PORTSMOUTH

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 16mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Signed ‘W. L. Wyllie.’ He is sorry that he will be unable to avail himself of ‘the kind invitation to dinner sent me by the Master of the Salters Company’. He is starting for Norway on the last day of the month, and will not return until the end of July.

A scarce item: no copies on WorldCat or JISC, nor at the Caird Library, National Martime Museum (though the latter does have a signed print of one of the illustrations). Twenty-six broadsheet pages, on news stock paper, in shiny paper covers printed in red, blue and brown. Filled with illustrations and topical advertisements for everything from corsetry to bicycles, from a full-page one on the inside front cover for ‘Brickwoods Jubilee Brew / 4d. per Small Bottle in Public Bars’, to one on the back cover reading ‘On Review / United Ales & Stout Are Supreme’.

See his entry, and that of Swan, in the Oxford DNB. From the Swan papers. On both sides of an 11.5 x 9 cm card. In good condition, lightly aged, and with faint ink line at foot. Signed 'W L Wyllie'. Begins: 'Dear Miss Swan / Very many thanks for sending me the copy of Cape St Vincent. It is quite fine I will try if I cannot steal a bit for my big picture.' He turns to a 'roll' which is 'not long enough to make a panorama', but which he hopes to be able to 'drive round and look at' when the weather is warmer.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. With thin mourning border. Extraction from an album has resulted in some wear to the border at the right of the page: otherwise in good condition, lightly aged. Addressed to ‘My dear Major’ and signed ‘Thos Sabine Pasley’. He is sorry the recipient ‘can’t come on Wednesday’, but he has ‘the best possible reason for not doing so’. He asks to be remembered ‘very kindly to your father on that day’. He asks if he can ‘come on Wednesday week’, as he has engaged a family (illegible) to meet him that day.

The letter is 1p, 12mo, and is accompanied by the covering 8vo leaf, addressed to 'John Atkins Esqre | Duke Street | Westminster', with a second signature for franking. The covering leaf is endorsed: 'Admiralty August 21 1806 | Adml. Markham concerning Miles Burn that it would be impossible to get him reinstated'. Both letter and covering leaf in good condition, lightly aged and worn, with fold lines. Markham could hardly be more decisive.

Card with printed stamp. In fair condition, lightly aged. Central vertical fold line and two punch holes at head. Addressed to 'Dr. B. Guisburg | 18 King's Bench Walk | EC 4', with address corrected in another rhand to 3 Downside Crescent | Haverstock Hill | London | N.W.' Begins: 'Dear Dr. Guisburg, | I wrote you a letter – no a PC this morning, sending it to the Controller of Shipping Office St James' Park'. That being the wrong address, he now attempts to arrange a meeting for lunch.

1p, 12mo. In fair condition, aged and lightly creased, with typed biographical details at head. Reads: 'My dear Henderson, | If you have not made other arrangements we hope you Mrs H & Judy will join our Christmas party for dinner. We shall be a small party, | Yours sincerely, | E R Fremantle'.

On one side of a piece of laid paper, top half torn off and missing, leaving the conclusion of the letter. Roughly 11 x 17.5 cm. Thirteen full lines of text, with two partial lines along the tear at the top edge. A frail item, in fair condition, aged and worn. See Gifford's entry in the History of Parliament. The letter, apparently addressed to an individual at the Admiralty or the Treasury, concerns a part of the tortuous process of raising finances for the conversion of the Queen's House into the hospital.

1p., folio. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Addressed on reverse of second leaf, with postmark, 'To | Robert Eddowes Esqr | Ordnance Storekeeper | at | Portsmouth'. 24 lines of neatly-written text. An unusually emphatic communication, the possibility of fraud clearly being in the air.

2pp., 4to. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper, with slight tear to one edge. Cockburn is not named as the recipient, but the item comes from his papers. William (at the time the Duke of Clarence) writes that he is enclosing Moncrieff's letter, 'by which you will perceive he is acting foolishly not to use a harsher term. My determination therefore is when I arrive tomorrow afternoon at Portsmouth to be informed by you whether he sells or goes on the Half pay of a Colonel which is Fourteen Shillings and Six Pence pr: diem.

1p., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, with light signs of age. He is enclosing a cheque for two guineas towards 'The Frederic Fund', and writes that he had 'the pleasure of often meeting Mr Harold Frederic at the Savage Club some years ago'. He was 'deeply grieved to hear of his sad & untimely end'. He hopes enough money will be collected to be an 'appreciable help to his widow & children'. The letter relates to a celebrated Victorian scandal. In 1884 Frederic had come to England with his wife and five children as the London correspondent of the New York TImes.

On watermarked laid paper. Dimensions of paper: 23 x 32cm. Dimensions of plate: 14 x 20cm. In fair condition, aged and lightly stained, with creasing and short closed tear to right-hand margin, but with the engraving good and clear. A windy scene, with a turbulent cloudy sky weighing heavily over a disheveled windswept landscape, in which two small figures can be made out on a bridge. Inscribed in pencil beneath the plate: 'Oliver Hall | To R. Wallace | Ed: 40.' The title 'Hayling Island' is in pencil in the bottom right-hand corner.

