HENRY

[H. H. Asquith, Liberal Prime Minister.] Autograph Signature to Printed Circular regarding 'the University Settlements' [in London's East End and elsewhere] as a solution for 'social problems'.

Author: 
H. H. Asquith [Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith] (1852-1928), Liberal Prime Minister [University Settlements; Toynbee Hall, Whitechapel; Oxford House, Bethnal Green]
H. H. Asquith
Publication details: 
Printed Circular dated 'October, 1911.' No place.
£65.00
H. H. Asquith

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The ‘settlement’ movement was the result of growing unease among the educated classes regarding the condition of the poor. The two most celebrated settlements, both still active, are Toynbee Hall in Whitechapel and Oxford House in Bethnal Green. From the papers of Sir William David Ross (1877-1971), Vice-Chancellor of Oxford. The present printed circular is 1p, 12mo. Printed on wove watermarked paper. In good condition, lightly aged and folded once. Asquith’s signature is genuine. Reads: ‘October, 1911.

[Henry Doubleday, pioneering Quaker horticulturalist of Coggeshall in Essex.] Five Autograph Letters Signed to the entomologist Bernard Piffard, discussing various topics in natural history, common acquaintances and personal news.

Author: 
Henry Doubleday (1810-1902), pioneering Quaker horticulturist of Coggeshall in Essex [Bernard Piffard (1833-1916), entomologist]
Publication details: 
Between 1860 and 1874. All from Epping [Essex].
£180.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. From the Piffard papers. A total of 10pp, 12mo. Aged and worn, with the first letter on creased grey paper, the second with one leading edge rolling inwards, and the last with a 2cm closed tear; but with text clear and entire. The recipient named as ‘B. Piffard Esq’. All signed ‘Henry Doubleday’. ONE: 14 July 1860. 2pp, 12mo. With reference to an excursion by Piffard to Maldon, and also stating that he ‘took a very fine female Deilephila Galei in our garden on Wednesday - it was at rest on a strawberry plant’. TWO: 7 March 1890. 1p, 12mo.

[J. H. Thomas, Welsh trade unionist and Labour politician.] Typed Note Signed, as General Secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen, to the future Sir W. D. Ross, written on the eve of the 1919 national rail strike.

Author: 
J. H. Thomas [James Henry Thomas] (1874-1949), Welsh trade unionist and Labour politician, General Secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen during the 1919 nation rail strike [Sir W. D. Ross]
J. H. Thomas,
Publication details: 
22 September 1919. On ornate letterhead of The National Union of Railwaymen, Unity House, Euston Road, London, N.W.1.
£56.00
J. H. Thomas,

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. In good condition, on lightly aged and creased cartridge paper. Folded three times. The letterhead is quite an impressive affair, with an engraving of ‘Unity House’ and lettering in a variety of styles. The letter is addressed to ‘W. D. Ross, Esq., / Oriel College, / Oxford.’ The ink on the ribbon appears to have been running out, as the latter part of the note is faded.

[Oxford University and Captain Henry Worsley Hill, Lieutenant Governor of the Gold Coast.] Copy by Hill of College of Arms pedigree showing his family’s consanguinity with William of Wickham and Nicholas Wadham. With ALS to the warden of New College.

Author: 
Captain Henry Worsley Hill (1799-1868), Royal Navy, first 'proper' Lieutenant Governor of the Gold Coast [William of Wickham; Nicholas Wadham; New College, Oxford; College of Arms, London]
Publication details: 
Hill’s letter dated 22 July 1850, from 3 Carlton Crescent, Southampton. The pedigree copied by Hill from the original made by the College of Arms, London, and dated 24 November 1845.
£320.00

Captain Hill was the son of Vice-Admiral Henry Hill (1775–1849). In 1845 Captain Hill married Amelia Jane Boyce (1821–1895), granddaughter of the Duke of Marlborough, with whom he had ten children. Hill’s letter is written on the back of the pedigree, and addressed to ‘The Revd / The Warden / New College / Oxford’. It reads: ‘Mr. Warden, / I have the honour of transmitting herewith for your information the Copy of a Pedigree which I have received from the Heralds Office shewing the consanguinity of my Family to William of Wickham the Founder of New College Oxford and of the College of St.

