CENTURY

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[E. Cecil Mornington Roberts.] Holograph Poem (signed 'Cecil Roberts'), a sonnet titled 'Liberty Challenged' ('Not without cause just and unshakeable').

Author: 
E. Cecil Mornington Roberts [Cecil Edric Mornington Roberts] (1892-1976), writer and editor
Publication details: 
On his 'E. CECIL MORNINGTON ROBERTS' letterhead, 'c/o Clarke & Co. | 13 & 14 Fleet St. EC.'
£100.00

1p., 4to. In fair condition, on aged, creased and worn paper. The poem features under the title 'Liberty Imperilled' in Roberts's collection 'Charing Cross and Other Poems of the Period' (1919), and the context suggests that the poem was composed at the commencement of the First World War. The sonnet begins: 'Not without cause just and unshakeable | Will we surrender up the cherished prize | Of individual liberty, so well | and nobly held'.

[Printed pamphlet with introduction by Bedford Pim.] Descriptive Account of Captain Bedford Pim's Project for an International Atlantic and Pacific Junction Railway across Nicaragua. Report and Estimate of Cost. By John Collinson, C.E.

Author: 
John Collinson, C.E.; Admiral Bedford Pim (1826-1886) [Captain Sir Edward Belcher; International Atlantic and Pacific Junction Railway across NIcaragua; J. E. Taylor & Co., London publisher]
Publication details: 
London: Printed by J. E. Taylor & Co., Little Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. 1866.
£250.00

26pp., 8vo. Stitched. In printed wraps. With 54 x 33 cm fold-out map at rear ('Map of the World shewing the Transit across Nicaragua proposed by Captn. Bedford Pim, R.N. Being the most direct connection for Atlantic and Pacific Traffic.') and two plates ('Pim's Bay, Monkey Pt. Mosquito. Sketched as by Commander Bedford Pim, R.N. F.R.C.S. Assoc. Inst. C.E. assisted by Mr. A. J. Armstrong, Master, R.N.'; 'Central America. Point Realejo. Surveyed by Capt. Sir Edw. Belcher, C.B.').

[Pakistan, Palestine and Israel.] Duplicated document, issued by the British Philatelic Association, on 'Export & Import Control', and including sections on 'Palestine' and 'Imports from the United Kingdom into Pakistan'.

Author: 
British Philatelic Association, Ltd., London [Pakistan; Palestine; Israel; postage stamps]
Publication details: 
'B. P. A. [British Philatelic Association] | 3, Berners Street, | [London] W.1. | 4/3/48 [i.e. 4 March 1948].
£56.00

2pp., foolscap 8vo. Typed and duplicated on one leaf. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper, with fold lines. The Pakistan had been established on 14 August 1947, and Israel would be established from part of the British Mandate of Palestine on 14 May 1948. The present document is an interesting artefact of the changes in postal arrangements regarding these two regions at the time. The top half of the first page is headed 'Palestine', and the lower half 'Imports from the United Kingdom into Pakistan'. The reverse carries sections on 'Exports' and 'Imports'.

[Two printed pamphlets.] 'The Watt Club. Instituted 1854. Address by Thomas Knox, Esq., J.P., As President of the Watt Club, in proposing "The Memory of Watt,"' AND 'Address to the Watt Institute and School of Arts'

Author: 
Thomas Knox, Esq., J.P., President of the Watt Club; W. B. Hodgson, Esq., LL.D., Professor of Commercial and Political Economy, &c., in the University of Edinburgh [James Watt; Heriot-Watt University]
Publication details: 
ONE: 'At the Annual Dinner of the Club, held on Saturday Evening, 19th January, 1878'. [J. & T. L. Allan, Printers, 15 Grassmarket, Edinburgh.] TWO: 'At the Closing of the Ffifty-Eighth Winter Session, April 1879'. [Edinburgh: William Green, 1879.]
£220.00

Both items are scarce, with the only copies on COPAC (other than 'electronic resources') at the National Library of Scotland. ONE: 'The Watt Club. Instituted 1854. Address by Thomas Knox, Esq., J.P., As President of the Watt Club, in proposing "The Memory of Watt,"' at the Annual Dinner of the Club, held on Saturday Evening, 19th January, 1878. Reprinted by the Club from Public Reports for Distribution among the Students.' 8pp., 12mo. In grey printed wraps. Stitched. Disbound. In good condition, on aged paper, with central vertical fold line.

