JOHN

The four letters are in good condition, lightly aged and worn. Each 1p., 12mo. The first three letters are written to Brooks, as editor of 'Truth'; the fourth is a letter of condolence to Brooks's wife. In the first letter (14 April 1945) he apologises for the delay in sending in a review: 'I have been two months out of the country and nothing could be forwarded.' He adds: 'I wish I saw more of Charles Webster.

2pp., 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Addressed to 'Dear Mr Green-Armytage', corrected from 'Armitage'. The letter begins: 'You may have heard that a Committee, of which Walter De la Mare is chairman, is considering the question of putting up some sort of memorial to Edward Thomas. At the same time I am beginning work on a Life and Letters of Edward Thomas, which has Mrs Thomas' approval, and is intended to be something in the nature of a memorial edition.' He will 'shortly be issuing an appeal in the press for the loan of letters etc in the possession of E.

'Oxford Forward' was the journal of the Labour Club in Oxford, which had 730 members in 1937. Eight sequential issues, with nos. 21 and 22 misnumbered for 3 and 5. [12 + 8 + 16 + 8 + 12 + 8 + 8 + 8 =] totalling 80pp., 4to. With illustrations and cartoons. In good condition, lightly aged, in green cloth binding lightly spotted with paint. Each number with the masthead in red, three issues also including the words 'Edition of University' in small print in the title. The front page of number 21 (7 May 1938) has 'ARMS FOR SPAIN' in large red letters at the foot.

1p., 4to. On bifolium. Aged and worn, with small spots at head and foot. Irving's signature is firm and bold. The only other words in his autograph are 'Dear Hall Caine', but there is slight offsetting of other writing by Irving on the blank second leaf. The circular is an invitation to be 'placed on the list of Stewards on the occasion of the Annual Dinner of "The Actors' Benevolent Fund," of which I am the President'. Irving will be in the chair, and the dinner will take place at the Whitehall Rooms, Hotel Metropole.

Mary Endicott Carnegie was the daughter of William Crowninshield Endicott (1826-1900), Secretary of War in Grover Cleveland's first administration. She married the British politician Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914) in 1888 and moved to England. After Chamberlain's death she married William Hartley Carnegie (1859-1936), Sub-Dean of Westminster Abbey and Chaplain to the House of Commons. She was painted by Sir J. E. Millais and John Singer Sargent.

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.

Both items in good condition, lightly aged. The autograph receipt is on a slip of paper attached to the invoice with sealing wax. The invoice is docketed: 'For Par Re: Richd Clarke | 1825 | Sepr. 13th. | Mr Lupton Rolfe Bill for Books | £2 13 6 | No 13 Cornhill London'. ONE: Invoice. 1p., 12mo. Handsome letterhead for items 'Bought of Lupton Relfe | (From J. Hatchard's Son's [sic]) | Bookseller, Publisher & Stationer. | No.

1p., landscape 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. The letter reads: 'Dear Madam, | As far as I am concerned I shall be very glad for you to copy Cromwell into Braille, but I think you ought to get the formal permission of my publishers, Messers Sidgwick and Jackson, which I am sure that they will give you.'

1p., 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. He acknowledges Wilson's 'kind letter regarding Dalglish', who 'suffered a good deal during the latter weeks of his life, but I am glad to say that even then he still retained that brightness of disposition of which you speak'.

R. J. L. Kingsford, in his history of the Publishers Association, describes Young as 'a bookseller of outstanding character and ability, a friend of Arnold Bennett, and the discoverer of the literary distinction of George Sturt'. 1p., 12mo. Neatly and closely written. Headed 'private', and addressed to 'Dear John'. Young is apparently following a dinner (of the Publishers Association) at which George Bernard Shaw was present, and the subject of the letter would appear to be an exhibition Wilson's firm has mounted of books by the London publisher John Murray.

Printed and in manuscript on both sides of a ragged 19 x 19.5 cm piece of paper, extracted from an Exchequer document (the first page is headed in manuscript 'Bk | (608)'. Aged and ragged. The recto, printed and completed in manuscript explains that the document relates to the 'Repayment of Loan on the Duties on Salt, granted for the Service of the year 1741, and further continued for Seven Years from the 25th Day of March 1746'.

