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Friends of the National Libraries

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CONTENTS
Administrative Information	2
Tribute to James Stitt	3
Annual Report for 2022	4
Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase	14
Trustees’ Report	116
Financial Statements	132

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Administrative Information

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Administrative Information

Royal Patron:

Chairman:

Honorary Treasurer:

Secretary:

Membership Accountant:

Honorary Expert Adviser:

Trustees

Ex-officio

Mr Pedr ap Llwyd Librarian, National Library of Wales

Dr Jessica Gardner University Librarian, University of Cambridge

Sir Roland Keating Chief Executive, British Library Mr Richard Ovenden OBE FSA Bodley’s Librarian, Bodleian Libraries

Mrs Amina Shah FRSE National Librarian, National Library of Scotland

Post vacant Secretary, Historical Manuscripts Commission

Elected

Mrs Joanna Barker MBE Mr Stephen Clarke FSA Mrs Mary Gibson Mrs Sybil Kretzmer Mr Richard Linenthal FSA Mrs Natalie Livingstone Mr Peter Mimpriss Mrs Alexandra Sitwell Mr Christopher Whittick FSA

The Former Prince of Wales

Mr Geordie Greig

Mr Charles Sebag-Montefiore FSA, FCA

Mrs Nell Hoare MBE FSA FMA FIIC

Mr Paul Celerier FCA

Dr Matthew Payne FSA

Scottish Representative

Dr Iain Gordon Brown FSA, FRSE

Independent Auditors

Knox Cropper LLP 65 Leadenhall Street, London EC3A 2AD

Investment Advisers

Cazenove Capital Management 1 London Wall Place, London EC2Y 5AU

Principal Bankers

CAF Bank Limited 25 King’s Hill Avenue, West Malling, Kent ME19 4JQ

Design

72ptdesign.com

Tribute to James Stitt

Before his retirement James worked as an investment director at the Clerical, Medical & General Life Insurance Company, then headquartered at 15 St James’s Square, next door to the London Library, in a handsome house designed by James ‘Athenian’ Stuart in 1774-75 for Thomas Anson of Shugborough.

James Graham Stitt, who died on 1 March 2022 aged 81, was a true friend of the FNL over a considerable period of time. He first became a Trustee in 1996 and served in this role for twelve years spread over four terms of office between 1996-1998, 2002-2004, 2009-2011 and 2013-2015. As well as commenting on proposed grants for acquisitions, the raison d’être of FNL, James gave his expertise from the world of stock market investment in assessing the performance of the fund managers engaged to manage the FNL’s portfolio. He was popular as a Trustee and as a member: he and his partner Neville Bass regularly participated in the visits to libraries organised by FNL.

James was elected to Brooks’s in 1981, where he enjoyed the company of other members and played bridge. He was a very popular member who served as a member of the Election Committee and as a Manager, each for the standard term of three years. Additionally he gave his professional expertise as chairman of the Pension Fund Trustees for ten years.

FNL was not his only charitable endeavour. As with FNL, he served several terms as a Trustee of the London Library beginning in the mid-1990s. He was a member of the Audit and Investment Committees and served as its Honorary Treasurer for six years between 2003 and 2009. James was also a Trustee of the Malcolm Sargent Festival Choir and Honorary Treasurer of the Old Chiswick Preservation Society. He lived in Chiswick and was a generous host.

In addition to serving twelve years as a Trustee of FNL, his final benefaction was a generous legacy of £10,000 in his will. This provides us with the opportunity of acknowledging our grateful thanks for all that James has done for the charity, where he is much missed.

James Stitt. Image by Francis Bauer.

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Annual Report for 2022 5

Annual Report for 2022

The year of 2021 was much occupied with the exceptional campaign to save the Blavatnik Honresfield Library for the nation, with FNL reaching the fundraising target of £15m before the end of the year. The distribution of this extraordinary collection of manuscripts and books to nearly 70 national, university and other libraries across the UK was a major task for the year of 2022.

A second exceptional opportunity arose early in 2022 when FNL was offered the chance to save for the nation the last of Charlotte Brontë’s ‘little books’ that was still in privately owned: ‘ A Book of Ryhme’s’ [sic]. FNL was given a short period of exclusivity and successfully raised the $1.25m needed to acquire the miniature manuscript. FNL has donated it to the Brontë Parsonage Museum (see page 14), where it joins their existing collection of little books, augmented by the seven further little books from the Blavatnik Honresfield Library that FNL donated to the joint ownership of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, the British Library and the Brotherton Library.

The success of our appeal was thanks to the enormous generosity of many funders (see page 121), in particular the Murray family and the Garfield Weston Foundation.

Our normal programme of acquisition grants continued alongside these two exceptional projects.

In all 60 grants were offered during 2022. Not all the recipients were successful at auction, with the result that 51 grants were made in the year. These grants amounted to just under £250,000 (excluding the significant contribution from FNL’s funds to the ‘little book’ mentioned above). These grants enabled the acquisition of collections valued at over £2.3m. Twenty grants were made to county archive services, seven to universities, six to non-national museums, ten to specialist libraries and eight to national libraries.

Of these, 48 grants are reported here; three acquisitions were not completed by the end of 2022 so, whilst they is accounted for in this year, they will be reported upon in the 2023 Annual Report. In addition, we report on one grant awarded in 2021 following completion of the purchase.

The title page of ‘A Book of Ryhme’s’ by Charlotte Brontë. © Yorkshire Post Newspapers.

Annual Report for 2022

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PRINCIPAL GRANTS FROM THE OPERATING FUND

Thirty-seven grants were committed or paid for from FNL’s Operating Fund during 2022, the largest of which were two grants of £20,000. One was awarded to the Victoria & Albert Museum for an archive of 700 design drawings for metalwork, furniture and stained glass by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812–1852) . The second will, as noted above, be reported upon in the 2023 Annual Report.

A grant of £15,000 enabled the Brotherton Library to acquire the archive of the Peepal Tree Press , founded in Leeds in 1985, the world’s leading publisher of Caribbean and Black British writing. Architectural drawings with a literary connection, Thomas Hardy’s architectural drawings of Athelhampton/Admiston Church 1861 , were acquired by Dorset History Centre thanks to a grant of £4,250. Other literary acquisitions were supported with smaller grants: a collection of letters, photographs and ephemera (1886-1955) largely pertaining to Jane and May Morris (Society of Antiquaries, Kelmscott Manor); letters written by Rudyard Kipling to Edmund Garrett, 1899-1904 (University of Sussex), and Richard Jefferies, His Life and Work, 1909 , by Edward Thomas (Edward Thomas Study Centre, Petersfield Museum).

Thomas Lupton’s A thousand notable things of sundrie sorts (1631) , an exciting new volume from the library of Frances Wolfreston (1607-1677), was acquired by the Bodleian Library with a grant of £6,000. The Bodleian also received a grant of £10,000 helping it to reunite two miniatures removed, prior to the library’s ownership, from the lavishly illustrated Hours of Louis Quarré (after 1488) .

Design for Altar Cross with Two Flanking Angels. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

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Annual Report for 2022

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A number of grants supported the acquisition of material of political, military and social historical interest, including: the records of York Street Chapel & Robert Browning Settlement, Walworth, c. 1790-1929 (£4,000 to Southwark Archives); William Dodd’s Convict’s Address to his Unhappy Brethren , 1777 (£1,500 to Dr Johnson’s House); the accounts of Edward Russell, 1st Earl of Orford, as Treasurer to the Navy, 1689-1699 (£2,000 to Berkshire Record Office) and a notebook compiled by David Lloyd George during the 1910 General Election campaign (£800 to the National Library of Wales).

Each year we support many acquisitions by county archives of material relating to their localities. On occasion the material in a single lot may be relevant to more than one county archive, as was the case with a collection of nine medieval deeds (c.1250-1463) acquired by West Sussex Record Office (WSRO). A welcome collaborative approach was taken. WSRO was awarded a FNL grant to cover the full cost of the lot. They then retained one deed for their own collection and donated eight to: Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, the South West Heritage Trust, Hampshire Archives and Local Studies, Essex Record Office, Berkshire Record Office, Hampshire Archives and Local Studies, West Yorkshire Archives Service and Suffolk Archives. Thus, thanks to some lateral thinking, one FNL grant of £7,500 benefitted nine county archive services – an excellent outcome!

Above: Preparatory design drawing for ‘Campanula’ teacup, c. 1923, Paul Follot for Wedgwood, pencil on tracing paper. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Left: Volumes in the York Street Chapel and Robert Browning Settlement collection. © Southwark Archives.

Fourteen other grants enabled the acquisition important local material. Among these were: material from the archive of Dickson, Archer and Thorp, solicitors of Alnwick, Northumberland, 1768 (£7,500 to Northumberland Archives); Proctor’s accounts for St Bartholomew’s

Hospital, Newbury, 1624-1696 (£2,500 to Berkshire Record Office) the Brocklehurst Estate Archive (£1,460 to Cheshire Archives); manuscript land survey of the manors of

Melbury and Fontmell Magna, 1774 (£1,104 to Dorset History Centre);

documents relating to the sale and development of land at Brighton, 1797-1822 (£621 to East Sussex, Brighton & Hove Record Office).

We also report here on a grant of £3,500 that was awarded in 2021, to the Victoria and Albert Museum for the acquisition ten preparatory drawings by Paul Follot (1877-1941) for a Wedgwood tea and coffee set , the purchase having been finalised during 2022.

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Descriptor of Section 11

PRINCIPAL GRANTS FROM THE JOHN R MURRAY FUND

Thanks to the great generosity of the Murray family, the John R Murray Fund was established in 2021.

An extraordinarily generous £250,000 was contributed from the John R Murray Fund to the acquisition of Charlotte Brontë’s ‘little book’, ‘A Book of Ryhme’s’ [sic], written in 1829 when Charlotte was 13 years old (see page 14). This was the joint largest contribution to the $1.25m required for the little book and its donation was a key to our ultimate success in raising the funds needed.

In addition, nine grants, to a total value of £105,128 were made from the John R Murray Fund during 2022.

Three of these grants were for £20,000, including one to Kent History and Library Centre for their ambitious acquisition of a collection of deeds and documents relating to Kent (1264-1654) . There was a strong scientific theme to grants made from the fund, including one for £20,000 to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History for their acquisition of the archive of William Buckland (1784-1856) , the geologist who was also a hugely influential figure in academia, politics, science and religion. The autograph draft manuscript of the memoirs of Caroline Herschel (1750-1848) was bought by the Herschel Museum of Astronomy, Bath, thanks to a grant of £20,000. Herschel was the first woman to be paid as a professional astronomer in the UK; her memoirs were published by John Murray in 1876.

Another major grant, of £14,325, was awarded to the UK Hydrographic Office Archive for the acquisition of a chart of HMS Investigator’s voyage in 1850/51 during which the North West Passage was discovered. There is a pleasing link to a grant, awarded by FNL in 2012 to Norfolk Record Office, for the archive of Captain Samuel Gurney Cresswell (1827-67). Within that collection is a painting by Cresswell of HMS Investigator cutting through the ice (page 94).

A copy of the suppressed edition of Richard Ford’s A Handbook for Travellers in Spain , published by John Murray in 1844, inscribed by the author to Sir William Stirling Maxwell and containing an informative letter, was acquired by the National Gallery Research Centre thanks to a grant of £8,000 from the John R Murray Fund.

Mary Morland, watercolour of a cuttlefish, c. 1817, from her notebook of specimens which is in the William Buckland archive. Courtesy of Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

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GRANTS FROM THE B H BRESLAUER FOUNDATION FUND

Five grants to a total value of £45,548 were awarded from the B H Breslauer Foundation Fund. The largest of these was £20,000 to Edinburgh University towards their purchase, after an export stop by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art, of a rare early 17th-century manuscript of Italian and French lute music, c1620 .

Two grants of £10,000 were awarded. The first enabled Cambridge University Library to acquire Daniel Waterland’s A Vindication of Christ’s Divinity (1719) ; this important copy is interleaved and heavily annotated by Samuel Clarke (1675-1729). The second helped the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association to acquire Vincenzo da Filicaja’s Poesie Toscane (1812) , which bears an inscription from Percy Bysshe Shelley to Claire Clairmont.

A grant of £3,048 enabled the John Rylands Library to acquire a manuscript copy of ‘Speculum humanae salvationis’ (c.1780) , it is an important addition to the John Rylands collection, enhancing the study of the blockbook. Finally, a grant of £2,500 helped the National Library of Scotland acquire Poems and religious writings (c.1719) of Reverend Robert Blair (1699-1746) . This manuscript volume represents the single biggest collection of Blair’s poetry and religious writings found to date, all of which are unpublished.

GRANT FROM THE PHILIP LARKIN FUND

One grant was awarded from the Philip Larkin Fund during the year. A grant of £1,736 enabled the National Library of Wales to acquire an uncorrected proof copy of David Jones (1895-1974), In Parenthesis (1937) , together with a three-page holograph ‘Introduction’ to the November 1946 BBC production of In Parenthesis .

Details of all grants awarded may be found in the following pages; where items were acquired at auction the all-in cost of the purchase is given rather than the hammer price.

Introduction to In Parenthesis . David Jones, 1946. Courtesy of the National Library of Wales.

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Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase

FOR THE BRONTË PARSONAGE MUSEUM

Autograph manuscript: Charlotte Brontë’s ‘A Book of Ryhme’s’ [sic], 17 December 1829. Bought from James Cummins Rare Books in New York for $1.25 million by the Friends of the National Libraries and donated to the Brontë Parsonage Museum.

Ann Dinsdale, Principal Curator, writes: The year of 2022 turned out to be a significant one in the history of the Brontë Parsonage Museum. Following the excitement of the Friends of the National Libraries’ acquisition of the Blavatnik Honresfield Library, and the donation of important manuscripts and printed books to the Museum, Parsonage staff were alerted to the sale of another important Brontë item about to take place in New York.

This was ‘A Book of Ryhme’s’ by Charlotte Brontë, sold by nobody and printed by herself’, dated 17 December 1829. This miniature manuscript contains ten unpublished poems, all penned by 13-year-old Charlotte in minuscule writing and then hand-stitched into brown paper covers to form a book. The Brontë Parsonage Museum is the major world repository of Brontë manuscripts and holds a collection of the famous little books produced by Charlotte and her brother Branwell. Their minute scale and miniature details such as title pages and advertisements, make these little manuscripts particularly memorable and iconic items. Together, they chart the evolving saga of the Brontës’ imaginary worlds and Charlotte Brontë’s development as a writer.

The title page of ‘A Book of Ryhme’s’. © Clark Hodgin.

Friends of the National Libraries

Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase 17

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In an introduction to the poems, Charlotte writes that the following are ‘Attempts at rhyming of an inferior nature it must be acknowledged but they are nevertheless my best’. Despite her disparaging remarks, Charlotte included the tiny volume in her Catalogue of my Books, compiled in 1830, and we know that she originally considered her true vocation lay in poetry. In 1836, at the age of 20, Charlotte wrote to the Poet Laureate, Robert Southey, seeking an opinion of her poems. Her letter has not survived but Southey’s response makes it clear that she had told him of her desire ‘to be for ever known’ as a poet. Although Southey took the trouble to respond to Charlotte’s letter, his advice was not encouraging; ‘Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life: & it ought not to be.’ Charlotte kept Southey’s letter for the rest of her life but fortunately she did not heed his advice. Her first venture into publishing was a collaboration with her sisters, Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell, which sold only two copies. It was at this point that the sisters turned to novel writing. In 1847, Charlotte’s Jane Eyre was published to instant acclaim, once again under her ‘Bell’ pseudonym.

After the deaths of all the Brontës, the ‘ Book of Ryhyme’s’ travelled from Haworth to Banagher, in Ireland, with Charlotte’s widower, Arthur Bell Nicholls. Many of the other Brontë manuscripts he had retained were eventually handed over to the bibliographer and book collector, Thomas James Wise, but possibly this little book held a special appeal for Nicholls. He never parted with it and it was only after his death that it was included in the second sale of the Nicholls collection, held at Sotheby’s in 1914. Two years later it turned up in a sale at the Walpole Galleries in New York then disappeared from view until the announcement earlier this year that it was to be sold by James Cummins Rare Books in New York. The Friends of the National Libraries mounted an extraordinarily impressive fundraising campaign and in just a few weeks had raised $1.25 million to purchase the little book, which they have donated to the Brontë Parsonage Museum.

On 29 July 2022, a special reception to celebrate the little book’s arrival from New York was held in the book-lined offices of Maggs Bros. in Bloomsbury. Displayed in a central glass case, the little book was an object of wonderment. Henry Wessells of James Cummins Rare Books was present along with many of the donors and representatives of FNL, who listened as Isabel Adomakoh Young read a selection of poems from the tiny volume. Three days later, on Yorkshire Day, the manuscript arrived in Haworth and will be on display at the Parsonage from July 2023 until the end of the year.

Henry Wessells of James Cummins Rare Books, brought the tiny manuscript from New York and presented it to Ann Dinsdale on ‘Yorkshire Day’, 1st August 2022. Images courtesy of the Brontë Parsonage Museum.

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Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase

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FOR BERKSHIRE RECORD OFFICE, READING

1. Proctors’ account book for St Bartholomew’s Hospital, Newbury, Berkshire, 1624-1697, together with three deeds for properties in Northbrook Street, Newbury, 1689, 1733 and 1796. Bought from Dominic Winter Auctions for £2,849 (15 June 2022, Lot 237), with the aid of a grant of £2,500 from the Friends of the National Libraries.

Mark Stevens, County Archivist, writes: This account book relates to an ancient charity within the town of Newbury, Berkshire. The Hospital of St Bartholomew is first recorded in 1215, when King John granted it the right to hold a two-day fair. The hospital was an almshouse, though, at the Reformation, it became associated too with the town’s grammar school (now a state-funded academy). By the end of the 16th century, its affairs were managed by the town’s corporation, and in 1837 it was merged into the Newbury Municipal Charities. The hospital was rebuilt in 1698 and this building still stands in Argyle Road, Newbury.

The book is written in several hands, using a variety of iron gall ink recipes, and onto antique laid French paper. Several pages are corroded but the text is legible. The sections are bound onto leather thongs and the whole housed in a single sheet parchment cover, of lower grade quality and probably from an older animal. The volume measures 316mm high by 204mm wide and with a depth of 17mm.

The accounts were presented annually each March and in the name of the trustee who had been elected proctor for the year. They follow the usual form, with lines for income, mostly from rents, followed by expenditure. The charity’s main expense was alms to the sick and those who cared for them, but there are also regular bills for repairs to the almshouse and the school. The trustees were drawn almost entirely from the Newbury Corporation and included the mayor and town clerk.

The provenance of the book is uncertain. At some point, probably centuries ago, it was orphaned from the rest of the charity’s archive, most of which survives at the Berkshire Record Office amongst the records of the Newbury Municipal Charities. Prior to deposit in the 1970s these were kept in Newbury Town Hall. They contain very few items from the 17th century, but a complete run of proctors’ account books from 1700 until 1836. This earlier volume is not mentioned by any of the town’s historians and appears to be previously unknown.

The accompanying deeds relate to tailors’ shops on the west side of Northbrook Street, Newbury. They are seemingly unrelated to the charity. Their inclusion in the lot suggests that the account book may have been discovered amongst client papers in a legal office. Whatever its origin, it is delight to acquire it as it fills a large gap in St Bartholomew’s documentary history.

Detail of the Proctors’ account book fro St Bartholemew’s Hospital, Newbury. Image courtesy of Berkshire Record Office.

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Descriptor of Section 21 Above: D-EZ213-1-1-004

2. Ten account rolls of Edward Russell, 1st Earl of Orford, as Treasurer of the Navy Royal and Marine Causes and Affairs, 1689-1699. Bought from DeWolfe and Wood Rare Books for $2,000, funded in full by a grant from the Friends of the National Libraries.

Mark Stevens, County Archivist, writes: These rolls are presumed to be personal copies of Edward Russell (1653-1727). They are formal documents, written with iron gall ink in a court hand onto parchment membranes. Each roll consists of many membranes that are sewn together. The width of the rolls is consistent, at around 330mm, though the unfurled length of each varies from 6-12m (19-41ft).

The accounts were submitted by Russell in his role as head of the Navy Pay Office. The Treasurer was a political appointment, responsible for agreeing expenditure on the Navy and ensuring bills were paid. His accounts were presented for audit purposes to the Lord High Treasurer, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer.

Each presentation covers one financial year, from April to March, though was typically made some years afterwards. The accounts are written as a piece of continuous text, consisting of the itemised list of individual payments made by each branch of the Pay Office. Additionally, one roll is dedicated to the accounts for building 27 named ships across the period 1691-1699.

Russell died without heir. The rolls passed into the family of his mother, Penelope Hill, who was daughter of Sir Moyses Hill of Hillsborough, County Down. The Hills subsequently became Marquesses of Downshire, married into the Trumbull family, and lived at Easthampstead Park near Bracknell. And it was from Easthampstead that the rolls were first deposited in the Berkshire Record Office, in 1954, by the 7th Marquess.

There were 13 of them. In 1989, together with many other Trumbull papers, they were withdrawn from the Record Office and sold through Sotheby’s. Although the diplomatic material was purchased by the British Library the remaining papers, including the rolls, were auctioned in London and acquired privately. In 2012, one of the rolls, probably number 3, fetched $2,400 in New York.

Last December, these ten of those original 13 – our numbers 1, 4-8 and 10-13 – resurfaced at DeWolfe and Wood, an antiquarian book dealer in Maine, USA. We are delighted that DeWolfe and Wood’s kindness, and the generosity of the FNL, has made it possible to repatriate them.

The account rolls. Courtesy of Berkshire Record Office.

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Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase

FOR BEXLEY LOCAL STUDIES AND ARCHIVE CENTRE

Manuscript will and probate (1556) of Sir John Champneys (1490-1556). Bought for £1,500 from John Drury Rare Books funded in full by a grant from Friends of the National Libraries.

