RURAL

[J. W. Robertson Scott, journalist and author on rural affairs, founding editor of ‘The Countryman’.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Walters’ [John Cuming Walters (1863-1933], speculating whether the Birmingham Daily Gazette is ‘into Radical hands’.

Author: 
J. W. Robertson Scott [John William Robertson Scott] (1866-1962), English journalist and author on rural affairs, founding editor of ‘The Countryman’ [Birmingham Daily Gazette; H. J. Palmer]
Publication details: 
13 January 1888. Acocks Green, Birmingham.
£56.00

An interesting letter casting light on the Victorian provincial press. Scott’s entry in the Oxford DNB states that, while he was living in Birmingham, ‘H. J. Palmer offered him a staff appointment on the Birmingham Gazette; but he had to leave when he stipulated that, as a Liberal, he should write nothing in support of the Conservative cause. He was working again as a freelance when, in 1887, he was invited by W. T. Stead to join him on the Pall Mall Gazette. He worked for six years on that paper under Stead and then Edward T. Cook.’ 4pp, 12mo. On bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged.

[From crow-scarer to Member of Parliament: Joseph Arch, Liberal politician.] Autograph Letter Signed [to A. G. L. Rogers], approving of a ‘rural’ leaflet on behalf of the Liberal Party.

Author: 
Joseph Arch (1826-1919), agricultural worker who became a prominent trade unionist and Liberal Member of Parliament [A. G. L. Rogers]
Publication details: 
21 February 1892; Barford, Warwickshire.
£95.00

See Arch’s entry in the Oxford DNB. From the papers of Arthur George Liddon Rogers (1864-1944), son of the economist Thorold Rogers [James Edwin Thorold Rogers] (1823-1890), for information regarding whom see his entry in the Oxford DNB. At the time of this letter the 1892 general election was looming, and the recipient was Secretary of the Publications Department of the National Liberal Federation. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once.

[Cecil Aldin, artist of hunting scenes, animals and rural life.] Autograph Note Signed ('Cecil Aldin'), sending 'p o – o & stamps' in settlement of an account.

Author: 
Cecil Aldin [Cecil Charles Windsor Aldin] (1870-1935), artist and illustrator of animals, hunting scenes and rural life
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 47 Priory Road, Bedford Park, W. [London] No date.
£60.00

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. The slightest loss to margin at one edge. Good bold signature. Reads: 'Dear Sir | Enclosed please find p. o – o [i.e. postal order?] & stamps in settlement of enclosed | Yrs faithfully | Cecil Aldin'.

[ Beatrice Magraw, author. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('(Mrs.) Beatrice I. Magraw') to the first British woman cabinet minister Margaret Bondfield, Minister of Labour, putting forward her views on bettering rural housing.

Author: 
Beatrice Irene Magraw (c.1888-1970), author, wife of Charles Magraw (1884-1973), Anglican clergyman [ Margaret Bondfield (1873-1953), Labour politician]
Publication details: 
Slindon Rectory, Arundel, Sussex. 29 March 1930.
£45.00

7pp., 12mo. On two bifoliums. In good condition, lightly aged. She feels she has 'two reasons for approaching' Bondfield, at the time Minister of Labour: 'I believe you are a Somerset woman, & know that you are interested in the question of housing.' She hopes that 'in any plans for bettering housing conditions that this government may make, the state of rural workers' homes may not be overlooked. You are probably as familiar as I am with the horrors of the “Country Slum”.

[Printed document.] Motor Cars. Memorandum of the Cheltenham Rural District Council to the President of the Local Government Board, With reference to the recent Report of the Royal Commission on Motor Cars.

Author: 
Gilbert McIlquham, clerk to the Cheltenham Rural District Board [The Local Government Board; The Royal Commission on Motor Cars, 1905-1907]
Publication details: 
Stamped '13th September 1906'.
£75.00

2pp., folio. Bifolium. In small type. Containing two copies of a printed circular by McIlquham, on Cheltenham Rural District Council letterhead, dated 14 September 1906. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. The memorandum is divided into five sections, and begins by putting the Council's position that 'Motor Cars travelling at high speed in dry weather along the unwatered roads of country districts occasion an intolerable dust nuisance to other users of the highway, and seriously prejudice the comfort and even the health of the inhabitants of road-side dwellings'.

[Nineteenth-century agricultural poetry.] Fair copy manuscript of anonymous (American?) poem titled 'Elegy on the death of a Farm Laborer.' With emendations and additions in pencil.