The background to the two documents is given in Guidott's entry in the History of Parliament, which states that his uncle Anthony was 'for many years a lawyer to the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough and described the latter in his will as “my particular good friend”. Guidott benefited from the connexion, succeeding his uncle as lawyer to the Marlboroughs. […] He proved a disappointment to the Duchess of Marlborough, however, as by 1711 he had begun the embezzlement of funds from the Marlborough estates for which he was sued in 1725.

The author of the text of the present volume, J. B. Payne, was manager of the book's publisher Moxon, and ruined the firm with his sumptuous editions, including one of Tennyson's 'Idylls of the King' with illustrations by Gustav Doré, which determined Tennyson to forbid future illustrated editions of his work. The market for the present volume would have been limited, and the cost of producing it so high, that it is hard to see how it can have covered its costs. [3] + 53pp., 4to. Each of the 56 pages is lithographed in black against a light-brown background, on thick art paper.

Title-page reads, in full: 'A Short Account of the Cause of the Disease in Corn, Called by Farmers The Blight, the Mildew, and the Rust. By Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. Third Edition, with Additions: | And | A Letter to Sir J. Banks, On the Origin of the Blight, and on the Means of Raising Late Crops of Garden Pease. By T. A. Knight, Esq. | 1815.' [19]pp., 8vo. Paginated [401]-419. Banks's paper on pp.402-414; Knight's on pp.415-419. Disbound with loose leaves. In good condition, lightly aged.

A marvellous slice of Victorian social history. The entry for 'Matrimonial News' in 'Frederick May's London Press Dictionary and Advertiser's Handbook, 1871' runs as follows: 'MATRIMONIAL NEWS AND SPECIAL ADVERTISER – 2d. F. Farrah, 282, Strand, W.C.

Printed in black ink on a 9 x 16.5 cm. piece of paper. A scarce piece of ephemera. Grubby, aged and worn. Laid down on part of a page from an album. A pastiche of a Georgian banknote, the main body of the text reading: 'No. 24 . . . . | Promise to pay to Ignorance, Hypocrisy & Fanaticism, Methodist Preachers, or Bearer FIVE Farthings, when Methodism shall have been done away with by the Pious exertions of the established Clergy, and when Iohn Bull's Family shall be no longer scared by the tale of the Devil let loose. | London the 1st. day of Septr 1810.

64pp., 12mo. Disbound pamphlet without wraps. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Two poems, the first on a biblical topic and the second on an outbreak of cholera. Three copies on COPAC: at the National Library of Wales, Cardiff, and the British Library. Now extremely scarce.

2pp., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Written in a shaky hand. The letter begins: 'Dear Sir | I was much obliged to you for the extra copy of The Inquirer which I was glad to have, containing very good letters supporting Free Trade. It is a subject on which I feel strongly – perhaps inherited from my father!

From the papers of the family of the second wife of the geologist Alexander Henry Green (1832-1896), previously Miss Wilhelmina Maria Armstrong of Clifton. 1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged. Addressed at bottom left to 'Mrs Wilhelmina Armstrong'. The letter opens: 'Dear Madam | I heartily wish I could see my way – but the clouds of work are growing so thick I cannot see each of them - & my elasticity is failing.' He does not dare undertake anything at the present time, but feels 'grateful & flattered by the invitation'.

[31]pp., 4to. In grey wraps with title reprinted on cover. In poor condition, heavily creased, in creased, worn and damaged wraps. Contains eleven items, mostly statistical tables: 'Order of Sessions to print Reports and Accounts', 'The Committee of Visitors', 'Report of Visitors to Quarter Sessions', 'Confirmation of Report', 'Superintendent's Annual Report', 'Statistical Tables', 'Accounts of Receipts and Payments', 'General Statement of the Receipts and Payments', 'Summary of the Cost per head per week', 'Farm and Garden (Stock)' and 'Farm and Garden Account'.

