40 grants for 2007.
75 pencil ink and watercolour sketches, mainly of Shropshire houses and scenes, by David Parkes (1763-1833). Parkes was a prolific artist and antiquarian, and his work documents changes and alterations to many important Shropshire buildings and churches in the late 18th-mid19th centuries.
A justification by Valentine Morris (1727-89) of his conduct during his unsuccessful defence of St Vincent, which was captured by the French in 1779. Morris contended that St Vincent was lost because the Government would not adequately fund its defence, on which he was obliged to spend his own salary.
A collection of the published works of Edwin Morgan (b.1920) assembled by Hamish Whyte, his friend, publisher and bibliographer over thirty years. Appointed Scots Makar by the Scottish Parliament in 2004, Morgan was a major Scottish poet of the later 20th century.
Mary Hamilton, courtier and bluestocking, held a post in the household of George III's daughters, and her diaries and correspondence offer wonderful insights into royal, aristocratic and literary circles.
Henry Grey, Earl of Kent, was one of two principal commissioners for the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots.
Manuscript roll of seven vellum membranes, England c,1340, containing both the earliest surviving English ordinary of arms, with 589 painted shields, and the oldest roll of arms for Scotland on the dorse. The latter, apparently copied c.
Two bound volumes containing about 200 autograph letters exchanged between Sir Joseph Hooker (1817-1911), Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and Dr Asa Gray (1810-88), a leading American botanist, together with 33 letters from Hooker to his wife, Hyacinth, 35 letters from Hooker to various people, and some letters to Hooker from other c
The accounts ledger of William Hodgkinson of Overton Hall, Ashover, lead merchant, c. 1668-1700. A record of great rarity, whose export was delayed by the Reviewing Committee on the export of Works of Art to enable its purchase by a British institution.
Family and estate papers of the Stepney-Gulston Family, 16-20th cent. Includes manuscripts and diaries of Alan Stepney-Gulston, Victorian poet and novelist, and Josepha Heath-Gulston, the Victorian novelist who wrote under the pseudonym Talbot Gwynne.
A rare example of an architectural design by Sir James Thornhill (1675-1734), History Painter in Ordinary and Serjeant Painter to George I, and the leading decorative painter of his day. The drawing relates to a little-known commission by Thornhill for which apparently no other drawings survive.
A presentation album of drawings by Samuel Wyatt (1737-1807), in their original binding, for a proposed rebuilding of Mere Hall, Cheshire. The house had been rebuilt in 1670 for Sir Peter Brooke, whose descendant Peter Brooke (1723-83) married an heiress.
Seven pen and ink architectural drawings for the new Penzance Union Workhouse in Madron, 1839, with detailed notes on dimensions, fittings and furniture. Signed by G. G. Scott and W(illiam) B(onython) Moffatt , with whom Scott was in partnership, 1838-45, at 20 Spring Gardens, London.
Artists' Books in limited editions.
The earliest known record of a religious guild in Nottingham, listing 207 members of the Guild of St Mary, both men and women, from the parishes of SS Mary, Peter and Nicholas, Nottingham, and further afield. even from as far as York. The roll lists a number of streets, indicating where Nottingham members had their homes.
About 450 letters from Lord Kelvin, the mathematician and physicist, to his brother James; his business partner, Fleeming Jenkin; his aunt, Mrs Gall; and his nephew James. There are also incoming letters from these correspondents, and drafts or copies of outgoing letters.
Four autograph letters from Sir Edward Grey, Foreign Secretary, to Mr Reeve, a fellow ornithologist, about sightings of birds, 1917-19.
Robert Dobson, following a multifaceted career as a soldier-poet, employee of the Ministry of Information in New York, Professor of English at Tokyo Imperial University and literary adviser to Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in Hollywood, moved to Winchilsea, Sussex, in 1927, where he founded the Winchilsea and Icklesham Ratepayers' Association.
11 autograph letters from Rosina Bulwer Lytton to Alfred Edward Chalon, portrait and subject painter, 1854-60.
(1) A letter from Holst to Raymond Bantock, son of the composer Granville Bantock, with a message in astrological symbols, written not long before the first full performance of The Planets, 15 September 1920 (2) Two letters from Holst to the pianist and composer Katherine Eggar, the first inviting her to the first private performance of The Plan
The collection includes a contemporary copyist's manuscript of the Missa de Spiritu Sancto by Samuel Wesley (1766-1837), composed in 1784, with a dedication to Pope Pius VI; a copy of a keyboard fugue in D Major by his daughter Eliza (1819-95); and a copy by her brother, Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810-76) of a song by Weber, made in 1823, on
A large (5ft 3 x 7ft inches, 180 x 215 cm), finely drawn and lightly coloured map of the town and manor of Weston, part of the possessions of Sir Thomas Puckering, Bart., and the manor of Lannock, part of the possessions of William Hale, Esq., by Henry Lily, 1633.
