Search FNL grants since 1931

This previously unknown humorous drawing is one of the earliest depictions of barrow-digging known, and is unusual in concentrating on the diggers rather than the landscape. The clergyman with the pickaxe in the trench is probably a self portrait.

Rocque was a Frenchman who worked in England from 1709 and produced some of the most outstanding estate maps of the 18th century. These examples are of a very high quality; the High Ercall map includes a panorama of the village in the cartouche. Grant from the Esme Fairbairn Charitable Trust

Literary papers covering a span of 30 years, including manuscript drafts of the novels The Magic Flute and Way to Go, plus many playscripts and correspondence with other Scottish writers. Grant from the Philip Larkin fund

A further instalment of Muriel Sparks working archive and general correspondence including letters from Christopher Fry, Gabriel Josipovici, Doris Lessing, John Updike and Gore Vidal, together with copies of Sparks outgoing letters and faxes.

Map of Ham Place in Burwash drawn by Walter Gale, naming owners of the neighbouring land and showing house and outbuildings in considerable detail.

Manuscript with 12 ink and wash plates depicting different views of activity in the centre of the earth and a map showing the world as described in the Old Testament. The work was probably inspired by the Lisbon earhquake of 1755 which killed 60,000 people. Illustrated at p.36 of AR

A family prayer book in its original binding with clasps and the remains of chain fastenings. Early memoranda in the book reveal the familys connection with Edmund Campion, the Jesuit executed in 1581 and with Robert Keyes, one of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators executed in 1605.

A fine early example of a Cricket score book on pre-printed pages made by Seacome and Pritchard, a local bookseller in Chester. The scores of approximately 100 matches are given with details of oponents played and giving insight into the class and occupations of the players

An important collection of 366 letters to one of Sassoon's closest friends, full of details of daily life, sketches, caricatures, and with postcards, photographs and newspaper cuttings enclosed.

A pocket notebook (R102/042) kept by PC Jonathan Butcher, detailing his daily duties: patrolling, serving summonses, arresting vagrants and drunkards and attending the Sessions in Ely. A rare survival from a period where such records were routinely destroyed.