VICTORIAN

Four pages, 4to, bifolium, some foxing but mainly good condition.The work was hugely popular, going through numerous editions between 1894 and 1907. The title is (deliberately) misleading. The work is an exploration of theological rather than biological questions, with the author stating that 'The How, Why, and Wherefore have not received the full amount of profound and reverent study that the ineffably intrinsic importance of the subject to ourselves warrants.' Lewis Carroll had a copy in his library.

A highly interesting letter from a leading Victorian dramatic critic (Thomas describes himself in the letter as 'For five & twenty years [...] theatrical critic of the Daily news & the Graphic', who has 'served under at least thirteen editors') to a leading actor-manager (Hare was knighted in 1907), on the subject of alleged editorial pressure on Fleet Street's theatre critics. 4pp, 8vo. On four leaves. Aged and worn, but with text complete and clear.

Eleven volumes, 1890-1900, each of around 50pp, 16mo. Uniform (but for a few decorative features) in grey printed wraps. The sixth annual report (November 1891) has an attractive frontispiece illustration of 'Proposed New Buildings, when completed'; the seventh (December 1892) has two plates showing the interior of the mission building 'when used as church' and 'when used as hall'. The other volumes each have frontispiece maps of the environs of the 'Mission Hall' and 'Missioners' House'.

4pp, 12mo. Bifolium with mourning border. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded once. Addressed to 'J. H. Lorrimer [sic] Esq'. He begins emphatically: 'Dear Lorrimer [sic] | I wish to state clearly, that I do not Exhibit in the Paris Exn. next year and that you are not to try to get any Picture of mine to send there.!!! | I think it necessary to write this, after yesterday's over-much talk on my part I think.

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with small trace of glue from mount at foot. Folded twice. Reads: 'Dear Madam | I have much pleasure in complying with your request & beg to remain | Yours faithfully | Charlotte H Sainton Dolby'. See her entry in the Oxford DNB.

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, the blank reverse of the second leaf laid down on a leaf removed from an album. Written in a hurried hand, with the meaning unclear in parts. The letter would appear to discuss the republican and Carlist insurrections against Amadeo I, the only King of Spain from the House of Savoy, who replaced the deposed Isabella II in 1870, and reigned until 1873. Froude begins by explaining that his silence has been due to the fact that he has been 'out of town for the Summer'.

2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. Folded twice. After thanking him for sending 'the card with Shelley's philosophic verse', he continues: 'I am sorry that you have so sad a memory connected with 1883 - the year gets with me sadder for the loss of friends and with hopes dashed too'. Nevertheless he looks forward, and hopes 'for pleasure in useful work for both of us'.

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium with mourning border. In fair condition, lightly aged, with traces of mount adhering to blank reverse of second leaf. Folded once.

2pp, 12mko. In fair condition, aged and worn, with slight discoloration along central horizontal fold. Addressed to 'Her Imperial & Royal Highness | The Duchess of Edinburgh'. Reads: 'Madam | At Windsor Your Imperial & Royal Highness was good enough to say I might send these specimens of labour performed in a field which is now not much frequented | Under cover of the permission thus accorded, I take the liberty allowed, and add my request that it may not entail the trouble of any acknowledgment | I have the honour to be | Your I. R. Highness's | most faithful humble servant | W E Gladstone'.

1p., foolscap 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged. On bifolium, folded twice into the customary packet, which is endorsed on the reverse of the second leaf: 'Dated 14th. June 1869. | The Right Honorable Lord Penrhyn | to | David Glynne Griffith Gentn | Commission as Lieutenant in the Royal Carnarvon Militia'. Added in another hand at foot: 'Gazetted 18th. June 1869.' . The twenty-three line commission of 'David Glynne Grifffith Gentleman (late Lieutenant 3rd. Regiment' is in a secretarial hand, signed at the foot by Penrhyn as 'Her Majesty's Lieutenant of the County of Carnarvon'.

2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged, and folded twice. Small blot affecting two words on second page. Unpublished. According to Pinney, Coates had started work as Kipling's secretary in June 1909. Written in a hurried hand, in parts difficult to decipher. The letter begins 'Dear Miss Coates | I enclose herewith a note for Moore [the Kipling's chaffeur] which will you please forward to his address.' Kipling suggests that if Moore should 'care to come down & vote at Burwash' he will 'pay his travelling expenses'.

