VICTORIAN

From the Macqueen-Pope papers. See his entry, and that of Brooke, in the Oxford DNB. The five items are in good condition, lightly aged and worn. ONE: Carbon of Typed Article titled ‘London Was Unlucky to Him / The Story of Gustavus Brooke, The Tragic Tragedian’. 11pp, 4to, on eleven leaves. Begins: There is nothing so ephemeral as the art of the actor. Very very few of the names live on. Yet there are some, who in their day were of the first magnitude and are now forgotten, save for the delving historian.

From the Macqueen-Pope papers. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Three items: a page with a quotation from Dickens, and list of characters in MP’s autograph; and two copies of the speech. Text entirely legible throughout, but on worn and creased paper MP is not named as the author, but the item is undoubtedly his work: one of the two copies has autograph emendations in pencil. ONE: Typed Notes for ‘Dickens Fellowship Speech’. 2pp, 4to. Begins: ‘Comment on previous speaker’s points. / Dickens the great Englishman - more than that the great man of the Middle Classes.

A unique and irreplaceable item in the field of women?s education: the earliest archives of the first institution in the world to award academic qualifications to women (or, as Mrs Alec Tweedie put it in 1898, ?The first College open to Women?), founded in 1848 by theologian and social reformer Frederick Denison Maurice. Consisting of around 340 different pieces of printed ephemera, dating from between 1853 and 1912. Laid down in a nineteenth-century album, with cloth spine and marbled boards, of 102pp, folio. Openings numbered 1-52, with leaf 43/44 lacking.

From the Macqueen-Pope papers. (See his entry in the Oxford DNB.) 1p, foolscap 8vo. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Begins: ‘Dear Mac, Im going great and I dont use THE MIKE. I enclose Bill of Last Week / I first Worked 60 Years ago. Mac I want to get. to Broadcast. THIS. IS. Your. LIFE / I Started when I was 9 Year Old. Im now 82. Can anyone beat my Record.’ He gives details of booking at the ‘Metropoliton [sic] Music Hall Edgware Rd. I was first there. 1901. NOVEMBER 4 Weeks / Of cours [sic] I was There many Times. Mac you ought to try and get me on Television. or. Radio.

From the Macqueen-Pope papers. See both their entries in the Oxford DNB. The four items in good condition, lightly aged and creased, with slight spotting to one corner of Item. Folded for postage. ONE: ALS dated 28 December 1950. 2pp, 12mo. Before sending seasonal greetings she begins: ‘My dear Popie / I returned home to find your wonderful book waiting for me.

From the Macqueen-Pope papers (see his entry in the Oxford DNB). 2pp, 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, and folded three times for postage. She asks him to send ‘3 or 4 more copies’ of his ‘nice write up in the “Sunday Chronicle” March 13th.’, as she would like to send ‘a copy to Australia, Canada & America, as there is some talk about my going to America in the near future’. She has ‘tried all over Streatham and Brixton and it seems impossible to get a copy anywhere’, and will be happy to pay the cost.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Signed ‘Lonsdale’. Recipient (‘Dear Sir’) not named. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin neat strip of windowpane mount at edges. Folded twice for postage. He has received the recipient’s letter, and is ‘sorry on different accounts the excavations have not arrived at a better success.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin neat strip from windowpane mount adhering to edges. Folded twice for postage. Twenty-four hands of text in secretary hand, addressed to ‘W. A. Lock Esqre’, and signed in autograph ‘Sir C Trevelyan’. He thanks him for his ‘very interesting Letter’, and hopes he will ‘never think it necessary to make any excuse for writing to me [other such?]’. He has asked ‘Mr. Farr’ for ‘any observations he might have to offer on the early part of it; and his answer is enclosed’ (not present).

