POETRY

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with discoloration from tape at head of second leaf. Watts's handwriting is not easily legible. The male recipient of the letter is not named. In reply to a letter received the previous Friday, Watts assures him that 'the earnest desire of Mrs.

Viii + 99 + [1]pp., 12mo. In Victorian half-binding, with dark-green calf spine and corners, and brown marbled boards. The original yellow card front cover has been bound in with the volume. It carries the price (one shilling), title, publication details, and a portrait of Brierley, and is headed 'AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH', The volume contains no library markings whatsoever, but the front pastedown carries a pink printed notice of the 'Rules of the Library' of the Bury District Co-operative Society Ltd.

Lambie is the subject of a long obituary in The Scotsman, 21 January 2015. Both items 2pp., 4to. Both in good condition, with light signs of age and wear. ONE: 21 September 1973. She has 'heard good accounts' of the Gladstone Court Museum, and a friend 'now promises me to motor me there some time soon. At 81, I am no longer able to go “under my own steam”'. She agrees to let him use her poem 'Background' in a Christmas card, but would like to see the design before printing.

On one side of a 12mo leaf. In good condition, lightly aged. Howitt's seal in red wax is at the head, and beneath it, in a firm clear hand, is written: '"The tempest, says , belongs to God's weather." | Mary Howitt'.

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. He praises Macgregor's book for representing 'most faithfully the spirit of the original. This I take it is the chief merit of any translation.' Macgregor's 'employment in this manner so distinct from the ordinary pursuits of the leisure of an officer, proves the work to be “con amore”'.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Tipped in onto paper mount. Reads: 'Mr Gally Knight requests Mr Radley to let him have a Room for a few Hours on Monday Morning - He & Mrs Knight purpose to be at Liverpool about twelve oclock & will go to Manchester by the 1/2 p 2 Train. - They wish to have some Luncheon between one & two oclock.' Scott's Ivanhoe is set near to Firbeck Hall, and Knight may have been his source of local information.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, Laid down on part of a leaf removed from an album. Reads: 'My Dear Sir | My absence from home must plead my excuse in not sooner replying to your obliging note of the 22nd Ulto - | I have desired 30 more Copies to be forwarded to you as you request, & I am sure you will be glad to hear that thro' your kindness, & that of many others who have interested themselves, we are likely to realize a sum commensurate to the Scholars moderate establishment'.

On one side of a 6 x 11.5 cm slip of grey paper. In good condition, lightly aged, with small strip of glue staining along right-hand edge. Reads: 'A mile of daughters - | Family of Furlongs having 8 girls | 8 furlongs = 1 mile. - | T. Hood.' A joke on the surname of the person who requested Hood's autograph, as explained in Walter Jerrold's 'Thomas Hood, his Life and Times' (1907), which states that in 1838 Hood wrote to his friend Wright: '[…] only think of a mile of daughters! There is a family of Furlongs coming to live here, whereof eight are daughters – 8 furlongs = 1 mile.'

1p., 4to. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The first paragraph reads: 'Dear Cuming Walters, | Forgive me for not writing sooner. The fact is I have been down with influenza and pneumonia for the last three weeks. The worst time of the year for me! After the first week I contrived with difficulty to carry on with things, lying on my back dictating letters to my daughter, who has helped me enormously. But I am up again, and though not allowed out of doors have for the last four days been working in my room here, so shall manage all right and get my Christmas No.

One of 50 copies (numbered 33}, 8pp., 4to, printed paper wraps, sewn, with device of the Press on front cover/title, good condition.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, tipped in onto leaf removed from album. After apologising for the late reply to the recipient's note he acknowledges 'the Compliment you make me'. He continues in his customary vainglorious style, appropriating Milton's words to himself: 'I am so deeply occupied in writing works I have been writing the last 20 years, that I have scarce a moment: my audience hitherto have been fit tho few'.

4pp., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, with closed tears along the fold between the two leaves of the bifolium. Trench's publishers were 'John W. Parker & Son, West Strand'. The letter begins: 'I heartily wish that I could go to the press at once with the 3rd. Edition of the Parables. [ 'Notes on the Parables of Our Lord', first published in 1841 ] I have been however working hard at them & they are nearly ready.