Oliver Wooller, Community Archivist, writes: John Champneys was born around 1490, the son of Robert Champneys of Chew Magna in Somerset. He came to London to study at the Inns of Court and in 1514 obtained the Freedom of the City of London by joining the Skinners’ Company. He then became in effect a merchant adventurer importing commodities like oil, wine, iron and alum and on one occasion sable skins. Much of his success was due to his marriage to Margaret, the eldest daughter and co-heir of Sir Thomas Mirfine and widow of Roger Hale, a wealthy citizen and grocer, who died sometime before 1515. After Margaret Champneys’ death John married Meriel Barratt, daughter of John Barratt of Belhouse in Essex. She died in 1534.

Thanks to his success in business and these family connections John was able to achieve high office in the government of the City. He served as High Sheriff of London in 1522-1523, Master of the Skinners Company for six years between 1527 and 1539, and an Alderman 1527-1556. In 1534 he was elected Lord Mayor of London and was knighted by Henry VIII.

In 1537 Sir John obtained a 99-year lease of the manor of Bexley from Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. At the same time, he bought the freehold estate in Bexley of the former tenant, William Shelley, and in 1540 began building Hall Place on the site of an older house erected by the Shelley family in the previous century. Sir John Champneys died of plague on 3 October 1556 and was buried in St Mary’s Church, Bexley, with considerable pomp and at vast expense.

In his will dated 28 July and proved 12 November 1556, he divided his goods and chattels equally between his three surviving sons, Francis, Clement and Justinian, according to the customs of London. In addition, his eldest son, Francis was bequeathed two leasehold tenements with a large garden in the Parish of St Olav near the Tower of London, but Hall Place and the Bexley estate were left to his youngest son, Justinian in accordance with the Kentish custom of gavelkind.

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Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase 25

FOR THE BODLEIAN LIBRARIES

1. Frances Wolfreston’s copy of Thomas Lupton, A thousand notable things of sundrie sorts (London, 1631). Bought from Forum Auctions (31 March, 2022, Lot 421) for £11,000 with the aid of a grant of £6,000 from Friends of the National Libraries.

Francesca Galligan, Assistant Librarian, Rare Books, writes: A generous grant from the FNL has allowed us to acquire an exciting new volume from the library of Frances Wolfreston (1607-1677). Wolfreston owned a significant collection of literary and popular works in English including the only surviving copy of the first edition of Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis , now in the Bodleian’s Malone collection. Although widely dispersed, more than 230 of Wolfreston’s volumes have been identified. This copy of Lupton joins nine other volumes already in the Bodleian from her library, and brings significant new insights into the use she and her family made of their books.

Wolfreston liked to note her ownership with the inscription ‘frances wolfreston her bouk’, and has marked Lupton in this way inside the upper cover and on the first page of the main text. Although she does not record the date when she acquired it, the book itself tells us something about this. Lupton’s compendium of recipes and household advice was originally published in 1579. In 1631, the year this edition was published, Frances (Middlemore) married Francis Wolfreston, and the book would have been a useful resource as she embarked on married life. She perhaps acquired it around this time, and certainly owned it by the mid-1640s, as it has been annotated by her son, another Francis (1638-1712), while still a child.

In a childish hand, Francis junior writes ‘Francis Wolfreston His Booke’, as well as a prayer, Arabic and Roman numerals, doodles, and recipes including ‘Too make a tooth fall out with gods help’. These annotations show him using available blank paper to practise his handwriting and numbers, perhaps with his mother supervising.

Francis appears to have used this book over a long period of time, as an adult hand that also seems to be his writes further recipes in blank spaces. These are varied, from household advice such as how ‘To cleanse old pictures’, to a recipe involving sheep dung:

‘The beste recipe ffor a burn or scald. Take one handfull of Gill … one handfull of the common brier leaves or blackberry leaves, one handfull of sheep dung; boil them together in a pint of cream Till they come to an oyl then strain all throh a linnen cloath: then anoint therewith; it is present ease, and heals to wo[n]der.’

Lupton’s text includes a similar recipe, so it is curious to see Francis recording his own preferred version on the first leaf in the book. It was perhaps also Francis who took a close interest in gout, and underlined all references to it in the book’s table of contents.

A scrap of paper used as a bookmark, recycled from a manuscript letter, is still in place in the volume, and lists ingredients (cinnamon, cardamom, etc.) in a hand that has yet to be identified.

This acquisition offers important new material for scholars working on Wolfreston and her library, with further work to be done on the hands that appear in it.

Frances Wolfreston’s inscription, and notes by her son Francis. Courtesy of the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford.

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Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase 27

2. Alexander Bening, Two miniatures from the Hours of Louis Quarré (after 1488). Bought from the owner by private treaty through Christie’s, with the aid of a grant of £10,000 from the Friends of the National Libraries.

Martin Kauffmann, Head of Early and Rare Collections, writes: The Hours of Louis Quarré (MS. Douce 311) is a lavishly illustrated manuscript, probably created in Ghent towards the end of the 15th century. Quarré, whose overpainted arms appear in the manuscript, was Seigneur de la Haye en Hainaut, rising in time to become Receiver General of Finances in the Burgundian court at Malines and Treasurer of the Order of the Golden Fleece. By the time the manuscript was acquired by Francis Douce in 1832 (and bequeathed to the Bodleian by him in 1834), several of its full-page miniatures had been removed. The Bodleian does not routinely seek to acquire single leaves and miniatures; but in this case it recognized the value of reuniting the miniatures with the original volume, and the generous support of the Friends of the National Libraries and other bodies has made this possible.

The two miniatures represent the Adoration of the Magi and the Elevation of the Host. Both are cut to the shape of the miniature, with the loss of the original border. The Elevation originally marked the opening of the Saturday Mass of the Virgin, part of the Weekday Hours. It shows a priest, deacon, and subdeacon at an altar in a Gothic church, at the moment of consecration when the priest (with his back to the congregation) lifts the Host above his head. The Adoration marked the opening of the Office of the Virgin Mary at the sixth hour of the day (sext). The figures are of three different ages and are intended to represent Africa, Asia, and Europe. The appearance of the black king Balthazar is a noteworthy example of a pictorial innovation which was becoming established by this date.

The volume to which they belong is recognised as an outstanding example of Flemish manuscript illumination. The chief artist (perhaps personally responsible for the miniature of the Adoration but not for the Elevation) is known as The Master of the First Prayer Book of Maximilian, who has been tentatively identified with Alexander Bening (died 1519), father of Simon. The miniatures exemplify the artistic developments which accompanied new strands of individual religious devotion, including the use of the close-up which enhanced the drama and immediacy of the reader’s experience in their interaction with the figures depicted.

The manuscript belonged to Dominique Vivant, Baron Denon, Napoleon’s adviser on art plunder and first director of the Louvre. These two miniatures seem to have been removed (along with others) between the time that the manuscript was brought to England, perhaps by Robert Heathcote in 1816, and its acquisition by Douce. The removal of illuminated miniatures and initials from manuscripts, and their reframing as art objects, though reprehensible from a modern perspective, forms part of the history of their reception. Thereafter the two miniatures took different routes before being reunited in a modern private collection. Further miniatures survive in public collections in London, Paris, Amsterdam, and New York, as well as others still in private hands.

The Elevation of the Host, miniature originally from the Hours of Louis Quarré (Flemish, probably Ghent, late 15th century; MS. Douce 311 adds. 1). Courtesy of the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford.

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BROTHERTON LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS

Peepal Tree Press Archive (1985 – 2022). Bought from the creator for £250,000, with the aid of a grant of £15,000 from Friends of the National Libraries.

Sarah Prescott, Literary Archivist, writes: Peepal Tree Press is an independent company based in Leeds and is the world’s leading publisher of Caribbean and Black British writing. Since its foundation in 1985, Peepal Tree has published well over 300 titles. Its list includes fiction, poetry and academic and non-fiction titles from both new and established writers. As well as new work, the press launched the Caribbean Modern Classics Series in 2009, which restores key works from the 1950s and 1960s to print. Peepal Tree has also supported writer development projects for emerging writers of African and Asian descent in the UK and a range of activities, from conferences to podcast series, promoting the literature of what George Lammy called the ‘Caribbean Nation’.

Although operating on an international stage, Peepal Tree Press is a significant contributor to the cultural life and industry of Leeds and West Yorkshire.

The archive is a rich testament to the work of the press. Business records show the tenacious survival of the organisation and its development over time. The collection includes an exceptional series of editorial files, which often contain original submitted manuscripts, and editorial contributions. ‘Writers’ files include correspondence with writers published by Peepal Tree, including such luminaries as Roger Robinson, Anthony Kellman, Kwame Dawes, Christian Campbell, Jacob Ross, Christine Craig, Opal Palmer Adisa, Angela Barry, Dorothea Smartt, Alecia McKenzie, Una Marson, John Agard, Vahni Capildeo and Kamau Brathwaite amongst many others. The archive also includes significant born-digital files.

Special Collections at the University of Leeds holds literary collections of national and international importance. Our holdings span many centuries and subject areas, with a particular interest in 20th-century literature associated with the University and the wider region. The Peepal Tree Press Archive, as a significant local literary industry, fits well with our existing collections. Its acquisition is also an opportunity to fill a gap. The archive allows us to begin to represent important areas of literature, specifically of Caribbean and Black British writing, which have previously been absent from our collections.

When publicly accessible the archive will take its place alongside the La Rose papers at the George Padmore Institute and the Bogle l’Ouverture papers of Jessica and Eric Huntley, (held at the London Metropolitan Archives) as a major source for this increasingly researched area of study.

Cover of The Mermaid of Black Conch , Monique Roffey, 2020, published by Peepal Tree Press. Winner of Costa Book of the Year Award, 2020. © Peepal Tree Press.

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Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase

FOR CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

Samuel Clarke’s annotated and interleaved copy of Daniel Waterland A Vindication of Christ’s Divinity , (London, 1719). Bought from Quaritch for £25,000, with the aid of a grant of £10,000 from Friends of the National Libraries [B H Breslauer Foundation Fund].

Liam Sims, Rare Books Specialist, writes: Daniel Waterland was the most influential early 18th-century teacher of divinity in the University of Cambridge and the most significant defender of the doctrine of the Trinity, masterminding attacks on Clarke and later Sir Isaac Newton. His Vindication was an important step in the long-running debate set off by Clarke’s Scripture-Doctrine of the Trinity (1712), itself part of the even longer-running dispute over the historicity and veracity of the doctrine of the Trinity, which might be viewed as the defining controversy for the 18th-century Church of England.

This copy of his Vindication is interleaved, and heavily annotated by Samuel Clarke (1675-1729), a student at Gonville & Caius College Cambridge in the 1690s, Fellow of the Royal Society, and a friend of Newton (Clarke was responsible for the translation of the 1706 Latin edition of Newton’s Opticks ). This copy is undoubtedly the one that Clarke referred to in a letter of 2 June 1719 to his collaborator, John Jackson (1686-1783), and printed in Memoirs of … John Jackson (1764): ‘I have interleaved W[aterlan]d , and am making short Notes for you throughout.’

Waterland’s response and Clarke’s annotations range across six years of controversy and look forward to a further decade of future argument. Clarke’s annotations helped Jackson to compile the rebuttal of Waterland that he published in 1722 (A Reply to Dr Waterland’s Defense of his Queries ), itself the first of three works published over a period of two years. At the heart of the debate is the question of the use of what Clarke and Jackson call ‘metaphysical’ language in divinity, a topic that Clarke also touched on in his famous exchange with Leibniz ( A Collection of Papers , 1717), which is referenced in the manuscript annotations made in this volume.

The title page of Waterland’s Vindication of Christ’s Divinity . Courtesy of Cambridge University Library.

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33

FOR CHESHIRE ARCHIVES AND LOCAL STUDIES

Deeds and papers relating to North East Cheshire estates of the Brocklehurst family, 15th-20th centuries. Bought at Dominic Winter Auctions (6 April 2022, Lot 274) for £2,921 with the aid of a grant of £1,460 from Friends of National Libraries.

Paul Newman, Archives and Local Studies Manager, writes: The generous support of the Friends of the National Libraries enabled Cheshire Archives and Local Studies to purchase this collection of 535 documents, which provides a fine case study in the accumulation of a close-knit family’s estate in and around Macclesfield, and their various exchanges of property, given added value by the significant roles which members of that family played in the public and commercial life of the town. The Brocklehurst family were extremely influential in the Macclesfield area, socially, culturally, politically and in terms of their position in the silk industry. John Brocklehurst built Hurdsfield House in c1800. A silk manufacturer and banker, he was the MP for Macclesfield between 1832 and 1868. His firm was, for a time, the largest silk manufacturer in Britain.

This collection complements an already sizeable quantity of archives relating to the Brocklehurst estates in east Cheshire, helping to fill a gap in the collection by relating to the Hurdsfield and Swanscoe estates, about which Cheshire Archives held very little. The collection includes deeds, grants of tithes, wills and plans. The earliest document is a copy of court roll of the Hallmoot of the Forest of Macclesfield, 16 July 1498 . This court’s jurisdiction covered a very large part of the eastern edge of the county at the time. A good example of way in which the court might go about the business of collecting evidence is a document which asks ‘Pray enquire of James Day or some of the oldest inhabitants in Hurdsfield where the two Acres and three quarters of that which was Waste Ground lyes I believe you’l find all the rest freehold’.

Existing material held by Cheshire Archives and Local Studies included records of the Brocklehurst’s Henbury Hall estate, purchased in 1999 also with the support of the Friends of the National Libraries.

The collection was first brought to our attention by the Swythamley Historical Society, who we have since welcomed to the Cheshire Record Office in Chester where group members were able to use it to add to their already deep understanding of the estate and the history of this corner of Cheshire.

Deeds relating to estates in Hurdsfield, Cheshire, including the earliest document in the collection, dated 1498. Courtesy of Cheshire Archives and Local Studies.

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Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase

35

FOR DORSET HISTORY CENTRE

1. Survey of Lord Arundel of Wardour’s estate in Melbury Abbas, Fontmell Magna, Hartgrove and East Orchard, 1774. Acquired from Dominic Winter Auctioneers, Cirencester (26 January 2022, Lot 323) for £1,104, funded in full by a grant from Friends of the National Libraries.

Owen Simons, Collections Archivist, writes: Dorset History Centre (DHC) would like to thank the Friends of the National Libraries for providing a full grant to purchase this manuscript survey by G(eorge)? Ingham of the Dorset held Estates of Henry Lord Arundell, 8th Baron Arundell of Wardour. Although a Wiltshirebased family, the Lords Arundell owned substantial lands in the adjacent county of Dorset.

Henry Arundell was an avid collector of art, and he accumulated enormous debts due to his ambitious building plans for New Wardour Castle, Wiltshire, and his unrestrained purchases of art to fill it. Following his death on 4 December 1808, aged 68, his trustees were forced to sell off a portion of the family’s estates to cover the debts. They chose to dispose of the lands in Dorset south of Shaftesbury around the villages of Melbury Abbas and Fontmell Magna as covered by this survey.

The lands initially went up for sale at auction but found no bidders. The Fontmell Magna estate was eventually purchased two years later by Sir Richard Carr Glyn, a very successful banker and former Lord Mayor of London and MP for St Ives, for £20,750. The remainder of the estates went to other families, but the Melbury Abbas estate came up for sale again in 1829 following the death of the previous landowner and was acquired by Sir Richard.

The Glyn Estate archive resides at Dorset History Centre (DHC ref. D-GLY) and contains many related items from the time of Lord Arundell’s ownership. The manuscript survey had been sold off privately when previous records were deposited in the 1980s, but now once again sits alongside it and complements it perfectly. It is particularly satisfying to have been able to return this item to DHC and to public ownership after an absence of over 30 years.

The survey provides details on tenants and the values, rents and acreage of the various farms, lands, and tenements, as well as the names of individual fields which made up the manors. It is particularly useful when used in conjunction with several detailed maps of the manors to which it refers, also by George Ingham, that are already at the History Centre within the Glyn archive. The volume has been scribed in an exceptionally neat hand and comes with a fine calligraphic title page. There are pencilled alterations throughout detailing future transfers of lands, all making for a great resource for researchers, local historians and genealogists.

Dorset History Centre is committed to dedicated to preserving, sharing and celebrating the rich heritage of the county of Dorset. The purchase of this survey allows the document to be made available to the public for learning and research and ensures that it is preserved for use by future generations.

Survey of Melbury Abbas, Fontmell Magna, Hartgrove and East Orchard, Dorset 1774. Courtesy of Dorset History Centre.

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37

2. Plans of Athelhampton Church, drawn by Thomas Hardy, 1860-61. Acquired from Duke’s Auctions, Dorchester (17 June 2022, Lot 71) for £5,000, with the aid of a grant of £4,250 from Friends of the National Libraries.

Sam Johnston, Service Manager for Archives and Records writes: In June 2022 Dorset History Centre (DHC) was able to acquire the original architectural designs and drawings for Athelhampton or Admiston church (accession 11817). Funding was generously supplied by the Friends of the National Libraries and Dorset Archives Trust and the plans have now joined the world’s largest collection of Thomas Hardy archives at DHC.

It is well known that Hardy came from a family involved in the building trade and he himself initially gravitated towards that profession, being taken on in 1856 at the age of 16 as a pupil at the Dorchester architectural practice of John Hicks. Hardy had throughout his lifetime an association with Athelhampton House and the nearby village of Puddletown and so it is fitting in many ways that he was so closely involved in the construction of the church. Whilst none of the plans in the series has Hardy’s signature upon them, experts agree that it is almost certain that he created many of the drawings which are dated 1860-61. On 11 January 1917 Hardy himself wrote to Alfred de la Fontaine, owner of Athelhampton ‘though you are wrong to suppose that I designed the church, I made many of the drawings for it under Hicks, (with whom I was a pupil) & I helped him to mark out the church & the churchyard’. He goes on to say that he remembers the stonemason well, ‘having had frequently to explain my drawings to him’ (Vol V, p.198, of the Collected Letters ). Athelhampton church is now a place of Orthodox worship having been sold by the Church Commissioners after being declared redundant in the 1970s.

There are 20 plans in the series mainly produced on linen. The plans of Athelhampton church, now safely housed in DHC’s repositories show signs of the relatively tough life they led prior to our acquisition. They had been framed and wall-mounted whereby the twin ills of light and damp have caused a certain amount of deterioration.

Various academics have written about Hardy’s reputation and achievements as an architect, most notably Kester Rattenbury in her book Thomas Hardy Architect – The Wessex Project (London, 2018). The popular view is that his most notable architectural creation, his home Max Gate was ‘described for almost a century with derision or dark, psychic suspicion’ (p.9). However, Rattenbury credits Hardy with being ‘directly and deliberately…the most influential writer on conservation there has ever been’ due to his strong and emotional attachment to various structures and his support for a ‘underrated vernacular culture’ (p. 232). Perhaps appropriately therefore, it was via the sale of some of his architectural manuscripts after his death in 1931 that the wonderful little Dorset church at Winterborne Tomson was restored – as recounted on the plaque inside the church carved by noted designer Reynolds Stone, whose archive also resides at DHC.

Left: Plans of Athelhampton Church (Acc. 11817). Courtesy of Dorset History Centre.

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Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase

DR JOHNSON’S HOUSE

William Dodd, The Convict’s Address to his Unhappy Brethren . London, G. Kearsly, 1777. First edition. Bought from Christopher Edwards Antiquarian Books & Manuscripts for £1,720, with the aid of a grant of £1,500 from Friends of the National Libraries.

Celine Luppo McDaid, Hyde Director and Curator, writes: We are most grateful to FNL for the grant that enabled us to acquire The Convict’s Address . The pamphlet is well known amongst Johnsonians, and has great relevance beyond, in terms of questions of social history, particularly the debate surrounding capital punishment (historic and current).

This piece was written for William Dodd, when under sentence of death for forgery, by Samuel Johnson. It was a very popular text, and there were many editions. The great Johnsonian Bibliographer David Fleeman records 16 of them in 1777 alone, printed not only in London, Dublin and Edinburgh, but also in Newcastle, Salisbury and Taunton. This is the true first edition [pp. 24]. The title page and last page a bit dust-soiled, but a good copy, rebound as a separate volume in modern quarter calf.

This acquisition purchase supports our acquisitions policy, which is to collect works by Samuel Johnson in first edition, and other later editions where notable, or relevant works by those in Johnson’s circle. Although Johnson and Dodd were not close, they were certainly acquainted and had several mutual friends. Although delivered by William Dodd in the chapel of Newgate and credited to him, it was widely known to have been written almost entirely by Johnson and pleaded, albeit ultimately unsuccessfully, against the death sentence being handed out. In April 1751, Johnson had argued against capital punishment for anything other than homicide in his published Rambler essay (No. 114), ‘The necessity of proportioning punishments to crimes’.

The title page of The Convict’s Address . Courtesy of Dr Johnson’s House.

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Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase

41

FOR DR WILLIAMS’S LIBRARY, LONDON

Calamy, Edmund (1671-1732) manuscript entitled ‘An Historical Account of my own Life, with Some Reflections on the Times I have liv’d in’. Bought from Dean Cooke Rare Books Ltd. for £8,750, with the aid of a grant of £4,000 from the Friends of the National Libraries.

Dr Hugh Maguire, Director, The Dr Williams’s Trust, writes: These three folio volumes form a welcome addition to the library collections, complementing as they do the existing holdings and the Trust’s aspirations for the future growth and refinement of its richly diverse collections. The purchase was supported not only by the Friends of the National Libraries but the Friends of Dr Williams’s Library and individual trustees of the Dr Williams’s Trust.

London-born Calamy (1671-1732) through his extensive writings remains integral to the study of British Protestant dissenting traditions. A moderate non-conformist himself, his own publications were initiated in 1702 with the Abridgement of Mr Baxter’s Narrative ; the Dr Williams’s Trust owns, by happy coincidence, the most extensive manuscript collection on the nonconformist Richard Baxter (1615-91). Calamy’s Abridgement …was seen as a popular and public defence of non-conformity in the early 18th century, the period in which the Dr Williams’s Library was founded to support the education, in the broadest sense, of dissenting ministry. On Williams’s death (1716) Calamy was the leading Presbyterian minister in London.

