THE

Paper dimensions 5 x 11 cm. Good. The foot of the last page of a letter with a mourning border. Reads '<...> consideration. | I am, Gentn. | Your obedt. St. | [signed] Thos Webster | To the President | & Council of the Royal Academy'.

8vo: 1 p. Good, with slight wear to outer edge, and strip from previous mount neatly adhering to reverse. With name of recipient at head, and docketed on reverse. He has 'seen some charming & useful Leaflets advocating Humanity to Animals' and has been 'led to understand they may be obtained through' his correspondent. He would like a hundred of the leaflets to be sent to him, 'for which I will gladly send stamps'. Hall was a sanctimonious figure, supposedly the model for Dickens's Pecksniff.

The collection is in good condition, with occasional light creasing. The 'Regulations' ('ON HER MAJESTY'S SERVICE') consist of four pages printed on a folio bifolium. The other printed item, in facsimile handwriting, dated '15.11.51' (and dated in manuscript 'Horse Guards 1st.

The notes, on three 12mo bifoliums, cover three pages, with a few lines on a couple of others. In excess of eighty lines. Very good. Brief chronology and list of notable residents, presumably an outline for the description of the district in Besant's 'London' (1892) or another of his many writings on the city.

Quarto: 4 pp. Unbound bifolium. Grubby and creased, with a couple of pin holes and small closed tears, and a little ink staining to the margins (not affecting text). Five illustrations, including full page engraving of two cherubs, entitled 'L'Enfance de l'amour'. Claims that 'neither labour nor expense will be spared to achieve and maintain the highest standard of literary and artistic excellence', and that the magazine will be 'strictly non-political, in the sense that it will champion the views of no particular party'.

12mo: 2 pp. Good, with thin strip of glue and grey paper from previous mounting adhering at foot of reverse (not affecting text). While it is possible that Howell may have given 'Mr. Gill' [tMichael Henry Gill, later of McLashan & Gill?] 'letters [of introduction]' when he 'went to New York ten or fifteen years ago', it is unlikely.

16mo: 3 pp. A small bifolium (each leaf 10.5 x 9 cms) on aged paper. Discoloured strip at foot of first leaf, containing four lines of text and the signature, cut away and reattached with archival tissue, with damage to two words (not in signature). Second leaf with minor damage through breaking of seal. Good Penny Red stamp, postmarked in black, and second red postmark. The earliest she can accept the dinner invitation is the following Wednesday.

12mo: 2 pp. On creased, discoloured paper, with small closed tear and traces of previous mount adhering to reverse. An amusing, playful letter in a smudged, expansive hand. Reads 'My dear Phil | The other Phil Phil May will Phil the page in Xmas No. This will fill up & give it a fillip. ergo no Caran d'Ache | With Phil we're full. | Ought to be a fine number. | Have asked Phil May to contribute previously - | Well Phil May - but will Phil? | perhaps a wilfil person'. Accompanied by long typed commentary, giving provenance 'From a group of letters to Phil Agnew.

On piece of paper roughly 3.5 x 5.5 cm. Good firm signature, on lightly discoloured paper. Reads '<...> date hereof. | [signed] J. Aislabie'. Lightly docketed in pencil 'of South Sea notoriety'.

Letter One (12mo: 4 pp, to 'My dear Mr Nichols', good, on discoloured paper): Explains that he has given 'a note of introduction to a most particular friend of mine Mr Lawrence of Ipplepen near Totnes and Launceston Cornwall'. Lawrence 'was a great friend of the late Mr Arundel of Landulph' and is 'a great friend of Mr Bray of Tavistock'. He is 'a man of ancient Cornish descent & from its first families'. Spence thinks Nichol will find Lawrence 'a valuable West Country Correspondent, well up in County history and nothing loth in the pursuit of antiquarian lore[.

On piece of lightly discoloured paper roughly 4 x 10 cms, with horizontal fold on left. Reads '[typed] Yours sincerely, | [signed] Mary A. Ward.' Docketed in pencil at foot 'Mrs Humphry Ward 1914'.

Juliette Huxley's letter is 4to: 2 pp. Good, though lightly creased and attached to the other items by a paperclip. The correspondence mainly concerns a book by Cowell's eventually published under the title 'The garden as a fine art: from antiquity to modern times' (1978). She begins by describing Mary Wellesley: 'quite a character [...] lives in a small house off St. James's Palace, and entertains by candlelight.

4to: 4 pp. Unbound bifolium. On lightly discoloured and spotted paper, lightly worn at extremities. Central horizontal fold. Gives details of eight lectures, by, successively, H. Finer ('Impressions of America'), Montague Fordham ('The Rural Problem'), R. B. Forrester ('Co-operative Marketing'), Professor R. Peers ('Can we educate the Community?'), Arthur Greenwood, M.P. ('The Present Position and Future Policy in regard to Housing'), C. S. Orwin ('Land Tenure'), Rt. Hon. [sic] Sidney Webb, M.P. ('Poor-Law Reform'), and (with the 'syllabus' covering an entire page) H. St. J. B.

ITEM ONE: pencil sketch (roughly three inches square) of pensive woman in full dress seated on chair beside table with vase. Good. On reverse of part of envelope addressed to 'H. Wyatt Esqre. | Newman Street | Oxford Street' and postmarked in red ink oval '2 . A NOON . 2 | MY 4 | 1833'. Another postmark in black ink, and wafer still adhering. ITEM TWO: pencil sketch (roughly one inch by one and a half) of trees around long wall with spire in distance. On visiting card of 'Mr. Henry Wyatt' (the sketch over the word 'Wyatt').

