VERNEY

[‘He walked across Africa’: Verney Lovett Cameron, the first European to cross equatorial Africa from coast to coast.] Autograph Signature to conclusion of a letter: ‘V. Lovett Cameron / Commander R. N.’

Author: 
Verney Lovett Cameron (1844-1894), explorer who ‘walked across Africa’, the first European to cross equatorial Africa from Indian Ocean to Atlantic
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£76.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. A good large bold signature, with the autograph valediction of a letter. On one side of a 20 x 9 cm piece of wove paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: ‘Your’s [sic] very truly / V. Lovett Cameron / Commander R. N.’ See Image.

[Verney Lovett Cameron, African explorer.] Autograph Letter Signed ('V. Lovett Cameron'), with initialled postscript ('V. L. C.') to 'Mrs. Marshall', regarding difficulties in setting up a tennis club in Croydon.

Author: 
Verney Lovett Cameron (1844-1894), African explorer, the first European to cross equatorial Africa from sea to sea [Croydon; lawn tennis]
Publication details: 
9 December 1887. Kwinhata, Espom Road, Croydon.
£250.00

See Cameron's entry in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium with mourning border. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Having traversed the African continent from East to West in 1875 (the first European to do so), Cameron now turns his attention to the establishment of tennis club in Croydon. He has received a letter 'from Mr. Jaques about the tennis ground. The fencing is nearly finished and he seems in a hurry'. There is a problem however: lack of members.

[ Ralph Verney, 2nd Earl of Verney. ] Autograph Signature ('Verney') on an Exchequer receipt, as 'the Attorney to Sr Thos. Cave Bart.'

Author: 
Ralph Verney, 2nd Earl of Verney [ styled Viscount Fermanagh, 1743-1752 ] (1714-1791), British politician, Fellow of the Royal Society
Publication details: 
[ His Majesty's Receipt of Exchequer, London. ] 3 August 1756.
£135.00

1p., 8vo. On aged and worn paper, with loss to one corner. Verney's signature is large and bold, with a few light ink stains over the last letter. The document is laid out in the usual way, with printed text completed in manuscript. It begins (with manuscript text in square brackets): 'The [3d] Day of [August] 175[6] | Received by me [Ralph Earl of Verney the Attorney to Sr Thos. Cave Bart Assignee as P Margin]'. Recording a payment of £147, on an annuity.

Typed Letter Signed ('Willoughby de Broke') and Autograph Letter Signed ('W. de B.') to Ormsby-Gore, concerning his desire to 'write a history of the Die-Hard affair'.

Author: 
Richard Greville Verney, 19th Baron Willoughby de Broke (1869-1923) [William George Arthur Ormsby-Gore (1885-1964), 4th Baron Harlech; The Parliament Act, 1911]
Publication details: 
17 and 30 December 1913; both on letterhead of Compton Verney, Warwick.
£150.00

Text of both letters clear and complete, on aged, grubby paper. The 'Diehards' were a group of right-wing Conservative peers who attempted unsuccessfully to thwart Liberal legislation to limit the right of veto of the House of Lords over Commons legislation. (See G. D. Phillips, 'The Diehards: Aristocratic Society and Politics in Edwardian England', Cambridge, Mass., 1979.) TYPED LETTER: 17 December 1913. 4to, 1 p. He is going to try to write the history of the affair '[b]efore things fade altogether from my memory', and asks if OG has 'any papers, or letters, or diaries'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Verney') to Rev. Charles William Tonyn (d.1805) of Radnage, Bucks.

Author: 
Ralph Verney (1714-1791), 2nd Earl Verney, politician
Publication details: 
12 April 1784; Curzon Street, London.
£200.00

8vo: 1 p. 7 lines of text. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper, with the address on the reverse of the second leaf of the bifolium, to which Verney's red wax seal adheres. A graceful letter of thanks. 'It gives me no small satisfaction to think that my general Conduct has hitherto merited your approbation.' Informs Tonyn of the date of the general election. Verney would lose his seat, and with it his immunity from prosecution for debt, forcing him to flee to France.

Autograph Letter Signed to [Cuthbert Sharp].

Author: 
Sarah Otway Cave, Baroness Braye
Publication details: 
12 July 1844; 14 Great Stanhope Street, May Fair.
£100.00

Sarah, late heiress of Sir Thomas Cave, Bart., of Stanford Hall, Leicestershire, and then wife of Henry Otway, became Baroness Braye in her own right in 1839. She died in 1862, aged ninety. 3 pages, 8vo, the first page with a mourning border. In good condition with the reverse of the second leaf attached to a docketted piece of paper.

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