CHARLES

1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, with traces of grey-paper mount on blank reverse, and minor discolouration at one edge from glue used. The actor Henry Leigh Murray (1820-1870) is identified in pencil as the recipient. The letter begins: 'My dear Sir, | You are quite welcome to a P[rivate]. Box if there is one to spare'. He asks him to 'call or send to Mr. Massingham at the Box Office at 1/2 past 4 o'clock who has received instructions to attend to your wishes, if all the Boxes are not let by that time'.

See Meadows' entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient of the letter is not named, but it comes from the album of the actor Henry Leigh Murray, which also contained a letter regarding a theatre box from Charles Kean (offered separately). 1p, 12mo. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, with traces of grey paper mount on reverse, and slight discolouration at corners from glue. Written with mock-pomposity, and beginning: 'My dear Sir | I hereby give you notice that Mr C. Kean has delivered unto me a Card for a Private Box for to-morrow Augt. 19th.

63pp, 8vo. With frontispiece of 'The Bart.' and long fold-out family tree at rear. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. In original blue cloth binding with the cover bearing device of sailing ship and motto 'Dabit Deus Vela' in gilt. The inscription, on the front free endpaper, reads: 'To | dear Oc | from | H. J. T. | Christmas 1932.' Two 11 x 15.5 cards, printed in brown, are loosely inserted. One depicts a sumptuous interior, the other an old lady sitting at the window of a country house (The Glen?). Both have on the reverse the stamp of 'P. A. ELLIS, | Photographer, CLOVELLY.'

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 12mo bifolium, with the two-page letter on both sides the first leaf, and the list of plays on recto of second leaf. In fair condition, aged and worn, with closed tear. Folded three times. Addressed: 'To/ | Chas. Perkins Esqr. | 2 North Place | Hampstead.' The letter begins: 'My dear Perkins, | I have not been able to reply to your last earlier - having been confined to my bed-room ever since the 31st. of July by a most severe attack of inflammation.' He has been obliged to postpone his 'Cork engagement on account of this unseen misfortune'.

For Mackay, best known for his 'Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds' (1841), see his entry in Oxford DNB. The first letter signed 'Chas: MacKay' and the second 'Chas. MacKay'. Both are annotated in pencil with the date 1841, which is unlikely, as it would make the recipient (named in both as 'M H Colnaghi Esqre') only twenty years old. ONE: 1p, 8vo. In fair condition, lightly aged, and mounted in a windowpane frame on a leaf of paper extracted from an album. Folded three times.

Twelve pencil portraits executed in the same extremely capable style, probably for the purposes of engraving. Each on a separate piece of 4to paper. All in good condition, with light signs of age and wear, a couple with minor flecking with red paint. All dated in pencil (between 1811 and 1829), and all but two captioned. (Several of the items with watermark date supporting the pencil dating.) Three of the portraits have the tiny signature at bottom left of 'Bestland', and all would appear to be the work of the same artist, although the last appears to be signed with the initials 'C H'.

Both in good condition, lightly aged. ONE: 2pp, 12mo. He 'must bear the entire blame' for 'an indiscretion', and is 'exceedingly sorry'. 'Nothing was said between us in regard to the giving or withholding of addresses, & I had not at that time considered the point.

Medd's autograph diary and memoranda fill the 144pp and prelims of the printed 16mo almanack and diary, which is in a 10.5 x 6.5 cm brown leather flapped binding. Ownership inscription: 'George Tate Medd | 4. Magdalen Terrace | Iffley Road | Oxford'. Medd was not a student at the University, but having been invalided out of the army (see below), he was staying with his brother Charles Septimus Medd (for whom see Alum. Oxon.) whose election as a Fellow of University College he records at the beginning of the volume with a 'Hurrah'.

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. He announces that he has been nominated for the Presidency of the Medico-Chirurgical Society by the Council, and supposes that he will be elected 'according to custom'.

1p, 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-worn grey paper with stub from mount adhering. Ornately folded, as was the fashion, with parallel vertical and diagonal creases. From the celebrated manuscript collection of Richard Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton). Endorsed with a number in a contemporary hand at head of page. Didier has circled his signature with a flourish.

