MANUSCRIPT

2pp., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The letter is written in pencil, and begins: 'Sir, | I am awfully sorry to say that I have just been ordered to report tomorrow to G. H. Q. where I shall very probably receive the order to go to the Yankee Army. | I am really very sorry to leave you without having even been able to present to you my respects and my thanks for the kindness you have always shown to me during the time I have been attached to this brigade which is now exactly a year ago.

The three items are stapled to one another, in good condition on lightly-aged paper. The first item is the typescript, which is 1p., 4to. It is addressed to 'Dear Brother Artist,' and begins: 'You will possibly be rather surprised to receive a letter from me, but after having spent most of my life in the Provinces, I now find myself landed in London. I am surprised at the amount of discussion and activity that takes place here regarding the "politics" of the theatre - and realise how you in the Provinces are apt to get left out.

The Campaign of Actors for Sunday Theatres appears to have been active from January 1943 until at least 1944, with the actor Alec Clunes as Honorary Treasurer. The fourteen items in this collection are in good condition, on aged paper, in a beige card folder carrying the title 'LIST OF 213 CELEBRITIES'. [NB. While the first item described below is likely to be, as its title states, the work of Noel Coward, one other item at least in this collection (present in two versions as nos.

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Dunlop begins by informing Hodge that his cousin William Hamilton Dunlop of Downside, Ayrshire, 'has purchased as one of the Burns Monument Trustees the "Veitch" of Paisley copy of the Kilmarnock Burns for £1000'. He describes the book as 'the most perfect copy known uncut & with both blue paper covers much better than the Lamb copy.' Dunlop is 'glad it has been secured for the Burns Cottage Museum at Alloway & is not going across the fish pond [i.e.

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper. Signed 'A R. Dryhurst'. The document begins: 'I am desired by the Committee to inform you that they have resolved to print the speeches revised by himself, which Mr. Gladstone delivered at the beginning and end of the debate on the Eastern Question.' The terms are then given, 'With the view of securing for them, the widest possible circulation'.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, on aged paper, with minor traces of glue from mount still adhering. Numbered at head in manuscript. The message reads: 'Mr. Charles C. Babington presents his compliments to Miss Barnard and begs to thank her for the very full list of plants found near Royston which she has so kindly sent to him through the hands of Mr. Fordham.'

4pp., 12mo. 49 lines. Bifolium. On aged and creased paper, with remains of stub. In what appears to be a reference to the memoir by Lady Ponsonby that was published after her death (London: John Murray, 1927), Sichel (at the risk of appearing 'an impertinent Bore') thanks her 'for that adorable manuscript': 'You have made me so happy these days, transported me so entirely to the world I longed to see, that it would really be ungrateful not to say how much I thank you. The whole Court lives, and the Queen most of all, & Prince Albert.

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The letter reads: 'My dear Ella: | It wd be very kind if you cd come to see me as I have never recovered & am downstairs again. - Will you come to tea to-day or tomorrow. I want somebody to play with me!'

4pp., 12mo. Thirty lines. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with traces of mount at head of second page. Steell is enclosing 'a catalogue of the most recent works of the kind you desire', and points out that 'the short biographical sketches of deceased Scottish artists, in connection with our catalogue, was only printed [last word underlined] by Messrs. Constable'. He ends by offering his 'warmest wishes for the married couple' - in 1881 Christie's seventeen-year-old daughter Alice married Robert King Stewart, KBE, of Murdostoun Castle, Lanarkshire.

2pp., 16mo. Bifolium. On monogrammed letterhead. In fair condition, with traces of glue from mount still adhering. She proposes a date for a meeting, adding: 'Will Miss Paget come in the evening & bring a young friend with her if she pleases?'

2pp., 12mo. On bifolium. On aged and lightly-creased paper. The letter, written while Gladstone's Liberals were in opposition to Benjamin Disraeli's Conservatives, begins: 'Mr.

Trollope's letter: 3pp., 12mo. 48 lines. Bifolium. In fair condition, on aged paper. Addressed, with postmarks, on reverse of second leaf, to 'Messrs. Cadell & Co. | Booksellers | Strand.' Trollope begins by announcing that he has 'a work nearly ready for the Press, wh. may probably be worth your attention [...] It is designed as companion to Mr Horne's work on the Scriptures, of wh. as you are the publishers, you may perhaps have no objection to engage in another, wh.

ONE: Mimeographed typed document titled 'Zambianization of the Air Traffic Services Division of the Department of Civil Aviation'. 7pp., foolscap 8vo, with eighth page carrying table of contents. Undated [mid 1960s]. Given that the plans accompanying this item are initialed by Helm, it seems reasonable to assume that this report is also his work.

Possibly submitted by the 'Mr William Crosbie, wine and spirit merchant', whose death at Castle Douglas on 15 March 1821 is recorded in Blackwood's Magazine, April 1821. 1p., 8vo. Neatly written out on watermarked laid paper. Headed 'Fanny Wilson for fathers funeral | To William Crosbie | 1810'. Eleven entries for the funeral on 1 October 1812, including two plum cakes, '11 Cakes Short Bread'; '2 Gallons <?> Rum' and '2 1/4 ditto Whisky'; '6 Bottles Old Port' and '6 ditto Sherry'. Receipt of payment on 5 November at foot, signed by Crosbie.

