Autograph Letters

12mo, 2 pp. 13 lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. His unnamed correspondent has 'done no end of good by rousing the attention of the Engineering World to the Portsmouth Question'. He is engaged on 20 April, and so will be prevented from availing himself of 'Col Grey's Offer'.

12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. 26 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with traces of blue paper mount adhering to the blank reverse of the second leaf. Apologises for being unable to 'attend a meeting of Managers of St. John's Schools' that week: 'Miss Wilbraham will be away from home the following week & Lord Skelmersdale does not arrive till the 20th.' Gives dates when he can attend, if his unnamed correspondent thinks it 'advisable to have the meeting without them'.

Letter One (Archbishop of Canterbury] 3pp., 12mo, approving Wigan's actions in the burial of the child whose baptism was irregular and defective. He was right to toll the bell, and depositing the body of the child in the churchyard. He wants time to consider the right steps in such an important matter for 'similar cases which perhaps may be brought forward .... Letter Two: This copy letter, a rough draft in Alfred Wigan's hand, explains the situation with the dead child of followers of Joanna Southcott. They were said to have no intention of asking for Burial ...

Four pages, 12mo, Hanbury asks some questions about a 'catalogue' [presumably of plants found in Kent] Shepherd has sent him. "With these few exceptions your capital list is perfectly plain & straightforward". He has questions about Trollius europoeus, Wrotham Waters, Hypericum Montanum ('a mistake here'), Geranium sylvaticum ('Are you quite clear about this? Watson's Topog. Bot. does not give it as Kentish at all'). He corrects him on a geranium he has shown him ('rare or rarer'), believes a mistake has been made placing Lathymus palustris in Ryash Woods ('northern plant').

The Earl of Darnley's four letters (all signed 'Darnley') total 27 pp in 12mo; Lady Darnley's eight letters (all signed 'H. Darnley') total 26 pp in 12mo. All items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Darnley's first letter, 16 September 1853 (12mo, 12 pp), is unusually blunt for the period, and revealing on the etiquette of the period. It begins: 'I trust that the change in your mode of addressing me was accidental, and I have therefore not imitated it, and have used one word which you omitted [presumably 'Dear'].

8vo, 4 pp. Seventy lines of text. Clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with the outer pages browned. The identity of the recipient is suggested by the following, written in the margin of the first page: 'Ces Dames vous supplient d'agréer l'hommage de leurs souvenirs. Mesdames de Vaublanc et veulent elles me permettre de leur offrir ici la mienne?' His correspondent is writing his memoirs, and de Marchangy considers that he has 'mille fois raison de vivre dans le passé, s'il vous console du present'.

Three pages, 12mo, some staining, but text clear and complete. In asking your consideration of the claims of the Childrens' Aid Society a Branch of the Reformatory & Refuge Union of which I am the President, I am not seeking your help for a mere experiment but for work which has been in progress now for nearly forty years with marked success.

12mo, 1 p. On bifolium. Thirteen lines of text. Clear and complete. Fair, on aged and creased paper, with slight rust marking from hooks. Semi-literate, and redolent of the area and period. He asks Devon (not Captain Thomas Barker Devon, RN, who had died in 1846) to 'pardon the Liberty I have taken in writen [sic]' to him. He knows 'the Great difficulty that Gentlemen have in Getting good made peal [sic] Flys and firm Tied ones', and is enclosing 'a few of my Own Making & you will Greatly Oblidge me by your Trying of them'.

One page, 12mo, bifolium, fold marks, good condition. Tamarton [sic for Tamerton] Church Tower & other Poems are now included in a volume called 'Amelia and other Poems.' It is published by Geo. Bell & Co. York Stret, Covent Garden. I do not know Mr Palgarve's address, but a letter to Macmillan & Co, his publisher would reach him.

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Forty-eight lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on aged paper. Begins 'One must needs be a churl indeed to be a laggard in his response to a letter containing words of so sweet breath composed as yours!' He thanks Baron for his 'kind & encouraging letter', and considers that an author 'has no keener or more lawful pleasure than to find that the errors of his song or tale has [sic] lodged (as Longfellow says) in the heart of some far-off and unknown friend'.

