CLARENDON

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In very good condition, lightly aged. Had he known that Hughes's wedding was 'coming off so soon' he would have been 'in time with a little gift'. As it is, he asks him to choose for himself, 'with the aid of your wife': 'Are you and she sick of the Oxford Books of Verse? Is Shakspeare's England too weighty (avoirdupois) for war-time establishments?

The Countess of Clarendon had inherited the Mesopotamia Estate from her previous husband John Foster Barham (1799-1838), who had died a certified lunatic year before her marriage to the Earl. The Estate had been in the hands of the Barham family for more than a century. The four items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. All four with notes by the recipients. ONE: Letter signed by George J. Nicholson of the London soliticitors Vizard & Leman, in secretarial hand, to Messrs Thomson Hankey & Co. Lincolns Inn Fields; 7 July 1845 ('Mesopotamia Estate'). 1p., 4to.

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. With mourning border. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The letter begins: 'My dear Yonge, | I dare say you remember my telling you of the proposed series of educational books to be issued from the Clarendon Press, Oxford, and asking whether your sister would be willing to undertake any English books, if the Delegates of the Press should make an offer to her.

2pp., 12mo. In a windowpane mount on a leaf removed from an album. The letter itself very good, on aged paper; the mount worn at extremities. He begins by informing the recipient that his 'last Letter has made ample atonement for the provocation of the preceding', and he has 'ever been the foremost, both in word & deed, to keep my wings in motion. I speak this seriously: my former note was only a temporary petulance'. The second paragraph begins: 'I must positively have another Paper for my Orators'. He has 'run to a fearful length, & yet have cramped myself all the way.

On one side of a piece of laid paper, 55 x 44 cm. Good, on lightly-aged paper. 131-box table giving the tutors (and their colleges) over twelve weeks for each of eleven subjects from 'Nat. Phil.' to 'Ling.' Among the many tutors the following only in capitals: 'Ds HEWITT ex Aede Christi', 'Ds HANMER ex Aedi Christi', 'Ds JOYCE e Aul. S. Edm.', 'G. C. AGAR ed Aede Christi', 'Ds MACDONALD ex Aede Christie', 'Ds MACKENSIE ex Aede Christi', 'Ds CRAWLEY e Coll. Pemb.', 'Ds HUDSON e Coll. Magd.' and 'Ds G. BOWYER, Bart. ex Aede Christi'.

On a square of paper, circa 10 x 11.5 cm. Aged and lightly-creased. Evidently a reply to a request for an autograph. Bold signature, with the whole reading 'Your's faithfully | Clarendon'. Docketed with a few biographical details on reverse.

On piece of laid paper, 1 x 3.5 cm. Fair, on aged paper, with traces of previous mount on reverse, which is docketed in a nineteenth-century hand '1776'.

12mo, 1 p. In a bifolium. Docketed by Stratford Canning on the reverse of the second leaf. Very good, on lightly-aged paper, with thin strip of stub from mount adhering to one edge. He 'cannot resist' staying there the next day, 'as Lady C. & I hope to bring our Daughter up to London on Tuesday', a day on which, if convenient, he will be 'most happy' to see Stratford Canning at the Foreign Office.

Folio. Pagination: [1-7] 8-45 [1-3] = 24 leaves. Unbound. Stitched as issued, unopened and uncut. Printed with the Fell types on good but browning paper. In good condition, but with spotting to recto of first leaf, which has a small closed hole at head and some tiny closed tears at foot, and with two unobtrusive staple-stains to verso of last leaf. Creased and dog-eared at foot. The importance of this item in the history of Shakespeare studies has been emphasized recently by A. J. West (The Shakespeare First Folio. The History of the Book. Vol. 1. Oxford University Press, 2001).

On a piece of paper roughly 4 x 7 cm. Very good, on slightly discoloured paper. Reads '<...> 34 years of His Maies <...> | [signed] Arlington'. The second of the two versions of Arlington's signature reproduced by Rawlins ('Five Hundred Years of British Autographs', p.63, no.8). Arlington was the first 'A' in the CABAL ministry, the name made up of the initials of the five privy councillors who conducted Charles II's government after the fall of Clarendon in 1667: Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley and Lauderdale.

12mo, 1 p, 11 lines. Good, with thin strip of discoloration along the outer edge. He is grateful to Hodgson 'for thinking of me'. Nothing would give Clarendon greater pleasure 'than to meet the Members of the Booksellers Provid[en]t Institution at Abbot's Langley', but unfortunately he has to go to London that Friday morning 'in order to keep some engagements that I have made on Saturday'.

Three pages, 12mo. Good. He did not receive the letter till his return from the continent the previous week. '"The Grove" is a comfortable mansion but there is nothing in any way remarkable about it - Clutterbuck's history of Hertfordshire contains all that is known respecting the persons who have possessed it. There is a fine collection of pictures, many of them by Vandyke & Sir P. Lely, wch. belonged to the Chancellor Clarendon & of them you will find an accurate description in the 3d. Vol. of the "Clarendon Gallery" published a few months ago by my sister Lady Theresa Lewis.