WILLIAM

12mo: 1 p. On discoloured paper with wear at head and traces of previous mount adhering to blank reverse. He sent the publishers Chatto & Windus her novel the previous Monday, 'begging them to write to you on the matter, and giving your work my best recommendation'. He has not heard anything from them himself, but expects it will 'take a week or two, before they can give an opinion'. The recipient may be Edith Nesbit, although this is unlikely as Nesbit was her maiden name. She became Edith Bland in 1880. None of her works appear to have been published by Chatto & Windus.

12mo: 2 pp. Very good. Addressed to 'Mr. W. Phillips' on otherwise-blank second leaf of bifolium, which carries traces of previous mount. Acknowledges 'the obliging present' of Phillips's 'valuable work on mineralogy' (the influential 'Outline of the Geology of England and Wales', 1822, written with William Conybeare).

On irregular piece of paper roughly 4.5 x 4.5 cm. Good, on lightly discoloured paper. With part of signature '[S]mith' below. Docketed on reverse 'Sir Wm. Trumbull Statesman Wm 3d'.

On piece of paper roughly 2.5 x 4.5 cm. Good, on lightly discoloured paper. Docketed on reverse '1755'.

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.

4to: 1 p. Good. Folded three times. A neatly-written letter of introduction for 'Major William Henry Grote [1795-1844], of the 33d. Regiment, now at Malta, Brother of Mr. Grote MP. for London, who is about to visit Egypt': 'I beg leave to introduce him to your acquaintance, and to recommend him to your Protection and good Offices.'

12mo: 1 p. Lacking strip (two inches by four) at foot, bearing text. Otherwise good. A formal letter in the third person. Asks Colburn to 'send him an answer to his last [underlined] Communication'. He has 'completed the Manuscript of the Work [presumably 'Narrative of the war in Germany and France, in 1813 and 1814', 1830], except the winding up in a few Pages <...>'.

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.

8.5 x 11 cms. Grubby and lightly spotted. Reads 'My dear Mr Sonnenschein | Kindly send draft as I can collect here - | Merrily Yours | Marshall P. Wilder'. Presumably refers to the English printing of his 'The people I've smiled with: recollections of a merry little life' (1889).

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.

Three pages, 12mo. Good, on aged paper, but with the verso of the second leaf of the bifolium covered by previous brown-paper mount. 'Mr Cecil' has passed on Procter's letter. 'The object of your Society is highly commendable, & I wish it much success.' He is 'promoting the same end, by giving what [he] can spare, to Ministers in the neighbourhood'. Praises 'Gentlemen in London' for their 'liberality in assisting poor Ministers at a distance'. '[I]n the country we have as many in our neighbourhood as we are able to relieve'.

Octavo, 48 pages. Stapled. In faded original orange printed wraps. Nine pages of illustrations, including three on wraps. Good, on aged high-acidity paper. Wraps a little stained. Unobtrusive ownership inscription at head of front wrap. Illustrations include two full-page balloons and 'A modern sea-plane: the Burgess-Dunne type'. Twelfth illustration (diving English biplane) on front wrap. Scarce: no copy on Copac.

Eight pages, quarto. Unbound and stitched on six leaves. Good, with recto of first leaf and verso of last somewhat more aged. With company and tax stamps. 'Mortgage, [a leasehold plot of land and messuage Numbered 26 in Barker Street Oldham in the County of Lancaster to secure £450 and interest.' Typewritten acknowledgment of payment, 25 February 1929, signed by company secretary W. Harvey and director J. Brown.

Four pages, 12mo. Very good, on lightly aged paper, with minor traces of two mounts adhering to verso of second leaf of bifolium. Praises 'the excellent Sermon'. 'You will doubtless have a difficult work at Rossall, but every term will render it less difficult' [...] One can't ask for a greater blessing than difficult work when it is also - as yours is & will be - entirely hopeful & immensely useful.

Clowes is an eminent firm of English printers, founded in London in 1803, and still thriving in Suffolk. The twelve typed letters are each one page, quarto, on the firm's Duke Street letterhead. The autograph letter is one page, 12mo, with mourning border. The collection in good condition overall, with a few items aged and lightly creased. Most items docketed and bearing the Society's stamp. All items except the circular signed by 'W A Clowes', who (he informs Wood in his first letter) has taken over from his cousin, Captain W. C.

All items octavo. Bound together in contemporary leather half-binding with red label. Good, on aged paper. Front board beginning to split. Label and stamps of Newport Reference Library. Each title-page initialed in contemporary hand 'G. S. W.' Part 2, 1825: pp.[ii] + [103]-348, items 1666 to 6197. Part 3, 1825 ('Including the libraries of the late Rev. Dr. Ryland; J. Nott, M.D. of Clifton, Deceased; And other Collections, recently Purchased'): pp.v + 349-606. With two-page 'Brief Memoir of the late John Nott, M.D. of the Hotwells, Bristol', 'Extracted from Felix Farley's Bristol Journal'.

