[Frank Curzon, The Yorkshire Union of Mechanics Institutes.] Autograph Letter, with a caricature of himself acting as the signature, to John Warren of Royston, thanking him in playful and punning style for arranging a rail trip.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly aged and creased paper. Consisting of a series of appalling puns, the letter reads: 'Dear Sir | Thanks for the Time Table it was a "rail" service and for your offer of a meal which will suit me to a "T" and for your selection of a bed, as I prefer Bedford to Bedlam, and for your instructions to change my train. It is easier to miss a train than to train a miss. | I feel now that I shall get to Royston with only the Hitchen that is necessary, and I am itching to get there when I feel that I am Warren-ted safe. | I remain My dear Sir | Yours truly'. The 'signature' consists of a self-portrait of his bearded head in profile, smoking a cigarette. According to W. H. K. Wright's 'West-Country Poets' (1896), Curzon 'had long been actively engaged in his leisure in promoting the foundation of educational institutes in London and elsehwere, [...] In 1853 he was appointed secretary of the Warrington Mechanics' Institute; he then removed to Huddersfield, in the same capacity, and went to Leeds, where he still resides, in 1871. Since that time he has been the "head centre" or organizing secretary of the Yorkshire Union of Institutes, [...]'. Warren was the founder of the 'Royston Crow' newspaper.