BENJAMIN

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to the blank reverse of the second leaf. Tipped-in below the signature is the letter's envelope, addressed, with postmarks, to 'Mrs Hewitt | Wrenbury Hall | Nantwich', amended to 'Chislehurst | Kent'. He begins by explaining that he has 'been for the last few weeks on the continent, & in consequence of the gross neglect of the Geneva post office' her letter has only just reached him. He is sorry that he should have been 'made to appear so negligent'.

1p, 4to. On grey paper. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to reverse. Folded three times. A typical prescription, in Latin, beneath the heading 'Miss Smedley. April [last word deleted] May 1 1845'. The prescription begins with the usual 'Rx'; the last of the fourteen lines that follow ending with Brodie's signature ('B C Brodie').

2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to reverse. The recipient is not identified. Reads: 'My Dear Sir | I hope that I shall not put you to inconvenience by making my visit to your patient today as late as half past five o clock. A particular circumstance has occurred which will prevent my being in your part of the town at the time originally proposed.'

See the entries on Harrison and Marcet in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, and folded twice, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to the reverse. Marcet is not identified as the recipient, but the item comes from his papers. It relates to an election to a post at Guy's Hospital, with reference to Peter Mark Roget (1779-1869), author of 'Roget's Thesaurus', whose father came from Geneva. The letter is written in a difficult hand, and the following transcriptions are tentative.

See the entries on Harrison and Marcet in the Oxford DNB. Both items in good condition, lightly aged and worn, and each folded twice. Harrison's letter with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to the reverse. Marcet is only identified in pencil annotations to the letters, but the details given by the writer of his education accord with Marcet's.

2pp, 12mo. Bifolium on grey paper. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to blank reverse of second leaf. The year has been noted in another hand. The recipient is not identified. The letter begins: 'My dear sir, | I have made arrangements with my excellent friend Mr. Jowett of Baliol Coll. that he should offer to you rooms in Balliol. You will be there with our common friend Brodie, and will I am quite sure find nothing that will not add to your comfort and enjoyment in the Meeting'.

Lettsom's entry in the Oxford DNB erroneously states that his son John Miers Lettsom, M.D., 'a physician of promise', died in 1799. For the true details, see Gentleman's Magazine, January 1800. 1p, 8vo. Bifolium. In fair condition, aged and worn, with thin strip of paper adhering to the blank reverse of the second leaf, which is addressed, with fragment of seal in black wax, to 'Mr Charles Taylor | 134 | Cheapside'. The recipient may well be Charles Taylor (d.1816), physician, originally a Manchester calico printer and dyer, who later became Secretary of the Society of Arts, London.

The recipient is Charles Taylor (d.1816), physician, originally a Manchester calico printer and dyer, who later became Secretary of the Society of Arts, London. 1p, 8vo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to reverse of second leaf, which is addressed, with postmarks to 'Dr. Taylor | Principal Secretary | to the Society of Arts &c | Adelphi'. Folded four times. Reads: 'Dear Doctor | I have this day proposed your name to the Medical Society of London.

2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to the blank second leaf of the bifolium. Folded twice. With regard to the University of St Andrews, where he and Cleveland received their medical education, Richardson writes that he is 'very pleased to hear from Dr Paul' that Cleveland 'will attend our University dinner. We shall have a very agreeable and I believe successful meeting'.

4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering at gutter edge of reverse of last leaf, and covering the last few letters of Carpenter's signature. After explaining that he is directing Bostock's attentiont to 'the accompanying Remarks', he announces that he has 'lately decided upon relinquishing the practice of my Profession, and upon devoting myself altogether to the pursuit of Physiology and its allied branches of Science.

According to his entry in the Oxford DNB, 'Carpenter studied initially at the Bristol medical school and then in London, and in 1835–7 and again in 1839 in Edinburgh, where he took the MD degree.' The present letter dates from the hiatus in Carpenter's Scottish studies, to Professor William Pulteney Alison (1790-1859) of Edinburgh University, addressing an allegation that he has plagiarised from fellow-student John Hughes Bennett. 4pp, 4to. Bifolium.

