EVERARD

Accompanying this item is a piece of paper with the following note in a mid-twentieth-century hand: ‘Interesting because of the very rare signature of Everard Peck, pioneer printer Father of Wm. F. Peck’. He was a bookbinder from Connecticut who moved to Rochester around 1816 and opened a bookstore. He moved into printing and publishing, founded the successful weekly Telegraph newspaper and later became a banker. He was a generous benefactor of the early city, co-founding the University of Rochester and the Rochester Orphan Asylum and becoming a leader in the Female Charitable Society.

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'.

An interesting letter regarding the early cultivation of bananas in London. 1p, 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged, with slight nicking to one edge. Neatly written over nine lines. Reads: 'Sir Everard Home is much obliged to Messrs. Laddiges for a present of some very fine Bananas, which were quite ripe, and had a flavour Sir Everard had no idea that they ever could acquire in this Climate. He mentioned yesterday to Mr Eyton with astonishment who said they had fruited at Kew, but not He believed to such perfection'.

120 pages (unpaginated), 12mo. Stitched without covers. In fair condition: worn (particularly the first two leaves) and aged. A marvellous collection, described in a carefully printed and compiled catalogue of 901 lots. A two-page 'Prefatory Note' has a long quotation from one of Meynell's catalogues, beginning: 'My books must at my death be turned to account.

The background to the present correspondence is dealt with exhaustively in C. J. W. Allen's 'The Law of Evidence in Victorian England' (1997) and David Bentley's 'English Criminal Justice in the 19th Century' (1998), chapters 17 ('The Campaign for a Prisoners' Evidence Act') and 18 ('Reform'). ONE: Autograph Letter Signed from Poland ('Harry Bodkin-Poland') to Harington ('His Honour Judge Sir Richard Harington Bart.'). 4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged.

Five items, in good condition, lightly aged and worn. Webster's four letters total 6pp., 12mo.

12mo: 3 pp. Bifoilum. Thirty-six lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with several pin holes, light spotting, and a 1 cm closed tear along a fold. A lighthearted epistle, beginning 'Dear Everard, Dear Everard | The Cistercians make an awful mistake in giving free meals. My Charity-organisation Society temperament rises in wrath: if they wd only apply the labour test for an hour or less - but free meals! I have watched the moral ravages of free meals and feel more strongly abt that kind of thing than about Home rule or Mediaeval Brases.

Printed on unwatermarked tissue paper. Dimensions of paper roughly seven and a half centimeters by eleven and a half. A very good copy of a frail and ephemeral item. An attractive illustration by Fraser of an ivy-clad wall memorial topped by a cherub encloses the following 'There are Published | I. Farewell to the Faeries, by Richard Corbett. | II. Three Poems, by Kenneth Hare. | Decorated and Published by C. Lovat Fraser, and can be obtained from Everard Meynell, 46 Museum Street, W.C. | [short rule] | Price SIXPENCE each, net.'