SCOTLAND

Recent Earthquakes and their Investigation. [Offprint from the 'Proceedings' of the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow.]

Author: 
Alexander D[avid]. Ross (1883-1966).
Publication details: 
Glasgow: Printed for the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow by Carter & Pratt, Ltd., Canal Street. 1909.
£45.00

8vo: 14 pp. One plate and two diagrams in text. Stapled and unbound. In original grey printed wraps. Dogeared and grubby, with central vertical crease. Presentation copy. Ross is described as 'Assistant to the Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Glasgow.' He was Lecturer in Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow 1908-12, before moving to the University of Western Australia, where he was Professor of Physics and Mathematics,1912-29, and Professor of Physics, 1929-52.

Four items: the three numbers of the 'Album of the Bannatyne Club', with the first number bound with 'A Catalogue of Works printed for The Bannatyne Club. No. I.'

Author: 
David Laing, Secretary, The Bannatyne Club, Edinburgh, Scotland [Sir Walter Scott; Scottish; antiquarian]
Publication details: 
[Edinburgh: 1825 ('Catalogue' and first number of 'Album'), 1831 and 1854]
£400.00

All four items tastefully and crisply printed. ITEMS ONE AND TWO ('Catalogue' and first number of 'Album'): Both 8vo, bound together in original dark-green wraps. 'Catalogue': 12 pp; 'Album': 22 + [i] pp. All edges gilt. Wraps creased and worn, with slight chipping at head of spine. Some creasing to prelims and last few leaves. Note to 'Catalogue' (by 'D. L. | S.') explains that the 'following List contains the titles of such Books as have been printed for the Bannatyne Club since its Institution in February 1823'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Balcarres') to 'Everard'.

Author: 
David Lindsay (1871-1940), politician and future 27th Earl of Crawford [Lindsay Library; Bibliotheca Lindesiana]
Publication details: 
16 October 1895; Haigh [Lancashire].
£65.00

12mo: 3 pp. Bifoilum. Thirty-six lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with several pin holes, light spotting, and a 1 cm closed tear along a fold. A lighthearted epistle, beginning 'Dear Everard, Dear Everard | The Cistercians make an awful mistake in giving free meals. My Charity-organisation Society temperament rises in wrath: if they wd only apply the labour test for an hour or less - but free meals! I have watched the moral ravages of free meals and feel more strongly abt that kind of thing than about Home rule or Mediaeval Brases.

Autograph Letter Signed ('David S. Meldrum') to unnamed female correspondent.

Author: 
David Storrar Meldrum (1864-1940), novelist and partner in the publishing house of Blackwood's
Publication details: 
4 September 1897; on company letterhead '37, Paternoster Row, London, E.C.'
£56.00

8vo: 3 pp. On grubby, lightly creased paper. The recipient has made Meldrum a 'pretty present' of her edition of Burns (COPAC provides no clue as to her identity). He finds the volumes 'very dainty', and will read her notes 'with interest'. He has already read her 'Introductions' with 'great pleasure'. He comments on her assessment of a couple of poems and finds her 'standpoint' on 'the man & the poet' 'capital'. 'But you must allow me one criticism: you read into the poems a political significance which I'm sure wasn't there.

Autograph Letter Signed to unknown male correspondent; Autograph Signed endorsement of 'Dr. Dick of Dundee'; and facsimile of letter of thanks to his 'Birth-day Benefactors'.

Author: 
James Montgomery (1771-1854), Scottish hymnwriter and poet
Publication details: 
The letter dated 29 May 1835, 10 New Palace Yard, Westminster; the endorsement dated 'The Mount, September 19. 1850'; the facsimile dated 'The Mount nr Sheffield, Nov. 4. 1851.'
£220.00

The letter (8vo, 1 p) is foxed, but otherwise very good. Had he not been 'engaged for ten days past to dine three or four miles off with an old acquaintance', whom it is too late to disappoint, he would have been happy to avail himself of the kind invitation. Sends best wishes and prayers to the recipient's family, 'from the elder to the youngest'.

Autograph Letter Signed to 'My dear Smith'.

Author: 
Alexander Innes Shand (1832-1907), Scottish journalist, novelist and military historian
Publication details: 
Oakdale - Eden Bridge - Kent - 2 July' [no year]; on cancelled letterhead of the Windham Club, St James's Square, S.W.
£35.00

12mo bifolium: 3 pp. Good, though lightly creased. Tipped in on the blank verso of the second leaf, to a green paper folder on which an eight-line biographical entry of Shand has been laid down. He has left the packet containing the letters which Mrs Smith 'values' so 'highly' at the Reform Club, not wishing, in case it has changed, to send them to Smith's 'address in the Blue Book'. As he cannot 'make a decent excuse' for the delay in returning them, he throws himself on Smith's mercy.

