ROBERT

[Robert Torrens; South Australia; Torrens River; economist] A utograph Letter Signed Robt Torrens to Edwd Wakefield (foundation of S.Australia - see note below) about presenting his An Essay on the External Corn Trade (Hatchard. 1815.)'

Author: 
Robert Torrens FRS (1780 ? 1864), Royal Marines officer, political economist, part-owner of the influential Globe newspaper, and a prolific writer [also see notes involving South Australia below]
Torrens
Publication details: 
61 Wells Street, Oxford Street, 30 June 1815
£2,000.00
Torrens

Note: a. He also chaired the board of the London-based South Australian Colonisation Commission created by the South Australia Act 1834 to oversee the new colony of South Australia. He also chaired the board of the London-based South Australian Colonisation Commission created by the South Australia Act 1834 to oversee the new colony of South Australia, before the colony went bankrupt and he was sacked in 1841.

[USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear submarine.] Typed Letter Signed written from the vessel by its commander Captain W. R. Anderson, to J. G. Gillman, following its transit of the North Pole.

Author: 
Captain William Robert Anderson (1921-2007), United States Navy, commander of the world’s first nuclear submarine USS Nautilus, which he took under the arctic icecap, and a Democratic congressman
Nautilus
Publication details: 
20 August 1958. On letterhead of ‘U.S.S. NAUTILUS (SSN-571) / Fleet Post Office / New York, New York’.
£120.00
Nautilus

1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. Addressed to ‘Mr. J. G. Gillman / 50 High Street / Chislehurst, Kent / England’. Good firm signature, ‘W R Anderson’, with ‘Commander, U.S. Navy / Written following the Nautilus’s arctic transit, 3 August 1958: ‘Thank you for your letter and kind appreciation. The people of England have given us a truly wonderful welcome and we are all deeply appreciative.’ He asks him to accept the signature that he is attaching, for his autograph collection. See Image.

[Sir Robert Ker Porter [‘Reynhold Steinkirk’], historical painter to Tsar of Russia, British consul in Venezuela; botany] Two Autograph Letters Signed to the Hon. Mrs Villiers, regarding the procurement in Venezuela of the ‘rarest seeds’.

Author: 
Sir Robert Ker Porter [pseudonym ‘Reynhold Steinkirk’] (1777-1842), Anglo-Irish artist, diplomat and author, historical painter to Tsar Alexander I of Russia, British consul in Venezuela [Villiers]
Publication details: 
ONE: 1 April 1830; Esher [England]. TWO: 18 October 1830; Caracas [Venezuela].
£380.00

Artist, author, diplomat and horseman, present at Sir John Moore’s death in Corunna, knighted by the king of Sweden, historical painter to Tsar Alexander, British consul in Venezuela: see the entry on this renaissance man in the Oxford DNB. Both in good condition, with folds for postage. Both signed ‘R Ker Porter’. The recipient (known to her family as the ‘Queen Bee’) was the widow of the Hon. George Villiers, who resided with her family at Kent House, Knightsbridge, home of her brother the Earl of Morley.

[George IV and Home Secretary and future Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel.] Autograph Signatures of the King ('George R.') and Peel ('R Peel') to 'Warrant for the removal of John Raddon to the Criminal Lunatic Asylum in St Georges Fields'.

Author: 
George IV (1762-1830), King of Great Britain; Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850), Prime Minister and creator of the British police force
George IV
Publication details: 
'Given at Our Court at Carlton House the Fifth day of February 1824, in the Fifth Year of Our Reign.'
£400.00
George IV

2pp, foolscap 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to one edge. Folded twice. Large heavily-smudged signature of the king ('George R.') at head of first page, which has the royal seal under paper in the left-hand margin. Signed at end of document ('By His Majesty's Command') by the Home Secretary and future Prime Minister: 'R Peel'.

[Sir Robert Howard, Restoration playwright and Royalist politician, part-proprietor of the Theatre Royal; associate of John Dryden.] Autograph Signature, as Auditor of the Exchequer, to draft.

