NINETEENTH-CENTURY

English politician (1762-1847). One page, 4to. Stained, and with several closed tears and one small hole at foot; traces of previous mount adhering to blank reverse. Formal letter in the third person. 'Lord Harrowby presents his Compliments to the Lord Mayor Elect and the Sheriffs and is sorry that his absence from London will prevent his having the honour of attending the dinner at Guildhall on Monday the 9th of November.'

Three pages, 12mo. Good, but with a couple of closed tears on crease and with the remains of a brown-paper mount adhering to the blank verso of the second leaf of the bifoliate. The letter (2 pages) reads 'The coming coach drove my husband [Sir Francis Palgrave, 1788-1861, civil servant and antiquary] into London before he had well finished his note [see below].

Second baronet (1838-1928), English Liberal statesman and historian. Two pages, 8vo. Very good, with three small mounts adhering to verso of blank second leaf of bifoliate. Reads 'I am much obliged for your letter, and the kind invitation of the Palmerston Club to their annual dinner on Saturday 15th June at the Clarendon Hotel, but I regret very much that I am already engaged for that day'. Signed 'G O Trevelyan'.

General (1815-96) and President of Bolivia between 1880 and 1884. Dimensions seven inches by three inches. Creased and with several closed tears, and with ink employed in printing cheque faded to purple and lilac. One edge perforated and with perforated numbers '17 x 6' (not affecting signature). Order to pay 'General Narciso Campera' five pounds and sixteen shillings. Drawer's signature illegible. Signed 'Narciso Campero' on reverse.

British artist (1840-1916). One page, 12mo. Folded twice. Very good, on somewhat discoloured paper with crease to one corner. Reads 'I return you the cards signed. I regret I cannot do a sketch as it has rained requests of a similar nature this Xmas & I am now obliged to refuse with many thanks for all your good wishes'. Signed 'James Linton'.

Dean of Canterbury (1831-1903). 'Dear Sir, | I am sorry that my course as Bampton Lecturer at Oxford prevents me from accepting your kind invitation. | Otherwise I wd. gladly give you a Lecture. I should be pleased to visit Sheffield & see Mr Ruskin's Museum. | I am, Dear Sir | Very faithfully yours | F W Farrar'. Farrar was Bampton Lecturer in 1886.

Author (died 1905) of the Icelandic travel guide 'By fell and fjord'. Two pages, 12mo. In good condition although grubby and with traces of mount adhering to verso and stub adhering along one edge. 'I am glad to say that I find the tickets in the row we are in - for the Reid Concerts on Friday, are not all gone - & excellent places - I enclose 2 - at 8/ each - 16/-. I expect it will be a lovely concert - I shall be glad to meet you thereX - | Yours truly | E J Oswald | X So dont send the money - as we shall be quite near each other'.

English playwright and poet (died 1912). One page, 12mo. In good condition on discoloured paper. 'I'll look up Brandon - but I wished that you had read it to him. - It ritualizes a play so much. Properly cast the price should be a "money matter." But it must be properly cast. Can we meet? Because I want to know how I might progress. [& diverse possibilities]' Signed 'Alfred C. Calmour'.

Second baronet (1838-1928), English Liberal statesman and historian. Two pages, 12mo. In good condition on foxed grey paper, and with traces of previous mounting adhering to verso of blank second leaf of bifoliate. 'I am sorry to say that, as I have written to Mr James Watson, I cannot get to Newcastle or the Tyneside till the 1st. October, when I am to preside at the Welsh Disestablishment meeting.' Signed 'G O Trevelyan'.

English engraver (1789-1843). Two pages, 12mo. Edges trimmed (with some loss to text), lightly creased and with some damage to head. Asks if the recipient has in his collection a print of Horace Walpole. 'If you have will you let me see it for , with price marked, will either return it or send the Money, Business preventing my <?> out <?> [...] Impressions of the Vandicke, should you have any grand Heads after that Master I should listen to see soon'. Signed 'W. F. Fry'. Docketed at head 'Mr Fry Engraver'.

Judge (1779-1854) and Lord Chief Justice of England. 'I must not defend one neglect by another; but I fear that other applications of the same kind as that from yourself respecting the St Ann's Schools remain also unanswered. My well known engagements will form some apology but I regret to add that I have found it absolutely necessary to decline acting as a steward at any public dinner'. Signed 'Denman'.