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient was a barrister and legal reformer. 2pp, 12mo. Signed ‘Stafford H. Northcote’ and addressed to ‘H. Bellenden Ker Esq’. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin neat strip from windowpane mount adhering to edges. Folded twice for postage. A few tiny calculations in another hand (Northcote’s?) at foot of second page. Twenty lines of neatly written text.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, on lightly discoloured paper, with thin neat strip from windowpane mount adhering to edges. Sixteen lines in a neat and stylish hand. Signed ‘T. Crofton Croker’. The recipient is not named, but is clearly John Bowyer Nichols, editor of the Gentleman’s Magazine, in whose number for April 1839 appeared an article, with engraving, by ‘E. I. C.’, on ‘Winchester House, Broad-street, London.’ Croker begins his letter: ‘My dear Sir, / I return E. I. C’s account of Winchester House.

An interesting letter, casting light on the workings of Victorian literary criticism. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The subject of the letter, ‘Friendship’s Offering’, was one of the four great nineteenth-century London ‘gift books’, appearing between the 1820s and the 1840s, for some of the period at least under the editorship of Thomas K. Hervey. 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin neat strip of windowpane mount adhering to edges. Folded four times for postage. Thirteen lines of text. Signed ‘W. Jerdan’, with recipient (‘Dear Sir’) not named.

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin neat strip from windowpane mount adhering to the outer edges. Folded twice for postage. Writing during the Siege of Paris, he begins by thanking him ‘for the specimen of the present Paris printing. Alas how different is this blurred & blotted mass of types from the beautiful pages of typography which that brilliant city afforded!

An excellent letter, casting light on the relationship between the editor of The Times and a senior correspondent. See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. Brackenbury’s states that ‘During the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 Brackenbury was the Times correspondent with the Austrian army, and was at the battle of Königgrätz (Sadowa) — riding with Benedek under fire at Chlum — and reported the naval battle of Lissa.

The founder of the greatest of London’s ‘Great Estates’. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. In good condition, on light-grey paper, with thin neat strip of windowpane mount adhering to edges. Folded three times for postage. Good firm signature ‘Westminster’, and with the name of the recipient neatly cut away: ‘Major <...> / 1st Lancashire Eng[ee]r. Vol[un]t[ee]rs.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged, with closed tear (not affecting text) to a fold on second leaf, which also carries traces of mount on its blank reverse. Small printed slip relating to the Court of Bankruptcy, bearing Fonblanque’s name, laid down at head of first page. Folded four times for postage. Signed ‘J S M Fonblanque’.

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Folded once for postage. In good condition, lightly aged, with unobtrusive line of discoloration on blank reverse of second leaf. Signed ‘Mary. J. J. Shelley’ and addressed to ‘Dear Mrs. Hollingsworth’. With envelope with stamp torn away, addressed in another hand to ‘Mrs. Hollingsworth / The Glen / Gurnard / Cowes.’ She begins with instructions for filling in a form for 'Mrs. Acland', and ends with a reference to the recipient’s son, whose ‘two friends are still both at Wellington College’.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, landscape 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Signed ‘Marie Belloc Lowndes’ and addressed to ‘My dear Mrs Doubleday’. Begins: ‘This is only a line of very very grateful thanks for our delightful stay with you and the Great Effendi!’ They ‘enjoyed every minute’ of their visit, and she wants the recipient to have their ‘London address and telephone no. so that we may meet at once when next you are in England!’ She will write if she has ‘any authentic news as to Lord Grays book’.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB, which carries a quotation pointing out her ‘unerring sense of admiration for herself’. What the present collection of well over a thousand cuttings assembled by her from newspapers and magazines appears to indicate is that the admiration was to a certain extent also felt by the general public; and taken as a whole the collection serves as a memorial to a once-celebrated English public figure, a woman making her mark on society in the age of suffrage. The first volume (1887-1899) is 117pp, folio: firm and tight in brown leather half binding.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, with those of Brougham and Goldwin Smith. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, with thin strip from windowpane mount adhering to the blank reverse of the second leaf. Signed ‘O Gordon’ and addressed to ‘Dear Mr Da [Qeue?]’. An interesting letter, full of content. He begins by thanking him for ‘Ld Broughams letter which I have disposed of as directed’.

