autograph Letters

Folio, 1 p. Twenty-three lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. His mother Lady Napier, who went to town the previous day, has 'taken charge of the 2 Vols of the Athenaeum' his correspondent sent him. 'Lady Napier has promised to call herself at Leicester Square & deliver the books to you'. If he should be in when she calls, Napier asks him to 'explain to her my theory as to the "Sources of the Nile", briefly embodied in the accompanying paper'.

12mo, 3 pp. Thirty-six lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed by Bonaparte, with stamp, red wax seal and postmarks, on reverse of second leaf, to 'Monsieur le Lieutenant-Colonel Lherbette Adt. au comm. de l'artillerie dans la 1re. division militaire | Vincennes'. Were he not leaving for the country, he would have presented in person 'Mr. Colt, citoyen des Etats-Unis, inventeur d'un ingénieux système d'armes à feu à plusieurs coups'.

12mo, 2 pp. Fifteen lines. Text clear and complete. Thanking Wyld for his 'Support on Thursday in the House of Commons, agreeing with the Lords' Amendment for the exemption of Pharmaceutical Chemists serving on Juries'. He hopes that the exemption will prove 'a Stimulus to Pharmaceutical education and thereby be of great service and increased safety to the Public'. Hills was Mayor of Cambridge from 1894 to 1895.

12mo, 3 pp. Regarding the 'assigning of an income to the Regius Professor of Medicine out of the Ewelme Charity': 'I trouble you with a line to say that I have recommended the allowance of £250 a year, and that when the revenues of the Charity shall reach £1000 a year, it shall be submitted to the Court to increase the amount to £300 or £350'. Asks if there is 'any other matter connected with my office upon which you would wish for information, before I seek a week or two's repose? (of which I have had none, not even for an hour since I came into office.)'.

12mo, 3 pp. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. 'Mr Westmacott [the sculptor Richard Westmacott the younger?]' has called on him, and he has 'shown him the settlement all down my Wall - I told him that you had seen it but did not contemplate any immediate danger - he said that Mr Valpy [Henry Valpy (fl.1851-1885) of the architects Burrell & Valpy] was out of town'. Westmacott will write to Valpy, as he thinks there ought to be 'a conference with' Lakyn, who 'should be requested to make a report'.

Both 12mo, 2 pp. On bifoliums, the first with mourning border. Both texts clear and complete. Aged and lightly creased, with the first item bearing traces of being mounted in an album. Letter One: He hopes to be 'present at the next Sessions', and will be 'quite prepared after the County business is over, to attend the Committee of Subscribers to Sir William Heathcotes Portrait'.

12mo, 3 pp. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. Not knowing whether Dallas is returned, he draws 'a bow at a venture', hoping that his 'arrows are not "bitter words"'. He intends to visit Galway, and asks Dallas to 'write me a line to mark out the desirable points to visit & a few hints as to where to stop'. He will be staying with William Cooper of Markree Castle, County Sligo. In 1842 Dallas established the Irish Church Missions, 'Soupers' which were particularly active in Galway during the Potato Famine.

12mo, 2 pp. Fair, on lightly aged and creased paper. Although it is 'unnecessary' , she is writing 'in Sidney's name to implore for your Vote & interest on Friday next as against the Govt. - Independently of the grave question at issue as regards India no friend of Lord Canning's can be indifferent to the base & ungenerous treatment he has received'. Sidney is writing to the Bishop of Salisbury 'in the same sense', and if he cannot come to London for the vote, he will, she hopes, 'send his proxy'. Docketed on reverse 'Authoress'.

12mo, 1 p. 15 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. He requests 'the favour of a copy of Dr 's work "The Hoe & the Canoe," for review'. He claims to be 'a friend of Lord Elgin the Governor', and to have been 'a long resident in the Canadas' in his 'official capacity', ending: 'it will afford me the utmost pleasure to say all I can in behalf in [sic] the reviewing publication with which I have the honour of being connected, of Dr 's work'. The truth about 'J. B.

