JOHN

The context of the letter is explained in Maxwell’s entry in the Oxford DNB: ‘In the autumn of 1902 Maxwell was chosen by the duke of Connaught, then acting commander-in-chief in Ireland, as his chief staff officer at Dublin. There he remained until May 1904, when Connaught became inspector-general of the forces, and Maxwell followed him to London.

Taylor is noticed in his brother’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium, the second leaf carrying the address (‘R. S. MacKenzie Esqr / Chesterfield’), and a seal in black wax, beneath which is a corner of the leaf, cut away in opening the letter, the leaf also being annotated ‘James Taylor of Bakewell / author of “What is Money?”. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of brown paper mount along inner edge of second leaf. Good signature, with expansive flourish, ‘Jas Taylor’.

See the various entries in the Oxford DNB. Typed carbon copy. 1p, foolscap 8vo. Text complete, on aged piece of carbon paper, worn and chipped at edges. No signature. Addressed at foot to ‘E. F. Benson Esq.’ Thirty-one lines of text. He begins by stating that Benson, in his ‘work on Charlotte Brontë’, has ‘made a very correct study of her’. After discussing a point about Branwell Bronte, he states: ‘We cannot rely on Charlotte’s assertion that he knew nothing whatever of their ventures in publishing.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. On worn and aged paper, with L-shaped closed tear at left-hand edge. Folded for postage. Addressed to her at Bebington in the Wirral. Loose, smudged signature ‘St John Ervine’. He thanks her for her ‘letter and its enclosure, which I return. If I were to rebuke every cub reporter who wrote so stupidly as the young man to whom you refer, I should fill The Observer with my reproofs, apart altogether from the fact, that I should be giving the young man an exaggerated sense of his importance.

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. For the context, see the 1863 pamphlet ‘Clare versus the Queen’, in the slug to which John Clare (1820-1885) is described as ‘THE KING OF METAL SHIP BUILDERS’. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with folds. Docketed ‘Fitzhardinge / Lord -’. Signed ‘Fitzhardinge’ (sic). In a difficult hand.

See the entry on the Murray family in the Oxford DNB. In fair condition lightly aged and worn. Folded for postage, with short closed tears to the edges of central horizontal fold. Small biographical slip laid down at top left. Addressed to ‘Dear Colonel Fellows’ and signed ‘John Murray junr.’ Reads: ‘Our binders have done the best they can with your Volumes, short of rebinding, but as you know patching up leather bindings in a really satisfactory way is not easy. / However, I hope that you will be satisfied with the volumes which I am sending on to you today.’

See his entry, and that of Collier, in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, on worn and spotted paper. Folded twice for postage. The recipient is not named. Addressed to ‘Dear Sir’ and signed ‘C. M. Ingleby’. He offers ten pounds for ‘yr. copy of the Encycl: Metropolitana’, and will pay the carriage if he sends it. ‘I don’t actually want it: but its a good book, & I’ll give that as an investment.’ He will send a cheque, once he receives ‘a Post Card: with “yes” on it’. Ends: ‘Other matters in yr. excellent Catalogue I postpone.’

Weyman was, as his entry in the Oxford DNB states, ?one of the most popular and skilled of the historical romance novelists of the cloak and dagger school?. Oscar Wilde recommended (in all seriousness) Weyman's novels as reading for convicts. 1p, 16mo. In fair condition, lightly creased and worn. Folded for postage. From the collection of Rosemary Barron, autograph collector. Reads: 'Dear Miss Barron / I am sorry that your letter has remained unanswered so long but I have been laid aside by illness.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, on lightly aged and spotted paper. Folded for postage. The recipient is not named. Signed ?Bute and Dumfries.? ?I should with pleasure have renewed to you a general permission to shoot upon my lands in Galloway, but having this year restricted other gentlemen in the neighbourhood on account of the condition of my muirs, [sic] I feel myself under the necessity of confining my permission to you within those which [match?] immediately with Mr Adair?s.?