8vo: 4 pp. Good. Difficult handwriting. He wants him to keep the cheque, which he considers 'only a compromise between our different expectations'. 'I know that you deserve the larger sum that you spoke of - but it is a tight squeeze to make the & expenses for the year of the New Englander come out even, and I do the best I can.' With seven-line postscript.

12mo: 1 p. Good. Since he 'liked the last little thing' she sent for his magazine, she ventures to think that he may approve of the piece she encloses (not present).

8vo: 8 pp. Stapled and unbound. In original grey printed wraps with rusted staples. Grubby and dogeared. Signed ('L. Conrad Hartley') presentation inscription dated 31 May 1915. No copy of the offprint of this short story on COPAC.

8vo: 11 pp. Unbound and stapled. In original beige printed wraps. Grubby and dogeared, with rusted staples. Signed (L. Conrad Hartley') presentation, dated 31 May 1915. No copy of the offprint off this short story on COPAC.

Octavo: 18 pp. Unbound: stabbed and unstitched. First leaf and leaves with pp. 15/16 and 17/18 loose. Leaves with pp.3/4 and 15/16 half-separated. Paper discoloured and chipping at edges. Extends to 918 lots. The odd number of leaves implies the loss of a final leaf, possibly bearing text. Stamp of the Public Library Ford Collection. Docketing in pencil notes a duplicate at the New York Public Library. No other copy traced.

Octavo: 39 pp. Stitched. In original orange wraps, with grey printed paper boards. On spotted, aged paper, with insect holes to a couple of leaves. Wraps stained and worn. First English printing of an essay noted for its coupling with Henry James's piece of the same name (not present here) in an American edition of 1885.

Octavo: [vi] + 24 pp. Stapled and unbound. Detached from original blue and pink printed wraps (advertising W. S. Lincoln & Son, coin and medal dealers of New Oxford Street, London). Several illustrations and tables. Good, though lightly aged, and with some wear and creasing to the wraps, which are blue on the outside and pink internally. Several other items by Ratcliff are recorded, but this item is rare, with no copy listed on COPAC.

Two pages, octavo. Good, apart from damage and loss to one edge caused by removal from mount. Would appear to relate to the controversy between the surgeon Sir Henry Thompson (1820-1904) and John Tyndall (1820-1893), held in the pages of Strahan's 'Contemporary Review'. Reads 'I herewith send you the proof of your reply to Sir Henry Thompson | Please revise and return it tomorrow.

Association founded in England in 1921 to promote the interests of writers worldwide. First item, two pages, 12mo; next four, one page, 12mo; last item, one page, octavo. All good, though lightly creased and on discoloured paper. All have two punch holes. Item one with staple marks in top left-hand corner. The collection consists of instructions to the printer of the association's journal 'P.E.N. News'.

Statesman (1771-1851); First Lord of the Admiralty, 1812-27, after whom Melville Sound was named. Three pages, quarto. Very good if a tad grubby.

Judge (1669-1728), and Attorney-General to the Prince of Wales on the accession of George I. Grandfather of the poet William Cowper, and brother of William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper (1665-1723), Lord Chancellor of England. One of the defendants, in 1699, in the celebrated trial for the murder of Sarah Stout. Dimensions of paper roughly six and a half inches by six inches. On discoloured, spotted paper, with slight wear and loss to one corner (not affecting text). Right edge slightly trimmed, with partial loss to one word'.

(1699-1747). One leaf, dimensions roughly eight inches by ten. Printed text with manuscript additions on recto; docketed on verso 'Right Hon Pattee Byng afterwards Earl of Torrington Treasurer of the Navy 1729- Brother of the unfortunate Admiral John Byng'. Good, but grubby, and with slight loss at head and in centre (affecting five words of text). 'Received then of [Lord Parker one of the Four Tellers of his Majesty's Exchequer] the Sum of [One hundred Twenty one thousand four hundred and sixteen pounds seven shillings and Eleven pence] in further Part of an Order, Dated the [10th.

Scottish geologist (1805-98), Fellow of the Royal Society. Written in capacity as Secretary of the Geological Society. Four pages, 12mo. On grubby, stained paper discoloured with age. Second leaf of bifoliate attached to two fragments of draft replies in similar condition. 'Your very elaborate Paper on the L[ower]. Greensand Corals came before the Council yesterday for consideration: and the unanimous wish was to print it in the Journal with the fullest illustrations.

See 'The club of 'Nobody's Friends' 1800-2000: a memoir on its two-hundredth anniversary' by Geoffrey Rowell (2000). Four-page bifolium. Good, on grubby, discoloured paper, with some creasing and wear at foot. Gives details of the election between 1820 and 1877 of fifty-nine Actual Members, and of eighteen Honorary Members. Includes the Rev. Charles Burney, the artist George Richmond and the publisher John Murray.

English poet, essayist and civil servant (1800-86), author of 'Philip van Artevelde' (1834). Four pages, 12mo. Very good, on somewhat grubby paper. He is glad that his correspondent's aunt 'is getting so well thro' the seventies of this winter & the changes, which are perhaps more trying than a constancy of coldness. Indeed what were in my time the established notions about the evil effects of cold weather seem to be subverted, & not without reason.

The collection is in good condition, with very occasional minor creasing, staining and loss. Majority of items quarto. Milne was a leading Fellow of the Society, a Chairman of Council in 1959-61 and Vice-President. The collection provides a valuable insight into the day-to-day workings of the Society, from the first letter discussing the R.I.B.A., and whether the Society might set up 'a somewhat similar organisation with similar prestige could be built up for industrial artists', to the last letter commending G. C. H.