HILAIRE

1p., 4to. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The letter carries a few autograph emendations and postscript. With envelope addressed to Mrs Strutt at 12 Somers Place, London. Belloc was an accomplished travel writer, and had published his classic book 'The Pyrenees' in 1903. He writes that he is giving her 'two addresses', 'only in each case you must write to the people before going there and the sooner the better, because the Season in these high places is very short'.

12mo, 6 pp. Bifolium and single leaf. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged and lightly-creased paper. Closely and neatly written. An important and revealing letter, written while Belloc was still at school.

8vo landscape album, 21 x 26 cm. Morocco leather binding. Marbled endpapers; all edges gilt. 'TRUSLOVE & HANSON' stamped on the front board in gilt. Internally good, sound and tight; in fair binding with wear to hinges and corners and minor damp staining. Truslove & Hanson was always a fashionable bookshop, placing an emphasis on presentation. It was acquired by W. H. Smith & Son in 1923; the same firm acquired the Cambridge booksellers Bowes & Bowes in 1953.

12mo, 1 p. Ten lines of text. Fair, on aged and lightly-creased paper. She received the cheque the previous night, and is sending 'a prospectus [not present] of the Home to which the Patient was removed'. She thanks her for her 'prompt kindness'. At the time of writing (six years before her marriage to the French lawyer Louis Belloc) Bessie Parkes was co-editor of the 'English Woman's Journal'. Lady Janet Kay-Shuttleworth (née Janet Shuttleworth) was the wife of Dr James Kay-Shuttleworth (1804-1877), one of the leaders of the Liberal Party in Lancashire.

English man of letters (1874-1945), associated with G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc. Two pages, octavo. A frail item in poor condition: on grubby, discoloured, frayed paper, with slight loss to text and several closed tears. Line of text on fold worn but still legible. Precocious pronouncements from a nineteen-year-old.