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An interesting manuscript journal of three 18th-century journeys from Devon to London. They are unusually evocative of the age, and include among other things a visit to Oxford and the Bodleian Library and an encounter with a gentlemanly highwayman.

The diary comprises only 48 pages, but is packed with interesting observations. The author begins his journeys in the Plymouth area. The first journey to London began on 22 October 1755 and took in Portsmouth, Salisbury, Windsor. The diarist is highly opinionated - Woodgate is a “poor despicable place” and Stockbridge a “poor wretched Town”, though the people of Salisbury are the “most polite & genteel people of any in England (London only excepted)”. He reached London on 29 October.

In London the diarist attends church, plays (badly) at cards and spends time in coffee houses eating oysters and drinking wine. He visits St. Paul’s, Old London Bridge, and the lunatic asylums at Bedlam and neighbouring St. Luke's Hospital. On 7 November, near Acton, he and his travelling companion Colonel Carr were “robbed by a Genteel Highwayman, who behaved very civill, took from me my watch, & six shillings in money, a little surprized, but not at all afraid, if a family watch he told me I might hear of it again, at Amsterdam”. Later the diarist visited the Old Bailey and saw the trial of “the young highwayman ... there were 3 indictments against him, & each proved[;] very evidently he was acquitted”. On 15 November he went to “see his Majesty go to the houses [of Parliament], a very august, & solemn sight”. There follows an interesting impression of Westminster Hall with the Commons and Lords, the courts and coffee houses.

A unique copy of Voltaire’s epic French poem in ten cantos written in alexandrine couplets, bound with a previously unknown letter from Voltaire to Queen Caroline.

This copy of the “fourth” London edition of 1728 is unrecorded and includes a three-page letter in Voltaire’s hand dated 25 April 1728 presenting it to Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, formerly the Princess of Wales. Although he mentions waiting until the fourth edition – “plus correcte et plus épurée” - to send a copy to the Queen he had in fact already written to present a first edition just ten days earlier (the book and letter are now housed in a library in Germany). Somewhat intriguingly Voltaire’s letter is at the back of the book and is bound-in upside down, posing a question as to whether the volume was ever sent.

These two previously unknown items were listed on eBay in November 2018. The seller’s memory was that they had come from a house clearance about 20 years ago.

Both relate to the tithing of Winterbourne, which is in the ancient Berkshire parish of Chieveley. The map is titled as showing ‘John Sherwood’s land in Donnington’, although the property was actually situated in the south of Winterbourne tithing, adjacent to Donnington Castle. It was drawn by William White, is hand-coloured on vellum and measures 545mm x 345mm. It is a particularly fine example of a late-17th century small estate map, showing field names and acreages beside an accompanying schedule, together with a charming insert showing the main house and surrounding farm buildings. The Berkshire Record Office holds no other records relating to this estate and the map almost certainly provides the only evidence for most of the field names marked upon it, as most are not recorded in the Place Names of Berkshire.

Books once owned by William Beckford reveal key information about his interests and collecting habits and this information is enhanced when volumes contain Beckford’s own annotations and notes. Such notes are often references to the text and Beckford’s opinion on it, as is the case for pencil notes made by him on the end papers and rear of the title page of this volume. What makes this volume even more significant however, is the inclusion of a pencil sketch by Beckford for furniture, dated 26 September 1837 on the rear pastedown.

Bound in its original card covers, the book was published in early 1837 and the dated sketch proves that Beckford purchased and read the work not long after its publication. The content of the volume provides a good reasoning behind this. Framed as letters to Lord Brougham, the work records Faulkner’s travels in countries that Beckford had extensive knowledge of and had also himself published recollections of in his 1834 work Italy, with Sketches of Spain and Portugal.

This diary is written over the course of a year - beginning Sunday, January 4th and ending Thursday, December 31st 1846. The author records small snippets of his days, sometimes mentioning the sermons he hears and people he sees; he also indulges himself in gossip - including the 'unthankful news' that 'Barnaby it appears is living with some prostitute or other ', and castigates himself for his bad habits, particularly 'extravagance' and 'love of bed.'

West Sussex Record Office already holds the diary of George Dixon Elmer, a young shop assistant working in Mr Thomas Colebrook's linen drapery and grocery store in the Market Square, Petworth, for the following year, 1847 (West Sussex Record Office Add Mss 54840). It gives many details of his working life and his social life, including Goodwood races, musical entertainments, the Book Club, his relationship with Lucy Phillips, later his wife, and the illnesses and deaths of local inhabitants. We therefore knew how rich a source this new volume would be, not only for the life of the diarist but the life in the thriving market town of Petworth in the middle of the 19th century as well as throwing light on story of George Elmer before his marriage, and we have not been disappointed.

Vivien Leigh is one of the most important film and stage performers of the 20th century and her profile attracts on-going visitor and global media interest.

David Almond is one of the most celebrated British writers for children of recent decades. His first novel Skellig (1998) achieved the rare distinction of winning both the Whitbread Children’s Book award and the prestigious Carnegie medal. He has subsequently won or been shortlisted for numerous other book awards, including The Guardian Children’s Fiction Award for A Song for Ella Gray in 2015. In 2010 he was honoured with the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the most prestigious international prize in children's literature. The jury ‘recognised the unique voice of a creator of magic realism for children. Almond captures his young readers' imagination and motivates them to read, think and be critical. His use of language is sophisticated and reaches across the ages.'

His writing is utterly distinctive and original, powerfully addressing elemental themes of life and death, grief, loss, and hope; his books have been translated into over 30 languages, and widely adapted for stage and screen.

The archive comprises papers relating to almost all of Almond’s literary output.

The Batten family have acted as solicitors in Yeovil since the early 18th century. Their house in Church Street played a central part in the legal history of the town, serving as the Town Courts until the 20th century. In 1820 the family inherited the manor of Thornfalcon, near Taunton, along with substantial lands across South Somerset, and in 1829 they purchased the Aldon estate on the southern edge of Yeovil. Various members of the family played key roles in relation to the Yeovil Improvement Bill, acted as clerk to the Yeovil Turnpike Trust and served as Justices of the Peace and as Deputy Lieutenant of the county. The collection, which covers the 14th–20th centuries, reflects the landed interests of the family, along with their roles in Yeovil society and their personal interests. It also includes material gathered in the course of their legal practice.

Richard Greville Thonger (b.1861) was working as a pharmacist in Birmingham in the spring of 1882 when he attended a meeting at The Salvation Army’s Regent Hall on London’s Oxford Street, where ‘the Spirit of God took

The material auctioned at Bonhams is probably the most significant collection relating to Marc Brunel ever to come on the market. Marc Brunel was a creative and innovative engineer who had a significant impact on the nineteenth century. His influence continues today; for example, the tunnelling shield which he invented to construct the Thames Tunnel is the inspiration for all modern soft-ground tunnelling machines [see Brunel Museum entry above]. Marc made I.K. Brunel into an engineer by teaching him to draw and observe, and sending him to France for a technical education. He also gave him his first job, as Engineer at the age of just 21 on the ambitious Thames Tunnel project. I.K. Brunel owed much of his engineering success to his father.

The material sheds light on the period of Marc Brunel’s escape from France to the USA, and his early days in England: a part of his life poorly represented in UK collections. This period is important because during it he created block-making machines, sawmills and factories at Portsmouth and Chatham Dockyards for the UK’s part in the Napoleonic Wars. The material also fills significant gaps in the existing public collections relating to Sir Marc and family.