40 Autograph Letters Signed to him from various "old shipmates", mostly senior naval figures; with 9 portrait photographs, a photograph of the Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert and the seal in red wax of the Royal Hospital at Greenwich.

Captain Charles Dickson Inglis, R.N. (born c.1835; fl. 1898), is best known for his offer in 1887 to buy South Georgia in the Falkland Islands for the purposes of sheep-farming. This collection of his correspondence is neatly bound in a crude octavo volume, and is preceded by a manuscript index by him. Items in good condition overall, with minor discoloration and spotting, mainly caused by the glue used in mounting the photographs. All the letters are 8vo and smaller, several of them being cropped at the head, but with the cropped strips loosely inserted. The photograph of the Royal Yacht, 4¾ inches by 6¾, is a good one, and does not appear to be a studio shot: side view of the yacht at sea, with rowing boats and others in the foreground. It is loosely inserted and unmounted, and docketed in pencil on the back. The other photographs are around 3½ inches by 2. Several of the subjects are in dress uniform. The red wax seal, around an inch across, is clearly stamped and in good condition, the paper to which it is affixed being docketed 'Greenwich Royal Hospital | King William 4th. gave G. Hospital the right to use the two naval flag [sic] in the crest'. The correspondence shows Inglis to have been highly respected and well liked, and is mainly concerned with his efforts to gain promotion from his position as Gunnery Officer on H.M.S. Marlborough. 'I have never known any officer or person more ardently devoted to his Profession and to the service of his Queen and Country' states Houston Stewart in a certificate. Several letters relate to his application to join the 'Captain', 'an ironclad still fully rigged as a sailing ship'. A letter from the wife of the individual chosen over him, Burgoyne, speaks of his 'generous conduct' and of Burgoyne's 'fear of having stood in yr. way'. On this occasion at least Inglis was not unlucky: the 'Captain' sank with nearly all hands in three minutes in 1870. Correspondents: Inglis's mother (1 letter); Admiral Thomas Brandreth (4 letters with photograph); 'Bristol' [Marquis of?] (1 letter, on Carlton Club letterhead, loosely inserted); Mrs Burgoyne (1 letter ('concerning my not going in the "Captain"') with photograph of her and photograph of her husband, Hugh Talbot Burgoyne, 'Lost in "Captain"'); Sir William Dickson, Bart (1 letter sent to Inglis's mother in 1858, with remains of envelope bearing penny red postage stamp); Admiral Ewart (1 letter); Admiral Arthur Fanshawe (1 letter to Dickson, forwarded with note to Inglis's mother, and one letter to Inglis); Captain Charles Fellowes (1 certificate); Rear Admiral Charles Frederick (1 letter with photograph); Captain Robert Hall (1 letter 'about my promotion'); Captain R. S. Hewlett (2 letters); Lord Frederick H. Kerr (5 letters with photograph); 'Marlborough' [Duke of?] (1 letter with front of envelope bearing penny stamp); Admiral Sir William Fanshawe Martin, K.C.B. (2 letters, the second 'on the capture of the "Guilaume Tell"', with photograph)Admiral Beauchamp Seymour (1 letter); Admiral Robert Smart (2 letters with photograph); Admiral Sir William Houston Stewart (1 certificate and 5 letters with photograph and photograph of wife and child); Captain Tryon (1 letter). Also included are letters from Inglis to Lieutenant F. B. Renshaw ('Lost in the "Captain"', a 6-page letter: 'I was writing this the night the "Captain" sank') and to his mother ('about my not going in the "Captain"'), and a manuscript transcription, 3 pages, 8vo, of an article in the United Service Gazette, 26 December 1863, entitled "Our Fleet in the Piræus". The lot,