2024-12-31-accounts

.Sponsored by haymarket NL Friends of th NaLions' Libraries Saving our wri r).and printed heritage li li Annual Report 2024

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Courtesy of Essex Record Office.
Front cover: Design for Stancliff Hall, William Andrews Nesfield (see pages 70-71). Back cover: Study for Witley Court fountains, William Andrews Nesfield (see pages 72-73). Images courtesy of the Garden Museum. Inside covers: Map of Hempstead in Essex, 1651 (see pages 68-69).
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Friends of the Nations’ Libraries

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CONTENTS

CONTENTS
Administrative Information	2
Annual Report for 2024	4
Acquisition Grants and Donations	22
Trustees’ Report	150
Financial Statements	164

2 Friends of the Nations’ Libraries

Administrative Information

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Administrative Information

Royal Patron: Chair: Honorary Treasurer: Secretary: Membership Accountant: Honorary Expert Adviser:

HM The King

Mr Geordie Greig FSA

Mr Charles Sebag-Montefiore CBE FSA FCA

Mrs Nell Hoare MBE FSA FIIC

Mr Paul Celerier FCA

Dr Matthew Payne FSA

Trustees

Ex-officio

Dr Rhodri Llywd Morgan National Librarian, National Library of Wales Dr Jessica Gardner University Librarian, University of Cambridge

Sir Roly Keating Chief Executive, British Library

Richard Ovenden OBE FSA

Bodley’s Librarian, Bodleian Libraries

Amina Shah FRSE

National Librarian, National Library of Scotland

Tina Morton

Secretary, Historical Manuscripts Commission

Elected

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

www.72ptdesign.com

Joanna Barker MBE (to 9 December 2024)

Artemis Cooper

Mary Gibson

Dr Lisbet Rausing

Mark Stevens

Mark Storey

Professor Kathryn Sutherland Christopher Whittick DL FSA FRHistS Joan Winterkorn MBE FSA

4 Friends of the Nations’ Libraries

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Annual Report for 2023 5
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King Charles III extends his patronage as FNL’s Royal Patron

It is a great privilege for us to have King Charles III as our Patron, after he kindly agreed to extend his patronage, which he held previously as the Prince of Wales.

To have a monarch who clearly loves literature and books and science and all the arts fits with the goals and endeavours of the FNL. Having him as our Patron helps us to bring together fundraising and campaigns with a significant additional energy and authority.

We have renamed our Prince of Wales Fund The King’s Fund to mark his renewed patronage at this exciting time of the new reign under which the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries will do all it can to thrive and help libraries to thrive.

, Concdee

Geordie Greig, Chair Friends of the Nations’ Libraries

Opposite: His Majesty The King. © Hugo Burnand.

, Descriptor of Section ee: 0 7

6 Friends of the Nations’ Libraries

Annual Report for 2024 Purchase grants and donations made in the year.

During 2024 FNL awarded 60 grants for acquisitions; 14 more grant offers could not be taken up as the applicants were outbid at auction. The value of these grants was just over £332,000 and, in addition, special-purpose grants amounting to over £340,000 were awarded to Salisbury Cathedral Library and King’s College Cambridge. This brings the total value of our grants and donations during 2024 to £673,640.

Libraries, archives and museums across the UK benefitted from FNL’s grants in 2024 and there was a good spread of support across the various types of collecting institution: eight grants were made to national libraries and museums, eight to non-national museums, eight to specialist libraries, 14 to universities and 22 to regional archive services.

All but one of these grants are reported here, as one of the purchases had not been completed in time for inclusion in this report. In addition, a grant made to the British Library in 2023 (and accounted for in that year) is also reported here, the purchase having been completed during 2024.

Our Trustees are always ready to support the acquisition of manuscripts, archives and printed books stopped from export under the Waverley criteria by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art. In 2024 three grants fell into that category: those to the Bodleian Libraries, Manchester University and King’s College Cambridge.

Opposite: The Sarum Master Bible, folio 164v (see also pages 128-131). Courtesy of Salisbury Cathedral.

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Annual Report for 2024

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Special Projects

In the latter part of 2024, FNL raised £90,000 to purchase the 13th-century Sarum Master Bible , which it donated to Salisbury Cathedral Library, the Bible arriving, rather appropriately, just before Christmas. The entire cost of this project was met by donations from many generous trusts, foundations and individuals, who together ensured that this small masterpiece was returned to the city in which it was created and into the permanent care of Salisbury Cathedral Library.

Selection of papers from the Turing ‘Delilah’ Project archive. By kind permission of the Provost and Scholars of King’s College, Cambridge.

At the same time, FNL secured a wonderfully generous donation of £250,000 from XTX Markets towards the acquisition, by King’s College, _ 5.a of , Alan Turing’s unpublished Second World War papers relating to ]—= I», the ‘Delilah’ project , which developed a portable encryption system j for use in military operations in the field. In addition FNL committed a Any a further £20,000 from its own resources, making a total contribution of £270,000 towards the purchase price of £397,680, ensuring that this oe 7 a er pre-eminent collection, which had been the subject of an export-stop, could be saved for the nation and be publicly accessible in perpetuity.

A reception to welcome the Sarum Master Bible and to thank donors was held, following Choral Evensong, in Salisbury Cathedral in February 2025. Courtesy of Salisbury Cathedral.

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Annual Report for 2024

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PRINCIPAL GRANTS FROM THE OPERATING FUND

In all, 41 grants (including the grant to King’s College mentioned on pages 84-87) were financed from FNL’s Operating Fund; the total value of these grants was £194,803.

Two grants of £20,000 were awarded, the first to King’s College and the second to Cambridge University Library for the archive of Amy Levy (1861-1889) ; the T. S. Eliot Foundation added a generous grant of £5,000, bringing our total contribution to £25,000. A significant 19th-century author, Levy was the second Jewish student at Cambridge and the first at Newnham College.

A grant of £16,100 was awarded to Derbyshire Record Office for the archive of Holmes & Co. Carriage Builders of Derby (1813-1960s) , the largest amount of material connected to any one British coach-maker to surface to date. A grant of £1,303 helped Northumberland Archives to acquire ten volumes of records of the Company of Merchants and Taylors [Tailors] of Morpeth, Northumberland, 1608-1920 . These join the records of four of the town’s seven craft guilds that are already held by the archive service.

The National Library of Scotland (NLS) successfully bid for s ix letters of David Hume to William Mure of Caldwell, and one contemporary copy of a letter from Hume to John Home (grant of £13,260). These join the important collection relating to David Hume held by NLS, which include four letters from Hume to Horace Walpole that were acquired with FNL’s help in 2023. A grant of £5,000 helped NLS acquire the complete working manuscript of Sir Walter Scott’s poem ‘Halidon Hill’ , written and published in 1822; it joins the important Scott manuscripts from the Blavatnik Honresfield Library donated by FNL in 2021.

As in past years a number of grants enabled the acquisition of family and estate records, notably a number of separate acquisitions by Essex Record Office (ERO) for material which came onto the market from library of the Foyle family of Beeleigh Abbey . A total of four grants (two from the John R. Murray Fund, for which see below) were awarded, for purchases including a large number of medieval and early modern deeds, circa 1280-1645, together representing the most important medieval records to be acquired by the ERO for decades.

‘In the Night’, an autograph poem by Amy Levy, from her posthumous collection A London Plane-Tree and Other Verse . Courtesy of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library.

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Annual Report for 2024 13

Essex Record Office’s successful year of acquisitions continued with the purchase of a map of lands of Manor of Hempstead Hall in Essex surveyed by Benjamin Hare in 1651 (grant of £2,800). Hare’s survey was not previously known to ERO, and it admirably complements material already held for this parish. Also acquired were two maps of the property of Samuel Day in Stansted Mountfitchet, Birchanger and Ugley, 1783 (grant of £655).