[Francis William Newman, classical scholar and moral philosopher.] Autograph Letter Signed to the sub-editor of ‘Fraser’s Magazine’ William Allingham, asking whether he will take an article on ‘ Mussulman riots against the Parsees’ and other matters.

Author: 
Francis William Newman (1805-1897), classical scholar and moral philosopher and vegetarian, brother of John Henry Newman [William Allingham (1824-1889), poet and editor of 'Fraser's Magazine']
Publication details: 
4 May 1874; on letterhead of Cumberland Terrace, Regents Park [London].
£45.00

See the entries on Newman and Allingham in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 16mo. A neatly and closely written letter of twenty-three lines. Addressed ‘To W Allingham Esq’ and signed ‘Francis W Newman’. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with unobtrusive circular mark from mount at top left-hand corner of first page. Folded for postage. At the time of writing Allingham was sub-editor of Fraser’s Magazine under the historian James Anthony Froude (1818-1894), whose wife Henrietta had just died. Allingham would take over the editorship in the following month of June, holding it until 1879.

[Sir David Chadwick, Indian Trade Commissioner.] Thirteen Signed Letters, eight Typed and five in Autograph, to Sir H. T. Wood and G. K. Menzies, Secretaries of the Royal Society of Arts, mostly regarding membership business.

Author: 
Sir David Chadwick [Sir David Thomas Chadwick] (1876-1954), British colonial civil servant, Secretary of the Imperial Agricultural Bureaux [Royal Society of Arts, London; Sir H. T. Wood; G. K. Menzies
Publication details: 
Between 22 December 1916 and 11 June 1930. Eight on London letterheads of: Indian Trade Commissioner, Department of Commerce and Industry, Government of India (5); and Imperial Agricultural Bureaux (3). Two from Beckenham, Kent.
£90.00

See his entry in Who Was Who. The thirteen items in good condition, lightly aged, most with RSA date stamp and annotations. A total of 12pp, 8vo, in autograph; and 5pp, 4to, typed. The first ten signed ‘D T Chadwick’ and the last three ‘David Chadwick’. The earliest letter, to RSA Secretary Sir Henry Trueman Wood on 22 December 1916, deals with the publication of Chadwick’s remarks ‘at the discussion on Prof. Todds paper before the Indian Section of the Society of Arts’.

[The Earl of Rosebery, Liberal Prime Minister.] Letter in a Secretarial Hand, signed by him, regarding appointment to a post at the Treasury, with a dinner invitation to Sturgis and his wife (George Meredith’s daughter).

Author: 
The Earl of Rosebery, Liberal Prime Minister [Archibald Philip Primrose (1847-1929), 5th Earl of Rosebery; Henry Parkman Sturgis (1847-1929), American-born banker and Liberal politician]
Publication details: 
27 April 1895; on letterhead of The Durdans, Epsom.
£56.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. With mourning border. On first leaf of a bifolium. In good condition, folded once for postage. All in a secretarial hand, except the signature ‘Rosebery’. Addressed to ‘My dear Sturgis’ - the item is from the autograph album of Sturgis’s wife, George Meredith’s daughter Marie Eveleen (‘Mariette’; 1871-1933). He regrets that he has ‘disposed of the vacancy of the secretaryship at the Treasury’. Had he not, he ‘would gladly have considered the claims of your candidate’. Ends: ‘I wonder if you and Mrs Sturgis would come and dine here some evening.’

[Ellen Terry, distinguished Shakespearian actress of the Victorian and Edwardian period.] Intimate Autograph Letter Signed (‘Nellaline’), sending her ‘very little heart [to George Meredith’s daughter]’.

Author: 
Ellen Terry [Dame Alice Ellen Terry] (1847-1928), distinguished Shakespearian actress of the late-Victorian and Edwardian periods, acted opposite Henry Irving
Publication details: 
17 March 1889; on letterhead of 22 Barkston Gardens, Earls Court, S.W. [London]
£80.00

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. An attractive and unusual item of correspondence, neatly written out in her distinctive handwriting. 1p, 12mo. On leaf of onion paper, carefully laid down on thicker backing. In good condition, slightly discoloured. Folded three times for postage. Reads: ‘A little little heart! So little! but anything “in the way of” a heart should not be flouted, nor scouted, & so I pray you to accept my very little heart - / It’s not worth the thanking for, only don’t send it back to me. / Nellaline. / March 17: 89:’.

