READING

On one skin of vellum. Aged and worn, with some loss to text. Laid out in the customary fashion, with tax stamps in margin and the gutter carrying the Earl's signature, its two words on each side of his seal, in red wax, on green ribbon. Signed by witnesses on reverse, and docketed in a later hand: 'Pigeon Close | May be of use in identifying the bounds of the Pigeon Close at the expiration of the Lease of the <?> Rectory house'. The document relates to lands surrounding Fingall's Berkshire country estate, Shinfield House, with reference to Cobham and Peter and Henrietta Floyer.

Printed in black and red on one side of a piece of 37.5 x 26 cm wove paper, with Charles Martin 'Extra Strong' watermark. Text enclosed in attractive decorative border. At foot: 'God Save the King. | At a Piano ... ... ... ... Miss Wynne Runting'.

ONE: 24pp., 12mo. In brown printed wraps. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper, with slightly rusted staples and chipping to covers. Labels, stamp and shelfmark of the Education Department Library, London. No copy found on COPAC or OCLC WorldCat. TWO: 26pp., 8vo. In light-blue printed wraps. In fair condition, on lightly aged and creased paper, with rusted staples. With label and shelfmark (of the Board of Education Reference Library, London). No copy on OCLC WorldCat, and the only copy on COPAC at Oxford University.

Both items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Stamp and label of the Education Department Reference Library, London. ONE: Pamphlet titled 'A Reformed Alphabet'. 10pp., 12mo. Stapled in grey printed wraps. The first four pages carry 'Phonetic Notation. The Reformed Alphabet. For teaching purposes only. Devised by R. W. Leftwich, M.D.' The last six pages carry an essay by Leftwich, beginning: 'The art of learning to read English, instead of being so easy as to form a stepping-stone to higher accomplishments, is really a very difficult task.

41pp., 12mo. Stapled, in grey printed wraps. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper, with slight rusting to staples and chipping to back wrap. Stamp, shelfmarks and labels of the Board of Education Reference Library, London. Uncommon.

The label is printed on one side of a crudely-cut 6 x 8 cm piece of laid paper. In fair condition, aged. The item reads (with manuscript additions in square brackets): 'LEEDS | Circulating Library. | Entered [16 Sept] 180[8] | Allowed for reading the first Year, Weeks [2] Days [-] | - After the first year, Weeks [2] | Forfeiture per Day for keeping it beyond the Time, d. [2]'. At the head in manuscript is the number '1006', crossed out, and '671'.

In very good condition, on one side each of two skins of vellum. Robinson's signature and seal in red wax at the foot of the attached skins, and the customary embossed tax stamps on both. Ruled borders in red ink. Docketed on reverse of first skin. The document begins: 'To all to whom these Presents shall come. Moncure Robinson of the City of Philadelphia in the United States of America and now residing in Bond Street in the County of Middlesex in Great Britain Esquire sends Greeting'.

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. An interesting piece of ephemera relating to a ground-breaking series in the nineteenth-century extension of the market for serious literature. An initial 27-line prospectus in small print is followed by a list of the details of the 35 'Volumes already Published' and of 20 works 'in progress'. The final page carries details of items 'Uniform with his STANDARD LIBRARY, price 3s. 6d.', under the headings 'Bohn's Extra Volume', 'Bohn's Scientific Library, Vol. 1', 'Bohn's Antiquarian Library' and 'Bohn's Classical Library'.

256pp., 12mo. With frontispiece engraving and vignette on title. In original brown cloth binding, with blind-stamped decorative pattern on the boards, and title and design on the spine. Ownership inscription of 'Arthur Baxter | Runcorn | 1861' on piece of paper laid down on front pastedown. A tight copy, on stained paper (particularly the last few leaves) and aged paper, in worn binding with gilt almost dulled. An interesting production, reminiscent of previous Minerva Press publications, and looking ahead to the yellow-back.

xviii + 384 pp., 8vo, orig.[?]green cloth covered boards, slightly "bubbled", endpapers stained, corners bumped, hinge strain, fair condition. With frontispiece of Don Carlos and plate (facing p.229) of Zumalacarréguy. In contemporary green cloth library binding with title in gilt on spine. Bookplate laid down on front pastedown, listing 'Members of the Iron Acton Reading Society. | Books to be kept fourteen days.' Twenty-eight members are listed, from 'Rev. Dr.

