MARYLEBONE

A very nice item relating to one of the greatest and best-loved of all cricketers: his signature to a scorecard of his final innings in first-class cricket, in which he scored a hundred, accompanied by a newspaper cutting describing the event. Official scorecard with serial number, printed on both sides of a 24 x 12.5 cm piece of card. Priced at twopence, and headed: 'This card does not necessarily include the fall of the last wicket | 2d. Lords [MCC device] Ground | Middlesex v. Surrey | Saturday & Monday, August 28, 30, 1937. (Three-day Match.)'.

The Greville Memoirs caused an uproar on its publication in 1874. Queen Victoria described it as a 'dreadful and really scandalous book' which should be 'severely censored and discredited'. Disraeli characterised its author as 'the vainest being—I don't limit myself to man—that ever existed; and I don't forget Cicero and Lytton Bulwer […] when he was not scandalous, he was prolix and prosy—a clumsy, wordy writer […] a more verbose, indefinite, unwieldy affair, without a happy expression, never issued from the pen of a fagged subordinate of the daily press'.

18pp., 12mo. Unbound stapled pamphlet on grey paper. The cover carries the names of officers. The pamphlet also features lists of 'Prize Medallists' (boys, 1867-1889; girls, 1869-1889), 'Prize Children', and pupils commended for 'Attendance', together with the programme for the concert, including the words of numerous hymns and songs sung, with names of participants. No copy of this or of any other of the school's Christmas Programmes has been traced on either COPAC or OCLC WorldCat.

The five items, which would make for an attractive display on the theme of Victorian education, relate to the Hampden Gurney Schools, which were founded in 1863, in the newly-named Hampden Gurney Streeet, as a memorial to the recently-deceased Rev. John Hampden Gurney (1802-1862), Rector of St Mary’s, Bryanston Square. The school is now the Hampden Gurney Church of England Primary School, and is located in Nutford Place. ONE: Metal circular medal, 3.75 cm in diameter. In very good condition.

12mo, 4 pp. 64 lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. He was 'mistaken about the Marylebone Election - Having been a prisoner so much lately' he had 'not seen many electors & those whom I saw thought it was too late & regretted to see a split in the liberal party'. He 'did not influence a single vote being too unwell to take any part in it'. He 'left town to escape the excitement'. He has 'already troubled our new Representative with a little Parliamentary Business', and is sending Wyld 'some documents on the same subject by the Book post'.

On watermarked paper roughly 13 x 20.5 cm. Dimensions of image 9 x 13 cm. With plate mark. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. Loosely attached to brown mount. Rare eighteenth-century cricket print from the June 1793 issue of the 'Sporting Magazine'. Cardus & Arlott state, in their 'Noblest Game' (1969), that 'This print, once barely considered, has lately become rare'.

12mo, 1 p. Bifolium. On aged and foxed grey paper. Reads 'June 20th | Dear Barnes | Selection Committee will be pleased if you will play for England v The Rest at Lords 29th. | Yours faithfull | [signed] Hawke'. Hawke was an England selector between 1899 and 1909, and Barnes, one of the finest bowlers in English history, made his international debut in 1901. I'm sure someone will tell me if this was Barnes's first game for England.

Item One: Manuscript of requisitions by Farrant the purchaser's solicitors Ashurst, Morris, Crisp & Co of 17 Throgmorton Avenue, London E.C. Dated 31 July 1895. Titled 'Requisition Title [and Replies] | Trustees of Archer Burton Estate to R. E. Farrant | 3 [corrected to '2'] Park Square West'. Three pages and covering page, on one side each of four leaves each 41.5 x 34 cm. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged and grubby paper.

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.

Politician and rugby player (DNB). The five letters all one page, 16mo, and each with two staple holes and in good condition. The autograph poem is on a printed bifoliate menu for the Cricket Society Spring Dinner (6 April 1962), 16mo, slightly discoloured. The letters relate to various Cricket Society Dinners. He agrees to attend the 1961 Spring Dinner at the Lords Tavern, but his private secretary P. Barling declines on his behalf an invitation to the autumn dinner as he is out of the country recovering from an operation.