[Terence Hodgkinson, art historian and Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum.] Two Autograph Letters Signed to renaissance art expert Giles Robertson, regarding a relief attributed to Grinling Gibbons.

Author: 
Terence Hodgkinson [Terence William Ivan Hodgkinson] (1913-1999), art historian and Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London [Giles Henry Robertson (1913-1987), Italian Renaissance expert]
Publication details: 
20 and 31 December 1947. Both on letterheads of the Victoria & Albert Museum, South Kensington, London.
£50.00

See his entry in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. A year before these letters Hodgkinson had become an assistant keeper in the Department of Architecture and Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert, where his first task had been to organize the display of the Hildburgh collection of English medieval alabasters. Also in 1946 Robertson had begun his long career at Edinburgh University, having worked through the war at Bletchley Park, before joining the unit assigned to track down works of art looted by the Nazis.

[John Venn, Anglican cleric, abolitionist and central figure in the Clapham Sect of social reformers.] Autograph Signature to the conclusion of a letter.

Author: 
John Venn (1759-1813), Church of England clergyman and abolitionist, a central figure in the Clapham Sect of social reformers
Venn
Publication details: 
‘Clapham 10 Sepr. 1810’.
£56.00
Venn

Venn features in the Oxford DNB article on his father Henry Venn (1725-1797). In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper. Two rectangles cut from a letter, laid down on one side of a 14 x 5.5 cm piece of thicker paper. The first rectangle, 12.5 x 2.5 cm, carries the conclusion of the letter: ‘[...]ain are truly I am my dear / your ever faithful & affect Friend / J Venn’. At the foot of the slip, in pencil in a Victorian hand: ‘X (Son of “Complete duty of Man”). Beneath this slip is the second one, 9 x 1.5 cm, which gives the date: ‘Clapham 10 Sepr. 1810’.

[ Sir Henry Mendelssohn Hake, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London.] Typed Letter Signed (‘H M. Hake’) to S. Hodgson recording portraits of George Cruikshank and Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson.

Author: 
Sir H. M. Hake [Sir Henry Mendelssohn Hake] (1892-1951), Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, 1927-1951 [George Cruikshank (1792-1878), caricaturist; Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson]
Publication details: 
11 June 1937; on letterhead of the National Portrait Gallery, London.
£56.00

1p, 4to. On discoloured and somewhat grubby paper, folded twice for postage. Addressed to ‘S. Hodgson Esq.’ and signed ‘H M. Hake’. Hodgson has sent Hake ‘a manuscript fragment’, which does not seem to indicate either of ‘the portraits in the Gallery’. He has ‘looked up the record of portraits offered in the past but there is no mention of Mrs. Cruikshank or her executors.’ He asks a related question before turning to the subject of the physician Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson (1828-1896), who was in Hake’s opinion ‘more of a professional worthy than a national one’.

[A Scottish Royal Navy Midshipman in the Napoleonic Wars.] Autograph Letter Signed to his mother from Robert Kennedy Thomson of Daljarrock, giving news from HMS Imperieuse, and commenting on news from Scotland.

Author: 
Robert Kennedy Thomson of Daljarrock, Ayrshire, Scotland, Royal Navy Officer in the Napoleonic Wars [HMS Imperieuse; Sir Henry Duncan; Vice-Admiral Sir Joshua Ricketts Rowley]
Publication details: 
‘H.M. Ship Imperieuse Port Mahon [Minorca] / Jany. 12th. 1813.’
£180.00

See Thomson’s entry in O’Byrne’s ‘Naval Biographical Dictionary’ (1849). He had entered the navy in 1811, ‘on board the Impérieuse 38, Capt. Hon. Henry Duncan’, and would retire with the rank of Lieutenant, after a reasonably eventful career, in 1829. In 1849 he was said by O’Byrne to be ‘a Captain in the Ayrshire Militia’. On 30 September 1864 the London Gazette listed him among the ‘Lieutenants on Reserved List, to be Retired Commanders’.