[Paul Henry, Irish artist.] Autograph Letter Signed to the painter and writer Walter Riddall, describing in evocative terms 'this great country - the west of Ireland', and his view of its effect on the arts of painting, music and poetry.

Author: 
Paul Henry (1877-1958), Irish artist [Walter Riddall (1874-1914), Irish artist and writer; Robert Lynd [Robert Wilson Lynd] (1879-1949), Irish essayist and journalist; Joseph Devlin (1871-1934)]
Publication details: 
The Bungalow, Aarleagh, Leenane, County Galway. 6 October 1913.
£450.00

3pp., 4to. On aged and worn paper (text entirely intact). In a letter deeply evocative of the Irish cultural renaissance, Henry begins on the subject of a piece of his writing on a political meeting of Irish nationalist Joseph Devlin: 'Dear Walter | I am sending you by this post another effort. You had no idea what you were letting yourself in for when you told me to "sling along anything I had got"! This is a little impression of a meeting of Devlins & was held in Sept. So I suppose it would be good to print it now. Altho' a thing like this would I believe go in America.

[Henry Chetwynd-Talbot, 18th Earl of Shrewsbury, as Lord Talbot.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Talbot') to the London bankers Messrs Hankey & Co., regarding payments due and 'the price of W. India produce'.

Author: 
Henry Chetwynd-Talbot, 18th Earl of Shrewsbury [Lord Talbot] (1803-1868) [Messrs. Thomson Hankey & Co., London bankers]
Publication details: 
'Kiplin [Hall] Catterick [Yorkshire]'. 17 November 1851.
£120.00

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. Docketted 'Answered same date G H'. The letter begins: 'As the time is approaching when another instrument will be due to <?>, I should be much obliged to you if you could send me the amount of the balance due to you at the time the arrangement was made, & the different payments that have been made since'. The letter continues on the same subject. The postscript reads: 'Please mention what are the profits of the price of W. India produce'. From the Hankey & Co. banking archive.

[Thomas Coutts & Co., London bankers.] Manuscript Letter from the firm (signed 'Thomas Coutts & Co.') to John Hankey of the London banking family, expressing 'much surprize' at his firm's treatment of a bill from Lord St John.

Author: 
Thomas Coutts & Co., London bankers [John Hankey, member of the London banking family of Hankey & Co.; Lord St John]
Publication details: 
Strand [London]. 17 July 1790.
£280.00

2pp., 4to. Bifolium. Addressed on reverse of second leaf 'To | John Hankey Esqr'. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper.

[Messrs Thomson Hankey & Co., London bankers.] Signed Manuscript Document giving a barrister's opinion (Paterson?) on a disputed right of way between property owned by the firm in Grenville, Grenada, 'and a lot in the occupation of Mrs. V. Morrison'.

Author: 
[Messrs Thomson Hankey & Co., London bankers; Grenville, Grenada; Mrs. V. Morrison; Paterson]
Publication details: 
'Chambers | St. Georges [Grenada] | 9th. May 1906'.
£140.00

3pp., foolscap 8vo. 90 lines of text. Bifolium. In very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The signature, in a different hand from the rest of the document, is difficult to decipher: '<?> | Barrister at Law'. (The Paterson family were prominent on the island.) The document begins: 'The question submitted to me for an opinion is whether Messrs Thomson Hankey & Co. are entitled to a right of way for carts drawn by cattle &c along a passage lying between a lot of land in the Town of Grenville the property of the firm, and a lot in the occupation of Mrs. V. Morrison.?>

[Executive Committee of Jamaica.] Manuscript Letter Signed ('Wm: R[?]:') from Executive Committee Office to Messrs Thomson Hankey & Co., London bankers, regarding the payment of substantial sums towards the Bank of England Jamaica Guaranteed Loan.

Author: 
[Executive Committee of Jamaica; Messrs Thomson Hankey & Co.; Bank of England; Jamaica Guaranteed Loan]
Publication details: 
'Jamaica No 81'. Executive Committee Office. 26 January 1856.
£220.00

3pp., foolscap 8vo. Bifolium. In good condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. The letter begins: 'Gentlemen, | I am directed to inform you that a Bill of Exchange drawn by His Excellency the Governor and the Members of the Executive Committee, on the Lords of the Treasury, for the sum of £10.822 .. 9 ..