However, comparatively little manuscript material associated with him appears to survive and the rediscovery of this manuscript is fortuitous. Of an original five identified copies, only one other appears to have survived (an incomplete copy held at the British Library). Internal evidence suggests that this is what came to be known as Manuscript B – ‘a copy in three volumes’, which was in the ownership of Calamy’s immediate family, having been collated by his son Edmund, and was the basis of An historical account of my own life … Exact passages in the John Towill Rutt (1760-1841) edition (1830) complement our manuscript and indeed the manuscript highlights passages that were omitted in published versions, providing revealing insights into Calamy and the culture in which such passaged were deleted. The newly acquired manuscript,

with its many annotations (pencil) add to our insights and understanding on the publishing history of the original Calamy. Many bracketed passages in the manuscript provide insights into family life and circumstances, especially personal and financial details. These, at some point, were obviously deemed inappropriate for wider public consumption, most likely by Calamy’s descendant Michael Calamy (d.1870). There are, for example, accounts of the melancholy which beset his first wife and observations on the influence on her of the writings of Sir David Hamilton (1663-1721).

The Dr Williams’s Library is facing into a period of operational change but one in which its material may become, thankfully, more widely accessible. The Trust is firmly committed to seeing the collections grow in the years ahead, and thereby continuing the legacy and vision of the original founder, and by association celebrating the riches of the dissenting traditions across Britain and beyond.

Detail of Calamy’s introduction. © Dean Cooke Rare Books Ltd.

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Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase 43

FOR EAST SUSSEX BRIGHTON AND HOVE RECORD OFFICE

1. Scrapbook in two volumes, of prints, drawings and maps, [1673]-1863. Purchased at Forum Auctions (13 January 2022, Lot 44) for £938 and funded in full by a grant from Friends of the National Libraries.

Anna Manthorpe, Archivist, writes: 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. The purchase was considered by West Sussex Record Office, but since the majority relates to East Sussex it was felt that this office was the best home for it. Such a compendium is a useful source for topographical history, and we were very pleased to receive the support of the Friends of the National Libraries.

The scrapbook was completed to a high standard in two volumes bound in vellum, with marbled endpapers. It incorporates paper watermarked 1813, but since the contents are broadly arranged alphabetically and cover the period up around 1850, it seems likely that they were compiled at a later date. Most of the material dates from the 18th and early 19th centuries.

The places covered include Arundel Castle, Ashburnham Place, Bodiam Castle, Beachy Head, Brighton, Chichester, Herstmonceux Castle, Hastings, Lewes, Pevensey Castle, Rye and Winchelsea, although this list is not exhaustive. There is 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.

It is a useful summary of images of local views in the days before photography. There are a number of sketches, probably by the compiler but, unfortunately, we have been unable to discover any clues to indicate their identity.

Opposite, top: Pen-and-ink drawing of the Hastings seafront, with net shops, boats and East Cliff, c1830 (AMS 7400/2/22). Opposite, bottom: Engraving ‘The Baths at Brighton’ by A. Rawle from a drawing by J. Nixon, 1803 (AMS 7400/1/48). Courtesy of East Sussex Brighton and Hove Record Office.

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2. Documents relating to the sale and development of land at Brighton, 1797-1822. Purchased at Toovey’s Auctions (25 May, Lot 3273) for £621 and funded in full by a grant from Friends of the National Libraries.

Andrew Bennett, Brighton and Hove Archivist, writes: 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 documents comprise maps of land fit for development, annotated sale particulars and, most interesting of all, diagrams of buildings and proposed layouts of William Street in east central Brighton.

The papers seem to form part of the archive of William Dillwyn (17431824) of Higham Lodge, Walthamstow in Essex, a Pennsylvanian Quaker who returned to Britain in 1777, settled at Walthamstow and was to become a leading abolitionist, and his son Lewis Weston Dillwyn (1778-1855), naturalist and porcelain manufacturer. Both men were important figures in Brighton’s development at this period. William Dillwyn bought the Old Ship Hotel in 1821 but although his name appears throughout our catalogue on property deeds, none contain the level of detail shown in these documents. Although we hold a large archive of building plans for Brighton, this series pre-dates them by a decade. This area was one of the first to be demolished as part of slum clearance in the 1890s so it is a part of Brighton about which comparatively little is known.

We do not hold any comparable papers that illustrate in so much detail the processes carried out by landowners, both local and from further afield, to develop land for building. This group has the added interest of representing the investment in Brighton’s development of wealth acquired through manufacturing, in this instance the Swansea Porcelain Factory.

The lot also included the unrelated deeds of 4 and 5 Cannon Place, Brighton, 1805-1909, which have been listed as AMS 7408/2.

William Dillwyn’s diaries recording his departure from Pennsylvania for England, tours of parts of England and south Wales, his religious, political and business activities, the anti-slavery committee, and family business, 17741775, 1777, 1781-1790, are held at the National Library of Wales.

Printed handbill for sale of building land in Brighton: Lot 5 purchased by William Dillwyn and subsequently sold to Thomas Kemp, 21 June 1797 (AMS7408/1/3). Courtesy of East Sussex Brighton and Hove Record Office.

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3. Uckfield Police Station journal bought from TW Gaze and Sons, The Diss Auction Rooms (1 September 2022, Lot 5100) for £413 and funded in full by a grant from the Friends of the National Libraries.

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). We were very pleased that a grant from the Friends of the National Libraries allowed us to purchase it.

The journal gives interesting information concerning policing in a small town at the end of the 19th century. The population in Uckfield in 1881 was 2,146, and ten years later had risen to 2,497. The book was completed by three successive sergeants, Thomas Willett, James Elphinstone, and Tom Huggett.

There is certainly a contrast between policing then and now. The men were apparently available at the Uckfield Police Station seven days a week. The times that they were on duty were logged into the book, with details concerning the place that they were visiting, to whom they reported, the distance away from the station, state of the weather, and public houses and beer shops visited, with the time they spent there, and for what purpose. Attendance at church service on a Sunday seems to have been obligatory – the reason for not attending is always given.

Uckfield Station seems to have covered an area with a radius of around nine miles, although occasionally it was necessary to venture further afield. The farthest distance was Grantham, Lincolnshire, which PS Willett visited on 18 February 1887 (in plain clothes) and apprehended George McKinley on warrant charged with maliciously wounding a horse which was the property of Sir Spencer Wilson, at Fletching on 29 January 1887. One wonders if this zealous pursuit of the law was connected to the fact that the Maryon Wilson family were local landowners of Searles in Fletching. Sir Spencer Maryon Wilson was made Sheriff of Sussex in 1889.

Many of the crimes reflect the rural nature of the area. In February 1887 PS Willett and a colleague spent three nights staking out a barn at Hunnington’s Farm in Little Horsted because the farmer believed that his oats were being stolen. Many of the reported thefts involved livestock, ranging from horses to hens,

ferrets to fox terriers. There are references to poaching. On 27 November 1887 PS Elphinstone was on the trail (in plain clothes) of men for night poaching and unlawfully wounding three gamekeepers at Buxted.

Relatively few arrests were made. Much of the time was spent in receiving information concerning stolen goods, serving warrants, and visiting other police stations. Only one murder and an attempted murder were mentioned, neither of which took place in Uckfield. There were many family cases, including bastardy and desertion. On 18 January 1887 PS Willett went to Oldlands Farm in East Hoathly to execute a distress warrant against William Snodgrass for bastardy arrears, and seized one waggon, the cart, and one clod crusher.

These days minor thefts are rarely followed up, but then it seemed that no incident was too trivial to report, including a handkerchief found at East Hoathly (March 1887), the theft of a pair of children’s socks at Rotherfield (October 1887), and a horse cloth lost in Buxted (March 1888). One imagines that the men were constantly reaching for their notebooks.

Extracts from plans of Uckfield police station, 1860 (R/A/2/154/1). Courtesy of East Sussex Brighton and Hove Record Office.

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UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH

Manuscript of Italian and French lute music in French tablature, ca.1620. Sold at Sotheby’s (14 September 2021, Lot 64) for £214,200 and bought after an export stop by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art, with the aid of a grant of £20,000 from Friends of the National Libraries [B H Breslauer Foundation Fund].

Elizabeth Quarmby Lawrence, Rare Books Librarian, writes: The University of Edinburgh is very grateful to the Friends of the National Libraries for generously supporting the acquisition of this exceptional music manuscript, which offers such great opportunities for teaching and research, particularly in the context of the musical instruments in the collection at St Cecilia’s Hall.

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.

The lute was one of the most popular instruments of the 16th and 17th centuries. It was used for almost every genre of music and in almost every possible ensemble. Musicians of the time worked internationally, and their music was circulated, mostly in manuscript, right across Europe. This volume is an important source of the popular dance music of the period, and an important witness to the transmission of that music across the continent, containing 320 works, 89 of which are not found in any other manuscript. It was made in Bavaria in about 1620, but a great deal of the music is French in origin and in the French style, while the largest number of pieces with a named composer are by Michelangelo Galilei (1575-1631) who was Italian but worked at the Bavarian Court. British music is represented, with a few pieces marked as ‘D’Angleterre’, or ‘Anglum’, but most significantly with an adapted version of John Dowland’s most famous work, the Lachrimae pavan (fol.225v-227v), and his ‘Piper’s Galliard’ (fol.92r-93v). The notation in the manuscript is French lute tablature

– a system similar to modern guitar tabs – but whoever copied it may have been more comfortable with the Italian system of tablature, as a few pieces change into that part way through.

Following acquisition the manuscript was placed on public display at the University’s historic St Cecilia’s Hall Concert Room and Music Museum, alongside a lute from circa 1620. The manuscript is now undergoing minor conservation treatments and will shortly be digitised and made freely accessible online. Plans are also being drafted to undertake in-depth academic research and a modernising of the tablature, which in turn will facilitate public musical performance.

Examining the manuscript. Courtesy of Univeristy of Edinburgh; © David Cheskin.

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FOR HERSCHEL MUSEUM OF ASTRONOMY (HERSCHEL HOUSE TRUST), BATH

Autograph draft manuscript of the memoirs of Caroline Herschel (1750-1848). Bought for £108,000 from a private seller, via Christie’s Private Sales, with the aid of a grant of £20,000 from Friends of the National Libraries [John R Murray Fund].

Izzy Wall, Assistant Curator, writes: The Herschel Museum of Astronomy is very grateful to the Friends of National Libraries for their generous support towards the acquisition of this 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 57 pages of draft recollections in this manuscript were written around 1836-40 and provide content for chapters I and II in The Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel . This Memoir was published in London by John Murray in 1876, and edited by Margaret Herschel, wife of Caroline’s nephew John. Although the edited text of the manuscript version was published, much of the colourful material Caroline wrote was removed from the printed text and remains unpublished. There is something special about seeing the original words written in the author’s own hand. The corrections and additions show Caroline’s stream of consciousness, the musings of an older woman recalling the stories of her youth.

The manuscript is written in two sequences. In the first Caroline Herschel writes about her childhood spent in Hanover from 1755. She recounts her childhood experiences and the limited education she received. She recalls fond memories of observing an eclipse with her father in the reflection of a bucket of water, while he explained the phenomenon. She describes her brother William’s escape from his position in a military band, fleeing to England when the French invaded Hanover and the family feared he would be conscripted to fight. It closes with Caroline’s description of her journey to England, and arrival in Bath in 1772.

The second sequence, written when Caroline was becoming more elderly and frail, opens with the memories of her arrival at her brother’s house on New King Street in Bath on 18 August 1772 and chronicles her first three years in the city. Caroline writes about the education she received from William and her struggles when she arrived in England, from finding likeminded friends to dealing with dishonest servants. Caroline shares some very honest feelings about one servant whom she refers to as a ‘hot-headed Welshwoman’ several times. The manuscript offers an important insight into the Herschels’ professional lives as musicians in Bath, as well as William’s increasing interest in astronomy and his telescope building endeavours. Caroline recounts the books she read aloud to William while he polished mirrors, notes visits to her brother by the scientists Harry Englefield, Dr Blagden, and the Astronomer Royale, Dr Maskelyne, and even some daring deeds by another brother, Alexander, which involved him holding on to a chimney stack at the top of the house!

When she died in 1848, at the age of 97, Caroline Herschel was highly regarded by the astronomical community across Europe, and she remains an inspirational figure within the field of science and astronomy.

Additional support was received from ACE/V&A Grant Purchase Fund, National Heritage Memorial Fund and private donations.

Detail of Caroline Herschel’s manuscript draft of her memoir. Courtesy of the Herschel Museum of Astronomy – Bath Preservation Trust.

52 Friends of the National Libraries

Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase

53

FOR JOHN RYLANDS RESEARCH INSTITUTE AND LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER

Manuscript copy of ‘Speculum humanae salvationis’ (Paris, c.1780). Bought from Binoche et Giquello (Hôtel Drouot Paris, 22 March 2022, Lot 78) for £17,930, with the aid of a grant of £3,048 from the Friends of the National Libraries [B H Breslauer Foundation Fund].

Julianne Simpson, Collections and Discovery Manager writes: The John Rylands Research Institute and Library (JRRIL) is very grateful to the Friends of the National Libraries for its generous grant to support the acquisition of this illustrated manuscript on large paper executed by Jacques Fucien Lesclabart, one of the most famous French calligraphers of the 18th century. This manuscript reproduces the text and woodcuts of the second Latin xylographic edition of the Speculum humanae salvationis , originally printed in the Netherlands around 1475, a copy of which is already at the JRRIL.

The original Latin edition of the Speculum is one of four related books, two in Latin and two in Dutch, which remain mysterious to historians of printing even to this day. From the late 16th century they became associated with a rival claim for the invention of printing in Haarlem by Laurens Jansz Coster. The Rylands copy is on display in our current exhibition, Transitions in Print, which explores how scientists, historians and imaging specialists are joining forces to develop tools and new ways of looking at these historic documents using cutting-edge techniques, giving us new insights into our earliest printed heritage. The ink used in our copies of the Latin and Dutch editions have been analysed using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) in order to gain a better understanding of the techniques used in their production.

The context for the production of this manuscript is intimately intertwined with the development of book history, bibliophily and collecting in the 18th and early 19th centuries. When Lesclabart produced this facsimile around 1780, genuine blockbooks were scarce in commerce and this would have appealed to the high-end bibliophilic market. Another Lesclabart facsimile, sold in 2021, was owned by one of Earl Spencer’s contemporaries Stanesby Alchorne. The provenance of this newly-described copy shows that it circulated in similar circles: it contains the bookplate of the Lloyd family of Leaton Knolls in Shropshire, presumably acquired by John Arthur Lloyd, also a member of the Roxburghe Club.

The manuscript is an important addition to our collection, enhancing the study of the blockbook from several perspectives. Earl Spencer was actively pursuing blockbooks from the 1790s and his collection, which includes some of the most notable individual copies in the world, has ensured that Manchester now has one of the most significant collections of xylographic books. The recent redating of a woodblock in our collection and the discovery of its association with John Bagford, offers rare opportunities to study the first flurry of scholarship around xylographic printing in the 18th century. The Lesclabart manuscript is evocative of Spencer, of bibliomania and of a period of connoisseurship and collecting which is of considerable academic interest at present.

Opening of Speculum humanae salvationis (JRL221201546). Courtesy of the University of Manchester.

54 Friends of the National Libraries

Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase

55

KEATS SHELLEY MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION

Vincenzo da Filicaja, Poesie Toscane (Venice, Vitarelli, 1812) with an inscription from Percy Bysshe Shelley to Claire Clairmont. Bought from Bonhams for £75,250, with the aid of a grant of £10,000 from Friends of the National Libraries [B. H. Breslauer Foundation Fund].

David Leigh-Hunt, Trustee, writes: Claire Clairmont (1798-1879) became Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s stepsister when her mother Mary Jane de Vial (calling herself Mrs Clairmont) married the philosopher William Godwin in 1801. In 1816 she had a brief affair with Lord Byron and their child was born on 12th January 1817, initially named Alba. While pregnant, she had taken Mary and her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) to Lake Geneva to meet Byron, with whom they spent the notorious summer of 1816 writing gothic tales (including the first draft of Frankenstein by the 18-year-old Mary Shelley). Claire spent 14 months with her child (later renamed Allegra) until the awkwardness of their family household made her opt to give the child in custody to Byron, who kept the her in his Venice and Ravenna mansions. When Byron moved to Pisa in 1821, however, Allegra was placed in the San Giovanni Battista convent at Bagnacavallo (Ravenna), where she died on 20th April 1822 because of what was probably a typhoid fever. Claire never recovered from the loss and kept thinking about Allegra for the rest of her long life, during which she worked as a governess throughout Europe, going as far as Russia. She outlived most of the members of the Shelley circle, dying at 80 in Florence after having reconciled to Catholicism.

Her relationship with P. B. Shelley has often been debated and she was certainly one of the most important women of his life. It is probable that the present volumes were a present for Claire’s 23rd birthday on 27th April 1821. Their author, Vincenzo da Filicaja (1642-1707), was a lyric poet beloved by Shelley and his circle. Poesie toscane was particularly suitable for Claire, who had made Florence her home. Filicaja’s most famous sonnet, included in the present collection, is perhaps ‘Italia, Italia, O tu cui feo la sorte’, translated and included by Byron in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (‘Italia! oh Italia! thou who hast / The fatal gift of beauty’), whilst Mary Shelley included a brief biography of de Filicaja in her Italian and Spanish Lives.

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 (the other being an edition of Homer once belonging to, and inscribed by, the poet, which was donated by Lord Abinger).

Provenance: Claire Clairmont (1798-1879); William Francis Spencer Ponsonby, 1st Baron De Mauley (17871855), arms on covers. Ponsonby’s sister, the novelist Lady Caroline Lamb, also had a love affair with Byron, famously describing him as ‘mad, bad, and dangerous to know’; his son Ashley Ponsonby (1831-1898); his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, 4-8 May 1897, lot 319, sold to ‘Ridler’ (presumably William Ridler, London bookseller, fl. 1877-1904); Henry Beckles Willson (1869-1942), Canadian historian and journalist.

The Poesie Toscane and Shelley’s inscription to Claire Clairmont. Courtesy of the Keats Shelley Memorial Association.

56 Friends of the National Libraries

Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase 57

KELMSCOTT MANOR, SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES

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. Bought from Woolley and Wallis, Salisbury (15 June, Lot 276) for £3,120, with the aid of a grant of £2,340 from Friends of the National Libraries.

Dr Kathy Haslam, Curator, writes: The Society of Antiquaries of London is most grateful to FNL for its generous grant towards this acquisition for Kelmscott Manor. The Manor is renowned as the country home of Victorian polymath William Morris (1834-1896) and his family. Their connection with the estate extended over a 67-year period from 1871, during which Morris’s widow Jane purchased it (1913) and their younger daughter May Morris made provision for its future.

This miscellany of papers originates from the private archive of Arthur Halcrow Verstage, architect, photographer and founding member of the Kelmscott Fellowship, for whom the Manor had a particular resonance. The recipient of several of the letters is Kate Whitaker, a longstanding friend to whom May Morris writes candidly about her mother’s longstanding preoccupation with her health, the subject of much theorizing by biographers over the years. Both were at the time staying at The Old Hospital in Burford, the house 10 miles distant from Kelmscott rented some years earlier by Jane Morris in order to be within reach of the Manor yet away from the risk of flooding and the inhospitable winter conditions there. This is a little-documented aspect of her later life. Another letter concerns a legacy from May Morris to Kate herself. And during the months following May’s death it was Kate, as we now know from further correspondence in the collection, who gave her assistance to auctioneers Hobbs & Chambers by identifying objects at the Manor and contributing to the preparation of the auction catalogue of the property’s contents. Poignantly, she was at that date living in the very house in Hammersmith that May had vacated to move permanently to the Manor in 1923. As the Hobbs & Chambers business archive does not survive, this correspondence is particularly noteworthy in terms of documenting the auction process.

Playwright and polemicist George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) also features, both as a young man, in the guise of a portrait photograph inscribed to fellow socialist ‘Comrade’ May during the days of their relatively brief and inconclusive courtship (1886), and in another photograph taken almost half a century later when in 1934 he attended the opening of the Morris Memorial Hall, a substantial village asset instigated by May Morris and only built due to her determined and protracted fundraising. The collection also contains two other documents relating to its opening ceremony. The Memorial Hall was the final element of the distinctive architectural heritage in Kelmscott for which Jane and May Morris were responsible, useful buildings designed by leading Arts and Crafts architects intended to benefit the village from both a social and cultural perspective whilst collectively memorializing William Morris.

These papers are an extremely welcome addition to Kelmscott Manor’s archive and are available for consultation by appointment.

Portrait photograph by Frederick Hollyer of George Bernard Shaw, 1886, inscribed to ‘Comrade May’ Morris; (centre) notice of the opening ceremony for Kelmscott’s Morris Memorial Hall, on 20 October 1934, at which Shaw officiated; (right) May Morris greeting Shaw on the steps of the Hall prior to the ceremony. Courtesy of Kelmscott Manor, Society of Antiquaries.

58 Friends of the National Libraries

Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase 59

KENT HISTORY AND LIBRARY CENTRE, MAIDSTONE

A collection of deeds and documents relating chiefly to Kent, 12641654 and a commission appointing Samuel Tavenour as governor of Deal Castle, 1654. Bought for £45,000 from Gorringe’s (8 March, Lots 79 and 80), with the aid of a grant of £20,000 from Friends of the National Libraries [John R Murray Fund].

Sarah Stanley, ACR, Service Manager, and Mark Ballard write: In 2022 the Kent Archives service acquired, thanks to a generous grant from the FNL, a collection of Kent charters 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).

Kent History and Library Centre (KHLC), formerly the Kent Archives Office (KAO), has collected both such archives of the Dering family as they retained into the 20th century, and as many as possible of those manuscripts which they had collected through their antiquarian interests. From the 1940s onwards the Historic Manuscripts Commission assisted the KAO to bring back together those dispersed groups which had not already found their way to national repositories. Individual items once within the collection were also donated, the charter of King Wihtred of Kent being the most famous.

The first group of 36 charters, obviously derived from the core of the Derings’ own family archive, record property transactions between 1290 and 1469 in the parishes of Pluckley and Little Chart, where they owned land. Their place and personal names are underlined in red ink, characteristic of Sir Edward Dering, and are endorsed with numerical references in violet ink indicating inclusion in the large sale of Dering documents at Puttick and Simpson on 13 July 1865; in this respect they resemble annotations on other Dering charters at KHLC, in (among others) collections U350 and U1823. A second group of 49 charters ranges into East Kent, particularly the parishes of Upper and Lower Hardres. More consciously ‘collected’, many of these bear Sir Edward’s characteristic notations on the reverse.

