Poem

[Alfred Austin, Poet Laureate] Holograph Verses from Fortunatus the Pessimist sent to George Meredith's daughter., signed Alfred Austin.

Author: 
Alfred Austin, Poet Laureate (1896ff)
Publication details: 
Dated by him 12 Oct 1891 (prior to publication of the drama in 1892)
£280.00

One page, 35 x 24cms, extracted from a Family Album (see Note below) assembled almost certainly by George Meredith's daughter, Marie. The text, written directly onto the Album page (see Image) is an extract from Fortunatus the Pessimist, in the drama read by Urania to April (pp.85-6 in the Second Edition if not the First - latter not available on Google), 3 four-line verses: A summons to my slumbering spirit came [...] Past me there swept the coronated Night. One small variation from the published text (second verse, l.3 Choiring for Quiring). See Image.

[Alfred Austin, Poet Laureate] Holograph Verses from Fortunatus the Pessimist sent to George Meredith's daughter., signed Alfred Austin.

Author: 
Alfred Austin, Poet Laureate (1896ff)
Publication details: 
Dated by him 12 Oct 1891 (prior to publication of the drama in 1892}
£280.00

One page, 35 x 24cms, extracted from a Family Album (see Note below) assembled almost certainly by George Meredith's daughter, Marie. The text, written directly onto the Album page (see Image) is an extract from Fortunatus the Pessimist, in the drama read by Urania to April (pp.85-6 in the Second Edition if not the First - latter not available on Google), 3 four-line verses: A summons to my slumbering spirit came [...] Past me there swept the coronated Night. One small variation from the published text (second verse, l.3 Choiring for Quiring). See Image.

[Royal Military College, Sandburst.] Printed handbill poem titled ‘The Staff College Drag Hunt Song. / By Major M. Churchill, 2/Northampton Regiment, / Master, S.C.D.H., 1885-86’.

Author: 
Major M. Churchill, 2nd Northampton Regiment, Master of the Staff College Drag Hunt, established 1869 [Royal Military College, Sandhurst; fox hunting; field sports]
Drag
Publication details: 
No date or place. [Royal Military College, Sandhurst; late 1880s.]
£180.00
Drag

The present item is excessively scarce: there is no record of it on either OCLC WorldCat or JISC. The Staff College Drag Hunt at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, was established in 1869 as a private pack which drag-hunted twice a week in the area surrounding Camberley, and after more than a hundred and fifty years, the hunt still rides. 1p, 12mo. Text enclosed in rules with decorative corners. In fair condition, lightly worn and spotted, with traces of stub and mounting on blank reverse. Titled: ‘The Staff College Drag Hunt Song. / By Major M.

[Domhnall MacEacharn; Gaelic Poet] Autograph Lines in Gaelic signed 'Domhnall MacEacharn'.

Author: 
Domhnall MacEacharn [Donald MacKechnie]
Gaelic
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£56.00
Gaelic

Paper, 11 x 7cm, probably from an album (another signature on reverse (Florence Steel)), laid down on larger piece of paper, on the dingy side but text clear and apparently complete. Docketed Donald MacKechnie | Gaelic Poet.

[ Julius Beerbohm, traveller and poet, half-brother of Max Beerbohm ] Manuscript Poem Signed J Beerbohm (calligraphically). See image.

Author: 
Julius Beerbohm [ Julius Beerbohm (1854 – 1906), Victorian travel-writer, engineer, explorer and poet.]
beerbohm
Publication details: 
No place, but dated by him 9 Sept. 90.
£220.00
beerbohm

32 line poem, cr.8vo, in a frame of an album page (detached), 4to, one ragged edge, celebrating summer, commencing: Is it not well, when the long day is over, | That brimmed with fulness of the summer time-| - Joy of wild bees that roam the the scented clover; [....] See image for full text. Verso: Sentiment by obscure German.

[Poem on 'Captain Gardiner's Patagonian Mission'.] Printed brochure with poem titled 'The Last Hour: A Scene in Patagonia.'

Author: 
'[delta]', pseudonym [Allen Francis Gardiner (1794-1851), Royal Navy officer and missionary to Patagonia; the Christian Times, London]
Publication details: 
'(From the Christian Times.)' [London] Dated 10 May 1852.
£120.00

For the context see Gardiner's entry in the Oxford DNB. Gardiner's disastrous last mission to Patagonia ended with his death on 6 September 1851, as the last of the seven missionaries to starve to death on Picton Island. No other copy of the present item has been traced, either on OCLC WorldCat or on COPAC. 4pp, 16mo. Bifolium. Well printed. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, and folded several times.

[A late-Victorian mock-heroic poem set in Staines, Middlesex.] Printed pamphlet: 'The Battle of Black Boy Lane. A Panegyrical, Satirical, Serio-Comical, Dramatical Poem. By John Hall'.