Author: 
Sir Robert Howard (1626-1698), Restoration playwright, part-proprietor of the Theatre Royal; friend and associate of John Dryden, Royalist politician and Auditor of the Exchequer
Sir Robert Howard
Publication details: 
Dated in Latin 30 April 1685. [Exchequer, Westminster Hall, London.]
£56.00
Sir Robert Howard

On one side of an irregular piece of paper, roughly 18 x 9 cm, torn from the foot of a document. Heavily discoloured, but neatly laid down on a 19 x 13.5 cm piece of grey paper, with the typed caption: ‘Signture [sic] of: / Sir Robert HOWARD (1626-1698) P.C. / Auditor of the Excheq: and Dramatist / (part-author, with Dryden, of ‘The Indian Queen’ etc.)’. At the head: ‘pray pay this Order out of Customes’; and beneath this the Latin draft, with date and sum (but not the name of the payee). Howard’s signature, written large and bold, is at bottom left: ‘Exam[inatus] P[er]. Howard’.

[Robert C. Winthrop, American Whig politician, representative for Massachusetts.] Autograph Letter Signed to the English economist Nassau Senior, recommending to his attention the lawyer Charles Pelham Curtis, with reference to Daniel Webster.

Author: 
Robert C. Winthrop [Robert Charles Winthrop] (1809-1894), American Whig politician from Massachusetts [Nassau William Senior (1790-1864), economist; Charles Pelham Curtis (1792-1864); Daniel Webster]
Robert C. Winthrop
Publication details: 
‘Boston. 28th. April, / 1853.’
£220.00
Robert C. Winthrop

Written following the premature end of his political career in 1852. See Senior’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. On bifolium. Addressed to ‘N. W. Senior Esqe.’ and signed ‘Robt. C. Winthrop.’ In good condition, lightly aged, and folded for postage. Begins: ‘My Dear Sir, / You may, perhaps, remember that I owed the pleasure of your acquaintance in 1847, to a letter of introduction from our late distinguished Statesman, Mr. Webster. [i.e. the celebrated Daniel Webster (1782-1852)] - Were Mr. W.

Copy of the Irish Republican newspaper 'Sinn Féin', from the papers of Robert Lynd, and with the main article on the front page ('Idealism in Irish Politics') written by him under the signature 'Riobard ua Floinn'

Author: 
Riobard ua Floinn [Robert Lynd] (1979-1949), Irish essayist [Sinn Féin]
Publication details: 
'Printed for the SINN FEIN Printing and Publishing Company, Limited, by An Clo-Cumann, Teo., 68-71 Great Strand Street, in the City of Dublin, and Published at the Office, 17 Fownes Street'. 6 February 1909.
£250.00

4pp., folio. Broadsheet bifolium. On aged high-acidity paper, folded once vertically, and once horizontally, and with wear along the fold lines and crease. Lynd's article is the main one on the front page, covering 80 and a half column inches across all seven columns. The article begins: 'Among the many conflicting views which the English have of the Irish character, two are, perhaps, more popular than the rest. One - the sturdy Saxon view - is that we are a gay and generous people, the drink-dispensers of the world, amiable buffoons, a race of eloquent and lying beggars.

Copy of the Irish Republican newspaper 'Sinn Féin', from the papers of Robert Lynd, and with the main article on the front page ('Literature and Politics') written by him under the signature 'Riobard ua Floinn'

Author: 
Riobard ua Floinn [Robert Lynd] (1979-1949), Irish essayist [Sinn Féin]
Publication details: 
'Printed for the SINN FEIN Printing and Publishing Company, Limited, by An Clo-Cumann, Teo., 68-71 Great Strand Street, in the City of Dublin, and Published at the Office, 17 Fownes Street'. 27 February 1909.
£220.00

4pp., folio. Broadsheet bifolium. On aged high-acidity paper, folded once vertically, and once horizontally, and with wear along the fold lines. Lynd's article is the main one on the front page, covering 74 column inches across five of the seven columns. The article begins: 'I do not know what exactly can have been in my mind when I gave Literature and Politics to the secretary of the Irish Literary Society of London as the subject of a paper I had promised to deliver.

Copy of the Irish Republican newspaper 'Sinn Féin', from the papers of Robert Lynd, and possibly containing an article by him.

Author: 
Riobard ua Floinn [Robert Lynd] (1979-1949), Irish essayist [Sinn Féin]
Publication details: 
'Printed for the Sinn Fein Printing and Publishing Company, Ltd., by Devereux, Newth and Co., 49 Middle Abbey Street, Dublin, and published by the Sinn Fein Company at the same address.' 27 July 1912.
£150.00

8pp., folio. On aged and creased high-acidity paper, with closed tears and chipping. The two articles most likely to be the work of Lynd are 'The Viceregal Microbe' on pp.2-3, and 'The Future of the Language Movement' on p.2; both are anonymous.