[William George Shrubsole, Victorian artist.] Autograph Manuscript of lecture titled 'The Ideal in Art', 'delivered at Bangor, N. Wales in Dec. 1886, in connection with the Menai Society of Science and Literature'. With signed drawing of W. E. Bacon.

Author: 
William George Shrubsole [W. G. Shrubsole] (1856-1889), British artist [The Menai Society of Science and Literature, Wales]
Publication details: 
'Bangor [Wales] Decr. 1886.'
£450.00

The lecture, which is unpublished, is an interesting personal statement by a neglected Victorian painter who died tragically young. (A rather impressive example of his work, in Turneresque style, titled 'The Heart of the Hills', is in the Maidstone Museum.) The lecture is 30pp., 8vo, in a ruled notebook with embossed black wraps. In good condition, on aged paper with some wear and discoloration. Ownership inscription of 'W. G. Shrubsole | Bangor Decr. 1886' inside the front wrap. The first page is headed 'The Ideal in Art. | by W. G. Shrubsole Dec.

[Sir Edwin Arnold.] Holograph Poem, signed 'Edwin Arnold', titled 'The Heavenly Secret', exhibiting a few differences from the printed version, presented to Mrs A. G. Henriques.

Author: 
Sir Edwin Arnold (1892-1904), poet and journalist, best-known for his 'Light of Asia' (1879) [Mrs A. G. Henriques]
Publication details: 
Place not stated. 6 March 1887.
£75.00

1p., 8vo. Laid down on a piece of card. Aged and discoloured, with chipping to extremities and some loss of text. The poem is sixteen lines long, arranged in two eight-line stanzas. The first stanza reads: '"Sometimes" - Althaea sighed - "in hours of sadness, | A sudden pleasure shines upon the soul; | The heart beats quick to half-heard notes of gladness, | And from the dark mind all its clouds unroll: | How comes this, Poet! You, who know things hidden, | Whence sounds that undersong of soft Content? | What brings such peace, unlooked-for & unbidden! | Answer me!

[Sir George Hayter, artist.] Autograph Note Signed ('George Hayter') to an unnamed recipient, inviting him to see William Salter's painting 'The Waterloo Banquet'.

Author: 
Sir George Hayter (1792-1871), painter and engraver [William Salter (1804-1875), artist]
Publication details: 
'10 1/2 [i.e. half past ten o'clock]'. Without place or date [1841].
£45.00

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, on aged paper, with tape repairs to reverse causing staining along fold line. The note reads: 'Dear Sir | If you will come to The Star at a quarter before nine o'C., we are to be shown the picture of the Waterloo Banquet at that time at my particular request'. Salter's painting was exhibited to the public in 1841. It is now in Apsley House. As another artist of large-scale historical works Hayter would have taken a particular interest in it.

[Sir William Grey-Wilson, colonial governor.] Autograph Letter Signed ('W. Grey Wilson'), writing to an unnamed female correspondent on his return to England from the Bahamas.

Author: 
Sir William Grey-Wilson (1852-1926), KCMG, Governor of St Helena, 1887-1897; of the Falkland Islands, 1897-1904; and of the Bahamas, 1904-1912
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Midland Grand Hotel, London. 12 June 1912.
£35.00

1p., 8vo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The letter begins: 'Dear Madam | As I only landed in England yesterday your two letters of May 31st: and June 9th. have only just reached me.' He thanks her for forwarding photographs, which he is returning, and informs her 'that the Isle of Wight is at present not considered a suitable climate for my wife'.

[Sir Charles Hallé, conductor and pianist.] Two Autograph Notes in the third person to Lady Blanche Drummond

Author: 
Sir Charles Hallé [formerly Carl Halle] (1819-1895), conductor and pianist
Publication details: 
Both on letterheads of 11 Mansfield Street, W [London]. 12 and 14 July [no year].
£56.00

Both items 1p., 16mo, and both in good codition, on lightly-aged paper. The first note reads: 'Mr. Charles Hallé presents his respectful compliments to Lady Blanche Drummond and would feel greatly obliged if she would kindly take his lesson to-morrow at 4 o'clock instead of half past three.' The second confirms the time for a second lesson.

