SONG

2pp., 4to. In good condition, on lightly aged and creased paper. He writes that he is sorry that he could not sing the song 'Nancy's Hair' at Preston. He had not brought it: '(I only got your letter on arrival at the concert hall.) Funnily enough I picked it up before leaving home to put in my case as a possible encore & then put it back.' He is 'delighted to know that your mother liked my singing of it, I most certainly enjoy singing it & I hope to be able to help it along'.

Both items printed on pink paper, with similar cover designs by Arnold Riches. Both in fair condition, aged and worn. The song sheet is a bifolium, 4pp, 4to, It dates from before 1939, when, following Ridgeway's death, the Player's Theatre moved to the Arts Theatre from King Street. The front page advertises performances 'Every Night (Except Sundays)', with 'THE ARTISTES' listed over twelve lines, and including 'Alec (Laneworthy-Figg) Clunes', Peter Ustinov, Bernard Miles and 'Leonard Sachs (Chairman)'.

2pp., folio. Tastefully printed in old-fashioned style on both sides of a sheet of thick wove 37 x 24.5 cm paper. Aged and worn, with chipping and closed tears to three edges. Inscribed by Mitchison at head of first page: 'Robert & Sylvia Lynd with best wishes from N. M. !' Twelve verses, followed by twelve pseud-scholarly 'Notes' (number 10 refers to a 'Prof. Bumpfendorf'). A topical political spoof, with the last verse reading: 'I'll sing you twelve, oh. | Pure Grow the Little Ones, | What is your twelve, oh?

Handbill, one page, crudely coloured border with images of a black troubadour with banjo[?] , a native American, and a trapper [?], 26 x 17cm, three stanzas each eight lines plus chorus, edges chipped, laid down on a larger page. Commences, "Oh! listen a while., a story I will tell; | It will please you to death, I know berry well [...]" Decorative border signed "E A Sparks" ("Printed within colored pictorial border (De Marsan trapper border J, in Wolf, E. Amer. song sheets)." One copy of this imprint listed by WorldCat, two of another imprint (later).

8pp., 12mo. On four bifoliums, placed inside one another to make a booklet. Each bifolium with embossed [West Point?] letterhead of a letter 'W' within a shield. A fair copy, with the title reading: 'Benny Havens, Oh! | as sung | by the | U.S. Corps Cadets - | 1864.' The twenty-two line introduction covers the whole of the second page.

The text area is about 13.5 x 30 cm, on the top half of a slip of paper around twice as long. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The lower half of the slip is blank apart from the pagination 196. Headed 'EPILOGUE | COWKEEPER'S TUNE', and beginning 'Unless your window is fitted with very strong iron bars and, just to make sure, your window locks, | Do not attempt to keep a Dexter cow in your window box.' Signed in type at end 'M.

Printed on one side of a piece of wove paper roughly 230 x 90 mm. On pitted, aged paper. Text complete. Approximate 30 x 50 mm piece torn away from top right-hand corner, causing loss to small illustration at head, which appears to be a crude woodcut of a woman lying in a coffin. The poem consists of thirty-six lines arranged in five stanzas. The first stanza reads 'Dear Peggy, read this letter, | its the last one I'll send, | Our long correspondence, | is now at an end.

On one side of a piece of thin wove paper, roughly 260 x 95 mm. Aged and creased, with internal 25 mm closed tear affecting four words of text (all of which can be completed from the context) repaired on blank reverse with archival tape. Otherwise text and illustration clear and entire. Small (30 x 40 mm) woodcut at head, showing two early nineteenth-century country coves outside a cottage. The poem consists of ten four-line stanzas.

Printed on one side of a piece of wove paper roughly 280 x 95 mm. Aged, creased and spotted, with chipping to extremities, but with text and illustration clear and entire. Curious small (roughly 40 x 65 mm) crude illustration at head, showing dove with olive branch and acorn. Forty-line poem arranged in five stanzas. Interestingly-garbled nineteenth-century folk song with ancient antecedents.

On leaf of light blue paper, 8.5 x 12 cm, removed from an autograph album. Very good.

Two pages, quarto. Very good, on lightly aged and creased paper. He is sorry that he has not been able to 'become personally acquainted with' Watts since coming to town, but will 'very soon make another attempt', hoping to find him at home.

Three pages, 12mo. Good, but on slightly discoloured paper, and with head of blank verso of second leaf of bifolium attached to piece of grey paper. He cannot sing for Mundy on the 8th, as he is giving his own concert the following day, and has 'only just started at it as the Prince of Wales who has kindly consented to come, only let me know the date yesterday. You know what giving a concert means. I musts have the 8th. absolutely free. I am so sorry to disappoint you.'