Printed in black on both sides of a 36 x 53 cm piece of wove paper with watermark of 'W F & Co'. In very good condition, lightly-aged and folded three times. The 'Key Plan' is on one side, showing the disposition of the fleet on a map of the Portsmouth area, with a note of 'Foreign Men of War', 'British Battle Ships and Cruisers', '3rd Class Cruisers Gun Vessels and Torpedo Gunboats', 'Special Merchant Vessels', 'Destoryers & Gunboats' and 'Torpedo Boats'.

A substantial letter, 3pp., foolscap 8vo. 100 lines of text. Bifolium. In very good condition, on aged paper, with one closed along crease line neatly repaired with archival tape. Addressed on reverse of second leaf, with Chatham postmark, frank, and black wax seal, to 'Viscount Ingestrie M:P. | 2 Wilton Crescent | Belgrave Square | London'. An interesting document, in which a distinguished Victorian naval architect makes detailed criticisms of an innovation in his field. (HMS Gorgon was designed by Sir William Symonds and launched in 1837.

1p., 4to. Bifolium. Reverse of second leaf with wax seal, postmark and address to 'Mr. Mitchell | High Street | Portsmouth'. The letter begins: 'Mr Cust wishes Mr Mitchell to send up Master Custs best uniform coat & waistcoat, & if any difference from those he has got the Trowsers; as soon as possible.' He complains that the shirts 'do not sit quite neat about the collar', before listing more requirements: '1 Pewter hand Bason, & cup. | 2 Bars common soap. | 1 Packet Windsor Do. | 2 Pair of Braces | 2 Log Books size for 3 yrs | 1 Watch Bill Book | 2 Bottles of Ink.

12mo, 1 p. On bifolium. Thirteen lines of text. Clear and complete. Fair, on aged and creased paper, with slight rust marking from hooks. Semi-literate, and redolent of the area and period. He asks Devon (not Captain Thomas Barker Devon, RN, who had died in 1846) to 'pardon the Liberty I have taken in writen [sic]' to him. He knows 'the Great difficulty that Gentlemen have in Getting good made peal [sic] Flys and firm Tied ones', and is enclosing 'a few of my Own Making & you will Greatly Oblidge me by your Trying of them'.

Folio bifolium (dimensions of leaf roughly 32 x 20 cm): one page, with the reverse of the leaf and the whole of the second leaf of the bifolium blank. Unbound. Good, on lightly aged and creased laid paper with a Britannia watermark. Eighteen lines of text, mostly taken up with comments on the teaching at the College of Latin and Greek, followed by an 'Extract from the General Report transmitted to the Admiralty Office' with room for the Student's name, his date of admission, and progress in mathematics, English, Latin and Greek, History and Geography, French and Drawing.

8vo; 33 pp. In original blue printed wraps. On lightly-aged paper, with occasional foxing, in creased wraps. With the stamp of the Royal Portsmouth Corinthian Yacht Club. The entries for the eighteen nations listed on the second page have been ticked off in blue pencil, and the ships of two other nations (Canada and India) added beneath the list in manuscript. Listing the crews of the various ships, with seniority. Represented are both the U.S.S.R., with the 'Marat' ('Flagman 2nd Rank (Rear Admiral) - V. I. Ivanov (Commanding Officer)...

8vo: 1 p. Sixteen lines of text. The Tyrian arrived in Spithead the previous night 'with a Convoy', and the postal delay prevented him 'from fulfilling Mrs. P's Commission'. They 'remained three days in Ireland' and 'had a good passage there and Back': 'but as we may frequently have the trip, I shall keep it in Memory, I have bought over Two pieces. Enclosed are Patterns of Eight Yards each We call them Poplins, but these are Manufactured only at Dublin and by the Natives called '. States what he paid and sends respects. Docketed on reverse in a contemporary hand.

On both sides of a piece of aged paper watermarked 1855, dimensions three inches by eight and a quarter wide. Good, though a tad grubby, with traces of previous brown paper mount adhering to reverse. Recto reads '[tick] H.C.L. | [in another hand] App? | [signature] . Captain | in Comd of Division. | [in another hand] [signature] C M Collins | 1st Class Asst. Engineer | [in another hand] [signature] Gilford | Lieut in Comd. | [in another hand] Approved for necessary Defects | to be made good. | [signature] G F Seymour | Vice Adml. and Commr. in Chief'.

Title: "Whereas the Honble Navy Board in their [Letter?] of the 31 Ult: have been pleased to Communicate to me the Severall Articles following which have been laid before my Lords of the Admlty by Cap Geo. S. Lo Comr of his Majs Yard at Plymouth [later known as Devonport] , being such as have Occurred to his Observation Since his residence there, and wherein he conceived his Majs Service hath much suffered" Three pages, small folio, some marking but text clear and complete. Text: Namely: Ist.

Naval officer and Conservative politician (1846-1919), nicknamed 'the member for the navy'. Dimensions roughly 5 1/2 inches by 9 inches. In poor condition: browning and with several closed tears. Reads: 'From the older Charlie to the younger Charlie may all good luck attend you fighting for tariff reform national defence and relief of the unemployed Beresford'.