[William Hutton, Birmingham bookseller and local historian.] Leaf of 'unpublished poems, composed by, and in the Autograph of, William Hutton', with note by 'WB'; and fragment of his daughter Catherine Hutton's handwriting, 'when 87 years of age'.

Both items are laid down on a 12mo leaf extracted from an album. All in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Laid down on the reverse of the leaf is an early eighteenth-century engraving of a man (William Hutton?) holding a book. The explanatory note, on one side of the leaf from the album, reads: 'This Leaf, given to me by Mr. Samuel Hutton, High Street, is taken from a Volume of unpublished poems, composed by, and in the Autograph of, William Hutton. | That below which I received from Mr. Belcher, Bookseller, High Street, is in the handwriting of his Daughter, Catherine Hutton when 87 years of age. | WB | 1843'. The fragment of William Hutton's autograph poetry is a poignant survival: as his entry in the Oxford DNB explains, his juvenile verses were destroyed in the Birmingham Riots of 1791 ('after writing down what he could remember of them, he began again to compose verses and published two volumes of poems in 1793'). ONE: Part of unpublished autograph poem by Hutton. 2pp., 12mo. Headed '2'. Forty lines of verse, comprising twenty couplets in iambic tetrameters. The fragment begins, with 'Jack' addressing a 'Sage': '"A step mother, I daily see | "Who acts the very shrew to me | "For when my father gives me meat | "She'd have me choak'd, with what I eat | "And fixes such an evil eye | "Upon me, that it makes me cry'. TWO: Fragment of Catherine Hutton's handwriting, on rectangular slip of paper. Reads: 'Catherine Hutton sends her respects to Mr. Belcher, and wishes he would procure for her, [...]'.