Add MS 60740

ROBERT ROBEY REDMAYNE (b.1828, d.1907): 'A Retrospect'; circa 1880. Autograph copy. Imperfect, the last 35 folios having been torn out. The text can from internal evidence be dated to the 1880's, though it may have been begun during Easter 1875 (pencilled date on f. 2 and (partly erased) f. 2v). The author, the second son of Giles Redmayne, a prosperous London silk mercer and his wife Margaretta Robey, describes in considerable detail his early years from about 1833 to 1844 when he was sent to Tonbridge School. He pays particular attention to his homes (see sketch-maps on ff. 5, 10, 30, 45, 92-93, 99) in Highgate and in Whittington and Silverdale, Lancashire, and Brathay House near Ambleside, Westmorland), to his friends and neighbours, to his school life in Elm Lodge, Notting Hill Gate (1837-1840) and Totteridge School in Hertfordshire (1840-1844), and to his father, a radical with evangelical religious views, who was associated with Lord Shaftesbury and played a prominent part in local affairs both in Highgate and in Cumberland. The narrative contains brief accounts of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (ff. 6v, 7), Hartley Coleridge (ff. 76, 76v), Wordsworth (ff. 74v-76) and Thomas Arnold of Rugby (ff. 73-74v), the last two of whom were acquaintances of Giles Redmayne, and of Ambleside and its inhabitants (ff. 76v-87v). Included with the manuscript are (i) a fragmentary draft of a letter relating to a request for money of a certain Mrs Noble; circa 1841; (ii) a note from Mr A. R. Grosvenor Jennings formerly enclosing a 'cheque for Dr Redmayne's fees' (presumably Dr Thomas Redmayne (b.1846, d.1931), second son of Robert Robey Redmayne); 24 Jan. 1925. Purchased of Henry Bristow Ltd, of Ringwood, co. Southt., (Cat. no. 252, lot 119), Oct. 1979.

Paper; ff. ii+147 (originally 172). 223 x 182mm. Blind-lined navy blue leather binding with lock and key.