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. The letter begins with a reference to 'Mrs Baker's death'. Pearson and his wife 'had not realised the gravity of her illness', as they had recently seen her 'so well and fresh in spirit'. He wishes he had been able to accept Peirce's suggestion of 'putting me up for tonight' in order to be 'present tomorrow', but he is 'overdone and had work till 6 o'clock arranged for today, so that to come down by the night train tonight & track back tomorrow night have been more than I could safely attempt'.

1p, 4to. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Franked on reverse of second leaf, with seal in red wax broken into two pieces, and franking postmark: 'Frome – November twenty fifth 1814 | Messrs: Wulliamys | Watch Maker's | Pall Mall | London | Boyle'.

1p., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Franked on reverse of second leaf, with broken seal in red wax, to the firm of London solicitors 'Mess. Platt & Hall | New Boswell Court | Carey Street', with Halls signature ('B Hall' between two horizontal lines) at bottom left. The letter itself reads: 'Gentlemen/ | I have just received a letter from Mess: Prothero & Philipps who state that you will call here to know my intention respecting the Petition presented against my return.

1p., 12mo. On grey paper. In fair condition, lightly aged. Reads: 'Dear Sir, | Will you please give me an appointment on Thursday next when I am in town? | Faithfully yours, | Lewis Melville'.

Five items. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. ONE: Three Autograph Letters Signed (all 'E. L. Pollock') to W. H. Prince. A total of 6pp. The writer, 'Miss E. L. Pollock', is Benjamin Pollock's daughter Louise, who with her sister Selina managed the shop after his death. All three letters are written in 1944, the year in which the sisters sold the stock to the bookseller Alan Keen. The letters respond to enquiries regarding the stock, and one (12 May 1944) includes an itemised bill of twelve items 'Bought of Pollock's late B Pollock | 73. Hoxton St. London.

Viii + 99 + [1]pp., 12mo. In Victorian half-binding, with dark-green calf spine and corners, and brown marbled boards. The original yellow card front cover has been bound in with the volume. It carries the price (one shilling), title, publication details, and a portrait of Brierley, and is headed 'AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH', The volume contains no library markings whatsoever, but the front pastedown carries a pink printed notice of the 'Rules of the Library' of the Bury District Co-operative Society Ltd.

Carpenter's most famous work is The Use and Abuse of Alcoholic Liquors in Health and Disease. The first printing of the first edition was published in London by Charles Gilpin in March 1850. It was one of the first temperance books (Washingtonian Movement) to promote the fact that alcoholism is a disease. He was also one of the founders of the modern theory of the adaptive unconscious. 2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, aged and worn. He reminds him of his 'kind promise to procure for me an invitation to M.

v + [2] + 240pp., 8vo. In original dark-blue cloth binding, gilt. Grey on brown printed endpapers with Bentley's 'Fide et Fiducia' motif. In good condition, in like binding, with bookplate neatly removed from front pastedown. Binder's ticket of Burns & Co. at rear. At the head of the reverse of the front free endpaper Bentley has written: 'H. E. G. Evans from R. B. | 19 Octr.

On one side of an 11.5 x 17.5 cm page removed from an album, dated 2 March 1934 and headed 'THE NEW ENGLISH SINGERS'. In good condition, lightly aged. To the right of the page are the signatures of 'Dorothy Silk' and 'Nellie Carson' (sopranos), and 'Martin ' and 'Mary Morris'; to the left are those of 'Vernon and 'Cuthbert Kelly' (bass). According to Chapter One of 'The Travel Diaries of Peter Pears, 1936-1978' (1999), titled 'American Tour with the New English Singers (1936)', the ensemble was 'a vocal sextet specializing in Elizabethan madrigals and English folksongs.

The two documents are printed forms, completed in manuscript. Both are tipped-in onto a leaf removed from an album. Both in fair condition, on aged and worn paper. ONE: 'C No 1429'. Dated 12 October 1798 and signed by 'J L Towers', 'Register.' Recording the birth of Sarah Cooper, daughter of Thomas Cooper and Jane Cooper (daughter of the Rev. Israel Lewis', born in Homerton, in the Parish of Saint John Hackney, on 17 June 1783. Witnessed by 'E. S. Cooper' and 'Sarah Mackaness'. TWO: 'E No 3478'. Dated 30 January 1816.

