WILTSHIRE

[The Great War, Royal Army Medical Corps: A Medical Officer In Charge on the Western Front.] Typescript of Diary of Captain William John Henry, describing his service attached to the Royal Garrison Artillery, Wiltshire Regiment and Rifle Brigade.

Author: 
The Great War: Royal Army Medical Corps; Captain William John Henry M.B. Ch.B.; British Army; Royal Garrison Artillery; Wiltshire Regiment; Rifle Brigade; Battle of the Somme; Ludendorff Offensive
First World War
Publication details: 
Vols 1-3 cover the period 27 August 1915 to 12 July 1916; Vols 4-8 the period between 31 January 1918 and 7 June 1919. On the Western Front in France, with leave in Britain
£4,000.00
First World War

It is hard to do justice to this vivid, informative and well-written 250,000-word account of the author's First World War service as Medical Officer In Charge attached to three regiments on the Western Front, present during the Battle of the Somme, Kaiserslacht and Hundred Days Offensive. It is hard to conceive of a better account of the day-to-day activities of a member of the Royal Army Medical Corps on active service during the Great War.

[Sibyl Colefax [Lady Colefax], interior decorator and socialite.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Sibyl Colefax') to 'Mrs. Fox Pitt', offering to do the interior design for the Old Mill Hotel, Harnham, Salisbury.

Author: 
Sibyl Colefax [Sibyl, Lady Colefax, née Halsey] (1874-1950), interior decorator and socialite [Mary Fox-Pitt, proprietor, the Old Mill Hotel, Harnham, Salisbury]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Argyll House, 211 King's Road, Chelsea, SW [London]. No date.
£56.00

2pp, 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded once. The letter concerns Colefax's offer to do the interior design of the Old Mill Hotel, Harnham, Salisbury, whose proprietor was Mary Fox-Pitt, daughter-in-law of Augustus Pitt Rivers. Begins: 'Dear Mrs. Fox Pitt | Lady [?] told me to write to you, & she has also told me of your exceedingly interesting plan of making an ideal Hotel near Salisbury.' Colefax boasts that she knows 'all that neighbourhood so well'. She feels the hotel 'would be a wonderful boon to everyone who lives there'. She now comes to the point.

[Andreas Andersen Feldborg, Danish author.] Three Autograph Letters Signed, in English, to Rev. Edward Duke, regarding his English and continental travels,friends (Sir Richard Colt Hoare and Walter Scott), works. With two printed subscription lists.

Author: 
Andreas Andersen Feldborg (1782-1838), Danish author in England, friend of Robert Southey, teacher of English at University of Göttingen [Edward Duke (1779-1852), antiquary]
Publication details: 
The three letters from Germany. 'Frankfort on the Main'; 18 January 1826. Göttingen; 30 December 1826 and 12 March 1827.
£500.00

Feldborg is mentioned several times in Southey's correspondence, and at one point contemplated translating Southey's life of Nelson into Danish. See Duke's entry in the Oxford DNB. The three letters are in fair condition, a little brittle and lightly aged and worn, with a closed tears along fold lines. The third letter has loss to second leaf from breaking of seal. Excellent energetic letters, giving a good indication of Feldborg's character and the circle he moved in while resident in England.

[ Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne. ] Secretarial Letter, signed 'Lansdowne | &ct. &ct.', to 'Sec[retar]y. of Commission', containing a list of 'the names of [Wiltshire] Gentlemen to be added to the Magistracy'.

Author: 
Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice (1780-1863), 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne [ Lord Lansdowne], Whig statesman
Publication details: 
Bowood [ Bowood House, Derry Hill, Wiltshire ]. 20 December 1861.
£65.00

3pp., 4to. Bifolium. In good condition, on aged and lightly-worn paper, with a few minor rust stains. Addressed on reverse of second leaf to the Secretary of the Commission of the Peace. In the hand of a secretary, and signed by Lansdowne. Addressed by Lansdowne on reverse of second leaf 'Sec[retar]y. of Commission'. Docketed: 'Decber. 20th 1861 | Wilts | Ld. Lansdowne recd several | <?> all but the 2 parsons'.