Author: 
John Hall, author of a mock-heroic poem set in Staines, Middlesex [C. Oswald, Staines printer]
Publication details: 
No date [late Victorian]. 'Oswald, Typ., Staines.'
£120.00

This unusual item is scarce: no copy has been located on OCLC WorldCat, and no reference to the poem has been discovered. Not dated, but the printer was active at the end of the nineteenth century: two other items at least were printed by 'C. Oswald' in Staines, one in 1887 and the other in 1898. Its subject is now obscure, but perhaps may be illuminated by the local historian. 8pp, 12mo. Stapled. Aged, worn and creased, with closed tear at foot of fold to outer bifolium.

[Joseph Jekyll, lawyer, politician and wit.] Autograph jeu d'esprit, signed 'J Jekyll.', addressed to 'Mr Erskine' [i.e. Thomas Erskine, future Lord Chancellor], short poem regarding 'Mrs. Crewe' and Jekyll sitting 'on Lunacy'.

Author: 
Joseph Jekyll (1754-1837), Scottish lawyer, politician and wit [Lord Erskine [Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine] (1750-1823), Lord Chancellor]
Publication details: 
No place. Dated 30 June 1800.
£220.00

1p, 8vo. On bifolium addressed on verso of second leaf to 'Mr. Erskine'. In good condition, lightly aged. Autograph jeu d'esprit, signed at foot 'J. Jekyll. | June 30th. 1800'. A short poem reading: 'Tell Mrs. Crewe | I envy You. | But sit on Lu- | nacy. || Yet Mrs. Crewe | will think I'm stu | pid in my lu | -cid Intervals.' Jekyll's entry in the Oxford DNB concludes, perhaps unkindly: 'If he is remembered by later generations, it is chiefly as a wit. It has to be said, however, that his wit, which consisted in large measure of excruciating puns, has not lasted well.'

[ Pamphlet; Cambridge; Trinity College ] The Lay of the Last Commemoration Dinner By A Disappointed Guest

Author: 
"A Disappointed Guest"
Publication details: 
Cambridge: W.P. Spalding, 43 Sidney Street, 1880
£100.00

8pp., 8vo, grey printed paper wraps, aged, wraps partly detached, corners bumped, mainly good.It commences: "The Seniors of Trinity / By Newton's bones they swore [ ... ]" Copies in copyright libraries re. COPAC/WorldCat.

[ Thomas Faed, RA, Scottish artist. ] Printed handbill poem in Scottish dialect by 'Tom Faed', titled '"The Shadow"', and beginning 'Oh wae is me! - I sit alane'.

Author: 
Thomas Faed (1826-1900), RA, Scottish artist
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£120.00

1p., 12mo. Nicely printed on one side of a piece of laid watermarked paper. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, with slight loss to one corner caused by removal from an album. Sixteen-line poem in four four-line stanzas. Signed in type at foot 'TOM FAED.' The poem is a lament by the betrothed of a sailor drowned in the Firth of Forth. The first stanza reads: 'Oh wae is me!

[Pamphlet; Queen Victoria] The Best and Greatest Quenn. [...] A Trilogy.

Author: 
H.H.
Publication details: 
Atkinson & Sons, printers, Pontefract, 1901
£80.00

Pamphlet, [22]pp., inc. printed wraps, closed tear, back wrap, otherwise good condition. Verse celebrating the Life and Death of Queen Victoria. No copy found on COPAC or WoerldCat.

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[Methuen] Autograph Letter Signed to Robert Lynd, author.

Author: 
Sir Algernon Methuen [né Stedman] (1856-1924), publisher.
Publication details: 
1922.
£95.00

ALS, on letterhead of New Place, Haslemere, Surrey; 3 April 1922, 2pp., 12mo, good condition. Regarding his Anthology of Modern Verse (1922), to which RL wrote the introduction. 'I can see at once that some of your suggestions I shall accept but some I jib at for various reasons [...] 2) Bridges The Idle Flowers seems too like a Catalogue. Sassoon suggests Recollections [...] 4) Hardy wants Farewell. - & some other impossibles. [...] 6) Meynell She does not want She walks (N.B. authors are asses.) [...] 9) Yeats Innisfree??? omit'.

[Thomas Haynes Bayly, English poet.] Holograph Poem (signed 'Thomas Haynes Bayly') titled 'A ditty!', with note explaining that it has been 'written in the shortest minute of the longest day'.

