MANUSCRIPT

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. Empty 12 x 9.5 cm envelope. In fair condition, lightly aged and a little grubby, with ink from postmark on the reverse. Reads: ‘Private / The Right Honble / W. E. Gladstone / M P. / &c &c &c / Downing Street / S. W’. Two postmarks, one (‘W / 26’) over the envelope’s self-printed pink stamp. In a Victorian hand, at bottom left: ‘(Abp Manning)’.

The entry for Slatin in the Oxford DNB gives a good outline of the life of this adventurer. The present item forms half of a 4to leaf, torn down the middle vertically, no doubt in order to provide an autograph. In good condition, lightly aged. Written lengthwise on the reverse, in a large bold hand, is the valediction: ‘Hoping that you are fit & well / Yours ever / R Slatin’.

2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, fold marks. Twenty-nine lines of text in Kipling's neat and close hand. Text: Many thanks for your letter & enclosed slip. As you say, your competition is the First step in the right way: next comes the unknown range for the disappearing man. I am afraid you will find [masses?] of opposition from the 'crack' shots &c to whom the solemn ritual of [?] paint-box and all the rest of it has all the dignity of a 'sport'. Also the meagre scores will not 'look well in the papers'.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Written lengthwise on back of 11.5 x 7.5 printed card. The side of the card with Roberts’s autograph is discoloured but in fair condition, but there is slight loss along the inner margin of the printed side, resulting in some loss of text. Roberts’ autograph reads: ‘I give my vote / Fred. Roberts. / India / 14th. April 1888.’ The printed text states that Caroline Constance Williams, aged 8 years, was the daughter of Band-Sergt.

On 11 x 14.5 piece of paper, cut for an autograph collector from the conclusion of a letter. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with light patches of discoloration and a couple of pin holes; laid down on piece of cream paper from album. One fold line. Reads: ‘[...] I will be very pleased to look through it and if it suits me to sing it. / With kind regards to all / Believe me to remain / Yours faithfully / Mary Davies’.

In addition to acting as editor of the works of his colleague James Clerk Maxwell, Niven was the teacher of one of the greatest mathematicians and philosophers of the twentieth century, Alfred North Whitehead. The item is from the papers of the presumed recipient, Mrs Evelyn Julia Allan of the Chelsea Red Cross. 2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Signed ‘W. D. Niven’ and addressed to ‘Dear Mrs Allen’. He was pleased to receive her letter, ‘reminding me of old times’, but he had not forgotten her, as he has ‘sometimes heard Dr. J. M Bruce speak about you & your family’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, which characterizes him as ‘the most remarkable pulpit orator of his time’, and that of his father. 3pp, 12mo. On bifolium. Somewhat aged and with the recto of the first leaf grubby, but with text clear and complete, with thirty-three lines of text in Parsons’ close and neat hand. Signed ‘James Parsons’ and addressed to ‘Revd. J. Rawlinson’. He ‘must, reluctantly, decline to comply’ with Rawlinson’s request. He wonders whether he has ‘seen, or heard of an announcement in “the Leeds Mercury” with reference to my intended retirement from my Pastorate in York’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, on lightly creased and discoloured paper. Folded three time. Signed ‘Joseph Wolff’ and addressed to ‘My very dear Sir’. The letter concerns a confusion over a planned date, due to one of the recipient’s letters miscarrying and the other being received only ‘this moment’, and after his return from Norfolk. ‘I am most heartily grieved that unforeseen Parochial business of my own Parish will prevent me from leaving it before the 23d January. I therefore beg you to let me know when it will be convenient for you.’

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In very good condition. Folded twice. Clear and neat signature beneath slightly-smudged text. Written on the verge of his removal from the House of Commons to the House of Lords. Reads ‘[Admiral Buser?] to Gallery of H of C / Tuesday May 8th. 1866 / E B Lytton’. See image.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. On bifolium In fair condition, lightly aged, with stub from mount adhering to the inner margin of the recto, and obscuring a few words of text. The male recipient is not named: the letter is signed ‘Agnes Strickland / Historian of the Queens of England and Queens of Scotland’. By the advice of the publisher, Daldy, she is enquiring after ‘quiet comfortable lodgings at Warwick next Monday 25th till Tuesday August 2nd during the Archaeological Meeting in your antient historical town at which I have promised to be sent’.