Continuing the estates theme, a volume of three estate maps by William Hill, 1680-1685 , depicting the Pembridge Castle estate, Welsh Newton, Herefordshire, was bought by Herefordshire Archives with a grant of £2,750, whilst a grant of £1,149 helped Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre to acquire various items relating to the Eyre and Matcham families of Newhouse, Wiltshire .

Several photographic collections were acquired with FNL’s assistance during the year. The most significant of these was the Thomas Sims Collection (1840s-1890) acquired by the National Museum of Wales with the help of a grant of £10,000. Perth Art Gallery acquired an architectural and portrait album relating to the Balgowan Estate near Perth, circa 1855–1865 (grant of £6,000).

A pastoral view from the Thomas Sims Collection. © Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales.

Top: From Francis Raines’s ‘Tour of Derbyshire’, ‘A cross in Bakewell Church yard’. Courtesy of Derbyshire Record Office. Above: Howard Carter’s lantern slides for his lectures on Tutankhamun, early 1920s. Courtesy of the Griffith Institute, University of Oxford.

Several grants fell into the theme of travel and discovery at home and abroad. A grant of £6,000 covered the cost of the Wordsworth Trust’s acquisition of an archive of Peter Crosthwaite (1735-1808) , which joins the collections at Grasmere relating to the development of tourism in the Lake District. Derbyshire Record Office holds many travel diaries but few for their own county, and the acquisition of the charming ‘Tour through Derbyshire’ by Francis Robert Raines (1829) with a grant of £525 helped to fill that gap. A collection of documents relating to the life and career of Sir Thomas Reade, dating from 1815 to 1846 , was acquired by Congleton Museum (grant of £2,800). The majority relate to his time as Deputy Governor on St Helena during the captivity of Napoleon Bonaparte. The Griffith Institute at Oxford holds the Tutankhamun Archive, which documents the 20th century’s most famous archaeological discovery, and includes the complete excavation records. Howard Carter’s (1874-1939) lectures on Tutankhamun have now joined the collection (grant of £2,700) and have been re-united with the original lantern slides from the same lectures which were already held in the archive.

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Annual Report for 2024 15

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Cambridge University Library acquired six Japanese illustrated books from the library of Eugène Gillet (1859–1938), and a folder of archival material documenting the composition and dispersal of the Gillet collection (grant of £5,000). The archive sheds light on this important bibliophile and the remarkable woodblock-printed books, created in the 18th and 19th centuries, are valuable additions to the library’s important Japanese collections. A grant of £4,500 helped the National Gallery Library to acquire Édouard Manet,

Catalogue des tableaux de M. Édouard Manet exposés Avenue de l’Alma en 1867 , a catalogue of which surviving copies are very rare. FNL also ensured that Liverpool Record Office was able to add to its collections a letter of 1784 from Sir Joshua Reynolds to William Roscoe , a Liverpudlian art collector; the letter joins Roscoe’s voluminous correspondence already held by the City. Two grants, of £1,000 and £363 respectively, enabled the RIBA Library to acquire five letters written by Charles Francis Annesley Voysey FRIBA (1857-1941) and 22 letters addressed to Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt (1820-77) .

Nottingham University acquired five letters from D. H. Lawrence to Harwood Brewster, 1927-1929 (grant of £3,442) and a second grant supported the acquisition of 27 designs by Knud Merrild, 1922-1923, for dustjackets and illustrations for the author’s works . Two letters from Edward Thomas, written in 1909 and 1911 , were acquired by the Edward Thomas Fellowship (grants of £500 and £700).

FNL again supported Thomas Plume’s Library to acquire titles that were lost from the library in the early 20th century, when it was still a lending library and security was clearly minimal. In 2024 the library acquired Thomas Vaughan’s Magia Adamica , a mystical and enigmatic treatise on alchemy. Senate House Library acquired Ambigué Magique , a French conjurer’s flip book (grant of £7,500), printed in France in about 1775 and an important addition to the Harry Price Library of Magical Literature.

We enabled York Minster to acquire a manuscript by Thomas Gale (16351702) dating from of 1697-99 , shortly after he was appointed Dean of York (grant of £4,500), and Canterbury Cathedral to purchase the apparently unpublished journal of William Henry Longhurst, musician at the cathedral for the years 1848, 1849 and 1850 (grant of £2,000).

Detail of the journal of William Henry Longhurst. Courtesy of the Chapter of Canterbury Cathedral.

Notebook with inventory from the Eugène Gillet collection. Courtesy of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library.

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Annual Report for 2024 17

PRINCIPAL GRANTS FROM THE JOHN R. MURRAY FUND

Ten grants to a total value of £61,553 were awarded from this fund during the year.

The largest, of £20,000, was awarded to UCL Library, helping them to acquire the Victor Gollancz publishing archive relating to George Orwell . A grant of £13,107 helped the Garden Museum to acquire the archive of the Nesfield Family , comprising their garden design business records and a large quantity of the watercolour works of William Andrews Nesfield (1794-1881). A grant of £10,000 helped the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association to acquire John Keats’s signed copy of Works of the Famous English Poet Edmund Spenser , 1679.

Essex Record Office received £8,085 enabled to secure a number of deeds (mentioned above) and a survey of the estates in Essex of Robert Rich (15591619), 3rd Baron Rich and 1st Earl of Warwick (3rd creation), 1580-1610 . A grant of £629 covered the full cost of the purchase by Kresen Kernow (Cornwall Archives) of the manorial court book of Ventongimps in Perranzabuloe, 1672-1716 , whilst the smallest grant from the fund, £54, was awarded to Carmarthenshire Archives for a Land Tax Return collected in 1721 from Llannon parish , the earliest such assessment held by the Archive.

Perth Archives acquired a set of five manuscript exercise books of Francis Cunynghame (b.1771) on mathematics, astronomy and natural philosophy , written and illustrated while he was studying at Perth Academy, 1786-1787. The Academy played a pioneering role in the Scottish academic movement but fewer than 20 manuscripts are known to survive, making these a valuable addition to the collection.

The final grant of £1,250 from the John R. Murray Fund was not for a book or manuscript but for an object, a triple-sided rotating fob seal bearing the arms of the Chetham family, c.1700 . Although it is not known which member of the family commissioned this seal, the connection between the family, the coat of arms and Chetham’s Hospital and Library is significant, and we were pleased to support its acquisition.

George Orwell and his letter to Gollancz written in May 1937. Courtesy of University College London.

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Annual Report for 2024 19

GRANTS FROM THE B. H. BRESLAUER FOUNDATION FUND

Since the first grant in 2012, the B. H. Breslauer Foundation has supported FNL with donations totalling over £480,000, allowing us to award 72 grants towards the acquisition of items and collections valued at over £12.5m. These grants have benefitted 41 different organisations: three national libraries or museums, 22 universities, eight non-national museums, seven specialist collecting libraries and one regional archive service.

In 2024 the remaining monies in the B. H. Breslauer Foundation Fund were fully allocated, enabling us to make three grants to a total value of £28,895.

The largest, of £20,000, was awarded to St Andrews University to help it acquire a manuscript copy of John Mair’s ‘Historia Maioris Britanniae’, with additional medieval Scottish historical and chronicle material, c.1510, c.1536 . On acquisition the volume was named The St Andrews i Chronicles of Scotland . T/

GRANTS FROM THE PHILIP LARKIN FUND

Three grants were awarded from the Fund during the year, amounting to a total of £13,610.

The largest was a grant of £10,000 to the National Library of Scotland towards their purchase of literary and personal papers, 1973-2023, of poet, playwright, and novelist Jackie Kay (b.1961) . Kay, a former Makar (Scottish poet laureate), is one of the most acclaimed and noteworthy figures in contemporary Scottish and UK culture – her writing explores and interrogates intersecting characteristics of race, sexuality and nationality.

