THIRTEEN

VERNON, James; Summers. Manuscript

Letter-book Concerning the 1698 Treaty

of the Hague.

[Circa 1698]. Small quarto (190 x 150 x 5 mm). 48 numbered pages on 26 leaves. Contemporary marbled wrappers, rubbed, small, neat repair to spine. Scattered spotting to text.

Watermark: Horn (similar to 17th century marks in Haewood, but with countermark of letter V inside an H).

Provenance: later ownership inscription of “Napier” to inner wrapper.

¶ This portable letter-book records some of the strenuous diplomatic efforts by Great Britain, France and the Dutch Republic to prevent war if the ailing and childless Charles II of Spain died. These and other efforts were in vain; but during 1698, when all the letters copied here were written, the select group of negotiators (which included King William III, his Secretary of State James Vernon, the Earl of Portland and the duc de Tallard) were progressing towards the drawing-up of the Treaty of The Hague – the first of two attempted treaties that proposed a partition of Spain’s possessions in Europe. Some of these letters appear in later published works including The History and Proceedings of the House of Commons (1742) others apparently, do not.

The letter-book begins in August 1698, when the two chief negotiators, Portland and Tallard, travelled to The Hague in order to complete discussions and draw up the treaty (Portland’s letters are sent from “Loo”, at The Hague). One might expect a book kept by a senior member of government to be a more impressive and prestigious object; but this is a small-format notebook whose air of basic functionality is strengthened by a vertical crease. The book, it seems clear, was folded for carrying, and it may well be that it was carried about in The Hague rather than in Whitehall – a geographical ambiguity that the unknown identity of the hand leaves unresolved.

The incremental steps of diplomacy and the preparation of the treaty are traced in these letters, which are mostly exchanged between Portland and Vernon. In an early letter, from King William himself to “Lord Chancelor Summers”, dated “15/25 August 1698”, the monarch stresses: “there is no time to be lost, and you must send me the full powers under the great Seal with the Names in blank, to treat with Count Tallard”. He emphasises secrecy, stipulating “that the Clerks who are to write the Warrant & the full powers may not know what it is”; and urgency, since “According to all intelligence the King of Spain cannot outlive the Moneth of October”. A few pages further on, we read Somers’ reply, from “Tunbridge Wells 28 August 1698” (in which Somers somewhat apologetically reminds the King that he had given him “Permission to try if the Waters would contribute to the Establishment of my health”). His response abounds in the kind of 17th-century realpolitik evident throughout these letters: echoing his colleagues in this book, he points out the “Deadness and want of Spirit universally in this Nation”, whose people are “not at all to be disposed to the Thoughts of Entering into a new Warr”.

As matters progress, the key players mull over the geopolitics of the treaty’s various provisions, the likely behaviour of the French, the uncertain political climate of Britain (Vernon to Portland: “We have a new Parliament and no body can make a ), the urgency of the situation (“Summer is almost gone, and the fall of the Leaf comes on, which is a dangerous season of the ) and the dubious prospects that any treaty will actually be observed (Portland to “I confess experience has showed us too plainly, that Treaties have been ill ). Besides the chief topic, other issues are raised and addressed to varying degrees: the plight of Sir William Jennings, a loyalist of James II now seeking a royal pardon; a petition from one “Col Codrington” that he succeed his father in the governorship of the Leeward Islands; “Mr Elrington who was a Prisoner in that he be granted a military post.

The treaty was signed in The Hague on 11 October 1698; the reasons for its failure, and that of the second partition treaty, are a matter of historical record, as Europe was plunged into another costly war. This letter-book preserves the correspondence between the key negotiators, and as an object which could be either shared or concealed, evokes the earnestness, urgency and pragmatism with which these failed attempts at peacemaking were pursued.

£2,000 Ref: 8076

[HIGGINS, John (active 1570-1602)] A mirour for magistrates: being a true chronicle historie of the vntimely falles of such vnfortunate princes and men of note, as haue happened since the first entrance of Brute into this iland, vntill this our latter age

At London: imprinted by Felix Kyngston, 1610-09. Quarto. Pagination [20], 875, [1] p. Woodcut head-pieces, initials, and portraits within text. Collated and complete. Two verse dedications (Oo4 to Charles Howard, and Eee3) present, leaf Eee3 (Variant 3: cancel leaf signed “Nicols”), misbound after A4. [STC 13446; Pforzheimer 738].

