Showing 16266 results

Letter from William Cooke Taylor of the National Anti-Corn Law League, 67 Fleet Street, London to [John Lewis] Ricardo, [MP for Stoke-upon-Trent], 15 Mar 1844. Announcing that 'the Somerset House School of Design has given a very favourable hearing to the proposal for establishing a branch in the Potteries ... If you persevere in your design of offering a prize for model or pattern, which I believe would be of great value to your constitutents & certainly highly creditable to yourself, I would deem it a favour ... to announce your intention in one of my articles'. Autograph, with signature.

Letter from Michel Chasles of Paris to Augustus De Morgan, 4 Oct 1852. On mathematical matters.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from Richard Cobden of Manchester to Mr [?George] Moffatt, 23 Dec 1845. 'Not a word passed between [Earl] Grey and me upon any other subject than corn - I called on him solely for the purpose of urging the Whigs to stick to our principle, and to explain that the League could not swerve a hairs breadth from its path of Total and Immediate to suit any party. This is all that passed - [Viscount] Palmerstons name was of course never mentioned or referred to ... The Whigs are lower than ever by this exhibition of impracticableness at a moment when every other question ought to have been suspended at least till they had dealt some-how or other with that food crisis which alone called them into place and alone warranted them in assuming a power which otherwise they did not possess. At such a time to squabble over seats at the Council board! If I had been Lord John [Russell], history should have rather said of me that I had sent into the parish vestryroom for a dozen select men of the parish to form my cabinet, until I could in my place in Parlt. birng on the total repeal of the corn law, than that I had allowed any two or even twelve men to stop me in my course when once pledged to such an undertaking'.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from John Lunan of Spanish Town, [Jamaica] to Rear-Admiral Sir Home Popham, 15 Oct 1819. Sending a copy of his book, which 'he flatters himself ... may assist Sir Home in obtaining a knowledge of our Slave Code'.

Autograph, unsigned.

Letter from Cornelius Walford of 86 Belsize Park Gardens, London to Professor [Herbert Somerton] Foxwell, Cambridge, 14 Sep 1882. The J P Esqre referred to in the preface is James Postlethwayte. He is supposed to have calculated the table of probability contained in the work.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from George Warde Norman of the Bank of England to [Edward Pleydell-]Bouverie, 3 Mar 1870. Thanking him for his good opinion 'as to my pamphlet on Comparative Taxation'; undertakes to send him 'a small volume of Papers, which I had printed for distribution last autumn ... [I] feel that my literary career is over'.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from W G Burns of Derby to Colonel [Thomas Perronet] Thompson, 23 Feb 1846. 'As I think it [a] pity you should be ignorant [of] the nature of the arguments [u]rged against free trade principles I send you a specimen of [w]hat a clerical opponent can [d]o ...'

Autograph, with signature. Written on the dorse of the title page and the end fly leaf of a pamphlet [by Henry Robert Crewe] The repeal of the Corn Laws (1846).

Letter from John Ramsay McCulloch of the Stationery Office to [S J Loyd], Baron Overstone, 23 Mar 1863. Covering letter accompanying a proof copy of the 3rd edition of McCulloch's Treatise on the principles and practical influence of taxation and the funding system (1863); McCulloch has 'marked the passages which I think would answer best for reference'.

Written in another hand and signed by McCulloch.

Letter from Henry Roberts of 31 Prince's Square, Kensington Gardens, London to C C Nelson, 16 Mar 1861. 'The lecture which you attended some months since at the So[uth] Kensington Museum [now the Victoria and Albert Museum] has just been published by the Ladies' Sanitary Association [under the title Healthy Dwellings]'.

Autograph, with signature.

6 letters from Richard Doddridge Blackmore of Gomer House, Teddington, [Middlesex] to Blackmore's publishers, Messrs Smith, Elder and Co of 15 Waterloo Place, Pall Mall, London, 1876-1879. Mainly concerning the publication and sales of Blackmore's novel Erema (1877). All letters are autograph, with signatures (except the last, from which the signature appears to have been cut away).

