GEORGE

None of the three items appears to have been published. They are in fair condition, on lightly-aged and worn paper. First poem: Headed 'By Dr. MacOubrey' and signed 'Wm MacOubrey' at foot. 1p., 12mo. Five four-line stanzas, and a four-line chorus, with a couple of minor corrections. The first stanza reads: 'Away! Away nor strive | To tempt me from the bowl | Away! and let me live | This night without control'. This followed by the chorus: 'Then quaff the Wine, | Spirits of Joy | Oh! Sense Divine! | Without Alloy!' Second Poem: Untitled. 2pp., 12mo.

On one side of piece of 27 x 38 cm paper. Aged and heavily-creased, with central closed tear. A printed document, with engraved portrait of King George IV in the top left-hand corner, completed in manuscript and signed by Wellesley and three others, with fading to the manuscript parts. The document is headed: 'To all People to whom these Presents shall come Greeting.

On one side of a 16 x 20 cm piece of light-green paper, removed from an album. In good condition, lightly-aged. Thalben-Ball's signature is the upper of the two, and reads 'To | [bar of music in 3/4 time] | G. G. Thalben-Ball | 22. v. 41'. Parry's signatuer is towards the centre of the page, and simply reads 'Parry Jones.' From album which also contained the signatures of many performers at the Denbigh Eisteddford in 1939.

On one side of a 5 x 8 cm piece of paper, cut from a letter, and backed with card. In good condition, lightly-aged, with the top two corners rounded. Reads: 'I am | Gentlemen | Your very obed Sert | [signed] Geo Combe'.

An interesting collection, casting light on media attitudes to the British Royal family and news management in the interwar years. Dawson was clearly mindful of publicity. As his entry in the Oxford DNB explains: 'It was Dawson who composed on a menu card the celebrated lines, ‘the King's life is moving peacefully towards its close’, having modified this from what he described as "a very commonplace" final bulletin used for Edward VII.' Penn's attendance during the King's final illness was controversial: it was later revealed that he hastened his end with morphine and cocaine.

1p., 8vo. On yellow paper. On lightly-aged paper, with slight wear and creasing along one edge, and thin stub from previous mounting adhering to the reverse. The poem is twenty lines long, arranged in five stanzas, and signed at the foot 'George Steele Seymour'. Beneath this, in Seymour's hand: 'Special greetings to Mrs.

1p., 4to. 12 lines, in close, neat hand. Good, on aged paper. He received Brett-James's paper that day, and 'read it through all except some of the statistics'. He discusses the 'exceptional' nature of Middlesex, college maps and the difference between the estates held in Hendon and Edgware by Alls Souls College, and 'some of our Midland estates'. In the second paragraph he comments on 'letting values in Tudor times', 'the effect of the depreciation of coinage' and 'the awful meddling with currency between 1543 and 1548'.

2pp., 12mo. 40 lines. Bifolium. Good, on aged paper. The reverse of the second leaf carries half of a red wax seal, as well as the address to 'James Loch Esqr | Bloomsbury Square'. The letter begins: 'My dear Loch | Some friends of mine from the Country are desirous of seeing Lord Stafford's & Lord Grosvenor's pictures some time next week; & they understand that the obtaining of Tickets is not a matter of course but that some little interest is necessary.' He asks for assistance 'with regard to Cleveland House [...] for Mrs Johnston & party (about 5 or 6 persons)'.

On one side of a strip of wove paper, 46.5 x 9.5 cm. Cut down. In fair condition, on aged and lightly ruckled paper. 96 lines arranged in 12 numbered eight-line stanzas.

1p., on 29 x 7 cm piece of unwatermarked laid paper (probably cut down), with no indication of printer or date. Printed with the long s. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. 64 lines, arranged in eight eight-line stanzas. The first stanza reads: 'BRITAIN! brave and generous nation, | Listen to my plaintive strain, | Tho' exalted be my station! | Day and night I sigh in pain; | Here I came a helpless stranger, | With no friend to take my part, | Braved the stormy ocean's danger, | From home for ever to depart.' She appeals to her 'Good Uncle' (i.e.

3pp., 4to. On bifolium. Very good, on lightly-aged paper, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to reverse of second leaf, which is addressed, with half of a black wax seal, 'For | Mrs. Richards | Bampton.' This copy was made within a month of the composition of the poem, for the wife of a fellow Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. The recto of the second leaf carries the following note by Mant: 'with Mr. Mant's best compliments to Mrs. Richards. | Oriel Coll. June 15th.