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium with mourning border. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. Large signature ‘Charles Eden’; addressed to ‘My dear Fanny’. Year and month added in pencil in another hand. He thanks her for her kind letter ‘and its enclosure from my dear, kind, old friend Mrs Quilter’. He will visit her later, but at present he has ‘several melancholy duties to attend to which prevent my leaving London’. He is also ‘wanted at the Admiralty next week - altho’!

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The present item is a valediction cut from a letter, clearly provided for an autograph hunter. On small rectangle of paper. Neatly written and in good condition. Reads: ‘A Austen Leigh / Provost of King’s / College, Cambridge / July 13, 1890’. Text on reverse (part of testimonial) reads: ‘[...] degree in 1889, being placed in the first division of the Second class of the Classical Tripos. He has always borne a high character; and his abilities, morals & manners [...]’.

See his father’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 2p, 12mo. Neatly written over 26 lines. With mourning border. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. Signed ‘E. G. Marsh’. Recipient not named (‘My dear Sir’). He explains that, having happened on the previous day to be in the chair ‘at the monthly meeting of our clerical society in Maidstone’, he was present when the recipient’s ‘two letters to Dr. Maitland’ were presented, and is requested to convey the meeting’s gratitude, not only for the letters, but for his history of Rome, ‘received by them on a former occasion’.

All three items in good condition, lightly aged, with the book in worn and spotted binding. ONE: Letter from Hassall to 'Professor Huxley', in the hand of 'an amanuensis' and signed by him. 3pp., 12mo. Tipped-in onto the half-title of Item Three below. He begins by explaining that he has 'directed Messrs. Longmans' to forward a copy of his book (which he describes as 'a brochure') to Huxley.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded for postage. Signed ‘T. B. Smithies’ and addressed to ‘W. Allan Esq / 17 South Grove East’. The subject is Smithies’s monthly ‘improving paper’, the ‘British Workman, and Friend of the Sons of Toil’, which he had launched in 1855, and which Allan is clearly offering to distribute gratis.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Rectangle of paper, evidently cut from a letter for an autograph hunter. Reads: ‘Yours truly / Tom Hood’. See image.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. Signed ‘W Harrison Ainsworth’. Signed ‘W Harrison Ainsworth’ and reads: ‘Dear Mrs Barlow / My Daughters return on the 30th. May[.] I therefore hope to have the pleasure of seeing you and Mr. Barlow at Dinner at a quarter after 9 o’clock on Saturday, 30th?’ See image.

1p, 16. On the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium of grey paper, with simple drawing in the same ink as the text of a straight plain walking stick stuck in the ground and running up the left-hand margin, with the handle hooked to the right at the top with the dating to its right. In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: ‘le 25 Decembre 89.

The third of these letters in particular gives a good indication of his Yorkshire bluntness (his entry in the Oxford DNB describes him as ‘a man of arrogance and bile, [...] capable of generosity, strong friendships, and kindness towards people in need of help’). The three items are in good condition, lightly aged; the third with slight wear along one edge. All three are signed ‘E B Denison’ and the second and third are addressed to ‘My dear Plumptre’. ONE (14 January 1856): 3pp, 4to.

See his entry, and that of his sister, in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. Fifty-eight lines of text. Signed ‘James Martineau.’ On biofolium. In good condition, lightly aged and folded twice for postage. A very good letter, filled with matter. He begins by conceding that there is ‘ground for displeasure of some of my fellow-believers’ in his ‘paper in the “Christian Reformer”: ‘that the description it gives of the Unitarian modes of thought does not invariably fit to the more recent phases of feeling & conception’.

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. An interesting letter, linking two significant figures in the London theatre. Around the time of writing Hollingshead had given up his career in the clothing business to write full time, early on for Dickens at ‘Household Words’, then later for Thackeray at the ‘Cornhill’. The farce that is the subject of the present letter is possibly ‘Birth Place of Podgers’, the only one known to have been published by Hollingshead, a New York edition of which appeared around 1858. 2pp, 16mo.