SHERBORNE

[The Sherborne Mercury, or Weekly Advertiser, Dorset's first newspaper, a printed periodical predating The Times.] Number for ?Tuesday, April 29, 1740.?

Author: 
The Sherborne Mercury, or Weekly Advertiser, proprietor William Bettinson (d.1746), Dorset's first newspaper
Publication details: 
?Tuesday, April 29, 1740.? (Vol. IV, No. 167.) ?Printed at SHERBORNE, by WILLIAM BETTINSON, from LONDON.? [Dorset.]
£180.00

An important provincial publication, predating The Times by half a century. See the Oxford DNB entry of the later proprietor Robert Goadby, and the article by Roger Guttridge, ?Dorset?s first newspaper?, in ?Dorset Life?, August 2019. 4pp, folio. On two leaves, which originally formed a bifolium, but have now become detached from one another. Aged and worn, with chipping to extremities and along central horizontal and vertical folds, resulting in occasional loss of text.

[Sherborne Academy, Ransam House, Sherborne, Dorset (John Kidd, Principal).] Printed card, with lithographic illustration of the building, and details of masters, terms and those to whom references may be sent (including the actor W. C. Macready).

Author: 
Sherborne Academy, Ransam House, Sherborne, Dorset; John Kidd (c.1834-1891), Principal; William Charles Macready (1793-1873), distinguished actor
Publication details: 
[No date, but between 1861 and 1868. Sherborne Academy, Ransam House, Sherborne, Dorset]
£100.00

A nice piece of Sherborne ephemera, in unusually good condition. Between 1855 and 1860 Ransam House had been used to board boys from Sherborne School. ‘The Sherborne Academy’ to which the present card refers was run by John Kidd (c.1834-1891), FRAS, MCP, at Ransam between the end of 1861 and 1868, when it reverted to Sherborne School. The present item is printed in black ink on both sides of a x cm piece of white card. In very good condition, lightly aged.

[ Littleton Powys, second-eldest of the Powys family, Sherborne schoolmaster and naturalist.] Four Autograph Letters Signed (all 'Littleton') to the journalist Collin Brooks ('Collin'), mainly regarding his late wife the novelist Elizabeth Myers.

Author: 
Littleton Powys [Littleton Charles Powys] (1874-1955) of the Powys Family, teacher (Sherborne) and naturalist [his wife the novelist Elizabeth Myers (1903-1947); Collin Brooks (1893-1959), journalist]
Publication details: 
All four letters from The Quarry House, The Avenue, Sherborne, Dorset. (The first on a letterhead of the address.) 5 May, 20 August and 10 September 1948; and 28 April 1949.
£420.00

Four good letters, in which the author's love for his wife and grief at her death are apparent. Littleton Powys was the second-eldest of eleven, his siblings including writers John Cowper Powys, T. F. Powys and Llewelyn Powys, architect A. R. Powys, artist Gertrude Powys, lacemaker Marian Powys, and poet and novelist Philippa Powys. His autobiography 'The Joy of it' was published in 1937, with the sequel 'Still the Joy of it' appearing in 1956. The four letters are in good condition, lightly aged. They total 12pp., 12mo.

[William Charles Macready, celebrated actor, friend of Charles Dickens.] Autograph Letter Signed ('W. C. Macready.') [to 'Hawtrey'], regarding Prince Albert, the education of the poor, and the recipient's brother's school.

Author: 
William Charles Macready [W. C. Macready], celebrated actor, friend of Charles Dickens [Hawtrey; Sherborne, Dorset ]
Publication details: 
Sherborne House [Dorset]. 31 May [no year, but before 1860].
£120.00

4pp., 16mo. Bifolium with mourning border, on paper embossed with the Macready crest. In fair condition, lightly aged, with torn hole to one corner of the first leaf (not affecting text), presumably caused by removal from mount. The recipient is clearly a member of the Hawtrey family (and presumably a relation of Edward Craven Hawtrey of Eton), as the letter concludes with the Macready family's best wishes 'to Mrs. Hawtrey'. It must date from before Macready's departure for Cheltenham in 1860.

[ Littleton Powys, second-eldest of the Powys family, Sherborne schoolmaster and naturalist.] Three Autograph Letters Signed (all 'Littleton') to the journalist Collin Brooks ('Collin'), mainly regarding his late wife the novelist Elizabeth Myers.

Author: 
Littleton Powys [Littleton Charles Powys] (1874-1955) of the Powys Family, teacher (Sherborne) and naturalist [his wife the novelist Elizabeth Myers (1903-1947); Collin Brooks (1893-1959), journalist]
Publication details: 
All three letters from The Quarry House, The Avenue, Sherborne, Dorset. (The first on a letterhead of the address.) 5 May and 20 August 1948; and 28 April 1949.
£420.00

Littleton Powys was the second-eldest of eleven, his siblings including writers John Cowper Powys, T. F. Powys and Llewelyn Powys, architect A. R. Powys, artist Gertrude Powys, lacemaker Marian Powys, and poet and novelist Philippa Powys. His autobiography 'The Joy of it' was published in 1937, with the sequel 'Still the Joy of it' appearing in 1956. The three letters are in good condition, lightly aged. They total 8pp., 12mo. The main topic is the correspondence between the recipient Brooks and Powys's wife Elizabeth Myers, which would feature in Powys's 1951 edition of her letters.

[ Horace Annesley Vachell, English author. ] Typed Letter Signed ('Horace Vachell') to theatre historian Barry Duncan, including anecdote about his naked brother under the 'luncheon table'. With carbon copies of two letters from Duncan.

Author: 
Horace Vachell [ Horace Annesley Vachell; H. A. Vachell ] (1861-1955), English author [ Barry Duncan [ Horace Alexander Barry Duncan ] (1909-1985), London theatre historian and bookseller ]
Publication details: 
The Priory House, Sherborne, Dorset. 16 July 1953.
£56.00

1p., 8vo. In fair condition, aged and worn. He begins with regard to a change of address ('Widcombe Manor - where I was overhoused and understaffed - is for sale.'), and continues with reference to a booklet ('I chuckled over the illustrations'),as well as his book 'An Impending Sword' (written 'in the naughty nineties, long before I met Dot Boucicault, whose experiences were then unknwon to me'), and the Princess Royal. He concludes: 'I never heard the yarn of the man who stripped himself. I can cap it. My brother, Arthur, vanished from the luncheon table.

Card carrying Autograph Inscription to Charles Wilson.

Author: 
Alec Waugh (Alexander Raban Waugh, 1898-1981), English novelist, elder brother of Evelyn Waugh
Publication details: 
31/07/48
£23.00

On one side of the card. Dimensions, 8.5 x 11 cms. Very good. Neat inscription reading 'For Charles Wilson | with Alec Waugh's best wishes | July. 31. 1948 /.'

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