CONVERSATION

Piers was a thorough blackguard, who seduced Lady Cloncurry for a bet. The resulting Crim. Con. action was a notable London scandal, with Lord Cloncurry awarded the considerable sum of £20,000 in damages, which Piers payed with great reluctance. After a dishonorable sojourn on the Isle of Man, he returned to Ireland, where he built a high wall around his home to deter creditors. The present document dates from this latter period, and it is a matter of some doubt whether Koechy was paid the considerable sum owed to him for the upkeep of Piers's two sons. 3pp., 4to. Bifolium.

The present item presents a double significance as a result of the circumstances in which it was composed. The author writes in a tone of forced levity to her two sons John Peter Hankey (1770-1807) and Thomson Hankey (1773-1855), grandsons of the banker Sir Thomas Hankey (1704-1770), from whom she is separated as a result of her divorce from their father, following a sensational adultery case, her marriage to Hankey having been dissolved by an act of parliament in the previous year, her hairdresser and maid having deposed that she was living in a state of intimacy with Lt-Col.

[2] + 30pp., 4to. Text paginated 1-30. With an additional nine pages of diagrams, numbered 1 to 10, and including one double-page fold-out (Diagram 8). Stapled duplicated typescript. Ink manuscript note (by Pask?) on back cover: 'MARVIN MINSKY [cognitive scientist in the field of artificial intelligence, b.1927] | SEYMOUR PAPERT [mathematician, b.1928] | WARREN MACULLOGH' [neurophysiologist and cybernetician, 1898-1969].

29pp., 4to. Paginated 1-29. Stapled duplicated typescript. In poor condition, with the leaf carrying the first page loose, aged and worn. From the Seymour Papert papers, and with a few notes in pencil (by either Papert or Sonnabend?). No copy found on either COPAC or OCLC WorldCat, nor in Pask's own archive, now in Vienna (Paul Pangaro Pask Collection).

2pp., 4to. In good condition, on aged paper, with traces of mount at head. The Earl and his brother loathed one another. FitzHardinge was a notorious philanderer, and Berkeley - whose violent behaviour included assaulting the bookseller Fraser and duelling with Maginn - held his position as a Member of Parliament to spite him. The letter begins: 'Sir. | You have published a letter from Mr.

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Her 'constant practice' has always been to return her thanks for the gift of a poetry volume 'before I could possibly have had time to read it', but in this case 'this caution was impossible for I received your little Vol: in all the hurry of leaving town, & I may say England, for I shall not return to London before our departure'. She is glad she was not able to write before reading the poems 'with the attention they merit & with all the pleasure they have given me'.

12mo, 2 pp. Good, on aged paper. A formal letter in the third person. Windham 'is almost ashamed' of sending Sharpe 'anything so trifling as what accompanies this note'. His justification for doing so is the 'wish of having his opinions stated with tolerable correctness on a subject to which Mr Sharpe, as a matter of some interest at the moment, may happen in some degree to have turned his thoughts.' Sharp's name was often misspelt by contemporaries, and he is listed in the index to the online Oxford DNB as 'also known as Sharpe, Richard'.

Four pages, 16mo, inc. address page, one chip and some staining marginally affecting text. She is happy to accept his invitation, and accepts it on behalf of her daughter and Mr Romilly [her son-in-law]. "Mr E. Romilly feels some scruple at accepting an invitation which it is possible urgent business in the house [Parliament] would prevent him from waiting on you." In a postscript she reminds him that he has offered his support in the ballot at the Athenaeum on the following Monday.