CHAPEL

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. The material is in good condition, lightly aged, except that the envelopes of the first two items are somewhat worn and grubby. ONE: TLS to Douglas C. Dorrington. 1p, 12mo. The address to ‘Dear Mr. Dorrington’ and signature ‘Peter Pears’ are in autograph; the rest is typed. Written while Britten is dying. Reads: ‘Benjamin Britten wishes me to thank you for your kind message.

2pp., 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of tape adhering to one edge from mount. He is 'requested by the Committee of our Auxiliary in aid of the London Missionary Society to ask for your presence and assistance at our approaching anniversary in aid of that Institution'. He gives the date and details of the event, to be held at Salem Chapel, including 'a public breakfast in the school room in the morning, and a meeting in the evening'. He names two individuals from whom help is expected, with mention of 'two of the native refugees from Madagascar'.

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. He reminds him that when he was in York, he stated his 'willingness to preach twice in Salem Chapel, and have one Collection for the Port of Hull Society, during the present year', adding that 'the Deacons of our Church concur in such arrangement'. He proposes a date, and asks for a reply.

The Chapel was erected in 1811 and still stands, albeit with unsympathetic internal alterations dating from the 1990s. Kelly's Directory of 1889 describes it thus: 'The Wesleyan Methodist Chapel (situated in St. Peter's Street) is a handsome building, with portico, erected in 1811, and provides accommodation for 960 persons. Ministers are elected at the Annual Wesleyan Conference.' 2pp., 4to. Bifolium. Addressed, with two postmarks, on reverse of second leaf, 'To J. Fernley | Manchester | Care of the Rev. J.: Rigg, | Wesleyan Minister, | Oldham St. | Manchester'.

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Begins: 'My dear | Our Jubilee bustle - & subsequently four days spent at Oxford on a College Election have prevented my attending to your little manual - The last corrections which you made - are now sent to the Printer - & a revise shall be sent in a day or two.' He ends by expressing relief at the 'improving accounts of your poor brothers family'.

See S. Taylor and J. Holder, 'Manchester's Northern Quarter' (English Heritage, 2008), which refers to 'the construction in 1781 of a Methodist Chapel, in a grand Georgian-Gothic style on Oldham Street, which replaced the earlier chapel on Birchin Lane'. This is said by Taylor and Holder to have been replaced, 1855-1856, by the Methodist Central Hall, which still stands. The dramatic changes being proposed in the present collection would appear to have been contemplated in the face of a new and large working class congregation.

2pp., 16mo. In good condition, lightly aged, neatly attached by stub to another leaf. He hopes Everett will be 'able and willing to comply' with his request that he attends, at a future date, in 'the school room of Salem Chapel at a meeting on behalf of our Sabbath and day schools'. As Everett is 'relieved from some of [his] wonted Engagements', Parsons hopes 'that no obstacle will exist'. According to Everett's entry in the Oxford DNB, he 'moved to York in 1839. Through failure of health he was […] made a supernumerary minister in 1842, but remained in York, writing more actively than ever'.

16pp., 4to. Stapled. In fair condition, on aged paper a little rolled at head and foot. Bowers' article, 'an attempt to understand the workings of Shakespeare's tragic effect', is on the first seven pages. He has inscribed the head of the first page: 'For Harry Levin - | With my compliments - | Fredson Bowers'. From the papers of the American critic Harry Levin (1912-1994). Now scarce.

[2] + 18pp., 8vo. Disbound. Aged and worn, with first and last leaves separated. In a two-page dedication 'To Nicholas Kirwan, Esq. York Place, Portman Square', Kirwan explains that the 'following Discourse was delivered to promote the Education of the Catholic Poor of this Metropolis [i.e. London]. It is published to assist in procuring a similar blessing for an impoverished parish in the most Western part of Ireland.' No copy listed on COPAC, one (Missouri) on WorldCat.

1p., 4to. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed on reverse to 'Mr. Everett | Market Street | Manchester'. Brailsford has been 'desired by the Missionary committee connected with this place to write you & earnestly to request the favour of yr. Services at their approaching Anniversary which is fixed for Monday Oct. 22nd. by preaching a preparatory Sermon on the Sunday eveng. Oct 21.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly-aged. He asks him 'to forward these Cards immediately (I have sent one to Mr. Doane) as many have call'd asking if they are to be engaged'. He expresses his regret for 'the mistake in the Name card', but it is too late to alter it. The 'sole cause' of the error was his 'constantly thinking of the state of poor Walker'.

28pp., 8vo. Disbound pamphlet. In good condition, on aged paper, with manuscript shelfmark at foot of title-page. Uncommon. No copies at the British Library or at Doctor Williams's Library, and only four copies traced on COPAC.

2pp., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly aged paper, in a windowpane mount. It gives him 'much pain' to refuse the recipient's 'kind and friendly invitation': 'My Sundays for 12 Months are engaged. I fear some kind friends forget I am a settled Pastor & not at liberty to accept one twentieth of the Invitations I get. I have only a few Sundays which I feel I can consistently spend away from home - & these are generally engaged several months in advance'.

1p., 4to. In good condition, on a lightly aged and worn leaf removed from an album. The poem is twenty lines long, arranged in five four-line stanzas. The first stanza reads 'Dear Sister, Christian Heroine! | Stranger to me thy form & voice - | I venerate that zeal of thine, | And while I blush, for thee rejoice'. The second stanza is somewhat heretical: 'Nor Male nor Female is in Him | Who Born of Woman, both hath sav'd: | She conquers every terror grim, - | She thousand deaths for Him has brav'd!' The third stanza begins: '"A woman slew him:" Gideon'ss son'.