A grant of £2,110 helped Hull University to add to their important Larkin collections five letters from Philip Larkin to Professor Raymond Brett, 1954-1984 . Finally a grant of £1,500 helped the Ted Lewis Centre, an accredited museum in Lincolnshire, to buy a manuscript by Ted Lewis , author of the book on which the film Get Carter was based.

Jackie Kay and a selection of items from her literary archive. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland.

The University of Manchester’s John Rylands Library and Manchester Art Gallery were awarded } a grant of £10,000, of which £6,395 was from the Breslauer Fund, towards their acquisition of an exportstopped item: the author’s own annotated copy of A History of the Birds of Europe by Henry Dresser, 1871-1881 .

Finally, a grant of £3,500 helped the library of Christ Church, Oxford, to acquire Robert Burton’s copy of Michael Scot, Mensa Philosophica (1603) .

Above, right: The St Andrews Chronicles of Scotland. Courtesy of the University of St Andrews Libraries and Museums.

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GRANTS FROM THE UNWIN TRUST FUND

Three grants were awarded from this fund in 2024 to a total value of £33,341.

The first, of £20,000, helped the Bodleian Libraries to acquire an Old French New Testament, written in Paris between the 1270s and 1290s, with illuminated initials attributed to the Cholet Master , which had been stopped from export under the Waverley criteria.

The Emery Walker Trust was awarded £10,000 from the Fund for a The English Bible , in five volumes (1902-1905), published by the Doves Press, Hammersmith .

A grant of £3,341 allowed the Warburg Institute to acquire three cookery books, dating from the 17th and 18th centuries, from the library of Elizabeth David (1913-1992) to add to the collection of nearly 400 of her books that she bequeathed to the Institute’s library.

Opposite: Kitchen scene from B. Scappi, Dell’Arte del Cucinare (1643). Courtesy of the Warburg Institute, University of London. Below: The Duke Humfrey New Testament. Courtesy of the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford.

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Acquisition Grants and Donations 23

Acquisition Grants and Donations

Where items were acquired at auction the all-in cost of the purchase is given rather than the hammer price.

FOR THE BODLEIAN LIBRARIES, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

Old French New Testament, written in Paris between the 1270s and 1290s, with illuminated initials attributed to the Cholet Master; formerly in the collections of Jean II of France (1319-64) and Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester (1390–1447). Stopped from export under the Waverley criteria by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and bought via Christie’s for £684,000, with the aid of a grant of £20,000 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries [Unwin Trust Fund].

Andrew Dunning, R.W. Hunt Curator of Medieval Manuscripts, writes: The Duke Humfrey New Testament (now Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Duke Humfrey c. 1) is an illuminated copy of the first complete Old French translation of the New Testament, known as the ‘version du xiiie siècle’. This translation is the work of Dominican scholars working in Paris between 1235 and 1260. The manuscript was unknown to researchers until the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art stopped it at export in November 2023, recognising it as a ‘national treasure’ for its importance to Anglo-French cultural exchange and its association with key historical figures.

King Jean II of France (Jean le Bon) owned the manuscript – possibly until the English took him hostage at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356, during the Hundred Years’ War. A succession of Lancastrian princes then owned the book, and by the 15th century, it entered the library of Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester, one of England’s most eminent royal bibliophiles. In the 1430s and 1440s he gave almost 300 books to the University of Oxford library, housed in what is now known as ‘Duke Humfrey’s Library’. The New Testament never arrived at the university library, which accounts for its survival after 16th-century reformers dispersed the collection. The manuscript is now only the sixth of Duke Humfrey’s books in the Bodleian.

The manuscript is a masterpiece of late-13th-century Parisian illumination, attributed to the Cholet Master. This artist is associated with 12 other manuscripts, particularly the Missal of Cardinal Jean Cholet (Padua, Biblioteca Capitolare, MS D.34). The book’s initials, though made for a vernacular text, are more characteristic of those usually associated with Latin Bibles. Based on the evidence of books such as Cambridge, University Library, MS Ee.3.52, art historians have assumed that French vernacular Bibles, distinct from Latin traditions, more often employed narrative-focused visual languages. This juxtaposition challenges assumptions about the relationship between text and visual style in medieval manuscripts and the status of biblical translations.

The manuscript was the subject of a symposium at the Weston Library, the home of Bodleian Library Special Collections, on 21 March 2025. It will also feature in the Treasured exhibition, opening on 6 June. It will be available via the Digital Bodleian platform, ensuring global access for scholars and the public. It will also support Bodleian initiatives to bring public collections to diverse audiences and inspire interdisciplinary scholarship. This addition to the collections is particularly significant as the Bodleian celebrates the tenth anniversary of the opening of the Weston Library.

Alongside FNL, the purchase was made possible by the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Art Fund with a contribution from The Wolfson Foundation, the Friends of the Bodleian, and private donors.

Detail of an opening of the Duke Humfrey New Testament (f68v 69r). Courtesy of the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford.

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This remarkable manuscript serves as a witness to the intertwined histories of England and France and the enduring power of the written word.

Opening of Duke Humfrey’s New Testament, 13th century (f90v f91r). Stopped from export and acquired with FNL’s help. Courtesy of the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford.

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FOR THE BRITISH LIBRARY

A series of letters (1846-1860) from Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861). Bought from a private seller for £436,500, with the aid of a grant of £20,000 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries

This grant was awarded in 2023 and accounted for in that year but the purchase was not completed in time for inclusion in the 2023 Annual Report.

Dr William Frame, Head of Modern Archives and Manuscripts, writes: Considered one of the most important English poets of the 19th century, Elizabeth Barrett Browning was a prominent writer of the Victorian period. These letters, predominantly written from Barrett Browning to her sister Henrietta Surtees Cook, offer valuable insight into her work, public reception and social networks.

Spanning the period 1846 to 1860, the letters follow the publication of Poems (1844), for which she became well known, and cover the later part of her career, when she wrote Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850), Aurora Leigh (1856) and Poems Before Congress (1860). Eschewing the conventions of her time for female authors, Barrett Browning’s work focuses on social and political issues, such as industrialisation, religious controversy and gender inequality.

The acquisition comprises:

• 119 letters (1846-1860), totalling 826 pages plus envelopes, sent from Elizabeth Barrett Browning, with three jointly addressed to her sisters, Henrietta and Arabella, and 116 solely to Henrietta

Highlights from the series of letters include Barrett Browning:

• Writing to her sisters (2 October 1846), shortly after she secretly married Robert Browning against her father’s will, expressing how challenging it was for her to hide their feelings and intentions

• Praising her husband Robert Browning for the ‘tender patience’ with which he has looked after her during a bout of illness (12 February 1855)

• Meeting with poet Alfred Tennyson and his wife in Paris, complimenting Tennyson’s kindness towards her and her husband (20-21 July 1851)

• Sketching a street procession (13 September 1847) celebrating the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Leopold II, who had granted the people of Florence permission to form a civic guard. This procession and other events of the Risorgimento, the political and cultural movement for Italian unification, would go on to inspire her poem, Casa Guidi Windows (1851)

• Expressing her surprise and amusement at allegations that her verse novel Aurora Leigh was written by spirits, stating ‘I disavowed any share in it except the mere mechanical holding of the pen - !!!’ (10 January 1857)

• Meeting W.M. Thackeray, the author of Vanity Fair , in Rome, whom she described as ‘an amusing man-mountain enough and very courteous to us – but I never should get on with him much, I think – he is not sympathetical to me’ (30 December 1853)

• Ten letters (1846-1850) from Barrett Browning’s husband, Robert, also to Henrietta and Arabella

• Two letters (1855-1856) from Barrett Browning’s son Robert, known as ‘Pen’

Born in County Durham in 1806, Barrett Browning moved to Italy with her husband in 1846. She lived with chronic illness for much of her adult life and her letters are extensive, each one running to several pages of closely written text, providing a wealth of detail on her personal life, as well as information on the genesis of her works and on her literary networks. Many of the letters include small pen-and-ink sketches, hand-drawn by Barrett Browning, to complement and amplify her words on the page.