Autograph Letter Signed to Dr Thompson, Edinburgh.

Author: 
James Thomson (1768-1855), editor of Encyclopaedia Britannica (1795-6); from 1805 parish minister in Eccles, Berwickshire [Rev. Thomas Lewis (d.1852) of the Union Chapel, Islington]
Publication details: 
Date not given (before 1852). 17 Stamford Street, Blackfriars.
£56.00

12mo, 2 pp. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with thin strip of black mount adhering at head on reverse (not affecting text). He has received Thompson's note 'intimating to me the necessity under which the Revd Mr Lewis and the Committee of Union Chapel find themselves reluctantly placed, to refuse our deputation an opportunity of pleading the Cause of our Society on the present occasion'. Refers to the 'great liberality of the Members of the Union Chapel' and 'their attachment to the good Cause'.

Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'Alec Maclehose') from Alexander MacLehose; and one Autograph Letter Signed ('James MacLehose'); all three to John Gideon Wilson.

Author: 
Alexander MacLehose & Co.; James MacLehose; publishers [John Gideon Wilson (1876-1963), Scottish bookseller, proprietor of the London firm of Bumpus]
Publication details: 
Alexander MacLehose: 10 August 1931 and 23 June 1932; both on letterhead of Alexander MacLehose & Co., 58 Bloomsbury Street, London, W.C.1. James MacLehose: 20 November 1931; on letterhead of Saint Johns House, 30 Smith Square, Westminster, S.W.1.
£100.00

Alexander MacLehose: Letter One: 4to, 1 p. Good, on slightly aged and lightly creased paper. He is sending a copy of his catalogue, 'which has reached me from the printers to-day'. He has 'sent a copy also to the firm'. Would like Wilson's 'advice as to whether "Memories of the Months" should have a paper jacket. The binders have sent me a nice cellophane cover, which shows the rather handsome binding. Would there be any objection, from a selling point of view, to a cellophane cover in place of the ordinary paper jacket?' Letter Two: 12mo, 2 pp.

The Abbotsford Subscription.

Author: 
R. A. Dundas, Secretary, Royal Society of Literature [Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), Scottish novelist and poet]
Publication details: 
St. Martin's Place, Dec. 7, 1832.'
£80.00

Disbound. Octavo: four pages. Good: slightly aged and with some creasing to extremities. Thirty-one lines of text, followed by a double-column list of subscribers, and amounts subscribed.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W Beattie') to R. Hepburn.

Author: 
William Beattie (1793-1875), M.D., poet and biographer
Publication details: 
Friday mg.' [date not stated]; Upper Berkeley Street.
£35.00

One page, 12mo. Black bordered. Very good and with the verso of the blank second leaf of the bifolium laid down on a leaf detached from an autograph album. Nine lines. He thanks him for 'a brace of splendid grouse - which are now so rare as not to be had for money. It was therefore doubly generous [...] Endulging [sic] the pleasing hope of "Revenge" - & with kind regards to your House circle'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('A Lang') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Andrew Lang (1844-1912), Scottish man of letters
Publication details: 
15 December [no year, but after 1906]; on letterhead of Alleyne House, St. Andrews, Scotland.
£45.00

12mo: 3 pp. Bifolium. 27 lines, written in a shaky hand. On creased, discoloured paper, and with some damage to the second leaf caused by careless removal from mount. Two irregularly-shaped closed tears on the second leaf, one to the left of the signature, have been neatly repaired on the reverse with archival tape. He is glad that his correspondent likes 'our Odyssey: the Iliad is less attractive. [...] I dare not remember all my books, but will ask Messrs Longman to send a list of what they possess. All are very unpopular.' He doesn't write in 'T.

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed male correspondent [Mr Blunt of Crewe].

Author: 
John Brown
Publication details: 
29 May 1859; 'Edinburgh 23 Rutland St'.
£35.00

Scottish essayist (1810-82). Two pages, 12mo. With mourning border. Good, but on discoloured paper, and with some glue staining to blank second leaf of bifoliate. Concerns the work for which Brown is remembered, 'Rab and his friends' (1859). If he is ever at Crewe he will 'certainly avail myself of Mrs. Blunt's & your very gratifying invitation. His wife is 'more delighted, I think, with your letter about "Rab" than by any other - & she has kept it - being like all good wives greedy of her husband's praise.' Signed 'J. Brown'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W Beattie. MD.') to the editor of the 'Naval and Military Gazette'.