Both items good, on lightly-aged paper. LETTER: 2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In envelope, with stamp and postmarks, addressed to Baron at 48 Griffin Street, Wilton, Blackburn. He writes that he has 'been trying in vain to find the Nineteenth Century containing my essay - The Pound of Flesh'. He is 'pretty sure - but not absolutely - that it was in the number for May 1880'. The 'paper' is 'much more completely given' in his book 'The Wandering Jew', and he is enclosing a copy of a programme with an advertisement for the latter and another of his books, 'Demonology'.

Folio, 7 pp. Stitched into orginal brown wraps. In good condition, lightly dogeared and aged. On Britannia laid paper watermarked 'WE | 1833'. The minutes of the first meeting, and the copies of the two letters, are all signed by Pryce as chairman. The four pages of the minutes of the first meeting are headed 'Red Lion Aston Bampton Oxon. Novr 12th 1833'.

Five manuscripts items, 15pp., 4to (4), fol.(1); three printed items, 4to, some with MS. additions. The Manuscripts items are related to the printed and are as follows: a. List of Subcriptions recd towards building the Chapel at Brighton (names and amounts). [1820] - Total, £1591.11-; b. [Fol., partly detached at fold marks] List of subscriptions (name, place, amount, or just town or city for some reason) and donations, Aug. 1834. with crossings out and calculations, and a list including periodicals (as subscribers?); c.

12mo, 2 pp. In bifolium. Twenty-two lines of text, clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with thin strip from mount adhering to reverse of second leaf, which carries the address, a red wax seal, and docketing. On behalf of 'Mr Palmer of Carmarthen (late of Liverpool)', he is applying for 'a grant of Tracts for distribution in that town'. He concurs with Palmer that the tracts 'may be circulated there with great facility & made materially to serve the cause of Unitarianism'.

12mo, 2 pp. With mourning border. 42 lines. Text clear and complete. On aged and worn paper, with slight chipping to extremities. Herbert has not yet received Wyatt's 'promised letter', but wants 'to say one word [...] about the lighting of the Wilton Chapel. The Gap must be brought to the centre of the Ceiling before the works are completed, as Mr. Olivier wishes to give Eveng. Lectures to the Servants on different occasions & I thought a Corona in the centre would light the whole [...] I can quite trust to yr. Taste to choose one.

Dimensions of print roughly 17.5 x 13.5 cm. On original grey paper windowpane mount (28 x 23 cm). Engraved label (2.5 x 11 cm) beneath the print, with a couple of remarque-style illustrations. The print itself is good, although a little aged and spotted; the margins and mount being rather more heavily affected. Attractive and unusual item, the image changing when held up to the light. Two soldiers are shown dwarfed by the high ceiling of the chapel, which is decked with brightly-coloured flags. When held to the light the chapel is filled with the mourning congregation. Scarce.

12mo, 2 pp. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with thin strip of black mount adhering at head on reverse (not affecting text). He has received Thompson's note 'intimating to me the necessity under which the Revd Mr Lewis and the Committee of Union Chapel find themselves reluctantly placed, to refuse our deputation an opportunity of pleading the Cause of our Society on the present occasion'. Refers to the 'great liberality of the Members of the Union Chapel' and 'their attachment to the good Cause'.

It is a singular circumstance that no information whatsoever is available on the Heywood Brotherhood (whose President was the Reverend F. Gordon Mee) on the internet. The five items clear and complete on lightly-aged paper. All leaves of the three letters on the Brotherhood's letterhead (featuring the names and addresses of five of its officials). Letter One (2 pp, one 8vo and one 12mo, with small ink stain at head of first leaf): 18 November 1930. Ramsden asks to 'have the subject of the address you propose to give at our "Brotherhood Sunday" on Sunday, Nov. 30/30'.

From a collection of material relating to William Bragg, Printer, of Cheapside, Taunton, Devon. Printed on one side of a piece of wove paper, 22 x 27.5 cm. Grubby and lightly creased, with central spike hole, slight wear and loss to extremities, and 5 cm closed tear. Text clear and entire. Twelve lines of printed text, in a variety of types and point sizes, reading 'A Sermon, on behalf of the Home Missionary Society, will be preached at Paul's Meeting, Taunton, On Friday Evening, April 14, 1826. By The Rev. John Thomas, Minister of the New Chapel, Highgate.

12mo, 30 pages. In contemporary nonce-binding of brown boards tied with twine. Presumably incomplete, as sequential translations of only thirty psalms are present, ending with the hundred-and-fourth. Scarce: no copy in the British Library, and none on COPAC.

Four pages, 12mo. Very good, with strip of brown paper adhering at the head. Text clear and entire. A long letter, casting light on the effects on the English middle classes of the financial crisis of 1825. Clayton begins by thanking Procter for the 'card case'. He 'will gladly do any thing that may fall within [his] power, to assist the Associate Fund', but does not think that he can 'do much'. 'The times are such, that Cases of

On one side of a piece of paper roughly 22 x 14 cms. Good, apart from some repaired damage at head from scorching, resulting in loss to two lines of text. Title followed by the eight rules of the Society over twenty-one lines of text. At foot names of the sixteen members of the Committee (eight ladies and eight gentlemen), together with those of the treasurer and secretary. According to BBTI William Cowdroy Jr was a printer, publisher and newspaper proprietor between 1795 and 1824.

Three pages, small octavo. Good, though a little aged. He is having an exhibition of his 'new Mexican things [...] and teaching a small class' in Savannah. He is pleased that Woodward is going to Chapel Hill ('They need a breath of fresh air.'). The rest of the letter consists of an interesting assessment of the artistic situation in the area, beginning, 'In N.