A highly influential article, in which the man who would be nicknamed 'Darwin's Bulldog' fires his opening salvo in the Darwinian controversy. (The article would be followed by a letter to The Times, 26 December 1859.) The seven page article (pp.142-148) is on four leaves, 8vo, extracted from a copy of the December 1859 number of 'Macmillan's Magazine'. Disbound and loose. In good condition, on lightly aged and stained paper.

On one side of a 12 x 13 cm piece of paper with the corners cut away to make a irregular octagon shape. In fair condition, lightly aged. Laid down on part of leaf from album. Reads: 'Madame | Voici un billet pour la Séance Royale de demain. Je suis charmé d'avoir pu me le procurer puisque vous le desiriez. | Agréez, je vous prie, Madame, l'hommage de mon respect | Guizot | Dime. Juin 16.' At bottom left, in a contemporary hand: '184'.

The recipient of the letter is William Wade Linton (c.1839-1892), son of the wood engraver William James Linton, who in 1867 had separated from his wife the novelist Eliza Lynn Linton (1822-1898), and emigrated to America with three of his children by his first wife's sister, settling at Appledore, Hamden, Connecticut, where he set up a printing-press. 3pp, 16mo. Bifolium. In good condition. The letter begins: 'Dear Mr Linton | My having been very poorly and also having been away from home & full of many absorbing matters must plead my only excuse for having left your note so long unanswered.

The full title reads: 'Harmsworth Trust Library | The Tenth Portion | Catalogue of the Collection of the Writings of the Revd. C. L. Dodgson ("Lewis Carroll") Forming part of the renowned Library of the late Sir R. Leicester Harmsworth, Bt., LL.D. (and now Sold by Order of the Trustees)'. 21pp, 8vo. With frontispiece, and plate with illustrations on both sides, as well as several facsimiles in text. (Front cover states: 'Illustrated Catalogue (2 Plates and 6 Line Reproductions)'. In yellow printed and stapled wraps, with last page of text printed on inside back cover.

On front of 5.5 x 12 cm envelope. Damaged seal in red wax on reverse. The envelope has been cut down, triming the merest fraction from the opening flourish of the signature, and the breaking of the red wax seal has left it in two parts. Otherwise in fair condition, lightly aged. Firm underlined signature 'Lucan' at bottom left, beneath an equally bold 'Captain Wyndham'.

The three letters total 7pp, 12mo. All three in good condition, on lightly aged paper. From the papers of Sir Richard Harington (1835-1911), 11th Baronet, whose father Rev. Dr Richard Harington (1800-1853), had been Principal from 1842 to his death. All three endorsed by Harington with date of receipt. The subject is the replacement of a stained glass window in the college, with Harington receiving the old window, which he put up at his Worcestershire country house, Whitbourne Court.

2pp, folio. In fair condition, aged, worn and with chipping to extremities. Several folds. Begins: 'My Lord, | I hae the honor of transmitting the following Addresses of Condolence to Her Majesty the Queen, His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, and His Serene Highness the Prince Leopold of Sax Cobourgh'. A list of six addresses follows, variously sent to different members of the royal family from noblemen, gentlemen, clergy, freeholders, burgesses, inhabitants. sheriffs, aldermen, of the county of Wexford, and cities of Armagh and Limerick.

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with traces of paper from mount adhering to blank reverse of second leaf. Folded twice. Written in his usual difficult hand. He begins by stating that her note was forwarded to him from Knebworth. The letter continues: 'I had previously requested my Sol[icito]r.

Card, blue, 11 x 9cn, rounded corners, vestiges of its having been tipped onto an album page. Text: "I have no autographs of my father to spare - otherwise I would send you one - | For myself - I never give my autograph to any collector unless he is personally known to me as a friend."

For Jessel's judicial high standing see his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. In envelope with Penny Red and postmarks, and 'LADHAM HOUSE, | GOLDHURST' printed on the flap, addressed by Jessel to 'E. A. Scott Esq | Schoolfield | Rugby | Warwickshire'. The envelope is signed 'G. Jessel' at bottom left of cover, and the letter concludes with the same signature. He is 'glad to be able now to withdraw the notice' he gave Scott about his son Charles 'leaving Rugby'.