Author: 
Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797-1839), English poet and dramatist [Isaac Watts]
Publication details: 
Place not stated. 22 June 1835.
£150.00

2pp., 4to. In fair condition, on aged paper. An unpublished jeux d'esprit on the well-known poem by Isaac Watts (also parodied by Lewis Carroll), the poem consists of twenty-four lines arranged in six four-line stanzas, followed by: 'written in the shortest minute of the longest day by | Thomas Haynes Bayly | June 22nd. 1835.' The first two stanzas read: 'As "doth the little busy Bee | "Improve each shining hour, | "And gather honey all the day | "From every opening flower." | So doth the busy T. H. B.

[Printed pamphlet.] Twelve Sonnets composed during a period of blindness by Thomas Bruce Dilks.

Author: 
Thomas Bruce Dilks (1866-1949), poet and local historian [East Gate Press, Bridgwater, Somerset]
Publication details: 
East Gate Press, Bridgwater. 1938.
£35.00

14pp., 12mo. Stitched into grey paper wraps, with white label printed in black and red on front cover. In fair condition, lightly worn and aged. The titles are: 'The Sea Bird at Dawn | January, 1937', 'Wonder', 'On my Father's Collection of Seaweeds', 'The Water Gate, Bridgwater Castle', '"Barchester"', '"We trusted that it had been he." (dated 'Good Friday, 1938'), 'The Third Day | Narrative of Cleopas' (dated 'Easter, 1938'), 'The Victorians', 'Robert Blake', 'Keats', 'John Richard Green' and 'To my Nurse | June, 1938'.

[Booklet; Ist World War] Triolets from the Trenches

Author: 
Lt. C.G.L. du Cann
Publication details: 
London: Erskine Macdonald Limited, MCMXVII [1917]
£120.00

[40]pp., 16mo [c.12cm], paper boards, good+ condition, bookplate of Thomas Hutchinson of Morpeth inside front cover. Scarce. {Du Cann later wrote "The Loves of George Bernard Shaw" and other works.]

[Book; Ist World War Poetry] Cot 5

Author: 
[Edward Knoblock; Knoblauch]
Publication details: 
Methuen, London, 1917
£220.00

[viii].35 pp., 12mo, 17cm, decorated paper wraps, hinge strain, edges sl. worn, topt and bottom of spine damaged, ow good. Inscribed "From Tim | to | Tilda with love. | January 1918". COPAC and WorldCat only record the second edition ("Cot 5 and Rose Vacquette of La Boisselle", but Harvard have a copy of this first edition, naming Knoblock as the author. [Harvard have the Knoblock archive.]

[E. Cecil Mornington Roberts.] Holograph Poem (signed 'Cecil Roberts'), a sonnet titled 'Liberty Challenged' ('Not without cause just and unshakeable').

Author: 
E. Cecil Mornington Roberts [Cecil Edric Mornington Roberts] (1892-1976), writer and editor
Publication details: 
On his 'E. CECIL MORNINGTON ROBERTS' letterhead, 'c/o Clarke & Co. | 13 & 14 Fleet St. EC.'
£100.00

1p., 4to. In fair condition, on aged, creased and worn paper. The poem features under the title 'Liberty Imperilled' in Roberts's collection 'Charing Cross and Other Poems of the Period' (1919), and the context suggests that the poem was composed at the commencement of the First World War. The sonnet begins: 'Not without cause just and unshakeable | Will we surrender up the cherished prize | Of individual liberty, so well | and nobly held'.

Unpublished Holograph First World War Poem (signed 'H W Aubrey') by English army officer Captain Henry Wentworth Windsor Aubrey [H. W. Aubrey], titled 'To our offspring - America' ('You're blood of our blood, & bone of our bone').

Author: 
Captain Henry Wentworth Windsor Aubrey [H. W. Aubrey] (c.1859-1934), M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P.
Publication details: 
No place. Dated 24 July 1918.
£120.00

Henry Wentworth Windsor Aubrey was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the Dorset Regiment Militia on 21 April 1875, and resigned his commission three years later. He qualified as a Doctor in 1885 and practiced in Clifton, where he was a keen cricketer and golfer. During the First World War he served in the RAMC, reaching the rank of Temporary Captain (Home) on 1 December 1917. 2pp., 8vo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper, with a couple of minor water stains to one corner.

[Book; poem] To Prosperous Hellas. A Forecast.

Author: 
A.H. Crosfield
Publication details: 
Athens, 'Pyrsos' S.A., 1933
£220.00

28pp., 8vo, unopened, paper wraps with damaged cellophane cover (some loss), damage to top of spine,mainly good condition. Dedicated to Philip Ivanoff and the the Shareholders of Thracian Mineral Products Ltd: "One day an alchemist walked o'er the land [...]" No other copy recorded.

Printed broadside ballad titled 'Old Coal's Joke.' [A satire on King George IV's marriage to Queen Caroline, parodying the nursery rhyme of 'Old King Cole'.]