2pp., 4to. Fair, on aged paper, with a thin strip from a stub adhering to one edge on the reverse. Previously folded into a packet, and docketed in a contemporary hand 'by Agar Ellis'. 24 lines in heroic couplets. Agar-Ellis's sister Caroline-Anne would die at Roehampton on 12 May 1814, a month after the writing of this poem, which links her demise with that of their mother, Caroline, daughter of the 4th Duke of Marlborough, a few months before (23 November 1813).

The collection is of great interest, providing a mass of information regarding the Victorian building trade. The owner of the volume, W. H. Dudley, would appear to be a War Office official, and, as described at the end of this entry, it contains manuscript details of two contracts. The ten printed schedules - totalling [34 + 17 + 14 + 10 + 12 + 13 + 12 + 10 + 16 + 11 =] 149 pp., folio - are uniform in design and format, bound together in a contemporary half-binding, with brown leather spine and corners, and marbled boards. All ten are in good condition, on lightly-aged paper, in worn binding.

1p., 4to. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. Granville explains that 'Edmonds' (the economist Thomas Rowe Edmonds (1803-1889)?) asked him before the House of Commons Committee about giving Ricardo 'the evidence - the Committee saw it was quite irregular', but if Ricardo 'can manage to call on me at the Bd. of Trade tomorrow (Saturday) at about 12 o clock, I will show you what you want'. Postscript reads: 'Pray come at all events on Monday at one to the Committee'.

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Of great interest, as giving the informal position of the British Home Secretary on what was at the time the most important problem facing him. Granville would only last as Foreign Secretary for a week after writing this letter, as Russell's Liberal Government would fall on 27 February. Ironically, his elevation to the post of Foreign Secretary the previous Boxing Day had been due to Russell forcing Palmerston's resignation over his unauthorized recognition of Louis Napoléon's coup d'état. The letter is addressed to 'My dear Baron'.

Both Sylvester's letter and the copy of the letter by Starmer to which it is replying are in good condition, on lightly-aged paper, each with punch holes to one margin. Starmer, who at the time of writiing was proprietor of a large group of newspapers, had begun his career on the 'Northern Echo'; he had for many years been a Liberal member of parliament, standing down in 1931 due to ill health. Cober Hill Guest House was at that time an early experiment in what would become the children's home or retreat. For clarity's sake this description begins with the copy of Starmer's letter: 1p., 4to.

Consisting of a manuscript transcription of a document allotting portions of the forest 'for the exclusive pasturage of the Commonable Cattle', and an accompanying coloured map or plan on cloth. The whole folded into a 34 x 12 cm. packet, within a covering leaf docketed: 'Dated 8th. July 1856 | Extract from Award of Commissioners under the Whittlewood Disafforesting Act of 1855 -'. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper, but with the covering leaf heavily aged and discoloured. The transcription consists of 3pp., 4to, neatly written out on three stamped 41.5 x 34 cm.

While only a rough pencil sketch, the drawing is an attractive one, landscape on a piece of wove paper, 20 x 25 cm, with 'JESSUPS' watermark. In good condition, on lightly-aged and creased paper, folded into a packet for postage, with remains of red wafer. Beneath the drawing, in ink in a shaky contemporary hand: 'Lawn view from the backs of Mount Vernon | This is from the Orange Tree planted by himself.' The reverse carries the following note: 'I made the enclosed rough sketch of Mount Vernon the residence of Genl.

3pp., 4to. Bifolium. Mimeographed typescript in purple ink. In fair condition, on lightly aged and creased paper. Title page reads: '738 M. T. Company A. S. C. | 1917 | Programme. | Slip your Clutch. | A Revue | In Three Acts | by | 2nd Lt. J. A. Lincoln Reed.' The second page carries a 'Synopsis of Scenery': 'Act I A Village Green in Blightly | Act II Scene I - Mikra Bay | Scene II - Serres Road | Act III Interior of the Follies Bergeres Night Cafe Salonique (out of bounds)'. Also the announcement: 'The entire production by members of 738 MET.

12pp., 4to. On the rectos of 12 leaves, stitched with red thread into yellow wrappers with crude design of airplanes in action. From the papers of the Labour MP Tom Driberg, and with 'Mr Driberg' in pencil at head of front wrap. In a preface dated 21 August 1941 Knight refers to 'twelve fateful and ferocious months', and criticises 'a deplorable lack of vision and imagination everywhere.