An interesting correspondence, casting light on the practicalities of early twentieth-century English portrait-painting. The recipient is Colonel Frederick Hugh Langston Oldham, D.S.O., D.L., of Overley Hall, near Wellington, Shropshire, eldest son of the Archdeacon of Ludlow, and the letter concerns Brock's portrait of Oldham's wife Christabel Josephine Oldham. The five letters in good condition, lightly aged. The four dated letters are dated between 25 February and 13 July 1920. The total 9pp (seven in 8vo and two in 12mo).

Scudamore's entry in the Oxford DNB does not refer to the financial difficulties which he describes in this interesting letter, surprising in the light of his royal patronage and success as an author. 3pp, 4to. Bifolium, addressed on reverse of second leaf, with postmark and seal in black wax, to 'The | Revd. Sir Thomas Cullum | Bart | Hardwick House | Bury St Edmunds'. Forwarded, in another hand, to 'Sir T G C | No 3 | Porto del Popolo | Rome'. In good condition, lightly aged, with minor trace of mount adhering. Folded four times.

According to his entry in the Oxford DNB, 'In 1844 Lover abandoned miniature painting as a result of failing eyesight but continued to paint and exhibit landscapes. He invented a new form of entertainment which he called Irish Evenings, a monologue of songs, recitations, and stories, all of his own composition. These he performed at the Princess's Concert Rooms, London.' Between 1846 and 1848 he toured North America with great success. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with minor traces of mount adhering to blank reverse of second leaf. Folded twice.

See Clarke's entry in the Oxford DNB. The present letter, signed 'Charles Mansfield Clarke', was written (from Caston, where Clarke's son-in-law Walter Patridge was rector) a few weeks after the death on 3 July 1856 of Clarke's wife of fifty years, Mary Anna (née Squire), by whom he had two sons and five daughters. Lady Clarke's own husband had died a year and a half before, on 26 January 1855. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium with mourning border. In good condition, lightly aged, with minor traces of mount on reverse of second leaf. Folded once.

The two items are on the same 12mo bifoliate. Dilke wrote his letter on the recto of the first leaf, leaving the second blank. Henslow wrote his letter on the blank leaf and folded the letter round so that his would appear first. The bifolium is in good condition, lightly aged, with minor traces of the mount adhering to the reverse of the leaf carrying Dilke's letter on its recto. ONE: Autograph Letter Signed from Henslow to Lady Cullum. 2pp, 12mo. In an elegant hand, he writes: 'Dear Lady Cullum, | I forward the letters of Messrs.

Three excellent and characteristic long letters, neatly and closely written, in the first of which he describes 'the little tide of misfortune' which has befallen him, including shipwreck and indisposition; in the second he gives a vivid account of a visit to Wakefield by the temperance campaigner Father Mathew; and in the last he explains is reluctance to dissect the body of a bird she has sent him, exclaiming: 'I never do things by halves in Natural History'. Along the way there are references to 'my little roman owls' and 'my lions and my lion cubs'.

1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged. Tipped-in onto a piece of paper cut from an album compiled by Lady Ann Cullum (1807-1875) of Hardwick House. Reads: 'Mr Babbage much regrets that he was unable to have the pleasure of waiting on Mr MacKinnon on Wednesday last.' Babbage's correspondence identifies the recipient as William Alexander Mackinnon (1789-1870), Member of Parliament for Rye, Fellow of the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries.

2pp, 16mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with minor traces of mount adhering to the reverse of the blank second leaf. Good firm signature. The letter reads: 'Dear Sir, | I am neither the author, nor owner of copyright, of any plays. If you wish to dramatise any book for yourself, you have full right to do so. Also, if you wish to perform, in public, any play, you have full right to do so, so long as you do not charge for admission.

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. In envelope with penny red stamp and postmark, addressed to Steggatt at 53 Norwich Street, Cambridge. The letter reads: 'Dear Sir | I regret that I cannot give you an order. I have no doubt of the excellence of the cigars, but I never by any chance smoke a cigar. | Believe me | Yours truly | C S. Calverley'. A nice Cambridge association, given that Calverley's most famous poem is 'Ode to Tobacco', and that it features in Cambridge on a brass plaque on the wall of the former Bacon's tobacconists.

The letter contains an undertaking by Trollope to publish a piece by Blewitt, but the Wellesley Index has no record of a piece by Blewitt being published at this time in the St Paul's, of which Trollope was editor. The nature of the 'failure' of Dickens (who would be dead within months) and Lytton, is unclear, but it may concern the provision for impoverished authors.