CHARLES

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Begins: 'My very dear Friend, | I lack words to express my real gratitude for your heartfelt kindness to so young a fellow as your devoted comrade, here writing'. He hopes for an opportunity to show proof of his 'profound and hearty friendship'. He ends with renewed thanks, and 'sincere loves [sic] to your good Wife and dear self'.

2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, aged and worn. Folded twice. The letter begins: 'When my Eugenic play “The Blindness of Virtue” was first produced at the Little Theatre two years ago [i.e. in 1912] (about which Dr Saleeby [i.e. eugenicist Caleb Saleeby (1878-1940)] wrote very kindly & in great agreement in the P. M. G) you were kind enough to send a member of your staff to see me for a talk.' He explains that since that time he has had the play 'in the United States & Canada where it is still running & I have many more things to say about it & those places'.

Both items are 2pp, 12mo, and bifoliums. Both in good condition, lightly aged, and each folded once. The second has rust marks to margin from a paperclip. Given the sunbject-matter, the recipient may be a relation of the actress Mrs William Barry (1739-1771), whose maiden name was Osborne. ONE: 17 August 1769; on Park Road letterhead. Signed 'Ch. Fechter.' He begins by announcing: 'I have, by no means, altered my mind; but have been – and am still – strolling about the country'.

1p, 8vo. In good condition. Laid down on part of leaf from album. Reads: 'Lord Albemarle presents His Compliments to the Mayor Elect, and is sorry to find that It is not in his power to have the Honor of dining with him at Yarmouth on Michaelmas Day next.'

In addition to his distinguished career as a playwright, Fry had some success in Hollywood. He completely rewrote (uncredited) the screenplay of 'Ben-Hur' (1959), and was responsible for the screenplay of the Dino De Laurentiis epic 'The Bible: In the Beginning' (1966), directed by John Houston. The present item is a treatment for a film that did not make it into production. It is [1] + 71pp, 8vo. Each page on a separate loose leaf. With thin card covers, also loose, the front cover carrying a duplication of the title-page, and the back cover blank. In good condition, lightly aged.

According to his entry in the Oxford DNB, Arbuthnot 'served as private secretary successively to seven patronage secretaries; to the permanent head of the department, Sir Charles Spearman, and his successor, Sir Charles Trevelyan; to the prime minister, Sir Robert Peel; and to Sir Charles Wood, chancellor of the exchequer in Russell's administration'. The present item was written by Arbuthnot while holding the last position. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Laid down on part of a leaf from an album.

On his eightieth birthday Charles Chilton (1917-2013) was described by the Sunday Telegraph as 'the one genius' the BBC 'ever had on its staff'. Chilton worked for the Corporation for a period of almost half a century, writing and producing a succession of innovative and exciting radio programmes and serials, notably the trilogy 'Journey into Space', the last UK radio programme to attract a bigger evening audience than television, which has been cited by the astronomers Stephen Hawkins and Colin Pillinger as an inspiration.

Six items: four from Causley (one ALS, one TLS, two ACsS) and two from Hanke (ALsS). The collection in good condition. ONE: ACS from Causley. Signed 'Charles Causley'. Launceston; 31 August 1979. He is delighted that Fry 'thought of using the poem in your reading, & hope you went ahead'. He has been 'almost 2 months in Y'slavia & Czechoslovakia'. He is 'always 5 years behind with commitments & the WC Writers' beanos almost always coincide with fearful attack of conscience. The next three items signed 'Charles'. TWO: TLS from Causley. On his Launceston letterhead; 5 August 1986.

An interesting document relative to London social history, and a nice piece of Dickensiana. George Johnson is said to have established his celebrated restaurant Johnson's Alamode Beef House at 21 Clare Court, Drury Lane, in the 1780s, although the present letter states that it was licensed around 1805 . In 1824 a twelve-year-old Charles Dickens – employed in a nearby blacking warehouse as a result of his father's imprisionment for debt – himself experienced an incident which he later made use of in 'David Copperfield'.

2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, aged and spotted, with loss at foot of reverse of last leaf, the verso of which is addressed to 'Mr Palmer | Bookseller | 18 Paternoster Row'. The recipient is the theological bookseller Ebenezer Palmer the elder (c.1782-1866). Twenty-two lines of text in a difficult hand. The stridently pious tone perhaps hints at some degree of mental instability. The letter opens: 'My dear Sir & friend in the LORD | I greet you in Him'.