[ William Maskell, connoisseur and book collector. ] Autograph Letter Signed, inviting an unnamed recipient and 'Mr. Stokes and Mr. Ayre' to visit him and view his book collection.

Author: 
William Maskell (1814-1890) of Broadleaze near Devizes, Wiltshire, Roman Catholic convert and liturgical scholar
Publication details: 
Broadleaze [near Devizes, Wiltshire. 15 September [1886?]
£120.00

2pp., 12mo. In fair condition, on aged and lightly-discoloured paper with wear to one corner. Year of writing unclear. The letter suggests a time for a visit by the three men. Regarding Ayre and Stokes he writes, 'I can only hope they will not form too high expectations of seeing most wonderful books: but such as they are, some few must prove of interest.' He concludes by giving an address to which he will send letters should 'this not reach you'.

[Michael Hicks Beach, MP for Cirencester.] Autograph Letter Signed ('M. Hicks Beach, regarding the settling of the account of an unnamed tradesman.

Author: 
Michael Hicks Beach (1760-1830) of Williamstrip Park and Beverstone, Gloucestershire, and Netheravon, Wiltshire, Member of Parliament for Cirencester, 1795-1818
Publication details: 
Williamstrip Park, Fairford. 2 June 1816.
£40.00

1p., 4to. In fair condition, on aged paper with small spike hole at centre. Reads: 'Sir/ I have mislaid your account and as I shall not go to Town again this spring I must desire you will make out another bill and sent [sic] it to Williamstrip, & I will send you a draft on my Banker.'

[Manuscript; Salisbury; New Sarum] "Com Wiltess" [County of Wiltshire]. Ancient Rents of the principal impropriations of the Dean & Chapter of Sarum [Salisbury].

Author: 
William Collins, auditor to Earl of Salisbury, Irish Army in the 1640s, etc. ("auditor Collins")
Publication details: 
1630s or 1640s[?]
£350.00

Five pages, cr.8vo, poor condition, including one bifolium, chipped with small loss of text. On [p.4] of the bifilium there is a signed statement in William Collins's hand (the auditor): 'Theise are the Auntient Rentes of the principall Impropriations of the Deane & Chapter of Sarum (i.e. Salisbury) according to the survey 26 H. 8 (i.e. of the 26th year of Henry VIII = 1534-5). What sume they are improved appeareth not but neither are the values of Bedwym (Bedwyn), Okborne (Ogbourne) & Uphaven (Upavon) expressed.Wm Collins, Auditor'.

Anonymous manuscript First World War narrative poem titled 'The Message of the King', concerning a blinded soldier who asks a doctor to kill him.

Author: 
[First World War dramatic monologue; Royal Army Medical Corps, Delhi Barracks, Tidworth, Wiltshire]
Publication details: 
[RAMC Delhi Barracks, Tidworth, Wiltshire.] Circa 1918.
£80.00

Four pages, 4to. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged ruled paper, with watermark 'D. K & Co. | LONDON'. Sixty-four lines, arranged in eight eight-line stanzas. Apparently unpublished. Evocative of the sensibilities of a more naive age: sincerely meant, but coming across somewhat in the style of a Stanley Holloway monologue.

Five poems by Captain H. W. Windsor Aubrey, R.A.M.C.: two holographs (including 'The Yellow Peril. Dedicated to the German Emperor'), one with typed copy, two others typed and one mimeographed; four concerning Delhi Barracks, Tidworth.