Son (1854-1936) of the publisher John Murray and partner in the firm. The husband (1828-1915) of the recipient was a connoisseur and print collector. Two pages, 12mo. Folded three times. In very good condition. He cannot accept the dinner engagement for the 13th June. 'I have unfortunately an engagement on that evening to dine with friends in this neighbourhood.'

Three pages, 12mo. In good condition, but with the name of the recipient scored through. Judge (born c. 1832), and son of Sir James Bacon (1798-1895), the last of the pre-1875 Vice-Chancellors. A late reply to a request for information for an article on snuffboxes for The Windsor Magazine. 'I have no snuffboxes I suppose somebody suggested our name but I have never been a collector and my father [the late Ex Vice Chancellor] who took snuff always used the commonest of boxes.' The name of the recipient has been scored through.

Liberal statesman (1831-1928). One page, 12mo. Grubby and discoloured, and with some staining to blank reverse from previous mounting. Reads 'Dear Sir | I have been reading the evidence given before the Committee of the House of Commons on the Undersized Fish Bill: It may perhaps interest you to read an article which I have written as the result in the Fortnightly Review for this month (June).' Signed 'G Shaw Lefevre'.

Politician and essayist (1780-1857). The recipient (1788-1864) was an antiquary and member of the Roxburghe Club. Four pages, 12mo. In very good condition, although rather grubby and with traces of stub adhering to one edge. He finds 'a letter of Pope to Beau Nash transmitting him an inscription [^ (not copied)] for, as I guess, a statue or bust of Fredk. Prince of Wales.

Irish aristocrat (1787-1856). One page, 12mo. In good condition, but with slight staining at head and traces of grey-paper mount on reverse. 'Lord Carew has this day received Mr Collins letter - | Mr. Holmes shall have every facility of engraving from Lord & Lady Carews Portraits, on his calling here.'

Lord Chancellor of England (1825-1921), author of the monumental 'Laws of England'. One page, 4to. In good condition though somewhat grubby. Folded twice, and with embossed House of Lords stamp and armorial stamp in red ink in top left-hand corner. Opening ('My dear Judge') and salutation ('faithfully yours | Halsbury') by Halsbury, the rest in secretarial hand. Reads 'I have to thank you for your letter of the 11th., and for the arrangements which have been made, at Mr. Justice Stirling's request, and of which I entirely approve'.

Journalist, economist and politician (1800-90), M.P. for Leeds. Two pages, 12mo. In poor condition: grubby, folded three times and with two spike holes at foot. 'I am not aware that I have any power to obtain a Midshipman's Commission for any one: but if I had, I should not think it right to use it except in the application of the parents or guardians of the young man wishing for it. I must therefore request you to make your wishes known to your parents; & if they desire it I might forward to the Board of Admiralty a written application from them.

Architect and engraver (1839-1922). One page, 12mo. With mourning border. In good condition, but with evidence of previous mounting on brown paper on reverse. Addressed to 'Dear Doctor'. He thanks him for his 'kind care of us' ('your crippled patient gave you much trouble') and asks him to accept a copy of his 'Belgium' ('Etchings in Belgium. With descriptive letterpress', 1878), which he is sending through the '' and 'will probably arrive someday'. Signed 'Ernest George'. Docketed in ink on reverse.

Speaker of the House of Commons (1829-1912). Two pages, 12mo. On mourning paper. Folded once. In very good condition. Thanks his correspondent for the letter of condolence on the 'heavy calamity' of the loss of his daughter Eleanor. 'You knew dear Ella so well - that you can imagine how much her high spirits & her genuine and unselfish nature are missed here - and how irreparable is the loss to me and to her mother & sisters.' Signed 'Peel'. He is been touched by 'the sympathy of friends (which is abundantly given)'.

Victorian writer (1799-1888), stepdaughter of the jurist Basil Montagu (1770-1851), wife of the poet Bryan Waller Procter (1787-1874), and mother of the poet Adelaide Ann Procter (1825-64). One page, 12mo. Folded once. Discoloured and heavily foxed, but in good condition otherwise. 'I really do not know how to thank you for your lovely present - | I hoped to have seen you yesterday and been able to say farewell - as I go tomorrow to the Thomson Hankeys until the 2d. Jany. | I have also to thank you, for the pleasant dinner, as well as your having presented me to Mr Buckston -.