2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Written after his successful return as Member of Parliament for the new constituency of Tyrone South. Headed 'Private' and signed 'William O Brien'. Begins: 'My dear Mr Edwards | Of all the letters of congratulation I received on our Tyrone victory, there was not one that gave me more pleasure than your kind note.' He would have answered sooner, had the 'fatigue of the contest' not 'proved a little too much' for him, and it would have given him 'particular pleasure' to make Edwards's acquaintance.

2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to reverse. Folded twice. Addressed to 'F. P. Bernard Esq M.A.' (a mistake for the barrister Francis George Bernard?) Written in purple ink, with signature and name of recipient faded as written at the end of the pen's load. He regrets to find that he has 'inadvertently omitted' to answer his letter, 'which had been put among many other papers'.

In 1829 Bell became the first Professor of Physiology, on the incorporation of the Windmill Street School of Anatomy into the new King's College London. He played a leading part in the establishment of the Medical School, but differences with colleagues led to a quick departure. Edwin John Quekett (1808-1847), botanist, histologist, microscopist, was the brother of John Thomas Quekett (1815-1861). On one side of a 10 x 15.5 cm piece of card. In fair condition, lightly aged, with circular stamp, and thin strip of paper from mount adhering to reverse.

The document bearing the ten signatures is 1p, 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to blank reverse of document. Folded twice. A printed form, completed in manuscript, with the ten signatures of leading figures in the medical world of Georgian London in a column at bottom right, the first two grouped as 'Governors' and the other seven as 'Examiners': 'Charles Blicke | David Dundas | C Hawkins | J Earle | G Chandler | T Forster | Everard Home | William Blizard | Henry Cline'.

The present letter relates to the founding by Davitt – who inspired Mahatma Gandhi – of the newspaper 'Labour World', in which he was an early promoter of the British Labour Party. 2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded once. The reverse of the second leaf carries a full-page engraving of the 'Arundel Hotel, | Victoria Embankment, Strand, W.C.' He begins by informing Knox that 'Mr Stead' has handed him his 'favour to him of the 12th. inst.' He continues: 'The paper alluded to in the Review of Reviews is not to be started in Ireland.

After a twelve-year 'amitié amoureuse' with Phillips, Violet Trefusis (a relation of Camilla Parker-Bowles, both being members of the Keppel family) died in 1972, appointing him her literary executor and leaving him her last home, La Tour de Saint Loup. The present item – no other copy of which has been traced – is from a collection of Phillips's papers amassed by his friend Barbara Reed, containing pamphlets privately printed by him between 2009 and 2014.

For Murchison and the subject of the letter, the eminent Scottish physician and medical author James Copland (1791-1870), see the Oxford DNB. Both items bifoliums; and both in good condition, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to the reverse of the second leaf. ONE: 3pp, 12mo. He begins by saying that he has seen Sir Henry Thompson (1820-1904), who 'cannot possibly meet us to-morrow but he will be at Dr Coplands at 3.40 on Thursday – That is the day of my Law Case but I will be there if I can'.

Lettsom's entry in the Oxford DNB erroneously states that his son John Miers Lettsom, M.D., 'a physician of promise', died in 1799. For the true details, see Gentleman's Magazine, January 1800. 1p, 8vo. Bifolium. In fair condition, aged and worn, with thin strip of paper adhering to the blank reverse of the second leaf, which is addressed, with fragment of seal in black wax, to 'Mr Charles Taylor | 134 | Cheapside'. The recipient may well be Charles Taylor (d.1816), physician, originally a Manchester calico printer and dyer, who later became Secretary of the Society of Arts, London.

The recipient is Charles Taylor (d.1816), physician, originally a Manchester calico printer and dyer, who later became Secretary of the Society of Arts, London. 1p, 8vo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to reverse of second leaf, which is addressed, with postmarks to 'Dr. Taylor | Principal Secretary | to the Society of Arts &c | Adelphi'. Folded four times. Reads: 'Dear Doctor | I have this day proposed your name to the Medical Society of London.

Both letters are signed 'Chas. Mercier'. ONE 23 July 1906. 2pp, 12mo. Bifolium with mourning border. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper adhering to the blank second leaf. The letter, which is written in a playful tone, begins: 'My dear Bedford Pearce [sic] | Blamed if I do? I am not so ignorant of the Canonical Books as to confuse Prov: 26. 4 with 26. 5. Your offence, which cries aloud to heaven, is the omission of a comma! A quotation should follow the original verbatim et literatim [sic] et punctuatim, and a stop is an integral part of the text.