The collections at Surrenden acquired a legendary status for antiquarians. They were seen as holding special value for indicating how land was dispersed among the gentry and yeomanry of medieval Kent, and thus for wider insights into distinctive Kentish patterns of landholding and tenure. Their date range, on either side of the Black Death, might enable us to see its effects upon those landholding patterns. Before they were dispersed, the antiquarian Lambert Larking, a founder member of the Kent Archaeological Society, undertook transcriptions and notes from as much of the Surrenden collections as he could. These, now divided between the British Library and 15 volumes in the Maidstone Museum collection at KHLC (U1823/14) themselves attract the interest of professional genealogists today, seeking first-hand evidence to set aside doubtful theories about family descent and relationships within the landowning class. Yet even Larking’s industry was sufficient only to transcribe a fraction of the charters at Surrenden, so we are indebted to FNL for allowing us to restore a further part of the original Dering collection.

This accession formed a focal point in a conference about Sir Edward Dering planned with Dr David Rundle of the University of Kent that was held in May 2023.

----- Start of picture text -----
Sir Edward Dering’s annotations on the reverse of a charter of
1427, among the earliest evidence for the Derings’ landholdings
in Pluckley and Little Chart, Kent. Courtesy of Kent History and
Library Centre.
----- End of picture text -----

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Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase

FOR THE NATIONAL GALLERY RESEARCH CENTRE

Richard Ford (1796-1858), a copy of the suppressed edition of A Handbook for Travellers in Spain . London: John Murray, 1844) inscribed by the author to Sir William Stirling Maxwell. Bought from Bernard Quaritch Ltd for £12,000, with the aid of a grant of £8,000 from Friends of the National Libraries [John R Murray Fund].

Alan Crookham, Research Centre Manager at the National Gallery, writes: 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, one of the most complete pictorial records of Spanish cities and their monuments before the advent of photography. From 1836 Ford contributed a number of lengthy reviews to the Quarterly Review , several of them on Spanish subjects. This led the publisher John Murray to invite Ford to write A Handbook for Travellers in Spain (including an account of the pictures in the Prado that runs to over 17,000 words). When the book finally appeared in 1845, it was an immediate success and was followed a year later by Ford’s Gatherings from Spain .

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. The volume includes an inscription from Ford to Stirling Maxwell in which he outlines the reasons for the suppression of the volume: ‘certain truths were too bluntly told and might cause offence to Spaniards and French’. A letter from Ford to Stirling Maxwell written at the time of its presentation, 10 May 1856, is tipped into the volume. The book is in good condition with only minor wear and some surface cracking along the spine; it is bound in Spanish leather to Ford’s specifications. The immediate provenance of the book comes from the library of Richard Ford’s biographer, Ian Robertson (1928-2020).

The purchase of this book complements several other acquisitions of library and archive material relating to Richard Ford that took place in 2020 and 2022.

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Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase

63

FOR THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

1. The Smillie Archive: personal papers of and correspondence relating to Robert Ramsay ‘Bob’ Smillie (1917-1937). Bought from Kennys Bookshop & Art Galleries, Dublin, for £30,000, with the aid of a grant of £5,000 from Friends of the National Libraries.

Heidi Egginton, Curator of Political Collections, writes: We are so grateful to the Friends of the National Libraries for supporting the acquisition of the Smillie Archive, comprising the personal papers of Robert Ramsay ‘Bob’ Smillie (1917-1937), the labour activist and anti-fascist volunteer, together with papers of his father, Alexander Frame Smillie (1896-1984), and grandfather, Robert Smillie (1857-1940).

Born in Larkhall, Lanarkshire, where his grandfather had been a prominent trade union leader and founder member of the Independent Labour Party (ILP), Bob Smillie had been drawn into radical causes as a young man, supporting the hunger marches and campaigning against rearmament. In 1936, aged 19, he abandoned his studies in chemistry at the University of Glasgow, becoming one of the 600 Scots who volunteered to fight for the Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War. After taking part in a speaking tour in France and England to drum up support for the war, he was detained by the government in Valencia on his crossing back into Spain and died in prison in June 1937. He received a posthumous tribute from George Orwell, with whom he had served in the ILP contingent allied to the revolutionary socialist group Partido Obrero de Unificiación Marxista (POUM), and whose Homage to Catalonia (1938) helped draw public attention to the unexplained circumstances surrounding his arrest.

The archive is a little-studied and exceptionally detailed record of the Smillie family’s engagement in anti-fascist and left-wing politics. It contains a series of Bob’s own letters to his family, which serve as a detailed diary of his time on the front line of the fighting against Franco’s forces in Spain from November 1936 to his detention in May 1937. This is followed by his parents’ frantic correspondence with the Spanish authorities and members of the ILP and POUM during his imprisonment, and a collection of letters of condolence and tribute

after his death in custody. The rest of the archive comprises photographs, political ephemera, and unpublished literary manuscripts of Robert and Alexander Smillie. As a whole, it provides a unique picture of how international labour politics reverberated through three generations of a Scottish family in the early 20th century.

The National Library of Scotland holds the pre-eminent collection of archives relating to the Scottish labour and trade union movements, where the involvement of Scots in the Spanish Civil War is a particular specialism. Significantly, with unseen letters to and from Bob’s mother and grandmother, this archive brings out the voices of the women in the Smillie family for the first time. The collection also helps cast light on the papers we hold of David Murray, the ILP lawyer and journalist who represented Bob during his detention and affords researchers the opportunity to continue piecing together the contested accounts of his final days.

We are indebted to the generosity of the Friends of the National Libraries and look forward to making this archive accessible for further research and public engagement.

Above, left: Photograph of Bob Smillie (circled) with the Independent Labour Party contingent at the Aragon Front, March 1937. Above, right: Bob Smillie’s passport photo, 1936. Images courtesy of the National Library of Scotland.

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65

2. Poems and religious writings (c.1719) of Reverend Robert Blair (1699-1746). Bought from Christian White Rare Books for £22,500, with the aid of a grant of £2,500 from Friends of the National Libraries [B H Breslauer Foundation Fund].

Ralph McLean, Manuscripts Curator for the Long 18th century, writes: The Church of Scotland Minister, Robert Blair (1699-1746) is an unusual figure in Scottish literature as he had a prominent reputation which rested on limited publications and virtually no original manuscripts. This volume represents the single biggest collection of Blair’s poetry and religious writings found to date, all of which are unpublished. Blair enjoyed literary fame thanks to his poem The Grave (1743) which sparked a vogue for mortuary poems in the 18th century. However as a minister in the Church of Scotland he was discouraged from publishing literary works, so his output remained small. Until the appearance of this volume almost no manuscripts of Blair were thought to have survived until the present day.

The volume comprises two unpublished poems by Blair, the second of which ‘Evening Hymn’ contains themes and ideas later explored in more detail in The Grave . The poems are followed by 60 pages of prose divided into seven sections concerning spiritual investigations and meditations on topics such as confessions, petitions, intercession and thanksgiving. Blair has clearly returned to these themes on several occasions as the manuscript shows signs of corrections and additions to the original content. The volume offers significant research potential for new studies of Blair and his poetic development within the context of the early Scottish Enlightenment and offers insights into his theological positions through his only surviving writing on the subject.

The Library owns part of the manuscript of Blair’s poetry, a portion of the draft of ‘The Grave’, one of Blair’s few surviving manuscripts. This was presented to the Library in 1978 by Blair’s descendent A. C. Maconochie. This volume also traces its provenance to ownership of the Maconochie family, and therefore greatly complements our existing holdings. The Library holds important collections of sermons and writings of ministers who made significant contributions to the Scottish Enlightenment, such as the Edinburgh Professor, Hugh Blair (Robert’s cousin), Alexander Carlyle and John Home.

Robert Blair’s ‘Morning Hymn’. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland.

Robert Blair’s connection to Home is significant as he was Home’s predecessor as minister of Athelstaneford. Home would likewise go on to carve out a literary career.

The purchase of this volume ensures that an important part of Scottish Enlightenment history and literature is preserved for the nation, and that it is publicly accessible for those who would like to view and consult it. We are very grateful to the Friends of the National Libraries for helping us to purchase this manuscript volume for the National Library of Scotland.

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Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase 67

3. The China Magazine , a Weekly Miscellany, Illustrated with Photographs, Conducted by C. Langdon Davies. Midsummer Volume [vol. 1]. Hong Kong: Noronha & Sons, 1868. Bought from Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S, Copenhagen, for €19,500, with the aid of a grant of £2,000 from Friends of the National Libraries.

Dr. Graham Hogg, Curator (19th-century Printed Collections and Photographs) writes: The National Library of Scotland is very grateful for the support of the Friends of the National Libraries, which has enabled it to add this important book to our collections.

The China Magazine was a short-lived periodical produced by and for the British ex-pat community in Hong Kong between 1868 and 1870. It is probably the first publication of any kind in the Far East to incorporate pasted-in original photographs. Only four volumes were published and there is only one known complete set, in Cornell University library in the USA.

Volume 1 (Midsummer 1868) of The China Magazine contains articles and 16 original photographs by the famous Scottish photographer and travel writer John Thomson (1837-1921), subject of a major exhibition by the Library in 1997. John Thomson was living in Hong Kong at the time and was a major contributor of text and photographs to volume 1 and, to a lesser extent, volume 2. He had established a photographic studio in the Commercial Bank building, in which most of the photographs in this volume were processed. He did not contribute to volumes 3 and 4, presumably due to a dispute with the editor C. Langdon Davies.

Thomson’s photographs are mainly of the local Chinese population and are in a similar vein to his groundbreaking work Illustrations of China and its people published in London in the 1870s, which were the result of his extensive travels in China from his base in Hong Kong. The acquisition of this first volume is a major addition to our excellent holdings of John Thomson books and photographs, and to our holdings of early photographically illustrated books connected to Scotland. We are delighted to make it available to users of our Library.

We acquired a copy of volume 2, the Christmas 1868 edition, which only has three prints definitely attributed to Thomson, back in 2002. There are no copies of vol. 1 recorded as being held elsewhere in Scotland. This copy of volume 1 has all the 16 prints attributed to John Thomson. In total there appear to have been 33 different prints identified as pasted into the surviving copies but is likely no two surviving copies will have exactly the same number of prints in them.

John Thomson’s photograph of a Chinese seamstress. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland.

68 Friends of the National Libraries

Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase

4. [Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations in Russian] Issledovaniia o prirode i prichinakh bogatstva narodov s primechaniiami Bentama, Blanki, Bukhanana, Garn’e, Mak-Kulokha, Mal-tusa, Millia, Rikardo, Seia, Sismondi I Tirgu [translated by P. A. Bibikov], 3 vols, St. Petersburg: Glazunov, 1866. Bought from Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S for €18,800, with the aid of a grant of £2,000 from Friends of the National Libraries.

Dr. Graham Hogg, Curator (19th-Century Printed Collections and Photographs) writes: The National Library of Scotland is very grateful for the support of the Friends of the National Libraries, which has enabled it to add this important set to our collections.

The very first translation of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations into Russian was published between 1802-1806, was poorly regarded at the time, and is today virtually unobtainable. The translation which the Library purchased is the second translation, in three volumes, by P. A. Bibikov. There are no recorded copies of this work in UK libraries, and only five recorded by WorldCat in libraries around the world – in American and Japan. Volumes 2 & 3 from the incomplete copy held by the University of Illinois have been digitised and made freely accessible via Hathi Trust but there is no known complete digitised version of this work. The National Library of Scotland’s acquisition of this volume has made it easier for researchers in the UK and Europe to consult this work.

In 2009 the Library acquired a first edition of Bibikov’s later translation of Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments which Bibikov regarded as complementary to his Wealth of Nations translation, remarking in his preface to this translation, ‘the works reinforce each other. That is why, having published in Russian Adam Smith’s great work of political economy, I decided to translate and publish his other work, which is no less remarkable, and yet known even less to Russian society than the first’. The National Library of Scotland also holds a copy of Blanqui’s version of Garnier’s French edition of Wealth of Nations from which Bibikov produced this translation.

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71

FOR THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF WALES

1. Uncorrected proof copy of ‘In Parenthesis’ by David Jones and a three-page holograph introduction to the November 1946 BBC production of In Parenthesis. Bought from Christie’s, New York (26 May, 2022, Lots 366 and 367) for £3,471, with the aid of a grant of £1,736 from Friends of the National Libraries [Philip Larkin Fund].

Rhys Jones, Assistant Curator of Manuscripts, writes: On 26 May 2022, with generous assistance from the Friends of the National Libraries, the National Library of Wales purchased at auction two items relating to ‘In Parenthesis’, the war poem written by artist, engraver and poet David Jones (1895-1974), namely a proof copy of the completed work and a draft radio script.

Jones had enlisted with the Royal Welch Fusiliers in early 1915 and served on the Western Front in the 38th (Welsh) Division, seeing action on the Somme and at Ypres. He was wounded in the leg during the attack on Mametz Wood on 10-11 July 1916 and his active service was ended by a bout of trench fever in February 1918.

Over the next two decades he made his name as an artist and engraver. Then, in about 1928, he began work on ‘In Parenthesis’. This is an epic poem recounting his wartime experiences and culminating in the Mametz Wood offensive, dense with allusions to Welsh and English history and literature and scripture. Its composition took a decade and numerous drafts and was interrupted by a severe mental breakdown.

By early 1937 the poem was being prepared for the press and it was at this point that the first of our new acquisitions, an uncorrected proof copy of the book, was created. Several other copies and partial copies of the same version of the proofs exist but all are heavily emended and corrected. The new volume is ‘clean’, complete and bound and is inscribed on the front cover with the date ‘June 10, 1937’, the day of the book’s publication party.

‘In Parenthesis’ was an immediate success and won the Hawthornden Prize in 1938. It was adapted for radio by Douglas Cleverdon but transmission was cancelled twice, in 1939 and 1942, on account of the Second World War. The third attempt went ahead on the Third Programme on 19 November 1946,

with Dylan Thomas and Richard Burton among the cast. This had a pre-recorded introduction from David Jones and the second item acquired by the Library is a three page manuscript draft - probably the final draft - of this introduction. It contains numerous deletions and corrections but in essence it is very close to the script that Jones recorded.

These two items are only the most recent additions to our collections relating to David Jones. The National Library of Wales is home to his personal and literary papers, including his drafts of ‘In Parenthesis’, artistic works and his personal library, acquired in 1978 and 1985. This purchase follows on from two other recent acquisitions of David Jones correspondence, also bought with the aid of grants from the Friends of the National Libraries, namely his letters to Morag Owen (November 2019) and to Valerie Wynne-Williams (August 2020).

Both items have now been catalogued and are available to be read in the Library’s reading room. The proof copy and the radio introduction have the reference numbers NLW MS 24193B and NLW MS 24194E respectively.

----- Start of picture text -----
The proof copy and draft radio script. Courtesy of the National Library of Wales.
----- End of picture text -----

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2. A notebook compiled by David Lloyd George, and comprising notes for speeches made during the campaign for the General Election held in December 1910. Bought from Lawrences of Crewkerne (13 September, Lot 420) for £1,650, with the aid of a grant of £800 from Friends of the National Libraries.

Rob Phillips, Archivist for the Welsh Political Archive, writes: David Lloyd George is one of Wales’ greatest politicians. After making a name for himself as a solicitor and campaigner on issues such as land reform and disestablishment of the Church of England in Wales, he narrowly won the Caernarvon Boroughs by-election in 1890. He held the seat, although sometimes narrowly, until his death in 1945.

After his election he continued his championing of radical causes and was appointed to the Cabinet as President of the Board of Trade in 1905 but his real chance to help advance the radical agenda came in 1908 when he was appointed as Chancellor of the Exchequer. In his 1909 budget, known as ‘The People’s Budget’, he brought in a range of new taxes and tax increases to support social programmes including old age pensions and unemployment insurance but the measures were defeated in the House of Lords. Following an election in January 1910, which had been called over the budget question, the Liberals returned to power with Lloyd George continuing as Chancellor and the measures were passed. However, the threat of the Lords to veto similar provisions remained which led to another General Election in December 1910 and ultimately to the Parliament Act 1911, which restricted the power of the Lords to stop Government business. It was during this election campaign that Lloyd George made notes in pencil in this small notebook with a beautifully embroidered cover.

The themes of the election: the people versus the Lords and working people versus unearned wealth are clear in the notes and Lloyd George’s rhetorical flourish conjures up some wonderful images. Talking of the need to fund social programmes, he notes ‘the brilliance of the sun is so blinding that you cannot see the squalor around you’. He defends the tax on wealth gained by property value increases against accusations that he is taxing the working man out of existence both with solid figures and humour noting that as tax would be payable after death and therefore the man would already be ‘out of existence’.

On this issue of the power of the House of Lords and Parliamentary reform, Lloyd George’s notes are equally blunt. In notes for a speech to a Scottish audience he accuses the Lords of having treated them ‘disdainfully’ and suggests putting peers up for a Dutch Auction and asking ‘Will you take them at their own valuation?’

While the notes appear to have been made for campaigns to a Scottish audience, there is some mention of Ireland and Wales, noting especially the political transformation in the latter, which he puts down to education:

‘From 1835 to 1865 Wales was Conservative… when we had few schools and colleges. Since the Education Act 1879 – the great campaign in favour of education – the founding of colleges, the secondary schools…. [Wales is] now overwhelmingly Liberal.’

He is disdainful in his rhetoric around the Conservatives:

‘Two Welsh Tories – fit them both in a wheelbarrow – we shall do so this time and tip them somewhere. Found no use of them’

He uses the wheelbarrow analogy for publicans later in the book. He must have liked it.

The notebook is a remarkable acquisition as it gives an insight into Lloyd George’s thought process, campaigning strategy and his use of rhetoric during while campaigning on issues which were of burning importance to him. It also comes with an interesting provenance, noted inside the cover. It was given by Lloyd George to Alexander Murray MP, Chief Whip of the Liberal Party and passed on his death to his brother Arthur Murray who gave it to Hermione Hobhouse in 1957.

It has been given the number NLW MS 24179 and is available in the Library’s reading room as a valuable addition to the wealth of Lloyd George’s papers already held at the National Library of Wales.

Lloyd George’s manuscript notebook. Courtesy of the National Library of Wales.

74 Friends of the National Libraries

Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase

75

FOR NORTHUMBERLAND ARCHIVES

Further portion of the records of Dickson, Archer & Thorp, solicitors, of Alnwick, Northumberland, 18th-20th century. Bought from Keel Row Books for £15,850, with the aid of a grant of £7,500 from Friends of the National Libraries.

Sue Wood, Head of Archives, writes: Dickson, Archer & Thorp were important Northumberland solicitors. The practice was established in 1817 taking over the earlier Alnwick practices. It continued until the death of the last partner in 2005. At this point there existed an unbroken series of business records and clients’ papers dating back to the date of establishment and including records of the predecessor practices, making the collection a unique resource. The collection is significant in that we are unaware of the mass survival of records of another extant solicitor’s collection that charts the history of a 200-year old practice from establishment to closure; the wide client base of the practice – from probate cases of families of relatively modest means to dealing with the business of many county families and the Duke of Northumberland and the involvement of practice partners in the governance of the county and more locally in the governance of Alnwick. Immediately after the death of the last partner the majority of records were dispersed. Northumberland Archives has undertaken much work to trace records of the practice and negotiate transfer to our care. This latest purchase is an important addition to the records already held by the service.

The grant has allowed us to purchase two further lots of material to add to the records that were purchased in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. The first lot is records of the office of Dickson, Archer & Thorp – letter books, day books, ledgers, account books, cash books, bill books, stamp office ledgers, solicitor’s presentations and summaries, case books and other related material. The second lot is a series of County Rate Valuations, 1830-1869 [with] 1864-69, Assessment Committee Returns and Returns and Valuations for Special Properties, 1874. The records add greatly to our understanding of the administration of the practice and the influence of the partners in the governance of Alnwick town.

Above: Sample page from the copy out letter book of Wren & Airey, 1791-1799. Below: Sample page from a ledger of the Alnwick Stamp Office, 1830-1835. Images courtesy of Northumberland Archives.

The image to the left is of a sample page from the letter book of the predecessor practice of Messrs. Wren & Airey, April 1791-March 1799, (ref: B/DAT/1/5/409). The page is typical in that it references county families that Northumberland Archives holds papers of – Clavering, Ellison & Portland. The series of letter books supplement later volumes that had been previously acquired.

The image below is of a sample page from the Alnwick Stamp Office ledger, 1830-1835 (ref: B/DAT/9/5/2). The Stamp Office was responsible for collecting Stamp Duty payable on a range of goods and services. This page records details of licences issued to vendors of patent medicines and to pawnbrokers in 1830. Names and places of residence are listed together with details of details of the duty owed. In the case of the vendors of medicines, occupations of some vendors are listed. The ledgers and other records that came out of the Dickson, Archer & Thorp office are the only provincial Stamp Office records held by Northumberland Archives.

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77

FOR OXFORD UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

The correspondence, geological notes, and family papers of William Buckland (1784-1856). Bought from a descendant of William Buckland, via Sotheby’s for £444,540, with the aid of a grant of £20,000 from Friends of the National Libraries.

Ms Eliza Howlett, Head of Earth Collections and Digital Collections Lead, writes: Oxford University Museum of Natural History (OUMNH) is enormously grateful for the support given by FNL towards the acquisition of this important archival collection. With over 1,000 items, the archive includes letters, notebooks, family papers and artworks relating to geologist and theologian William Buckland. A hugely influential figure in academia, politics, science and religion, Buckland was successively Reader in Mineralogy and Geology at Oxford University, Canon of Christ Church, Oxford and Dean of Westminster. He was the first to name and describe a fossil dinosaur ( Megalosaurus ) and his research into an ancient hyaena den laid the foundations of the science we would now call palaeoecology. He was also a notable convert to glacial theory, and showed how glaciation rather than a global flood shaped the British landscape.