Letter from Thomas Clarkson of Playford [Hall, Suffolk] to Dykes Alexander, c 1830-1840. 'I am going to do a thing, which through delicacy I have never yet been able to do, though I have been at Playford for twenty three years; - that is, to ask you and your cousin Samuel [Alexander] to give a trifle, however small, to the inclosed case...'.

Autograph, with signature. Dated 'Friday afternoon'. With a list of charitable subscribers, including William Allen '... and your son Richard has fiven me a sovereign unasked ...'.

Letter from George Rose of Old Palace Green to John Baker Holroyd, 1st Earl of Sheffield, 11 May 1814. Covering letter accompanying a printed copy of a speech delivered by Rose in the House of Commons on 5 May 1814, in favour of the status quo with respect to Corn Laws. He states: 'I am for a full and fair protecting price to the grower'.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from John Woodrow of the Cannon Hotel, Cockspur Street to [Patrick] Colquhoun, 26 May 1818. Covering letter sending a copy of his pamphlet on savings banks and friendly societies.

Written in another hand and signed by Woodrow.

Letter from H Jones of 54 Dorset Street, Fleet Street, London to Colonel [Charles Richard] Fox, 24 Jun 1841. Covering letter (written on behalf of the Property Tax Association) to a printed copy of Joshua Scholefield's speech, (made in the House of Commons on 23 Mar 1841) proposing that a property tax be substituted for the existing customs and excise taxes. Jones forecasts that the proposed property tax 'is likely to become a populat topic at the [forthcoming] elections' and expresses the hope that Fox would be elected MP for Tower Hamlets.

Autograph, with signature.

2 letters sent from officers of the Sambre and Meuse Central Railway Company, London, to John Philippart, 1845. Describing developments and public interest in the Belgian railway and asking for Philippart's support as a member of the managements committee; an explanatory pamphlet accompanied the first letter.

Both letters are autograph, with the signatures of company employees: (i) Osmund Lewis; (ii) G D Carvalho.

Letter from William Cobbett of Botley, Hampshire to an unknown recipient, 20 Jul 1808. Recommending Mr Dickins of No 1 Borough Road, 'not a damned roguish author, but a person of great literary talents, great taste in writing ... He has, by causes, arising not from his vices, by [sic] from unavoidable misfortune, been, for sometime past, in the King's Bench (the rendezvous of the muses).'

Autograph, with signature.

2 letters from John Gale Jones of 5 Wilsted Street, Somers Town, [London] to unknown recipients, 1828. (1) Covering letter to a copy of Jones's Oration on the late George Washington (1825). 'Should you deem it worthy of any little token of your esteem for the memory of that exalted character ... it will be gratefully acknowledged', 25 Apr 1828. (2) Acknowledging 'the liberal present of a sovereign', 28 Apr 1828.

Both letters are autograph, with signatures.

Letter from Sara Coleridge of Keswick, Cumberland to [John] J Morgan Esq of 71 Berners Street, Oxford Street, London [a friend of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who was staying with Morgan's family in London], 5 Sep 1812. '... to request the favor of you to use your influence with my husband to prevail on him to send me a few lines immediately, for I have been so long [since Apr 1812] waiting for a letter from him ... I will thank you to represent to him that I want a little money very much ... for my sister [Edith] Southey having lost 30 pounds by the failure of the Workington Bank, and having occasion for money at present more than is convenient for S [i.e. Robert Southey, Edith's husband] to draw for - I own I feel very uncomfortable at the thought of not being able to settle my accounts with him ... I have bought the books for the boys; I was obliged to send to London for them ... I have also been obliged to get all their school books bound, the Aeschylus among the rest which was coming to peices [sic]. Please also say that we have not been able to find at Grasmere that "Reynard the Fox" which C [her husband] designed for Southey, and that probably he has it with him in town ...'

