HISTORY

1p, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, aged and creased, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to reverse of second leaf, which is addressed, with seal in red wax and postmarks, 'To | Mr Bartley | 8. Shacklewell End | Nr. Kingsland Turnpike'. The note reads: 'Sir W Adams presents his Compts to Mr Bartley & informs him that his fee for operating upon his Eyes & attendance is sixty Guineas. -' From the distinguished autograph collection of the psychiatrist Richard Alfred Hunter (1923-1981), whose collection of 7000 works relating to psychiatry is now in Cambridge University Library.

Nine letters (eight ALsS and one TLS) totalling 16pp, 12mo, in close and neat autograph; and 2pp, 4to, typed. One from 1932 and the other eight from 1933. All signed 'Arthur Bryant'. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper, with slight rust-staining from paperclips to a couple of the letters. An interesting correspondence, in which Bryant gives an assessment of Pepys, and describes his approach to writing his biography. In one long letter (5 May 1933) Bryant describes his wider approach to the writing of history.

3pp, 4to. Bifolium. Signature ('Edward') in the prince's hand, the rest of the letter by a secretary. In good condition, lightly aged, with slight damage to one corner of first leaf, and thin strip of paper from mount adhering to reverse of second leaf, which is franked 'Kent & Strathearn', with postmark, and addressed to 'Francis Freeling Esquire | &c &c &c | Genl. Post Office | Lombard Street | London'. Folded four times.

[viii].55, 8vo, disbound, with vestiges of binding at spine, from volume of similar pamphlets "Pro Gradu Doctoris" at the Medical School of the University of Edinburgh. With errata slip. INSCRIBED by the Author, "For | Charles Hastings Esq. with best regards of his Sincere Friend the | Author. - | 9 Great King Street | July 30th 1818." Hastings, a contemporary of Gordon's at the Medical School, was later to have a distinguished medical career and to help found the British Medical Association.

2pp, foolscap 8vo. On the rectos of the leaves of a bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. On laid paper with indistinct watermark. The context of the document, with the capitalisation and spelling ('mechanick', 'shou'd', 'Publick', 'tyed down', 'lookt', 'Profitt'), points to a late eighteenth-century origin (certainly before the Speenhamland System and Michael Nolan's 1805 'Treatise of the Laws for the Relief and Settlement of the Poor'). No title or heading. A forthright document, whose rhetorical tone suggests that it was intended for public delivery.

ONE: TLS. Ithaca, NY; 20 September 1976. 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. The letter begins: 'Dear Christopher Fry, | I so relish climbing the castellations of your wit, to where I feel energized and deliriously long-sighted, or running higgledy-piggledy with your thoughts, at times as if with the bulls of Pamplona, I simply cannot resist telling you so any longer.' According to her 'internal calculations' she owes him 'at least a galaxy for the delight your plays have given me; perhaps you'd accept these few planets instead'.

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with a two fold lines. Ornamented engraved letterhead. Reads: 'Dr Lindley presents his Compts to Major Abby & begs to inform him that there are no such birds as he enquires for in the Garden of the Horticultural Society, nor has there ever been. There is only a couple of gulls & a duck, which were presented by the Zoological Society'.

2pp, 4to. On leaf tipped-in onto a piece of light-green card from an album, at head of which is attached a printed slip: 'BARENTIN C. L. F. de P. | Born 1738. Died 1819. | KEEPER OF THE SEALS TO LOUIS XVI.' The letter is undated, but the year '1789' has been added in pencil in a nineteenth-century hand. (That same year, following the Storming of the Bastille, Barentin was dismissed by the king.) Nineteen lines of closely-written text. Addressed at bottom left of first leaf to 'M le P Gl' (Monsieur le Procureur général?).

On 1.75 x 6.25 cm slip of paper, laid down on part of leaf removed from album. In fair condition, lightly aged. Simply reads 'D Brewster'.

3pp, foolscap 8vo. On laid paper with watermark: 'GOLDING | & | SNELGROVE | 1811'. Aged and worn, with closed tears along folds, but with text complete and clear. The document includes two passages written in red ink which has faded but is still legible. The background to the present letter is given in Lambert's entry in the Oxford DNB: 'On 4 June 1813 Lambert was promoted major-general, and was appointed to a brigade of the 6th division. […] Having been sent to America, he joined the army under Sir Edward Pakenham below New Orleans on 6 January 1815, with the 7th and 43rd foot regiments.