The significance of this archive lies in the sheer breadth and depth of its subject matter. It reveals aspects of Buckland’s life as a student at Christ Church as well as his work as a practising geologist, university lecturer and eminent churchman, providing detailed insight into the thinking and institutions of the early 19th century, a time when science and theology often provided different explanations for natural phenomena. Numerous letters on a range of topics from zoology and geology to aesthetics and administration demonstrate the diverse network of people with whom he was connected, including major figures such as the art critic John Ruskin and prime minister Robert Peel.

The archive also includes original artworks such as Thomas Sopwith’s watercolour of William Buckland (previously thought to be a portrait of Mary Anning), and a rare coloured version of the lithograph based on Henry de la Beche’s drawing Duria Antiquior , the first pictorial representation of a scene of prehistoric life based on fossil evidence. Excitingly, Buckland’s wife Mary (née Morland), a respected naturalist and illustrator, is well represented,

with highlights including two of her sketchbooks. One of these, dating from before her marriage to Buckland, contains exquisite ink and watercolour drawings of natural history specimens and highlights the huge artistic and scientific contribution she made to her husband’s work.

OUMNH is already the pre-eminent repository for Buckland archive and object collections, with existing holdings including extensive professional correspondence, lecture notes and teaching diagrams as well as more than 5,000 fossil, rock and mineral specimens. The interplay between specimens and archives is enormously powerful, and the acquisition of this additional family archive adds yet another piece of the jigsaw. Reuniting these collections both physically and digitally will allow researchers and other museum visitors access to the full spectrum of Buckland material, and adds significantly to our understanding of his life and work.

Signed letter from Mary Anning to William Buckland, 21 December 1830, informing him of a plesiosaur skeleton she has recently discovered.

Courtesy of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. See also image on page 11.

78 Friends of the National Libraries

Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase

79

FOR PETERSFIELD MUSEUM & ART GALLERY: EDWARD THOMAS STUDY CENTRE

Richard Jefferies: His Life and Work by Edward Thomas (1878-1917), First edition (1909). Bought from Peter Ellis Bookseller Ltd for £650, with the aid of a grant of £550 from Friends of the National Libraries.

Jeremy Mitchell, Chair of the Edward Thomas Fellowship and Keeper of the Collections, writes: The Friends have been most generous to Petersfield Museum and Art Gallery and The Edward Thomas Fellowship over the past few years as, together, they build on the 2,000 volumes collected by the late Tim WiltonSteer that form the bulk of this publicly-accessible collection held in the Edward Thomas Study Centre at the Museum and Art Gallery.

In particular, whilst other depositories, such as the National Library of Wales and Cardiff University, hold many signed copies or manuscript items this collection historically has few such items and the Fellowship have a policy of seeking to increase interest in the collection through the addition of items like this.

Edward Thomas was a literary critic, writer and, ultimately, poet who was killed in the First World War at the beginning, literally, of the Battle of Arras on Easter Monday, 9 April, 1917. Amongst his most well-known books are The Icknield Way (1913) and In Pursuit of Spring (1914), and his poetry includes the often-requested Adlestrop (1915) and As the team’s head-brass (1916).

Edward Thomas was also a lover of nature and inspired by many of those writing about (and living in) the country in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries – including W H Davies, W H Hudson and Richard Jefferies – about whom Thomas’s biography is one of the best.

However, Thomas had to make a living first and write poetry last (from December 1914) and it was as a literary critic and reviewer for publications such as the Daily Chronicle (from as early as 1900) that he began to make his name as one of those from whom a favourable review was most widely sought. He was encouraged in this by H W Nevinson, indeed, it was Nevinson who first employed Thomas in this role and who subsequently refers to Thomas in all three volumes of his autobiography with a longish tribute in the first volume

Changes and Chances (1923) where he describes Thomas as one of his very best reviewers as well as a close friend.

This friendship was clearly important also to Thomas and led to his first publication in 1903, when Nevinson suggested Thomas as a substitute to for himself to write ‘a book of 60,000 words on Oxford, to accompany a series of pictures by John Fulleylove, R.I.’ This earned Thomas £100 and was written within a four-month period!

The friendship endured and this copy of the Jefferies biography demonstrates Thomas’s affection for Nevinson as it bears an inscription on the front free endpaper ‘Henry W Nevinson from the Author. 1909.’ It is also felt that the first part of the inscription is in Thomas’s hand. It is a worthy addition to the collection in the Study Centre, where it is publicly accessible.

Thank you again to Friends of the National Libraries for making this acquisition possible.

Front Cover of Oxford by Edward Thomas with illustrations by James Fulleylove – First edition. Courtesy of Peterrsfield Museum and Art Gallery.

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81

FOR PUSEY HOUSE LIBRARY, OXFORD

Seven autograph letters by Dr Edward Bouverie-Pusey (1800-1882), in whose memory Pusey House was founded. Bought respectively from Sophie Dupré, Richard M Ford and John Wilson for a total of £668, with the aid of a grant of £250 from Friends of the National Libraries.

Jessica Woodward, Pusey House Librarian, writes: Pusey House Library and Archive is the UK’s leading centre for the study of Anglo-Catholicism. Located in the centre of Oxford, it forms part of Pusey House, an independent institution founded in 1884 to keep alive the theological legacy of the AngloCatholic figurehead Dr Edward Bouverie-Pusey (1800-1882). The Pusey House Chapel offers year-round worship, while the Library and Archive are open to all researchers, whether university-affiliated or independent. The Library holds over 75,000 volumes on theology and church history, ranging from a 1475 incunable originally owned by Dr Pusey to newly published monographs. The Archive holds over twelve miles of material dating from the 19th to the 21st century. Papers of Dr Pusey himself are of course key to the Archive’s collecting policy, and we are delighted if an opportunity arises to acquire new historical sources regarding our namesake.

Early in 2022, a contact of ours at the USA’s National Institute for Newman Studies alerted us to six original letters from Dr Pusey, available on eBay. We could see immediately that these were interesting letters – not only were they fairly lengthy, they also demonstrated Pusey’s thoughts on a range of moral and economic matters. There was his advice to a Mr Chardleigh on the best sort of editor for a manuscript - apparently, one who never inserts content but only omits, and ‘would not look for any thing for his trouble’. Another letter contained a forceful repudiation of a nun at Ascot Priory who had been soliciting money, while another still described Pusey’s impecunious situation regarding his property at Stormont House. These letters gave insight into Pusey’s approach to business and finance, as well as revealing a few biographical details. Then there were two letters showing Pusey’s interest in helping young people – one relating to an impoverished young woman reluctant to marry, and another discussing an ‘earnest, plain, well-meaning’ man hoping to enter the priesthood. Finally, a shorter note to a Mr Richards illustrated Pusey’s weariness at the personal attacks he had to suffer from newspaper journalists as a result of his Anglo-Catholic faith.

We knew that we would love to have these letters in the Archive for our researchers, but our budget is small and, as an independent institution, we do not receive any financial support from the Church of England, the University of Oxford, or any similar large body. Back in 2017, the FNL had very kindly helped us to purchase some letters from Pusey to clergyman Francis Richard Wegg-Prosser. We decide to approach them again and were thrilled when they agreed to fund 43% of the cost of the six new Pusey letters. We would like to record our thanks here to the members who made this possible.

Upon arrival, the letters were exhibited in our display case for a few weeks, allowing readers to enjoy them and take notes for future research. Doing my best to overcome the challenges of Pusey’s notorious handwriting, I created transcriptions to aid readers. The next step was to file the letters into our existing collection of Pusey correspondence and update the catalogue. This has been done, and the letters can now be found and requested using the reference numbers PUS 155/1 to PUS 155/6.

Very many thanks again to the FNL for enabling us to enhance one of our core archival collections with these six letters.

Dr Pusey considers the difficulties facing an impoverished young woman (PUS 155/2). Courtesy of Pusey House.

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Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase

83

FOR THE RIBA: BRITISH ARCHITECTURAL LIBRARY

Orientalisme et architecture contemporaine: compositions décoratives et architecturales, executés et projetées . Alexandre Marcel. Paris: Editions Albert Morancé, 1924. Bought from J F Letenneur Livres Rares, Paris, for €4,025, with the aid of a grant of £1,766 from Friends of the National Libraries.

Jonathan Ridsdale, Acquisitions Librarian, writes: This large folio contains 40 heliogravures, including ten enhanced with watercolour, and 20 pages of specific information on the building projects; it is copy number six of only 110 produced. It is an important and very rare work showing design drawings, plans and elevations of realised buildings and proposed works by the early 20th-century French architect Alexandre Marcel heavily influenced by extensive study and research on indigenous Asian architecture.

Projects featured: La Tour et les Constructions Japonaises du Domaine Royal de Laeken (Belgique) (15 planches), Le Palais de Son Altesse le Maharajah de Kapurthala (Indes) (4 planches), Le Cambodge et sa Salle souterraine à l’Exposition Universelle de Paris en 1900 (7 planches), L’Hippodrome des Courses à Ostende (Belgique) (4 planches).

International competitions: Le Palais du Sénat à Bubarest (Roumanie) (2 planches), La Gare Centrale de Bucarest (Roumanie) (3 planches), Le Palais de la Paix, Fondation Carnégie à la Haye (Hollande) (4 planches), Les Grands Magazins modernes de Strasbourg (France) (1 planche).

The term Art Deco (actually invented in the late 1960s) is often used to describe the decorative arts and architecture of the 1920s and 1930s in Europe and the USA. Called Style moderne in its day, it should more accurately be applied to the style made popular by the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Moderne held in Paris in 1925 and therefore should relate to buildings and objects of French origin and those countries directly influenced by France. The exhibition was a government-sponsored project aimed at developing export markets for French decorative and applied arts, especially for luxury goods. Conceived in 1907, the exhibition was intended to take place in 1915 but was delayed because of World War I.

Nevertheless, all the constituent elements of the Art Deco style were in place by 1914, combining elements of the French Art Nouveau, the elegance and refinement of the Austrian Wienerwerkstätte and the exoticism and strong vibrant colours of the Ballet Russes. Chinoiserie was an important element of the more exotic end of Art Deco design of this period, and this publication, a compilation likely put together for the 1925 exhibition, was an important contributor to the spread of orientalism at this period, particularly in relating it to contemporary architecture.

Alexandre Marcel (1860-1928) was a French-born architect based in Belgium who had become fascinated with Japonisme as the trade routes with Japan opened up in the latter part of the 19th century, and was one of the first to incorporate elements of orientalism into his work, such as the Pagoda Cinema (1896) and the Parc Oriental de Maulévrier (1899-1913), both Paris, and the Chinese Pavilion at Laeken, outside Brussels (1902), as well as the designs featured in this publication.

Above: Corner Pavilion of Japanese Tower at Laeken. Left: Palais de la Paix Competition Entry. Images courtesy of the RIBA.

84 Friends of the National Libraries

Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase

85

FOR THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW

1. North, Marianne (1830-1890) [Catalogue for an] Exhibition of 500 Oil Sketches of India and the Archipelago. Painted on the Spot. 1879. Bought from Blackwell’s Rare Books for £1,200, with the aid of a grant of £800 from Friends of the National Libraries [John R Murray Fund].

Cecily Nowell-Smith, Reading Room Services Supervisor, writes: The Library and Archives at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew are very grateful to the Friends of the National Libraries for supporting the acquisition of this rare catalogue from Marianne North’s 1879 exhibition at 9 Conduit Street.

As the catalogue puts it, the exhibition featured ‘500 Oil Sketches of India and the Archipelago, painted on the spot by Marianne North’. The sense that these pictures were painted ‘on the spot’, their freshness and immediacy, was seen as their greatest strength. The Pall Mall Gazette review of the exhibition, lukewarm in its assessment of their artistic merit, still found that her paintings depicted ‘more vividly than any such collection yet exhibited all that a traveller can see’ of India, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Borneo, and Java.

North’s capacity and energy was not limited to the vivacity of her botanical oil sketches. After her father’s death in 1869, she devoted herself to her great interests of travel, painting, and natural science. She crossed the globe with letters of introduction to a vast network of hosts, often British administrators, from Jamaica to New Zealand. Her return visits to Britain were no less active: she arranged an exhibition of her work at the then South Kensington Museum in 1877, then the Conduit Street exhibition in summer 1879.

Inspired by a comment in the Pall Mall Gazette review, she wrote within the week to Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, then Director of Kew Gardens, suggesting that she fund the construction of a gallery at Kew for her ‘flower paintings’. ‘I should like very much to place them near their live neighbours’, she said, in this letter (held in our archives). The gallery opened within three years, in June 1882. A few years later, it was necessary to rearrange it: North had been to South Africa, Seychelles, and Chile, and had had an extension built to accommodate the new art.

North painted prodigiously, and the gallery’s permanent display represents a careful selection. RBG Kew has been able to develop a further collection of North’s works in oil, and the addition of this exhibition catalogue will support research into identifying the full scope of her oeuvre. The catalogue’s explanatory notes also demonstrate her educational intentions in exhibiting her art: in her memoir Recollections of a Happy Life , she writes of the care she took to include general information about the plants, as people were ‘in general woefully ignorant of natural history’.

Although North’s bold oils and rich depiction of context are atypical in a botanical illustration field dominated by individual watercolour plant portraits, her work continues to contribute to scientific discovery. The species Chassalia northiana T.Y. Yu, first scientifically described and named in 2021, was depicted by North in her 1876 painting titled ‘Curious Plants from the Forest of Matang, Sarawak, Borneo’. It is very likely that this was exhibited at Conduit Street, under another name. With Friends of the National Libraries’ support, we have a valuable new line of research into the work of this remarkable, redoubtable artist.

Above: Interior of the Marianne North Gallery, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Left: Marianne North, botanical artist, pictured here in Grahamstown, South Africa circa 1883.

Images courtesy of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

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87

2. Thirteen original watercolours of plants by Sydenham Teast Edwards and others, from the collection of William Curtis (1746-1799). Bought from Catherine Southon Auctioneers for £4,960 and funded in full by a grant from Friends of the National Libraries.

Lynn Parker, Curator, Illustrations & Artefacts, writes: The Library and Archives at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew are grateful to the Friends of the National Libraries for supporting the acquisition of this group of watercolours from the collection of the English botanist, William Curtis (1746-1799). Thirteen were bought with a full grant from FNL, 13 having previously been bought at the Catherine Southon Auctioneers’ auction on 16 November.

William Curtis was born in the village of Aiton, Hampshire in 1749, into a Quaker family. By the time Curtis was apprenticed to his grandfather’s apothecary business at the age of 14, he had developed a keen interest in natural history. As a fully qualified apothecary, William moved to London to set up his own practice, which he sold in 1771, using the proceeds to buy a half-acre plot of land in Lambeth to set up a physic garden, cultivating native plants.

By 1773 Curtis was engaged as Demonstrator of Plants and Praefectus Horti (Superintendent of the Garden) at the Chelsea Physic Garden. Although he enjoyed overseeing the Garden, a portion of his job involved organising the donation of 50 new specimens each year to the Royal Society, a task he found rather arduous. He left in 1777 to spend time working on a publication that would become the Flora Londonensis . The publication described the flora found in mid-18th century London and its environs, but despite receiving universal acclaim only 300 copies were produced. The scale and quality of the volume made it expensive to produce, and with a purchase price of £500, Curtis could not recover his costs. He only recuperated his finances when he published the smaller Botanical Magazine . Founded by Curtis in 1787 it is the longest-running botanical periodical featuring colour illustrations of plants. In contrast to Flora Londinensis , its sales topped 3000 per issue, and cost just 1 shilling.

In the 180-year history of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, this publication has played an extremely important role in helping to build and shape its Illustration Collections. We are indebted to William Jackson Hooker for beginning

The Magazine’s long association with Kew; he was editing it in 1841, when he became Kew’s first Director. Many talented and respected botanical illustrators have contributed to The Magazine over the past 232 years, and most of the drawings that were the basis for its plates are held at Kew.

The provenance of the illustrations acquired with FNL’s help, can be traced back to Curtis’s own collection, which makes them an unusual and exciting acquisition. Containing material attributed to Sydenham Edwards and other, currently unidentified, artists, they are very much in the stylistic paradigm adopted by The Magazine . The illustrations fit its 8vo format, a size that contributed greatly to its accessibility and affordability. While little is currently known about the identities of the artists, their contextualisation in the Kew Collection will allow them to be understood in the wider category of English botanical drawing in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Additionally, they will advance our understanding of William Curtis as a collector of illustrations, and a disseminator of plant knowledge during this period of scientific enlightenment.

Left: Narcissus anceps, watercolour painting on paper attributed to Sydenham Teast Edwards, late 18th century. Centre: Geranium macrorrhizum, watercolour painting on paper, English School, late 18th century. Right: Heliopsis helianthoides (originally Buphthalmum helianthoides), watercolour painting on paper, English School, late 18th century. Courtesy of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

88 Friends of the National Libraries

Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase 89

FOR THE SIR JOSEPH BANKS SOCIETY LIBRARY, HORNCASTLE

Allotment & Enclosure books concerning Whaplode & Surfleet in Lincolnshire, dated between 1796-1819. Bought from Mainly Books Ltd. for £1,000, with the aid of a £600 grant from the Friends of the National Libraries.

Paul Scott, Curator, writes: Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. He accompanied Captain James Cook on his first voyage of discovery around the World, he also visited Newfoundland, Iceland, and Holland. He was responsible for the establishment of Kew Gardens and the development of its early collections.

The Banks family seat was at Revesby in Lincolnshire. Joseph Banks inherited the estate in 1761 and divided his time between Lincolnshire and his work in London with the Royal Society. His large Lincolnshire estates provided most of his substantial income, and as such much is known about the lands around Revesby. However, he also had extensive holdings in other parts of the county about which, less is known.

The Whaplode and Surfleet Allotment books are a valuable addition to our knowledge of Sir Joseph Banks’s land holdings in the South of Lincolnshire. They will provide rare source material for students and academics who are interested in the life and work of Sir Joseph Banks.

The generous contribution received from the Friends of the National Libraries was critical in securing this acquisition. We are a small society/museum and therefore do not have extensive reserves to purchase items such as these. We will ensure that the information contained within these books are widely available to people via digitisation, our website, social media, and of course via public engagement. The estates held by Joseph Banks are of considerable interest to us and other academics, there is no doubt that this purchase will provide the basis for future learning opportunities.

Entries recording the land holdings of Sir Joseph Banks in the South of Lincolnshire. Courtesy of the Sir Joseph Banks Society.

90 Friends of the National Libraries

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91

FOR SOUTHWARK ARCHIVES

Records of York Street Chapel & the Robert Browning Settlement, Walworth, 1790-1993. Bought from Stacey’s Auctioneers (10 June, 2022, Lots 2080, 2083, 2087, 2091, 2104, 2114) for £4,135, with the aid of a grant of £4,000 from Friends of the National Libraries.

Chris Scales, Archives Officer, writes: Southwark Archives is grateful to the Friends of the National Libraries for their support in purchasing the records of York Street Chapel and the Robert Browning Settlement, a religious and later charitable institution that was based in Walworth, South London for nearly 200 years.

The chapel, founded in 1790, was home as a congregational church to many including famously the poet Robert Browning and his family. The records purchased include deeds relating to its founding, minutes (1790-1927), lists of its members (1790-1977), Sunday school (1840-1969), burials (1781-1837) and baptisms (1804-1997), including the baptism in 1812 of Robert Browning.

Following the chapel’s reinvention as a mission, the new Robert Browning Settlement was launched in 1894, led by F. Herbert Stead. The Settlement developed a programme of outreach and support for the local community in Walworth. This included clubs for elderly men and women, lecture programmes, holidays and activities for young people, and accommodation for the elderly in Whyteleafe, Surrey and later Clacton-on-Sea, Essex. Records purchased relating to the Settlement include: minutes (1891-1929), annual reports (1895-1907, 1928-1971, 1982-1993), photographs, minutes and visitors of the Browning Bethany Homes (1925-1935, 1965-1986), and a large amount of ephemera.

The Settlement, while grounded in service to the local community, had a farreaching impact. In 1898, the Settlement hosted the first national conference on the campaign for the Old Age Pension, with Charles Booth. This led to the establishment of the National Committee of Organised Labour who campaigned successfully for the new pension introduced by the government in 1908. The campaign left few records, making those included here all the more significant. A later warden of the Settlement, Rev. Herbert Dunnico was also responsible for running the International Peace Society from 1916 onwards. A small number of items in the collection reflect this and constitute a significant record of the

later life of that organisation up to 1978. The Settlement’s annual May Queen ceremony was also extremely well known, attracting prominent visitors including the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth).

The new collection will be combined with existing promotional material relating to the Settlement donated by them to Southwark Archives in the early 20th century. The records also complement our other collections for local charitable organisations in the area, including those for the Peckham Settlement, Pitt Street Settlement, Edward Edwards Charity, and Gedling Street Mission.

The collection is now catalogued and available to the public in the search room. Some of the name records, such as the chapel baptisms, burial and membership records, will additionally also be made available to search online.

Browning Holiday Camp, Otford, Kent, 1935. Southwark Archives.

92 Friends of the National Libraries

Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase 93

FOR SS GREAT BRITAIN TRUST, BRISTOL

Autograph letter signed ‘I.K. Brunel’ to his son Isambard after the launch of the SS Great Eastern steamship 2 February 1858. Bought from Bonham (23 March 2022, Lot 73) for £2,394, with the aid of a grant of £1,340 from Friends of the National Libraries.

Tim Bryan, Director of the Brunel Institute, writes: The SS Great Britain Trust was grateful for the support of the FNL in the purchase at auction of a rare and unique autographed letter from the Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel to his son Isambard who was then studying at the University of Oxford, written soon after the launch of the SS Great Eastern steamship.

The Brunel Institute, a collaborative venture between the Great Britain Trust and the University of Bristol, houses one of the world’s finest maritime collections and the internationally-significant National Brunel collection which includes diaries, sketchbooks, correspondence and objects relating to the lives and work of Marc and Isambard Brunel.

The ten-page letter was sent on 2nd February 1858 after a fraught and stressful period in the engineer’s life; difficulties encountered during the construction of the huge ship had been made worse when the vessel resolutely refused to budge from the shipyard on the side of the Thames at Millwall during its first attempted launch on 3rd November 1857. A number of further unsuccessful attempts were made to move the 18,000 ton ship but it was not until 31st January 1858 that it was finally floated off.