1p., 4to., with vertical perforation dividing the circular (upper part) from the form (lower part). Fair, on lightly-aged and creased paper. The fourteen-line circular begins: 'It is appreciated that every British Subject wishes to return at once, but all will not be able to get in the first train. | The British Committee will have to select the order of going by the various degrees of urgency. [...] Persons in Government service, men going to mobilisation, and persons in distress, have special claims to priority.' The form, completed in pencil by 'Mr & Mrs R.

Helm's promotion on 3 September 1940 to the rank of Flying Officer (41020) is recorded in the London Gazette, 15 October 1940. After the war he joined the International Civil Aviation Authority, working in Iran and Zambia, and was elected to the Membership of the Institute of Navigation, Royal Geological Society, in 1971. A total of 59pp., 8vo, of pencil notes and tables by Helm, relating to the RAF in the Second World War, with 6 original photographs.

Printed on one side of a piece of unwatermarked wove paper, 18 x 20cm. Aged and worn, with a number of closed tears. The poem crosses horizontally and verically through three crucifxes, beginning: 'Behold, O God! INRI vers of my Tears'. The poem was first published around 1765 by W. Bailey, 28 Great Tower-street, London, and was reprinted by several other publishers, with an American version as late as the 1850s. No copy of this edition is present on COPAC. According to BBTI John Fenley was active in Bristol from around 1785 to 1811.

2pp., 12mo. On bifolium. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with strip of tape from previous mounting adhering at the foot of the recto of the second leaf. He asks her to send 'cards for your afternoon Friday' to 'our dear friends Mr. and Mrs. Koecher (and the Misses Koecher)', who would 'enjoy every minute'. He gives the Koecher's address as de Keyser's Royal Hotel, Blackfriars, and ends by conveying his wife's love.

1p., 12mo. An autograph note, apparently written at the head of the detached fly-leaf of a book. Fair, on aged paper, laid down on a torn page from an autograph album. Reads: 'This is a Curious & very Scarce Book. - | Madrid 1st. July 1777. | [signed] John Talbot Dillon | Knt. & Baron of the S. R. Empire.' The abbreviation stands for 'Sacred Roman Empire'.

3pp., 12mo. Gilt-edged bifolium. Fair, on aged paper, with the reverse of the second leaf backed with part of the leaf on which the letter was previously laid down.

1p., 4to. On bifolium, with postmarks and red seal on the reverse of the second leaf, together with address (frank?) by Wellington: 'John Jones Esq | 57 Harcourt Street | Dublin | [signed] Wn'. On aged and worn paper, with slight damage to one corner by removal from an album. The message reads: 'The Duke of Wellington presents his Compliments to Mr. Jones. | The Duke has not written Mr. Jones any Rebuke. He received one. | He is not in the habit of discussing upon political subjects with those who think proper to address him in the tone of Rebuke. | He begs that the subject may here drop'.

A good, firm signature, written on one side of a rectangle torn from the base of a letter, roughly 15 x 20cm. Aged and little creased. Written while Kean was on an American theatrical tour, the fragment reads 'I remain, | Yours truly | [signed] Charles Kean | Aster House | 9th. June | 1846.' In pencil on the reverse: 'Presented by A. Bassler'.

1p., 4to. He thanks Stanford for sending 'the carbon' of his 'warm review' of Litvinoff's novel ('A Death out of Season'). He missed the article and the note Stanford wrote 'about my autobiographical sequence' in the Scotsman, but is now iinterested to see from the review that Stanford is 'nursing the idea of a 'Forties memoir. Amazingly, few of us have written about the decade. I shall be getting around to it one day also, I hope.

2pp., 32mo. Bifolium. Lightly-aged and creased. Giving a good indication of Lucan's famous short-temper, the letter starts peremptorily: I paid your account for 2 nights furnished in 1837 on the 9th. of Augst. last & I hold you accept your sending me the account again must be a mistake'. Postscript: 'I return you the account you have sent -'.

1p., 12mo. On aged and creased paper, with loss to one corner (not affecting text). He will 'look for such witnesses as might be disposed to give evidence before the Committee Mr. Torrens [the Irish Liberal politician William Torrens McCullagh Torrens (1813-1894)] has obtained, to enquire into the operation of your extradition laws'.

1p., foolscap 8vo. Stained, worn and creased, but a unique memento of a Newcastle institution and Grade I listed building, founded in 1867 as the Tyne Theatre and Opera House, and now bearing the euphonious name of the Mill Volvo Tyne Theatre.

The letterhead includes a facsimile of Sims's signature. Six lines, on one side of the card. Addressed at foot to 'Thos Hutchinson Esq.' Fair, on aged paper, with strip of gummed paper from mount at head of blank reverse. He sends 'a thousand thanks' for Hutchinson's 'kind letter on Sep 2', which he would have answered earlier, had he not been 'away at Liverpool'. He concludes: 'Your good wishes lay upon my table to welcome me home.'

1p., 12mo. Fair, on aged paper and worn paper. He is 'exceedingly obliged' to Barnett for 'procuring for me the freedom of Her Majesty's Theatre'. He asks if he will 'receive an official commemoration from Mr. Lumley', or whether he should write and thank Lumley on the strength of Barnett's note.

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Very good.

Both items 4pp., 12mo, and bifoliums. Both in fair condition, on aged paper; the first with slight wear to one corner. In the first letter Pauncefote informs Aberdeen that Justice John Marshall Harlan (1833-1911), who has just visited him, is planning a summer holiday 'at Murray Bay in your Dominion'.