[The Birth of the Scout Movement?: R. B. Haldane and Baden-Powell’s ‘scheme’.] Typed Note with cyclostyled sigature from the future Lord Chancellor Richard Burdon Haldane to ‘General Baden-Powell’, regarding a meeting with Sir Edward Ward.

Author: 
[The Birth of the Scout Movement? R. B. Haldane [Richard Burdon Haldane (1856-1928), 1st Viscount Haldane, Lord Chancellor] [Lord Baden-Powell [Sir Robert Baden-Powell (1857-1941)]; the Boy Scouts]
Publication details: 
23 May 1906. On embossed War Office letterhead.
£280.00

‘Scouting for Boys’ did not begin its serialized publication until January 1908, but Baden-Powell’s entry in the Oxford DNB states that it was Haldane, as Secretary for War, who ‘persuaded him that character training should be at the centre of any scheme of boy instruction’, following a ‘major inspection’ of the Boys’ Brigade by him as Vice-President at Glasgow in April 1904. 1p, 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged, with slight creasing and a short closed tear to one edge. Reads: ‘Dictated. / 23rd. May 1906. / Dear General Baden-Powell, / Thank you for your letter.

[Sir Robert Howard, playwright and politician.] Two Autograph Signatures (both ‘Ro: Howard’) among extensive manuscript endorsements of Exchequer document regarding ‘Sr Thomas Player in repaymt. of Loane.’

Author: 
Sir Robert Howard (1626-1698) of the Receipt Office, royalist politician, playwright, poet and friend of John Dryden [Sir Thomas Player (d.1686) of Hackney]
Sir Robert Howard
Publication details: 
[Exchequer Office, Whitehall.] 20 May 1679.
£120.00
Sir Robert Howard

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB and History of Parliament. Howard was Auditor of Receipt from 1673 to his death. The document is damaged, with the lower part torn away, leaving an area 23cm high and the same wide, but with part of one lower corner torn away. The paper is aged, and there are chipping and closed tears to edges. Howard’s two signatures (both ‘Ro: Howard’) are both undamaged, and the item is of some interest. On the front is the printed form, completed in manuscript, with ‘Sr. Thomas Player in repaymt. of Loane./’ in manuscript in right-hand margin.

[Rt Hon. Robert Gambier Middleton, Scottish Royal Navy officer who served under Nelson as Captain of HMS Flora.] Three Letters Signed, giving instructions to his midshipman on the Flora John Hawkins, one from Gibraltar.

Author: 
Rt Hon. Robert Gambier Middleton (1774-1837), Scottish Royal Navy officer who served under Nelson as Captain of HMS Flora, nephew of Admiral Lord Barham
Publication details: 
All three written from HMS Flora. ONE: ‘at Sea the 26 of June 1798’. TWO: ‘in Gibraltar Bay the 18th. July 1798’. THREE: ‘as Sea, the 28th. March 1800’.
£320.00

Providing a good view of the day-to-day practicalities of Nelson's navy. Middleton was the nephew of Admiral Lord Barham. In 1795 he removed from the Lowestoffe to the Flora, serving under the Nelson off Genoa in support of the Austrian Army, and during July 1796 at the occupation of Porto Ferrajo. All three 1p, foolscap, and somewhat discoloured and worn, the first and last with chipping at head, but all with text entire.

[Lord Haldane [Richard Burdon Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane], Lord Chancellor.] Autograph Letter Signed to 'Mr Hurd' (i.e. the future Sir Archibald Hurd), regarding his essay on defence against German invasion, and Sir Arthur Wilson.

Author: 
Lord Haldane [Richard Burdon Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane] (1856-1928), Scottish Liberal and Labour politician, philosopher, and Lord Chancellor [Sir Archibald Hurd (1869-1959), naval strategist]
Publication details: 
9 January 1911. On letterhead of Cloan, Auchterarder, N. B. [North Brition, i.e. Scotland]
£80.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of a bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with the blank second leaf carrying some traces of pink paper mount. Written a couple of months before Haldane’s acceptance of a peerage, so that he could become leader of the Liberals in the House of Lords, and in response to Hurd’s essay ‘The New Policy of Imperial and Home Defence’, published in the January 1911 number of ‘The Nineteenth Century and After’.

