DOWN

1p., 12mo. Cheaply printed in small print. A frail survival: aged and worn. In the 1885 General Election Brown was soundly defeated in the North Down constituency by the Conservative candidate Thomas Waring. The present item is headed 'The Burial of the Radical Cause in the Glassmoss. (By Robert Todd, Comber.)' The poem is 32 lines long, divided into eight four-line stanzas.

2pp., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. An interesting letter from a senior Conservative politician during Disraeli's second government, written on the day the British fleet set sail for Turkish waters, with war between Great Britain and Russia appearing imminent. (Tensions between the two countries had been increasing during the course of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, and the fleet would anchor off Constantinople, which the Russians threatened to occupy.) The letter begins: 'My dear George | We divided last night contrary to all Expectation.

3pp., 4to. On bifolium. Very good, on lightly-aged paper, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to reverse of second leaf, which is addressed, with half of a black wax seal, 'For | Mrs. Richards | Bampton.' This copy was made within a month of the composition of the poem, for the wife of a fellow Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. The recto of the second leaf carries the following note by Mant: 'with Mr. Mant's best compliments to Mrs. Richards. | Oriel Coll. June 15th. 1803.' Beneath this, in a contemporary hand (presumably that of Mrs Parker): 'Afterwards Bishop of Down & Connor'.

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. On aged and lightly-creased paper, with one stain in margin. This offprint is scarce: the only copies on COPAC at the National Library of Scotland and St Andrews.

On strip of paper roughly two inches by eight wide. Good. Two bold signature reads 'Yours sincerely | Richard Adams'. Presumably the collector was expected to cut the autographs off individually - for wgatever purpose.