[R. B. Cunninghame Graham, Scottish politician.] Autograph Letter Signed ['R B Cunninghame Graham']

Author: 
R. B. Cunninghame Graham [Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham] (1852-1936), the first ever socialist member of parliament in Britain, and later a founder of the National Party of Scotland
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 14 Washington House, Basil Street, SW [London]. 14 July 1929.
£45.00

1p., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Written in a difficult, eccentric hand. 'Dear Sir | Many thanks to you for your most kind letter. It was a great pleasure to me to <?> the & also an honour that you should wish it.?>

[Richard Almack, Suffolk solicitor and antiquary.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Rd Almack') to 'Dear Edwd:' [Edward Shepherd] discussing in detail the points in a contested Victorian will, and the 'contumely of the disappointed'.

Author: 
Richard Almack (1799-1875) of Long Melford, Suffolk, solicitor and antiquary
Publication details: 
Melford [Long Melford, Suffolk]. 14 October 1856.
£150.00

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. A well-written and oddly-entertaining letter, and an evocative piece of Victorian social history. From the context it is clear that the recipient and his wife have been accused of overstepping the terms of a will, and on this matter Almack begins: 'Furniture is very comprehensive, and would I think include Work boxes, Chests, & plated Goods. It has even been decided that plate would so pass! - Also plated would. | Under "bed linen," Blankets & Quilts pass. Under "Household Linen", Coloured Table Cloths & Doyleys would pass.

[Marie Lohr, Australian actress.] Autograph Note Signed ('Marie Löhr') to 'dear Miss Stone'.

Author: 
Marie Löhr [Marie Lohr] (1890-1975), Australian stage and screen actress
Publication details: 
Place not stated. Dated in another hand to December 1944.
£30.00

In pencil on one side of a 6 x 9 cm white card, laid down on a 10.5 x 13.5 cm leaf of grey paper, removed from an album, with the date 'December 1944'. Lohr's note reads: 'with all good | wishes dear | Miss Stone | Marie Löhr'.

[Margaret Oliphant ('Mrs Oliphant'), Scottish author.] Autograph Letter Signed ('M. O. W. Oliphant') to 'Mrs. Laing', gently urging her to visit 'at a time of grief'.

Author: 
Margaret Oliphant [Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant; 'Mrs Oliphant'] (1828-1897), Scottish novelist and biographer
Publication details: 
'7 Ulster Place [London] | Saturday' [no year].
£45.00

2pp., 16mo. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Written with the essence of Victorian tact. 'We shall be extremely glad if you can give us the evening of the 7th. instead of the 5th. and I trust you will permit us to consider you engaged to us for that night - 8 oClock - | I am grieved to think that my note should have reached you at a time of grief. Thank you for kindly consenting to come.'

[Feargus Edward O'Connor, Chartist leader.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Feargus O'Connor') to

Author: 
Feargus O'Connor [Feargus Edward O'Connor] (1796?-1855), Irish radical politician and Chartist leader
Publication details: 
L<?>. 23 August 1847.
£80.00

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, folded and on lightly-aged paper. O'Connor's hand is quite difficult. As far as can be deciphered, the letter reads: 'My dear Ch<?> | I was from home when yours came. I your cheque for £200 acknowledge receipt addressed to "<?>". Keep going at "<?>" I shall be in town, all next week to arrange about Bank and other things.' Postscript: 'The <?> are asking what became of you.'?>

[George Gilfillan, Scottish critic and 'spasmodic' poet.] Autograph Note Signed to an unnamed autograph hunter.

Author: 
George Gilfillan (1813-1878), Scottish Presbyterian minister, critic and 'spasmodic' poet
Publication details: 
Dundee; 18 January 1855.
£56.00

1p., 16mo (12.5 x 11.5cm). In good condition, on lightly aged and ruckled paper, with traces of mount on reverse and minor loss to one edge. Reads: 'Dundee | 18th. Jany. | 1855 | My Dear Sir | I have much pleasure in transmitting you my Autograph | I am | Yours very truly | George Gilfillan'.

[Printed pamphlet, signed by the author Herbert Broome.] Kingston Union. The Beginning and the End. 1836-1930.

Author: 
Herbert Broome [The Kingston Union; Poor Law Administration]
Publication details: 
Philpott & Co., (Surbiton), Litd., Printers, 40-42 Brighton Road, Surbiton. March 1930.
£120.00

47 + [1]pp., 12mo. Stapled. In brown printed wraps. Signed on the last page of text (p.45) 'Hbt Broome | May 1930', beneath the signature in type 'HERBERT BROOME, | March, 1930.' In fair condition, on aged and stained paper.