Author: 
William Beattie (1793-1875), Scottish physician and poet
Publication details: 
13 August [1858]; St James's Street, London, on embossed letterhead of the Conservative Club.
£56.00

16mo (11 x 9 cm) bifolium, 3 pp, 16 lines of text. Mourning border. Good, with slight discoloration to the external pages. He is sending a manuscript 'At the suggestion of the Author, an officer residing in Paris'. If 'on examination' the recipient considers it 'unsuitable for the pages' of the Gazette, he asks for it to be returned to him at 13 Upper Berkeley Street 'when your messenger happens to pass that way'. The author 'is a man of high character and well acquainted with Paris & the Parisians'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Geo. Combe') to Messrs Bell & Bain, Printers, Exchange Court [Glasgow].

Author: 
George Combe (1788-1858), Scottish phrenologist
Publication details: 
20 April 1836; 81 Bath Street [Glasgow].
£95.00

8vo, 1 p. Addressed by Combe on the reverse, to which his monogram seal in red wax (with his motto 'RES NON VERBA QUAESO') still adheres. In poor condition, on discoloured paper, with damage to a few words of text above the signature caused by clumsy removal from the mount, a part of which still adheres to the reverse. Repaired with archival tape. The letter presumably concerns 'Additional testimonials on behalf of George Combe, as a candidate for the chair of logic in the University of Edinburgh' (1836). It reads 'Gentlemen | Be so good as correct these proofs, make them up in 8vo.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. Caird') to James MacLehose.

Author: 
John Caird (1820-1898), Church of Scotland minister, theologian and Principal of Glasgow University [James MacLehose (1811-1885), Glasgow publisher and bookseller; Rev. Dr James Paterson]
Publication details: 
July 6 [no year, but accompanied by an envelope postmarked 29 July 1881]; Venlaw Bank, Peebles, on cancelled letterhead of The University, Glasgow.
£56.00

12mo, 2 pp. Good, on lightly aged paper with slight creasing at head. He is enclosing a letter (not present) apologising 'for absence from Dr. Patersons funeral'. Asks if MacLehose can help him find the address of 'A. Craig Paterson'. 'I know that one of the sons is an English clergyman, but am not sure whether this is he.' The envelope, addressed by Caird to 'Jas. MacLehose Esq. | St. Vincent St. | Glasgow', bears a purple penny stamp, postmarked '159' beside a circular postmark in black ink, containing '4 H | GLASGOW | JU 29 | 81'

Typed Letter Signed ('Aberdeen') to 'Peter Cavanagh, Esq., At/ The Empire Theatre, Edinburgh.'

Author: 
George Gordon, 2nd Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair (1879-1965) [Peter Cavanagh (1914-1981), impressionist billed as 'The voice of them all']
Publication details: 
22 February 1952; on deleted letterhead of 16 Westbourne Street, London W.2, with embossed address Braehead, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen.
£35.00

4to, 1 p, 17 lines. He 'deeply appreciate[s] the spirit undlying the contents' of Cavangh's letter, which he found waiting for him on his return the day before 'after attending our beloved late King's Funeral'. 'As you say, the sword and scabbard must have belonged to my great Grandfather, the 4th Earl of Aberdeen, who was Prime Minister during theh Crimea War by the express command of Queen Victoria. He accepted the Premiership on the condition that he should be allowed to resign at the conclusion of the war.' Suggests a meeting in Aberdeen.

Three items (a printed announcement, invoice and receipt) relating to Johnstone & Hunter's edition of Dr John Owen's 'Works'.

Author: 
John Johnstone & Robert Hunter [Johnstone & Hunter], printers, binders and publishers, 15 Princes Street and 104 High Street, Edinburgh [James Alsop of Leek, Stafford]
Publication details: 
June and July 1855;
£100.00

All three items in good condition, a little grubby and lightly creased. Three pieces of nineteenth-century Scottish book trade ephemera. Item One (12mo, 1 p, nine lines of text): printed announcement that the 'concluding Volumes of our Edition of OWEN'S WORKS [...] will not be sent to Subscribers in arrear'. On the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium, with the verso of the blank second leaf docketed by Alsop. Item Two (12mo, 1 p, on grey-paper printed form): invoice, 'To JOHNSTONE & HUNTER, 15 PRINCES STREET.', dated June 1855. The subscription of 'J. Allsop Esqr.

Autograph Letter Signed to his publisher and friend Alexander Macmillan.

