Diaries and notebooks of James Theodore and Mabel Virginia Anna Bent, 1883-1898, comprising:
Mabel Bent's diaries of visits to the Greek Islands, 1883-1884; Greece and Egypt, 1885; Constantinople [Istanbul] and the Greek Islands, 1886; Greece, 1887; Turkey and Russia, 1888; India and Persia [Iran], 1889 (3 volumes); Cilicia, Turkey, 1890; Central Africa (Mashonaland), 1891 (2 volumes); Hadramout, 1893-1895 (3 volumes); Suez, Kourbat and Athens, 1895-1896; Socotra, Yemen, 1896-1897; Greece and Egypt, 1898;
Theodore Bent's diary of visits to Hadramout, Yemen, 1893-94; Muscat, Dec 1894; Socotra, Yemen, Dec 1896-Mar 1897; notebook, containing Greek inscriptions, 1888; notebook on language in Socotra [1896-1897].

Papers, 1877-1985, of Sir Arthur Wynne Morgan Bryant and his family. Family papers include correspondence, private and official, and diaries of his parents, (Sir) Francis Morgan and Lady Bryant, 1877-1938, and other papers, 1899-1979, including Bryant's correspondence with his parents and brother Philip. Bryant's own papers include his extensive correspondence, 1919-1985, with over 170 correspondents, among them politicians including the Rt Hon Leo Amery, Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, Sir John Buchan, R A Butler, Baron Butler of Saffron Walden, Frederick James Marquis, 1st Earl of Woolton, and Margaret Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven; literary figures including Sir John Betjeman; other public figures including William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook of Beaverbrook, New Brunswick and Cherkley, Surrey, and John Charles Walsham Reith, 1st Baron Reith; historians including Asa Briggs, Baron Briggs of Lewes, Godfrey Elton, 1st Baron Elton of Headington, Sir Lewis Bernstein Namier, Sir John Neale, A L Rowse, G M Trevelyan and Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton. The correspondence reflects the diversity of Bryant's interests and touches upon the development of Conservative thought and British right wing politics in the mid twentieth century, attitudes towards the Spanish Civil War in Britain, the appeasement movement of the 1930s, and, in the 1960s, the merits of Britain's entry to the Common Market and her role in the postwar world. Other papers relate to literary, political and teaching matters, including Bonar Law College, Ashridge, 1929-1946; Bryant's literary output, including fan mail, 1931-1984; diaries, notebooks, account books and letters to the press, 1916-1982; notes; proofs, pamphlets, reviews and articles by Bryant, 1929-1984; book manuscripts, 1929-1984; reviews of Bryant's works, mid 1920s-1970s; pageants, invitations and honours, 1924-1984; clubs, societies and committees, 1939-1984; film scripts, certificates, and miscellanea, 1930-1954; other papers relating to personal business and financial affairs, 1920-1985.

Papers of Edwin Child, 1866-1871, notably relating to his experiences during the Siege of Paris, Franco-Prussian War, Sep 1870-Jan 1871, comprising diaries, 1866-1871, containing daily entries recording events and often weather, part of which is written on copies of Lettre-Journal de Paris: Gazette des Absents, 1870; letters (as balloon post) to his family and 'Mary-Ann', describing conditions under the siege, 1870-1871; papers relating to his service in the Garde Nationale de la Seine, 1870-1871, including record of service, testimonial, passes for safe-conduct, identity papers and bread ration coupons; photographs of Child and of scenes of the Franco-Prussian War; printed journals and books comprising French publications largely relating to the siege, 1870-1871.

Papers of Cohn, 1944-1975, mainly comprising legal opinions and affidavits of Cohn as a Barrister-at-Law, Lincoln's Inn, mainly in regard to cases and clients touching the law of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1952-1975. With the German basic handbook, containing Part two, Administration, Apr 1944, and Part three, Nazi occupied Europe, Oct 1944; Manual of the Allied High Commission for Germany, 1952; annotated typescript entitled 'Comparative jurisprudence and legal reform', (PhD thesis, University of London); file of correspondence in regard to legal matters with Doris Beghahn of Hamburg, 1956; appointment diary, 1952; correspondence of Cohn as Visiting Professor of European Laws, Centre for European Legal Studies, Faculty of Laws, King's College London, 1974-1975; offprints of legal articles by Cohn, 1959-1972.