Autograph, with signature. A note in the hand of her 9-year-old daughter, also Sara, appears at the end of the letter.

12 letters and 1 postcard, all addressed to Silvanus Phillips Thompson, 1891-1909. Written by the following people: George Carey Foster; John Hopkinson; Sir Joseph Lister (later Lord Lister); Lyon Playfair, Lord Playfair; Sir William Ramsay; Sir Arthur Rücker; John William Strutt, Lord Rayleigh; Sir William Thiselton-Dyer; and Sidney Webb (later Lord Passfield). Topics covered include the University of London and the role of King's College within the University.

All items are autograph, with signatures.

Letter from A Moray Williams, 19 May 1932. Address: North Stoneham House, near Eastleigh, Hampshire. To [Thomas] Sturge Moore. Thanks him 'for reading my version of Sakuntala [Shakuntala] so carefully ... I know now that my version is not an adaptation of Kalidasa or a possible stage play of the Sakuntala story. But your kind and helpful criticism encourages me to try again and I think I shall do so'.

Autograph, with signature.

A pencilled draft of a letter from Sturge Moore to W B Yeats (offering commiserations on the death of his friend and patron, Lady Gregory) appears on the dorse of the second leaf.

Letter from Samuel Roberts of Park Grange, [Sheffield, Yorkshire] to George Thompson, c/o Alexander Cruickshanks, Meadowside, Edinburgh, 26 Oct 1833. Covering note to a copy of Roberts's An address to the members of the two Wilberforce-Committees, London and York, concerning a suitable memorial to the late William Wilberforce, slavery abolitionist.

Autograph, with signature.

This note is written on a blank portion at the end of the third page of the printed pamphlet. The date stamp, frank, seal and address are on the fourth (back) page.

Letter from John Taylor of the Cannon Coffee House, Charing Cross to Alexander Dalrymple Esq, 17 Feb 1795. Covering letter to a 1794 proof copy of Captain Taylor's Considerations on the practicability and advantages of a more speedy communication between Great Britain and her possessions in India [advocating the superiority of the overland route above the usual sea voyage]. 'I hope I have profited by the advice you was kind enough to give me some time ago in regard to the accompanying plan ... I have ... condensed the subject and am now busy in arranging what authorities I have been able to collect ...'.

Autograph, with signature.

(1-2) Letters from William Arthur Rücker and Sir Thomas Thorpe to Mr Lupton, 20 Jan 1904. Accepting a dinner engagement on 26 Jan 1904 to meet Mr Miall.

(3) Letter from Richard Burdon Haldane to William Arthur Rücker, 24 Feb 1904. Making a dinner engagement.

(4) Printed mourning card for William Arthur Rücker, who died 1 Nov 1915.

The 3 letters are autograph, with signatures.

Letter from William Fiennes to [John] Swynfen [MP] of St Anne's Lane, Westminster, 29 May 1648. 'I have sent you a narrative of the former proceedinges about the castle of Banbury (my house) ... The gentlemen have spoken with me, and my cousin Knightly will report this to the House [of Commons] ... Excuse me for putting you to this trouble I assure my selfe the House will not misuse me if rightly informed, wch that they may be I desyre yo favour with some other of my frendes ... Lett me be lett alone to inioye [enjoy] mine owne and I am satisfyed. Sr I shall remayne Your affectionate frend to serve you'.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from Francis Tomwsidwy of Gayton, [Northamptonshire] to William Bamwell Esq, Upton, [Northamptonshire], 15 Feb 1602. '... I thanke youe, and thinke my selfe beholding unto youe that it will please youe to afford me these kyndnes to fence my ground wth yor owne thornes (wch I confesse) will be muche more durable than my smoth wood, for the price of them I referre mee to yor selfe and will pay youe what soe ever shall beste please youe.' Mentions Tomsidwy's resolution to sell 'Oldfyeld' and his journey to Northampton with his wife. Written and signed in an italic hand [presumably Tomsidwy's own].

