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Typescript copy of poem, "A sedative at daybreak" by Laurie Whistler. With etchings by Joan Hassall. This copy was a gift to Walter de la Mare. Inscribed "And to dearest WJdlM with love, always, from LW".

Papers concerning American theatre and opera scrapbooks, 1875-1892, comprise to scrapbooks containing programmes of plays, concerts and operas performed in the USA, with particular reference to New York and the Metropolitan Opera House, from 1875 to 1892. MS1088/2 includes postcards of members of singers performing in the Metropolitan Opera 1890 to 1891 season, posing in some of their operatic roles. The volumes contained two loose inserts, which have now become MS1088/3 and MS1088/4.

Letter from Matthew Arnold of Cobham, Surrey to John Churton Collins, 24 Oct 1886. Relating to the teaching of modern literature and modern languages at the universities. Autograph, with signature.

Incomplete manuscript article on Thomas Lovell Beddoes containing '...a short review of the...works of Beddoes [other than Death's Jest Book] together with a selection from some of their finest passages'. It was written, by an author unknown, as a supplement to Thomas Forbes Kelsall's article on Beddoes in the Fortnightly Review of 1872, Vol 18, pp.51-75. Although intended for the same journal it appears not to have been published either there or elsewhere.

Correspondence and a typescript of the Greek poet Moschus' Europa, 1911, translated by Baring.

Incomplete thesis on the French writer Stephane Servant, 1869-1916. Includes a transcript of Servant's manuscript entitled Traite de l'Art Poetique.

SL V 37 is a typescript, with corrections made by Barrie of the play and correspondence relating to the production of Alice Sit By the Fire (1906); SL V 38 is the original manuscript of Hsiung's translation into Chinese of the play Shall We Join the Ladies (1921) and the book Barrie and His Work.

A manuscript draft, 1926, of the novel, The Two Sisters, by Herbert Ernest Bates.

Letter, 1960, from James Baxter to John Pocock, thanking him for the review of his two plays, The Wide Open Cage, and Jack Winter's Dream.

Extracts of poetry and prose collected by Penelope Baynes, 1793-1808. Occasionally the source of the extracts are mentioned.

Manuscript 283 is a holograph manuscript of the short story, The Risks of Life, written by Enoch Arnold Bennett in 1913. SL V 45 is a holograph manuscript of The Lions Share 1916 and SL V 46 is a limited edition of The Old Wives' Tale 1908 by Arnold Bennett.

A typescript of King George VI and correspondence written by Henry Hector Bolitho.

Holograph manuscripts, c 1840-1870. SL V 1 is Székely or Dósa Gÿorgy. SL V 2 is Introduction to a Scandinavian Ballad. SL V 3 is The Hedebye-Spectre and The Return of the Dead written by George Borrow.

Letter from Gordon Bottomley of The Sheiling, Silverdale, Carnforth, Lancashire to Mr Allan Bright, 26 Aug 1939. Covering letter accompanying a copy of Bottomley's Lyric Plays.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from Benjamin Heywood Bright to Philip Bliss, [1820-1840?], relating to Shakespeare and Ben Johnson.

Letter from William Humphries Budden of Newcastle upon Tyne to Charles Manby, 28 Oct 1859. 'I am glad you are going to write a memoir of our dear Chief'.

One holograph letter, 1791, written by Robert Burns to Mrs Dunlop. Letter includes the poem The Song of Death.

Holograph manuscripts, 1816-1875. SL V 6 is Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto III copied by Mary Godwin with correspondence regarding the custodial history of Godwin's manuscript. SL V 7 is Don Juan, third canto. SL V 8 is Don Juan, tenth, eleventh and twelfth cantos. SL V 9 is Don Juan, seventeenth canto.

The collection contains correspondence, books and personal papers relating to Emile Cammaerts, geographer, playwright and Professor of Belgian Studies and Institutions in the University of London. The papers fully document Cammaert's activities. They relate to Belgian and British affairs (art, literature, theatre, politics, the Press, religion and the two world wars).

Two holograph manuscripts, 1830-1. The first is a six verse poem written for The Metropolitan. The second is a draft of an article, 'Notices of the Life of Lord Byron by Mr Moore, and remarks on those notices by Lady Byron', published without significant alteration in The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, Vol. 28 (1830), pp. 33.