Diaries of Wilhelm Hollitscher, a Jewish refugee in England, 13 Jun 1939-16 Oct 1943. Hollitscher begins his diaries by remembering his last days in Vienna, but soon turns to a discussion of the political news of the day. In this case a secret meeting between Hitler and Mussolini. Hollitscher is furious about Hitler's treachery, abandoning South Tyrol as a gift to Mussolini. From this time on Hollitscher chronicles the political, and later, military developments and the diaries become a history of the period seen through the eyes of a Jewish emigrant living in England. The tense months leading up to the war, the declaration of war and the war itself are described. Likewise is the landing of Rudolf Hess; the bombing of English towns and later of German ones; Stalingrad; and even events in the Pacific and China.

Comments on the political situation are regularly interspersed with notes on family and friends, most of whom, seem to have escaped Austria. Letters written and received and the more mundane events of daily life at Petts Wood are recorded faithfully.

Hollitzer is very conscious of the fate of the Jews in Germany, Austria and Poland and he notes any news he receives. On the fourth anniversary of his arrival in England he is grateful for four years of a 'blessed old age' and for the fact that his children and grandchildren are safe and healthy. In 1943 he mentions heart troubles, difficulties in sleeping and cramps. The diaries close rather abruptly on 6 October 1943.

Photocopies of journals, 1887-1889, of A J Mounteney Jephson, comprising Books One to Four, giving a detailed description of activities of H M Stanley's expedition to relieve Emin Pasha, including the journey via Zanzibar, and the hardships faced. Book Three includes copies of some of Stanley's correspondence. Book Four, covering April to [October] 1889, is less detailed than Books One to Three, and less accurately dated. With typescript transcriptions of the journals [1960s] for Dorothy Middleton's published edition.

Collection comprises correspondence with Philip Hammersley Leathes, manuscript papers, diaries, devotionals, dictionaries and pedigree rolls, title deeds and indentures, printed books and pamphlets, catalogues and the manuscripts of the architect, John Carter, [1350-1863]. Notably including correspondence from George Nayler of the College of Arms and Nicholas Carlisle, Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries, relating to publications of the Society, discoveries of antique brass plate, and the exchange of manuscripts between antiquaries, [1790-1838]; loose manuscript papers collected by Leathes, describing ornamentation in early printed devotionals, a fictional narrative entitled 'The amorous Jill: A tale', narrative of the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, notes relating to the observation of comets, including the comet of 1811, copies of charters of the reigns of Edward IV and Henry VII, papers relating to the Portland Vase, British Museum, fragments describing inscription on newly discovered brass plate, 1747-1829; pedigree rolls tracing the lineage of the English Crown, [1450, 1762]; manuscript volumes including collection of biblical extracts, liturgical handbook, autograph book with colour illustrations, antiquarian ephemera such as funeral memorials, armorials and the creation of nobles, volume by Francis Harrison entitled, 'The elements of navigation' with colour charts, tables and illustrations, dictionaries of Celtic and Saxon words, notes on the teaching of mathematics, commonplace book drawing on ancient and modern authors, manuscript diary including progress of architectural tour of Europe; title deeds and indentures for families in Nottingham, Southampton, London and Hungerford, residency certificates in Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire, 1650-1751; printed books and pamphlets on the subjects of antiquarianism, genealogy and architecture, 1778-1853; manuscripts of John Carter, architect, acquired at his death in 1817 by his executor, Leathes, notably including autobiographical notebooks by Carter describing architectural subjects and tours, commonplace book, correspondence with Leathes, loose notes on linguistics and the ships of the Russia Company, obituaries of Carter and sale catalogue from his estate, 1700-1818; manuscript catalogues and display captions relating to the Leathes' papers, King's College London, 1819, 1837.

Papers of Ordinary German women, [1938-1944], comprise copies of diary entries praising the Führer and written by a German woman whilst expecting her child and after his birth, at and near Bielefeld, Westfalia, 1938-1939, and a manuscript collection of essays in praise of Hitler and the German Volk by Frau E Hennig, [1944].

Papers of (Vivian Dering) Vandeleur Robinson, comprising:
Robinson's writings on the Balkans particularly Romania and Bulgaria and also papers on plays written for the League of Nations Union, 1930-1944; Robinson's diaries, 1901-1925 (mostly 1918-1923); papers on Robinson's family, 1752-1979 (mostly 1815-1938)

Papers, 1890-1957, of Sir Edward Denison Ross and his wife Dora, comprising his correspondence, including that with his wife (1902-1940); personal material including diaries and notebooks of Lady Ross; articles, lecture notes, language material and notes gathered by J. A. Chapman whilst editing Denison Ross's autobiography Both Ends of the Candle published in 1943.