On one side of 7 x 11 cm slip of paper, possibly cut down. In good condition, lightly aged, with stub from mount adhering. Reads: 'Have you any engagement on Tuesday 9th. (7/30) and will you come to a masculine dinner with | Yours always | W M Thackeray'. Addressed at bottom left to 'One Two Three Park Street Esqr.' The celebrated travel writer Richard Ford, best-known for his 'Handbook for Travellers in Spain' (1845), lived at 123 Park Street, Grosvenor Square, from 1849 to his death in 1858.

1p., 16mo. With mourning border. Aged and worn, with tear to one corner and glue stains on reverse. Signed 'Caroline Norton'. The recipient is not identified. The letter begins: 'Dear Sir | The Prince Schomberg having told me of some curious experiments in animal magnetism which you would make this evg. I called to ask permission to witness them -'. She will 'retract' her 'petition' if he has 'no other ladies present – or if the persons on whom the experiments are made, only speak German', as she 'will not be able to understand enough of what passes'.

1p, 12mo. Folded twice. In good condition. Presumably in response to a request for an autograph, the central third of the page carries Patmore's signature ('Coventry Patmore.') beneath a four-line quotation from Patmore's best-remembered poem, 'The Angel in the House': 'Spirit of Knowledge, grant me this: | A simple heart and subtle wit | To praise the thing whose praise it is | That all which can be praised is it!'

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. He thanks him for 'kindly sending the new Life and Habit' (i.e. Streatfeild's edition of the book by Samuel Butler), and he is 'delighted to have that extraordinary book in its fullest form'. The book has been carried off by a 'young man who works with me here', so Bateson has 'not yet seen the additions'. He is glad Streatfeild 'should have thought my reference to Butler worth quoting and I can't see any need for asking leave to quote'.

Two printed documents: the first carrying Major Graham's 'Memorandum' of 'suggestions respecting the mode of taking a Census in each of our Colonial Posssessions', together with his observations on the making up of 'Statistical Abstracts', a specimen 'Form of Return' and a covering letter; the second a circular letter from Earl Grey, instructing colonial governors 'to cause a Return of the Population of the Colony under your Government to be prepared'. For the background to these two documents, see A. J.

An apparently-unique Manuscript – signed by Lord Stanley as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, and dated from 'Downing Street, | 30: July 1842' – of what W. P. Morrell describes in his 'British Colonial Policy in the Age of Peel and Russell' (1966) as a 'Circular Dispatch to Governors of West Indian Colonies', regarding the 'Act to amend the laws for the regulation of the Trade of the British Possessions abroad' (5 & 6 Vic. c. 49). The document discusses the act with regard to 'the West Indian Colonists' and 'the British Possessions in South America and the West Indies'.

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with central vertical fold. The letter reads: 'Dear Miss Alice, | I am flattered to learn that you desire to have a Specimen of my Writing, - inartistic & illegible as it is, and I am truly glad to learn that you do not contemplate going from your native country next winter.'

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, aged and spotted. Reads: 'Dear Mrs. Epps, | I shall be very glad to see you and your party this afternoon; or, if I am not able to be with you, an assistant shall meet you in the hall at 3.'

On both sides of a 17.5 x 20.5 cm piece of wove paper cut from the first leaf of a letter, with 14 lines of text on the recto, and 20 lines of text on the verso. In fair condition, lightly aged, with two small labels used as mounts still adhering. Annotated at the head of the first page, in a small light hand, dating the letter by reference to Arnold's 'Memoirs', and explaining that the letter is written 'To Mrs. Arnold who gave me this | [?] from Her dear hand | Autumn 1860'. For the context of the letter see the Memoirs, 'Appendix C. | VIII. Tour in the South of France'.

3pp., foolscap 8vo. On a bifolium of laid paper. In fair condition, aged and worn. The first poem, 'Balooning [sic]', covers both sides of the first leaf. No evidence has been discovered that this poem was ever published, but it is inspired by the exploits of 'Mr. Green' in a humorous essay titled 'Ballooning', which appeared in Charles Dickens's 'Household Words' on 25 October 1851. The choice of two phrases ('pipes & backy' and 'Mounted Meershaums') is given in the present manuscript, these variants perhaps suggesting that this item is authorial rather than a transcription.