Letter from Thomas Campbell of 61 Lincoln's Inn Fields, [London] to [Mr Fonblanque], 14 Aug 1838. Apologising for breaking a dinner engagement without warning: he was called suddenly to Edinburgh to the bedside of his eldest sister. Complaining of feeling 'wretchedly feeble' himself.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from Thomas Campbell to [? Henry Thomas, Lord] Cockburn, 22 Apr 1809. 'I have put to press my farrago [Gertrude of Wyoming (1809)] and if Bensley can print it fast enough I shall be out in a few weeks but they compose almost as slowly as myself - You will think it odd ... that I have not seen Marmion [published 1808] but in a random glance at some pages - When you come to town we shall settle every thing about its merits'. The 3 remaining lines of the letter have been scored out.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from Thomas Campbell of 10 Upper Seymour Street West, [London] to Longmans and Co, Paternoster Row, 4 Apr 1823. Asking for copies of his works Pleasures of Hope and Gertrude of Wyoming.

Autograph, no signature. With seal.

6 letters written by Thomas Campbell, c 1815-1841. Correspondents include Lord Jeffrey [Francis Jeffrey], Cyrus Redding and Bess Campbell. Topics covered include social engagements and Campbell's health.

All items are autograph, with signatures.

A typescript, c1908, entitled La Renaissance de la Tragédie et les Spectacles de Plein-air en France. Alterations and additions in the author's own hand.

A holograph manuscript, 1854-1867, of the essay Prinzebraub.

Cavalier Playing Cards collection, 1886, comprises a bound volume containing a pack of cavalier playing cards, designed in the era of Charles II, forming a complete satire of the Commonwealth, published by the Clarendon Historical Society, with accompanying typescript explanation on each card by Edmund Goldschmid (1885-1886).

Manuscript volume, originally used as a stock book for haberdashery, belonging to John Clark [of Bridgewater, Somerset], containing lists of hosiery, thread, pins, ribbons, laces, tapes, bobbins, blankets, flannel and other cloths, furs, tippets, muffs, capes, silk cloaks, cambric handkerchiefs, pasteboard, paper and umbrellas, 1832-1837. Many pages have had pasted on to them newspaper cuttings and illustrations from popular magazines, [1838-1852], including plans for the new parish church of Paddington, 1840. From folio 18, the volume has interspersed on previously blank pages a draft continuation by Clark of Byron's Don Juan (i.e. cantos xvii-xxiv), described by the author as 'rough copy - incorrect' (each leaf being cancelled presumably as the fair copy was made) and signed by himself as 'completed 1842 September 1, at X a.m. clk. struck, & flute playing in the street'.. There are also some notes on Byron's original poem, his life and literary style accompanying the continuation, which date from later in the 1840s. The vellum cover is inscribed 'John Clark's first copy of his poem'.

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.

The volume, c 1965, contains an unpublished typescript of Food of the Gods: Studies in Religion, written by Rev. Ernest Edgar Vyvyan Collcott.

Commonplace book, written in the early 19th century, containing copies of poems by various authors, including Mrs. R. Wilmot, the Reverend John Chetwood, and Eward Wilmot. The poems include 'To Miss Wilmot, now Mrs. Bradford, on her arrival from Russia' by F.S.I. (p.135), and 'Prologue written for the opening of the Lyceum at Madras 1782, spoken by Major Maule, by Eyles Irwin, Esq.' (p.245). A few poems are dated, 1782, 1788, 1802-1816.

Manuscript Commonplace Book of English poetry and prose, dating from the 19th century, containing the second half of a long poem on early biblical history 'continued from the book in white forrel', and other items. Inserted is a folded leaf containing two poems, one dated 1834, by W. C. Yonge, who may have been the compiler of the volume.

Broadside ballad, sold at the time of the coronation of King George VI, printed and published by The Raven Press, Middlesex (1937).

Letter from P Crewe of Aston, [Birmingham] to an unnamed clergyman 16 Sep 1699. 'I thnk God and Sr W A for my fie, and you for joyning us togather: excuse a trifle sent you on the occasion as thus - The unrepented yeare is past, / The parsons gloves are sent att last: / What Witam had, att Oxford are / On that account another paire. / On ye other side is ye originall and ye cause of this mean rime.' The writer tells the story of Mr Hodges, the Parson of Wytham, near Oxford, who had asked couples that he married to send him a pair of gloves if they had never regretted their marriage during its first year; he received only one pair in 40 years. Including short verses in Latin and English reportedly written by Hodges.

Autograph, with signature.

