SIR

4 pp, 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The unnamed recipient appears to have been named as executor in a prvevious will of Sir Henry Bishop. Opens in dramatic style: 'I was very greatly surprised to receive a letter from you this morning, dated from Brighton, as my poor Brother, Sir Henry Bishop, had not the slightest idea that you were still an inhabitant of this world, having heard of your death some time since, in consequence of which, he made another will similar to the one in your possession, but changing the executors'.

12mo, 3 pp. On bifolium. Clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. She has 'finished the brown drawing of elves, & birds singing', and, as she is going into the country for a few days, will leave it, 'in a portfolio', at Stratton St. She asks him to 'kindly take care of it', as he has been 'good enough to do with the others. It is, as you know, a very careful & highly-finished drawing'. She asks him to have 'the delicacy of the lines reproduced, & the drawing of the limbs of the little elves, etc. very carefully & exactly rendered, otherwise the drawing wd.

12mo, 4 pp. 61 lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. An impressive letter applying for work. He does not expect Massingham (addressed as 'W. H. Massingham') to remember their meeting 'in the Lobby' when he was 'chief reporter on The Sun', while at the same time holding 'a Parliamentary engagement on the staff of the C. N.' Gives details of his subsequent employment, including joining the editorial staff of the 'Manchester Guardian' ('principally to look after their weekly paper which was in a sad way.

12mo, 2 pp. Bifolium. 37 lines. Text of letter clear and complete, but with damage to head of letter, causing loss to date, with traces of the album leaf to which the letter was attached on reverses. Otherwise good, on lightly-aged paper. He thanks him for his 'friendly congratulation', and has now entered his '81st. year under the most favourable conditions'. He is 'truly thankful that my affectionate Partner and Myself have through a long life been so mercifully dealt with'.

12mo, 2 pp. 22 lines. Text clear and complete. Begins by explaining his reasons for not supporting Humberstone in an unspecified election. Humberstone has 'valiantly' supported 'the cause for Research at the Universities', and his 'knowledge of University affairs' is 'profound', but 'after a time new minds have to have their turn!' He remembers a paper of Twort's 'on airborn infection problems' which interested him 'much'. 'I know he was an original investigator, but somehow he seems to have got across people in his line of work. I don't propose to go in for Biological Warfare!

12mo, 2 pp. Nineteen lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. Thanking him for his 'excellent book on University Reform in London': 'I read it carefully when it came out and was much impressed by your clear statement of the problem and the thoughtful discussion of possible solutions'. He will now prize his own copy, as it is 'a really important contribution to a subject which has naturally interested me for the past 18 years'.

4to, 1 p. Twenty lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on aged paper, with slight traces of mount on reverse. Having read Humberstone's article on the London School of Hygiene, he is 'sending it to the printers to be set up'. He commends the article for dealing with the subject 'in an interesting and useful way'. He rejects the five plans Humberstone has sent, as they would not 'reproduce satisfactorily', and a photograph which is 'too large to go across a page', and would like 'a photograph of the elevation of the School' and 'either a photograph or an electro of the design of the Seal'.

12mo, 3 pp. 38 lines. Text clear and complete. The two leaves attached along the margins. Signed in Devanagari and European ('So: Rustam Khan Captain') scripts. He acknowledges 'receipt of the Commission conferring on me the honorary rank of captaincy with a deep sense of gratitude to you and all the Officers of the Regiment'. States that he will 'ever cherish a grateful remembrance of all that the Officers and Regiment have done for me'.

12mo, 1 p. Mourning border. Nine lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on worn and lightly-aged paper. Asks if Clarke knows 'Dutch, or Danish or both enough - to give us in the Christmas number of the Athenaeum a column upon each or one or either of those countries under a general group of "Literature of Foreign Countries in 1869"?' Requests an answer by return.

On one side of page removed from autograph album, roughly 14 x 18 cm. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. An accomplished head-and-shoulders self-caricature, with Robey directly facing the viewer, his eyes to his right, a smile on his face, a red nose, the customary tiny hat perched on his head with tufts of hair sticking out over the ears, long neck and collarless shirt. Good, firm signature in bottom left-hand corner: 'Geo. Robey.' Also included is a newspaper cutting of a photograph of Robey. The National Portrait Gallery owns five of Robey's self-caricatures.

