HMS

163pp., 12mo. In a sturdy notebook, with brass clasp, covered in grey paper. Wright has written '4 | N W' on the front board. On the recto of the first leaf he gives the addresses of 'T', 'C', 'J', 'Adml Campbell' and 'Young'; and on the verso he writes the title 'DIARY OF THE WAR | VOLUME II', above the oval stamp 'SUPPLIED FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE'. He signs 'Noel Wright' at head of the recto of the second leaf.

13pp., 12mo. On three bifoliums and a last single leaf. On aged and worn paper. A semi-literate, but spirited epistle. Little is to be discovered concerning the identity of the writer. Addressed to 'My Darling Son' and signed 'good bye, be good, ever yours and yours alone William Kay', but with a few hints that the letter may not in fact be from a father to his son. Kay begins by stating that he is going to fulfil his promise and write 'a long letter'.

99pp., in 'Army & Navy Octavo Scribbling Diary (with a week on an opening) for 1910'. Good, on aged paper, in worn boards, with some preliminary leaves torn out, and a few childish scrawls by Irene and Pauline Knott (grandchildren of the author?) at beginning and end (not affecting text) . The author is intelligent and well-educated, pious and with a keen interest in sport, but there are few clues regarding his identity: his family is from Staines, and he trained at the Royal Naval College, Osborne. The itineraries of the two ships mentioned in this diary are as follows.

Manuscript diary of the purser of the Royal Navy Armoured Cruiser HMS Cornwall, describing Mediterranean and Baltic tours of duty (while Captain W. R. Hall was spying for Britain), with descriptions of golf and other sports and recreations. 'Letts's No. 46 Indian and Colonial Rough Diary Giving Half a Page a Day. 1909'. 12mo, 161pp. Good, on aged paper, in worn boards. Diary proper consists of 210pp., with entries on three-quarters (159pp.) of them (few entries for periods of leave), preceded by two pages with lists of family birthdays and of books read.

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.

Ten notebooks, nine of them 4to and the other folio, totalling in excess of a thousand pages. Not uniform. In original worn bindings, five with marbled boards and the others in full cloth. Internally all ten volumes are sound, with their texts neatly-written, clear and complete. Numbered 2 to 18 (lacking 1, 7, and 12 to 17). The dating of the diaries is as follows. ONE ('2'): 15 May 1867 to 1 September 1868. TWO ('3'): 4 September 1868 to 19 September 1870. THREE ('4'): 20 September 1870 to 7 September 1872. 'A diary written by "Albert Smith" G.M. & G.S.