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, the blank reverse of the second leaf laid down on a leaf removed from an album. Written in a hurried hand, with the meaning unclear in parts. The letter would appear to discuss the republican and Carlist insurrections against Amadeo I, the only King of Spain from the House of Savoy, who replaced the deposed Isabella II in 1870, and reigned until 1873. Froude begins by explaining that his silence has been due to the fact that he has been 'out of town for the Summer'.

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, with one central vertical fold, and patch of small holes at head of second leaf. Interesting letterhead, with image of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Someone (probably Mrs Kipling) has written 'orchid' on the first page. The letter begins: 'Mr dear Mrs. Kipling, | I sent you a few flowers today by post, also (by rail to Etchingham) a Cypripedium Insigne, a Blush Rambler & a Lady Gay rose. The Cyp: Insig: is very fairly hardy but I should not stand it in too violent a draught.

On one side of a piece of laid paper, top half torn off and missing, leaving the conclusion of the letter. Roughly 11 x 17.5 cm. Thirteen full lines of text, with two partial lines along the tear at the top edge. A frail item, in fair condition, aged and worn. See Gifford's entry in the History of Parliament. The letter, apparently addressed to an individual at the Admiralty or the Treasury, concerns a part of the tortuous process of raising finances for the conversion of the Queen's House into the hospital.

4pp., 4to. Bifolium with mourning border. In fair condition, lightly aged, with short closed tears at edges of some folds. An excellent letter, indignantly countering what must be the most serious accusation one historian can level against another, that of making 'false quotations'. The recipient is not named, but from the context is undoubtedly the Headmaster of Rugby School, Thomas Arnold, who since the previous year had held the Regius Professorship of History at Oxford, and would die four months later, on 12 June 1842.

2.5 x 11.5 cm slip of paper, laid down on part of leaf from album, with d'Albret's autograph dating ('i67i') on 1.5 x 6 cm slip laid down below it. In good condition, lightly aged. The valediction of a letter, written in an undisciplined hand.

Dempsey's obituary in The Times, explains how 'In April, 1945, he was appointed Brigadier I/C Administration, East Africa Command', holding the position into the following year, and retiring in December 1947 on account of ill health. For a full account of Dempsey's military career, see his entry in Catholic Who's Who, vol.35 (1952). In an eight-line Autograph Note Signed at the end of Anderson's letter, Dempsey states that Anderson 'had been my personal & immediate superior as G.O.C. in C., East Africa Command, when I was his Brigadier I/C Administration.

An attractive item, neatly written out in black ink on one side of a 13 x 8.5 cm piece of shiny card, with printed decorative border of flowers in gold and blue. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, with traces of mount adhering to reverse. As a joke, at the foot, in block capitals, the menu is attributed to 'Sala & Co | Refreshment Contractors', at Sala's address. An interesting artefact of the Victorian Christmas. The menu reads:'[fleuron] Menu. | CHRISTMAS DAY | 1881 | oysters on the half shell.

9pp., 8vo. On nine stapled leaves. At end: 'With the compliments of | Westland Aircraft Limited, | Yeovil, Somerset. | Tel: Yeovil (0935) 5222 | November 1971'. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. The start of the document gives an indication of the businesslike style of the narrative: 'In 1915 the Directors of Petters Limited, the long-established Somerset heavy oil-engine manufacturers, offered their services to help the war effort. | As a result, the Company was asked to make aircraft and given instructions to proceed with the construction of 12 Short 184 seaplanes.

9pp., 8vo. On nine stapled leaves. At end: 'With the compliments of | Westland Aircraft Limited, | Yeovil, Somerset. | Tel: Yeovil (0935) 5222 | November 1971'. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. The start of the document gives an indication of the businesslike style of the narrative: 'In 1915 the Directors of Petters Limited, the long-established Somerset heavy oil-engine manufacturers, offered their services to help the war effort. | As a result, the Company was asked to make aircraft and given instructions to proceed with the construction of 12 Short 184 seaplanes.

2pp., foolscap 8vo. On watermarked laid paper, and plainly intended as an index to a volume of bound tracts. Aged and worn, with chipped edges, and a small part of the bottom outer corner of the leaf torn away, resulting in the loss of two numbers from the pagination. The document is headed 'The Contents of the 2. Volume', and is closely written in a clerk's hand. Both pages divided into two columns.