On one side of a piece of 12mo laid paper. Fourteen lines of text, beneath the date, with the two signatures in the right-hand margin. On aged and worn paper, with bottom right-hand corner worn away, slightly affecting both signatures, but with no apparent loss of text.

4to, 1 p. Eleven lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Laid down on a leaf removed from an album. Stuart has sent him copy from his newspaper, with the remark of some un-named clergyman that "Teetotalism, at any rate in hard times like these, is dangerously likely to help on unrest and revolution". Far from being the 'cause of revolution', teetotalism enables people, in Joynson-Hicks's view, 'to save money which they would otherwise spend on alcoholic liquor', and so 'helps them to acquire a stake in the country and so forces a real bulwark against revolution.'

Both items good, on lightly-aged paper. LETTER: 4to, 2 pp. He is enclosing the 'circular letter recently sent out to all the shareholders of this Company, whose shares are not fully paid', but as Kitson has 'paid in full in advance of calls on the 1000 shares' in his name 'by way of Loan to the Company', he informs him of the sum to be transferred to his account. On 3 April 1889 Kitson's 'loan a/c will be closed and your shares will be fully paid'. CIRCULAR: 4to, 1 p.

12mo, 2 pp. 34 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. He received Walford's manuscript and 'did free my spirit, as I promised I would, without loss of time'. The matter is now in the hands of the printer of the Daily Telegraph, who, 'at the time of going to press, is master of of the situation, and often delays, from night to night, giving a place to our best-loved paragraphs.' Turner marked his copy with 'a mem to the effect' that it should be shown to 'Mr. Arnold'.

8vo volume, on thick laid paper, in black simulated leather binding (a Black Book of Bankers, so to speak), marbled endpapers. Gilt stamp of the Bank of England on the front cover. In very good condition. The recto of the first leaf is inscribed 'To Gordon Richardson | In admiration and With every good wish On your 90th birthday | From your Friends and Colleagues of the Bank and the City and from abroad | 25th November 2005'. Around 70 signatures follow, over seven pages.

Printed in black and white on piece of paper approximately 24.5 x 27.5 cm. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Tipped in into modern white card mount with window frame. From his series of 'English Portraits' (1898). A facsimile of Rothenstein's initials and his dating are in the bottom left-hand corner of the engraving ('W. x R 97'), with Way's slug in the bottom right-hand corner. Fine representation of Hardy, staring warily at the viewer with hands in pockets.

Folio, 2 pp. Thirty-three lines in eight numbered paragraphs. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged and worn paper, with pinholes at head of both leaves. The first page with mourning border for Queen Victoria. Responding to a letter to Chamberlain written four days previously, and giving details of the appointment (pension, furniture, horse allowance).

Folio, 1 p. Twenty-three lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. His mother Lady Napier, who went to town the previous day, has 'taken charge of the 2 Vols of the Athenaeum' his correspondent sent him. 'Lady Napier has promised to call herself at Leicester Square & deliver the books to you'. If he should be in when she calls, Napier asks him to 'explain to her my theory as to the "Sources of the Nile", briefly embodied in the accompanying paper'.

12mo, 3 pp. Regarding the 'assigning of an income to the Regius Professor of Medicine out of the Ewelme Charity': 'I trouble you with a line to say that I have recommended the allowance of £250 a year, and that when the revenues of the Charity shall reach £1000 a year, it shall be submitted to the Court to increase the amount to £300 or £350'. Asks if there is 'any other matter connected with my office upon which you would wish for information, before I seek a week or two's repose? (of which I have had none, not even for an hour since I came into office.)'.

12mo, 3 pp. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. 'Mr Westmacott [the sculptor Richard Westmacott the younger?]' has called on him, and he has 'shown him the settlement all down my Wall - I told him that you had seen it but did not contemplate any immediate danger - he said that Mr Valpy [Henry Valpy (fl.1851-1885) of the architects Burrell & Valpy] was out of town'. Westmacott will write to Valpy, as he thinks there ought to be 'a conference with' Lakyn, who 'should be requested to make a report'.

