TOTNES

Vellum Deed, c.70 x 55cm, folded as usual, signs of age but text clear and complete, with town seal with small cracks but intact. The reverse contains a memorandum signed by the Mayor and his Burgesses: Totnes Guildhall viiith Sept.

13pp., 8vo. Stapled pamphlet on green-grey paper. In fair condition, aged and worn. In the introduction ('To my readers') Harvey explains that it is 'a keen sense of my duty to my fellow-countrymen in general, and to potential fellow-sufferers in particular', that has induced him 'to re-open a great and recent sorrow ['the untimely death of my beloved son'] by placing the details of my tragic and terrible experiences of a Nursing Home before the public'.

Letter One (12mo: 4 pp, to 'My dear Mr Nichols', good, on discoloured paper): Explains that he has given 'a note of introduction to a most particular friend of mine Mr Lawrence of Ipplepen near Totnes and Launceston Cornwall'. Lawrence 'was a great friend of the late Mr Arundel of Landulph' and is 'a great friend of Mr Bray of Tavistock'. He is 'a man of ancient Cornish descent & from its first families'. Spence thinks Nichol will find Lawrence 'a valuable West Country Correspondent, well up in County history and nothing loth in the pursuit of antiquarian lore[.