3 letter from Richard Pery of London to Richard and John Wisse (or Wise), merchants, of Totnes, Devon, 1621. Concerning the sale of wine and related payments.

All letters are autograph, with signatures and seals.

Typed copies of 11 letters from Samuel Quincy of London and of St John's, Antigua, to his wife Hannah Quincy, 1771-1781. Including a copy of 1 letter to 'Hal' [probably Hannah's brother, Henry Hill].

With a covering letter from Miss Grace W Treadwell of 42 Mount Vernon Street, Boston, Massachusetts, to Edward Alfred Jones, 1915. Forwarding the copies. Autograph, with signature.

Letter from Tom Turner of Shawlands, Bank Crest, Baildon, Yorkshire to [Thomas] Sturge Moore, 20 Dec 1943. Covering note accompanying a copy of a book of poems by Lionel Johnson, as 'a little reminder of the 1890's'. Autograph, with signature.

A forged letter written and signed by an unknown hand to resemble George Meredith, sent to an unknown recipient, late 19th century. '... your scheme of a new magazine, which is to be an indicator of the specially good things published monthly or generally, promises usefulness'.

Letter from James Henry Leigh Hunt of [7 Cornwall Road], Hammersmith, [London], 15 Dec [1853-1858] to an unidentified librarian. 'Do not imagine - to speak Hibernice - that I have lost sight of the missing books ... my inability to visit the bookshops is very inconvenient to me ...'.

Autograph, with signature.

A collection of 80 letters and 14 poems, purporting to be written by William Makepeace Thackeray (60 items); Thomas Hood (32 items) and Horatio Nelson (2 items), [1801-1861]. Most items are undated.

Forgeries, mainly bearing forged signatures.

3 letters from Thomas Perronet Thompson of Eliot Vale, Blackheath, London to Professor Augustus De Morgan of 41 Chalcot Villas, [London], 14 Dec 1862. (1-2) Duplicate copies of the same letter, offering De Morgan a copy of the 7th edition of Principles and practice of just intonation (1863). (3) Incomplete letter explaining the duplication: one of the letters had been meant for a Mr Platt; asking De Morgan to tear out the section bearing Platt's address.

All letter are autograph, with signatures.

Letter, May 1 1802 addressed to the Rt Hon William Wickham, Chief Secretary for Ireland, Whitehall. 'Lord Sheffield has caused the tracts sent herewith relative to Ireland to be bound together with the wish they may be usefull (sic) in respect to reference to Mr. Wickham. The first gives details of the state, manufactures & commerce of Ireland to the year 1785. The speech on union continues those details to the present times and the observations on the export of wool to Ireland shews the state of the woollen manufacture in both countries'. Autograph, unsigned.

(1) Address: Ritz Hotel, Piccadilly. From Glyn to Lord Northcliffe. 'You were kind enough to say that I might let you know when I was again going to cast a fly over the Fleet river! Well on 14th I am publishing a little set of papers called 'Three Things' ... there is an argument in the first paper on marriage which I feel sure you, and all men, will agree with me about! Just as I know all women will be enraged at it!' (8 October 1915). Autograph, with signature.

(2) No address. Carbon copy of Northcliffe's reply. 'I will see that the book is dealt with in "The Times" and the "Daily Mail" ...' (12 October 1915). Typescript, unsigned.

Letter from Richard Cobden of Manchester to F Buloz, Esq, Paris, 19 Dec 1845. Answering Buloz's request for a collection of the National Anti-Corn Law League's publications for an article in the Revue des Deux Mondes. Cobden explains that 'no complete collection of [tracts, articles, pamphlets and advertisements] has been preserved - Nor has there been any history of the League written in England.' He promises to give full information and 'copies of all our publications which are preserved' to a visitor 'if recommended by you'. He recommends Bastiat's Cobden et la Ligue [printed by Senlis, Paris, 1845]. 'I may also add the Monsr Fonteyrand ... paid us a visit here a few weeks ago to whom I explained the machinery of our organisation ... I am not sure that he would feel at liberty to assist in furnishing an article for your publication - But he is more competent than any other person in France to do it correctly - At all events, I wish you would see him ... and say that I shall be obliged if he will allow you to have access to the publications which I gave him and afford you all facilities in his power for preparing a description of the League ...'.