Divine and author (1806-82). One page, 12mo. In poor condition: creased and ruckled, and with some damage from removal from mount. Paper border attached to reverse. 'We can have you for a few days on Thursday next (the 25th.) & shall have pleasure in receiving you. I will forward the parcel to Mr. Hardman tonight.' Signed 'F: E: Paget'.

Scottish advocate and statesman (1742-1811). One page, quarto. Bifoliate on good laid paper watermarked 1798. Grubby and somewhat ruckled, and with small printed notice neatly pasted in bottom right-hand corner. 'My Dear Sir | I have your letter, and should be glad to see you before you see Lord Liverpool or any other Person. Will you dine with me tomorrow. | Yours sincerely | Henry Dundas'.

Son of the English polititian, Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt Jones (1765-1811). One page, quarto. On mourning paper. Folded three times. Several closed tears and small creases, and with one stub hole at centre (not affecting text). 'Sir. | You will most particularly oblige me by sending me a Box for either Theatre this Evening as my Brother in Law Mr. Tollemache & myself are most anxious to be there. We shd. prefer Covent Garden.

English contralto singer (1821-85). Signature on piece of paper of irregular shape (practically oval): roughly nine centimeters by four centimeters at the widest points. In poor condition: on paper discoloured by age and glue from previous mounting, and with hole and closed tear slightly affecting signature. Reads 'Your's very truly | Charlotte H Dolby', so presumably predating the singer's marriage in 1860.

Melvill was a noted English botanist (1845-1929). 8vo bifoliate. Four unpaginated pages. In very good condition, with some discolouration from age and remains of stub from previous mounting adhering to verso of second leaf. Decorative vignettes on all four sides. Engraving of Museum on recto of first leaf. 'PROGRAMME' (reception; tea and coffee; address by Sir William Turner Thiselton Dyer; inspection) on verso of first leaf. Description of 'AN EXHIBITION | of | A SERIES OF SPECIMENS | from the Herbarium' on both sides of second leaf.

Diplomat (1755-1846) and bibliophile, one of the British Museum's greatest benefactors. Grenville's book collection, formerly in the Museum at Bloomsbury, is now kept with George III's books in a glass tower in the new British Library at Euston. Both items in very good condition, glued to the remains of a brown-paper mount. In a somewhat shaky version of Grenville's distinctive neat hand, so perhaps late productions. The note reads 'My Dear Sir | I am very sorry that, hearing of Lady Cawdor's illness I had promised Mr Gaskell to dine with him if I did not dine with Lady C.

One page, 12mo. Very good. Neatly mounted on piece of orange paper. In Dilke's difficult hand. Concerns a 'Report': 'The only specific fact is that the misprints <?> cost to each of one shilling. [...] The enormous cost of about £12 per draft is to the Fund. How much the <?> cost to the <?> is not stated - <?> as 'almost too small to be noticed' - which is <?>. Why do they not publish the <?> expenditure. Then we should know what is the amount of an 'almost too small'. If you ever get an Acct with that fact set forth I should be glad to look at it.' Signed 'C W Dilke'.

Irish-born author (1800-81; nee Fielding), wife of Samuel Carter Hall. On slip of paper roughly 14 centimeters by 2 centimeters. In good condition, although paper discoloured and with traces of glue from previous mounting on reverse. Apparently the foot of a page of printed accounts, with 'Brewster & West, Printers, Hand Court, Dowgate.' in bottom left-hand corner. 'To be returned to Mrs. S C Hall on or before the 1st. of June' written over the printed part, but the signature 'Anna Maria Hall' written across clear paper.

Conservative politician (1798-1890). Both stained by glue from mounting, and with traces of mount adhering to reverse. The first, on paper roughly two inches by half an inch, reads 'Thos. F. Fremantle'. The second, on paper roughly four and a half inches by one inch and a quarter, reads ' | Sir, | Your obedient Servant. | Tho F Fremantle | J. J. Kaune Esq.'