SCHOOLDAYS

[‘I have got hold of a rascally bad pen’: Thomas Hughes, author of the Victorian children’s classic ‘Tom Brown’s Schooldays’.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Miss Stead’, responding to a request for an autograph.

Author: 
Thomas Hughes (1822-1896), author of the Victorian children's classic 'Tom Brown's Schooldays', Liberal MP and judge
Publication details: 
24 October 1871; on embossed letterhead of the Athenaeum club, London.
£80.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and folded twice for postage. One corner very slightly cropped. Signed ‘Tho. Hughes’. In response to a request for an autograph he writes: ‘My dear Madam / I have only just returned to town where I find your note, with the request contained in which I have much pleasure in complying & sending you my signature below, though it is not a good specimen as I have got hold of a rascally bad pen.’ See Image.

[Thomas Hughes, author of ‘Tom Brown’s Schooldays’.] Autograph Letter Signed to Sir Spencer Ponsonby of the Lord Chamberlain's Office, introducing ‘Mr. Selway’, whom he advises him to consult about proposals for a theatre in Surrey Gardens.

Author: 
Thomas Hughes (1822-1896), author of the Victorian classic children's book 'Tom Brown's Schooldays', Liberal MP for Lambeth [Sir Spencer Cecil Brabazon Ponsonby-Fane of the Lord Chamberlain's Office]
Publication details: 
19 March 1872. No place.
£220.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged. On first leaf of a bifolium of wove paper. Folded for postage. Signed ‘Tho. Hughes’. Begins: ‘My dear Ponsonby / Let me introduce the bearer, Mr. Selway, [i.e. William Robbins Selway (c.1822-1893) of Walworth] who was vice Chairman of my Committee in Lambeth, & is one of the most influential & trustworthy men in the South of London’. Selway wishes to see Ponsonby ‘about a building in the Surrey Gardens which certain persons are proposing to convert into a Theatre’.

[ Privately-printed item. ] Early Memories for the Children | By the Author of "Tom Brown's Schooldays."

Author: 
[ Thomas Hughes (1822-1896), author of 'Tom Brown's Schooldays' ]
Publication details: 
London: Thomas Burleigh. 1899. 'For private circulation only.' [ Barnicott and Pearce, Printers, Taunton. ]
£180.00

[4] + 78pp., 12mo. In original grey-green printed wraps. Presentation inscription on fly-leaf, dated January 1907. The volume comprises three pieces. First, an untitled memoir, with footnote at end: 'My father begun [sic] this autobiography at the request of my brother Jack, and after his death did not continue it.'; second, an account of a street fight between a policeman and a 'bone-picker', titled 'A Street Adventure, 1845'; lastly, 'The Working Men's College'. Four copies on COPAC, but now uncommon.

[ Thomas Hughes, author of 'Tom Brown's Schooldays'. ] Autograph Signature on part of letter.

Author: 
Thomas Hughes (1822-1896), English lawyer and judge, author of 'Tom Brown's Schooldays'
Publication details: 
Place not stated. [ 1873. ]
£25.00

On 3.5 x 16.5 cm piece of paper, cut from the end of a letter. Ruckled and lightly stained, with small closed tear (not affecting signature). Good firm signature. Reads: 'Kindest regards to your wife | Ever most truly yours | Thos Hughes'. At bottom left: '1873'. Same year printed on reverse, which carries more autograph text by Hughes, written at right angles to the text on the other side.

Autograph Note initialled "T.H." to unknown correspondent (a Mr Morland?)

Author: 
Thomas Hughes, author of "Tom Brown's Schooldays"
Publication details: 
No date (1826?}
£56.00

Autograph Note initialled written by Hughes in the space above the beginning of another's letter to him (the reverse mentions a Mrs Morland, suggesting the correspondent is a Mr Morland), slightly grubby and signs of wear,c.6 x 1". An autograph collector has snipped the Hughes note off the letter (rest now lost) and stuck it in an album from which I have removed it. A date has been added in a different hand (1826) and the note runs as follows: "Be good enough to pay £5 for me to the Vaudois or Waldenses, at Hoare's [Bank]. They were the first germ of Protestantism.

Autograph Letter Signed "M.A. Hughes" to Richard Twining,jun., Banker and Tea Merchant (see DNB

Author: 
Mrs M.A. Hughes, author, grandmother of Thomas Hughes, central to the literary society of her day.
Publication details: 
No place, 24 Sept. [1807].
£350.00

Three pages, 4to, but cross-written, making six pages of writing, sometimes hard to read, small piece of letter with a few words detached but present. Mrs Hughes is her usual informative, authoritative, lively and intelligent self, initially discussing the British disaster at Buenos Ayres. being unable to think of "a worse planned or more ill-fated expedition" in which the dead were "sacrificed". She attacks the commander, the Duke of York, in no uncertain terms: she hopes it's not a crime to wish him out of a world to which he he'd done so little good.

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