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Stuart was at the time actor-manager of the Adelphi Theatre, London. Both items in good condition, lightly aged, and folded for postage. ONE: 3pp, 12mo (the third page carrying a postscript written lengthwise). Bifolium. Begins: ?Dear Sir / I have a new play which I should like to read to you if you would care to hear it.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper, with rusting from a paperclip to both leaves. Addressed to 'Mr Texeira [sic] de Mattos' and signed 'S John E. C. Hankin'. He thanks him for the cheque and is sorry to hear that the recipient's 'great project has come to nought - at least for the moment'. He expects that de Mattos saw 'the Bankruptcy of the New Saturday duly chronicled? You were a true prophet. I gather it will pay nothing in the ?'. The New Saturday was a short-lived newspaper, going to the wall after a few issues in 1897.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. (BBTI has John Andrews with bookshop and circulating library at 167 New Bond Street from before 1831 to 1857.) 2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Extracted from an album, and with the gutter strengthened with archival tape. Otherwise in fair condition, lightly aged and worn. As a piece of business correspondence has a spike hole through the centre of both leaves, unfortunately also through the ?H? of the signature ?H L Bulmer?, which is little more than a scrawl, with corkscrew paraphe.

See the entries on Collier and Dilke in the Oxford DNB. The eight volumes of Collier?s edition of Shakespeare?s works were first published between 1842 and 1844, with the sonnets and other poems in the last volume. The Athenaeum carried a long review of vols.2 and 3 of Collier?s edition on 9 July 1842, and another dealing with the biographical element of the entire work on 2 March 1844. From this letter it is clear that Chasles intended to review the eighth and last volume containing the sonnets (and may well have done so). The present item is 3pp, 12mo. On bifolium.

See Mitford's entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 32mo. On first leaf of bifolium. Text complete on somewhat grubby and worn paper. The recipient (‘My dear Sir’) is not named, and the letter is signed ‘JMitford’. Closely written, with the result that a few word are difficult to decipher, unfortunately including the name of the subject. It reads: ‘My dear Sir / I can see no objection to you printing the lines that I return, as I presume they are but little known. / I think [Lang?] was a very good sort of Man, as well as a very [clear?] [shrewd?] one . .

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with thin strip of mount adhering to one edge. Folded for postage.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. (BBTI has John Andrews with bookshop and circulating library at 167 New Bond Street from before 1831 to 1857.) 1p, 12mo. Addressed on reverse of second leaf for delivery by hand ('wait') to 'Mr Wauchope / at Mr Andrews' / 167. New Bond St.'. In good condition, lightly aged, with unobtrusive central spike hole (for business correspondence) through both leaves. Reads: 'Dear Sir / Be so good as send me the vouchers of the Scrivener for 1827 agreeably with your promise, is there particular occasion for them today'.

See his joint entry with his father John Loudon McAdam (1756-1836) in the Oxford DNB. On slip of paper roughly 11 x 6.5 cm, cut from document. In good condition, lightly aged, and laid down on part of brown paper leaf from an autograph album. (Part of an autograph by ‘[...] Perry’ is on the reverse.) Good large disciplined autograph ‘James Mc Adam’ (with the initial ‘J’ closely cropped at the head and left-hand side), beneath which is written, in a contemporary hand ‘The Colossus of Roads’. See Image.

See her entry, and that of her husband, in the Oxford DNB. Black and white print postcard, on shiny paper stock. In good condition, lightly aged. Showing image of waterfall in thick foliage, with caption at foot ‘The Waterfall, Earby.’ Photographers’ details at bottom right.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, landscape 12mo. On bifolium of grey paper. The letter is complete, on what appears to be the upper half of a 4to bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with stamp, postmark and remains of autograph address on reverse of second leaf, with traces of mount. Signed ‘J A Fuller Maitland’. Begins: ‘Dear Sir / Very many thanks for your book, the second copy of which has just come. I shall hope to be able to come & hear your lecture on a subject which is especially dear to me.

3pp., folio. Bifolium. Addressed, on reverse of second leaf, 'To | Mrs. Squire, | Wragby, | near Lincoln.' In fair condition, aged and worn, with Middleton's seal cut away from the second leaf (without any loss to text) and a number of closed tears along creases. Seventy lines of neatly-written text. A letter filled with pious sentiment, beginning: 'Mr. Squire favored us To-day with a Call, and it gave us a peculiar Pleasure to see that he is so well recovered from that Fit of Illness in which my Brother & I saw him, notwithstanding the uncommonly severe Winter we have since had.

See the two men's entries in the Oxford DNB. Each of the two letters is 1p, 4to, with the Prince’s letter on the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium, and the Earl’s signed autograph copy of his reply on the recto of the second leaf of the same bifolium. Both leaves are discoloured and damaged, with wear and loss from infestation, but the two signatures and the area around them are good and clear. The document has been folded twice for postage. Strip of white tape along gutter of blank reverse of second leaf from mount. ONE (Frederick’s ALS): Fifteen lines.