Autograph, with signature.

14 letters from Sean O'Casey to Peter Newmark, May 1937- Dec 1957. Topics covered include: literary critics and criticism; the Communist Party; the Roman Catholic Church; plays and playwrights; and the writing of O'Casey's works and their publication and performance in Britain, Ireland and the USA. Individuals mentioned include: James Evershed Agate, Samuel Beckett, Ugo Betti, T S Eliot, Jean Giraudoux, Eugène Ionesco, Eugene O'Neill, George Orwell, John Osborne, Terence Rattigan, Jean-Paul Sartre, and W B Yeats.

Letter from Sir Michael Edward Hicks Beach of 11 Downing Street, Whitehall, London to Dr Swayne [?Walter Carless Swayne], 18 Mar 1898. 'I cannot say that I have any special knowledge of the matters that are proposed to be dealt with by the London University Bill. But the Bill has been introduced by the Duke of Devonshire, as the head of the Department which is concerned with it, on behalf of the Government I cannot do anything in opposition to my colleague. I will, however, take steps to bring your views under his consideration ...'. Autograph, with signature.

(i) 5 letters from Herbert George Wells to Stephen and Nell Hunter, [1894-1910]. Topics covered include illustrations and Isabel Wells, Wells's first wife. All items are autograph and 4 are signed; the signature from one has been cut away.

(ii) Letter from Jack Stephen to Professor George Philip Wells (son of H G Wells) of the Department of Zoology, University of London, 19 Mar 1967. Forwarding H G Wells's correspondence. Typescript, with signature.

(iii) Letter from H G Wells to [D T] Richnell of University of London Library, 4 Nov 1967. Forwarding the above letters as a gift to the library. Autograph, with signature.

Letter from John King of Whitehall to William Fawkener, Esq, 9 Nov 1799. Covering letter stating that the Duke of Portland [Home Secretary] had referred a petition on Irish oat and bean exports to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland [Charles Cornwallis]. Enclosing a copy [missing] of Cornwallis's letter on the subject, sent 'for the information of the Lords of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council'.

[Written in another hand and] signed by John King. Endorsed: 'Letter from Mr. King transmitting Copy Letter from the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, upon the subject of the petition of the proprietors of mail coaches, praying that the exportation of oats and beans from Ireland may be allowed in favour of Great Britain only'; endorsement dated 20 Nov 1799.

Letter from Richard Frankland, Overseer of the Poor, of Hawes, [North Riding of Yorkshire] to the Overseer of the Poor in Darlington. Stating the cost of maintaining Isabella Scafe for 20 weeks at 3s per week and Elizabeth Harrison for 23 weeks as 1s 6d per week; asking for an extra shilling per weeks for Isabella, who 'still continues very poorly and is confined too [sic] her bed ... she has a very bad cough and is not likely for getting better ... please send the money as soon as possible'.

Autograph, with signature. A note written in another hand beside the figure of £4 14s 6d reads 'Amt sent p[er] T. Craddock' (18 October 1810).

Letter from N Geary of Fareham, [Hampshire] to Mr Gunner, Waltham, Hampshire, 14 Jan 1815. Asking Gunner to remind the magistrates of the Droxford Bench that they were to inspect the public roads over the Forest of Bere, which Geary had made 'remarkably good'; but since 'the whole of the public money is expended, and the roads are getting bad', he asks the magistrates either to discharge him, or give 'assistance and support without which it will be impossible for me to proceed without much injury to the parishes, and disgrace to myself ...'.

Autograph, with signature. Some pencilled queries in another hand appear on the dorse, e.g. 'Does it lega[ll]y come before us?'

