BOER

See the entries for Milner and Ross in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Addressed to 'Dear Mr Ross' and with good bold signature 'Milner'. The subject of the letter is the philanthropic ‘settlement’ Toynbee Hall in Whitechapel, founded in 1884 by Canon Barnett and Henrietta (DBE), his wife.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On his letterhead of coronet and letter R. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. He is sorry to refuse the Duke, ?but I could not really take the chair at a dinner in aid of the Westminster Hospital Funds?, as he has ?promised Lord Cadogan to to [sic] act in that capacity in aid of [same?] Chelsea Hospital. Under these circumstances, I am sure you will excuse me.?

An attractive and apparently unique item of Victorian municipal typography, in the customary variety of fonts and point sizes. See Roberts’s entry in the Oxford DNB. (What particular connection, if any, he had with Northampton is not apparent.) 44 x 57 cm. A strip has been torn away from the top left-hand corner, resulting in the loss of the first two letters from the heading ‘COUNTY BOROUGH OF NORTHAMPTON’, otherwise in good condition, on lightly-aged and worn paper, with central vertical and horizontal folds.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Written lengthwise on back of 11.5 x 7.5 printed card. The side of the card with Roberts’s autograph is discoloured but in fair condition, but there is slight loss along the inner margin of the printed side, resulting in some loss of text. Roberts’ autograph reads: ‘I give my vote / Fred. Roberts. / India / 14th. April 1888.’ The printed text states that Caroline Constance Williams, aged 8 years, was the daughter of Band-Sergt.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient is the Harrow housemaster George Townsend Warner (1865-1916), father of the novelist Sylvia Townsend Warner, referred to as ‘Townsend Warner / Historian’ in a pencil note to this letter. Signed ‘Ian Hamilton’. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with a few pin holes from attachment of a no-longer-present enclosure. Folded twice. Possibly concerning shooting practice for the Harrow army cadets.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. On bifolium. A thin strip (no more than 1 cm deep) has been cut away at the head of the first leaf, with no loss of text, otherwise in good condition. Folded once. Written a few months after Wallace’s return from his duties as Private Secretary to the future King George V on his world tour on HMS Ophir, and during the Second Boer War. Wallace has just been struck by the thought that ‘though I returned the Volume on South Africa to the address in Victoria Street’ he forgot to give her his opinion of it.

See the entries for the two men in the Oxford DNB, as well as that of the subject of the letter, Sir Richard Temple’s eldest son Captain Richard Carnac Temple (1850-1931), the future second baronet. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Aged, with the gutter repaired with archival tape, and the reverse of the second leaf adhering to part of its mount. Headed ‘Private’ and addressed to ‘Dear Sir Richard’.

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium, folded once. In good condition. 29 lines of text. He thanks her for her kindness, ‘in the midst of your great sorrow’, in writing to inform the Robertses of her husband’s death. ‘We have often talked of you both, and wondered where you were living.’ He had thought it was ‘somewhere in the valley of the Thames, at least I thought you told me so when last I met you both walking in Regent Street - some 10 years ago’. After a brief comment on Tierney’s ill health, he recalls how ‘He, Alfred Torrens, and I sat next to each other at Mills School.

An attractive and unusual item, tastefully printed in green and red on both sides of a 30.5 x 60 cm strip, entirely covered in cream satin, and edged in silk ribbon, folding into a triptych each panel of which is 30.5 x 20 cm. In extremely good condition, all the more remarkable considering the ephemeral nature of the item. As folded into itself, the item has a front cover carrying the title in green ink, with a photograph of Kipling printed in red; and the back cover carries the royal crest of the Queen's printers Eyre and Spottiswoode.

1p, 4to. Written in pencil on a piece of tissue paper, stamped in one corner with leaf number 675. Aged and wrinkled, with fraying to edges, but text clear and complete. Folded twice. A scarce survival, such thin paper, used for security reasons, not faring well in the passage of time. The signature is Kemp's, the rest of the document being in a secretarial hand. An interesting document – which would seem to indicate that the British were employing a more conciliatory approach following Emily Hobhouse's revelations in her June 1901 report on British concentration camps.