Bound in later (probably 20th-century) panelled calf, first few leaves with small hole to blank inner margin, minor worming to first few gatherings, a few times touching text, a few closed tears, but without loss, some light damp staining and softening of blank margins of later leaves (Aaa with small loss to blank sections only.

Three of the four titles have their 1610 date neatly amended to “1616” in early ink manuscript (the 1609 date to ‘The Variable Fortvne’ has not been amended). We have not ascertained the reason for this. There was no 1616 edition of A Mirror for Magistrates, but the date coincides with the death of one of the book’s editors, Richard Niccols (15841616), and of William Shakespeare (15641616). 17th-century ownership inscription and purchase price to title page; “Ma: Weld pre 6d.8a.”

¶ A Mirour for magistrates, was an influential sourcebook for Elizabethan dramatists, including Shakespeare, who “was familiar with it and used the story of Queen Cordelia for some points in ‘King Lear’”. Also, to be found here is the story of Locrine, “which was used in the anonymous play of that name wrongly attributed to Shakespeare in the Third Folio”.1 The book is “a collaborative collection of poems in which the ghosts of eminent statesmen recount their downfalls in first-person narratives called ‘tragedies’ or ‘complaints’ as an example for magistrates and others in positions of power”.2

This is a complete copy of the first complete edition of edition collects all three earlier parts of Mirrour for Magistrates and adds ‘A Winter Nights Vision’ and ‘England’s Eliza’ (an account of the reign of Elizabeth I), written by Richard Niccols. Our copy is notable for having its cancel leaves present. According to Pforzheimer, “The general-title in all copies examined is a cancel, for what reason cannot even be conjectured. Originally A Winter Nights Vision had a dedication to Prince Henry, Sig [Oo4], but upon the death of that youthful patron of the arts that leaf was cancelled and a new one containing a dedication to the Earl of Nottingham inserted in its place. Evidently the substitution was delayed for most copies occur without any dedication.”3

277

2. <https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/a-mirror-for-magistrates-1574>

JUVENAL. The satires of Juvenal translated: with explanatory and classical notes, relating to the laws and customs of the Greeks and Romans. Annotated in an a contemporary hand.

London: printed for J. Nicholson, in Cambridge; and sold by C. Crowder, Paternoster-Row, and J. and F. Rivington, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard. [London], MDCCLXXVII. [1777]. Pagination xvi, 416 p. complete with the half-title. Contemporary mottled calf, rebacked preserving original spine.

Provenance: armorial bookplate of “Sir Thomas Hesketh, Bart. Rufford Hall, Lancashire.” Library shelf reference label to pastedown: “Easton Neston Library” (also a country seat of the Hesketh family). The bookplate is dated after 1761, when Sir Thomas was created Baronet. (A young William Shakespeare is thought to have performed in Rufford Hall for the entertainment of an earlier Sir Thomas Hesketh.)

¶ This parallel Latin and English edition of Juvenal’s ‘Satires’ (written during the Roman Empire) includes annotations that pointedly refer to the British Empire’s colonial territories in the West Indies.

Thomas Sheridan’s translation of Juvenal was first published in 1739; an early owner of this copy of a 1777 edition was evidently unaware of Sheridan’s authorship and has added “By Dunstan” to the title page, possibly thinking of Samuel Dunster, translator of Horace satires in the early 18th century. Whether our annotator is Sir Thomas Hesketh is uncertain, but he pasted in his bookplate in the last year of his life and the “Easton Neston Library” label dates from after his death.

The scribe has gone through the text and added notes, including short summaries at the beginning of each satire, as well as frequent underlining, occasional corrections to the text (both Latin and English), and notes on the meaning and context of some of the Latin words and phrases.

Our annotator draws out similarities with contemporary customs and culture: in Satire [II] (p.36), they have underlined “Dives erit, magno quae dormit tertia lecto” and added the note “This Line is applicable to his present Majesty the Baby King of Denmark with his late Queen & Count Halk” – likely a reference to Christian VII (1749-1808) who ascended the throne in 1766 aged 17 years.