2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to the reverse of the blank second leaf. The unnamed recipient is the artist George Cruikshank, and the present letter is a reply to a letter from Cruikshank among the Townshend papers at Wisbech, dating from the previous day (28 April 1859). In that letter Cruikshank asks to borrow back his painting 'Cinderella', in order to add some touches to it, and exhibit it at the Hampstead Conversazione. The painting is among those bequeathed by Townshend to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Proctor was a much loved individual in literary circles, from the days of the London Magazine to the mid-Victorian period, in which he was the dedicatee of both Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair' and Wilkie Collins's 'Woman in White'. His reputation as a poet was international: he was thought highly of by Pushkin. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to blank reverse. The letter reads: 'Dear [Harris?] | Pray tell me where [?] I can have some conversation with you about some patients of the name of [Lealer? Lester?], whom you know.

The recipient of this letter is the surgeon Henry William Robert Davey (1798-1870) of Yarmouth, son of surgeon Henry Sallows Davey (1781-1855) of Beccles; and the 'Mr. Bell' mentioned in it is Sir Charles Bell, who had taught Davey ten years before at Theatre of Anatomy, Great Windmill Street. 2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged, with a strip cut away from the outside edge of the second leaf, which carries two postmarks and Watson's address to 'Henry Davey Esqre | Tavistock Hotel | Covent Garden'. Twenty-one lines of neatly-written text.

Marion Shaw, daughter of Charles Shaw of Ayr, married Charles Bell in 1811. Following the death of her husband in 1842, she lived with her brother the surgeon Alexander Shaw (1804-1890), and their house became a centre of artistic and literary society. The recipient is a former pupil of Bell's at the Hunterian School of Medicine in Great Windmill Street, London, the surgeon Henry William Robert Davey (1798-1870), son of surgeon Henry Sallows Davey (1781-1855) of Beccles. The letter is written on the publication of 'The Letters of Sir Charles Bell, K.H., F.R.S.L.

1p, 4to. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip from mount adhering to reverse of second leaf, which is addressed, with broken seal in red wax, to 'Dr. Blagden | Secry. to the | Royal Society | London'. After thanking Blagden for the trouble he has taken 'in transmitting the thanks of the R: Socy. To me for the trifling performance I sent to the Library', Hamilton continues: 'I consider myself as honoured by its reception.

3pp, 4to. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to the reverse of second leaf, which is addressed 'À Monsieur | Monsieur L. Odier | Docteur et Professeur en Médecine | à Genève.' He begins by expressing the 'great pleasure' he has felt in again seeing Odier's handwriting, and learning that he and his family are in good health.

For information about George Rose (1744-1818) and Lord Charles Somerset (1767-1831) see their entries in the Oxford DNB. The two men served as Joint Paymasters General of the Forces, 1804-1806. Rose, who was a close friend of Lord Nelson, was mocked by Cobbett for enriching his family at the public expense. The present document, witnessed by one of his second sons the poet William Stewart Rose (1775-1843), appoints his eldest son, the future Sir George Henry Rose, (1771-1855), as one of the two attorneys of his office.

1p, 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to blank reverse. Folded once.. A neatly-written letter of fourteen lines. The recipient is not named, but is Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool (1729-1808), whose country seat was Addiscombe Park in Surrey. Mansfield served in the First Pitt Ministry with Liverpool (then Lord Hawkesbury), the former as Lord President of the Council, and the latter as President of the Board of Trade.

1p, foolscap 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to edge on reverse. Folded once. Signed 'C Townshend' with good impression of seal in red wax at bottom right. Nineteen-line document in a secretarial hand, with tax stamp at head. At foot, by two members of the Army Pay Office, Horse Guards: 'Sign'd, Sealed and delivered, (being first duly stamp'd) in the presence of | John Powell | Chas: Bembridge'.

1p, 4to. In fair condition, aged and worn, with creasing and heavy wear at head. Folded three times. Addressed to 'The Rev. C. R. Sumner'. Reads: 'Rev. Sir | As Librarian of the British & Foreign Bible Society, I have the honor to state to you that a Resolution has been passed by the Committee of that Society, requesting permission to offer to His Majesty as a mark of their dutiful homage a set of Copies of the Versions of Holy Scripture executed or reprinted at their expence.