12mo, 1 p. Ten lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. He does not have 'sufficient information' to give an opinion on the question his unnamed correspondent refers to, 'namely whether a 5 days a week system would be preferable to Miners to an uniform 8 hours a day work'. The question is 'quite new' to him, and he 'must reserve an opinion till I know more about the subject'. Later in 1892 Shaw-Lefevre would be appointed First Commissioner of Works in Gladstone's government.

12mo, 2 pp. 24 lines. Text clear and complete. He finds, 'upon reconsideration', that the conversation he referred to that afternoon took place two days later, and regrets that he gave Barrow 'the unnecessary trouble of sending for papers in error; & possibly attributing an inattention to the Gentleman employed at the time as a Reporter'.

12mo, 2 pp. 13 lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. His unnamed correspondent has 'done no end of good by rousing the attention of the Engineering World to the Portsmouth Question'. He is engaged on 20 April, and so will be prevented from availing himself of 'Col Grey's Offer'.

12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. 26 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with traces of blue paper mount adhering to the blank reverse of the second leaf. Apologises for being unable to 'attend a meeting of Managers of St. John's Schools' that week: 'Miss Wilbraham will be away from home the following week & Lord Skelmersdale does not arrive till the 20th.' Gives dates when he can attend, if his unnamed correspondent thinks it 'advisable to have the meeting without them'.

Letter One (Archbishop of Canterbury] 3pp., 12mo, approving Wigan's actions in the burial of the child whose baptism was irregular and defective. He was right to toll the bell, and depositing the body of the child in the churchyard. He wants time to consider the right steps in such an important matter for 'similar cases which perhaps may be brought forward .... Letter Two: This copy letter, a rough draft in Alfred Wigan's hand, explains the situation with the dead child of followers of Joanna Southcott. They were said to have no intention of asking for Burial ...

Four pages, 12mo, Hanbury asks some questions about a 'catalogue' [presumably of plants found in Kent] Shepherd has sent him. "With these few exceptions your capital list is perfectly plain & straightforward". He has questions about Trollius europoeus, Wrotham Waters, Hypericum Montanum ('a mistake here'), Geranium sylvaticum ('Are you quite clear about this? Watson's Topog. Bot. does not give it as Kentish at all'). He corrects him on a geranium he has shown him ('rare or rarer'), believes a mistake has been made placing Lathymus palustris in Ryash Woods ('northern plant').

The Earl of Darnley's four letters (all signed 'Darnley') total 27 pp in 12mo; Lady Darnley's eight letters (all signed 'H. Darnley') total 26 pp in 12mo. All items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Darnley's first letter, 16 September 1853 (12mo, 12 pp), is unusually blunt for the period, and revealing on the etiquette of the period. It begins: 'I trust that the change in your mode of addressing me was accidental, and I have therefore not imitated it, and have used one word which you omitted [presumably 'Dear'].

8vo, 4 pp. Seventy lines of text. Clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with the outer pages browned. The identity of the recipient is suggested by the following, written in the margin of the first page: 'Ces Dames vous supplient d'agréer l'hommage de leurs souvenirs. Mesdames de Vaublanc et veulent elles me permettre de leur offrir ici la mienne?' His correspondent is writing his memoirs, and de Marchangy considers that he has 'mille fois raison de vivre dans le passé, s'il vous console du present'.

Three pages, 12mo, some staining, but text clear and complete. In asking your consideration of the claims of the Childrens' Aid Society a Branch of the Reformatory & Refuge Union of which I am the President, I am not seeking your help for a mere experiment but for work which has been in progress now for nearly forty years with marked success.

12mo, 1 p. On bifolium. Thirteen lines of text. Clear and complete. Fair, on aged and creased paper, with slight rust marking from hooks. Semi-literate, and redolent of the area and period. He asks Devon (not Captain Thomas Barker Devon, RN, who had died in 1846) to 'pardon the Liberty I have taken in writen [sic]' to him. He knows 'the Great difficulty that Gentlemen have in Getting good made peal [sic] Flys and firm Tied ones', and is enclosing 'a few of my Own Making & you will Greatly Oblidge me by your Trying of them'.