Seven items, all in very good condition on lightly-aged paper. Trevelyan's idiosyncratic and hypochondriacal character comes through strongly in this correspondence, ostensibly concerned with his application to become a magistrate, but largely devoted to the state of his health. ONE and TWO. Manuscript copies of short letters from Trevelyan to Thorp and the Duke of Northumberland. Both dated 22 October 1832, and both 4to, 1 p. Requesting 'a Dedimus, as a commencing Magistrate'. THREE. Manuscript copy of letter from Trevelyan to Thorp. 23 October 1832; Netherwitton, Morpeth. 4to, 1 p.

Three pages, 12mo, fold marks, tiny closed tears, mainly good condition. He is grateful that Granville has eased his anxiety. It relieves me from all uneasiness but in case you should consider it expedient to make The Queen's gracious intentions known to the R[oyal] Ag[ricultural] Society. I mention that their Council will be held on Wednesday next for the last time before the Easter Holidays. | The wish of the Society is made know by their question put relative to Hyde Park.

12mo, 2 pp. Twenty-six lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. Having examined Mrs Damon in her bed, he now finds her 'up & down stairs', and requests Coffin to 'kindly give her a look up & control her & force her to be an invalid for a few days'. Ends with the news that his wife is 'still most seriously & dangerously ill'. For some of Jones's many achievements see his entry in Who Was Who, and also his obituary, British Medical Journal, 4 May 1918, pp.521–522

12mo, 2 pp. Twenty lines. Text clear and complete. On aged and lightly-creased paper, with short closed tear at head. Begins: 'My Father & Grand Father & Family represented the City of Waterford for nearly 100 years before the Union. My Father represented the County off Wexford in the Imperial Parliament in 1806.'

12mo, 1 p. Mourning border. Twelve lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with small scrap torn away from top right-hand corner. By that evening's post, they have received 'the sad intelligence that my sister in law, Lady Camilla Sinclair has died at Thurso Castle'. Her brother Sir George Sinclair and his family 'are in great grief', and she is 'under the melancholy necessity of sending an apology' for cancelling 'our engagement to you which we had anticipated with so much pleasure'.

12mo, 1 p. Six lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. She will 'keep January free' for him, and they can 'arrange the details of programme later'. She agrees that 'a wholly-Brahms programme might be rather heavy'. See Florence's obituary, The Times, 7 November 1928.

12mo, 2 pp. Eighteen lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed to 'My dear Reed'. He thanks him for his note and is glad he likes the cartoon on 'the Educational Model'. He had 'been hoping the Tories would tread on the Nonconformists' toes to shut them up and now they have done it.' He doubts whether his agent has sold the original drawing, and is writing to him 'to let you have an offer if possible'.

All items clear and complete, on aged paper. Letters totaling: 4to, 1 p; landscape 8vo, 5 pp. The two cards carry long messages, written in red ink in Grubb's close, neat hand; one is standard size, the other 27 x 13.5 cm. Five envelopes are stapled to their letters. Grubb ('one of the last survivors of the famous 1960s Hampstead coterie of writers, actors and critics') writes entertainingly in an emphatic, energetic manner marvellously evocative of the 1970s London literary scene.

12mo, 2 pp. Ten lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Jones's letter has been forwarded to him, but he cannot give him 'the information you are seeking', so he has sent to letter on to 'Mr. of the British Museum, asking him to reply to it'.

One page, 8vo, sunned and grubby, two small chips, small closed tear, spike-hole (loss of two letters), text legible and complete bar two lost letters. A large cross in the white space means perhaps that the bookseller has dealt with the enquiry. "Lord Dynevor begs Mr Andrews will send him the first Voyage of Discovery by Captain Parry in Quarto, (he has got the second - but has lost the first) & whenever any account comes out of Captain Ross's present Expedition to send him a Copy directed to Dynevor Castle, Lan[?] S Wales, by the Paul Pry Gloucester Coach-| Half Bound in Linnen."

12mo, 4 pp. 41 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with slight discoloration to edges. 'It was high time that in England, whence so many mountain climbers and tourists go to the Alps, a protest should be raised against the ruin wrought in Switzerland by the construction of tourist railways up the slopes of the mountains'. Deplores the 'irretrievable harm' already done to 'some of the noblest landscapes in the world, [...] easily accessible from the populous cities of Central and Western Europe, such as those on the shores of the Lake of Lucerne'.

