Autograph Manuscript and two Typescripts of an article by the publisher F. J. H. Darton [Frederick Joseph Harvey Darton] entitled ''West One', on the foundation and history of Grafton Street in London.

The three items are all in very good condition, on lightly-aged paper, with slight marking from rusty paperclips. Manuscript: 13pp., 4to. On 13 leaves, paginated 1-13. With a few emendations and corrections. The two typescripts, both well typed, have different layouts to one another. First (smaller) Typescript: 9pp., 4to. Second (larger) Typescript: Carbon copy. 9pp., 4to. The article begins: '"The iniquity of oblivion blindly scattereth her poppy . . . In vain we compute our felicities by the advantage of our good names, since bad have equal durations." Who was godfather to Grafton Street, that short byway of London which from many associations is like to outlive by far any intimate knowledge of its builder? | It is a pretty irony that though there have been Dukes of Grafton not less eminent than amiable, and the street is populous with both the shades and the living forms of men vitally connected with the arts, the man who lives thus in bricks and mortar was called "Booby Grafton", and it was said that "as to books, he was totally illiterate." And he certainly did not buy that patch of land just west of Bond Street in order to make it a mart of books and pictures and fine jewels. He bought it, this second Duke of the title, "for gardening," which the greatest book in the world records as man's oldest trade.' The article concludes: 'Perhaps books are the best way to come by a knowledge and love of London. And Grafton Street, with its links, Bond Street, Dover Street, Albemarle Street, knows a great deal about Books.' The first typescript follows the manuscript in the use of the word 'like' in the first paragraph, although amending this in pencil to 'likely'; in the second typescript, which is more attractively laid out, the word is given as 'likely', suggesting that it is of later production. While there is no record of the publication of this essay, it is likely to have been published: Darton's voluminous literary output, as his entry in the Oxford DNB indicates, included contributions to the Daily News.