See the two men's entries in the Oxford DNB. Stevenson was president of the Cambridge Union in 1928. The material is in good condition, lightly aged. ONE: Manuscript notice of vote. On one side of a piece of thick 8vo paper, with small nick at one top corner. At the head, one above the other, are the signatures: 'J. B. S. Haldane. / R. E. Stevenson / P. M. [Wright?]'. At the foot of the page, in a fourth hand: 'Ayes. 184. / Noes. 310.' TWO: Duplicated circular of typed notice. 1p, 12mo. Laid down on reverse of leaf carrying Item One. Headed: 'Cambridge Union Society / Easter Term, 1927.

An amusing and entertaining letter from a man destined for ‘une triste vie et une triste ministère’ (see his entry in the Oxford DNB). 3pp, 16mo. Bifolium. Thirty-seven lines of text, neatly and closely written. In fair condition, worn and grubby. Folded twice for postage. Signed ‘Fred: W: Robertson’. Begins: ‘My dear Miss Smith / Could you but see the piles of books & papers that are as yet only partially disinterred from their temporary coffins you would conceive my dismay and despair at your question. I will become a disciple of Comte to please you.

See the entries for Custance and Holmes in the Oxford DNB. According to the latter: ‘On his retirement in November 1910, Holmes published What is and What Might Be (1911), a condemnation of the existing education system, which stressed competition rather than co-operation, emphasized visible results, and demanded the mechanical obedience of the child. The book attracted wide public attention. [...] Shortly before his retirement, he became involved in the furore over the so-called 'Holmes–Morant circular', a highly confidential memorandum which he had issued in January 1910 to inspectors’.

Hood was married to the harpist Helen Patuffa Kennedy-Fraser (1889-1967), daughter of Marjory Kennedy-Fraser (1857-1930), the celebrated collector and singer of Hebridean songs. The two items are in good condition, lightly aged. ONE: Manuscript Letter Signed by ‘Ulster Scot.’ 1p, 8vo. Begins: ‘Dear Rev Sir / Glad to see you took up the “cudgels” on behalf of the “Ulster Scot.”’ The writer of the letter considers that the part played by this group ‘in building industry &c.’ was surpassed by their efforts ‘in cristainising [sic] and civilising the nations of the world’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. 32 lines, neatly written, including interpolations. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. Folded for postage. No signature and with recipient not named. Begins: ‘Sir / On my return from the Continent I find your letter which I should have of course acknowledged at once if I had been at home. / If the following particulars about myself are of any use for the purpose of your book they are quite at your service’. A thumbnail autobiographical account follows, beginning: ‘I am the eldest son of the late Revd.

See his entry, and that of Pettigrew, in the Oxford DNB. Easthope was a difficult employer, nicknamed ‘Blast-hope’. Dickens worked for him as a parliamentary reporter between 1834 and 1836. 1p, 12mo, on recto of first leaf of a bifolium. In fair condition, aged and discoloured. Reads: 'My dear Pettigrew / Will you please to leave out Lancaster letter which I'll send for tomorrow / haste / Yrs. / J E / Sunday'. The letter is addressed on the reverse of the second leaf, with slight loss to one corner from the breaking of the red wax seal. Black 'BARNET' postmark and customary frank in red.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Laid down by the four corners to piece of paper neatly cut down from a leaf of an album. Reads: 'Sir J. Barrow will thank Mr. Clowes to let him have the Art. on Egypt, as soon as set up, as he will have considerable alterations to make towards the

John Stanton Ward was a noted portrait painter, who resigned his membership of the Royal Academy in protest at the ‘Sensation’ show of 1997. See his obituaries in the Telegraph, Times, Guardian and Indpendent. Patric Dickinson has not received his due. A self-styled ‘poet and impresario of poetry’, Dickinson occupied a central position in the cultural landscape of post-war Britain.

See his entry, and that of Lady Ilbert’s husband, in the Oxford DNB. The three items in good condition, lightly aged, and folded for postage. ALS ONE (19 December 1910): 1p, 12mo. ‘I am sorry you have had domestic anxieties. They are the most poignant.’ He continues: ‘It would delight me to have a peaceful hour with you and Ilbert, without prejudice to Fisher and his wife.’ Signed ‘M.’ ALS TWO (2 July 1911): 2pp, 12mo.