4to, 2 pp. Sixteen lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. He congratulates her on her 'success in the Saturday Westminster Essay Competition'. He is grateful to her for 'guessing that I should be interested in this work of yours after having plied my scalpel upon your novel "The Sword of Love".' He regrets that 'for many a long year' he has 'done no general reviewing outside the publisher's office. There the flood of MSS. that poured in furnished effectual occupation.

On rectangle of paper, 11 x 5.5 cm, cut from front frank. Aged and spotted, with closed tear at head repaired on reverse with archival tape. The whole in Amherst's hand, with his signature (as usual on frank) in bottom left-hand corner between two horizontal lines. Launched in 1805, the Pomone was a 38-gun Leda-class fifth rate Royal Navy ship, built by Josiah and Thomas Brindley at Frindsbury. She saw action during the Napoleonic Wars, primarily in the Mediterranean, and was wrecked off the Needles in 1811.

All 4to, with the letters totalling 22 pp, and the list of 'Funghi, East Kent' of 15 pp. All items clear and complete. Three leaves with light staining (one with short closed tear), otherwise all in good condition, on aged paper. All three in envelopes (lacking stamps), addressed by Clifton and with his seal in red wax. ONE. 4 October 1889. 4to, 12 pp. Begins: 'It seems a long time since we had a ramble on the Cuxton and Ralling hills from Cobham, and when I killed a viper; and I have been much amused at the apparent incredulity of a brother B.O.U. at the Dumpton Park rarities!

One page, 12mo, good condition. Thanks you very much for writing to me about my boo. It is always nice to hear from oone's readers and I am delighted to learn that both you and your husband found an hour's excitement in this otherwise rather dreary world. | Your good wishes are appreciated. Norte: Apparently Raymond/Chase/Grant only published More Deadly than the Male under the pseudonym Ambrose Grant so letters signed so may well be scarce.

One page, obl.12mo, fold marks, mainly good. ... It was king of you to write, and Iappreciate it. In candour, I ought to say that [William] Morris was a revelation to me also when I came to read him for the purposes of your brother's book [The Great Victorians pubd 1932, ed. Massingham and his brother]. He was one of the people I had taken as read. I was fairly overwhelmed by the profound insight of his later writings. | I agree with you about Chesterton's 'Chaucer'. I liked it very much indeed.

Total 19pp., 16mo-8vo, fold marks, slightly crupled but text clear and complete. (5 March 1967) he suggests a poignant and dramatic article on the abdication of the last Tsar, or an eye-witness account of the Russian Revolution (50th Anniversary), saying that he was in the British Emabassy at Petrograd - which he should have gathered from his novel Futility, adding there can't be many eye-witnesses of both [underlined] Revolutions aive today. He expalins in a postscript his reversion to an earlier ancestral spelling of his name, with 'e' added as in Shakespeare, Dante, etc.

Three pages, 12mo, in bifolium, black-edged, with original envelope, also black-edged,1.5 inch tear to fold, mainly very good. He explains that his father's illness and death (and consequent complicated affairs) delayed his response to Arkwright's letter. He thanks him for his advice as to my Preface & Introduction to Moore's Melodies [underlined; he edited a new standard edition of Moore’s Irish Melodies, 'The Spirit of a Nation' (1911)].

One page, fold marks, good condition. Please let me know when [underlined] you want copy for your paper. I will give you something but would like to have as much time as possible. I could send something now but might be able to send something better later on. I hope your special number will be successful.

All texts clear and complete. Autograph item with some creasing, otherwise in good condition on lightly-aged paper. Ten items signed 'Compton Mackenzie', and two ''. Eight of the items each one page of landscape 8vo; one 8vo, 1 p; another 12mo, 1 p; the autograph note 4to, 1 p; and the card 16mo, 1 p. The first item (4to, 1 p, in autograph) is dated 22 September 1948. Having met Brett-James he thanks him for sending the proofs of his war memoir 'Report My Signals' (London: Hennel Locke Ltd, 1948): 'I was much impressed by it, and supported it strongly for a Book Society Recommendation.