1851

In two columns of small print, on one side of a piece of 44.5 x 28 cm laid paper. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. Drophead title, with engraving of the royal crest. The Kenilworth Buffet (now at Warwick Castle) is an ornately-designed table, commissioned by Cookes and Sons for the Great Exhibition, and telling the tale of the romance between Queen Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, carved from 'a colossal oak tree, which grew near Kenilworth Castle, in Warwickshire, measuring ten feet in diameter, and containing about six hundred cubic feet of wood'.

1862 Diary of Sergeant Browne, principal flautist in the Royal Artillery band, Woolwich, Over 425 pages. Played at the opening ceremony of the International Exhibition under Costa, having been at the rehearsal attended by Meyerbeer - good descriptions of both events - and at the Horticultural Gardens next door throughout the length of the exhibition and elsewhere (Crystal Palace, Willis's Rooms, private houses, Lord Mayor's Show "nonsensical custom").

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Of great interest, as giving the informal position of the British Home Secretary on what was at the time the most important problem facing him. Granville would only last as Foreign Secretary for a week after writing this letter, as Russell's Liberal Government would fall on 27 February. Ironically, his elevation to the post of Foreign Secretary the previous Boxing Day had been due to Russell forcing Palmerston's resignation over his unauthorized recognition of Louis Napoléon's coup d'état. The letter is addressed to 'My dear Baron'.