CAROLINA

An interesting item in the social history of the Royal Navy, indicating the financial anxieties many naval widows were under. The Battle of the Delaware Capes (or 3rd Battle of Delaware Bay) took place on 20 and 21 December 1782, between the Royal Navy frigates HMS Diomede, Quebec and Astraea and the South Carolina Navy's 40-gun frigate South Carolina, the brigs Hope and Constance, and the schooner Seagrove. The British won, with the Seagrove the only ship that got away. 2pp, foolscap 8vo.

A valuable artefact of the American War of Independence: a leaf from a British War or Colonial Office ledger detailing payments to officials in General Leslie’s administration in Carolina in 1782.

16pp., 4to. Stapled. In fair condition, on aged paper a little rolled at head and foot. Bowers' article, 'an attempt to understand the workings of Shakespeare's tragic effect', is on the first seven pages. He has inscribed the head of the first page: 'For Harry Levin - | With my compliments - | Fredson Bowers'. From the papers of the American critic Harry Levin (1912-1994). Now scarce.

Items Two to Four are in good condition, on aged paper; with Item One worn and creased, repaired with strips of white paper. Items Three and Four are attached to one another by a stub, and all four items show evidence of having been removed from a letterbook. Items One and Four are statements describing Lady Nairne's financial affairs, with Items Two and Three letters to Spring Rice and the Civil List committee on the matter, the first anonymous and the second by Lady Nairne's solicitor John Mackenzie Lindsay, Writer to the Signet.

Three pages, small octavo. Good, though a little aged. He is having an exhibition of his 'new Mexican things [...] and teaching a small class' in Savannah. He is pleased that Woodward is going to Chapel Hill ('They need a breath of fresh air.'). The rest of the letter consists of an interesting assessment of the artistic situation in the area, beginning, 'In N.