12mo, 2 pp. 24 lines. Text clear and complete. He finds, 'upon reconsideration', that the conversation he referred to that afternoon took place two days later, and regrets that he gave Barrow 'the unnecessary trouble of sending for papers in error; & possibly attributing an inattention to the Gentleman employed at the time as a Reporter'.

Seven items, all in very good condition on lightly-aged paper. Trevelyan's idiosyncratic and hypochondriacal character comes through strongly in this correspondence, ostensibly concerned with his application to become a magistrate, but largely devoted to the state of his health. ONE and TWO. Manuscript copies of short letters from Trevelyan to Thorp and the Duke of Northumberland. Both dated 22 October 1832, and both 4to, 1 p. Requesting 'a Dedimus, as a commencing Magistrate'. THREE. Manuscript copy of letter from Trevelyan to Thorp. 23 October 1832; Netherwitton, Morpeth. 4to, 1 p.

On rectangle of paper, 11 x 5.5 cm, cut from front frank. Aged and spotted, with closed tear at head repaired on reverse with archival tape. The whole in Amherst's hand, with his signature (as usual on frank) in bottom left-hand corner between two horizontal lines. Launched in 1805, the Pomone was a 38-gun Leda-class fifth rate Royal Navy ship, built by Josiah and Thomas Brindley at Frindsbury. She saw action during the Napoleonic Wars, primarily in the Mediterranean, and was wrecked off the Needles in 1811.

Folio, 2 pp. On first leaf of bifolium, with the verso of the second leaf docketed, under the heading 'King's Warrant'. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. Headed '(Copy)', and with 'George R' in a bold hand in the top left-hand corner. Although the signature is almost certainly not in the hand of the king, the document is docketed in pencil: 'Signature of his late beloved Majesty King George III on Copy of a Warrant retained by General Saml. Townsend'.

12mo, 1 p. Mourning border. Twelve lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with small scrap torn away from top right-hand corner. By that evening's post, they have received 'the sad intelligence that my sister in law, Lady Camilla Sinclair has died at Thurso Castle'. Her brother Sir George Sinclair and his family 'are in great grief', and she is 'under the melancholy necessity of sending an apology' for cancelling 'our engagement to you which we had anticipated with so much pleasure'.

12mo, 2 pp. Ten lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Jones's letter has been forwarded to him, but he cannot give him 'the information you are seeking', so he has sent to letter on to 'Mr. of the British Museum, asking him to reply to it'.

12mo, 4 pp. 41 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with slight discoloration to edges. 'It was high time that in England, whence so many mountain climbers and tourists go to the Alps, a protest should be raised against the ruin wrought in Switzerland by the construction of tourist railways up the slopes of the mountains'. Deplores the 'irretrievable harm' already done to 'some of the noblest landscapes in the world, [...] easily accessible from the populous cities of Central and Western Europe, such as those on the shores of the Lake of Lucerne'.

Folio, [i] + 49 pp. Text clear and complete. A mimeographed typescript, with text and manuscript annotations. Clear and complete, on aged and creased paper. Typed in bottom right-hand corner of covering title: 'Director of Public Prosecutions.' Anwarudding was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1913, and between that year and 1918 his marital difficulties caused him to appear before thirteen different High Court Judges in eight different courts.

4to, 2 pp. On bifolium. Twenty-two lines. Text clear and complete. In good condition, on aged paper. Lady Popham has written her opinion of the letter on the reverse of second leaf: 'Lord Melvilles cold hearted answer -'. To modern eyes the letter would appear to be a model of tact. Melville begins by expressing 'deep regret' at 'the late most afflicting addition to the loss you had already sustained' (the Admiral had died three weeks before).

On one side of a piece of vellum, 34.5 x 42.5 cm. Folded into a docketed 9 x 21 cm packet. In good condition, lightly-aged. Signed by 'A. E. Cockburn', and by two witnesses: 'J H Brewer' of Curzon Street, Mayfair, and 'Henry William Frayling | Clerk to the said Sir A E. Cockburn', with remains of his red wax seal. Also signed at foot by the Queen's Remembrancer 'W H Walton'.