Papers of Joseph S Kellet Smith, 1895, concerning explorations in the country west of Lake Nyasa including diary, Jun-Sep, 1895; five unpublished short stories, 'The revolution of Benjamin-wad-Wiri', 'The Lake Trader', 'The sacrificial altar of the Sandili', 'The Brimming cup' and 'The thraldom of Stephen Clinch'; loose pages, untitled, beginning, 'A man's enjoyment of golf...'; fifteen chapters of an unpublished book based on events of the 1895 expedition with 38 photographic prints prepared as illustrations including of river Shire, Hora camp, tribesmen and river steamers.

Poulett Weatherley's diaries of journeys through Lake Bangweulu region: Vol. 1 Oct 1889-Jan 1899; Vol. 2 Jun-Jul 1898 and Jan - Mar 1899 and 16 watercolours and pencil sketches of central Africa.

Diaries and sketch books of Robert Wood, James Dawkins, John Bouverie and Giovanni Battista Borra of a tour of the Levant, 1750-1751, comprising:
Transcript (8 volumes) of the diaries of the archaeologist, James Dawkins, 5 May 1750-8 June 1751, describing the tour from Naples, Italy to Porto Leone, via Smyrna [Izmir], Sardis, Thyatira [Akhisar], Pergamum [Bergama], Sinus Eleaticus, Constantinople [Istanbul], Boursa, Cyzicus [Belkis], Troy, Tenedos, Phocaea [Foça], Teos [Sigacik], Ephesus, Magnesia ad Meander, Laodicea, Hierapolis [Pamukkale], Antioch, Mytilene [Mitilíni], Lesbos, Scio [Chíos, Nísos], Neomene, Samos, Mylassa, Halicarnassus [Bodrum], Cos [Kos], Cnidus Nova, Rhodes [Ródhos], Alexandria [Al-Iskandariyah], Cairo, The Pyramids, Acre [Akko], Mount Carmel [Har Hakarmel], Nazareth, Capernaum [Kefar Nahum], Tiberias [Teverya], Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Rama, Sidon [Sayda], Beirut, Damascus, Baalbek [Balabakk], Tripoli, Delos [Dhílos], Athens, Marathon, Thermopylae, Chalcis [Khalkís], Thebes, Delphi [Dhelfoi] and Megara.
Diary (1 volume) of John Bouverie, 25 May-8 June 1750, 25 July-3 Aug 1750, and 7 Sep 1750, covering the tour from Smyrna to Meander, as described above.
Papers of Robert Wood, comprising diaries (3 volumes), 25 May-19 Aug, 22 Sep - 8 Oct 1750, 16 May-1 June 1751; pocket books (2 volumes), containing copies of inscriptions made during the tour, including Athens, Baalbek, Palmyra, and other sites in Turkey, Greece and Egypt; extracts (made by Wood's daughter) from his tour manuscripts, including some that are not in the collection; manuscript A universal history by Wood, almost certainly pre-dating the tour; notebook, containing extracts from Wood's journals from his 1742-1743 visit to the Levant, itineraries from his 1745 visit to Italy, preparatory plans for the 1750-1751 tour and notes on Homer; notebook conntaining copy of an extended letter from Wood to James Dawkins, [c1755], Remarks on Homer's plan of Troy, in effect an early draft of his Essay on the Original Genius of Homer [see printed books below].
Sketch books of Giovanni Battista Borra, containing ink and pencil sketches made on the tour, mainly of architectural details, but also including landscapes, of Naples and Mount Vesuvius, Palmyra and Damascus.
Printed books: Robert Wood: An Essay on the Original Genius and Writings of Homer, London, H Hughs for T Payne and P Emsley, 1775, including engravings after Borra of ruins near Troy, and a map of Troas; The ruins of Palmyra and Baalbek, London, W Pickering, 1827 and Les ruines de Palmyre, autrement dite Tedmor au desert, Paris, Firmin Didot, 1819; Homer: Operum omnium quae exstant. Tomus prior sive Ilias Grece et Latine.Juxta editionem emendatissimam et accuratissimam Samuelis Clarke Amsterdam, J Wetstenium, 1743 [Wood's interleaved copy, containing notes and transcripts of inscriptions]; l'Abbe Barthelemy Reflexions sur l'alphabet et sur la langue dont on se servot autrefois a Palmyre, Paris, 1754; Giacomo Barozzi [Il Vignola] Regola delli cinque ordini d'architecttura, Rome, [1620].