One strand of annotations suggests an inclination to compare the Roman and British empires: commenting on Satire [XI] (p.308), they write: “The Romans, after they grew refined, affected the Greek as much as we do the French Language” –implying that the British have achieved a Roman level of refinement The scribe is keen to point out parallels in the classical text with the customs of the colonial West Indies: in Satire II (p 42), they have underlined “Et pressum faciem digitis extendere panem” and added in the margin below: “It is a Custom with some of the Ladies at Montserrat […] to retire for a fortnight to refresh […] The discipline is exceedingly severe. They rub their faces over with ye oil of ye Cusso ^Cushoo nut. This lying on for a fortnight brings off all the skin of their face like a Mask, but if they smile, or distort their face in the least during this painful operation, they come forth horrid Spectacles.”

These anthropological asides occasionally betray a certain callousness: in Satire [VI] (p.174), on the line “Altior hic quare concinnus? Taurea punit”, the scribe underlines “Taurea” and adds a note: “perhaps a Bull’s Pestile, or a long Thong cut out off a Bull’s, or Cow’s hide & twisted up hard & taper in form of a switch. This kind of instrument is used upon the domestic Slaves by the Mistresses in the West India Colonies”. Clearly demonstrating that people in Britain were aware of the appalling treatment of enslaved people. Homophobia, too, is a feature, in the note to Satire [II] (p.28), which observes: “Here the Poet scourges the Hypocrisy, Effeminacy, & Bestiality of his Countrymen, as contradistinguished from the vilest & most libidinous Turpitude of Women. He is particularly severe upon that abominable intercourse between the male Sex. Which was highly fashionable.”

If our annotator displays some of the common prejudices of their era, they also indulge in some satirical jabs of their own. Against a line in Satire [III] (p.54), “Res hodie minor est, here quam suit, atque eadem eras. Deteret exiguis aliquid” (“since my means are less today than they were yesterday, and tomorrow will rub off something from the little that is left”), they observe drily (if cryptically): “An admirable picture of England in 1779”.

£600 Ref: 8065

[ROW, George; ROQUE, Jean] Le Petit Atlas Britannique with manuscript notes in an 18th-century hand.

[1753]. Octavo. Letterpress title page in French and 47 (presumably only of 54 double-page maps engraved maps). The maps are hand-coloured in a contemporary hand. Manuscript notes to some pages and a nine-page account entitled “Capture of the Alexander”, which is written in the same hand as the scribe “George Row” (see provenance).

Early 19th-century straight-grained morocco, rubbed and worn, several leaves loose.

Provenance: inscription to the reverse of the map of Essex: “George Row on board the Syren / off Flushing in the river scheld / January 25 : 1793”

Inscription to reverse of Oxfordshire: “Richard Stroud His Hand 1799”. Inscription to title page: “W. Tollmach”. The Tollemaches were earls of Dysart; of Ham House and Helmingham Hall, Suffolk.

A rare atlas: ESTC locates three copies of the 1753 edition (Cambridge University Library, National Library of Ireland, and Bibliothèque Mazarine, Paris) and one copy of the 1762 at the Bodleian.

Both recorded editions of the Rocque’s atlas have engraved, parallel English and French title pages. In the 1753 edition, 42 of the 54 maps are numbered and all 54 maps are numbered in the 1762 edition; whereas our copy has only a French title page in letterpress and none of its maps are numbered.

¶ There are two recorded editions of Jean (or John) Rocque’s Le Petit Atlas Britannique: one published in 1753 and one in 1762, both in London. As noted above, there are very few surviving copies of either, but what makes this copy all the more unusual is, first of all, the letterpress title page, of which we can find no other examples; and more significantly, the manuscript addition of a remarkable 1,150-word, first-hand account of a naval encounter in November 1794 that led to the capture of HMS Alexander by the French navy.

The author of this nine-page eyewitness description declares himself in an inscription to the reverse of the map of Essex: “George Row on board the Syren / off Flushing in the river scheld / January 25 : 1793”. After Flushing, he next plots his location as “Syren off Spain Monday 3 June 1793” (on a blank page shortly after the title page); by the next year, he was evidently serving on the HMS Canada when it was returning from Cape St. Vincent in company with the Alexander and the two warships became involved in a skirmish with a French squadron of five line-of-battle ships, three frigates, and a brig.

Row makes a series of apparently arbitrary decisions as to where to add his account: he chooses to flip the volume upside down and to begin writing on the reverse of “Isle of Wight”, continuing to “Merioneth Shire and Montgomery Shire” – neither of which are geographically very close to the site of the action that he unfolds.