Author: 
[Nineteenth-century English or American agricultural poetry; Victorian rural verse; provincial literature; working class writing]
Publication details: 
Without place or date. [1840s?]
£100.00

10pp.,, 8vo. On five leaves torn from a notebook. In fair condition, on aged and lightly-worn paper. A creditable effort, showing the influence of Gray's 'Elegy' and Goldsmith's 'Deserted Village', describing the unnamed farm hand's funeral, and reflecting on the virtues and hardships of the poor. Begins: 'From yonder peaceful and secluded dell, | Snug in the bosom of th'encircling hills, | The perfumed Zephyr bears a passing knell, | And melancholy o'er the Soul distils.

[Queen Victoria's FIRST visit to Scotland, 1842.] Three MS.receipts, two of them regarding 'erecting triumphall Arches', the other a 'Note of Men Employed in the Village of Comrie [...] to join the Lawers Company for hir [sic] Majesty the Queen'.

Author: 
[Queen Victoria's FIRST visit to Scotland, 1842; Mrs. R. Williamson of Lawers; Comrie, Strathearn, Perthshire]
Publication details: 
[Lawers, Strathearn, Scotland.] All three paid on 26 December 1842.
£195.00

The three documents in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. ONE: 'Note of Men employed in the Village of Comrie by Orders of Mrs. R. Williamson of Lavers - to join the Lavers Company for hir [sic] Majesty the Queen'. [on reverse] 'Lawers | Thos Biccarton for Men attending during the Queens Visit | £1 .. 19/- | paid 26 Decr. 1842'. Beneath this in pencil in a later hand: 'Queen Victoria visit to Strathearn | Sept 10 1842'. 1p., 4to. With some words in red ink. Mainly comprising a table of 29 names, days, wages due, of men 'Attending the Lawers Company'.

[John Campbell, 4th Earl and 1st Marquess of Breadalbane.] Nine Autograph Letters Signed to him, from various parties, most on estate matters, including five from his agent Duncan Campbell, several showing the hardships suffered by his rural tenants.

Author: 
John Campbell (1762-1834), 4th Earl and 1st Marquess of Breadalbane, Scottish landowner [Duncan Campbell; William Stewart; the Highland Clearances]
Publication details: 
From Ardvorlich, Edinburgh, Killin and Rockhill in Scotland, and one from London. Between 1803 and 1833.
£380.00

Eight of the items are in very good condition, on lightly aged paper, the ninth (Item Four) is damp-stained. One letter (Item Five) is incomplete. Five letters (Items One to Five) are from Breadalbane's estate manager (and kinsman?) Duncan Campbell, and there are other letters from the latter's family.

[Printed parliamentary paper.] An Act for Inclosing Land in the Parish of South Moreton, in the County of Berks. [Royal Assent, 8 May 1818.] 58 Geo. III. Sess. 1818.

Author: 
[The South Moreton Inclosure Act 1818; John Sadgrove; Rev. William James; George Barnes of Andover; Joseph Lousley of Blewbury; Henry Dixon; the University of Oxford; English enclosure of common land]
Publication details: 
'Ley & Jones, House of Commons.' 1818.
£120.00

35 + [1] pp., 8vo. Stitched and unbound. Well printed, on good laid paper, watermarked 'IPING | 1813'. In fair condition, on aged paper and lightly-discoloured paper, and folded into a packet, showing the title on the reverse of the last leaf as quoted above. The drophead title reads: Sess. 1818 - 58 Geo. III. | An Act for Inclosing Lands in the Parish of South Moreton, in the County of Berks.

Autograph Letter Signed from the conservationist Ethel Haythornthwaite, thanking Lord Chorley [Robert Samuel Theodore Chorley, 1st Baron Chorley] for his speech to the Sheffield branch of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England.

Author: 
Ethel Haythornthwaite (1894-1986) and her husband Lt-Col. Gerald Haythornthwaite (1912-1995), pioneering conservationists [Robert Samuel Theodore Chorley (1895-1978), 1st Baron Chorley [Lord Chorley]]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England, Sheffield and Peak District Branch. 10 June 1945.
£56.00

2pp., landscape 12mo. 28 lines of text. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with slight damage to one corner. Addressed to 'Dear Professor Chorley', the letter begins: 'I do feel we owe you a very great deal for coming on Saturday. Every body seemed pleased with the meeting and that was mainly due to the chief speaker. They liked what you said and who said it.' Considering the demands on Chorley's time, she is grateful to him for not cancelling the engagement, and for the fact that he did not 'pour coals of fire' on her head for the 'silly mistake about the train'.