3pp., 16mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with traces of stub adhering to blank reverse of sevond leaf. He is 'very much flattered' at Waddington's 'wishing to include sonnets of mine in your proposed selection. You are quite welcome to those you have named, or any others of mine.' He hopes he will 'include some of Hartley Coleridge's beautiful sonnets', and asks him to accept 'a vol. of sonnets by my Father, the late Sir Aubrey de Vere. Wordsworth spoke of his sonnets (my Father's) as the best modern sonnets he was acquainted with'.

3pp., 12mo. In good condition. Plarr's entry in the Oxford English Dictionary does not note that he dealt in autographs, but the present item suggests that he was more than just a collector who dabbled. At the time of writing, and until his death, he was Librarian of the Royal College of Surgeons. The letter is addressed to 'H. T. Scott Esqre., M.D.' and begins: 'Dear Sir | It is long since you have heard from me. | I have just bought several autographs which you may care to know of -'.

On one side of an 11.5 x 12.5 cm piece of paper, cut down from a larger leaf. In good condition, lightly aged; laid down on a 15.5 x 15 cm piece of card to which a typed biographical slip is attached. Reads: 'Dear Madam | I have just received your note and write in haste to say that I shall do myself the pleasure of waiting upon you tomorrow (Wednesday) about ten oclock. | I remain Dear Madam | Your very respectful Servt. | Allan Cunningham'.'

Both items in good condition, lightly aged. ONE: Autograph Note by Andrew Lang. 1p., 12mo. Reads: 'With Mr Lang's Compliments, and regrets that he has no room for the translation from the German. TWO: May's translation of the poem 'Marie' by Rudolf von Gottschall' ('Marie, am Fenster sitzest du'), titled 'Marie | (From the German of R. Gottshall [sic])'. 1p., 8vo. The translation is attributed at the end to 'M.' Beneath this is written the name and address of 'Mary F. May | The Grange. Elstree. Hants. | 14th.

16pp., 16mo. Stapled. One minor manuscript correction. Aged and worn, in lightly-stained card covers carrying six Bewick woodcuts in black, with text lengthwise and upwards in red. The insides of the covers are red in colour, and on the front inside cover is written 'love from | Sim & Arnold'. Whether the hand is Rattenbury's or his wife's is not clear. Fourteen poems, from 'Considering K 279 to K 284' to 'Koechel's Adoration'.

On nine loose 12mo leaves torn from an album. In fair condition, on aged and browned paper. Wrapped by Gawsworth in a larger piece of paper, on the front of which he has written in pencil the presentation inscription: 'Kenilworth | love | from | His King | J R | 16 Feb. 1967', with the following in blue ink over the 'J R': 'Abdicated | Juan R'. 'Marlow Hill' was Gawsworth's fourth collection, self-published by his Richards Press in 1941. Three of the nine leaves carry layouts of the book's title-page and prelims, with pencil notes 'Pubd 15 Oct 1941' and '33 lines to page'.

According to his obituary in the Guardian, 2003, after a long period of neglect, Prince was rediscovered b the New York School, and by the end of his life had 'come to be regarded by writers as diverse as Geoffrey Hill and the American innovator John Ashbery as one of the most significant poets of the 20th century'. 40pp. of closely-written text in a small (13.5 x 9 cm) 'Lion Brand' notebook. Stapled, in card covers. In fair condition, aged and worn.

5pp., foolscap 8vo. Paginated [1]-5. On three leaves of wove paper, stapled together. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Good firm signature ('George MacBeth') in blue ink at head of first leaf. Each poem signed in type at end 'George MacBeth'. 'The Castle | after Le Chastel d'Amours' (p.1): seven three-line stanzas, first stanza: 'Tell me the broad moat of | Love's castle: | Sloth.' 'The Last Will' (pp.1-2): twenty-two three line stanzas and a single final line, first line: 'In the name of God, amen. I, Harold, | [...]'.

9pp., 8vo. In fair condition, on nine leaves of worn and creased paper, the first leaf white, the others green. Minor emendations throughout. The poem is in five sections: 'The Exhortation' (beginning: 'In the crook of my arm | Rest again, nest again.

