CALVERLEY

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. In envelope with penny red stamp and postmark, addressed to Steggatt at 53 Norwich Street, Cambridge. The letter reads: 'Dear Sir | I regret that I cannot give you an order. I have no doubt of the excellence of the cigars, but I never by any chance smoke a cigar. | Believe me | Yours truly | C S. Calverley'. A nice Cambridge association, given that Calverley's most famous poem is 'Ode to Tobacco', and that it features in Cambridge on a brass plaque on the wall of the former Bacon's tobacconists.

Both letter and description on the same bifolium. Letter: 1p., 12mo. On recto of first leaf. Description (headed 'Johnian System of Marking'): lengthwise across the verso of the first leaf and recto of the second, and thus making 1p., 8vo. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. Calverley begins by wondering whether he has 'made the Johnian System [...] intelligible' in his description.

Three pages, 12mo. Very good. The blank verso of the second leaf of the bifolium laid down on remains of leaf detached from autograph album. Begins 'At length by certain Proofs 'tis plain (to quote a hymn familiar to my childhood but forgotten now all but that first line) that the readers of Macmillan will know all that is to be known about the mistletoe, thanks to your labours, before Christmas.' He hopes she has received the proofs, and says that 'Grove, the Editor, writes to me that they are in type & he is forwarding them to Ickleton'.

Novelist. One page, 8vo, minor defects, text clear and complete. She explians her tardy response ot his letter by saying she was abroad. She acknowledges familiarity with the works of Calverley but "I am ashamed to admit that when I wrote "The Road that Bends" [pubd 1916] = some ten years ago, I did not remember that one quotation came from his "First Love"." She thanks him for the "connection".