In the letter Brunel tells his son ‘I have had a hard time of it and have felt the advantages of perseverance and patience’, which in the circumstances was something of an understatement but also provides some explanation as to why the original launch failed and some of the reasons for final success. There is also an interesting insight into Brunel’s views on spirituality when he tells his son that he had ‘prayed fervently and that, in the end my prayers have been, or have appeared to me to have been granted and that I have received great comfort.’

First page of the letter. Courtesy of SS Great Britain Trust.

The letter also shows the affection Brunel had for his son; he wrote ‘Tho’ I did not regret your absence on the day, I should have much liked to have had you here afterwards’.

The provenance of the letter, and the wooden box it was contained in, can be traced directly through the Brunel family and importantly complements a telegram purchased by the Trust in 2020 from the young Isambard’s mother Mary, informing him of the safe launch of the ship.

Following some minor conservation work the letter, along with many other items relating to the life and work of one of Britain’s most iconic engineers is now available for consultation at the Brunel Institute. For further details visit: www.ssgreatbritain.org/ collections-and-research.

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Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase

95

UK HYDROGRAPHIC OFFICE, TAUNTON

Manuscript chart shewing the land Discovered by HM Ship Investigator between September 1850 and October 1851 by Stephen Court. Bought from Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps for $36,265, with the aid of a grant of £14,325 from the Friends of the National Libraries [John R Murray Fund].

Emma Down, Deputy Head of Archives, writes: The UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) is very grateful to the Friends of National Libraries for their support in purchasing a ‘Chart shewing the land Discovered by HM Ship Investigator between September 1850 and October 1851’ by Stephen Court, Second Master.

The most complete of its kind, this survey depicts the tracks of HMS Investigator, under the command of Robert McClure, between 1850 and 1851 during its search for John Franklin’s ill-fated expedition to the Arctic. HMS Investigator had originally set out with HMS Enterprise under Captain Collinson, but they became separated off the coast of Chile. McClure, who had already visited the Arctic with George Back in 1836-7 and Sir James Clark Ross in 1848-9, continued north and the ships did not meet again on their expedition.

The survey is significant because it shows the tracks taken in 1850 when the ship entered Prince of Wales Strait but was halted by pack ice. McClure climbed a hill at Point Russell and looked across the frozen expanse and observed Melville Island from Banks Island, with no land connecting them. The ice was too thick to pass via ship so the voyage instead wintered in the Strait before navigating south and moving clockwise around the Baring Island, before sledging across to Winter Harbour on Melville Island in 1851 and physically completing the northwest passage. The crew later abandoned the ship in 1853 before returning home to Britain with the Belcher expedition. The wreck of HMS Investigator was discovered in 2010 by Parks Canada.

Part of a collection of 11 items from the voyage by HMS Investigator held by the UKHO Archive, this survey details the ship’s passage across northern Canada. Included in the collection is the log book from the expedition, also penned by Stephen Court. On Sunday 27th October 1850 he described ‘ … having satisfied ourselves beyond doubt that the waters that our ship was now in communicated

through Barrows Strait with those of the Atlantic and consequently that we were the Fortunate Discoverers of the long sought NW Passage … having packed our sledge and given three Cheers and spliced the Main Brace we commenced our return … ’. On his return, McClure was credited with discovering the North West Passage by sea and sledge and was awarded a share, with the crew, of the Parliamentary prize for the expedition. McClure Strait is named after him.

The survey was drawn by Stephen Court who was second master on board HMS Investigator and was part of the sledge party who discovered the North West Passage in October 1850. Like McClure, Court had visited the Arctic previously with Sir James Clark Ross’ expedition in 1848-9. A skilled draughtsman, Court made a number of surveys during the voyage. This survey is by far the most detailed including dozens of placenames, detailed remarks on the state of the pack ice and conditions in which the crew were working, information on the presence wildlife and details of the ship’s wintering places.

The survey, along with the others from the voyage, is now part of a featured collection on our catalogue and is available to the public for research in our reading room. We also plan to exhibit the survey and others from the collection at a number of pop-up exhibitions throughout 2023-2024.

Left: Chart shewing the land Discovered by HM Ship Investigator between September 1850 and October 1851’ by Stephen Court, Second Master, HMS Investigator. Right: A painting by Samuel Gurney Cresswell of HMS Investigator and HMS Enterprise cutting through the ice, from his archive that was acquired by Norfolk Record Office with FNL’s assistance in 2012. Courtesy of Norfolk Record Office.

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Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase

97

FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

Three manuscript letters from Rudyard Kipling to Edmund Garrett, 19 October 1899, 16 October 1900, 10 August 1904. Bought from Jonkers Rare Books for £7,400, with the aid of a grant of £5,000 from Friends of the National Libraries.

Dr Richard Wragg, Collections Senior Manager, writes: The University of Sussex is grateful for the generous support of the FNL in our acquisition of three unpublished letters written by the writer Rudyard Kipling to the journalist and author Edmund Garrett.

Rudyard Kipling and his family made several visits to South Africa between 1898 and 1908 for winter holidays and, whilst there, he was introduced to Edmund Garrett. Garrett had first visited South Africa in the late 1880s and between 1895 and 1899 served as the editor of the influential Cape Times newspaper. During a period of increasing tensions between Great Britain and the South African Republic, Garrett, through his writing, was at the forefront of political debate.

It is likely that shared opinions and inquisitive minds brought Kipling and Garrett together. Both were deeply interested in the political situation in the region and, as documented in one of the letters, maintained a vision of a ‘Federated States of South Africa’ which would sit within the British Empire but have autonomy over governing its affairs, ‘the same as Canada and Australia’. Thus, Kipling’s writing offers an insight into his opinions at a pivotal time for South Africa’s relationship with the United Kingdom as the former moved towards independence, something which was nominally granted by the South Africa Act of 1909.

More broadly, the letters are particularly fascinating for what they reveal about how Kipling sought to engage in the major issues of the day through his published writing. In the letter dated 16 October 1900, he comments that ‘I can’t keep away from the glorious old melting pot though I shall never be a politician and the utmost I can get will be a few short stories, but you can bet I will greatly sweat over those yarns and do my level best to make ‘em good for my own purposes which (whisper now) are not purely literary…’.

Letter from Rudyard Kipling to Edmund Garrett, including a sketch of the memorial at Kimberley, 16 October 1900 (see also inside covers). Courtesy of the University of Sussex.

Despite their political significance, the letters are not dry but rather lively and good humoured. At one point, Kipling affectionately refers to Garrett’s parody of him, published in The Spectator in August 1904. Kipling shows no irritation or insult but is, instead, pleased that his friend is once again able to publish following a bout of ill health. Through the combination of light-hearted discourse and political commentary, the letters reveal the means through which both men maintained their networks of writers, politicians and thinkers.

The University of Sussex is home to a particularly expansive collection of Rudyard Kipling papers. The newly acquired letters will complement existing holdings which frequently mention South Africa and the politics of Empire but which did not, until now, contain correspondence with Edmund Garrett.

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Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase 99

FOR THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM

A.W.N. Pugin Archive, 1838-1850. Bought via Bonhams in a private treaty sale with the aid of a grant of £20,000 from Friends of the National Libraries.

Olivia Horsfall Turner, Senior Curator, Architecture and Design, writes: The V&A is delighted to have acquired an archive of 700 design drawings for metalwork, furniture and stained glass by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812–1852) relating to his collaboration with Hardman & Co., Birmingham.

Born in London, Pugin was one of the most significant architects, designers and theorists in the history of British design and architecture. His ideas underpinned the 19th-century Gothic Revival and paved the way for the Arts and Crafts movement in Europe and America. Pugin’s influence remains strong today in both urban and rural landscapes, through his buildings and interiors and his lasting impact on design.

These drawings date from the late 1830s until 1851 and are almost all working design drawings in Pugin’s hand, many dated and signed by him, ranging from initial sketches in pen and ink to finished designs coloured in watercolour. From 1838, Pugin worked closely with manufacturer John Hardman junior of Birmingham firm Hardman & Co., who become Pugin’s closest friend and colleague, sharing an enthusiasm for the medieval style.

The objects represented in the archive include altar crosses, patens and chalices, screens, communion rails, candlesticks, candelabra, lamps, and memorial brasses, as well as railings, gates, window and door furniture, sugar casters, jardinières, clocks, fire baskets, and an iron bench. Numerous highprofile projects feature: public commissions such as notable designs for the Palace of Westminster and the Great Exhibition of 1851; ecclesiastical projects including St Giles’ Cheadle, Ely Cathedral, St Mary’s Clapham, and Ushaw Seminary; and private houses including Alton Towers and Chirk Castle.

The drawings have a striking immediacy, highlighting Pugin’s accomplished drawing technique and facility for design, as well as documenting in tremendous detail the close collaborative relationship between him and his manufacturer. They are visually compelling and the presentation drawings –

some of which are rendered in coloured wash – are certainly of Pugin’s highest quality. As working drawings, they embody valuable information about Pugin’s design and thought process and bear testimony to the function of design drawings within manufacturing.

The drawings are closely connected with the UK’s history and national life, owing to the contribution that Pugin made to shaping the national aesthetic of the 19th-century Gothic Revival, the legacy of which still surrounds us today, as well as representing items produced for domestic use.

The acquisition of this archive will complement the V&A’s existing collection of over 1,100 designs by Pugin, and will provide the public with access to works of major significance to the study of Pugin and 19th-century British architecture and design. We will fully catalogue the drawings and make them available on our free online searchable database, Explore the Collections . In the longer term, a display at the V&A will showcase the range and breadth of Pugin’s work and the connection between design and manufacture.

The V&A is very grateful to The Friends of the National Libraries, the Art Fund, The Rick Mather David Scrase Foundation, and The John R. Murray Charitable Trust, with additional support from Bonhams, for making this acquisition possible.

Pugin’s design for a Lion Passant Regardant in stained glass fpr New Palace Westminster. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

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THE V&A WEDGWOOD COLLECTION, STOKE-ON-TRENT

Design drawings (c.1923) for a tea and coffee service designed by Paul Follot for Wedgwood. Bought from Sotheby’s (3-6 December 2021, Lot 123 and Lot 1035) for £17,960, with the aid of a grant of £3,500 from Friends of the National Libraries.

This grant was awarded in 2021 and accounted for in that year, but the purchase was not completed until 2022.

Kate Turner, Chief Curator, writes: The V&A Wedgwood Collection is grateful to the Friends of the National Libraries for their support in purchasing the set of design drawings for the ‘Campanula’ tea and coffee service, which was designed by French designer Paul Follot (1877-1941) for Wedgwood. There are ten drawings in the set, drawn in pencil on tracing paper and paper.

The design drawings and the extraordinary finished pieces, which were also acquired, fill an important gap in the V&A Wedgwood Collection, and are a wonderful example of the Wedgwood company’s tradition of working with innovative artists to create their designs. The ‘Campanula’ tea and coffee set and design drawings provide a rare insight into this period of Wedgwood history. Only a very small number of products were made in the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles and Follot’s designs were also extremely labour-intensive, so were only produced by Wedgwood in small quantities.

For the tea and coffee set, Follot created four different shapes of cup, each with a complementary saucer shape – a ‘Tasse à Café’; a tall ‘Tasse à ‘Chocolat Américaine’’ or hot chocolate cup; a wide ‘Tasse à Thé’, and a smaller coffee cup, alongside a ‘Cafetière’ for coffee, a ‘Petite Théière’ or small teapot, a ‘Pot à Crême’ or milk jug, and a ‘Sucrier’ or sugar bowl. The ‘Campanula’ design is distinguished by a scrolling handle and an elaborate long fluted finial surmounted by a fleur-de-lis. The hand-painted decoration features black enamel stripes highlighted with a gilded stripe motif, on a gilded base with a scroll pattern. With only four of each type of cup, the set presumably enabled the user to choose which drink they preferred.

The drawings are an important addition to the V&A Wedgwood Collection’s archive, offering an insight into the unusually complex design process for this set. They show the journey from concept to production: Follot’s notes on several of the drawings, ‘avant réduction’ and ‘après réduction’, suggest the scale of the drawings represents the size of the product before and after the clay shrinks as it is fired in the kiln. Amongst the drawings is a design for an unusual ‘Pomona’ Queen’s ware centrepiece, also crafted by Follot for Wedgwood.

The generous contribution towards the drawings received from the Friends of the National Libraries enabled us to secure this fantastic acquisition for the public collection. Additional support was gratefully received from the V&A Americas Foundation through the generosity of the A. Alfred Taubman Foundation at the recommendation of William and Ellen Taubman, The Decorative Arts Society 40th Anniversary Fund, and Simon Wedgwood. A legacy gift towards this set was also left by Jacob Holt.

The drawings join the UNESCO-recognised archives of the V&A Wedgwood Collection, and appear in graphic print to complement the new display of this acquisition in the V&A Wedgwood Collection, at the World of Wedgwood, Barlaston, Stoke-on-Trent.

Tea and coffee set, ‘Campanula’ shape, c. 1923, designed by Paul Follot for Wedgwood. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Also see image on page 9 .

Preparatory design drawing for ‘Pomona’ centrepiece, c. 1923, Paul Follot for Wedgwood, pencil on tracing paper. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

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Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase 103

FOR WEST SUSSEX RECORD OFFICE AND EIGHT OTHER ARCHIVE SERVICES

Nine medieval deeds relating to property in Berkshire, Essex, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Somerset, West Sussex and West Yorkshire, c. 1250-1463. Bought from International Autograph Auctions (7 April 2022, Lot 1140) for £7,630 and funded in full by a grant from Friends of the National Libraries.

One deed was added to the West Sussex Record Office’s collections and the other eight were donated to archive services around the country. FNL is happy to respond to applications for grants which employ this sort of collaborative approach.

Wendy Walker, County Archivist, writes: Mixed lots, such as this one, present a real challenge when they come up for sale, particularly when time is a factor as it often is with auctions. Whilst repositories may be very interested in a single document relating to their area of collecting, they often cannot justify bidding on the whole lot in order to secure the object of their interest which can result in significant documents passing into private hands instead.

When we were alerted to the auction of these deeds by a member of the public we knew how significant they were, given the early date, and how important it would be to secure this lot for West Sussex Record Office and the other local record offices the deeds related to. Two other county record offices were also aware of the lot and its importance.

The National Archives Sales Monitoring Team put the three record offices in touch and recommended approaching the Friends of the National Libraries. After liaising with Friends of the National Libraries and securing an extremely generous grant to cover the purchase of the deeds, transport (as the auction was taking place in Malaga), and distribution of the deeds to the appropriate record offices if the purchase was successful, it was agreed that West Sussex Record Office would bid on the lot. It was an exciting moment when we were notified that ours was the winning bid.

The deed for West Sussex, dated 24th May 1336 provides a wealth of information about property owners in Worthing at this time. The two main parties are William le Metere and his wife Emma and Herric de Heen (Heene being the name of a manor and parish outside Worthing) but in a detailed description of the location of the messuage the grant identifies six owners of parcels of adjacent land and the names of six witnesses.

Grant and quitclaim of a messuage in the vill of Shipham (Schypham), c1290. This has been donated to the South West Heritage Trust. Image courtesy of West Sussex Record Office.

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The eight other deeds contain a similar level of invaluable information (including names of female property owners) and comprise:

• Grant from Robert son of John de Gravele to Laurnce del Broc of all his wood called Linethegrave in the vill of Chesfield [Graveley, Hertfordshire], c1250.

Donated to Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies

• Grant and quitclaim from Philip, son of Henry Simond, to Christine, daughter of Sybil, daughter of Henry Simond of a messuage in the vill of Shipham, Somerset, c1290.

Donated to the South West Heritage Trust

• Grant from Avice, widow of Thomas le Hore of Ashley [Hampshire] to her son Nicholas of the whole tenement and land which she has in the vill of Ashley, 25 Nov 1307.

Donated to Hampshire Archives and Local Studies

• Grant from John Breed of Great Waltham [Essex] to John Hamund, John Hultynge and John Claver, all of Great Waltham of property in Great Waltham, 16 Dec 1385.

Donated to Essex Record Office

• Grant from John Taylour of Ascot in Winkfield to Williame atte Hatche and his brother Richard Atte Hatche of Ascot of a cottage, garden and a croft of arable in Ascot, 16 Jun 1405.

Donated to Berkshire Record Office

• Letters of attornment and fealty from Margaret, widow of Henry Popham, lady of Buckland near Lymington [Hampshire], to John Fromond, lord of the manor of Fernhill [Milton, Hampshire] of lands and tenements in Arnwood [Hordle, Hampshire], 8 Sep 1419.

Donated to Hampshire Archives and Local Studies

• Quitclaim between William Spark of Hook [West Riding of Yorkshire] to William Reder of Thorne of his right in lands in Hook, moor in Incklesmore, and moor in Morehampittes, 30 Apr 1446.

Donated to West Yorkshire Archives Service

• Letters of attorney from Thomas Denys and John Draill to Ralph Wuff and Thomas Gate to deliver seisin to Bennet Caldewell of their manor called Blomviles in Monk Soham, 1 Jun 1463.

Donated to Suffolk Archives

West Sussex Record Office and all of the other services that benefitted are extremely grateful to Friends of the National Libraries, not only for such a large grant, but also their swift response to the application and their advice. Thanks to this generous grant, these nine rare medieval deeds have been saved and can be made available to researchers at local record offices around the country.

A quitclaim relating to land at Hook near Goole, 30 Apr 1446. This has been donated to West Yorkshire Archive Service. Image courtesy of West Sussex Record Office.

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Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase 107

FOR WEST SUSSEX RECORD OFFICE

1. Documents relating to the Baybridge Canal Company, West Grinstead, 1825-1875. Bought from Halls Auctioneers (12 January 2022, Lot 138) for £2,500, with the aid of a grant of £2,250 from Friends of the National Libraries.

Wendy Walker, County Archivist, writes: West Sussex Record Office is extremely grateful to the Friends of the National Libraries for their help in enabling the purchase of this significant collection relating to the Baybridge Canal Company. The Baybridge Canal was the name given to a stretch of the River Adur between Bines Bridge and Baybridge in the parish of West Grinstead that was made navigable in 1825. The River Adur had been navigable as far as Bines Bridge since 1812, and it was hoped that if the waterway was extended to Baybridge, on the Horsham-Worthing road, a further distance of 3.75 miles, it would be more useful to trade. However, the canal was operational and profitable for just 50 years; following the opening of the railway from Shoreham to West Grinstead in 1861 the canal was little used. By 1865 the canal had ceased to pay interest on its loan debt, and in 1875 it was closed by Act of Parliament.

The collection provides an important insight into the establishment and operation of the Baybridge Canal Company from its inception in 1825; accounts from that year record expenses incurred in preparing the Baybridge Navigation Act and producing handbills and advertisements inviting tenders for digging the canal and building locks. The collection also contains one of the handbills referred to in the accounts. A page of accounts from 1826 records expenditure on the construction of an iron bridge and later accounts refer to the ongoing expenses involved in maintaining the canal, such as labour for ‘throwing mud out of the river’ in May 1831 and the purchase of oil for the locks on 24th June 1831.

A poster inviting tenders, 1825. Courtesy of West Sussex Record Office.

The collection covers the final stages of the Baybridge Canal with accounts drawn up by J C Reed for the Baybridge Canal (Abandonment) Act 1875 and a printed handbill announcing the closure of the canal to traffic effective 1st September 1875.

This archive offers an important insight into West Sussex industrial history, the impact of the coming of the railways in West Sussex and is a valuable resource for family and local history. The generous grant from FNL enabling the purchase of this collection means that it can be viewed alongside other material held by West Sussex Record Office relating to the Baybridge Canal Company (Add Mss 4477644814) offering an enhanced resource for researchers.

The accounts provide a record of goods being transported on the canal, predominately chalk, offering an important insight into local industry and trade. The accounts record names of local farmers, labourers and of course those using the canal whilst the book of reference provides the names of the owners and occupiers of land through which the proposed canal was to run making the collection an important source of information about local landowners, residents and businessmen.

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2. Map of Steepwood Farm, West Chiltington, 1792. Bought in a private sale for £370 and funded in full by a grant from Friends of the National Libraries.

Wendy Walker, County Archivist, writes: This detailed map of Steepwood Farm in the parish of West Chiltington provides a wealth of information about the property which, thanks to a generous grant from the Friends of the National Libraries, is now available to researchers at West Sussex Record Office.

This map, as with other estate maps, is a valuable source for researchers seeking to trace changing boundaries, land usage, and land ownership over time, predating similar sources such as tithe and enclosure maps and awards. The surveyor, John Cross, has listed the names of the individual fields which made up the property, their acreage and the usage of each field (wood, furze, arable, pasture etc). The buildings which comprise the farmhouse and outbuildings are clearly shown, providing a helpful (and early) source for researchers interested in the history of the farm and its buildings. The map also includes the names of the surrounding landowners and tenants and will undoubtedly be of great interest to local and house historians.

The map identifies Reverend Robert Offley as the former owner of Steepwood Farm and there are references to the Offley family of Surrey and their connection with the farm in three other documents at WSRO: a receipt dated 4th December 1675 (Add Mss 8113); a release of legacies following the death of Gabriel Offley, 6th January 1712 (Add Mss 5621); and a quitclaim by James Grahme of Levens, Westmorland, and others to the Rev. Robert Offley of Abinger dated 16th January 1712 (Add Mss 8114). The map fills in an important gap in the history of the title of the property providing evidence that Robert Offley left the farm in trust for the benefit of the Chaplain and Curate of Oakwood Chapel in Wootton, Surrey, with the map having been commissioned by the curate of Oakwood Chapel at the time, John Hallam.

For this reason, and the fact that West Sussex Record Office otherwise does not have any estate maps which directly refer to Steepwood Farm, it is a particularly valuable addition to the collections. Its purchase with assistance from FNL will enable researchers to consult the map alongside the above records relating to the Offley family’s ownership of the property, as well as records relating to other property held by the Trustees of Oakwood Chapel, including correspondence relating to land sales between The Trustees of Oakwood Chapel and the Mid Sussex Railway Company, 1863-1865 (AM 1495/5).

The map of Steepwood Farm. Courtesy of West Sussex Record Office.