[Viscount Sydney [John Robert Townshend, 1st Earl Sydney], Liberal politician, twice Lord Chamberlain of the Household and twice Lord Steward.] Part of Autograph Letter, with Signature, regarding the killing of rabbits.

Author: 
Viscount Sydney [John Robert Townshend, 1st Earl Sydney] (1805-1890), Liberal politician, twice Lord Chamberlain of the Household and twice Lord Steward
Sydney
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£50.00
Sydney

On 11 x 6 cm piece of aged paper, with patches of discoloration and traces of mount on reverse. Good clear firm and undamaged signature on front: ‘[...] I am Sir / Yr Obt. Sert. / Sydney’. The reverse reads: ‘[...] ristricted from killing rabbits on the land lately taken on lease from me and also from ploughing up any part of it but I hereby give you leave to kill rabbits or any [...]’. See Image.

[Sir Edward Malet, diplomat.] Autograph Letter Signed to Sir Robert Head, regarding a dinner engagement at ‘Countess Brockdorff’s’.

Author: 
Sir Edward Malet [Sir Edward Baldwin Malet, 4th baronet] (1837-1908), British diplomat, Consul-General in Egypt, 1879-1883 [Sir Robert Garnett Head (1845-1907), 3rd Baronet, of Rochester]
Publication details: 
14 January 1893; on letterhead of the British Embassy, Berlin.
£45.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, and folded once for postage. With the item’s worn envelope, with ‘British Embassy, / Berlin.’ printed on the damaged flap, addressed by Malet to ‘Sir Robert Head Bt. / 97 Zimmer Strasse’, and initialed by him at bottom-left, ‘R B Malet’. The letter, which is signed ‘Edward B Malet’, begins: ‘Dear Sir Robert Head, / My wife will be very happy to take you and Lady Head to Countess Brockdorff’s on Monday at 3 1/2.

[Robert Morley, English actor, star of stage and screen.] Autograph Note Signed, with 'most abject apologies'.

Author: 
Robert Morley [Robert Adolph Wilton Morley] (1908-1992), quintessentially-English actor, star of stage and screen
Morley
Publication details: 
Undated; on letterhead of 25 Burton Court S.W.3 [London].
£35.00
Morley

1p, 12mo. On grey paper. In fair condition, lightly aged and with slight creasing. Large firm signature. Presumably responding to a request for an autograph. Reads: ‘With my most abject apologies - but I have been away for three months / Robert Morley. See Image.

[Major-Gen. Sir Robert Neville, soldier with the Rl Marines and later Governor of the Bahamas] Typed Letter Signed to Lieut. G. Hide, asking for assistance in getting back to Edinburgh after a trip to Scapa.

Author: 
Major-General Sir Robert Neville [Robert Arthur Ross Neville] (1896-1987), British soldier with the Royal Marines in both world wars; Governor of the Bahamas, 1950-1953; Combined Operations, Whitehall
Publication details: 
15 August 1943; on letterhead of the Combined Operations Headquarters, 1A Richmond Terrace, Whitehall, SW1 [London].
£120.00

See his obituary in The Times, 16 June 1987. 1p, 4to. On aged and lightly creased and worn paper. Folded twice, with short closed tears to edges of central horizontal crease. Addressed to ‘Dear Hide’ and ‘Lieutenant G. Hide, R.N.V.R. / 700 Squadron / TWATT.’ Signed ‘Robert Neville’. He feels ‘very guilty’ that he did not write to thank Hide ‘for the Walrus, which was, of course, an absolute Godsend to me. Sargent could not have been a more delightful or obliging pilot.

[James Hamilton, Scottish Presbyterian minister and religious writer.] Autograph Letter Signed to Rev. R. M. McCheyne, stating when he will be able to see him in Dundee.

Author: 
James Hamilton (1814-1867), Scottish Presbyterian minister and religious writer [Robert Murray McCheyne (1813-1843) of Dundee, Church of Scotland minister]
Publication details: 
15 January 1840. Abernyte [Perthshire, Scotland].
£50.00

See the entries for Hamilton and McCheyne in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. On the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium, with the verso of the second leaf addressed by Hamilton, with broken seal in black wax, to ‘Rev. R. M. McCheyne / Dundee’. Addressed to ‘My dear Friend’ and signed ‘James Hamilton’. In fair condition, lightly discoloured. Folded three times for postage. In the hope that his prayers will give McCheyne strength, Hamilton will ‘venture down to-morrow’ by coach. If he is unable to ‘reach Dundee in time’, he gives the time when he will be ‘in St Peter’s Vestry’.