In a luxury binding: navy-blue straight-grain morocco covers, watered silk endpapers, internal gilt dentelles and leather hinges. Initial calligraphic address by 'L.J.S.' mounted in card frame, followed by 14pp.of signatures (numbering in excess of 150), on the rectos of 14 pieces of gilt-edged card. In good condition, with slight wear to corners and at head and tail of spine.

For details of Harington's distinguished military career, see his entry in Who Was Who. The present collection, from his papers, is an interesting assemblage of ephemeral items, casting light on British Army practices at the time of the Boer War. Nineteen items. In fair condition, with some signs of age and wear. ONE: Duplicated orders in mimeograph of handwriting. Titled: 'Depôt Battalion | Orders for Reservist Companies passing through'. At end: 'By order | B St Clair-Ford Captain | Adjutant Depôt Battalion' and 'Green Point | 1st August 1902.' 2pp., folio.

1p., 8vo. A mimeographed document duplicating fifty lines of handwriting (that of Ferrar himself?). Embossed government crest at top left. A scarce survival, on aged and heavily-worn paper, with closed tears and slight loss to extremities, repaired with archival tape.

Printed in black and red on both sides of a 22 x 20 cm. piece of thick paper. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. One side carries the return, in a table with twenty columns, listing units, officers, warrant and non-commission officers, horses and guns. On the other side are two diagrammatic representations, the upper with names of various officers in a concentric rectangular design, listing the 'Staff Officers of Divisions and Brigades & Foreign Military Attaches, who marched into Bloemfontein 13th.

Photolithographically printed in black on one side of a 51 x 63 cm. piece of cloth, folding into a 16.5 x 11 cm. packet, in green printed cloth covers backed with card. In good condition, lightly-aged, with minor signs of age and wear. Cover reads: 'Transvaal. | (Major Jackson's Series). | Sheet No. 37. | Melmonth. | Field Intelligence Department. | Pretoria, 1901.' Signed in pencil on front cover 'G S Scovell | Cam Hrs.' In top left-hand corner of map: 'No. 37'. In bottom left-hand corner: 'Compiled in Surveyor General's Office - Pretoria underdirection [sic] of MAJOR H. M. JACKSON R.E. Mch.

Of the twelve items (all black and white), the ten small photographs are uniform at 7 x 9 cm; the portrait of Scovell is 21 x 13 cm., and the image of the Spion Kop battlefield 14.5 x 11 cm. Accompanied by a note by Scovell on a slip of paper: 'Relics of the S. African Campaign | 1901-1902 | belonging to G. J. S. S'. The ten small pictures and are in good condition, loose and in an envelope.

Photolithographically printed in black on one side of a 51 x 63 cm. piece of cloth, folding into a 16.5 x 11 cm. packet, in green printed cloth covers backed with card. In good condition, lightly-aged, with minor damp staining along outer edge of front cover. Cover reads: 'Transvaal. | (Major Jackson's Series). | Sheet No. 38. | Pomeroy. | Field Intelligence Department. | Pretoria, 1901.' Signed in pencil on front cover 'G S Scovell | Cam Hrs.' In top left-hand corner of map: 'No. 38'. In bottom left-hand corner: 'Compiled in Surveyor General's Office - Pretoria under direction of MAJOR H. M.

Educated at Haileybury and Sandhurst, Scovell was gazetted to the Cameron Highlanders in 1900 and served with the regiment in the latter part of the Boer War (his diaries for the period being among material offered separately). The present paper is well-written and the fruit of experience. Scovell's views were clearly well-received, as he was appointed deputy Director-General of Recruiting at the end of the First World War. For more information about Scovell, see his entry in 'Who Was Who', and his obituary in The Times, 29 April 1948. The present item is 32pp., 4to.

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, on lightly aged paper. He begins by telling him that there is 'no chance of an exchange to this Battalion, all were asked lately and said they did not wish to exchange to the 1st Battn.' He suggests that Scovell's 'best chance' is to 'fill a vacancy caused by a Promotion', in which case he may be 'brought in instead of their gazetting a youngster to us'.