Letter from Elizabeth Barrett Browning to her sister, Henrietta, from Paris, 10 June 1852 (Add MS 89761). Courtesy of the British Library Board.

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The letters are a major source for the last 15 years of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s life, giving a compelling first-hand account of her life and work, and of her social and family networks. Interest in Barrett Browning has grown steadily since the 1970s, reflecting her importance as one of the leading female writers of the 19th century. Her writings on contemporary issues (including the role of women, the growth of nationalism, the legacy of slavery, and the nature of individual belief) remain very relevant today. These letters offer the opportunity to study her later life in close detail, mixing as they do family and personal news with discussions of her writing and social circle. As she herself wrote in 1846 ‘I, for my part, value letters … as the most vital part of biography’.

Right: Elizabeth Barrett Browning, engraved frontispiece by G. Cook after Field Talfourd, published 1889-90. Far right: A letter to her sister Henrietta, October 1846. Courtesy of the British Library Board.

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FOR BRUCE CASTLE MUSEUM & ARCHIVE, TOTTENHAM

Presentation copy of Horace’s Art of Poetry , translated by Arthur Hill. For private circulation only, printed by Thos. De La Rue and Co., Bunhill Row, 1883. Bought from Tom W. Ayling Rare Books & Manuscripts for £450, funded in full by a grant from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Deborah Hedgecock, Curator, writes: At Bruce Castle Museum & Archive in Tottenham we are most grateful to the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries for their generous support in helping us acquire this beautifully presented special volume of Horace’s Ars Poetica (the Art of Poetry) . The work has come full circle, returning ‘home’ to Bruce Castle where it was originally translated by its author Arthur Hill (1798-1885). From 1839 until 1868 Arthur was headmaster of the radical Bruce Castle School for boys (1827-1891), run by the pioneering Hill family. He had followed on as headmaster from his brother Sir Rowland Hill (1795-1879), who had left the school to reform the Post Office by introducing the Penny Post. Arthur was succeeded in the headship of the school by his son George Birkbeck Hill (1835-1903), the editor, literary critic and author, to whom he had dictated this translation.

At Bruce Castle Museum & Archive, we hold a significant collection about the Hill family and Bruce Castle School, formed mainly by generous donations from the Hill descendants: manuscripts, books, paintings by Pre-Raphaelite Arthur Hughes and his nephew Edward Robert Hughes, objects and furniture. This book makes a rare and wonderful addition to our holdings on this notable family and school. It also stands as a testament to Arthur’s own traditional classical education in Greek and Latin as a young boy. By sharp contrast, Arthur and the other Hill brothers shaped their progressive school at Bruce Castle by focussing their curriculum on foreign languages, the sciences and engineering – a radical departure at that time. The Hills wished to establish a new model for learning in their school for the middle classes at Bruce Castle, moving away from the classical norm of the day.

The work was printed when Arthur was 85, two years before his death. Having lost his sight he was no longer able to read, and so had to resort to literature that he had memorised. One such work was Horace’s Ars Poetica . The translation was executed without reference to a physical copy of the book, with Arthur dictating to his son Birkbeck. As a result of this process, some mistakes were made, and three are corrected by hand in this copy of the book. It is also why, as Arthur explains in the preface, he deemed it ‘unfit to meet the public eye’ and marked it ‘For Private Circulation Only’. This copy was presented by the translator to Harris Neal, esquire.

Unsurprisingly, the work is scarce in institutional holdings. Just four copies are located: at the British Library, UCL, the Bodleian and the National Library of Wales. These surviving copies suggest an intimate circulation: Oxford’s is that of Hill’s aforementioned son Birkbeck; UCL’s is that of Arthur’s daughter Laura Theodosia Scott; Aberystwyth’s is inscribed for the sitting Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone; while the British Library’s is the copyright deposit copy. None is as luxuriously presented as the present example, being either quarter-bound or in its original wrappers, and none extra-illustrated.

Horace’s Art of Poetry : the binding and a picture of Bruce Castle. Courtesy of Bruce Castle Museum and Archive.

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FOR CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

1. The archive of Amy Levy (1861-1889). Bought from Camellia plc through Christie’s for £280,000, with the aid of a grant of £25,000 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries, of which £20,000 was from FNL’s own resources and £5,000 was provided by the T. S. Eliot Foundation.

John Wells, Senior Archivist, writes: Amy Levy was born in London into a middleclass Jewish family, and was educated in Brighton and at Newnham College, Cambridge. Afterwards she travelled in Germany, Switzerland and Italy. In London she moved in a circle of friends which included Clementina Black, Eleanor Marx and Olive Schreiner, and was a member of clubs of intellectuals, social activists and women writers. She suffered from depressive illness, and died by suicide aged 27.

Despite the brevity of her life, Levy was the author three volumes of verse, three novels, and numerous short stories and journal articles. Her novel Reuben Sachs was widely reviewed on publication in 1888, and Oscar Wilde praised her highly, finding ‘a touch of genius’ in her stories. Although neglected for much of the 20th century, from the 1990s onwards Levy’s life and work have received a good deal of scholarly attention, and she is increasingly recognised as an important late-Victorian writer and pioneering social figure.

than a fair copy); and the text of her posthumously-published collection of verse, A London Plane-Tree , assembled from autograph and printed material, with a complete set of annotated proofs. Many of the letters and literary manuscripts are decorated with drawings, often of faces, which convey an immediate sense of creativity and energy. There is in addition an attractive series of pencil, pen-and-ink and coloured drawings of social scenes with accompanying dialogue texts for the figures depicted, some dating from Levy’s school-days, and some showing personal family scenes relating to Levy’s father and sister. The 1889 diary is a poignant document, revealing an active social life in the first half of the year, in London and Cambridge, including a trip to Grantchester and dining and sleeping at Newnham, but ending on the day before her death with the words ‘At home alone all day’.

It is nowadays seldom that an opportunity arises to acquire the archive of a significant 19th-century author. The Levy papers have great potential for use in teaching and external engagement, and their interest extends across various research disciplines. The Library is very grateful to the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries for their help in acquiring them.

The archive comprises literary manuscripts (short stories, essays, plays, poems and a novel, including juvenilia and home-made magazines), with manuscript volumes containing notes and drafts for literary works; other personal notebooks, including an appointments diary for 1889; letters; photographs; sketches and drawings; printed books; and a collection of cuttings and off-prints which provides a near-comprehensive coverage of her verse and journalistic writings. It contains much unpublished work.

Highlights include a series of 37 familiar and often humorous autograph letters from Levy to friends and family members, 1872-89; items with particular reference to Cambridge, including an autograph manuscript notebook, c.1880, containing poetry, prose and notes on geology, psychology, biology and other subjects studied at Newnham, and a manuscript collection titled ‘The Kettledrum’, March 1880; the manuscript of Levy’s final novel, Miss Meredith , with amendments and cancellations throughout (evidently a fluent draft rather

Manuscript and printed items from the Amy Levy archive. Courtesy of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library.

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2. Six Japanese illustrated books from the library of Eugène Gillet (1859–1938), and a folder of archival material documenting the composition and dispersal of the Gillet collection. Bought from Israel Goldman Japanese Prints for £15,000, with the aid of a grant of £5,000 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Dr Alessandro Bianchi, Head of World Collections, writes: With the generous support of the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries, Cambridge University Library is delighted to have acquired six remarkable woodblock-printed books and a group of archival documents formerly owned by Eugène Gillet (1859–1938), a distinguished French artist, collector, and bibliophile active in Paris from the 1890s until the 1930s.