[Commodore George Johnstone, first Governor of West Florida.] Two Manuscript Letters to him from his bank Sir Robert Herries & Co., the first providing an 'account current' and the second reporting the delivery of a 'Chest of plate' to 'Mr. Maxwell'.

Author: 
Sir Robert Herries (c.1731-1815), Scottish merchant and founder of a London banking house [Commodore George Johnstone (1730-1787), Royal Navy officer and first Governor of West Florida. 1763-67]
Publication details: 
ONE: 19 February 1781. TWO: 1 October 1782. Both from St James’s Street, London.
£250.00

Two Manuscript Letters from the London banking house Robert Herries & Co. to the former Governor of West Florida George Johnstone, the first ‘with Account Current’ and the second regarding delivery of ‘the plate to Mr Maxwell. Both items in good condition, lightly aged and worn. ONE: 2pp, 8vo. On the inner sides of a bifolium, with the reverse of the second leaf bearing the address (with postmark) ‘Commodore Johnstone / M. P. / Portsmouth’, and endorsement ‘Sir Robert Harries [sic] & Co. / 19th Feby. 1781. / with Account Current. / Balance due the Governor / £697 .. 18/3’.

[Royal Navy, 1838.] Manuscript ‘Return of Treasure conveyed’ by HMS Dublin (Captain Robert Tait), flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir Graham Hamond, Commander-in-Chief of the South American station. Signed by Ralph Barton, Senior Lieutenant.

Author: 
Royal Navy, 1838 [HMS Dublin (Captain Robert Tait), flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir Graham Hamond, Commander-in-Chief of the South American station; Ralph Barton, Senior Lieutenant]
Publication details: 
Compiled to 31 March 1838. No place.
£180.00

The 1812 HMS Dublin was the third Royal Navy ship of that name. At the time of this document she was a 40-gunner, and the flagship of the Commander-in-Chief of the South American station Vice-Admiral Sir Graham Hamond (1779-1862). See the entries on Barton, Hamond and Tait in O’Byrne’s ‘Naval Biographical Dictionary’ (1849), and Hamond’s in the Oxford DNB. 1p, landscape foolscap 8vo. Aged and creased. Docketed on reverse: ‘Dublin / Treasure conveyed. / 31. March 1838. / E1/1 / Entd 2d. April. / W Let’.

[' there are 5 french frigates at sea escaped from Toulon': Captain Sir Peter Parker and HMS Menelaus (Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Wars).] Autograph Letter Signed from midshipman Robert Kennedy Thomson, describing his exploits to his mother.

Author: 
Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Wars; Captain Sir Peter Parker and the Menelaus] Lieutenant Robert Kennedy Thomson (fl. 1849) of Dalgarrock, Ayrshire, Scotland
Publication details: 
26 December [1812]. ‘H M. Ship Menelaus’. With ‘Ship Lre’ postmark from Portsmouth Dock’.
£220.00

Real Hornblower stuff: a breathless letter full of interesting content. The Oxford DNB entry for Sir Peter Parker the younger (1745-1814) gives the background: ‘in January 1812 he joined Sir Edward Pellew at Port Mahon, where he remained for the greater part of the year, attached to the in-shore squadron before Toulon. There he had more than one opportunity of distinguishing himself in a brilliant skirmish with the enemy's advanced ships.

[‘Nothing but death or the gout’: Lord Haldane [Richard Burdon Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane], Lord Chancellor.] Two Autograph Letters Signed to ‘Mrs Sturgis’ [George Meredith’s daughter], about plans for visits, one preceding dinner with the king.

Author: 
Lord Haldane [Richard Burdon Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane] (1856-1928), Scottish Liberal and Labour politician, philosopher, and Lord Chancellor
Publication details: 
ONE: 27 January [1901?]; 3 Whitehall Court [London]. TWO: 16 February [1904?]; on letterhead of 10 Old Square, Lincolns Inn, W.C. [London]
£50.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Both letters are in good condition, lightly aged, and both folded once. Both addressed to ‘Mrs Sturgis’, and both signed ‘R B Haldane’. The year in both cases is in the first decade of the twentieth century, but the last digit is hard to decipher. ONE: 27 January [1901?]. 2pp, 12mo. On the first leaf of a bifolium. He fears that he will not reach Leatherhead (where the Sturgis had a country house) before ‘the late train after dinner on Sat. the 21st.’ He plans to ‘send down a servant ahead’, and himself ‘come at bedtime’.