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3. Diary of Francis Fearon of Cuckfield and London, 1859-1860. Bought from Halls Auctioneers (7 April 2022, Lot 118) for £393 and funded in full by a grant from Friends of the National Libraries.

Wendy Walker, County Archivist, writes: Diaries can be some of the most powerful documents that we hold, providing a fascinating insight into the inner lives of people in the past. The diary of Francis Fearon, purchased with a generous grant from the Friends of the National Libraries, is no exception and when we were alerted to the sale by The National Archives Sales Monitoring Team we knew how significant this diary could be.

Francis Fearon was Steward of Cuckfield Manor between c 1874 and 1890 and other documents in the archives at West Sussex Record Office suggest that he acted as solicitor for the Sergison family, owners of Cuckfield Manor. We otherwise knew very little about him but this diary provides an insight into his day-to-day activities, interests and the milieu in which he moved.

For the first quarter of the diary, Fearon keeps a weekly, rather than daily, diary, providing an overview of his social life in West Sussex. It includes details such as a dance at Danny - an Elizabethan manor house near Hurstpierpoint - and his membership of the Cuckfield militia (‘next day went over to Cuckfield it being our day of Enrollment – ie the day on which the Gallant Volunteers of Cuckfield were to take the Oath of Allegiance’). He describes learning how to shoot and talks of events in Parliament. Trips to the Lake District and the Trossachs in Scotland are recorded, as are issues such as the extension of the railway line from Nuneaton to Hinckley. Fearon was evidently an enthusiastic amateur artist and some of the accounts of his trips are accompanied by attractive and well executed sketches.

The diary reflects Fearon’s wide-ranging scientific interests including entries on glaciers and Chemical Action Favoured Agitation. He attended lectures held by F A Abel, the director of the Chemical Establishment of the War Department (best known for the invention of cordite as a replacement for gunpowder in firearms) and the diary includes many detailed illustrations and diagrams to accompany the notes.

After several blank pages (along with many other diary writers, Fearon does not seem to have kept up with his diary for that long) there are what appear to be transcriptions of notes left by a Miss C. The final pages are of rough notes for potential lectures he could attend, again giving a sense of Fearon’s interests.

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Acquisitions by Gift and Purchase 113

4. Deed of gift relating to 11 acres and a house in West Dean, c 1300. Bought from Liss Books for £450 with the aid of a grant of £400 from Friends of the National Libraries.

Wendy Walker, County Archivist, writes: Medieval deeds from such an early period are rare survivals and West Sussex Record Office thanks FNL for their generous grant which has enabled the purchase of this c 1300 deed of gift. Medieval deeds provide an important insight into property ownership and transactions and also document people who may have owned adjoining property or acted as witnesses to a transaction. As such, they are invaluable resources for local and family historians from a time when few other written records survive to shed light on local residents.

This particular deed of gift, which relates to property in West Dean, not only identifies the two main parties involved in the transaction, Geoffrey de la Wodecote and John Sebrist of Arundel, but also the names of four witnesses: Sir Robert de Villiers, Adam de Chetwynde, Thomas de Westden, and William de Charleton. Interestingly it records that the piece of land had a house built upon it, providing early written evidence of medieval buildings in West Dean.

Whilst West Sussex Record Office has a substantial quantity of deeds relating to West Dean from the 17th century onwards there are very few which pre-date this, and none as early as c1300, making this deed a particularly significant addition to our holdings and of real value to researchers.

The deed of gift relating to property in West Dean, c1300. Courtesy of West Sussex Record Office.

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5. Account book of John Pilbeam of Ardingly, 1720s-1760s. Bought from Bonhams (9 November 2022, Lot 38) for £765, with the aid of a grant of £515 from Friends of the National Libraries.

Wendy Walker, County Archivist, writes: John Pilbeam’s account book is another item which was brought to our attention by The National Archives Sales Monitoring Team and we are very grateful to the Friends of the National Libraries for a generous grant which enabled us to purchase this volume. It provides a fascinating insight into domestic and material culture in the 18th century, with references to payments for linen and furniture alongside the purchase of crops and other good such as coal, straw, and apples. References are also made to taxes (‘…for one years Window Tax £01-00-00’) and to disbursements made by Pilbeam in his role as Churchwarden (‘2 Church lockes’ and ‘wine for the communion’).

The volumes also touches on household management with the front page having been used to list the linen ‘in the bucken chest’ on 28th November 1728 and other entries in the volume recording payments ‘to Wimen for Dressing & Dinner and Cleaning up the Linnen and trenchers and the pewter and all things’.

Further on in the volume are a number of references to carpentry and building materials such as ‘a side for a cucumber frame’ and towards the end of the volume are several pages of entries connected with work done at Mitcham. Pilbeam looks to have made extensive alterations to the property and the accounts provide a fascinating insight into what an 18th century house renovation would have involved – the number of hours of labour and the materials used.

The accounts also contain references to farming activities (‘The a Count of What Malt I have had of Walter Chatfield att Hawardes Heath’, ‘for a hoppicker that you have carred away’), reflecting the type of agricultural work taking place in the area around Ardingly at this time.

Detail of John Pilbeam’s account book. Courtesy of West Sussex Record Office.

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Trustees’ Report 117

Trustees’ Report

The Trustees present the annual report and the financial statements of Friends of the National Libraries (the ‘Charity’ or ‘FNL’) for the year ended 31 December 2022.

Reference and administrative details of the Charity, its Trustees and advisers are set out on page 2.

OBJECTIVE AND ACTIVITIES

The principal objectives of the Charity, as set out in its constitution, are to promote the acquisition of printed books, manuscripts and records of historical, literary, artistic, architectural, musical or such-like interest by ‘National Libraries’ and to assist them in any other way which the Charity considers appropriate. ‘National Libraries’ are defined to include the national libraries of the United Kingdom and any university, county, local authority or other library, record office, museum or gallery to which the public has access and which in the opinion of the Trustees constitutes a proper repository for any proposed acquisition.

The Charity aims to achieve these objectives through making grants, thus enabling National Libraries to acquire items for their collections that would otherwise be unaffordable. The export of nationally important manuscripts and printed books is often avoided with the help of substantial grants by the Charity. Grants to county record offices, university libraries and other specialist archives play an essential role in enabling those institutions to acquire documents, archives and printed books that are of great importance for researchers, scholars and historians.

Grant-making policies

All grants are given to National Libraries, as defined in ‘Objectives and Activities’, opposite.

The Charity’s two main criteria when awarding grants are the historical, literary and other qualities of the proposed acquisition and its significance to the applicant’s collection. Price, condition and provenance are also taken into account. Each applicant is required to give an undertaking that it will not sell the item newly acquired, will acknowledge the help given by FNL on all matters concerning the item, will keep the acquisition in secure and environmentally sound conditions, and will make it available for the public to enjoy on request if it is not on view at all times.

Grants from the Philip Larkin Fund are made for the restricted purpose of purchasing modern literary manuscripts and archives. The Trustees have the power to spend the capital as well as the income of the Philip Larkin Fund but have decided always to retain a minimum sum of £250,000 in this fund.

Grants from the B. H. Breslauer Foundation Fund are restricted to support the purchase of rare printed books and fine bindings. The income from the John R Murray Fund has to be separately identified, but both its income and capital can be spent at the discretion of the Trustees.

Since its establishment in 1931, FNL has helped over nearly 400 libraries to acquire thousands of items. Scholars, researchers and historians and the general public can study and see the printed books, manuscripts, musical scores, photographs and other items acquired by the beneficiary libraries.

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The Trustees have given careful consideration to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit. FNL’s core objective is to support acquisitions by archives, libraries, universities, museums and specialist collecting institutions. The public benefits that flow from this are:

• i. Saving locally, nationally and internationally significant material for the nation.

• ii. Making it possible for the public and researchers to gain access this written and printed material that would otherwise have been lost to the public domain.

• iii. Supporting the nation’s libraries and enabling them to enrich their collections with acquisitions that would be beyond their resources to acquire without our support.

We believe this greatly benefits the libraries themselves, those who access and use their collections, and also the public realm. These benefits are clearly demonstrated by the essays in this Annual Report.

Main objectives for 2022

The Trustees’ main objective for 2022 was to make grants from all funds of at least £200,000 excluding any special purpose grants, subject to the level of investment income to be received in 2022 not being less than that received in 2021.

ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE

Grants pledged in 2022

Details of the 51 ‘ordinary’ grants made or committed by FNL in 2022 are given on pages 14 to 115. Their aggregate value was £401,085 of which £217,203 was charged to the Operating Fund, £105,128 to the John R Murray Fund, £45,548 to the B. H. Breslauer Foundation Fund, £1,736 to the Philip Larkin Fund, £30,000 to special purpose income received in 2021 and £1,470 to support costs.

But following the success in 2021 of purchasing the Blavatnik Honresfield Library for a total cost of £15,095,400, the crowning achievement in 2022 was the successful purchase of the newly rediscovered manuscript by Charlotte Brontë, A Book of Ryhme’s (sic) by Charlotte Brontë, Sold by Nobody, and Printed by Herself . As described in detail below and elsewhere in this annual report, this collection of 10 poems was written by Charlotte Brontë at the age of 13 and is dated December 1829. The purchase price was £950,270. In aggregate, therefore, the Charity made grants in 2022 of £1,351,355 (2021: £15,261,885).

Membership

The support of FNL’s members is vital to its work as a charity. Subscription income enables FNL to award many more acquisition grants than would otherwise be possible. Moreover, members also help to raise awareness of the Charity’s work and the grants that it can give. Whilst all libraries and archives are welcome to apply for grants, whether or not they are Institutional Library Members of FNL, membership is certainly encouraged for all those institutions that have received and apply for financial support from the Charity.

The Trustees warmly welcome the new members who joined FNL in 2022. Sadly, a number were also lost through death, resignation or lapsed membership. At the end of 2022, FNL had a total of 1,679 members. This high number was the result of a decision to award free membership for 2022 to over 800 individuals who generously contributed towards the purchase of the Blavatnik Honresfield Library and indicated their wish to receive this membership. We were delighted that 118 of these members decided to continue with their membership after the free year.

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The last miniature manuscript book by Charlotte Brontë in private hands

The paragraphs which appear earlier in this report (pages 14 to 17) provide details of ‘A Book of Ryhme’s’ by Charlotte Brontë ‘Sold by Nobody, and Printed by Herself’. Missing for almost 100 years, it resurfaced in New York and was bought by FNL after a fundraising campaign to save it for the nation. FNL is most grateful to James Cummins Bookseller Inc. for offering FNL the chance to buy the manuscript before offering it to anybody else or any other library. This opportunity was created as a direct consequence of FNL’s success in saving the Blavatnik Honresfield Library for the nation.

The greatest collection of the Brontës’ miniature books belongs to the Brontë Parsonage Museum, which was bequeathed the great collection of H. H. Bonnell in 1926 and has always striven to develop and grow its collection. The British Library holds both T.J. Wise’s own collection, the Ashley Library, and the manuscripts of the major novels (thanks to the generosity of the heirs of George Murray Smith, Charlotte Brontë’s publisher). Harvard has nine volumes of juvenilia, aside from short fragments, and a fragmentary abandoned mature work (Willie Ellin); the Morgan Library has five volumes of juvenilia and the manuscript of The Professor; the Robert Taylor Collection at Princeton has only three of the ‘little books’ but also has two mature fragments.

In 2019 Charlotte Brontë’s miniature manuscript of 1830 (an issue of the ‘Young Men’s Magazine’) sold at auction in Paris for €780,000 to the Brontë Parsonage Museum.

In December 2021 FNL announced that it had raised over £15 million to acquire the entire Honresfield Library, which included seven Brontë miniature books, now jointly owned to the Brontë Parsonage Museum and the British Library.

FNL has donated ‘A Book of Ryhme’s’ to the Brontë Parsonage Museum.

Donations and legacies

For many years the Murray family have been enormously generous supporters of FNL. In 2022, the Murray family gave £1,000,000 as an addition to the John R. Murray Fund created in 2021 through the gift in that year of approximately £778,000. Income from this fund has to be separately identified, but both income and capital can be spent at the discretion of the FNL Trustees. We are enormously grateful to the Murray family for their extraordinarily generous support which will have such a positive impact on our ability to support acquisitions in the future. The sum of £250,000 was contributed to the cost of purchasing Charlotte Brontë’s miniature ‘A Book of Ryhme’s’.

With munificent generosity the Garfield Weston Foundation also contributed £250,000 towards the cost of Charlotte Brontë’s miniature book. Other benefactors to this purchase included the Ardeola Trust, the David Cock Foundation, the Rothschild Foundation, the Unwin Trust and numerous other contributors.

A number of FNL members have generously remembered the Charity in their Wills. During 2022, FNL received a generous legacy of £10,000 from Mr James Stitt, a Trustee of FNL for many years and a valued friend of the Charity and of many of its Trustees. The evergreen benefaction of the late David Hall (1947-2015) continues: he was the Deputy Librarian of Cambridge University Library, and left FNL a share of the proceeds of the sale of the residue of his library. In 2022 FNL received £2,180. FNL is most grateful to all these benefactors and donors, including those who prefer to remain anonymous, for their invaluable generosity.

A number of members have indicated their intention to leave a legacy to FNL in their wills, for which we are most grateful. Any member considering a bequest can find information on our website, www.fnl.org.uk and can email FNL at [e-mail]. We will be delighted to provide guidance.

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The B.H. Breslauer Foundation has also been enormously generous to FNL over very many years. Grants from FNL’s B. H. Breslauer Foundation Fund have, in particular, supported the acquisition of rare printed books and fine bindings. During 2021 a further generous donation of £100,000 was received, lifting aggregate benefactions from the B.H. Breslauer Foundation since 2012 to more than £500,000, which has supported the acquisition of books and bindings to a total value of over £11.5m. The Trustees are indebted to Foundation’s Directors and to its President, Mr Felix de Marez Oyens, who also, for many years, generously contributed his expertise as a Trustee of FNL. The Trustees are most grateful to all of these donors, and those who prefer to remain anonymous,for their generosity.

Events and other benefits for members

The Trustees were delighted to be able to resume the popular FNL visits programme in Autumn 2022 following the enforced break during the Covid-19 pandemic. We are most grateful to colleagues at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Lambeth Palace Library and Dr Johnson’s House who generously hosted these visits. In each case, FNL members were able to study not only items acquired thanks to FNL grants but also the books and manuscripts donated to them from the Blavatnik Honresfield Library.

It was also possible to return to an in-person Annual General Meeting, which was held on 22 June 2022 at the London Library. The FNL Annual Lecture was given by Professor Kathryn Sutherland, whose presentation ‘Honresfield: Imagining one man’s collection’ revealed some fascinating insights into Law’s collecting and collection. She has continued this research since the AGM and an expanded paper on the topic will be included in FNL’s special publication on the Blavatnik Honresfield Library.

The Charity’s website includes information about FNL visits and other events for members, news from the sector as well as a database of all grants awarded since FNL was founded in 1931 (www.fnl.org.uk). FNL can also be followed on twitter (@FNL313).

We continue to be most grateful to the institutions that have been awarded grants in the past and which offer free entry or other concessions to FNL members, helping to make FNL membership more attractive. Organisations that support us in this way include Cambridge University Library, The University of Glasgow Library, Dove Cottage, Milton’s Cottage, the Friends of the Bodleian Library and Seven Stories: the National Centre for Children’s Books in Newcastle.

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FINANCIAL REVIEW

As the financial statements set out following this report show the constituent funds of the Charity separately, each is given separate comment below.

The Operating Fund

The unrestricted Operating Fund records all the income and expenditure of FNL, except the restricted and Endowment funds. In 2022, the total income of this fund amounted to £233,916 (2021: £204,462).

Subscription income amounted to £38,941, a fall of about £4,500 from the £43,481 received in 2021. Other donations and legacies amounted to £39,209 (2021: £35,675). Investment income climbed dramatically from £114,398 in 2021 to £197,785 in 2022. This increase is a direct consequence of the decision to switch the entire investment portfolio into the Cazenove Responsible Multi-Asset Fund towards the end of 2021, as described in note 7 to the accounts.

Thirty-seven ‘ordinary’ grants were paid or committed by FNL from the Operating Fund in 2022. The aggregate value of grants awarded from this fund amounted to £217,203 (2021: £148,972).

Expenditure on the costs of running the Charity borne by this fund rose sharply to £62,271 (2021: £37,620), an increase caused partly by the time costs of administering the distribution to nearly 70 libraries of the printed books in the Blavatnik Honresfield Library and by the cost of the AGM, held in person in 2022 instead of on Zoom as in 2021. It should be noted that, in aggregate, operating costs fell from £87,659 to £75,751 in 2022, but a greater share of these costs is now borne by the Operating Fund. After taking into account all income and expenditure, the net excess of expenditure over income in the Operating Fund amounted to £46,942 (2021: surplus of £17,870). Most of this sum was transferred from the General Endowment fund.

The Philip Larkin Fund

In 2022, the Philip Larkin Fund received investment income of £12,741 (2021: £9,092) and paid one grant amounting to £1,736 (2021: one grant of £10,000). After investment management fees of £926 and unrealised losses on investments contained in this fund of £33,983 (2021: unrealised gains of £28,905), the balance of this fund at the year-end was £322,319 (2021: £346,223).

The B. H. Breslauer Foundation Fund

Since 2012 the B.H. Breslauer Foundation has generously made a series of donations to FNL to be added to its B.H. Breslauer Fund. No donation was received in 2022 (2021: a final gift of £100,000). Five grants, totalling £45,548, were awarded by FNL from its B.H. Breslauer Fund in 2022 (2021: £7,450), and the balance of this fund at the year-end was £57,364 (2021: £102,912).

The John R. Murray Fund

The income of this fund has to be separately identified, but both income and capital can be spent at the discretion of the FNL Trustees. In 2022, the Murray family made a most munificent further gift of £1,000,000 to be added to this fund, which also received investment income of £29,277. It paid ten grants in 2022 amounting to £356,353, including £250,000 towards Charlotte Brontë’s miniature book, and the balance of this fund at the year-end was £1,406,347 (2021: £779,088).

The Endowment Funds

The General Endowment Fund, which is expendable, comprises the accumulated unrestricted reserves of the Charity. In 2022 £44,260 was transferred to the Unrestricted Operating fund and investment management fees of £11,075 were charged to the Endowment fund. In addition, the financial statements record unrealised losses on the investment portfolio of £389,028 (2021: unrealised gains of £334,631). The General Endowment Fund amounted to £2,322,500 at the year-end (2021: £2,766,863).

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The Permanent Endowment funds comprise the Golden Jubilee Appeal Fund and the Prince of Wales Fund. They represent incoming donations and grants which cannot be expended by the Charity but all income arising from the investment of these funds is added to the Operating Fund. During 2022 no gifts were received by either fund (2021: £100,000 into the Prince of Wales Fund). At the year-end, the Prince of Wales Fund stood at £1,540,283 (2021: £1,540,283), and total Permanent Endowment Funds stood at £1,639,001 (2021: £1,639,001).

The balance sheet

The balance sheet on page 135 shows net assets at 31 December 2022 of £5,747,531 (2021: £5,664,087), comprising the investment portfolio at its market value of £5,020,645 (2021: £4,491,099) and net current assets (mostly cash, less commitments to make grants) of £726,886 (2021: £1,172,988).

The investment portfolio at the year-end and the movements between 31 December 2021 and 2022 are summarised in note 7 on page 139.

Statement of cash flows

The statement on page 134 shows that proceeds from the sale of investments in 2022 amounted to £375,986 (2021: £4,369,499) and that £1,374,209 (2021: £4,627,243) was spent on the purchase of new investments. Details of the cash flows are given in note 7 on page 139.

The second significant factor in relating the Charity’s cash balances to its net income or expenditure is the extent to which the grants committed to in each year have been paid by the end of the year: the timing is completely outside the Charity’s control. The extent of such unpaid commitments decreased by £10,084,423 (2021: increase of £10,075,644), representing the portion of the purchase price for the Honresfield Library paid in 2022, thereby also decreasing cash balances and debtors at the year-end.

Auditors

Policies on investments and reserves

The Trustees have adopted a total return investment policy, intended to maximise total returns whilst accepting a medium degree of risk. The investment portfolio is managed by Cazenove Capital Management Limited. Towards the end of 2021, the investment portfolio was switched into the Cazenove Responsible Multi-Asset Fund. This is a long-term investment fund with a diversified strategy investing in equities, bonds, property and alternative assets. The Fund aims to provide income and capital growth in excess of the Consumer Price Index + 4% per annum (net of fees) over rolling ten-year periods. The switch was completed in the first quarter of 2022.

Save for the restricted funds and the Permanent Endowment funds, which are identified in the balance sheet on page 135, all the Charity’s reserves are regarded as an expendable Endowment fund and are shown under that heading in the financial statements. This fund is normally represented by investments in order to produce a reasonably predictable and regular level of income. The Trustees regard this as necessary to maintain and support the Charity’s operation.

Any deficit on the Operating Fund is made good by a transfer from the General Endowment fund and any surplus is transferred to that fund.

Risks and uncertainties

Some years ago, the Trustees identified that the principal risk facing the Charity was that FNL’s financial resources could become inadequate to meet an increasing level of applications for grants from libraries and other institutions. The creation of the Prince of Wales Fund in 2017, which has now reached £1.5 million, and of the John R. Murray Fund in 2021 has helped to mitigate this risk by generating additional investment income.

Furthermore, the Trustees recognise that there is a risk to the Charity’s reputation should it make grants for acquisitions which suffer from uncertain provenance or which carry other problems of condition, value or suitability. The Officers of the Charity, and the Trustees as a group, pay particular attention to these factors when considering applications for grants.

At the Annual General Meeting held on 22 June 2022, Mr Gregory Stevenson, of Knox Cropper LLP, London, was re-appointed as Auditor.

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STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

Constitution

The Charity is governed by a constitution adopted at the annual general meeting held in June 1995. The present constitution is based on the constitution originally adopted at the first annual general meeting held in June 1932 and consolidates all subsequent amendments.

Administration

Mrs Nell Hoare acts as the Charity’s Secretary and Paul Celerier FCA acts as FNL’s Membership Accountant. Mr Matthew Payne, Keeper of the Muniments at Westminster Abbey, kindly assists the Secretary in the role of Expert Adviser.