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged grey paper. Gray begins by thanking the Colonel for allowing him to have a 'cursory glance' at his 1901 biography of his father the Liberal politician Hugh Culling Eardley Childers. Gray intends to get it 'from one of the Libraries & go over it more carefully. It is full of interest to me particularly the period of yr Fathers residence in Melbourne in Govr. Arthurs time whom he found intractable but liked Genl. McArthur whom I knew well & Col Neill with whom I often stayed at Hawthorn'.

On piece of paper 19 x 12 cm. Addressed by Pech on one side, with franks and black wax seal: 'London February twenty eight 1830 | J Richardson Esq | Heydon | Aylsham | N W Peach Norfolk'. The reverse carries the conclusion of Lytton's letter, in his handwriting: '<...> remember. - | Begging again to thank you my dear Sir, for your attention & to assure you of my Consideration & Esteem | I am, very sincerely yours | [signed] E. Lytton Bulwer.'

Letter: 1p., 12mo. On bifolium. On aged and worn paper with closed tears at foot and pinholes at head. Reads: 'Sir, | I return you the account of Burley with some Amendments which I think it requires, I dare say that when I have an opportunity of seeing your Work I shall wish to become a Subscriber.' The proof, with a few minor corrections in Winchilsea's hand, are 2pp., 8vo, printed on one side of a half sheet folded once to make a bifolium, with the first page on the recto of the first leaf, and the second page on the verso of second leaf. On aged and worn paper.

2pp., 12mo. 20 lines. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Asking Chorley if he would be one of '3 members for the committee which is to be set up to examine the powers of this House over its members relative to their attendance - that is probably not an accurate description of it, but I have not got the reference handy, and I think you will know what I mean!' The committee is to be appointed the following June, 'but Hendriks would be glad to have the names beforehand'. 'Wedgy Benn [William Wedgwood Benn, 1st Viscount Stansgate] and Lewis Silkin' have also been asked. From the Chorley papers.

2pp., 12mo; with the reverse folding out to make 1p., landscape 8vo, with the words 'CORONATION, 1911.' printed in red. The text begins on the first page beneath the firms letterhead: 'HOUSES LET OR SOLD. | RENTS COLLECTED IN ANY DISTRICT. | WEEKLY PROPERTIES MANAGED. | REPAIRS ECONOMICALLY EXECUTED. | DISTRAINTS LEVIED. | [...]'. The text of the announcement is headed, in red: 'SEATS TO VIEW . . . | THE CORONATION PROCESSION.' The first page reads: 'We have pleasure in submitting prices of Seats which we have To Let at | 41, KING WILLIAM STREET, E.C., | to view the Procession on June 23rd.

2pp., 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with unobtrusive spike hole. The letter begins: 'The Marchioness of Westmeath is much obliged to Mesrrs. Fitz & for the two Canisters of Cephalic snuff sent according to desire & requests they will be so good as to forward by the Bearer three or four more Canisters - Also a box of Pills made up exactly according to the enclosed prescription which Lady Wth.

3pp., foolscap 8vo, with the fourth page carrying the description of the document when folded into the usual packet. Bifolium. In fair condition, on aged paper. With embossed tax stamp and circular stamp in black ink dating the document to London, 24 September 1849. The agreement, on the first two pages, is 'Between George Hibbert of Albany Piccadilly in the County of Middlesex Esquire of the one part and George Krehmer of Albanyaforesaid Esquire of the other part.' It is signed 'George Hibbert', with 'Witness Charles Sprigges'.

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with minor traces of glue from mount. It would give her 'very much pleasure' to accept the invitation 'to join you & other dear workers in the Temperance Work you are planning for April, but I am sorry to say at present I am quite liad aside from all work'. She describes how she has been ill since the previous October.

2pp., 12mo. On bifolium. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with strip of tape from previous mounting adhering at the foot of the recto of the second leaf. He asks her to send 'cards for your afternoon Friday' to 'our dear friends Mr. and Mrs. Koecher (and the Misses Koecher)', who would 'enjoy every minute'. He gives the Koecher's address as de Keyser's Royal Hotel, Blackfriars, and ends by conveying his wife's love.

4pp., 12mo. Worn and stained on four leaves with wear to extremities resulting in slight loss of text, and with at least one leaf lacking. Parsons begins by informing Caswell that he is sending him a copy of the Examiner containing his article on 'Tennyson's Literary Career': 'It was sent to the Editor only a few days after the poet's death when I knew nothing about the title or contents of the new book of poems.' He discusses his plans to insert the article when he republishes his pamphlet (Parsons' 'Tennyson's Life and Poetry' appeared in 1892, with a revised edition the following year).