Author: 
Captain Henry Wentworth Windsor Aubrey (c.1859-1934), M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P. [R.A.M.C. Delhi Barracks, Tidworth, Wiltshire; Brimstone Bottom]
Publication details: 
One of the six items on R.A.M.C. letterhead, Delhi Barracks, Tidworth, Salisbury Plain [Wiltshire]; dated 20 February 1918. Four of the others also 1918, and the sixth 1904.
£180.00

Henry Wentworth Windsor Aubrey was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the Dorset Regiment Militia on 21 April 1875, and resigned his commission three years later. He qualified as a Doctor in 1885 and practiced in Clifton, where he was a keen cricketer and golfer. During the First World War he served in the RAMC, reaching the rank of Temporary Captain (Home) on 1 December 1917. The six items (including Item Four, a typescript of Item Three) are in very good condition, on lightly-aged paper.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Samuel Hey') to Twining, giving details of an arson attack [on his church?].

Author: 
Samuel Hey (1739-1828), eccentric bibliophile vicar of Steeple Ashton, Wiltshire, known as 'The Hermit' [Richard Twining (1749-1824), tea and coffee merchant]
Publication details: 
17 January 1822; 'Steeple-Ashton near Trowbridge | Wiltshire'.
£85.00

12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. Forty-nine lines of text, clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. In a neat, childish hand. Begins by asking for ten pounds to be paid to the bearer, Thomas Fairfax Carlile, on Hey's account. A 'hand bill' has been 'published on the occasion - but without effect', and fifteen of his 'near neighbours' have - 'without consulting me' - subscribed ten pounds each. 'A man was apprehended - but for want of sufficient evidence he was liberated to appear before the magistrate when called for, upon penalty of 40£.

Signed ('Geo Wroughton') printed circular letter, addressed to T[homas]. Adams [of Alnwick, Northumberland].

Author: 
George Wroughton of Wilcott, Wiltshire [Bengal; the East India Company]
Publication details: 
25, Berners Street, London; May 12 1813'.
£125.00

4to bifolium: 2 pp. Good. Soliciting Adams's 'Vote and Interest' when he is 'enabled to proceed to a ballot', having 'lately presumed to offer myself to the Proprietors of East-India Stock, as a Candidate for a Seat in their Direction, upon some future vacancy'. (Feeling 'that their suffrages will have been very generally engaged to an earlier Candidate for the next appointment which a casualty may occasion', he does not want to 'interfere with that Election'.) He was resident in Bengal for thirteen years, and the final paragraph describes his other qualifications.

Sealed indenture: 'Appointment in fee [by Listowel to Oakes] of No. 3 Prince's Terrace Hyde Park in the County of Middlesex'.

Author: 
William Hare, 2nd Earl of Listowel; William Hare, Viscount Ennismore; Orbell Oakes.
Publication details: 
4 August 1855; [London].
£125.00

Listowel was an Anglo-Irish peer (1801-56) and Member of Parliament for Kerry, 1825-30. Ennismore (1833-1924) was his son, later 4th Earl of Listowel. Orbell Oakes, builder of Nowton Court in Bury St Edmunds, was son of the Bury banker James Oakes, and Receiver of Taxes to the West Division. On one side each of four sheets of vellum, dimensions roughly twenty-seven inches by twenty-two inches, each bearing a tax stamp. Signed and witnessed on the reverse of the last sheet. Schedule detailing leases, feoffments, fines and mortgages between 1813 and 1855.

Autograph Letter (signed 'Anon') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Mrs. Manning [The Red Cross Sale at Christie's, 1916]
Publication details: 
26 February 1916; Tavistock, Salisbury, Wiltshire.
£28.00

One page, 4to. Good, but creased and with slight damage to reverse from caused by removal from mount. Despite signing 'Anon' the author has written her name and address at the head of the letter. 'Since sending you the two ancient Documents & two Autographs which you courteously acknowledged (816) I have found This Programme which was used by Queen Victoria on Feby 7th. 1891. It was given to me by a friend who was staying at The Old George Hotel, Salisbury & I enclose her letter which accompanied it.

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