[Alexander Davidson, Messenger at Arms.] Signed 'Copy for Mr. Falconer' of a summons on behalf of Archibald Colquhoun and George Buchan to six 'Procurators in the Sheriff and Baillie Courts of Glasgow, regarding the payment of stamp duties.

Author: 
Alexander Davidson, Messenger at Arms [Archibald Colquhoun; George Buchan; John Douglas; William Duncan; John Ewing; James Elder; Thomas Falconer; John Fleming; Stamp Duties, Glasgow; Scotland]
Publication details: 
Glasgow, Scotland: Copy of 28 May 1810 from an original 'dated & signeted [sic] 18. May 1810.'
£80.00

4pp., foolscap 8vo. Bifolium. The document consists of a long printed text, with blank sections completed in manuscript. It is docketted 'M.5 | Copy for Mr. Falconer | to appear 19/26 June 1810.' In good condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. Signed 'Alex Davidson' and dated 28 May 1810, before the witnesses 'John Anderson and John Robertson both Indwellers in Glasgow'. The document begins: 'GEORGE, &c.

[Andrew Lang, Scottish author and folklorist.] Autograph Note Signed ('A Lang') to 'Mr Kennevy', returning a book.

Author: 
Andrew Lang (1844-1912), Scottish author and folklorist, best-known for his 'Fairy Books'
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Tor-na-coille Hotel, Banchory, N.B. [Scotland]. 17 July [1910].
£30.00

1p., 12mo. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. The year '1910' added in pencil in another hand. The note reads: 'July 17 | Dear Mr Kennevy | I return Laidlaw with many thanks | Sincerely yours | A Lang'.

[Leeds Circulating Library.] Printed Leeds Circulating Library label, stating time allowed and forfeit. [With ownership signature of John Smalpage, draper.]

Author: 
[Leeds Circulating Library, Leeds, Yorkshire; John Smalpage, draper]
Publication details: 
[Leeds Circulating Library, Leeds, Yorkshire.] The label is dated in manuscript 16 September 1808.
£150.00

The label is printed on one side of a crudely-cut 6 x 8 cm piece of laid paper. In fair condition, aged. The item reads (with manuscript additions in square brackets): 'LEEDS | Circulating Library. | Entered [16 Sept] 180[8] | Allowed for reading the first Year, Weeks [2] Days [-] | - After the first year, Weeks [2] | Forfeiture per Day for keeping it beyond the Time, d. [2]'. At the head in manuscript is the number '1006', crossed out, and '671'.

Two printed pamphets attributed to C. H. Harrison, bound together: 'Compulsory Chapel. A Protest.' and 'Compulsory Chapel and the Universities' Test Act.'

Author: 
[C. H. Harrison?] [Compulsory Chapel; the University of Cambridge; Universities' Test Act, 1871]
Publication details: 
Both items undated, but from 1892. The first of the two printed in Cambridge by W. P. Spalding, 43 Sidney Street; the second without publication or printing details.
£150.00

Both items 12mo. The first ('A Protest'), [2] + 17 + [1]pp.; the second ('Universities' Test Act') 12pp. The two items bound together in contemporary grey cloth binding, with 'Compulsory Chapel' stamped in gilt on front board. Attributed to C. H. Harrison in a modern hand in pencil on front free endpaper. Both items in very good condition, on lightly-aged paper, in worn and spotted binding. The first item (which prints the Universities' Test Act on pp.15-17) with minor manuscript emendation on first page of text. Both items featured in A. T.

[Shirley Brooks, editor of Punch.] Autograph Letter Signed to William Glen, commending his 'friend's verses', which have 'an echo of Keats in them'.

Author: 
Shirley Brooks [Charles William Shirley Brooks] (1816-1874), journalist and novelist, editor of Punch, 1870-1874 [William Glen; the Literary Gazette]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Literary Gazette Office, 4 Bouverie Street, EC [London]. 5 October [circa 1858].
£45.00

1p., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Brooks (who conducted the Literary Gazette between 1858 and 1859) writes that he has read Glen's 'friend's verses carefully, and with much pleasure. There is an echo of Keats in them, but no mere invitation.

Manuscript Letter from William Walker & Co. in Sydney, Australia, to William Kerr of Richmond, Virginia, regarding the state of the Australian tobacco trade and 'unfavorable' prices fetched by consignments of his tobacco.