[Henry Jutsum, landscape painter.] Autograph Note Signed, directing ?Mr. Vaughan? [Thomas Vaughan, Clerk of the Royal Academy] to ?deliver to Mr Green? his ?picture not received for the Exhibition?.

Author: 
Henry Jutsum (1816-1869), landscape painter [Thomas Vaughan, Clerk of the Royal Academy, London]
Jutsum
Publication details: 
?174 Edgware Road / Maida Hill / 27 April 1832?. [London]
£80.00
Jutsum

An uncommon signature. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On one side of 18 x 10 cm piece of paper. Discoloured and worn, with spike hole. Good firm signature, full of character. Reads: ?174 Edgware Road / Maida Hill / 27 April 1832 / Please deliver to Mr Green or [aide? drdee?order?] my picture not received for the Exhibition / Henry Jutsum / To / Mr. Vaughan / Royal Academy?. See Image.

[H. Brereton Baker, distinguished English chemist.] Autograph Letter Signed [to Sir Henry Trueman Wood, Secretary of the Royal Society of Arts, London], agreeing to give three Cantor lectures.

Author: 
H. Brereton Baker [Herbert Brereton Baker] (1862-1935), distinguished English inorganic chemist [Sir Henry Trueman Wood (1845-1929), Secretary, Royal Society of Arts, London]
Publication details: 
30 July 1913; on letterhead of Latchmoor House, Gerrard?s Cross, Bucks.
£56.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightl aged. Folded once for postage. The recipient is not named, but the letter has at its head the date stamp of the Royal Society of Arts, London, and is docketed by Wood. Signed ?H. Brereton Baker?. He agrees to give ?the three Cantor lectures as you suggest, provided they can begin after the 3rd. week in February?. He gives the subject as ?Catalysis in its scientific and industrial aspects?. A pencil note at the foot gives dates for the lectures as ?Mch 16, 23, 30?.

[William Marsden, orientalist, First Secretary to the Admiralty who broke the news of the victory at Trafalgar.] Autograph Signature ‘Wm Marsden’ to printed Admiralty order, addressed to Commodore Darby, regarding overmanning with 'young Gentlemen'.

Author: 
William Marsden (1754-1836), Anglo-Irish orientalist, numismatist, and linguist, and Royal Navy official, First Secretary to the Admiralty, 1804-7 [Admiral Sir Henry D'Esterre Darby (1749-1823)]
Publication details: 
Admiralty Office [Whitehall, London]. 6 May 1802.
£120.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, which states that ‘it fell to him in October 1805 to wake Lord Barham, as first lord of the Admiralty, with the news of victory at Trafalgar and the death of Nelson’. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with creasing at head. Folded into packet. 1p, folio, and docketed on reverse: ‘Admiralty Order of 6 May 1802 respecting Bearing Boys of 1st Class recd. 1 July 1802 -’. Signed by Marsden, and addressed by him ‘To / Commodore Darby / &c. &c.

[William Henry Gladstone, Member of Parliament for Chester, son of Liberal Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone.] Autograph Letter Signed to W. Farish of Chester, with reference to ‘the Local Option principle’ with regard to prohibition of alcohol.

Author: 
W. H. Gladstone [William Henry Gladstone] (1840-1891), Member of Parliament for Chester between 1868 and 1880, son of the Liberal Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898) [W. Farish]
Publication details: 
21 January 1882; on letterhead of Hawarden Castle, Chester.
£45.00

W. H. Gladstone was the eldest of W. E. Gladstone’s eight children. See his father’s entry in the Oxford DNB, along with those of his brothers Henry Neville Gladstone and Herbert John Gladstone. 3pp, 12mo. On bifolium of grey paper. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with spike hole through one corner of each leaf. Folded once for postage. Signed ‘W H Gladstone’ and addressed to ‘W. Farish Esq / Chester’. He apologizes for having to decline Farish’s request, and is returning the card Farish has sent him.

Mrs. Henry Wood [Ellen Wood, née Price], English author whose best-known work is ‘East Lynne’ (1861).