Author: 
William Black (1841-1898), Scottish journalist and novelist [Alexander Macmillan (1818-1896), publisher; Colin Hunter (1841-1904), Scottish painter]
Publication details: 
1 February [no year]; on letterhead of Paston House, Paston Place, Brighton.
£28.00

12mo, 1 p. Six lines of text. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. Inviting Macmillan to join him and 'some of the lads' in a dinner at the Reform Club, 'on the occasion of Colin Hunter's being made an Associate'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('A Francis Steuart') to 'Miss Graham'.

Author: 
Archibald Francis Steuart (1872-1942), Scottish advocate, genealogist and historian [AUTOGRAPH COLLECTING]
Publication details: 
Hotel Grande Bretagne, Florence; 11 March 1923.
£75.00

Two pages, octavo. Good, with traces of stub adhering to one uneven edge. He feels there is 'surely telepathy in the world' as, 'only last night tired of the dull inaction after a bout of 'flu', he was assembling autographs for his correspondent. '[T]hey all explain themselves except perhaps Boardman Robinson the American cartoonist and Rose Bradley the writer on teh 19th. Century. I send one too from Lord Seaforth who only died last week.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. S. Clouston') to 'A. Atkinson'.

Author: 
Sir Thomas Smith Clouston (1840-1915), physician-superintendant of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum, and editor of the 'Journal of Mental Science'
Publication details: 
17 October 1904; on letterhead of Tipperlinn House, Morningside Place, Edinburgh [Scotland].
£65.00

12mo: 1 p. On lightly spotted and creased paper. Quintessential doctor's handwriting. He is sorry he cannot be present 'to hear Dr 's paper', and that he cannot find time to write a paper himself. 'The subject is an interesting & important one, & is part of a still larger one <...?> physiologically considered'.

Autograph Letter Signed to Lockyer.

Author: 
William Black (1841-1898), Scottish journalist and novelist [Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer (1836-1920), Alexander Macmillan (1818-1896); astronomer; Altnaharra Hotel; angling; fishing]
Publication details: 
29 March [no year]; Altnaharra, Lairg, N.B. [Scotland]
£38.00

16mo bifolium (leaf dimensions 11 x 9 cm): 2 pp. 17 lines of text. Very good on lightly aged paper. Wonders whether Lockyer would like to spend his Easter holidays at Altnaharra, for a fortnight from 14 April. (The Altnaharra Hotel was used by anglers visiting the nearby lochs.) 'It is an expensive journey; but the sport is good - at least it has been good this last fortnight, but now we are sadly in want of rain. The weather is like June, only more so.' Forty salmon have been killed 'in these two weeks, averaging 11 lbs each'. Black's publisher was Alexander Macmillan.

Facsimile of Autograph Letter Signed, sent as circular to town clerks of Scottish Burghs.

Author: 
John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquis of Bute
Publication details: 
Mount Stuart | Rothesay.' [no year, but 1897 or after]
£25.00

Scottish nobleman (1847-1900) and author. Two pages, folio. Folded twice. First leaf of a bifoliate. On very good paper watermarked 'J WHATMAN | 1897'. Very good, but second (blank) leaf of bifoliate somewhat grubby. Facsimile signature 'Bute'. Long letter announcing the completion of his 'Arms of the Royal and Parliamentary Burghs of Scotland' (Blackwood, 1897) and appealing for information for his forthcoming 'Arms of the Baronial and Police Burghs of Scotland' (Blackwood & Sons, 1903).

Autograph Letter Signed to W. J. Daniel, student of the University of Glasgow.

Author: 
James Graham, 3rd Duke of Montrose [GLASGOW UNIVERSITY]
Publication details: 
10 January 1834; London.
£100.00

Scottish noble (1755-1836) and Chancellor of Glasgow University. 2 pages, 16mo. Creased and with one closed tear, but in good condition overall, and with the blank second leaf of the bifoliate attached to a piece of card. He has received Daniel's letter of 6 January, and although he hopes that 'the Publication in question, may do honor to the Contributors, & promote the prosperity of the University of Glasgow', he does not 'consider that it would be judicious, for the Chancellor of the University to appear as a Subscriber'.

Autograph Letter Signed to Sir Henry [Trueman] Wood, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Sir George Duff-Sutherland-Dunbar
Publication details: 
12 November 1915; on War Office letterhead.
£23.00

British soldier and historian (1878-1962). One page, quarto. Very good. Bearing the Society's stamp. '[...] I will be permitted by my duties to have the honour of attending at the Royal Society of Arts on the 17th. Instant at 4.30 pm in order to receive the Medal awarded to me by the Society. | I have also to acknowledge with thanks the kind invitation of the Council to attend in the Council Room before the Meeting [...]'. Signed 'G Duff Sutherland Dunbar'.