Over the course of his lifetime, Gillet built a superb library which encompassed exquisite examples of Japanese illustrated books. Among his extensive holdings, Gillet owned numerous association copies that he acquired at the sales of major Japanese art collections in the 1920s — for instance the sales of Charles Edward Haviland in 1924, Prosper-Alphonse Isaac in 1925, and Louis Gonse in 1926. These auctions provided Gillet with the opportunity to assemble one of the finest and largest libraries of Japanese illustrated books formed in the first half of the 20th century. His collection was later dispersed in three sales held at the Hôtel Drouot during the 1960s. Although the whereabouts of most of his books remain unknown, numerous titles have been identified in major institutions and private collections worldwide.

The six printed books recently acquired by Cambridge University Library were produced in Japan in the 18th and 19th centuries. They are fine impressions preserved in extraordinary condition and feature striking designs realized by leading Japanese artists.

1. Ehon sonare matsu 絵本磯馴松 (1738), illustrated by Nishikawa Sukenobu (1671-1750).

2. Haikai na no shiori 誹諧名知折 (1781), illustrated by Kitao Shigemasa (17391820). Formerly in the collection of Louise Gonse.

3. Hatsuhigusa 初日草 (1776), illustrated by Sesshōdō Tōko and other artists. Formerly in the collection of Prosper-Alphonse Isaac.

4. Onna banzei takara bunko 女万歳宝文庫 (1837), illustrated by Shitomi Kangetsu (1747-1797).

5. Kan’ei gafu 完瑛画譜 (1886), illustrated by Nishiyama Kan’ei (1834-1897).

6. Issō hyakutai 一掃百態 (1884), illustrated by Watanabe Kazan (1793-1841). Formerly in the collection of Prosper-Alphonse Isaac.

Gillet furnished each of these volumes with dazzling supplementary covers of distinctive orientalist taste, being lined inside and out with richly patterned East-Asian textiles.

The folder of unstudied archival documents and ephemera acquired along with the books comprises a suite of rare and unique materials: four sales catalogues detailing the auctions of Gillet’s books and artworks; a notebook, written in his own hand, containing a full inventory of his Japanese books; and various handwritten notes reflecting his meticulous research. Together, these documents provide invaluable information for the study of the composition and dispersal of the Gillet collection and will allow us to shed new light on the extraordinary but long-forgotten bibliophile who assembled it.

A selection of four woodblock-printed books from the Gillet collection. Courtesy of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library.

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FOR CAMDEN LOCAL STUDIES AND ARCHIVES CENTRE

Small Pox and Vaccination Hospital Report , 1836 and Report of Physician to the Small Pox and Vaccination Hospital , also 1836. Purchased from Michael S. Kemp, Bookseller for £975, with the aid of a grant of £575 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Tudor Allen, Local Studies and Archives Manager, writes: The collections of Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre are continually growing as we take in new historical material as it becomes available. The vast majority of these accessions are donations but occasionally we purchase items. Two special documents came up for sale in July 2024 that we thought important to try to acquire. These were an 1836 report of the Small Pox and Vaccination Hospital at Battle Bridge and the report of its physician Dr George Gregory, dating from the same year.

We have a limited budget for purchasing archives but, thanks to FNL’s generous grant, we were able to acquire both documents.

Though these days eradicated, in the 18th century smallpox was probably the most lethal disease in Britain. It was in 1756 that the London Smallpox Hospital was founded in Windmill Street, off Tottenham Court Road, reputedly the first institution of its kind in Europe. In 1794 the hospital moved to new purposebuilt premises in Battle Bridge, the area today known as King’s Cross. From 1791 to 1805 the hospital’s physician was William Woodville, one-time assistant to the vaccination pioneer, Edward Jenner. Woodville introduced vaccination at the hospital in 1799. The Small Pox and Vaccination Hospital was demolished around 1850 to make way for King’s Cross Station and was replaced by a new hospital at Highgate.

We have little archival documentation relating to this historically important institution and therefore these two reports are a precious addition to our collections. We are very grateful therefore to the FNL without whose help we would not have been able to acquire them.

Small Pox Hospital, St Pancras 1836 title page. Courtesy of Camden Local Studies and Archive Centre.

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FOR CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL ARCHIVES AND LIBRARY

Manuscript diary for 1848 to 1850 of William Henry Longhurst (1819-1904). Bought from Simon Beattie, bookseller, for £2,500, with the aid of a grant of £2,000 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Cressida Williams, Archives and Library Manager, writes: The association of William Henry Longhurst with the musical life of Canterbury Cathedral extended for 70 years, beginning with his admission as a chorister in 1828. Born in Lambeth, son of James Longhurst, an organ builder, William moved to Canterbury with his family in 1821. In 1836, he was appointed under-master of the choristers, assistant organist and lay clerk, and in 1873 Cathedral Organist. In 1875 Longhurst was given an honorary Lambeth Doctorate of Music by the Archbishop of Canterbury. A plaque within the cathedral commemorates his long service.

This journal provides an invaluable insight into the work of a member of the cathedral’s musical foundation during this period, as well as the daily life of a resident of the cathedral precincts. He names preachers at Sunday services, and events described in 1848 include the enthronement of John Bird Sumner as Archbishop of Canterbury, the first time since 1533 that an archbishop was enthroned in person in the cathedral. He also mentions the opening of St Augustine’s Missionary College in the same year. The accounts of his journeys in Kent and to London are also of great interest, as is the fact that Longhurst combined his cathedral work with a close involvement in the musical life of the city.

in 1826 he invented an instrument – the ‘flautofolicon’ – which was demonstrated one Catch Club night in November. It is to be profoundly regretted that no other record of this invention survives.

In that context, the arrival of this remarkable volume of Longhurst’s diaries is cause for great celebration. Three years’ worth of daily entries recording the great man’s life and work in his middle years (he celebrated his 30th birthday in 1849) offers a rare and precious insight into his public and private persona. Great cathedral and civic occasions rub shoulders with a lively social life; music-making ranging from large-scale subscription concerts to intimate chamber music at a friend’s house sits alongside regular teaching, with all the vicissitudes that entails (one student pleads stiff fingers, so Longhurst beats him at three games of chess instead of giving a lesson). All this active musical and social life is enfolded in the warm embrace of a beloved family and a profound Christian faith.

Provincial music-making in Britain, in the buffer-zone between amateur and professional work, is an area of musicology which has been given much more attention in recent years. This volume is a most valuable and illuminating contribution to that study.

Dr Chris Price, formerly Director of Music at Canterbury Christ Church University, writes: William Henry Longhurst was one of the most significant figures in the musical life of 19th-century Canterbury. Apart from his 70 years’ continuous service to the Cathedral, Longhurst promoted subscription concerts and was an important contributor to the music of the Canterbury Catch Club. All this constitutes a prominent public persona. The more subaltern aspects of Longhurst’s work, as with all freelance musicians of this period, must be gleaned from other records: in the latter part of the century he was organist for the Freemasons; he composed music for the Catch Club and for his pupils, some of which is held in the Cathedral Library; and according to a newspaper report

Longhurst’s journal (see also the image on page 15). Courtesy of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library.

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FOR CARMARTHENSHIRE ARCHIVES

Land Tax Return collected in 1721 from Llannon parish, Carmarthenshire, Wales. Purchased from a private eBay vendor in February 2024 for £54, funded in full by a grant from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries [John R. Murray Fund].

Hayden Burns, Archives Transformation Manager, writes: With the generous support of the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries, Carmarthenshire Archives is delighted to have purchased an early example of a Land Tax assessment for the hamlet of ‘Bleyney’ (Blaenau) in the parish of Llannon.

Apart from a slight tear in the middle of the document the paper assessment is in remarkably good condition and is now available to view in our public search room. It can also be ordered online under the reference OEEC/4.

We are very grateful to the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries, who generously provided the funds needed to secure the purchase of this rare item when it came up for sale.

