Small archive of fourteen Typed Letters Signed and six Autograph Letters Signed (all 'Lawrence Chubb'), all addressed to Sir Henry Trueman Wood, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

The collection is in good condition, on lightly aged and creased paper. The fourteen typed letters are all 4to, 1 p; the autograph letters are all 12mo, three of them of two pages and three of one page. Largely concerned with a lecture given by Chubb to the R.S.A. in 1916 on 'the Preservation of Footpaths & Rights of Way', for which Chubb requests '1,000 or 1,250 cards of admission'. The subject, Chubb comments (21 July 1915), 'seems in itself sufficiently important and interesting to warrant special treatment, and in lecturing I mostly keep footpaths & commons quite separate. Moreover as this year is the Jubilee of the birth of the Commons Preservation Movement it would seem desirable that I should confine myself to telling the history of the movement in connection with Commons.' Around the same time (19 July 1915) Chubb writes on the subject of the 'illustrated Lecture upon 50 Years of Commons Preservation' that 'If owing to the infirmities of age Lord Eversley decides that it would be impracticable for him to take the Chair [...] I have no doubt that one of our other prominent Supporters, or Vice-Presidents - such as Lord Bryce, Lord Farrer, or Sir John Brunner, or Mr Edward North Buston - or Lord Stanmore, (Lord Eversley's nephew) would be willing to do so'. On 6 December 1915 Chubb reports that Eversley 'has decided not to attempt to take the Chair in view of his extreme deafness'. Two years later Chubb reports that Lord Farrer is willing to take the chair at a lecture 'if I am asked and the Cabal allows Railway travel'. Following the lecture Chubb writes (5 February 1916), 'It may interest you to know that, arrising out of my paper, I have had a number of letters suggesting that a lecture or paper telling the story of Highways and Footpaths would be welcome.' The 'paper on Rights of Way' was delivered on 7 February 1917. In a letter of 17 January Chubb suggests five individuals who might take the chair, and gives two alternative titles: 'The Footpath Way, and other Highways' or 'Highways and Byways'. On 30 October 1916 Chubb comments interestingly on the delay in the preparation of the paper: 'In normal times I could quite safely have promised to be ready by 29th November, but, unfortunately, I have just received instructions to report uponn a number of suggested schemes of Land Reclamation in connection with the settlement of ex-soldiers on the land after the war. This means that for the greater part of November I must be away as the schemes affect land in such widely separated areas as Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Suffolk, Cambridge, Lincoln & Wales.' The C.F.P.S. is 'interested in the matter from the point of view of the protection of numerous Commons which it is proposed to enclose.'