PUNNING

[Joseph Jekyll, Regency politician and wit.] Autograph Letter Signed to George Agar-Ellis, on missing the 'Academy Dinner' by dining with the king; and manuscript copy of pun-laden account of ‘Bazaar in Mr Penn’s Garden for Charing Cross Hospital’.

Author: 
Joseph Jekyll (1754-1837), Welsh lawyer, Whig politician and wit, Master in Chancery and Solicitor-General to the Prince of Wales [George James Welbore Agar-Ellis, 1st Baron Dover]
Publication details: 
Letter written on 'Sunday Morning'
£100.00

The first item is fairly witty, while the second exhibits the sort of ‘excruciating puns’ for which Jekyll is, according to his entry in the Oxford DNB, largely remembered. See also Agar-Ellis’s entry in the same work. The two items are in good condition, lightly aged. ONE: Letter of ‘Sunday Morning’ to ‘Dear Ellis’. 2pp, 12mo. Signed ‘Joseph Jekyll’. Folded twice. Minuted by recipient at head of first page: ‘May 1825 / Jekyll’.

[Frank Curzon, The Yorkshire Union of Mechanics Institutes.] Autograph Letter, with a caricature of himself acting as the signature, to John Warren of Royston, thanking him in playful and punning style for arranging a rail trip.

Author: 
Frank Curzon (1819-1907), poet of Exeter, Devon [The Yorkshire Union of Mechanics Institutes; John Warren, Royston, Hertfordshire]
Publication details: 
The Yorkshire Union of Mechanics Institutes, Victoria Chambers, Leeds. 9 November 1878.
£80.00

1p., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly aged and creased paper. Consisting of a series of appalling puns, the letter reads: 'Dear Sir | Thanks for the Time Table it was a "rail" service and for your offer of a meal which will suit me to a "T" and for your selection of a bed, as I prefer Bedford to Bedlam, and for your instructions to change my train. It is easier to miss a train than to train a miss. | I feel now that I shall get to Royston with only the Hitchen that is necessary, and I am itching to get there when I feel that I am Warren-ted safe. | I remain My dear Sir | Yours truly'.

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