Each of the two typescripts is on two leaves of foolscap stapled together. The two in good condition, lightly aged and worn. ONE: First page headed 'Poems by Edward Lucie-Smith'. 4pp., 8vo, paginated [1]-4. The five poems are: 'A Tropical Childhood' (p.1), first line: 'In the hot noons I heard the fusillade'. 'On looking at Stubbs's “Anatomy of the Horse”' (pp.1), first line: 'In Lincolnshire, a village full of tongues'. 'Rubens to Helene Fourment' (pp.2-3), subtitle: 'The picture is La Pelisse, now in Vienna', first line: 'Now sinking towards age, I paint your rising,'.

7, [1], 163, [1] p. ; 19 cm. (8°), orig. lea. bds, corners bumped, some wear and tear, rebacked, spine with raised bands, "Poems by Dr. Roberts" gt on black, edges of eps stained, contents good. Final page with advt for Roberts' "Judah Restored". ESTC citation number: T100111

Moffatt is an interesting minor figure. In a 1924 piece titled 'Brief History of the Failsworth Pole', Rev. James Smith writes: 'The Jacobins' Club Library was kept in a room next to that in which Ben Brierley was born, and old John Moffatt, tailor, of "Crockey Hall," opposite the Pole, had charge of the Library'. Smith quotes lines which he considers 'remarkable for their patriotism', noting: 'He must have been a mild sort of Jacobin.' A total of sixteen pages, on eight leaves.

[xxii].166pp., 8vo, original green front board with gilt decorated title, bumped but good condition, rebacked with new brighter green back board, contents sl. foxed and stained, mainly good, advertisement page for another book by Kennish (naval) and the poems of Harriet Jones. Eight page liist of Subscibers, inclkuding many inhabitants of the Isle of Man. Note: Re Preface, an "unlettered Poet", former ploughboy, trouble learning English when joining the Navy, etc. Scarce: copies on COPAC/WorldCat only copyright libraries.

124 + [4] pp., 12mo. Four hand-coloured plates including frontispiece. A four-page publisher's advertisement at rear, for 'A New and Attractive Series of Juvenile Books'. In fair condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. In worn brown-cloth binding with decorative design featuring titles in gilt on cover; split hinge at rear. Stirling's story continues to p.50, and is followed by Templer's collection of 27 'improving' poems, from 'The Invitation' and 'The Holly Tree's Tale - Christmas' to 'Heartsease - Thoughts of Peace' and 'The Misseltoe - A Missionary Tale'.

Gallup C552. 4to (leaf dimensions 28 x 22.5 cm), 40 pp. Stapled. In original blue printed wraps. Worn and dogeard on aged paper, with minor staining at foot of front wrap and first leaf. The signature "T S Eliot" (possibly his but more words would have helped) appears top front wrap. The 'Calendar' at the front lists, on 4 July [1950], the 'Lecture by Mr. T. S. Eliot, O.M.: "What Dante Means to Me," with H.E. the Italian Ambassador in the Chair.' The printed version, titled 'TALK ON DANTE | by T. S.

The three items in good condition, with light signs of age and wear. LETTER: 2pp., 8vo. A splendidly waspish missive. Topics include: her 'letter to Mickie' ('masterly diplomacy'); 'dear Miss Massey, wounded on active service for the BIS' (with references to 'Mrs.

ONE: Letter. 1 November 1901. On letterhead of 56 Wimpole Street, London. 3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition. With blank reverse of second leaf laid down onto a flyleaf of the book. Benson is not named, but is without doubt the recipient.

On piece of laid paper folded twice to make a 19 x 14 cm. card. In good condition, with light signs of age. Tiny printer's device on back cover the only illustration. Front cover in black ink reads: 'Christmas Greetings from Rosalind & Gerald Bullett The Old Farm East Harting Sussex'. Colophon in brown ink on left-hand side of opening. Right-hand opening carries the sixteen-line poem, in four four-line stanzas, the first of which reads: 'I went to the window, where the morning was, | And saw innocence scattered on the grass.