Biographical scrapbook, compiled by Cecil Frederick Crofton, including the following: correspondence, cuttings, watercolours and exam papers from Crofton's time at Forest School, near Snaresbrook, including cuttings of poems and articles by Crofton in the school magazine, exam papers, watercolours and illustrations of areas surrounding the school and correspondence with the headmaster regarding fees and attendance, 1874-1876; playbills, cuttings, posters, programmes and illustrations from a majority of Crofton's performances both as an opera singer and actor, both amateur and professional, also including dinner and engagement cards and illustrations and small watercolours by Crofton of theatrical scenes and fellow performers, 1877-1913; Cuttings and illustrations regarding the funeral of the Duke of Devonshire, 1908; correspondence, cuttings and illustrations regarding Sir Nevil Macready, 1919.

Personal papers, correspondence, news-cuttings and pamphlets concerned mainly with various literary societies. This collection also comprises correspondence of the Daniel family, including that of George Daniel's son, Jesse Cato Daniel (1825-1876), Jesse's wife Elizabeth (1825-1900), and his grandson, George B. Daniel (1863-1897) who emigrated to Argentina. The Daniel papers include a letter from the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge to "my very dear Cottie" in 1797.

Holograph manuscripts of novels. SL V 51 is The Withered Root (1927). SL V 52 is Arfon (1930). SL V 53 is Rings on Her Fingers (1930) SL V 55 is Count Your Blessings (1931) and SL V 54 is a collection of the author's manuscripts of short stories and poems.

Papers of Alphonse-Marie-Louis de Prat de Lamartine, 1857, comprise a letter to 'Les honorables membres du notariat', written in the third person. It thanks them for their attendance at his 'cours familier de littérature'. Encloses further 'engagements d'abonnement' and asks them to publicize the subscriptions among their colleagues and 'clients lettrés'.

Papers of the De Morgan family, [1756-1928], comprising material relating to the suffragette movement, such as photographs, newpapers, press cuttings and pamphlets; correspondence of Augustus de Morgan, with correspondents including Sir Frederick Richard Pollock, Sir George Biddle Airy, Sir John William Lubbock, John Wrottesley (2nd Baron Wrottesley), John Radford Young, Sir John Frederick William Herschel, John Finlaison, and General Sir John Briggs; correspondence of William Frend de Morgan, mainly with members of his family and Sir Edward Coley Burne Jones; material relating to the de Morgan and Frend families, notably family photographs, drawings, letters, legal documents and memorabilia; letters from Sophia and Mollie de Morgan to Joan Antrobus; manuscript and typescript copies of stories and essays by William and Mary de Morgan; papers relating to Sophia de Morgan's Memoir of her husband Augustus, including letters, reviews and working notes; bundle of letters containing correspondence concerning a petition to the women of America from the women of England about the abolition of slavery; printed material, mainly works by Augustus de Morgan; letters to Francis Baily, [1820-1940]; letters from Thomas Henderson to Thomas Galloway, 1834-1842; 5 watercolours of Scotland by Frances Shakerley, [1920-1930].

A manuscript and printed copy of William Hepworth Dixon's book, The London Prisons, 1850. Also includes newspaper cuttings collected by the author.

This collection, 1869-1966, contains manuscript material and printed volumes of Austin Dobson's work, and correspondence to him. Manuscripts of most of his published prose and poems are represented in the collection; there are also versions of poems that have never been published, leaf manuscripts of articles and essays, together with around one hundred small notebooks. There are also about 2500 items of correspondence.

Manuscript volume containing a metrical chronicle composed by the Chandos Herald in French verse, commemorating the life and feats of arms of Edward the Black Prince, [1385]. The poem is a valuable authority for certain events of the Hundred Years War, and gives a brief description of Edward III's French campaign of 1346, culminating in the Battle of Crecy, and followed by the Battle of Calais, with some details of the plot for the recovery of the latter at the end of 1349. Next comes a very detailed description of the Battle of Poitiers (1356), and an eyewitness account of the Spanish Campaign of the Black Prince on behalf of Don Pedro (Peter) of Castile, culminating in the Battle of Nejera (1367). A brief overview is given of the end of the Black Prince's government in Gascony, and of the war which led to the loss of almost all the possessions gained at Brétigny, followed by a comprehensive account of the last years of the Prince's life. After the poem, the author also gives a list of the chief officers of the Black Prince in Aquitaine, and copy of the epitaph on his tomb in Canterbury Cathedral.