File of 78 documents from the papers of the jurist and Labour politician Professor R. S. T. Chorley [later Lord Chorley], relating to his campaign against the building of a 'road house' at the Old Brewery Stables, Great Stanmore.

Author: 
Robert Samuel Theodore Chorley (1895-1978), 1st Baron Chorley [Lord Chorley], legal scholar and Labour politician [The Old Brewery Stables, Great Stanmore; Hendon Rural District Council]
Publication details: 
London. 1932 and 1933.
£750.00

As Chorley is described in his entry in the Oxford DNB as a 'conservationist' with a 'deep attachment to and lifelong concern for the English countryside', it is a surprise that no mention is made of the matter to which this collection relates, which created some public interest at the time and involved a landmark legal action. The first item in this collection - a copy of typed letter from Chorley to the Clerk to the Hendon Rural District Council on 24 October 1932 - sets the scene neatly.

Water as a National Problem. This was the land! What have we done with it?

Author: 
J. L. Callaghan, Chairman of the Rural Development Board and Member of the Irrigation Commission [Brisbane; Queensland; Australia; Percy Pease (1876-1940)]
Publication details: 
[1939.] David Whyte, Government Printer, Brisbane. ['Vital Problems Queensland has to Solve'.]
£75.00

12mo (24 x 15 cm), 8 pp. Unbound stapled pamphlet. Text clear and complete. On aged and creased paper, with minor loss to blank area of corner of first leaf. Two stamps on front page: 'With the Compliments of P. Pease, M.L.A.' (in 1932 Pease had become Deputy Premier and Lands Minister') and 'Enclosure' box with manuscript dates 14 June and 24 July 1939. Red-ink 1 cm accession stamp of the Webster Collection on last page, numbered 4189.

Numbers One and Two in 'The Kingsway Series of Work and Time Tables'; number one titled 'Scheme of Work for a Rural School' and number two 'Time-tables for a Rural School. (Complementary to "Scheme of Work for Rural School." '

Author: 
Kingsway Series, Evans Brothers, Sardinia House [rural schools; twentieth-century British education]
Publication details: 
[1916.] Evans Bros., Ltd., Sardinia House, Kingsway, London. [Number Two printed by 'St. Clements Press, Ltd., Portugal Street, Kingsway, W.C.']
£56.00

Both items 4to, 4 pp. Each a bifolium. Text clear and complete on aged, foxed and lightly-creased paper. Both items in small print, the first covering topics from Clay-Modelling to Needlework. Of interest is the section on 'Hygiene (Bare Outline)' which warns against ' "Chewing," harm of "bolting" food, over-eating, dangers of alcoholic liquors'. Number Two contains four time-tables divided into two groups: 'I. - Mixed Department' and 'II. - Infants'; and 'For a Rural School of 40 Scholars.', 'I. - Upper Division' and 'II. - Lower Division'. Scarce.

Two Typed Letters Signed ('H. Gordon Griffin' and 'H. G. Griffin') to 'The Secretary' and K. W. Luckhurst, Royal Society of Arts; with carbon of Luckhurst's reply; and draft of 'C.P.R.E. Publication on the Design and Layout of Small Houses.'

Author: 
Sir Herbert Gordon Griffin (died 1969), General Secretary, The Council for the Preservation of Rural England [Royal Society of Arts, London]
Publication details: 
Letters of 12 January 1927 and 10 December 1956, both on Council letterhead; carbon reply, 11 December 1956; draft, November 1956.
£100.00

All items very good. A couple with slight staining at head from paperclip. Letter One (to 'The Secretary', 4to, 1 p, 5 lines): Apologising for delay in acknowledging the 'letter and enclosures of 31st ultimo': 'my office was only opened on Wednesday last and I have had much correspondence with which to deal'. Letter Two (to Luckhurst, 4to, 1 p, 18 lines): Concerning 'a booklet on the layout and design of small houses' which the C.P.R.E. 'is hoping to publish this spring'.

Typed Letter Signed to 'Bayly Scott Esq.'

Author: 
William Hillier Onslow, 4th Earl of Onslow
Publication details: 
7 August 1905; on crested letterhead: '7, RICHMOND TERRACE, | WHITEHALL, | S.W.'
£75.00

Governor of New Zealand (1853-1911). Two pages, 4to. Grubby, foxed and discoloured, and with traces of archival tape adhering to second leaf. 'I am entirely at one with you in thinking that there is no reason in cottage building why one should sacrifice appearance and picturesqueness to mere cheapness. I went very carefully over your cottage, and [...] I thought it the most practical of all those that were exhibited, and it was for that reason that I wrote for what I thought was a treatise upon the subject.

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