Add MS 50850

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS AND PAPERS; 1594-1936, n.d.

Paper and (article J) vellum; ff. 59. Folio.

A. Letter of introduction from George Bubb Dodington, Baron Melcombe, to Edmond Waller at Montaubon, also commenting on English politics; 3 Feb. 1750. Presented by Miss Rosamond Mary Waller.

ff. 1-3.

B. Musical settings of the traditional song 'Lubin', sung to the donor by his mother, circa 1885 (f. 4), and copy of 'Ariel's Dance' for 'The Tempest'

(ff. 12-11b reversed) 'written out for Lore Shafarik by Joseph Gordon Macleod 18 August 1936'. Presented by N. Teulon-Porter, Esq.

ff. 4-14b.

C. 'From a Banned Writer to a Banned Singer', a tribute by James Augustin Aloysius Joyce to John Sullivan, the Irish tenor; bef. 1932. Autograph draft, beg. 'Saving is believing but can thus be?', corresponding approximately to the latter half of the text first printed in the New Statesman and Nation, iii, 1932, pp. 260-1, and then in Hound & Horn, New York, v, 1932, pp. 542-6, from which it differs in detail. See also Turnstile One, ed. V. S. Pritchett, 1948, pp. 10-13. Presented by J. P. Bishop, Esq.

ff. 15-21.

D. 'God and Immortality', an article by Lazarz Ludwik Zamenhof (d. 1917), the inventor of Esperanto; n.d. Esperanto. Unfinished draft. See E. Privat, Vivo de Zamenhof, 1920, 2nd ed. 1937, pp. 128-31, and M. Boulton, Zamenhof, 1960, pp. 198-9. Presented by Professor Edmond Privat.

ff. 22-24.

E. (1) Letter of Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, to Pope Clement VIII, reporting the sacking by the Turks of Bihac, in Croatia; 26 Nov. 1594. Latin. Signed. Seal en placard. ff. 25-26b;- (2) Letter of Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, to Cardinal Cinzio Aldobrandini, asking him to use his influence to obtain the promotion to cardinal of the Bishop of Spires; 26 Nov. 1594. Latin. Signed. Seal en placard. ff. 27-28b. Presented by Miss Lucy Hyett.

ff. 25-28b.

F. Emblematic horoscope incorporating anagrams, rel. to Joannes Pigou, his wife Maria, née Crommelin, and their nine sons and daughters, together with a diagram giving an emblem, anagram, augury, etc., for each of the children; 17th-18th cent. Latin and French. The Pigou family were apparently settled in England as early as 1681 and were still here early in the next century. See The Registers of the French Church, Threadneedle Street, London, ii, pp. 246, 260, 262, 265; iii, pp. 54, 64, 308 (The Publications of the Huguenot Society of London, xiii, 1899, ed. W. J. C. Moens; xvi, 1906, ed. T. C. Colyer-Fergusson). Presented by Major A. Tudor.

f. 29.

G. Three letters and one postcard of Alexandra Feodorovna (d. 1918), wife of Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia, two (ff. 31, 32) apparently written to the Tsarevich, Alexei Nikolaevich; 1916, 1917, n.d. Russian. Autograph. Preceded (f. 30) by poems by Nadezhda Bronitskaya apparently copied from Otgoloski Zhizni, St Petersburg, 1913, pp. 14-16, 22, 27, 43; 21 May 1916. At one time owned by the Archimandrite Serafim, a former officer of the Empress's Own Crimean Tartar Horse Regiment, in Jerusalem. Given by him to the donor, also a former officer of the Regiment. Presented by Col. P. N. Lessenevich.

ff. 30-34b.

H. Letter of recommendation from Thomas Carlyle to W. Knighton; 23 Sept. 1867. Presented by Claude William Guillebaud, Esq., C.B.E.

f. 35.

I. Correspondence of Sir Charles Thomas Newton, K.C.B., Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities in the British Museum, mostly with and on behalf of William Ewart Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, as Prime Ministers; 1877-1884. The letters relate chiefly to the possible purchases by the Trustees of the British Museum of antiquities from the Constantinople Museum, and from the collection of Alessandro Castellani (see Add. MS. 45908, f. 186), and to plans for the construction of a new gallery to house the Towneley and Elgin Marbles, and include (f. 36) one from Sir Austen Henry Layard, G.C.B., 15 June 1877. Transferred from the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum.

ff. 36-54b.

J. Commission from Oliver Cromwell to Col. Richard Le Hunt al. Lehunt, appointing him Captain of the Troop of Horse 'wch. I have especially made choice of to attend and guard my owne person'; 2 June 1649. Signed. See Sir C. Firth and G. Davies, The Regimental History of Cromwell's Army, 1940, i, p. 51; ii, pp. 664-6. Presented by Mrs Editha Rachel Pease, née Lehunte.

Vellum. f. 55.

K. Letter of Gen. Sir Charles William Pasley, R.E., K.C.B., to Robert Southey, thanking him for an account 'of the Portuguese method of blasting rock', commenting on Lt.-Col. J. T. Jones's Account of the War in Spain, 1818, and enquiring when Southey's 'history' was likely to appear; 15 June 1818. Maggs Bros. sale-cat. no. 885, 1962, item 146.

ff. 56-57b.

L. Letter of Sir Edward William Elgar, Bart., to Rutland Boughton, stressing that he preferred his large works to be judged from the full scores rather than from pianoforte reductions; Malvern, 30 Nov. 1899. Maggs Bros. sale-cat. no. 885, 1962, item 51.

ff. 58-59.