2pp., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Headed 'Private'. Reads: 'I shd. be glad to see you on the Surrey Bench before I leave office, if you still wish it, & if I can accomplish it. The first of these ifs you can answer. Please let me have a line.' The recipient was presumably the lawyer William Rowcliffe (1840-1922).

1p., 12mo. On grey paper. In fair condition, lightly aged. He writes to enquire whether the recipient 'can undertake the publication of the novel I submitted to you – In the World of Mimes – as I am leaving town at the end of the week', and he hopes to 'settle the matter one way or the other (preferably one way & not the other)' before he leaves. 'In the World of Mimes' was published in London by Greening & Co. in 1902.

3pp., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. For information on the eccentric Moran see F. David Roberts' article 'Who Ran the London "Globe" in the 1830's, 1840's, and 1850's?' (1971). The letter begins: 'My Dear Webster | If you want a useful subsidiary piece producible without cost or trouble. It contains a part that of Frederick William of Prussia admirably adapted for your own filling up.

1p., 4to. In good condition, neatly inserted into a windowpane mount. Bloomfield, 'somewhat more than a year ago', laid 'before the Prince Regent at Sudbourne Hall, two small productions' of Hall's, and he now wishes, 'as they are my mite to the good of my Country, Cottage poems also to be laid before him'. He feels that the 'concluding little poem' in the collection 'cannot displease his Royal Highness'. No copy of the original edition of Hall's 'Cottage Poems' is listed on COPAC, and only one copy, at Oxford, of the new edition of 1820.

4pp., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. An excellent letter, concerning a banking bill in the House of Commons, written while Hankey was briefly outside the House of Commons, and Northcote was in opposition (he would be appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer following the election the following year. Northcote has read and is returning Hankey's 'papers', and finds his argument 'sound and right, but I own to a little uneasiness as to the view the House may take of the bill, - whatever that may turn out to be, for as yet we have not been favoured with a sight of it.

2pp., 12mo, and 1p., 8vo. On a 12mo bifolium, with the opening written lengthwise as one page. In good condition, lightly aged, with the Society's oval date stamp. He regrets 'exceedingly' that he was not able to meet Wood on the previous day 'when I was at the Hall'. He thanks him for 'recalling to me the Whitefoord Correspondence which I had forgotten altho I used it in writing my monograph on the Unique Portrait of Franklin at the Royal Society that was presented by Caleb Whitefoord and which the Royal Society did not know by whom it was painted until I discovered it & wrote my paper'.

1p., landscape 12mo. On aged and worn paper, with strip of discoloration affecting Richardson's signature. The text concerns 'the numbers of the Madras Journal [which] have not yet turned up'. Accompanied by an unattrtibuted newspaper cutting of Richardson's obituary, laid down on a leaf removed from a notebook.

Both items in good condition, on grey-paper bifoliums, the first with the Society's stamp and both docketed. ONE: 25 January 1901. 1p., 12mo. Concerning the binding up of his copies of the Society's journal, and the supply of missing parts. TWO: 12 June 1901. 3pp., 12mo. Concerning his 'promised letter' for 'Friday's Journal': 'I cannot hope to have a proof sent me, but if you accept the letter & should be correcting a proof yourself & would, when ordering a proof, order a spare copy for me to see at your office, I shd. be greatly obliged & wd. call in tomorrow afternoon to look through it'.

2pp., 4to. Bifolium. Addressed on reverse of second leaf, with seal of a harp in green wax, 'To | - Webster Esqre. | Theatre Royal Haymarket'. Writing two days before her father's death, she explains that she commissioned a friend to offer a guinea for his 'Interlude of "Pay for Peeping"', but finds that 'in return you expect one pound eleven for it'. She points out that she was 'the original (at the Strand Theatre) in the piece', and that she is offering the same terms accepted from her by 'Mr Selby for his "Day in Paris"'.