The manuscript contains a full-page miniature illuminated in gold and colours, which is divided into two compartments. The upper compartment contains a representation of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity; God the Father is here portrayed in a blue robe on a background of gold. He is seated on a throne and holds in His extended arms a crucifix, above which a dove is introduced to symbolise the Holy Ghost. In the lower compartment the Black Prince is depicted kneeling in adoration on a red cushion. His hands are joined in prayer, and his special devotion to the Holy Trinity is indicated by a scroll proceeding from his mouth bearing the words 'Et hec tres unum sunt' (1 John v.7). The Prince is clad in armour, covered by a tight-fitting leather jupon without sleeves, finished along the bottom edge with a border of escallops, and emblazoned with the arms of England and France. He wears a sword and dagger, golden elbow and knee cops, and golden spurs. On each side of the kneeling Prince, standing in a golden socket, is a large ostrich feather in silver, his personal badge assumed after the Battle of Crecy, with the motto 'Ich dene' on a scroll below. The text of the poem commences on the next page with a large illuminated initial O, containing the Royal Arms emblazoned, and this leaf is surrounded by a border of strap work and flowers in gold and colours. There are also a number of small initial letters in gold on a coloured background.

The collection contains printed volumes, mainly on Shakespeare and a collection of typescript and manuscript notes for a book, which was being prepared on the life and times of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.

A 64-line elegiac poem composed on the occasion of the death of Frederick Cornwallis, Baron Cornwallis of Eye, in January 1661/2. His virtues are recorded:
'... (though there bee
Twixt vulgar Spirits, and Nobilitie
A kind of Antipathie) yet will I
Appeale unto themselves [the Commons] what courtesie
They found in him: what affabilitie,
Humilitie, and sweetness, w[i]th rare parts,
Which (ev'n against their wills) had won their hearts.'
There is a reference to Prester John, and allusion is made to the office Cornwallis had held as Treasurer of the Household to Charles II:
'The King of Kings now meaning to confer
An higher title, made thee Treasurer
In Heaven's great Court, where thou had'st laid up store
Of never fading Treasure [long?] before.'
At the end runs a Latin inscription: 'Ita raptim flevit ex animo R.Wolverton. Eayensis sudor volgorum ex Icenis M.D.'

Holograph poem writeen by Ebenezer Elliott entitled 'William Cobbett. By the author of Corn Law Rhymes', and dated 23 Jun 1835. In addition there is a letter written from Sheffield by Elliott to Samuel Carter Hall at 4 Piccadilly, London, offering him the poem for publication: 'The poem I now send you is very unworthy of the Amulet, and infinitely so of the subject. But I have done my very best, as I always do...'.
This poem, inspired by the burial of Cobbett (he had died on 18 June 1835), was first published in The New Monthly Magazine, Vol 44 (1835), and reprinted (with the addition of a final verse) as 'Elegy on William Cobbett' in The Poetical Works of Ebenezer Elliott, the Corn-Law Rhymer (1840). A portrait of the poet is enclosed.

Papers of Alexandre Embiricos, 1943, comprise a letter to André Prudhommeaux, concerning Prudhommeaux's poetry.

SLV/13 contains four holograph letters written by Ralph Waldo Emerson to his publisher John Chapman. SLV/105/13 is a first edition of Poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson including a manuscript copy of the poem Concord Monument, 1844-1867.

Copy in Ralph Waldo Emerson's hand of his poem 'Concord monument', [1847].

A notebook, c1897, containing forged signatures of letters from nineteenth century literary and other figures, collected by Samuel Englefield.

Subject files include NALGO Action Group, 1968-1982; Victory for Socialism, c1960; International Socialists / Socialist Workers Party Internal Bulletins, 1967-1982, and papers, circulars, 1963-1982; Chile Committee for Human Rights, 1973-1983; liberation struggles in the developing world, 1966-1986; National Union of Teachers rank and file movements, c 1971-1988; Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) local groups, Youth CND groups, Committee of 100, 1958-1971; Exeter University student activism, 1948-1958; Student Labour Federation, 1950-1959; National Association of Labour Student Organisations, 1950-1956; Socialist Labour League bulletins, circulars, 1959-1960. Periodicals include Socialist Fight, 1960-1963; Workers Fight, 1969-1975; The Newsletter, 1958-1968; Young Guard, 1961-1966; Socialist Challenge, c1978-1981; Socialist Review, 1952-1959