[The Sherborne Mercury, or Weekly Advertiser, Dorset's first newspaper, a printed periodical predating The Times.] Number for ?Tuesday, April 29, 1740.?

Author: 
The Sherborne Mercury, or Weekly Advertiser, proprietor William Bettinson (d.1746), Dorset's first newspaper
Publication details: 
?Tuesday, April 29, 1740.? (Vol. IV, No. 167.) ?Printed at SHERBORNE, by WILLIAM BETTINSON, from LONDON.? [Dorset.]
£180.00

An important provincial publication, predating The Times by half a century. See the Oxford DNB entry of the later proprietor Robert Goadby, and the article by Roger Guttridge, ?Dorset?s first newspaper?, in ?Dorset Life?, August 2019. 4pp, folio. On two leaves, which originally formed a bifolium, but have now become detached from one another. Aged and worn, with chipping to extremities and along central horizontal and vertical folds, resulting in occasional loss of text.

[George Wyndham, Conservative politician and author.] Two Autograph Letters Signed to Canon Milford, Rector of East Knoyle, regarding arrangements for the funeral and burial of his father Percy Scawen Wyndham.

Author: 
George Wyndham (1863-1913), Conservative politician and author, one of the Souls [Canon Robert Newman Milford, Rector of East Knoyle; Percy Scawen Wyndham]
Publication details: 
14 and 16 March 1911. Each on letterhead of Clouds, East Knoyle [Wiltshire].
£50.00

Wyndham’s entry in the Oxford DNB states that the family estate was ‘some 4000 acres in Wiltshire’. Milford (1829-1913) was his rector at East Knoyle, and the letters inform him about arrangements for the funeral of Wyndham’s father Percy Scawen Wyndham (1835-1911). Both items in good condition, lightly aged, and folded for postage. Each addressed to ‘My dear Canon Milford’ and signed ‘George Wyndham.’ ONE: 14 March 1911. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Begins: ‘I have found a written permission from my Father to have the Funeral - committal to the erth - where I think best.

[R. Lloyd Praeger, Irish naturalist and author, Librarian of the Royal Irish Academy.] Autograph Signature to document acknowleding receipt by the Academy of Mrs C. Littow Falkiner’s ‘Essays relating to Ireland’.

Author: 
R. Lloyd Praeger [Robert Lloyd Praeger], Irish naturalist and author, Librarian of the Royal Irish Academy
Publication details: 
10 November 1909. Dublin, headed with device of the Royal Irish Academy.
£56.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. In good condition, on lightly aged paper with slight nicks to one edge. Folded four times. A good, firm signature, as ‘Librarian of the Academy’, to a printed form completed in another hand, headed with a reproduction of the Academy’s seal. Reads (manuscript text in square brackets): ‘DUBLIN, [November 10] 19[09] / SIR [Madam] / I AM DIRECTED BY THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY TO THANK HYOU FOR THE UNDERMENTIONED DONATION, AND TO ASSURE YOU THAT THE ACADEMY APPRECIATES THIS MARK OF CONSIDERATION.

[A Scottish Royal Navy Midshipman in the Napoleonic Wars.] Autograph Letter Signed to his mother from Robert Kennedy Thomson of Daljarrock, giving news from HMS Imperieuse, and commenting on news from Scotland.

Author: 
Robert Kennedy Thomson of Daljarrock, Ayrshire, Scotland, Royal Navy Officer in the Napoleonic Wars [HMS Imperieuse; Sir Henry Duncan; Vice-Admiral Sir Joshua Ricketts Rowley]
Publication details: 
‘H.M. Ship Imperieuse Port Mahon [Minorca] / Jany. 12th. 1813.’
£180.00

See Thomson’s entry in O’Byrne’s ‘Naval Biographical Dictionary’ (1849). He had entered the navy in 1811, ‘on board the Impérieuse 38, Capt. Hon. Henry Duncan’, and would retire with the rank of Lieutenant, after a reasonably eventful career, in 1829. In 1849 he was said by O’Byrne to be ‘a Captain in the Ayrshire Militia’. On 30 September 1864 the London Gazette listed him among the ‘Lieutenants on Reserved List, to be Retired Commanders’.