Both cards around 9 x 12 cm. The first written on one side and the second on both sides. In fair condition, lightly aged. ONE: Begins: 'My dear Plarr, | We were delighted – for your sake – to see the announcement in the Times of your election to the <?> district, which we hope is well worth your acceptance'. He sure that 'we shall all be very sorry to lose you at King's. However I trust we shall sometimes see you.' Postscript: 'We are off to the Borders & the Roman Wall next week.

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Docketed in pencil at top right of first page: '17 Janry. 1886. Ld J. Manners re Ferrand corres'. He gives the volume and page number of 'the sole reference to the Cornwall Lewis – Ferrand affair in the Greville Memoirs'. He does not consider that this 'necessitates the publication of the correspondence relating to the settlement which Mr. Heyward & I afterward accomplished'.

See Mrs George Wrottesley's obituary in The Times, 10 May 1883, in which she is praised for 'her undaunted courage and unshaken endurance of difficulties displayed repeatedly during her father's mission to the East' in 1854. 1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged. The main body of the letter reads: 'Mrs. George Wrottesley will feel much obliged to Mr Lacy if he will send her a copy of the play of | "The Wonder" - | The address is to | The Honble. | Mrs. George Wrottesley | Wrottesley | Wolverhampton'. At the head of the letter she adds a query concerning 'the play of Donna Diana'.

At the time of the second letter Mansel was serving his only stint in Parliament, a brief period as Liberal MP for Penryn and Falmouth. ONE (ALS, 13 February 1921): 4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. He expresses great disappointment regarding the misunderstanding which meant that he and his wife missed coming to lunch with the Mansels.

2pp., 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged. She condoles with her over her 'sad loss last June. I had no idea of it, or I should have written to express my sympathy at the time. I was so much interested to meet your son, & hear how splendidly he had done.' On receiving Sladen's letter she wrote to her neice Betty Brichenough, and wonders if 'Captain Christmas', i.e. Danish sea captain and author Captain Walter Christmas (1861-1924), has heard from her. Fearing that she has mislaid Christmas's card she asks Sladen to write to him on her behalf.

Five items. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. ONE: Three Autograph Letters Signed (all 'E. L. Pollock') to W. H. Prince. A total of 6pp. The writer, 'Miss E. L. Pollock', is Benjamin Pollock's daughter Louise, who with her sister Selina managed the shop after his death. All three letters are written in 1944, the year in which the sisters sold the stock to the bookseller Alan Keen. The letters respond to enquiries regarding the stock, and one (12 May 1944) includes an itemised bill of twelve items 'Bought of Pollock's late B Pollock | 73. Hoxton St. London.

1p., 12mo. With mourning border. In good condition, lightly aged. He found the recipient's 'kind letter' on his return home, and thanks him for it and for his 'good offices in procuring me the payment from Rustal's Charity'. He asks him to communicate his best thanks to the Trustees, 'at the next opportunity which may occur'.

xii + 187pp., 8vo. A handsome example of Whittingham's handiwork, printed on good thick laid paper, with title page in black and red. In original grey paper wraps. Small vignette of a tree within a decorative circular border printed in brown on the front cover and in black on title page. Uncut edges. Internally in good condition, loose in frayed and worn wraps. Author's presentation inscription on flyleaf: 'Sophia Cunliffe Rodger | Given at Nice | to her by | Sir John Kingston James'. Printed 8vo presentation leaf loosely inserted, reading: Château Denis, | Hyères, Var, | France.

2pp., 4to. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. He begins by stating his great appreciation of 'the kindness of the Committee – I have had a long and sympathetic experience of the Club and the relationship has been to me a happy one from first to last'. Were he able to 'fulfil the duties of the President's office' he would be 'strongly tempted to accept their generous inviation and stand for re-election.

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. The year of writing is supplied in a contemporary hand. Beside his address at the head if the ketter Tayler writes: 'This will sound tarnation rural in the catalogue.' He begins the letter by explaining that he is 'dating from my little Cottage here', and that he has let his house in town, 'reducing my Rent to less than half and I can paint to more purpose and without interruption of idle Callers here'. The delay in replying has been occasioned by 'so much of bustle and packing'.