Author: 
[King George IV of the United Kingdom (1762-1830) [previously Prince Regent] and his wife Queen Caroline [Caroline of Brunswick] (1768-1821); Hodgson & Co., printers; broadside ballad]
Publication details: 
Without place or date. [London: Hodgson & Co., 1821?]
£150.00

On one side of a strip of wove paper, 46.5 x 9.5 cm. Cut down. In fair condition, on aged and lightly ruckled paper. 96 lines arranged in 12 numbered eight-line stanzas.

Holograph Poem (signed 'Henry van Dyke') by the American author and educator Henry Jackson van Dyke, a sonnet titled 'Richard Watson Gilder'.

Author: 
Henry van Dyke [Henry Jackson van Dyke] (1852-1933), American author, educator and clergyman [Richard Watson Gilder (1844-1909) of New York City, poet and editor of 'The Century Magazine']
Publication details: 
Without place or date [written on Gilder's death in 1909].
£280.00

1p., 4to. A fair copy, on a piece of aged high-acidity paper, with chipping and loss to edges (not affecting text). Signed at foot. The poem begins: 'Heart of a hero in a poet's frame, / Soul of a soldier in a body frail, - / Thine was the courage clear that did not quail / Before the giant champions of shame'. Gilder is praised as a 'poet, patriot, friend', the poem concluding: 'Thou leavest two great gifts that will not die, - / Amid the city's noise, thy lyric cry!

[Handbill] Untitled Verse about a meeting of Welshmen in London c.1879.

Author: 
[Welsh interest] J.G. [J. Gravell]
Publication details: 
No place of publication given, or date [pencilled 1879]
£150.00

One page, 8vo, total 40 lines, heavily stained (from being laid down in album, text clear and complete). A weaving together of Welsh names and place names (in bold) in simple verse, commencing, My song is of a meeting which took place with friendly greeting | In an ancient hall in London not many weeks ago, | When from the principality of Wales, all in equality, | Assembled jovial Welshmen a score and half or so. | There was William Jones from Bala, John Price from Cwrt yr Ala, | John Thomas from the Ogmore, and James from Llanuwchllyn ...

Keywords:

[Broadside] Lines printed in the Streets of Bristol, during the Procession in Honour of the Coronation of His Majesty King George IV. July 19, 1821,

Author: 
William Henry Somerton of Queen-Street, St Michaels
Lines printed in the Streets of Bristo
Publication details: 
'Entered at Stationers' Hall', [Bristol, 1821].
£250.00
Lines printed in the Streets of Bristo

Broadside, trimmed to just outside decorative border for poem, with radiant crown at top, tipped on to detached album leaf, faint marking and creasing, mainly good condition, commencing, Who, that has lived beneath the Brunswick sway .... No copy listed on COPAC which lists a work by Somerton on the Bristol Riots and a work printed by him (as presumably was this broadside).

Belfegor [Narrative Poem based on Niccolo Machiavelli's "Novella di Belfegor".]

Author: 
Anon. [T.Charlton Smith]
Publication details: 
"Second Edition", Simpkin, Marshall, London, 1839.
£250.00

134pp., 8vo, in modern blue leather gt, raised bands, marbled endpapers, staining throughout affecting c.25% of each page, pages trimmed, but text clear and complete, with no loss of text except the very top of the letters written in the author's inscription. INSCRIPTION (titlepage): W.J. Mercer | from Lt General T. Charlton Smith | the Author | Nov.: 1874||". Mercer, presumably has added: "T.C.S. wrote this when a Captain in 27th. Regt. He sent copy to T. Moore, who apporioved the squib. The General was a Peninsular & Waterloo man: at Waterloo he was wounded.

autograph poem signed,

Author: 
Brandon Thomas
Publication details: 
29 April 1895, on letterhead of the Hôtel Burlington, Boscombe, Bournemouth.
£30.00

English actor, playwright, songwriter (1856-1914). One page, 8vo. "Sir Maple is a handy man / And comfort round him spreads, / He furnishes on every plan / And also makes the beds." In bad condition, torn and holed by removal from mount, traces of which are glued to the reverse.

To the Brave of the Land of the Mimosa. The Japanese. (Poem).

Author: 
Everard Digby
Publication details: 
No place or date but 1905-ish.
£100.00

Printed Handbill, c.7.5 x 12", pink paper, fold marks, sl. tear on folds. An exhortation to the Japanese against the Russians commencing "Heed not the boasting Russian horde who claim our dearest rights, / Hold we our heads aloft, stand firm, in many glorious fights; / Forward - ye sons of Fair Japan . . ./ Sedition enters not our ranks as in the Russian host . . ./ They shall lead us to Port Arthur, our Standard there shall soar . . ./ . .. the treacherous Muscovite . . . / Anarchy looms in the distance . . ./ The innocent who have been sacrificed in Siberia's icy zone . . .".

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