[‘The Reefer’s pain’: Royal Navy, 1806.] Unpublished Autograph Poem ‘The Cockpit’, Signed by ‘J H Grose Assistant Surgeon’, HMS Captain, describing a midshipman's life, with reference to Rear-Admiral Robert Carthew Reynolds and Thomas John Dibdin.

Author: 
J. H. Grose, Royal Navy Assistant Surgeon of His Majesty’s Ship Captain, 1806 [Rear-Admiral Robert Carthew Reynolds; Thomas John Dibdin; Lord Nelson]
Publication details: 
3 February 1806. On board HMS Captain.
£280.00

An interesting and well-written poem, unpublished, casting light on the life of a midshipman in the Royal Navy in the year after Trafalgar. The author of this poem is frustratingly elusive (he was perhaps a member of the family of the antiquary Francis Grose, 1731-1791), but the 1787 Captain was a 74-gun third rater of some renown, having been captained by Nelson at the 1797 Battle of St Vincent. In the year following this poem she would act as one of the escorts for the expedition that left Falmouth and eventually attacked Buenos Aires.

[Scottish singers of the nineteenth century.] Printed Circular regarding proposed ‘Monument to the Scottish vocalists Templeton, Wilson, & Kennedy’, by David Pryde, James Crichton and John Walker, officers of the Edinburgh Burns’ Club.

Author: 
Edinburgh Burns’ Club: David Pryde, President; James Crichton, Hon. Sec.; John Walker, Acting Sec. [the Scottish singers David Kennedy (1825-86), John Templeton (1802-86), John Wilson (1800-49)]
Publication details: 
1887, Edinburgh Burns' Club.
£80.00

The plaque referred is ‘attached to the rock face fronting Regent Road immediately to the east of the steps leading from the end of Waterloo Place to Calton Hill’, and was unveiled in 1894. The entry with Canmore ID 302221 gives some detail, but has no mention of the present appeal. 1p, 4to. On recto of first leaf of bifolium of laid paper. Discoloured and worn, but with text intact and clear. The authors are named as: ‘DAVID PRYDE, M.A., LL.D., / President of the Edinburgh Burns’ Club. / JAMES CRICHTON, Hon. Secy. / JOHN WALKER, Acting.

[Australia: kangaroo hunting and numismatics.] Autograph Letter Signed from Robert Barton, Assayer, Royal Mint in Melbourne, to ‘Grubbe’, giving advice on hunting kangaroo and duck.

Author: 
[Australia: kangaroo hunting and numismatics] Robert Barton (1839-1930), assayer, Deputy Master of the Royal Mint in Melbourne, Australia
Publication details: 
'Royal Mint [Melbourne, Australia] / 21 May 1875'.
£120.00

Barton, who was born in London, joined the Royal Mint’s Melbourne branch as one of two assayers on its opening in 1869; in 1887 he was promoted to Superintendent, and in 1895 to Deputy Master, holding that position until his reitrement in 1904. See his entry in the Encyclopaedia of Australian Science and Innovation. In case Barton has misspelled the name, the recipient may be William Dawson Grubb (1817-1879) or his son Frederick William Grubb (1844-1923), who have a joint-entry in the Australian Dictionary of National Biography. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Signed ‘Robert Barton’.

[Robert Lynd, Irish journalist and essayist; his wife the poet Sylvia Lynd.] Autograph Letter Signed from SL to Clement Shorter on the birth of his daugher; and signed autograph letter of condolence from RL to Shorter's widow on his death.

Author: 
Robert Lynd [Robert Wilson Lynd], Irish journalist and essayist; his wife the poet Sylvia Lynd [Clement Shorter [Clement King Shorter], journalist; his second wife, born Annie Doris Banfield]
Publication details: 
SL to CS: 18 January 1922; on letterhead of The Stone House, Steyning, Sussex. RL to 'Mrs. Shorter: 21 November 1926; on letterhead of 5 Keats Grove, Hampstead, NW3.
£80.00

See the entries on Robert and Sylvia Lynd, and Clement Shorter, in the Oxford DNB. (Shorter’s first wife, the Irish nationalist poet Dora Mary Shorter (née Sigerson), had died in 1918.) Both items are in good condition, lightly aged. Both 1p, 12mo, and each folded once for postage. ONE: SL to CS, 18 January 1922. Signed 'Sylvia Lynd'. Begins: 'My dear Clement, I hear that you have a little daughter. Many many congratulations & good wishes. It is very nice to know that you are so happy.' She turns to her own family: ‘We are all well down here & very busy. Sheila & B. J.

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