1p, 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Considering the tone of the letter, the similarity between the signatories name and that of the prominent suffragist Lady Frances Balfour (1858-1931), and the fact that there is no record of a Sheffield branch of the WNASL, nor of a place in Warrington called ‘Arcadia’, nor of any Balfours living there, one must strongly suspect that this letter is a spoof, perhaps written by in some such scenario as a pro-suffrage child of a member of the WNASL, having got hold of one of the organisations blank letterheads. Or perhaps not.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The Church Army, still active today, was founded in 1882 as a Church of England equivalent to the Methodists’ Salvation Army. From the papers of the recipient Wilfred Seymour De Winton of Haverfordwest. 3pp, 12mo. On a bifolium of grey paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Signed ‘W Carlile / Hon. Chief Sec.’ To the left of the signature, in the bottom-left of the recto of the second leaf, is a purple ink stamp of the following: ‘WRITTEN BY ONE OF OUR POOR STRUGGLING LABOUR HOME BROTHERS’.

For Powys and his two literary brothers see the Oxford DNB. On 11 x 9 cm piece of wove paper. The paper is discoloured with heavy spotting aroudnd the signature. Clearly a response to a request for an autograph, neatly written and centred on the paper, the only writing is the signature: ‘Theodore Frances Powys’. See image.

According to Russell’s entry in the Oxford DNB, while reporting on the Civil War, he was described by one American newspaper as ‘the most famous newspaper correspondent the world has ever seen'. The inscription on his memorial in St Paul’s Cathedral calls him ‘'the first and greatest of War Correspondents'. He coined the phrase ‘thin red line’, was instrumental in the sending of Florence Nightingale to the Crimea, and is said to have written the report that inspired Tennyson to write ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’.

An 11 x 8.5 cm piece of paper, cut from a letter for an autograph hunter. In fair condition, lightly aged, and laid down on a piece of card which has chipped at the corners. The paper and its backing have a vertical crease through them. Reads ‘Excuse a very hurried letter & believe me / Very truly yours / Robina F. Hardy’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged with patch of light sunning. Folded once. The recipient is not named. Reads: ‘Dear Madam / Forgive me for my delay in answering your letter. I have been laid up for a week or two with influenza & my correspondence has suffered in consequence. / And please believe that your words have given us sincere pleasure & that I am / Yours very faithfully / A. T. Quiller-Couch’. The hyphen in the signature is almost imperceptible. See image.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Addressed ‘To the Rev. A. H. Vayers’, but with the ‘V’ corrected in manuscript to ‘S’. Signed ‘Oliver Lodge’. Reads: ‘My dear Sir, / I am exceedingly busy, and a visit to Monmouth is quite out of the question. There are many others better qualified to speak for The League of Nations Union; and I trust you will have a successfull meeting.’

It is hard to overestimate the impact of ‘Ion’ on Victorian audiences in Britain and America. According to Talfourd’s entry in the Oxford DNB, the play was ‘first performed at Covent Garden Theatre, London, on his birthday, 26 May 1836.

On 11.5 x 7.5 cm calling card. In good condition, lightly aged. The calling card is printed in copperplate font, with the name ‘Mrs. Neville Chamberlain.’ centred, and the address ‘10, Downing Street, / S.W.1.’ at bottom left. Two lines of the inscription are written above the name and the rest beneath. Reads: ‘Thank you so [sic] & Major Cripps so much for those more lovely carnations which I appreciated so much. / Anne Chamberlain’. See image.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On a leaf of grey paper. In good condition, lightly aged. The recipient was studying at the Royal Academy Schools. Begins: ‘Dear Miss Towgood / Thanks for your letter and enclosed statement by Mr Percy Young.’ He asks to be sent ‘the names of the authors of the various “Cartoons” and “Creswick”’, so that he may have all his material ‘ready for the Council on Tuesday next’. He intended to ask her for the names in ‘the Schools’ (of the Royal Academy at Burlington House), ‘but a sudden attack of Influenza confines me to my room by the Doctor’s order’.