This wonderful document is the earliest example of a Land Tax assessment which we hold for Carmarthenshire. Sadly, early survivals of Carmarthenshire’s assessments (and those of other counties) are very rare because there was no requirement for them to be kept by central government or by local officials. The survival-rate improves only after 1780, when the annual payment of Land Tax established voting qualifications, and copies were returned to the Clerks of the Peace.

The assessment for the hamlet of Blaenau is therefore a welcome addition to our collection and can be used in conjunction with other primary sources such as parish registers, estate records, and maps to aid various types of research. For example, the assessment gives details of annual rentals, and the total sum assessed, thus providing clues about the personal wealth of the inhabitants of the area. It also gives the names of the proprietors, the assessors, and the collectors of the tax, information which of course is an important source for both genealogists and local historians.

Right: Land Tax Assessment, Hamlet of Bleyney. Courtesy of Carmarthenshire Archives.

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FOR CHETHAM’S LIBRARY, MANCHESTER

Triple-sided rotating fob seal bearing the arms of the Chetham family and related crest (England, c.1700). Bought from Samuel Gedge for £1,250, funded in full by a grant from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries [John R. Murray Fund] .

Julianne Simpson, Librarian, writes: Founded by the legacy of Humphrey Chetham in 1653, the Library holds a substantial collection of archives relating to Humphrey Chetham and the Chetham family. These are primarily contained within three major collections: Chetham’s Hospital and Library Archive, Humphrey Chetham’s Private Papers and the Allen Deeds. Included amongst these collections is the last will of Humphrey Chetham dated 16 December 1651, in which he details the foundation of his Library and Hospital School. Humphrey Chetham’s Private Papers collection contains personal and business papers relating to Chetham, the Chetham family, and the foundation of Chetham’s Hospital and Library.

Humphrey’s two nephews George and Edward were executors of his will and several generations of the family continued to have an interest in the foundation. There was a representative from the Chetham family on the Feoffees (our trustees) until 1769. We were extremely pleased that the FNL agreed to support this acquisition with a full grant.

The triple-sided matrix could make three different impressions in the wax, depending on which face was used. On one face is the Chetham achievement of arms, in heraldic terms: the crest (a demi-griffin gules charged with a cross double-crossed, or) above the escutcheon (quarterly, 1st and 4th, argent, a griffin segreant gules, within a bordure, sable, bezantée; 2nd, argent, a chevron between three crampons, gules; 3rd, gules, a cross double-crossed, or; over all charged with a crescent for difference). On the second face, the Chetham griffin crest is displayed on its own. On the third face, an as-yet-unidentified classical head appears in profile.

Although we do not know which member of the family commissioned this seal, the connection between the family, the coat of arms and Chetham’s Hospital and Library is significant. The archive collections are substantial and while no personal seals have been identified, there are a number of deeds with attached wax and paper seals using the Chetham arms. The Library also holds a number of personal objects associated with the founder including a threelegged chair, the only piece of furniture in the College House buildings which is known to have belonged to Chetham. Another personal possession, and an extraordinary survival, is an ornately embroidered silk cap closely resembling the cap Chetham is wearing in his portrait in the Library Reading Room. The carving above his portrait includes the family arms and the griffin on its own is featured in carving and plasterwork throughout the building as well as being stamped on all the books.

The seal has recently been on view in the Library, as part of a Codebreakers display which also included recipes for invisible ink, ciphers and secret codes. We also ran a workshop on letter locking, where attendees learned how to keep their own letters secret and safe with various folding techniques secured with wax and closed with a seal just like our own Chetham seal.

Above and inset: Triple-sided rotating fob seal bearing the arms of the Chetham family, griffin and unidentified classical head. Courtesy of Chetham’s Library.

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FOR CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD

Robert Burton’s copy of Michael Scot, Mensa Philosophica (1603). Bought from Antiquates Fine and Rare Books for £9,500, with the aid of a grant of £3,500 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries [B. H. Breslauer Foundation Fund].

Gabriel Sewell, College Librarian, writes: With the generous support of the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries, Christ Church Oxford is delighted to have purchased Robert Burton’s copy of Michael Scot, Mensa Philosophica (Leipzig, 1603), reuniting it with Burton’s other books at Christ Church Library.

Christ Church was very keen to acquire the book as Robert Burton (1577– 1640) completed his degree at the college and remained there for the rest of his life. Burton was the author of The Anatomy of Melancholy – his life’s work and only book – which was first published in 1621 and is still an influential work in the study of mental illness and depression. The Anatomy guided readers through the copious and often contradictory continental sources on melancholy. It went through eight editions in the 17th century and has been described as the world’s first psychiatric encyclopaedia. The Anatomy won a wide readership among Burton’s learned contemporaries across Europe and expanded relentlessly in his lifetime, as he constantly reworked the text and added extra material to each new edition; it remained popular long after his death.

Burton acquired his books between 1594 and 1640, and the majority were published during his lifetime. He bought books new and second-hand, and many contain evidence of their use: annotations, dates of acquisition, prices paid and former owners. This core of Burton’s books in Oxford forms one of the largest undispersed collections in England dating from the pre-Civil War period. Books from Burton’s library appear very rarely on the market and the new acquisition is of interest to the international community of Burton researchers.

The book is now available for teaching, learning and research in the Library. It was displayed as part of the Library’s exhibition ‘A glut of books’: Robert Burton and 17th-century libraries , which celebrated some of the collections developed during the 17th century and now held by Christ Church.

Burton’s extensive library is well documented, and most of the 1,740 books he is known to have possessed still survive and are recorded in Nicolas Kiessling, The Library of Robert Burton (Oxford, 1988). Burton used his library when writing The Anatomy of Melancholy and also depended on books from the Bodleian and from Christ Church. After making some personal bequests to friends, Burton bequeathed the remainder of his library to the Bodleian and to Christ Church. In all 750 volumes were selected for the Bodleian and 780 by Christ Church. The copy of Mensa Philosophica purchased with the support of the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries was unknown to Professor Kiessling but bears all the Burton marks which he identified: his signature with a flourish at the end of ‘Burton’ and his cipher.

Robert Burton’s copy of Michael Scot, Mensa Philosophica (Leipzig, 1603), the curious bookmark bears writing in a contemporary hand, but not that of Burton. Courtesy of the Governing Body of Christ Church, Oxford, 2025.

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FOR CONGLETON MUSEUM

Archive of 19 documents relating to the life and career of Sir Thomas Reade, dating from 1815 to 1846. Bought for £3,500 from a private seller, with the aid of a grant of £2,800 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Sergey Kamenskiy, Project Manager, writes: Thomas Reade, born in 1782 to surgeon William Reade in Congleton, lived in a house forming part of the building housing Congleton’s medieval town hall, near the current museum site. Reade built a successful career in military and diplomatic service, participating in significant global conflicts and key missions of his time. This collection of acquired documents reveals unique details of his life, linking Congleton’s local history with major international events.

Having gained experience in the Dutch and Egyptian campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars, by 1808 Reade commanded a British-Sicilian gunboat flotilla defending Sicily from Murat’s forces. Over five years, he oversaw the capture of Ischia, Procida, 76 enemy vessels, and significant field artillery. For these achievements, he was promoted to Major, and the King of Sicily awarded him the Order of St Ferdinand and of Merit. In 1815, at the age of 33, he became a Lieutenant Colonel and was appointed a Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath by the Prince Regent.

Two documents in the collection pertain to Reade’s subsequent tenure as British Consul General in Tunis, a role he held from 1824 until his death in 1849. During this time, Reade developed strong relations with successive Beys of Tunis. Through persistent efforts, he convinced the Bey to abolish slavery across his territories. In correspondence with the British government, the Bey attributed his actions directly to Reade’s influence. Whilst in Tunis, Reade also pursued his interest in antiquities, studying Carthaginian and Roman artefacts, conducting excavations, and assembling a collection of Punic and Roman antiquities, portions of which now form part of the holdings of the British Museum.