One page, 12mo, bifolium, fold marks, good condition. Tamarton [sic for Tamerton] Church Tower & other Poems are now included in a volume called 'Amelia and other Poems.' It is published by Geo. Bell & Co. York Stret, Covent Garden. I do not know Mr Palgarve's address, but a letter to Macmillan & Co, his publisher would reach him.

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Forty-eight lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on aged paper. Begins 'One must needs be a churl indeed to be a laggard in his response to a letter containing words of so sweet breath composed as yours!' He thanks Baron for his 'kind & encouraging letter', and considers that an author 'has no keener or more lawful pleasure than to find that the errors of his song or tale has [sic] lodged (as Longfellow says) in the heart of some far-off and unknown friend'.

Seven items, all in very good condition on lightly-aged paper. Trevelyan's idiosyncratic and hypochondriacal character comes through strongly in this correspondence, ostensibly concerned with his application to become a magistrate, but largely devoted to the state of his health. ONE and TWO. Manuscript copies of short letters from Trevelyan to Thorp and the Duke of Northumberland. Both dated 22 October 1832, and both 4to, 1 p. Requesting 'a Dedimus, as a commencing Magistrate'. THREE. Manuscript copy of letter from Trevelyan to Thorp. 23 October 1832; Netherwitton, Morpeth. 4to, 1 p.

Three pages, 12mo, fold marks, tiny closed tears, mainly good condition. He is grateful that Granville has eased his anxiety. It relieves me from all uneasiness but in case you should consider it expedient to make The Queen's gracious intentions known to the R[oyal] Ag[ricultural] Society. I mention that their Council will be held on Wednesday next for the last time before the Easter Holidays. | The wish of the Society is made know by their question put relative to Hyde Park.

12mo, 2 pp. Twenty-six lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. Having examined Mrs Damon in her bed, he now finds her 'up & down stairs', and requests Coffin to 'kindly give her a look up & control her & force her to be an invalid for a few days'. Ends with the news that his wife is 'still most seriously & dangerously ill'. For some of Jones's many achievements see his entry in Who Was Who, and also his obituary, British Medical Journal, 4 May 1918, pp.521–522

12mo, 2 pp. Twenty lines. Text clear and complete. On aged and lightly-creased paper, with short closed tear at head. Begins: 'My Father & Grand Father & Family represented the City of Waterford for nearly 100 years before the Union. My Father represented the County off Wexford in the Imperial Parliament in 1806.'

12mo, 1 p. Mourning border. Twelve lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with small scrap torn away from top right-hand corner. By that evening's post, they have received 'the sad intelligence that my sister in law, Lady Camilla Sinclair has died at Thurso Castle'. Her brother Sir George Sinclair and his family 'are in great grief', and she is 'under the melancholy necessity of sending an apology' for cancelling 'our engagement to you which we had anticipated with so much pleasure'.

12mo, 1 p. Six lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. She will 'keep January free' for him, and they can 'arrange the details of programme later'. She agrees that 'a wholly-Brahms programme might be rather heavy'. See Florence's obituary, The Times, 7 November 1928.

12mo, 2 pp. Eighteen lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed to 'My dear Reed'. He thanks him for his note and is glad he likes the cartoon on 'the Educational Model'. He had 'been hoping the Tories would tread on the Nonconformists' toes to shut them up and now they have done it.' He doubts whether his agent has sold the original drawing, and is writing to him 'to let you have an offer if possible'.

All items clear and complete, on aged paper. Letters totaling: 4to, 1 p; landscape 8vo, 5 pp. The two cards carry long messages, written in red ink in Grubb's close, neat hand; one is standard size, the other 27 x 13.5 cm. Five envelopes are stapled to their letters. Grubb ('one of the last survivors of the famous 1960s Hampstead coterie of writers, actors and critics') writes entertainingly in an emphatic, energetic manner marvellously evocative of the 1970s London literary scene.

12mo, 2 pp. Ten lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Jones's letter has been forwarded to him, but he cannot give him 'the information you are seeking', so he has sent to letter on to 'Mr. of the British Museum, asking him to reply to it'.