4pp., 16mo. Bifolium. On aged and worn paper, with small spike-hole on one leaf. The letter begins: 'I am sorry to say that the poor man from whom I removed the large tumour has died of Erysipilas - It is a great pity - but one of those results over which we have little or no control - Perhaps the inflammation was a kind of continuance of that which he had on him when the operation was done'. He points out that 'at the present time the Hospital [i.e. King's College Hospital] is remarkably free from Erysipilas - a thing which few of us in London can boast much about in general'.

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. On aged and worn paper with small spike-hole to one leaf. The letter begins: 'A hare and a pheasant delivered here the other day with F.A.B. Reading upon the parchment card - the initials, I immediately concluded of my old friend Mr. Bulley and the first information that he still lives after a certain bloody deed performed upon him many months ago.

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, on aged paper with traces of previous mount. The nineteen rules begin with 'RULE I. | That this Society be called the Reading Pathological Society.' They end with 'RULE XIX. | That the Society be empoweredd to act at ordinary meetings, on any matters not comprehended in these rules, and that new rules may be added, or old ones modified, notice having been given at the previous meeting, but that such rules be submitted to the next Annual Meeting.' Scarce: no copies found on either COPAC or OCLC WorldCat. From the papers of F. A.

1p., 12mo. On trimmed wove paper. Aged and worn, with traces of mount on reverse. 24 lines, arranged in six four-line stanzas, beneath the title 'New Version to an Old Nursery Rhyme.' The poem - based on 'Sing a song of sixpence' - begins: 'Sing a song of Thousand Guineas, | Pockets full of brass; | Rate-payer's money's nought to me, | I'll squander it like an ass. | Sing a song of Royal Visit, | Ain't I a man of sense | To shake hands and sit with Royalty, | At Rate-payers expence.

Two pages, disbound from periodical with original wraps (before binding volume), 8vo, sl.chipped and browned edges, text complete.

Both volumes in good condition, on lightly-aged paper, in worn black leather bindings, marbled endpapers. Both 4to, the first volume smaller than the second. First Diary: 168pp., 4to. Titled by Few: 'Diary commencing May 30, 1858, and continued during residence at Henley on Thames Oxfordshire. Alverston Hampshire'. Includes two pages of addresses, page of 'Books Read' in 1860 and 1861, and page of accounts for 1861. Second Diary: 180pp., 4to.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. He begins by informing Alvarez that the periodical 'somehow made a sad hash of the printing of ye last No. which I have sent to the works | As you are now definitely engaged to read, I will tell you our system. | No high pointing, the other plan being both more scholarlike & less expensive. | All proofs read after my signature is attached (in page) to be only altered for literals.' He ends by informing Alvarez that he has 'sent on something of yrs'.

Nineteen items, in good condition, on lightly-aged paper, arranged in the following description into seven sections: ONE. Nine Autograph Letters Signed (two more are in sections Two and Three below) from DJ to ASB. Totalling 3pp., 4to; 15pp., 12mo (12 of them landscape); 5pp., 16mo. Four dating from 1963, one from 2004, and the other four undated (but apparently also from 1963). One signed 'Douglas', another 'D. J.', and the other seven signed in full. All but one, which is addressed to 'Alan', addressed to 'Baxendale'. Eight on letterheads of the School of History, Birmingham University.

On 7 x 11 cm rectangle cut from front of envelope. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper, with glue from mount adhering to reverse, which is docketed in pencil: 'Serjt Talfourd | Readng | Berks'. The frank reads, with the words in square brackets not in Talfourd's hand, unlike the rest: '[Shrewsbury March] Twenty three | [The Very Revd.] The Dean | Hereford | [signed] T N Talfourd'.

3pp., 4to. Bifolium. Good, on lightly aged paper. The red wax seal has been cut away from the second leaf, with no loss to text. Addressed, on the reverse of the second leaf, to 'Miss Howard | Mr Jackson's | The Pike | Bolton | Favored by Mr. Harrison'. An affectionate letter from father to daughter. He begins by describing the pleasure he has had in reading her letter to her brother, 'and the more when I understood that you had not only written it, but composed it'. He feels she will 'profit every Day by the kind and good Instructions of your Cousin and Tutoress'.