The Sierra Leone papers relate to the activities of George Rickards, who came to Freetown aged 13 in 1802, was engaged as a clerk in the Sierra Leone Company, appointed Secretary to the Governor and Council of Sierra Leone in 1808, held various other posts, and returned to England in 1811.
In 1831 a recently formed Union of Northumberland Miners struck for a wage increase and a shortening of their working hours of 17-18 a day. The present papers mainly comprise letters to the Clerk of the Peace for Northumberland, Mr Thorpe, from Thomas Turnbull, his Deputy Clerk.
Harold Pinter's entire extant archive of playscripts and film scripts. The archive joins Pinter's correspondence in the British Library, purchased in 2006.
Literary, private and personal papers of Professor Douglas Dunn (b. 1942), Professor of English at St Andrew's since 1991 and one of Scotland's most eminent contemporary poets. His two most acclaimed publications are the collection of poems entitled Terry Street, 1969, and the poetic sequence Elegies, 1985.
A previously unrecorded manuscript anti-Jacobite poem, 1747. Nothing is known of the author.
The records comprise a Cost Book, 1846-7; a Petty Cash Book, 1854; a Ledger, 1846-54; and Quarry Receipts, mid-19th cent. They provide a valuable insight into the workings of the poorly documented granite quarrying industry, its costs, materials, labour and transportation
Family and business records of John Shaw and Sons, woollen manufacturers, of Brookroyd Mills, Stainland. The records concern family and local matters, and give an excellent picture of the life of a prosperous manufacturing family in 19th century England with a fondness for extensive foreign travels.
A comprehensive archive maintained by Tony Harrison, the poet, since 1950, comprising 200 large bound notebooks and many other manuscripts, typescripts and annnotated proofs of his work, together with extensive files relating to the development and realisation of his theatre, opera, film and television projects.
Family papers of Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), comprising correspondence, copies, printed pieces and photographs. Included are manuscript recollections of India, and 34 letters, 1881-1933, from Kipling to his parents John Lockwood and Alice Kipling, and to Edith Plowden, a family friend.
Account Roll of Sir Richard Ingleby, Treasurer of Berwick, compiled 1557-60, and 3 account books recording in detail expenditure at Berwick on the military establishment, fortifications &c, 1549-52
An outstanding archive of the Aynho estate papers, title deeds, together with personal papers of members of the Cartwright family in public life, including William Ralph Cartwright, MP for Northamptonshire (d.1847); his son Sir Thomas Cartwright, minister in Frankfurt 1830-38 and ambassador to Sweden 1838-50.
The unique copy of the first edition of the Sarum text of the Mass, printed for Caxton in 1487 by the Parisian printer Guillaume Maynyal, who was known for his mastery of red and black printing. The book has been in the possession of the Legh Family since at least 1508, and in all probability since its publication.
Estate papers of the Pigot Family of Somerford Radnor, 13-17th cent. The Pigots were a leading Cheshire family, and the archive records their connections with other prominent local families such as the Downes of Somerford and the Throstles of Macclesfield. The early deeds contain a wealth of topographical detail.
Over 1,100 documents relating to the Hanbury and Tracy estates inherited and acquired by Charles Hanbury Tracy (1778-1858), 1st Baron Sudeley, who created the family's principal seat at Toddington Manor, Gloucestershire.
The bulk of this large family archive consists of deeds of the family estates, centered on Warwick and Lillington, dating from the 12-19th centuries.
Originally composed in 1807-8, The White Doe tells the story of the Rising of the North against Elizabeth I in 1569. The present copy is the first edition, quarto,1815, in its original boards, with annotations in the hand of Mary Wordsworth for its publication in Miscellaneous Poems, 1820.
The records of a Warwickshire landed family extending over 800 years, comprising a large number of medieval deeds, including significant numbers for the estates of Bordesley Abbey; estate and household account books from 1662 to the 20th century; and over 2,000 items of correspondence, including letters on General Burgoyne's campaign in Nor
Release by John Fray Alexander and Anne and John Combe to John Gedeney, citizen and alderman of London, of all their rights in the manor of 'Mokkynges' in Tottenham, Middlesex, 18 December 1441. On vellum with fragments of seals.
A lavishly illuminated Hours of the Passion, Paris, 15th cent. The manuscript is possibly a part of a Book of Hours now in the Huntington Library, San Marino.