AFFAIR

1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged, with punch hole at top left. Receipt stamp at head. Addressed in autograph to ‘My Dear Walter’. Recipients formal name (‘The Right Hon. Viscount Mounkton of Brenchley’) and address at foot. He thanks him for his ‘line about Cumberland Lodge and for having a word with Oliver Franks on the telephone’. He understands Monckton’s ‘doubts whether the banks can give us practical backing, but even if they cannot I am most grateful to you for having taken time to consider it’. He adds in autograph: ‘& putting in a word for us.

[2] + 17pp, 8vo. Lacking the conclusion (one page). On seventeen leaves of paper stapled together, with covering typed note on slip, reading 'PLEASE RETURN TO MR. BIRDWOOD'. The covering leaf carries two sets of initials, one in pencil and one in ink, both ticked through. This may suggest official distribution, but the tone of the document makes it more likely to have been a personal statement, presumably by Birdwood. Aged and worn, with rusting to staples.

1p., on 15 x 17.5cm. Aged and worn, with loss to edges, and laid down on part of a leaf removed from an album. The usual printed text, completed in manuscript, recording a payment of £25. Note: An account of the 1699 Sarah Stout murder trial, at which Cowper 'called expert medical testimony, including the famous physicians Samuel Garth and Hans Sloane, together with the anatomist William Cowper (not related)' is given in his entry in the Oxford DNB.

16pp., 8vo. Disbound. In original grey-paper wraps, with title printed on front. In fair condition, on aged high-acidity paper. A few marks and a quotation in English in light pencil. Dated 12 August 1899, and signed (printed) at end 'H. RIALÈSE'.

Four pages, 12mo (letter), all items in good condition. He will fulfil his promise of some autograph letters, le plus notable et vivid, which had been relegated to the country but retrieved the day before. He describes a Michelet manuscript, notes taken après la lecture d'un ouvrage de M. Dupanloup before he became bishop. He discusses Dupanloup's character and achievements at length. He continues J'ajoute une lettre . . . Saul Meyer [NOT present] et une carte de visite . . .

Upper middle-class English writer (1916-74), editor of the 'Spectator' magazine 1947-9, biographer of Queen Mary, beaten to death by gay lover. The recipient (1912-82) was a writer under the pseudonym Alice Acland. Born Anne Acland-Troyte. Her first husband was Robert Egerton Grosvenor, 5th Baron Ebury, and her fourth Anthony Freire Marreco, the last survivor of the seven-strong British prosecuting team at Nuremberg, with whom she lived in Ireland. A series of camp, gossippy and revealing letters to a close friend.