Corrected Typescript of lecture on 'Bygone Tortures and Punishments' by Claude Hurst Peter, Town Clerk of Launceston, Cornwall, with letters in response to request for assistance from Peter from 11 individuals including Achille Bazire and H. G. Conor

The twelve items (typescript of lecture and eleven letters) are in very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Peter's lecture was given in aid of the Dunheved Standard Fund at Launceston Town Hall on 11 February 1907, 'Fully Illustrated by numerous Limelight Pictures'. The typescript, tied with pink ribbon, is 43pp., foolscap 8vo. With numerous emendations, deletions and additions in manuscript. The first page carries a 'Syllabus' of the two topics. Wide-ranging and well-informed, the lecture includes sections on drowning; burning; boiling to death; beheading; hanging, drawing and quartering; pressing to death; hanging; branding; the pillory; the finger stocks or finger pillory; the ducking or cucking stool; the jougs (the Scottish pillory); the stocks; the whirligig; public penance; the drunkard's cloak; whipping; riding the stang. Ten of the eleven letters responding to Peter's request for assistance are in manuscript, with the eleventh typed. The eleven correspondents are: Robert Barnard, on letterhead of Huccaby House, Princetown, S. Devon; Achille Bazire, on letterhead of 57 Onslow Square, London'; Christopher L. Coulard, on letterhead of Madford, Launceston; H. G. Conor, on letterhead of Parkhurst, Isle of Wight; George Penrose of the Royal Institution of Cornwall; John William Gordon (1853-1936), on letterhead of 11 King's Bench Walk, Temple, EC; A. E. Hurford of Looe, Cornwall; George Penrose, Curator, Royal Institution of Cornwall (typed); Thomas C. Reed, on letterhead of Wembury, Launceston; 'Reg'; Alfred F. Robbins, on letterhead of the House of Lord; W. R. Wilson, on letterhead of the Department of Printed Books, British Museum.