2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. With Cruikshank's splendid sprawling signature. Addressed to 'C. Le Motte Esq' and beginning: 'Sir, | Professor Wheatstone did not lay the wire across the Thames as he proposed to do, on account of the “Trawling” in that River and also finding some trouble in obtaining permission from the Lord Mayor – as “Conservator of the Thames” - In 1840 he had all the plans and apparatus ready – and in 1844 he in company with the Member for Swansea [i.e.

In very good condition, on 12mo leaf, with light horizontal folds above and below the signature. Clearly written in response to a request for an autograph. Excellent underlined signature, firm and bold, centred on the page, and reading: 'Matthew Arnold. | February 1st, 1868.' Arnold is one of the great Victorian poets, author of 'Dover Beach' and 'The Scholar Gypsy'.

4pp., 4to. Bifolium with mourning border. In fair condition, lightly aged, with short closed tears at edges of some folds. An excellent letter, indignantly countering what must be the most serious accusation one historian can level against another, that of making 'false quotations'. The recipient is not named, but from the context is undoubtedly the Headmaster of Rugby School, Thomas Arnold, who since the previous year had held the Regius Professorship of History at Oxford, and would die four months later, on 12 June 1842.

1p., 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: 'Hamaikamalama [sic] | Sunday Morning. | The King wishes to acknowledge Mr. Synge's Kindness in sending him the “Saturday Review”, which will be returned after perusal. - | The King & Queen regret they cannot accept Mr. Allan's invitation to be of the morning's riding party. - | To H. B. M. Representative'. For information on the recipient William Webb Follett Synge, see his entry in the Oxford DNB.

1p., foolscap 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged. On bifolium, docketed on reverse of second leaf: 'Dated the 9th. August 1870. | The Right Honorable Edward Gordon Lord Penrhyn | to | Lieutenant D: G: Griffith | Commission promoting him to be Captain of and in the Royal Carnarvon Rifle Militia.' Added in another hand at foot: 'Gazetted 16th. Augt 1870.' . The twenty-four line commission (appointing Griffith 'vice Kneeshaw resigned) is in a secretarial hand, signed at the foot by Penrhyn.

60pp., 8vo. In green printed wraps, the front cover carrying a dense illustration of scenes from various songs ('Kitty of Coleraine', 'Angel's Whisper', 'The Irish Wedding', 'Donnybrooke Fair', 'Low-Back'd Car' and 'The Wake'), with Tom Moore at the head, printed by Richard Born from a drawing by W. E. Earl. Title on cover differs slightly: '100 Songs of Ireland | Music & Words | The Popular Edition'. Eight-page publishers' catalogue bound in at rear. In fair condition, on aged paper, in aged and worn wraps.

The two letters in good condition, both laid down on pieces of card cut from an album.`ONE: ALS from 'Muley Ali Cherif H. de Wazan' to Lady Green. 1p., 12mo. Reads: 'Dear Lady Green | Thank you for the dog you were so kind as to send me. I find he is very good for hunting rabbits, a sport I am devoted to, It is most kind of you to promise to take care of him while I am away.' TWO: ANS from 'Muley Ahmed de Wazan'. 1p., 12mo. In purple ink. 'Dear Lady Green | I will arrange the affair you mentioned in your letter of yesterday. With compliments | Your's sincerely'.

The four letters are in good condition, with light signs of age and wear. Written in Payne's neat and mannered hand, and all four signed 'J Bertrand Payne'. For the background to the correspondence see Jim Cheshire's article 'The Fall of the House of Moxon', Victorian Poetry, Spring 2012. Payne was manager of the London publishing house Edward Moxon & Co., celebrated for their association with poets.

2pp., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Addressed to 'Leicester Buckingham Esq'. Bentley writes that the matter of Buckingham's life of Mary Queen of Scots is 'just now brought to [his] attention'. 'If you are passing this way any day between 12 and 2 o'C you will be sure to find me, or my son, who will be able to discuss the subject with you'. He finds that he 'paid to Mr Wageman for a copy of the Miniature of the Queen executed for yuou at your desire, £3 . 3. 0', and asks to be sent this.