4to, 27 pp. Stitched. In original printed wraps. Text clear and complete. On aged paper, in worn and torn wraps. Stamps of the Education Department Library. Written in English, and filled with information about the educational systems of Europe, including Great Britain. Appendix (pp.26-27) of 'Data for the Sketch of a Map of Primary Instruction in 1880.' Scarce: no copy in the British Library or on COPAC; and the only copy on WorldCat at Harvard, where it is attributed to Vallin.

12mo, 12 pp. In original light-blue printed wraps. Stapled. Text clear and complete. On aged paper with slight damage from rusting of staple, and a little wear and loss to the corners of the wraps. 202 titles, nicely printed. Excessively scarce: no copy in the British Library or on COPAC.

12mo, 32 pp. In original yellow printed wraps, with engraving on front. Front wrap gives title as 'Guerilla [sic] Spy', with full title on p. 1. Unopened. Very good, with slight fraying to wrap and at foot of first leaf. American Civil War story, beginning in 1861. Back cover advertises 'Cheap New Edition of the London Library. In Penny Numbers, every Number a Complete Story, and every Number containing Thirty-two Pages of well-printed matter, in book size, folded into an Illustrated Wrapper.' Excessively scarce: no copy on COPAC or WorldCat.

16mo (leaf dimensions 11 x 9 cm), 2 pp. Bifolium. Reverse of second leaf addressed by Rogers 'For the Rt. Honl. Sir Robert Peel.' Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged and creased paper, with a couple of spots of glue on second leaf from previous mounting on second leaf. Rogers writes 'to point out to Sir Robert Peel a slight inaccuracy in the printed forms respecting the Income Tax' ('middle of the third page of Schedule D'): the words 'sitting up' instead of 'setting up'.

All but three of the silhouettes are laid down on 23 pages of an album of 32 leaves (leaf dimensions 31 x 25 cm) bound in worn brown buckram, with attractive metallic cobweb endpapers. In very good condition. The three silhouettes not in the album are laid down on a loose piece of blue paper (22 x 27 cm) and consist of three full length portraits of infant girls. One of these is the largest silhouette in the collection at 14.5 x 7 cm. The smallest, less than a centimeter high by half a centimeter wide, is of a golfer taking a swing. A delightful collection, including portraits of 'J.

Two 8vo diaries, by Charles Letts, the first 'improved' and the second 'self-opening'. Both in heavily worn covers, lacking spines, but internally clean, on aged paper, and with the text entirely legible. Both diaries end with a brief set of accounts. The diaries are filled with details of the life of a young English lawyer in London during the Great War, including references to the many legal cases in which he was involved.

12mo: 1 p. Ten lines of text. Bifolium. Grubby, and with the text of the letter faint. Letterhead printed in red with illustration of the firm's headquarters. Written in, or faded to, lilac, and could well be a carbon. Sending copies of the two newspapers as 'we think it probable you would like your newly published works noticed or reviewed' in them.

All three items in very good condition. Interesting series of letters by an obscure 1890s poet. Letter One (12mo, 7 pp): Although he realises that some are 'rather poor', he is sending, through his brother (possibly the artist Alan Wright, 1864-1959), 'all the lyrics I have by me': 'I have not had time to "weed" yet, being veryy busily engaged writing lyrics for a Comedy-Opera ['Ethelinda, or a Philanthropic Fad' (1890), on which he collaborated with Hamilton O. Wylde] - & a libretto for Operetta; also been trying my hand at very sensational prose'.

The four items, all on aged and lightly spotted paper, are attached by four rusty staples. One (five pages, octavo): In reply to the firm's inquiry regarding 'the prevention of rising spaces in Monotype', Marshall states that, instead of giving information, he 'would rather send you the method and you try it out and prove for yourself its value, then pay me afterwards'.

One one side of a piece of laid paper, 26.5 x 21 cms. Aged and creased, with chipping to extremities and staining on reverse from repair to one of two closed tears. Thirty-six lines, with facsimile of Housman's signature at foot. An appeal for 'money for the Library - your Library'. Somewhat poignant, considering the present neglected state of the British library service. '[...] The question is - do you want to give money to your Library? [...] But, for my own part, I ask - why, why Libraries? What are they for? What there do you read?