See his obituaries in The Times, Burlington Magazine and elsewhere. Casting light on the process of reopening the British Museum in the wake of the Great War. From the papers of the recipient, Wilfred Seymour De Winton of Haverfordwest and Cardiff. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly worn and creased. Signed ‘R. L. Hobson’ and addressed to ‘Dear Mr. de Winton’. He has been ‘back at the Museum about 3 weeks & most of that has been spent in helping to get ready for the public some of the more accessible galleries’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. An 11.5 x 7 cm piece of paper, cut from the front of an envelope. In fair condition, laid down on a piece of grey paper cut from an album. Faint franking postmark in red ink. Laid out in Palmerston’s neat and stylish hand in the customary way, and reading: ‘London February Twenty 1826 / Peter Legh Esqr. Junr / Haydock Lodge / Warrington’, with the signature ‘Palmerston’ at bottom left. See image.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB, which does not accord her name a hyphen, although she does in this letter. 2pp, 12mo. On grey-paper bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Signed ‘M Bethan-Edwards’ and addressed to ‘Dear Miss Birkett’. She apologises for having to decline her kind invitation: ‘I never can lunch out being busy till 1 pm’. Since ‘the afternoons are now so very short’, and she does not like ‘climbing the hill in the dark’, she proposes calling on her at 4pm. ‘It will then give me much pleasure to see you.’

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. The ‘Congress’ she is referring to in the letter is the 1869 Bristol Social Science Congress. 1p, 16mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Reads: ‘Dear Miss Thompson / It gave me pleasure to see you at the Congress I feel sure you will have heard much here which will stimulate you to further work. / I enclose you my carte as a remembrance. / Yours truly / Mary Carpenter. -’

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. In fair condition, on lightly-browned paper. Folded four times. The recipient is not identified. Signed ‘Henrietta E. V. Stannard’ and addressed to ‘Dear Lady’. She thanks her for ‘the kind help you have provided for my old lady’. The ‘very generouos responses’ she has met with have exceeded her expectations, and she hopes that her ‘dear old friend’s future comfort and independence are now assured, for the rest of her life’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The postcard, with stamp printed on it, has the typed address: ‘The Rev. A. H. Sayers, / Orchard Close, / Monmouth’. Aged and worn, with a dog-eared corner and minor rust spotting from a paperclip. Stylised signature. Reads: ‘Many thanks for your offer to send a car to meet me at Severn Tunnel Junction, on November 20th. I will look out for it. / Yours / L Housman’. From the Sayers papers, with other material indicating that Housman was giving a talk for the Union. See image.

An attractive artefact of a pioneer of women’s rights. See her entry in the Oxford DNB. On 14 x 9 cm post card. In good condition, lightly aged. Addressed by Faithfull, with two stamps and postmarks, to ‘Miss Muriel Lewis / Greyhound Hotel / Carshalton / Surrey’. In neat hand and with good firm signature: ‘1 Campden Grove Kensington / I hope to see you to lunch to-morrow Monday at 1. pm. / Yrs. / L. M. Faithfull’.

See his long but strangely-cagey entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On a bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Signed ‘Frederic Harrison.’ The recipient is not named. The letter begins: ‘Madam, I am obliged to you for your interesting letter[.] I do not enter an argument because it is founded on a few sentences which give a very imperfect idea of what I said on Sunday last.’ He does not dispute many of her assertions and, as for ‘the usefulness of larger landlords’, he has ‘repeatedly urged it in my addresses’.

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded three times. In order to mark the request as dealt with, the recipient has written a thin ink line across the page. Reads: ‘W J Chadwick Esqre / Sir / Please send me price list of your Teacher’s Patent Lantern Microscope / Yours truly / C. V. Creagh / Governor of North Borneo / Address / Sandakan / North Borneo / via Singapore’.

The East India Company has come under renewed scrutiny in recent years as ‘the world’s first multinational’: an early model of the acquisition of hegemony by means of transnational non-governmental corporations. 2pp, foolscap 8vo. On bifolium of thick laid paper, whose head has been cut into the customary wave. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice into the customary packet. On the recto of the first leaf is the long printed form ‘Indenture’ with blank parts completed in manuscript. Red wax seal under paper at bottom right.