Author: 
Mrs. Henry Wood [Ellen Wood, née Price] (1814-1887), English author whose best-known work is ‘East Lynne’ (1861)
Wood
Publication details: 
No date or place.
£25.00
Wood

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. The valediction of a letter, cut away for an autograph collector. On a slip of paper, around 7.5 x 1.5 cm. On lightly discoloured paper, with tear through signature, attached to piece of card with archival tape. Reads: ‘Very sincerely yours / Ellen Wood’.

[Alfred Edward Chalon, Portrait Painter in Water Colour to Queen Victoria, and John James Chalon, Swiss-born British artists, both Royal Academicians.] Autograph Signatures to part of an application for assistance from the daughter of Henry Bone, RA.

Author: 
Alfred Edward Chalon (1780-1860), Portrait Painter in Water Colour to Queen Victoria, and John James Chalon (1778-1854), Swiss-born British artists, both Royal Academicians [Henry Bone (1755-1834)]
Chalon
Publication details: 
8 November 1849.
£75.00
Chalon

See their separate entries in the Oxford DNB. On 12.5 x 9.5 cm piece of light-grey paper, cut from. The large signatures are written one on top of the other on one side of the paper, with the only other writing the date at the head: ‘Alfd. Edwd. Chalon / Jno. Jas Chalon’. On the reverse is the beginning of an application to the Artists’ General Benevolent Institution: ‘Gentlemen, Your Petitioner Elizth. Debh. Bone, only Daughter of the late Mr Bone R.A.

[Arts and Crafts architecture in the Potteries, 1908.] Blueprint of plans and elevations by the architect William Ford Slater for ‘3 HOUSES HIGH LANE BURSLEM / FOR MR: HARRY H. ROSE / 1/8th Scale’, for construction by John Henry Broadhurst and Son.

Author: 
[Arts and Crafts achitecture in the Potteries.] William Ford Slater (1866-1951), architect and surveyor; J. H. Broadhurst and Son [John Henry Broadhurst], builder of Burslem, Staffordshire.
Burslem
Publication details: 
J. H. Broadhurst & Son, Burlem, Staffordshire. 27 [June?] 1908. ‘John Henry Broadhurst / [June?] 27/08 / p pro J H Broadhurst & Son’.
£280.00
Burslem

In 1907 the ‘Builder’ describes ‘Mr. W. F. Slater, Overhouse-chambers, Burslem’ as a ‘Surveyor’, and in 1909 the ‘Electrical Review’ refers to him as an ‘architect’ at the same address. Five years later ‘Building News’ reports that Slater is ‘architect to the education committee’. In 1921 (‘The Surveyor’) he is the ‘surveyor, Urban Council Offices, Wolstanton, Staffs’, and in 1926 (‘Public Works Weekly Surveyor’) he is ‘architect to the corporation’.

[Duke of Newcastle (Henry, 2nd Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne).] Autograph Signature, with that of Henry Saxby, to extracted manuscript document with debenture entry.

Author: 
Duke of Newcastle [Henry Fiennes Pelham-Clinton, 9th Earl of Lincoln and 2nd Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne, KG, PC] (1720-1794); Henry Saxby
Publication details: 
Circa 11 October 1773. [London.]
£80.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. While shunning the limelight, Newcastle was an influential figure in British politics; it was through his lobbying that his cousin Sir Henry Clinton was appointed commander-in-chief of the British forces in America during the American Revolution. According to Timothy Mowl's 1996 biography of Horace Walpole, Newcastle was 'famed for an unusually large penis', which he deployed on both sexes. On one side of a 12 x 19 piece of laid paper, with large triangle cut at top right (not near signature).

[Henry James, novelist] Autograph Letter Signed Henry James to Miss Meredith, daughter of novelist, George Meredith whose health is the subject of the leter.

Author: 
Henry James, novelist
James
Publication details: 
[Embossed in red] 34 De Vere Gardens, W., September 25th [no year given; 1909?].
£1,050.00
James

Three pages, 12mo, in his sprawling hand (see Image of pp.2&3), fold mark, good condition, laid down on part of a Meredith family album page. Text: I am full of regret & sympathy - full of commiseration for your father's ailment (his 'loss' is another affair!) which I beg you to express to him for me most loyally. He does well to take care of it & I beseech him to be intensely obedient.