Author: 
[William Walker & Co.; William Kerr of Richmond, Virginia; Messrs Gilmour & Kerr, Glasgow]
Publication details: 
Marked 'Per Caledonia', with ship's name altered to 'William Hyde'.
£250.00

1p., 4to. The second leaf only of a bifoliate letter. Addressed on reverse to 'William Kerr Esqr. | (of Richmond - Virginia) | Care of Messrs Gilmour & Kerr | Glasgow | NB'. An accompanying typed note identifies the postal features as follows: 'Postage: - 3d. pre-paid. Colonial outward Ship Letter rate. | 8d. to collect. Private Ship Letter rate. | Handstruck Marks: - PAID SHIP LETTER SYDNEY AP+21 1847 in red. (SL 3, var. 1 - early use.) | NN 29AU29 1847 in red.

[Shirley Brooks, editor of Punch.] Autograph Letter Signed to Leitch Ritchie, regarding contributions to Chambers's Journal. With the first part ONLY of Brooks's 'Sooner or Later', and note from G. E. S. Chambers describing its 'extreme rarity'.

Author: 
Charles William Shirley Brooks (1816-1874), journalist, editor of Punch, 1870-1874 [Leitch Richie (1800-1875), Scottish novelist; G. E. S. Chambers of the publishers W. & R. Chambers, Ltd, Edinburgh]
Publication details: 
Brooks's letter to Leitch Ritchie from Marlborough Chambers, Pall Mall, London. 7 August [1849]. 'Sonner or Later', No. 1: London, Bradbury, Evans, and Co., 11 Bouverie Street, EC. 1866. Notes by Chambers on letterhead of W. & R. Chambers, Edinburgh.
£300.00

ONE: Brooks's letter to Leitch Ritchie: 4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. He thanks him for his 'kind and courteous communication', and is pleased that 'the article I sent seems to you adapted to the purpose'. Brooks has, he explains, 'availed myself of your suggestions in reference to the additions'. He continues with references to Vauxhall and 'The Highland Lamp'.

[William Beckford.] Manuscript copy by Fownes & White of 'Points stipulated for & agreed to with Messrs. Thompson Hankey & Co. on their taking the Consignments of the West India Estates of Wm. Beckford Esq: in succession to Messrs. Plummer & Wilson.

Author: 
[William Beckford (1760-1844), author and 'England's wealthiest son'; his London solicitors James Fownes and Richard Samuel White; Messrs Thompson Hankey & Co. and Messrs. Plummer & Wilson, bankers]
Publication details: 
[Messrs. Thompson Hankey & Co., 'at a meeting held at their Counting House in Fenchurch St. on the 24th Decr. 1830.' 27 January 1831.
£600.00

The connection between the two firms of London bankers Thompson Hankey & Co., and Plummer & Wilson & Co. is unclear, but after the bankruptcy of John Plummer and William Wilson of Fenchurch Street 1831, a new firm named Hankey, Plummer & Wilson was formed, Plummer & Wilson bringing to it a number of clients including Beckford. The source of Beckford's vast wealth was of course the family's sugar plantations in the West Indies, and this document dates from before the abolition of slavery. 3pp., foolscap 8vo. Bifolium. Very good, on laid paper with Britannia watermark of 'E SMITH | 1828'.

[Trinidad in 1842.] Autograph Letter Signed from 'G. E.' to the banker William Wilson of Messrs. Hankey, Plummer & Wilson, London, describing his activities on the island, including a visit to the Pitch Lake and capture of an alligator.

Author: 
[Trinidad in 1842; William Wilson, banker, of Messrs. Hankey, Plummer & Wilson, 7 Mincing Lane, London]
Publication details: 
Port of Spain, Trinidad. 30 December 1842.
£280.00

4pp., 4to. 112 lines of text. Bifolium. In fair condition, on aged paper, with closed tears along fold lines. Addressed, with two postmarks (one of Trinidad) to 'W. Wilson Esqr. | 7. Mincing Lane | London | Packet'. A closely-written letter, well-written and filled with content, and with a few clues about the identity of the writer. It begins: 'A merry Xmas to you & all my friends in England. I remembered you in my cups, but the liquor was only water for I have become almost a teetotaller of late, having had a little about me when I left St Kitts.?>

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