WIGAN

4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. The letter is addressed to 'My dear Mrs. Wigan' and begins: 'I am sorry to find that the friends I mentioned to you, have decided on another house already – but if I hear of any one else who would be glad of your very charming house, I will not fail to mention it.' She thanks her for offering to 'help Charlie some day with a word or two of advice – in case he should eventually decide on choosing the Stage as his career'. She would be 'very grateful for your valuable opinion on many points connected with it'.

For the background to this letter see William Otto Henderson, 'The Lancashire Cotton Famine 1861-65' (1934) and Angela V. John, 'By the Sweat of their Brow' (2013). Between 14 April and 16 October 1862 Whittaker published a dozen letters on the 'Lancashire Distress' in the London Times, under the pseudonym of 'A Lancashire Lad'. Edwin Waugh, in his 'Home Life of the Lancashire Factory Folk During the Cotton Famine' (1867), describes Whittaker as 'one of the first writers whose appeals through the press drew serious attention to the great distress in Lancashire during the Cotton Famine.

[14]pp., 8vo, disbound (spine rough, indicating removal from a volume), titlepage (p.[1]) and final page [p.[14]) grubby, top inch removed (ensuring p.[3] top grubby also, small embossed stamp of Wigan Public Libraries titlepage; with "With the author's compliments" and "Duplicate" written at top, minor correction to preface (authorial?). The Sermon was preached at St Alban's, Cheetwood, Manchester re. Preface. No other copy traced.

60 + 1pp., 8vo. The last page carries an 'Appendix'. In brown printed wraps, with cover headed 'Luxury and the Fine Arts, - In some of their Moral and Historical Relations.' Inscribed at head of cover to 'B. Moran Esqe | with the Author's kind regards'. In fair condition, with signs of age and wear. Disbound, and with library stitching at spine. Front cover with stamp of the Free Public Library, Wigan, and shelfmarks. Note by the librarian Henry Tennyson Folkard on inside front cover: 'Cat. Bought May 1916. | H. T.