Trustees’ responsibilities

Trustees

The Trustees of the Charity are the Chairman and Honorary Treasurer, together with nine elected and seven ex officio Trustees. The Charity’s Secretary, who is also the fundraising consultant, is not a Trustee.

The Chairman and Honorary Treasurer are elected at the annual general meeting for a term of one year. The elected Trustees serve for a term of three years. Each ex officio Trustee holds office for as long as he or she holds the position indicated against his or her name on page 2.

Candidates for election as a Trustee are proposed by the Trustees or by members of the Charity from their personal or professional contacts who are knowledgeable in the fields falling within the Charity’s scope, or who have knowledge or experience which can help the Charity to achieve its objectives. New ex officio Trustees meet these criteria by virtue of their office.

The Trustees are responsible for managing the affairs of the Charity and administering its funds and assets within the framework of any general policies agreed at an Annual General Meeting.

They are responsible in particular for approving grants to institutions before any commitment is made. Approval is normally given at one of the regular meetings of Trustees but applications between meetings may be dealt with by email consultation. Furthermore, the Chairman and Honorary Treasurer have been empowered collectively to approve such applications for grants between meetings not exceeding £10,000.

New Trustees are provided with a detailed briefing about the Charity (its history, aims and work) and supplied with key documents, including Charity Commission guidance for Trustees.

The names of the Trustees at the date of this report are set out on page 2. All served throughout the year 2022 except as indicated in the following paragraph.

At the Annual General Meeting held on 22 June 2022 Mr Geordie Greig, Chairman, and Mr Charles Sebag-Montefiore, Honorary Treasurer, were both re-elected. Mr Felix de Marens Oyens, Mr Mark Storey and Mrs Joan Winterkorn retired as Trustees having served three years. Mrs Joanna Barker MBE, Mrs Mary Gibson and Mr Christopher Whittick were elected to fill the trustee vacancies.

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The Trustees are also required to prepare annual financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom accounting standards. In preparing those statements, the Trustees:

FUTURE PLANS

The Trustees do not expect there to be any significant change in the Charity’s aims, objectives or activities in the foreseeable future.

• select suitable accounting policies and then applies them consistently;

• make judgements and estimates which are reasonable and prudent;

• state whether applicable accounting standards have been followed – subject to any material departures that are disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and

• prepare the financial statements on a going-concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the Charity will continue its activities.

The Charity’s main objective for 2023 is to make grants from all funds of at least £250,000 excluding any special purpose grants, subject to the level of investment income to be received in 2023 not being less than that received in 2022.

Approved and signed on behalf of the Trustees on 26 April 2023 by:

GEORDIE GREIG CHARLES SEBAG-MONTEFIORE Chairman Honorary Treasurer

The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose the financial transactions and the assets and liabilities of the Charity with reasonable accuracy. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

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Financial Statements

INDEPENDENT AUDITORS’ REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES

OF FRIENDS OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARIES

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Friends of National Libraries (the ‘Charity’) for the year ended 31st December 2022 which comprise the statement of financial activities, the balance sheet, the statement of cash flows and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice). In our opinion, the financial statements:

• give a true and fair view of the state of the Charity’s affairs as at 31st December 2022 and of its incoming

• resources and application of resources for the year then ended;

• have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and

• have been prepared in accordance with the Charities Act 2011.

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the Charity in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the Charity’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue. Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The other information comprises the information included in the annual report, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact. We have nothing to report in this regard.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 require us to report to you if, in our opinion:

• the information given in the financial statements is inconsistent in any material respect with the trustees’ report; or

• sufficient accounting records have not been kept; or

• the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records; or

• we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the trustees’ responsibilities statement, the trustees are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the Charity’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the Charity or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

We have been appointed as auditor under section 145 of the Charities Act 2011 and report in accordance with the Act and relevant regulations made or having effect thereunder.

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:

• The Charity is required to comply with the Charity law and, based on our knowledge of its activities, we identified that the legal requirement to accurately account for restricted funds was of key significance.

• We gained an understanding of how the Charity complied with its legal and regulatory framework, including the requirement to comply with the Charity SORP, through discussions with management and a review of the documented policies, procedures and controls.

• The audit team which is experienced in the audit of charities, considered the Charity’s susceptibility to material

• misstatement and how fraud may occur. Our considerations included the risk of management override.

• Our approach was to check that all income was properly identified and separately accounted for and to ensure that only valid and appropriate expenditure was charged to the Charity’s funds. This included reviewing journal adjustments and unusual transactions.

There are inherent limitations in the audit procedures described above and, the further removed non-compliance with laws and regulations is from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, the less likely we would become aware of it. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement due to fraud is higher than the risk of not detecting one resulting from error, as fraud may involve deliberate concealment by, for example, forgery or intentional misrepresentations, or through collusion.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

Use of Our Report

This report is made solely to the Charity’s trustees, as a body, in accordance with Part 4 of the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008. Our audit work has been undertaken, so that we might state to the Charity’s trustees those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the Charity and the Charity’s trustees as a body, for our audit work, for this report or for the opinions we have formed.

KNOX CROPPER LLP | Chartered Accountants | Statutory Auditors

65 Leadenhall Street | London | EC3A 2AD

27 April 2023

Knox Cropper is eligible for appointment as auditor of the Charity by virtue of its eligibility for appointment as auditor of a company under section 1212 of the Companies Act 2006.

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FRIENDS OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARIES

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES for the year ended 31 December 2022

Note Income from: donatons and legacies 2 investments 3 Total Expenditure on: grants to insttutons for the purchase of books, manuscripts, archives and bookbindings 4 raising funds 5 Total Operatng result Net gains/(losses) on investments 7 Net income/(expenditure) Transfers between funds Net movement in funds Reconciliaton of funds Total funds brought forward Total funds carried forward	Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total Total fund funds funds 2022 2021 £ £ £ £ £ 78,150 1,703,292 – 1,781,442 16,232,994 155,766 42,019 – 197,785 114,398
	233,916 1,745,311 – 1,979,227 16,347,392
	218,587 1,132,768 – 1,351,355 15,261,885 62,271 2,405 11,075 75,751 87,659
	280,858 1,135,173 11,075 1,427,106 15,349,544
	(46,942) 610,138 (11,075) 552,121 997,848 – (79,649) (389,028) (468,677) 363,536
	(46,942) 530,489 (400,103) 83,444 1,361,384 46,942 (2,682) (44,260) – –
	– 527,807 (444,363) 83,444 1,361,384 – 1,258,223 4,405,864 5,664,087 4,302,703
	– 1,786,030 3,961,501 5,747,531 5,664,087

FRIENDS OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARIES

BALANCE SHEET as at 31 December 2022

			2022	2021
		Note	£	£
Fixed assets
Investments		7	5,020,645	4,491,099
Current assets
Debtors		8	16,178	4,744,325
Cash at bank			808,544	6,651,577
Total current assets			824,722	11,395,902
Liabilites
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year		9	97,836	10,222,914
Net current assets			726,886	1,172,988
Total net assets			5,747,531	5,664,087
Representng
The funds of the Charity		10
Unrestricted income fund:
Operatng fund		11	–	–
Restricted income funds:
Philip Larkin Fund		12	322,319	346,223
Smaller Libraries Fund		13	–	–
B. H. Breslauer Foundaton Fund		14	57,364	102,912
John R Murray Fund		15	1,406,347	779,088
Other restricted fund			–	30,000
			1,786,030	1,258,223
Endowment funds:
Expendable		16	2,322,500	2,766,863
Permanent		17	1,639,001	1,639,001
			3,961,501	4,405,864
Total funds		18	5,747,531	5,664,087
Approved by the Executve Commitee on 26 April		2023 and signed on	its behalf by
GEORDIE GREIG	CHARLES SEBAG-MONTEFIORE
Chairman	Honorary Treasurer

136 Friends of the National Libraries

Financial Statements 137

FRIENDS OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARIES

STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS for the year ended 31 December 2022

			2022	2021
			£	£
Cash fow from operatng actvites
net income/(expenditure) for the year – see page 134			83,444	1,361,384
Adjustments for:
(gains)/losses on investments			468,677	(363,536)
income from investments			(197,785)	(114,398)
increase/(decrease) in commitments to make grants			(10,084,423)	10,075,644
(increase)/decrease in income tax recoverable			11,837	(9,409)
changes in other debtors and creditors			4,675,655	(4,636,672)
net cash provided by / (used in) operatng actvites			(5,042,595)	6,313,013
Cash fows from investng actvites
income from investments			197,785	114,398
proceeds from sale of investments			375,986	4,369,499
purchase of investments			(1,374,209)	(4,627,243)
deposited with investment manager pending investment			–	–
net cash provided by / (used in) investng actvites			(800,438)	(143,346)
Change in cash and cash equivalents in the year			(5,843,033)	6,169,667
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year			6,651,577	481,910
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year			808,544	6,651,577
Movement in Net Funds
	Cash at Bank		Cash held by	Total
			Investment
			Managers
	£		£	£
As at 1 January 2022	6,651,174		403	6,651,577
Movement	(5,844,358)		1,325	(5,843,033)
As as 31 December 2022	806,816		1,728	808,544

FRIENDS OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARIES

NOTES ON THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 31 December 2022

1. Accounting policies

a) Basis of accounting

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102), ‘Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)’, with FRS 102 and with regulations made under the Charities Act 2011. A summary of the more important accounting policies is set out below.

The accounts have been prepared to give a ‘true and fair view’ and have departed from the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 only to the extent required to provide a ‘true and fair view’. This departure involved following Accounting and Reporting by Charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS102) issued on 16th July 2014 rather than the Accounting and Reporting by Charities Statement of Recommended Practice effective from 1st April 2005 which has since been withdrawn.

The Trustees consider that there are no material uncertainties about the Charity’s ability to continue as a going concern nor a significant risk that uncertainty over estimates made for the purpose of these financial statements may cause a material adjustment to the carrying value of assets and liabilities. The functional currency is the £ Sterling.

The charity is a public benefit entity.

b) Income

Membership subscriptions (including life subscriptions) are recognised in the year in which they fall due. Grants receivable to defray expenditure incurred over a specified period are apportioned over the relevant period. Legacies are recognised in the period in which they are received or when receipt is otherwise probable. Other income is recognised in the period in which it relates.

Donations for which no requirements are specified by the donor are recorded through the Operating fund or one of the Endowment funds, as appropriate.

c) Expenditure

Expenditure is allocated between charitable activities, raising funds and support costs.

Expenditure on charitable activities comprises grants to institutions for the purchase of books, manuscripts, archives and bindings, and for support for the digitisation of and open access to manuscripts which, together with support costs, are charged to the appropriate fund when they have been committed to the intended recipient. Support costs are those costs which are not attributable to a single activity but provide the necessary organisational support for all the Charity’s activities. They comprise governance costs associated with constitutional and statutory requirements: the costs of the annual report and the annual general meeting are allocated to the cost of raising funds and all other support costs are allocated equally between the cost of grants to institutions and the cost of raising funds. The amounts concerned are allocated between the charity’s funds respectively in proportion to the number of grants committed and the number of receipts of voluntary income (other than receipts for the permanent Endowment funds).

d) Investments

Investments are stated in the balance sheet at their market value on the balance sheet date. The resultant unrealised surplus or deficit is recognised in the fund to which the investments have been allocated.

138 Friends of the National Libraries

Financial Statements 139

		Unrestricted	Restricted	Endowment	Total	Total
		fund	funds	funds	2022	2021
		£	£	£	£	£
2.	Income from donatons and legacies
	Grants receivable
	for the Charity’s general purposes for Charlote Brontë’s Litle Book for the Honresfeld collecton	– – –	– 703,292 –	– – –	– 703,292 –	20,000 – 15,125,375
	for the John R Murray Fund	–	1,000,000	–	1,000,000	778,213
	for the B.H. Breslauer Fund	–	–	–	–	100,000
	for the Prince of Wales Fund	–	–	–	–	100,000
	for special purpose grants payable	–	–	–	–	30,000
		–	1,703,292	–	1,703,292	16,153,588
	Membership subscriptons
	annual membership	29,280	–	–	29,280	27,050
	life membership income tax recovered on subscriptons	4,800 4,861	– –	– –	4,800 4,861	10,851 5,580
		38,941	–	–	38,941	43,481
	Other donatons and legacies	39,180	–	–	39,180	35,925
	Other income	29	–	–	29	–
		78,150	1,703,292	–	1,781,442	16,232,994
3.	Income from investments
	distributons from investments	151,887	42,019	–	193,906	114,315
	interest on bank balances and deposits	3,879	–	–	3,879	83
		155,766	42,019	–	197,785	114,398
4.	Grants to insttutons for the purchase of books, manuscripts, archives and bookbindings
	from unrestricted funds for the
	purchase of books and manuscripts	217,203	–	–	217,203	147,960
	from the Philip Larkin Fund for the
	purchase of modern literary archives
	and manuscripts	–	1,736	–	1,736	10,000
	from the John R Murray Fund
	for the purchase of manuscripts
	and archives	–	105,128	–	105,128	–
	from the B. H. Breslauer Fund
	for the purchase of printed books
	and bookbindings	–	45,548	–	45,548	7,450
	from restricted grants for Charlote Brontë’s Litle Book	–	950,270	–	950,270	–
	from special purpose income received in 2021 – for the Blavatnik Honresfeld library –		30,000 –	– –	30,000 –	– 15,095,400
	total of direct costs	217,203	1,132,682	–	1,349,885	15,260,810
	support costs (see note 6)	1,384	86	–	1,470	1,075
		218,587	1,132,768	–	1,351,355	15,261,885
	Details of the grants made are set out on pages 14 to 115.

Unrestricted Restricted Endowment fund funds funds £ £ £ 5. Expenditure on raising funds consultants’ fees and expenses 29,341 – – investment manager’s charges – 2,150 11,075 other direct costs 14,619 255 – total of direct costs 43,960 2,405 11,075 support costs (see note 6) 18,311 – – 62,271 2,405 11,075 6. Support costs governance costs: annual report annual general meetng audit fee other Support costs were allocated in 2022 as follows: grants to insttutons (note 4) 1,470 – – raising funds (note 5) 18,311 – – 19,781 – –	Unrestricted Restricted Endowment fund funds funds £ £ £ 5. Expenditure on raising funds consultants’ fees and expenses 29,341 – – investment manager’s charges – 2,150 11,075 other direct costs 14,619 255 – total of direct costs 43,960 2,405 11,075 support costs (see note 6) 18,311 – – 62,271 2,405 11,075 6. Support costs governance costs: annual report annual general meetng audit fee other Support costs were allocated in 2022 as follows: grants to insttutons (note 4) 1,470 – – raising funds (note 5) 18,311 – – 19,781 – –	Total Total 2022 2021 £ £ 29,341 51,517 13,225 19,915 14,874 5,371
	43,960 2,405 11,075 18,311 – –	57,440 76,803 18,311 10,856
	62,271 2,405 11,075	75,751 87,659
	s follows: 1,470 – – 18,311 – –	12,145 9,781 4,696 – 2,940 2,150 – –
		19,781 11,931
		1,470 1,075 18,311 10,856 19,781 11,931
	19,781 – –

7. Investments

The investment portfolio is managed by Cazenove Capital Management Limited, which selects the charity’s investments. Towards the end of 2021, the investment portfolio was switched into the Cazenove Responsible Multi-Asset Fund. This is a long term investment fund with a diversified strategy investing in equities, bonds, property and alternative assets. The Fund aims to provide income and capital growth in excess of the Consumer Price Index + 4% per annum (net of fees) over rolling ten-year periods. The switch was completed in the first quarter of 2022. The portfolio as at 31 December 2022 and the movements in the year are summarised in the following tables:

Mult-asset funds Other investments Movements in year: Market value at start of year Cost of purchases Proceeds of sale Realised gains/(losses) Unrealised gains/(losses) Prior year adjustment Movement in year Market value at end of year	Cost Market value £ £ 5,501,312 5,020,645 – –	Prospectve annual income £ 211,986 – 211,986	Yield £ 4.22% 0.00% 4.22% 2022 2021 £ £ 4,491,099 3,869,819 1,374,209 4,627,243 (375,986) (4,369,499) 15,440 322,104 (484,117) 41,432 – –
	5,501,312 5,020,645
			529,546 621,280 5,020,645 4,491,099

140 Friends of the National Libraries

Financial Statements 141

8. Debtors pledged Honresfeld donatons income tax recoverable other debtors 9. Creditors: amounts payable within one year commitments to make grants outstanding porton of Honresfeld purchase price other creditors and accrued charges	2022 2021 £ £ – 4,726,310 6,178 18,015 10,000 –
	16,178 4,744,325
	2022 2021 £ £ 82,915 98,338 – 10,069,000 14,921 55,576
	97,836 10,222,914

10. The funds of the Charity

Operating fund

The Operating fund is an unrestricted income fund which records all the income and expenditure of the Charity that is not subject to a restriction imposed by a donor or is more appropriately credited or charged to one of the Endowment funds. The income of the Operating fund may therefore be expended without restriction in furtherance of the Charity’s objectives. To the extent that the Operating fund incurs a deficit, it is made good by a transfer from the general Endowment fund and any surplus is transferred to that fund.

Restricted funds

The Philip Larkin Fund, the Smaller Libraries Fund and the B. H. Breslauer Foundation Fund may also be expended, but for restricted purposes. The Philip Larkin Fund is restricted to the purchase of modern literary archives and manuscripts and the Smaller Libraries Fund to assisting local record offices, libraries and other institutions wishing to purchase manuscripts and archives that relate to their areas. The B. H. Breslauer Foundation Fund is restricted to the purchase of printed books and bookbindings. Grants and donations received for specific purpose of making a grant to another institution are also recorded under Restricted funds.

Endowment funds

The permanent Endowment funds may not be expended but the income from investing the funds is credited to the Operating fund.

The general Endowment fund is an expendable fund that comprises the accumulated reserves of the Charity, which may be expended without restriction in furtherance of the Charity’s objectives.

11. Operatng fund at beginning of year income in year expenditure in year transfer (to)/from general Endowment fund at end of year	2022 2021 £ £ – – 233,916 204,462 (280,858) (186,592) 46,942 (17,870)
	– –

12. Philip Larkin Fund at beginning of year income in year expenditure in year investment gains/(losses) transfer from general Endowment fund at end of year 13. Smaller Libraries Fund at beginning of year income in year expenditure in year transfer to the John R Murray Fund at end of year 14. B. H. Breslauer Foundaton Fund at beginning of year income in year expenditure in year transfer from general Endowment fund at end of year 15. John R Murray Fund at beginning of year income in year expenditure in year investment gains/(losses) transfer from the Smaller Libraries Fund at end of year 16. Expendable Endowment fund General fund at beginning of year expenditure in year investment gains/(losses) transfer from/(to) operatng fund transfer (to) restricted funds at end of year	2022 2021 £ £ 346,223 319,930 12,741 9,092 (2,662) (11,704) (33,983) 28,905 – –
	322,319 346,223
	– 625 – 250 – – – (875) – –
	102,912 10,362 – 100,000 (45,548) (7,450) – –
	57,364 102,912
	779,088 – 1,029,277 778,213 (356,353) – (45,665) – – 875
	1,406,347 779,088
	2,766,863 2,432,785 (11,075) (18,209) (389,028) 334,631 (44,260) 17,656 – –
	2,322,500 2,766,863

142 Friends of the National Libraries

Financial Statements 143

17. Permanent Endowment funds

Permanent Endowment funds
at beginning of year received in year at end of year	Golden Prince John Total Total Jubilee of R 2022 2021 Appeal Wales Murray Fund Fund Fund £ £ £ £ £ 98,718 1,540,283 – 1,639,001 1,539,001 – – – – 100,000
	98,718 1,540,283 – 1,639,001 1,639,001

18. Analysis of net assets between funds

		Net current	Total	Total
	Investments	assets	2022	2021
	£	£	£	£
Unrestricted fund	–	–	–	–
Restricted funds:
Philip Larkin Fund	312,193	10,126	322,319	346,223
John R Murray Fund	953,293	453,054	1,406,347	–
B.H. Breslauer Fund	–	57,364	57,364	912,000
	1,265,486	520,544	1,786,030	1,258,223
Endowment funds:	3,755,159	206,342	3,961,501	4,405,864
	5,020,645	726,886	5,747,531	5,664,087

19. Comparative Statement of Financial Activities for 2021

The table below is given in compliance with the SORP requirements in order to provide the split between the operating and Endowment funds for the previous year, 2021.

Note Income from: donatons and legacies 2 investments 3 Total Expenditure on: grants to insttutons for the purchase of books, manuscripts, archives and bookbindings 4 raising funds 5 Total Operatng result Net gains/(losses) on investments 7 Net income/(expenditure) Transfers between funds Net movement in funds Reconciliaton of funds Total funds brought forward Total funds carried forward	Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total fund funds funds funds 2021 2021 2021 2021 £ £ £ £ 99,156 16,033,838 100,000 16,232,994 105,306 9,092 – 114,398
	204,462 16,042,930 100,000 16,347,392
	148,972 15,112,913 – 15,261,885 37,620 31,830 18,209 87,659
	186,592 15,144,743 18,209 15,349,544
	17,870 898,187 81,791 997,848 – 28,905 334,631 363,536 17,870 927,092 416,422 1,361,384 (17,870) 214 17,656 –
	– 927,306 434,078 1,361,384 – 330,917 3,971,786 4,302,703
	– 1,258,223 4,405,864 5,664,087

20 Transactions with trustees and connected parties The trustees received no remuneration or reimbursement of expenses.

Certain trustees, or persons or charitable organisations connected with them, made donations to the Charity of £Nil during the year (2021: £100,000).

144 Friends of the National Libraries

www.fnl.org.uk

Registered Charity number 313020

Cover images

Front cover: The Adoration of the Magi, miniature originally from the Hours of Louis Quarré (Flemish, probably Ghent, late 15th century; MS. Douce 311 adds. 2). Courtesy of the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford.

Back cover: A W N Pugin’s drawing of a reliquary preserved by the French sisters at Namur. Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Inside covers: Letter from Rudyard Kipling to Edmund Garrett, including a sketch of the memorial at Kimberley, 16 October 1900. Courtesy of the University of Sussex.

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