The final document in the collection reflects Reade’s personal life, concerning the payment of an overdue gunmaker’s account.

In total, Sir Thomas Reade’s career illustrates the complexities of British imperial and diplomatic history, as well as the personal challenges faced by those operating within these environments. This collection deepens our understanding of Reade’s legacy and fosters a stronger connection between the community and one of Congleton’s most remarkable figures.

The main part of the archive (16 documents) relates to Reade’s next role as Deputy Governor on St Helena during the captivity of Napoleon Bonaparte. Arriving on the island in 1816, he remained there until Napoleon’s death in 1821. Contemporary accounts note that Reade executed Governor Sir Hudson Lowe’s orders over five years with diplomacy and resilience, avoiding conflicts among the island’s officials. His affable demeanour contrasted with Lowe’s stricter approach, leading Napoleon to refuse communication with the governor and instead rely on Reade as an intermediary. Reade’s notebook provides insights into these interactions and includes Napoleon’s remarks on Murat. The collection also contains correspondence with Sir Hudson Lowe and other officials, as well as a field map of the island, likely drawn by Reade.

Sir Thomas Reade’s overdue gun makers’ account, 30th December 1815. Courtesy of Congleton Museum.

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FOR DERBYSHIRE RECORD OFFICE

1. Archive of Holmes & Co Carriage Builders of Derby (1813-1960s). Bought from The Carriage Foundation for £32,200, with the aid of a grant of £16,100 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Sarah Chubb, Archives & Local Studies Manager, writes: In the 19th century, Holmes & Co of Derby was one of the most respected carriage building companies in the country, supplying carriages to royal and aristocratic clients. The firm was established in 1803 by Charles Holmes (1785-1835), son of a Lichfield coach builder and harness maker. It was significantly expanded by Charles’s sons, Herbert and Arthur, so that it ultimately took over the Lichfield business and established workshops and/or showrooms in London, Sheffield, Burton-on-Trent and even Natal (South Africa).

The archive is considered by the Carriage Foundation, a group of experts on horse-drawn carriages, to be the largest amount of material connected to any one British coach maker to surface to date. Nothing on this scale, relating the entire story of one firm and allowing researchers to make connections between people and their mode of transport, is known to exist. As well as its strong local interest, it is therefore an archive of international importance to carriage historians and collectors.

In 1923, Holmes & Co merged with another Derby coach builder, Sanderson & Sons, to become Sanderson & Holmes Ltd. By this time the company had transitioned to building coachwork for car manufacturers including Rolls Royce. Derbyshire Record Office already holds the archive of Sanderson & Holmes of Derby, which comprises financial records 1887-1963. The earlier history of the firm, and details about the carriages and cars that the company produced, was missing from this archive; a gap which the Holmes & Co material redresses.

The Holmes & Co material documents the firm’s activities from the 1810s to the 1950s. It includes colour drawings of the many types of carriages produced, as well as records of customers including significant Derbyshire people such as the Arkwright and Strutt families, connecting the archive to the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site. The firm’s international trade is documented with the export of carriages across the globe. Highlights include pen-and-ink, watercolour and gouache drawings of coach designs signed by artist J. Gilfoy, a bound ledger detailing work commissioned by and executed for Queen Victoria from 1849-61, photographs of a landau used by the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) during his tour of India in 1875-6, and the Maharajah of Kutch’s barouche.

Selection of letters, images and PR materials from the archive of Holmes & Co Carriage Builders of Derby (1813-1960s). Courtesy of Derbyshire Record Office.

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2. A letter, with copy, to William Philp Perrin from his Jamaican attorneys relating to plantations in Jamaica, 1783. Bought from Auger Down Books of Vermont, USA, for £525, funded in full by a grant from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Sarah Chubb, Archives & Local Studies Manager, writes: Derbyshire Record Office has held the archive of the Fitzherberts of Tissington Hall since the 1960s. The Fitzherbert archive is particularly significant due to its records of plantations in Barbados and Jamaica which came into the family through marriage with the Perrin family; there are over 11,738 documents for the period 1683-1898. Sadly, in 1988, the family withdrew several hundred documents relating to the Caribbean estates for sale at auction. The remainder of the archive was accepted in lieu of inheritance tax in 1994.

found more numerous here than at Home.’ This is one of a series of letters that discuss Elizabeth Fickle and her son Robert, who ultimately became a successful London barrister.

This single document, therefore, provides an insight into the abhorrent nature of the slave trade and the wretched lives of the enslaved, as well as the struggles with racism experienced by those of mixed European and African parentage in the 18th century. We are extremely grateful to the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries for their grant, which has enabled us to return this letter to the Fitzherbert archive.

In 2024, Derbyshire Record Office was contacted by an American book dealer who had acquired one of the letters, with its contemporary copy, which had been sold in 1988 – the reference numbers were written on the letters, so he was easily able to track them back to Derbyshire Record Office, and he offered to sell them to us.

We were keen to purchase the letter as its contents are particularly interesting. For example, the owner of the Jamaican plantations, William Philp Perrin, wanted to increase the number of enslaved people on his estate and had suggested the use of enslaved Africans from America who had recently been transported to Jamaica. The attorney advised against this as ‘those … who have been inured to Jobbing and the drudgery work upon Estates, are most certainly your object, and by far the more preferable’.

The letter also discusses Robert Laing (1767-1833), the son of Malcolm Laing (1718-1781), Perrin’s Jamaican attorney, and Elizabeth Fickle (1736-1776) ‘a free mulatto woman’. Robert Laing was considering studying law, and the question of his skin colour, and how this would affect his future in either Jamaica or England is considered in the letter: ‘We have consulted with Doctor Nasmyth and other friends of his late father who are all of Opinion that the circumstance of Colour, which you seem to think will operate against him in England, will still be in greater force here, and upon the whole that the difficultys (sic) will be

A letter, with copy, to William Philp Perrin from his Jamaican attorneys relating to plantations in Jamaica, 1783. Courtesy of Derbyshire Record Office.

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3. ‘A Tour through Derbyshire’ by Francis Robert Raines, illustrated by George Shaw (1829). Bought from Jonathan Frost Rare Books, Manuscripts & Ephemera for £1,400, funded in full by a grant from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Sarah Chubb, Archives & Local Studies Manager, writes: On 8 June 1829, two young men, Francis Raines aged 24 and George Shaw aged 18, set off in Shaw’s gig from Greenfield (near Saddleworth, where Raines was curate) for a ‘jaunt’ into Derbyshire. After crossing the county boundary, they left the gig at Hayfield and proceeded on foot through Chapel-en-le-Frith, Castleton and Chatsworth to Matlock Bath, returning past Haddon Hall, through Bakewell and Buxton.

Francis Robert Raines (1805-1878), born in Whitby, Yorkshire, was ordained in 1828 and in 1832 became vicar of Milnrow, Lancashire where he remained until his death. His friend George Shaw (1810-1876), born in Uppermill, Yorkshire, ultimately became an architect specialising in Gothic revival churches. Both young men had antiquarian interests; in later life, Raines transcribed documents and edited numerous publications, and Shaw became an antiquary and collector.

Like many tourists, though, they encountered tribulations along the way, such as being refused entry to Chatsworth House because they didn’t arrive during the opening hours…

‘Poor grievously chagrined! Both disappointed and annoyed! Quite unlike Stoics, we evinced our morbid feelings in no measured language.’ They then spent ‘a silent evening at the Devonshire Arms. We ruminated upon the toils and disappointment with which we had met during the day.’

They gained entry to the house the next morning, however, so all was not lost, and the magnificence of the scenery at Matlock Bath was clearly a highlight:

‘We strayed at summer’s sunset hour amid the bright & resplendent glories of nature. We were filled with amazement, rapture, and felicity! Radiant with joy, the eye glistened, & the tongues spake with triumph like the morning stars at the birth of Creation! Scenes, pregnant with glory – farewell!’