The two volumes constitute the first and last volumes (the middle volume is missing) of a three-volume work described by its author as 'a more or less humorous account of a ramble round the Kentish Coast by two men'. This unpublished work constitutes a topographical and social narrative, written by the well-known artist and illustrator when in his eighties. Stylistically indebted to Jerome K.

179pp., foolscap 8vo, and contains 332 general orders by 'W. H. Poyntz | Major and Chief Constable'. The volume is entirely in manuscript, but is not in Poyntz's handwriting. It comprises 168 paginated pages, followed by an eleven-page index giving a one-line summary of the 'Purport' of each order. The volume is a ruled notebook, in original quarter binding of black cloth spine and marbled boards, with the words 'GENERAL ORDERS' printed on a label on the cover, with 'Rochford' written in manuscript beneath.

A marvellous slice of Victorian social history. The entry for 'Matrimonial News' in 'Frederick May's London Press Dictionary and Advertiser's Handbook, 1871' runs as follows: 'MATRIMONIAL NEWS AND SPECIAL ADVERTISER – 2d. F. Farrah, 282, Strand, W.C.

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. The recipient is not named. Grindon's handwriting is difficult and the reading is in parts tentative. The letter begins with a references to 'The Secretary of our “Manchester Field-Naturalists' Society', who appears to have placed a communication from the recipient in Grindon's hands. Grindon agrees to bring the matter 'very distinctly before our members', but explains that there are difficulties. 'Our members reside, almost wholly, in the town, or, if a few miles away, they come into town by train by 9 a.m. Or so, & remain till eve.

On both sides of a 13 x 20 cm piece of paper cut from an official letter. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. The recto reads: '[…] Having received the enclosed Papers since I wrote to you on the 27th inst transmitting the Proceedings of a General Court Martial on the Trial of Lieutt Irwine of the 55th Regt. I think it right to transmit them to you as they are documents relating to […]'. Reverse reads: 'I have the honour to be Sir | Your most obedient humble | Servant | Edw: Morrison Lt: Govr | Commr of the Forces at Jamaica <?>'.

Bentley is without a doubt the author of this anonymous work, and the present copy comes from the Bentley Archives. viii + 67 + [1]pp., 8vo. In attractive paper-vellum quarter-binding, with red cloth boards on the cover of which the title is stamped in gilt. In good condition, lightly aged. Attractively printed, with title-page in black and red. Divided into six parts: 'Events in the Reign of Edward III', 'English Governors of Brittany'; 'Introductory: The Attack on Vannes', 'The Battle of Saintes', 'The Battle of Mauron' and 'After Mauron'.

2pp., landscape 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. The recipient is not named or addressed, the letter starting abruptly after the date: 'I like your portrait much. Thanks for sending it. Yes, the people are [last word underlined] fools, and the mills of God grind slowly. Nevertheless the work is not lost, and its outcome is sure. It is no good bothering about special results. They must take their own way (generally to the Crematorium!) but all the while something is being built up, wh.

HMS Shropshire was a Royal Navy 'London' County-class heavy cruiser, launched in 1928 and decommissioned in 1942. In July 1936, as part of the Mediterranean Fleet 1st Cruiser Squadron, she sailed to Barcelona, relieving HMS London, the first ship to arrive to take off refugees from the Spanish Civil War. The present item (possibly written by Admiral Binney) is excessively scarce: the only other copy traced is in the Hampshire Archives. [3] + 19pp., foolscap 8vo. The original document from the 1930s, spirit-duplicated in aniline ink, with pages on one side only of 22 leaves.

Williams Deacon's Bank Ltd, which was founded in Manchester in 1836 and subsequently headquartered in London, had a large network of branches in the north-west of England. It was acquired by the Royal Bank of Scotland in 1930. In 1970 it was merged with Glyn, Mills & Co and The National Bank to form Williams & Glyn's Bank. Carpenter was a director of the bank for 21 years, serving as chairman for 12 years.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Addressed to Allchin at 5 Chandos Street, W. He asks him whether it would be 'convenient to you to come across today to see my Son who has a swelled face, & whose mother thinks he is not in a condition to go outside the house'.