SCARBOROUGH

[Sibell, Lady Wyndham (previously Countess Grosvenor).] Autograph Letter Signed (‘Sibell Grosvenor’) to the opera singer Madame Albani, discussing the death of her father-in-law the Duke of Westminster.

Author: 
Lady Wyndham [previously Sibell Mary Grosvenor (née Lumley, daughter of the Earl of Scarborough), Countess Grosvenor] (1855-1929), wife of George Wyndham [Dame Emma Albani (1847-1930), opera singer]
Publication details: 
‘Epiphany [6 January] 1901’; on letterhead of the Chief Secretary’s Lodge, Phoenix Park, Dublin.
£60.00

See the entry on her second husband George Wyndham in the Oxford DNB. Wyndham had been appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland a few months previously (October 1900). His plans were ambitious, but after some success they would flounder, leading to a nervous breakdown: within four years of the present letter the Prime Minister Arthur Balfour would write to Lady Wyndham that was ‘utterly ruined’ and ‘really hardly sane’. See also the ODNB entry on the recipient. 4pp, 12mo, with text concluding crossways at top of first three pages. Bifolium with mourning border. In fair condition, lightly aged.

[The man who saved William of Orange from capture: Brigadier General Henry Lumley.] Autograph Signature (‘H Lumley’) to Exchequer receipt for £25. With signature of witness John Letton.

Author: 
Brigadier General Henry Lumley (c.1658-1722), army officer and Member of Parliament, brother of Richard Lumley, first earl of Scarborough; John Letton
Lumley
Publication details: 
12 January 1716. [His Majesty's Exchequer, London.]
£120.00
Lumley

See his entries in the Oxford DNB and History of Parliament, the former of which notes his ‘high reputation for courage’ and his presence ‘at Neerwinden and Landen in 1693, covering the retreat on 19 July, and saving William III from capture by the enemy’. 1p, 8vo. On aged and worn paper, with chipping to edges and pitting along a horizontal central line, but with both signatures clear and unblemished. The customary printed document, completed in manuscript. Records in a secretarial hand, the receipt of £25 by ‘Hen: Lumley Esqr. attor to the Rt.

[Lawrence Dundas, 1st Marquess of Zetland.] Thirty-three Autograph Letters Signed (all 'Zetland') to the portrait painter Shirley Slocombe. With eight letters from Lady Zetland, and drafts of two of Slocombe's letters and two accounts by him.

Author: 
Lawrence Dundas (1844-1929), 1st Marquess of Zetland, of Aske Hall, Richmond, Yorkshire, British Conservative politician [Charles Llewellyn Shirley Slocombe (1872-1935), portrait painter]
Publication details: 
Twenty-two on letterhead of Aske, Richmond, Yorkshire; eight on letterhead of 10 Arlington St, London SW. The other eleven from various addresses. Between 1897 and 1911.
£450.00

The collection is in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Zetland's letters total 26pp., 8vo; 19pp., 12mo; 1p., 16mo. The theme is the painting and engraving of a portrait of Zetland by Slocombe, and the correspondence casts an interesting light on the relations between patron and artist in late nineteenth-century England, with the drafts of Slocombe's two letters, and his accounts for painting and engraving, adding to its value.

Typed Letter Signed ('A J Sylvester') from Lloyd George's private secretary A. J. Sylvester [Albert James Sylvester] to Sir Charles Starmer, regarding 'Mr. Lloyd George's visit to Cober Hill Guest House'. With copy of Starmer's typed letter.

Author: 
A. J. Sylvester [Albert James Sylvester] (1889-1989), Secretary to three Prime Ministers, David Lloyd George, Andrew Bonar Law and Stanley Baldwin [Sir Charles Starmer; Cober Hill, Scarborough]
Publication details: 
Thames House, Millbank, SW1. On House of Commons letterhead. 12 May 1933. Copy of Starmer's reply dated the same day.
£80.00

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.

Autograph Letter in the third person to 'Mrs. Eldridge'.

Author: 
Lady Cathcart
Publication details: 
10 December [no year, but late nineteenth century]; on letterhead 'THORNTON-LE-STREET NEAR THIRSK'.
£23.00

Three pages, 12mo. Creased, foxed, and with traces of archival tape adhering to blank reverse of second leaf of bifoliate. Formal letter in the third person, requesting the return of 'Mr. Charles Cathcarts clothes, when they have been disinfected, directed to Prince of Wales Terrace Scarborough'. He is 'pretty well, and she thinks the change & sea air at Scarborough will most likely restore him to his usual health'. He 'would be glad to get his clothes as soon as they are considered quite free of infection'.

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