He describes how “the Alexander of 74 Guns and our Ship of the same force”, having helped escort a convoy “as far as Cape of St Vincent”, was returning to England “when about six [ ]ive Leagues to the Westward of Scilly at [t]wo clock in the morning of the 6th of this month we fell in with a french Squadron men of war”. Despite “masterly manoeuvring” by both ships, “the Enemy were of so Superior force it was thought necessary to separate” in order to split their pursuers. But in due course, Row relates, the French admiral “in the most dastardly manner hauled up for the Alexander being we imagine determined to make sure of one ship I say dastardly because if three heavy line of battle ships could not secure the Alexander he ought never to have gone to their assistance and should himself have chased us” – a breach of maritime etiquette, evidently.

Row speculates that “had we fortunate had a nother line of battle ship I believe we should have beaten them for the French handled their so bad and like Cowards”. After the enemy’s unprincipled pile-on, and having dismissed the idea of going to the Alexander’s aid against overwhelming odds, “we had nothing then left to do but to make the best of our way to England”. The manuscript is inscribed at the end “Canada Novmb. 6th 1795”. The date is perplexing because the Alexander was captured a year to the day earlier, on 6 November 1794. Our assumption is that this is a simple misdating because there is no obvious reason why he should be recounting the events of a year ago, nor would he have been compiling his account to be given in evidence: the court martial of the commander of HMS Alexander, Admiral Rodney Bligh was conducted on 25 May 1795. The court found in his favour, and he was honourably discharged.

Whatever the reason for the slightly puzzling date, and the atlas’s confounding publication details, Row’s narrative makes for compelling reading and attests both to the conduct of Bligh and to the impact of the events on the young able seaman.

£2,750 Ref: 8160

[CROSBY, Dixi (1810-1876); HALE, Safford Eddy (1818-1893)] Manuscript lecture notes taken by Safford Eddy Hale at Dartmouth Medical College in Hanover, New Hampshire, on venereal disease and urology, from lectures delivered by Dixi Crosby in 1840. [Circa 1840.] Half calf, marbled boards, rubbed. Small quarto (207 mm x 180 mm x 22 mm). 240 (numbered pages), [2, index].

¶ These lectures were almost certainly delivered by Dixi Crosby, who was professor of surgery, obstetrics, and diseases of women and children at Dartmouth Medical College when Hale was enrolled. Crosby had been appointed chair of surgery there in 1838. “He dominated New Hampshire surgery for thirty years. His practice in Hanover was very large, many patients being attracted by the high reputation of the school, while the personal ability of the man spread far around.” (Kelly Burrage, Dictionary of American Medical Biography. pp. 268-270). Crosby was the first surgeon in the United States to be sued for malpractice, though he was found not guilty.

An inscription to the front endpaper reads “S. E. Hale / Elizabeth Town / N. York”. Safford Eddy Hale was born in Chelsea, Vermont and attended Dartmouth Medical College graduating in 1841 and setting up a practice in Elizabethtown, New York the following year. He served as secretary of the Essex County Medical Society for several years and as its president for a term

The subject headings include hydrocele, diseases of the breast, irritable swellings of the breast, diseases of the testicles, fungus hematodes, chronic enlargement & abscesses of the testes, gonorrhea, stricture of the urethra, abscesses of the lacunae, spasmodic strictures, inflammatory strictures, irritable bladder, bleeding from the urethra, inflammation of the testicle, impotence, sympathetic bubo, gleet, gonorrhea in females, chancre, phymosis, chancres in females, bubo, secondary symptoms of the venereal diseases, venereal disease of the bones, venereal ophthalmia, of the effects of mercury, scrofula, and scrofulous enlarged glands, among others.

£650 Ref: 7907

[CULINARY RECIPES] Early 19th-century manuscript book of culinary recipes.

[Circa 1810]. Quarto (204 x 70 x 17 mm). Approximately 97 text pages (of which 11 are pasted in recipes), 12 blank leaves. Vellum-backed marbled boards. Stitching broken, text block loose in biding. Boards heavily worn, some spotting to text.

¶ A note to the front paste -down reads “My Mother’s approved receipts” but this notebook is written in multiple hands. managing a household are written from the back. Recipes include “Shrewsbury Cakes”, “India Pickle”, “Fruit Acid” and “Diamond Cement” The volume also contains calculations for budgeting and managing a household, such as a sum for “the value of 152/2 Gallons of Brandy”. Dispersed throughout the calculations are a few household recipes, such as one “For French Polish”. The recipes have clearly been used, with those found unsatisfactory crossed through or labelled “Bad Bad”. Most of the recipes are unattributed, but a few are meticulously attributed to on the Art of making Wine by Macculloch 2d Edition”, complete with the publisher’s details.

