SISTER

See her entry and her brother?s in the Oxford DNB. The item is from the collection of Irish nationalist autographs assembled by Miss Burgess of Norfolk in the 1890s, who has endorsed one leaf in her distinctive hand ? ?Post Mortem? / By Fanny Parnell?. Undated. 3pp, 4to. On two leaves of paper with Dollard watermark. Poem of twenty-eight lines, in seven stanzas, titled ?Post Mortem?. From a comparison with a letter in the National Library of Ireland certainly not in Fanny Parnell?s hand. A fair copy, with one mistake (corrected) confirming transcription: ?loveliness? for ?loneliness?.

An unusual survival, the letters of a composer, Harold Jervis-Read, to his lover illustrating the growth of a relationship (and an ability to express his feelings) against the backcloth (sometimes foreground) of his musical activities, and his marriage. Total of letters circa 350 (three hundred and fifty) Autograph Letters, 118 (one hundred and eighteen) apparently complete letters (many start and end abruptly), dated, 432 (four hundred and thirty two) pages, with some APCSs, mainly 12mo, 1-8pp. each, 55 of these letters dated 1933 and 30 dated 1934, 1926-1928 comprising one letter only.

15 + [1]pp., 8vo. Drophead title. In good condition, lightly-aged, no wraps, disbound. Poetic dialogue in Tennysonian blank verse, beginning: 'First Peer. - This measure, every session comes to pass | By large majorities the Lower House; | And every year, of course, we throw it out, | But only by a bare majority.

RIGHTS OF WOMEN MARRIAGE LAW DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER

According to the diarist Sir Edward Walter Hamilton, the second reading of the Divorced Wife's Sister Bill caused 'great excitement'. Due to clerical opposition, the Bill did not reach the statute book until 1907, and even then in a limited form. These seven items provide an interesting glimpse into the inner workings of the Victorian legislative process. All are clear and complete, and docketed by Dalhousie in red. All in fair condition, with various degrees of aging.