[Sir Malcolm Sargent, composer and conductor.] Large sprawling stylized Autograph Signature in blue pencil on front of printed programme for a Royal Albert Hall performance of Berlioz’s ‘Grande Messe des Morts’.

Author: 
Sir Malcolm Sargent [Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent] (1895-1967), composer, organist and conductor of choral works, especially at the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts (‘The Proms’)
Sargent
Publication details: 
Programme for performance at the Royal Albert Hall, London, 8 April 1954. ‘Published by The British Broadcasting Corporation, 35 Marylebone High Street, London, W.1.’
£56.00
Sargent

Stapled pamphlet. 20pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Sargent’s unusual bold stylized signature, in blue pencil, almost occupies a 5 cm square. All but the top centimeter which touches the printed date at points, is written on blank space on the cover. See image.

[Henry Beveridge, Scottish historian and translator.] Autograph Letter Signed to Joseph L. Williams, responding to suggested corrections, and mentioning Dr Walter Graham Blackie of his publishers Blackie & Son, Glasgow.

Author: 
Henry Beveridge (1799-1863), Scottish historian, author of ‘A Comprehensive History of India’ (1858-1863) and translator with the Calvin Translation Society, Edinburgh [Blackie and Son, Glasgow]
Publication details: 
‘8 Roxburgh Terrace Haverstock Hill [London] / 29 June 1858’.
£80.00

The recipient is clearly not the American politician Joseph Lanier Williams (1810-1865), but rather an editor of Beveridge’s history of India at Blackie’s. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, but with diagonal crease at bottom right going through Beveridge’s signature. Folded for postage. Addressed to ‘Joseph L. Williams Esqr’ and signed ‘Henry Beveridge’. He begins by undertaking to ‘attend to the matters’ mentioned in Williams’s note.

[H. W. Nevinson, campaigning journalist.] Circular Typed Letter, with facsimile signature, appealing for support for the National Council for Civil Liberties.

Author: 
H. W. Nevinson [Henry Woodd Nevinson] (1856-1941), campaigning journalist who reported on slavery in Africa, suffragist, war correspondent [National Council for Civil Liberties, London]
Publication details: 
23 November 1939. On letterhead of the National Council for Civil Liberties, London.
£120.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. A very good facsimile of a typed letter, with the main text in black, some in red and the facsimile signature 'Henry W. Nevinson' in light blue. Names of Nevinson as President, E. M. Forster as Past-President, and dozens of Vice-Presidents in left-hand margin, including Aldous Huxley, A. A. Milne, J. B. Priestley, H. G. Wells and Rebecca West. Addressed to 'Dear Sir', the letter sets out the history of the organization, appealing for 'support for its activities'.

[Herbert Thurston, SJ, Roman Catholic liturgical scholar and member of the Society for Psychical Research.] Autograph Letter Signed regarding Samuel Butler and the ‘Oxford theory’ of Shakespeare’s sonnets.

Author: 
Herbert Thurston [Herbert Henry Charles Thurston] (1856–1939), Jesuit priest, Roman Catholic liturgical scholar, andt member of the Society for Psychical Research [Samuel Butler; William Shakespeare]
Publication details: 
3 December 1930; on letterhead of 114 Mount Street, Grosvenor Square, London, W.
£56.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. The recipient is not identified. Addressed to ‘My dear Sir’ and signed ‘Herbert Thurston’. He begins by thanking him for ‘the nice things you say’, and continues: ‘I fear I have no defence as regards Samuel Butler. I knew that he had written on the Sonnets and that some people thought highly of his book but I have never seen it. The fact was that I was provoked into talking up the question by some friends who have recently become obsessed by the Oxford theory.

[Francis Durbridge, dramatist, creator of the BBC radio detective ‘Paul Temple’.] Part of Typed Letter, with Autograph Signature.

Author: 
Francis Durbridge [Francis Henry Durbridge] (1912-1998), English dramatist and author, creator of the BBC radio detective 'Paul Temple'
Publication details: 
No date or place.
£35.00

There were around thirty ‘Paul Temple’ radio serials between 1938 and 1968, along with four films, a dozen books, a television series and a newspaper cartoon strip. Despite obituaries in the major British newspapers Durbridge has not been granted an entry in the Oxford DNB. On 14 x 5.5 cm piece of light-blue laid paper, cut from a typed letter. In good condition, lightly aged. Good clear signature. Reads ‘Thank you for your nice poem - / Best wishes to Dave. / Francis Durbridge’.

