Search FNL grants since 1931

Richard Ford (1796-1858) was an English writer, collector and amateur artist. In 1830 he visited Spain and over the next three years in the country he made over 500 drawings. This copy of the suppressed edition of A handbook for travellers in Spain was described by Quaritch as ‘probably the most important copy of the suppressed edition of Ford’s classic Handbook, of which barely a handful survive.’ The suppressed edition is indeed exceedingly rare and Quaritch’s assessment of this particular copy is based on the fact that it is dedicated to the other great mid-19th-century writer on Spain and Spanish art, William Stirling Maxwell.

A collection of Kent charters 1264-1654 collected by Thomas Godfrey-Faussett, auditor to the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury from 1866, who must have purchased them at one of the sales of Dering family muniments. The charters (U4283) once formed part of the vast collection assembled at the Derings’ seat of Surrenden, Pluckley, until it was split up and dispersed by auction from 1853 onwards. They bear the unmistakeable traces of the leading Kent MP, religious controversialist, and acquisitive antiquarian, Sir Edward Dering, 1st baronet (1598-1644).

A collection of documents and ephemera relating to the residence at Kelmscott Manor of Jane Morris (1839 – 1914) and her daughter May Morris (1862 – 1938), and the Manor’s subsequent transition of ownership to Oxford University.

The book bears an inscription from Percy Bysshe Shelley to Claire Clairmont. This two-volume edition is one of only ten surviving books with Shelley's presentation inscriptions, and is the second Shelley-inscribed book to join the collection of the Keats-Shelley House.

An illustrated manuscript on large paper, reproducing the text and woodcuts of the second Latin xylographic edition of the 'Speculum humanae salvationis', executed by Jacques Fucien Lesclabart, one of the most famous French calligraphers of the eighteenth century.

Draft manuscript of the memoirs of Caroline Herschel. Caroline, and her brother William (1738-1822), who discovered the planet Uranus, were leading astronomers of the 18th and early 19th century, and Caroline was the first woman to be paid as a professional astronomer in the United Kingdom. Caroline and William Herschel played a pivotal role in the history of science in Georgian Britain and this manuscript provides us with a greater understanding of their lives.

The manuscript was once owned by Arnold Dolmetsch (1858-1940), one of the founders of the Early Music movement, and as part of his collection of books and instruments has been available to scholars for over a century.  The manuscript was initially sold to a foreign buyer at Sotheby’s in September 2021 and shortly thereafter the Culture Minister placed a temporary export bar on the item.  Following a successful fundraising campaign, the University bought the manuscript in October 2022.

Anna Manthorpe, Archivist, writes: When this journal came up at auction, we soon realised that it was part of a gap between 1861-1905 in a series of similar volumes from Uckfield Police Station (SPS/18).

The majority of these documents relate to the rental, sale and development of land in the tenantry laines of Brighton.  The tenantry laines were fields surrounding the town which were sold off piecemeal to developers during the early 19th century: the layout of the strips within those fields determines the contemporary street pattern of this area of Brighton.

The scrapbook titled 'Collections of Sussex' contains 343 prints (five of which are coloured), 21 sketches (including two watercolours), and 28 maps and plans. These cover the whole of Sussex. It is a useful summary of images of local views in the days before photography. It was completed to a high standard in two volumes bound in vellum, with marbled endpapers. It includes a watercolour of Arundel Castle by either James Lambert the elder (1725-1788) or his nephew James Lambert (1741-1799) who operated in Lewes in the late 18th century, and whose work is represented in our holdings.