72 stereoscopic views of aspects on the Second Boer War, numbered 1-72 inclusive, hence assumed to be a complete set, in custom-made box with image of a (soldier's) belt, with a motto, "For Empire Queen and Flag" within the belt-circle, and "South Africa | 1900, within the image and a motif, "Sun Sculpture" within a rising sun. [The National Army Museum catalogues one of 89 that they have as "produced by Works and Sun Sculpture Studios, 1900" for Underwood & Underwood.

2pp., 12mo. 25 lines of text. On aged and worn paper with slight loss at head (not affecting text). The letter begins: 'My dear Sir Redvers | I am ashamed to write to you about a personal matter at such a time, but this is, I think, a very strong claim. | George Peel, son of Lord Peel, in the Oxfordshire Yeomanry, has gone out to South Africa at his own expense, & wishes to be attached to any expedition which is sent to relieve Kimberley, because his sister is there.

2pp., foolscap 8vo. 54 lines of text. Good, on lightly-aged and worn paper. Addressed to 'The Hon. T. L. Graham, M.L.C., Prime Minister's Office, Cape Town.' Taylor begins by thanking Graham for his 'courteous letter' and is pleased to find that he has not been misunderstood. 'While siding with Dr. Smart it was on purely personal grounds that I wrote you. I cannot say that a number of your constituents differ from you; I do not know.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, with slight spotting to extremities, laid down on leaf removed from autograph album. 'I am sorry that we have missed each other on the occasions you have called. My time is much occupied & it is difficult to fix an hour before 6 P.M.

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.

All twenty-one slides bound in 8 cm glass squares, with the black and white images themselves in good condition and unfaded, with only one slide damaged (glass shattered in a corner, not affecting image). All with labels numbered 394.5.

12mo, 1 p. 6 lines. Clear and complete. Fair, on aged and slightly grubby paper, with strip of glue from mount on blank reverse, which has laid down on it a ten-line biographical newspaper cutting referring to Slade ('[...] one of the youngest major-generals on the Staff in the Army [...] His most recent appointment was that of Assistant Adjutant-General at Woolwich'). He is sending 'a missed lot of Soldiers autographs. Some that you already have may be useful in exchanging for others'.

4to, 2 pp. Thirty-nine lines of text. Clear and complete. Neatly and closely written. Begins by discussing two books recommended by Bower: Otto Hammann's 'World Policy of Germany' and a work by Sir Francis Younghusband. Hammann's book 'confirms what Sir Sidney Lee writes about the Kaiser's telegram'; he is pleased that Younghusband's, which he has not yet read, contradicts the story that 'Lord Ripon was prepared for such drastic measures'. He has been 'correcting the proofs of the 600-page history of South Africa which I undertook to write for Longmans Green five or six years ago'.

The two items rolled into tubes. The 'Crown Deep Ltd. Insurance Plan' carbon printed on one side of a piece of cloth roughly 44 x 102 cm. In good condition: slightly discoloured and frayed. The keyed entries range from '1 No. 1 Headgear & all appurtenances' to '77 Shed near Feedwater tanks', and include '69 Coolie Compound at Dam' and '57 Stable Boy's House'. The table of results of the 'milling tests', approximately 37 x 74 cm, is clear and complete on discoloured paper with closed tears at head repaired with archival tape.

4tp bifolium: 3 pp. Text clear and complete on aged and lightly-creased paper. The first page is headed by the crest of the City of London. Gives the timetable for the ceremony, and the routes to be followed by the holders of 'three distinct Cards [white, pink and blue] assigning seats in different localities'. 'The Prime Warden and Wardens of the Fishmongers' Company will present Lord Milner with the Freedom.

Very good, on aged and lightly creased paper. Six long letters to family in England written during a turbulent period in South African history. Affectionate, chatty, and written from a lower-middle-class point of view (Florrie: 'we always have an h[ou]r., when I change my dress for the afternoon after dinner'). Mostly dealing with family matters. Letter One (from 'Florrie', 4 September 1898, 'P.O. East London, South Africa', 4to: 4 pp): tells an amusing story about Birt, a cart and a goat. Letter Two (from 'Florrie', 11 September 1898, address as Letter One, 4to: 2 pp).