[Sir Stafford Northcote, Conservative politician.] Two Autograph Letters Signed, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, giving instructions while away at Balmoral to his private secretary Sir John Arrow Kempe.]

Author: 
Sir Stafford Northcote [Stafford Henry Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh] (1818-1887), Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1874-1880 [his private secretary Sir John Arrow Kempe (1846-1928)]
Publication details: 
7 and 8 September 1876; from Balmoral [Scotland] on cancelled letterhead of 11 Downing Street, Whitehall [London].
£120.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The two items are in good condition, lightly aged and folded for postage. Both addressed to ‘Dear Kempe’. ONE (7 September 1876): 1p, 12mo. Signed ‘St N’. He asks Kempe to get him ‘Mr Gladstone’s pamphlet’, and would also ‘like to have Mr. Evans’ recent work about Bosnia and Herzegovina, published I think by Longman.’ He ends with news of his plans, and asks in a postscript: ‘What do you say to the Revenue returns?’ TWO (8 September 1876): 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Signed ‘Stafford H. Northcote’. He will be travelling from Balmoral ‘to Sir J.

[Bernard Levin, writer and broadcaster.] Two Typed Letters Signed and one Typed Note Signed to Philip Dosse, in one declining to review (for ?Books and Bookmen?), in another expressing agreement with Dosse?s position.

Author: 
Bernard Levin [Henry Bernard Levin] (1928-2004), writer and broadcaster [Philip Dosse (1925-1980), publisher ?Books and Bookmen?]
Publication details: 
6 February and 18 September 1974, and 21 April 1977. All three on letterhead of The Times, New Printing House Square, London WC1.
£56.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient Philip Dosse was proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of a stable of seven arts magazines including Books and Bookmen and Plays and Players. See ?Death of a Bookman? by the novelist Sally Emerson (editor of ?Books and Bookmen? at the time of Dosse?s suicide), in Standpoint magazine, October 2018. The three items are in good condition, lightly aged and worn, and folded for postage. All three signed loosely ?Bernard Levin?. ONE: TLS, 6 February 1974. 1p, foolscap 8vo.

[Henry Williamson, author of 'Tarka the Otter'.] Typed material prepared by his daughter-in-law Anne Williamson, intended to provide 'background information for an outline for biographical television treatment'.

Author: 
Henry Williamson (1895-1977), English novelist, naturalist and ruralist, author of ‘Tarka the Otter’, his daughter-in-law and biographer Anne Williamson, wife of his youngest son Richard Williamson
Publication details: 
Undated [1970s?]. From Anne Williamson's West Sussex address.
£650.00

Anne Williamson, author of two books on Henry Williamson and of his entry in the Oxford DNB, was married to his youngest son Richard (1935-2022). The present typewritten material (88pp, 8vo) consists of several drafts and duplicates of material intended for circulation to production companies she hoped to interest in a television documentary on Williamson. It is in good condition, with each page printed on a separate leaf of A4 cartridge paper.

[The man who saved William of Orange from capture: Brigadier General Henry Lumley.] Autograph Signature (‘H Lumley’) to Exchequer receipt for £25. With signature of witness John Letton.

Author: 
Brigadier General Henry Lumley (c.1658-1722), army officer and Member of Parliament, brother of Richard Lumley, first earl of Scarborough; John Letton
Lumley
Publication details: 
12 January 1716. [His Majesty's Exchequer, London.]
£120.00
Lumley

See his entries in the Oxford DNB and History of Parliament, the former of which notes his ‘high reputation for courage’ and his presence ‘at Neerwinden and Landen in 1693, covering the retreat on 19 July, and saving William III from capture by the enemy’. 1p, 8vo. On aged and worn paper, with chipping to edges and pitting along a horizontal central line, but with both signatures clear and unblemished. The customary printed document, completed in manuscript. Records in a secretarial hand, the receipt of £25 by ‘Hen: Lumley Esqr. attor to the Rt.

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