Four Autograph Letters Signed to [?] Macphail; copy, with MS corrections and additions, of proposed report on Bill by committee of the Faculty of Advocates; 'COPY LETTER, Mr P. W. Campbell, P.C.S., to Sir William S. Haldane, Crown Agent'; Bill.

Author: 
Charles Scott Dickson [Parliamentary Bill: Clerks of Session (Scotland) Regulation Acts, 1889 and 1912]
Publication details: 
The four letters, December 1812 to 1813; the Advocates' report, 14 January 1913, Advocates Library; Campbell's letter, 23 December 1912, Edinburgh; Bill, 9 December 1912.
£180.00

Dickson (born 1850) was Tory M.P. for Glasgow, Lord Advocate and Lord Justice Clerk. The four letters, all 12mo and all on House of Commons Library notepaper, are dusty and creased. Three are dated (30 and 31 December and 2 January) and signed; the other letter is undated and initialed. LETTER ONE: 'I spoke to the Lord Advocate to-day & he then definitely informed me that the Lord President entirely approved of the Bill.' LETTER TWO: 'I have spoken to the Advocate about the date of the committee stage & we will I believe have some weeks yet.

Stamped, sealed document appointing Robert William Hopkins of Preston 'to be my Sealer and Deputy Keeper of the Seal [of the Duchy of Lancaster]'.

Author: 
James Graham, 7th Marquis and 4th Duke of Montrose
Publication details: 
26 February 1858[; London].
£45.00

Scottish noble (1799-1874), Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. 1 page, 4to, on blue paper. In good condition despite a number of closed tears. Signed 'Montrose' and with his heavily-smudged red wax seal. Witnessed by 'F. Dawes Danvers | Duchy of Lancaster Office | London'. Decorative blind stamp 'ONE POUND FIFTEEN SHILLINGS', and with ink stamp 'LONDON | 27 . 2 . 58 | D'.

Autograph Letter Signed to Sir H[enry]. Trueman Wood, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Sir James Lewis Caw
Publication details: 
22 December 1916; on National Gallery [of Scotland], Edinburgh, letterhead.
£23.00

Scottish art critic and engineer (1864-1950). One page, octavo. Very good. Bearing the Society's stamp. 'It is very good of the Council of the Royal Society of Arts to ask me to become a member, but, while thanking them, I regret that I do not see my [^ way,] at present, to join any more societies.' Signed 'James L. Caw'.

Autograph Letter Signed, with two postmarks, to John Mounsey of Sunderland.

Author: 
Malcolm Laing [Laing family of Orkney]
Publication details: 
Kirkwall; date indecipherable, but docketed in pencil '1814'.
£75.00

Scottish historian (1762-1818), friend of Charles James Fox and Sir Walter Scott. 1 page, 8vo. Bifoliate, in very good condition, addressed on reverse of second leaf to 'Mr. John Mounsey | Furrier | Sunderland'. Difficult handwriting. 'Dear Sir. | <?> the beginning of March I sent to Lowth, by Mr Sir Joseph Banks, to be forwarded to you at Sunderland, Two matts or packages of Rabbit skins, containing 2127 Skins.

Memorial to the Right Honourable W. E. Gladstone, M.P., First Lord of the Treasury, on the Proposed Scottish University Commission and Increase of State Endowment of Theology in Scotland.

Author: 
Executive Committee of the Scottish Disestablishment Association[, William Henderson, Chairman].
Publication details: 
3 March 1883; 10 St Andrew Square, Edinburgh.
£35.00

4to bifoliate pamphlet; four paginated pages. Neatly folded twice. Some wear along creases, and with top half of recto of first leaf grubby and with one pinhole, otherwise in good condition. Begins 'THE University Chairs of Theology in Scotland are sectarian, in the sense of being restricted to one section of the Presbyterians of Scotland - the Church Established. This restriction has been felt as a very injurious and offence part of Church Establishment in Scotland, because in all other respects the Scottish Universities are national and catholic.'

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed male correspondent [Henry Petrie?].

Author: 
Patrick Fraser Tytler
Publication details: 
30 November 1840; 34 Devonshire Place.
£85.00

Scottish historian (1791-1849). Three pages, 12mo. In good condition, with second leaf of bifolium attached by blank verso to larger piece of docketed grey paper. An interesting, chatty letter relating to his 'History of Scotland' (1828-43), and the State Paper Office. He hopes his correspondent has received the seventh volume which 'cost me much labour - but if it is even an approach nearer to the truth the time has not been thrown away'.

Syndicate content