£400 Ref: 8138

[JONES, Sarah (1768-1849); EDEN, Arthur (1793-1874)] A collection of correspondence addressed to Arthur Eden.

[Circa 1807-1813]. 65 letters, a few octavo, but mostly quarto. Folded for posting, some with address panels, and a few with seals.

¶ This collection comprises correspondence to Arthur Eden (1793 1874), later to become Assistant Comptroller of the Exchequer and Deputy Auditor of Greenwich Hospital. He lived with his second wife Frances Baring at Harrington Hall, Spilsby, the inspiration for “the Eden where she dwelt” in Tennyson's poem ‘The Gardener’s Daughter’.

The largest portion of this collection is the correspondence from his aunt, Sarah Jones (née Webber) (1768-1849), whose engaging collection of 37 letters run to some 140 pages. Sarah Jones married into a Welsh family and has the dubious honour of being the likely inspiration for James Gillray’s satirical print, “Venus a la Coquelle or the Swan-sea Venus” of 28 March 1809. This parody shows “a middle-aged sea-green block of a woman” driving her sea-shell chariot across the waves. – supposedly an allusion to Jones’ public profile as “a celebrated whip, frequently seen in Hyde Park who made herself elegantly conspicuous by driving about in a smart chaise and pair”.

In this series of letters, written in a clear hand, Sarah dispenses news and advice to her nephew. The earlier letters are addressed from “Belle Vue” (c.1807-9) and afterwards from “Hill House” in Swansea (c.1810-3). She touches on domestic topics including her dogs, her husband’s hunting, and news of friends, neighbours and family (such as “the sudden Death of Mrs Dixon who apparently in perfect health dropped off her Chair whilst at Dinner on Wednesday last & instantly Died”); after her move to Wales, she sometimes describes both dogs and children as “Rustics”. She often seems beset by melancholy (“I suffer’d materially in my health & spirits by great Anxiety & Afflictions two years since & I lost much of my good looks”) and preoccupied with the bad health of her husband (“my whole time has been taken up in nursing him”), but often articulates her thoughts with a certain liveliness (““Thinks I to myself”, Arthur is very angry with me”).

Sarah is particularly exercised by troubles with servants: “Our man William Edwards”, she reveals, “turned out a great rogge”. She goes on to recall that “we placed so much confidence in him that he managed every thing in the way of Marketing, Bees, Coals, &c in every article of which he cheated us most grosly, nor did he content himself with this but he used to fill his Pockets with Bread Meat &c” and “Eliza Pierce the Cook has left us some time she was a most extravagant Servant she now ). In another letter she mourns “the Death of my good and invaluable Servant Sudden […] an “3 youngest Children”, who “still fancy she is Ill in the House”.

If this collection is anything to go by, Sarah’s husband, Arthur Jones (1768-1842) was a less frequent correspondent. He contributes four letters, which also cover domestic matters (especially their dogs), but with less vivacity than his wife, and in a comparatively untidy hand.

There are also 25 letters to Arthur Eden from his side of the family, including 10 from his sister, Lady Dorothy (Dora) Moore (née Eden) (c.1790-1875), whose emotional openness is often on display. She tells her brother:

“I have suffered a great deal since I last wrote to you […] If I don’t give vent to my grief my heart bursts, you will imagine my sufferings”. Her deeply felt experience of life has its consolations, as for example when she declares: “I think it is impossible for any body to love another better than I do Graham […] I sometimes think of him with wonder that a man can be so perfect”

Dora is well read, judging by her reference to Adam Smith’s idea of the “impartial spectator” or “man within” which is central to the philosophy in Theory of Moral Sentiments. She writes: “I am very sorry that you d d(?) with Eliza however the wisest cannot always command the impulse of the moment. & I & you “the man within” will forgive you if you promise us not to ere again. I like that expression of Smith’s “the man within” it is so expressive, there is something so dignified in it [...] there can be no real misery when the “man within” is satisfied”.

These letters represent one part of an extensive social and familial network, and give a more realistic portrait of Sarah Jones than the imperious figure parodied by Gillray. Moreover, since we have no corresponding replies from their recipient, the voices are predominantly female, a fact that nicely upends the usual state of affairs in matters historical.

£1,750 Ref: 8114