3 letters from Mrs Bentham of Ryde, [Isle of Wight], 3 letters to Richard Wilson, Esq, of 47 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, 1816-1818. Enquiring about payments of money to her as she has very little, and her rheumatism is the cause of heavy expenditure on doctors' bills; the doctor had charged 10s 6d a visit and had advised her to move to Bath rather than risk another winter on the Isle of Wight. She had received a quarterly payment of £25 from a Charles Bacon, withdrawn for the year 1817-1818. Enquiring about payment from Mr Bentham [?her husband], to be arranged through Sir James Graham, and about money owing to her from 3 shilling stock, for which she has apparently waited 10 years. Autograph, with signature.

(1) Letter from William Ross of Charing Cross, [London] to David Thomson, Esq, of Edinburgh, 28 Apr 1840. (2) Letter from William Ross of Dibden, [Hampshire] to David Thomson, Esq, of Edinburgh, 27 May 1840.Both letters concern the claim of a brother and sister, Mr and Miss Wilkinshaw, to an estate occupied by a Mr Dow, whose own claim on the estate had not been satisfied. Autograph, with signature.

Letter from James Mann of Linton Park, [Kent] to an unknown recipient, 23 Nov 1840. Discussing soup and coal subscriptions for the poor of Cranbrook, Kent, who were suffering from the failure of the hops; promising to continue the subscription given by his recently deceased [second] wife [died 3 Aug 1840].

Autograph, with signature. On mourning paper.

Letter from Hugh Hamilton to an unknown recipient, [c1661-1678]. 'Richt Honorabill, your lords[hip] was pleased to remembir his mgisty of his promeissing me on prays [prize] schip and to deseyr me to seick out the naim of on ...'. Hamilton had found the officers unwilling to give him information, sent an express to Plymouth, and so discovered that the 'Toun of [?]Dantzicke', a 260-ton ship carrying French salt, was to be sold on 8 May. Asking his correspondent to speak to the King [Charles II], so that he 'may gett his warren [warrant] for the forsaid schip with all furniter and tackling', and the correpsondent is to say that 'hir ladning of frensch salt is of no considerebill walleu [value]'. He should consider it a great favour and obligation from his correspondent if the king would 'bestou ye schip and ladning upon me ...'.

Autograph, with signature: 'Heugh Glenauly'.

Letter from Jean-Baptiste Colbert of Versailles, [France] to M Daguesseau, 1 Jan 1683. Promoting the manufacturers of Saptes and Clermont in France, and their exports to the Levant.

With autograph signature.

Letter from Peter Dolland of London to an unknown recipient, 20 Aug 1803. Discussing an order given for instruments, including compasses, ivory scales, and 'the case of drawing instruments which you desire in every particular to be very good and yet you seem to expect the price to be very low'. Mentioning alternative types and prices of some instruments.

Autograph, signed 'P. & J. Dollond'.

Letter from Charles Haley of London to Mr Whitaker [possibly John William Whittaker, scholar and Anglican clergyman, then a fellow of the College], St John's College, Cambridge, 8 Dec 1818. Discussing a watch ordered by Whitaker, asking whether he would prefer it in silver or in gold; gold would cost 12 or 13 guineas more. Haley intends to put on the crest, 'but rather delicate that it may not injure the case by taking it out, yet it shall look well'.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from Alexander Galloway of West Street, [London] to Mr Applegarth, Stamford Street [recipient's name and address added in a different hand], 9 Jul 1824. He has received the letter about a press to mark Bath paper. Stating that he will engrave the seal to any design. The japanned press would cost £8 10s, the bright one £9, independent of the die.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from John Thornton Leslie-Melville of Old Broad Street, [London] to J D Powles, 10 Dec 1824. Stating that he does not wish to injure the market, but at the same time wishes Powles to sell 100 more of his (Melville's) Colombian mine shares at the first favorable opportunity, as his broker says that 50 shares had been sold that morning at £19 10s.

Autograph, with signature.