Eighteen pages, octavo, with four plates on art paper. In original grey printed wraps. Some light staining, creasing and wear. One of 600 copies. Lists seventy-seven items, with addenda of a further eleven. This milestone catalogue was published, according to Sims (A Life in Catalogues, 1994), in May 1949. At foot of title-page: 'N.B. This collection, with the exception of the Addenda of Books, has been sold.'

One page, on rough-edged grey wove paper, roughly nine inches by six wide. An attractive production of twenty-two lines, with ornamental rules top and bottom, headed 'This Day is Published, | IN TWO VOLUMES OCTAVO, | PRICE ONE GUINEA IN BOARDS, | Monographia Apum Angliae; | [...] | By WILLIAM KIRBY, B.A. F.L.S. | RECTOR of Barham in Suffolk. | [...]'. According to BBTI John White traded between 1785 and 1816 and Stephen Couchman between 1774 and 1825.

Dimensions roughly six inches by three and a half. Wormed (but only affecting two letters of text) on aged paper. One page, blank reverse. Wood cut at head, roughly one and a quarter inches square, illustrating a leather-bound book with clasps. Thirty-three lines of text, beginning 'At the Bible in Newgate-street, over against the Blue-Coat Hospital Gate.

Both letters two pages, quarto. LETTER ONE (annotated in ink with some ink marks in the blank space beneath Goold's signature): Written at the point at which Goold was relinquishing the University College Latin Chair to return to Yale. 'I told you I should be visiting Yale this autumn; and now I have to tell you that I shall be going on to Stanford after Christmas till March. Still, if I shan't have the pleasure of coming in occassionally to the bookshop, it probably means that I shall be ordering more books from you!' Orders a couple of copies of Austin's 'Aeneid'.

Two pages, on leaf roughly eight and a half inches by five. Very good, with three stab holes along one margin. Headed 'NEW COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS, [...] This Day is published'.

On one side of a piece of paper roughly 22 x 14 cms. Good, apart from some repaired damage at head from scorching, resulting in loss to two lines of text. Title followed by the eight rules of the Society over twenty-one lines of text. At foot names of the sixteen members of the Committee (eight ladies and eight gentlemen), together with those of the treasurer and secretary. According to BBTI William Cowdroy Jr was a printer, publisher and newspaper proprietor between 1795 and 1824.

Octavo: twenty pages. Unbound and stitched. Good, but with outer leaves a little grubby and creased. The word 'rack-rent' on page six has been underlined and three exclamation marks placed beside it in ink. As well as important botanical works, Clarke numbered political economy and education among his interests.

Dimensions roughly four and a quarter inches by eight wide. Good on lightly aged paper, and with traces of previous grey-paper mount adhering to reverse, which is docketed, in a nineteenth-century hand, 'Handwriting of the Author of Lorenzo de Medici'. Also docketed in left-hand margin of recto. Begins 'One of the most fatal enemies to the tranquility & happiness of human life is that jealous & timid apprehension which foresees evils at too great a distance, & often imagines them when they do not exist'. Initialled in top left-hand corner.

Quarto: ix + 21 pages. Stapled. In original cream wraps, with colour cover illustration by Helen Taylor. Full-page reproduction of drawing of Rutherston by his brother Sir William Rothenstein. Introduction places Rutherston in the tradition of Edward Gordon Craig and Claud Lovat Fraser. Copies of the second edition (1992) recorded by COPAC, but not at BL or Bodley.

Quarto, twelve pages. Unbound. In original grey printed wraps, with facsimile portrait of Caxton laid down on front cover as part of design. Stitched. Lightly aged and worn, and a little loose. A handsome production, with five full-page facsimiles of pages from the book, and three other illustrations (including duplicate of that on front wrap). Large plate of charcoal drawing, captioned 'A view of the facade of 16 & 17 Pall Mall as seen from the Athenaeum', laid down inside back wrap.

Full subtitle: 'With a comparative review of the systems proposed by H. Cranmer Phillipps, R.N. and by Captain Levin Joergen Rohde, of the Royal Danish Navy, Knight of the Dannebrog, &c. &c.' The letter was previously attached by four small pieces of red sealing wax on the verso of its blank second leaf to the title-page of the pamphlet. Letter and pamphlet are now detached, with traces of wax adhering to both, but not affecting the text of either. LETTER: 12mo, one page. Good on aged paper.

Three pages, octavo. Very good on lightly aged paper. Kenyon's paper was 'much enjoyed' when read on Saturday, and there was 'a good attendance'. '[T]he pleasantries were not missed': '1. the confusion of the inexhaustible emender; 2. the thrift of the canny Odysseus in his role of wooer; 3. Burne Jones's Law.' 'At the end some interesting questiosn were asked', for example, 'why second-rate Greek annalists shd. seemingly have been preferred to Herodotus & Thucydides'.

Small 8vo. Pages: x + 74. In original cream printed wraps. One of two hundred copies of the 'Small Paper edition'. In the 'Moray Library'. Internally sound and clean. Light spotting and wear to wraps. Minor foxing to endpapers. Trenchant observations on an interesting selection of late-Victorian authors.