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The Mark Hinchliffe Ted Hughes Collection has been described as “one of the finest [Hughes collections] in private hands, and a rival to those deposited in a number of University libraries on both sides of the Atlantic”, (Simon Cooke, The Private Library, 5:4, Winter 2012). The collection comprises 172 items including: signed first editions of dozens of Hughes’s trade, limited-edition and fine-press publications, and original letters written by Hughes and his first wife, the poet Sylvia Plath.

This rare chapbook publication (four are held in libraries worldwide), a “deathbed” confession of a highwayman and robber appealed to the Museum as it gave voice to a criminal whose activities occurred in Horsham.  However, Thomas Munn’s reflective and self-aware account provided a much richer tale which had a number of links to the town and Museum’s collections, including brick making, Morris dancing, town solicitors, poaching, and rabbit breeding, all important aspects of the town and districts cultural life in the 18th century. 

The current owner of the residual library (sales had occurred in 1990s and early 2,000) sold off parts of the library in 2019 at Christie’s and dealer Nigel Burwood. This included three items not listed on his ABE entry, but through correspondence, the dealer told the Curator about. That is a Frederick Du Cane Godman & Osbert Salvin Library catalogue, a Catalogue of the Library at South Lodge and an album of 43 botanical illustrations.

Hand-typed autographed letter from composer Gustav Holst to photographer Herbert Lambert, 1923.

This volume came to light during research for the Rosslyn exhibition at the National Gallery of Scotland in 2002. It has 57 leaves and features drawings, engravings and letters collected by and sent to Britton.  He had commissioned plates of the chapel for The Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain in 1812, and had also given a lecture on it to the Royal Institute of British Architects in January 1846.

On the 13 March 1781 William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus using a homemade reflector telescope from his home at 19 New King Street in Bath, now home of the Herschel Museum of Astronomy. This vellum-bound notebook was used by his sister Caroline Herschel to record visitors to the Herschels’ house in Datchet, where they moved in 1782 following William’s royal appointment.

The survival, discovery and purchase of this map is of great importance to the Essex Record Office; It is unlikely that the opportunity to acquire a map by John Walker will ever emerge again. Between 1584 and 1628 the Walkers produced some 35 beautifully coloured and surveyed maps. In the 1960s the County Archivist was at a loss to find any the whereabouts of the 27th in chronology of the 35 maps. In November 2020 it was revealed that the original map had been behind glass on the wall in the home of direct descendants of the Beckingham family and was now available for sale.

William Hay (1695-1755) of Glyndebourne was an extremely interesting owner of the estate, the archive of which is held by the office, who overcame severe personal difficulties. Hay suffered considerably disability – he had been born a hunchbacked dwarf and stood under 5ft in height. Nevertheless, he went on to gain considerable acclaim as a writer and parliamentarian.

Over 100 documents, mostly title deeds, ranging in date from 1589 to 1845. These represent many of Raper and Fovargue’s major clients. These join an earlier acquisition of material which had also been salvaged in about 1970 by the vendor, then a young articled clerk, from the stables in the office yard at Upper Lake, Battle.

Two years later the same vendor discovered a further deed box which he had overlooked and contacted ESBHRO with a view to negotiating a private sale instead of putting it up for auction. Then Covid-19 intervened, and it was not until the summer of 2021 that it was possible to inspect the new material, which was offered to the office for £1,750. We were delighted to receive the continued support of FNL for this purchase.

Among these acquisitions was a letter, dated September 1927, by Florence Hardy to a Mr. Lea of Bockhampton portending Thomas Hardy’s death.  A set of two letters concerning the arrangements of the burial of the author in Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey. Also purchased was the author’s proof copy of The Three Dorset Captains at Trafalgar by Broadley and Bartelot, published in 1906