Derbyshire Record Office holds many travel diaries, but very few for our own county, so we are delighted to have been able to purchase this charming diary with the assistance of the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Their antiquarianism is clearly displayed in the entertaining and beautifully illustrated travel journal that the pair produced. Churches and historic buildings are described, sketched and painted in detail. The two also evidenced a great appreciation for the picturesque, and their tour was aimed not just at historic buildings but sublime landscapes that fulfilled the Romantic sensibilities of the time. Middleton Dale, for instance, inspired Raines to write:

‘The foliage scattered over the precipitous rocks – the exuberance of the Ivy – the uncouth forms which present themselves in the shade – the frowning majesty of some of ye projecting crags – the varied twinings of a transparent brook which flows at the base of one chain of the rocs – form a combination of beauties which renders the scenery unrivalled. Many a day of gloom will be past, and many a fervid feeling will vanish, ’Ere the bloom of that Valley shall fade from my heart.’

An opening of the journal recording their visit to Chapel-en-le-Frith, with Shaw’s sketch of a conventicle. Courtesy of Derbyshire Record Office.

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FOR DORSET HISTORY CENTRE

Fair copy manuscript of the poem ‘The Departure’ by Thomas Hardy, signed by the poet, c.1899. Bought from Freeman’s Hindman, Chicago (7 June 2024, Lot 190) for $3,275 (£2,808 including carriage) which was funded in full by the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries [John R. Murray Fund].

Sam Johnston, Service Manager for Archives and Records writes: This fair copy poem acquired with a photographic portrait of Hardy (accession 12173) was identified within a larger collection of Thomas Hardy material, principally printed books, offered for sale by auction in Chicago in June 2024. The poem had been sold at Sotheby’s in 2005 and re-appeared at a dealership in Massachusetts in 2014 where it was acquired by the private collector who ultimately sold it again in Chicago. It is therefore hugely satisfying to bring this important piece of Hardy’s poetic output back to Dorset History Centre (DHC) in his home town of Dorchester. Whilst Hardy is best known for his novels, his poetry is regarded by some as amongst his finest output.

The poem will be incorporated into the wider Hardy cataloguing project currently underway and due to be completed in September 2025. This project will provide full online access to the entire Dorchester-based Hardy archive.

Dorset History Centre is extremely grateful once again to the generosity of the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries for its support, speed and encouragement in acquiring this material.

This version of ‘The Departure’ was published by the Daily Chronicle on 25 October 1899 but existed in that form only briefly. When Hardy published the poem in Poems of the Past and the Present (1902), he had changed the title to ‘Embarcation’ and altered the 8th line. The poem describes troops leaving for the Boer War and Hardy’s generally less than positive view of men setting out to participate in a conflict from which many would in all likelihood not return. The poem ends, ‘Wives, sisters, parents, wave white hands and smile / As if they knew not that they weep the while.’

‘The Departure’ connects directly to a letter from Thomas Hardy sent in November 1899 to Florence Henniker and held in the collection at DHC. In the letter, Hardy responds to Henniker’s view of the sonnet and describes seeing 5,000 troops depart from Southampton, and the Battery of the Artillery leave Dorchester. The letter also mentions further verses which Hardy published in the Graphic . A manuscript for one of these, ‘The Going of the Battery’, is held by DHC in the Stevens-Cox collection (purchased in 2020 with assistance from FNL). Acquisition of ‘The Departed’ allows researchers to view the letter and the two related poems in Hardy’s hand side by side.

Photograph of Thomas Hardy and fair copy of ‘The Departure’ (accession 12137). Courtesy of Dorset History Centre.

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FOR THE EDWARD THOMAS FELLOWSHIP AND THEIR CENTRE AT PETERSFIELD MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY

1. First edition (1908) publication of A Second Book of Drawings , by James Guthrie (1874-1952), published by T.N. Foulis, London and Edinburgh, with an introduction by the writer, literary critic and poet Edward Thomas (1878-1917). Bought from Michael R. Thompson Rare Books, Los Angeles, for US$1,000 (£780) with the aid of a grant of £700 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Jeremy Mitchell, Chair of the Edward Thomas Fellowship and Keeper of the Collections in the Edward Thomas Centre, writes: The FNL continues to be most generous to Petersfield Museum and Art Gallery and The Edward Thomas Fellowship as we add manuscripts and signed books to the late Tim Wilton-Steer’s collection held in the Edward Thomas Study Centre at the Museum and Gallery.

When Thomas moved to Steep, also near Petersfield, in 1906 his friendship with Guthrie grew strong due to their shared interests and it is unsurprising that Thomas was asked to write the introduction to this important, and rare, volume of Guthrie drawings.

Guthrie also went on to be an early printer of Thomas’s poems (under the pseudonym Edward Eastaway), usually in pairs, including the even rarer edition of Six Poems in 1916.

A Second Book of Drawings is a significant work in the realm of early 20thcentury British art and private press publications.

Whilst other repositories holding Edward Thomas material, such as the National Library of Wales and Cardiff University, have a wide range of signed or manuscript items, our own collection has few such items and we have been able to continue our policy of increasing interest in the collection through the addition of items such as these.

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.

Prior to writing the 144 poems for which he is now most well-known ( Adlestrop, Tall Nettles and As The Team’s Head Brass for instance) from December 1914, it was as a literary critic and reviewer for publications such as the Daily Chronicle (from as early as 1900) that he made his name as one of those from whom a favourable review was most widely sought.

Edward Thomas was introduced to the artist-craftsman James Guthrie, owner of the Pear Tree Press, then based in South Harting near Petersfield, by their mutual friend Gordon Bottomley, who had met Guthrie in 1905. However, Thomas had reviewed an earlier publication by Guthrie in 1903. In 1899 Guthrie had founded the Pear Tree Press, where he explored intaglio printing and other artistic techniques.

Opening pages of A Second Book of Drawings , featuring drawings by James Guthrie. Courtesy of the Edward Thomas Fellowship.

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2. Third edition (1893) of Wild Life in a Southern County , by Richard Jefferies (1848–1887), and first edition (1909) of Richard Jefferies: His Life and Work , by Edward Thomas. Within this book is an autograph manuscript letter dated 10 xii 09 from Edward Thomas (1878-1917) to a Mr Richard Porteous. Bought from Noel Crack Bookseller for £1,000, with the aid of a grant of £500 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Jeremy Mitchell writes: A second grant from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries in 2024 enabled the acquisition of this important set of two books and a letter connecting, between them, Thomas’s research into and writing of what was, at the time, the most comprehensive study of the life and work of the writer and naturalist Richard Jefferies.

Richard Jefferies: His Life and Work remains one of the key works that significantly contributed to the understanding of Jefferies as a writer and naturalist. Thomas’s insightful interpretation and literary sensitivity made this biography more than just a factual account; it connected Jefferies’ work with broader themes of nature, rural life, and philosophical reflection. Thomas’s poetic sensibility brought a depth to the analysis, and it helped elevate Jefferies’ reputation in literary and cultural circles.

The letter contained within this book, and written in the year of its publication, is a change from the general ‘business’ style of other letters held within our collections and contains personal references to places either visited by or known to Thomas and the recipient Richard Porteous. Although we have not yet been able to identify Porteous, work continues in that respect.

Wild Life in a Southern County by Richard Jefferies, originally published in 1879, is considered one of his most important works, marking a significant point in his career and in the development of English nature writing. It clearly had a significant effect upon a young Edward Thomas whom we know to have been deeply influenced by Jefferies’ writing, and Thomas’s first prose work, The Woodland Life , reflects this influence in both content and approach.

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3. Autograph manuscript letter dated 6 xii 11 from Edward Thomas to ‘Dear Wilson’ regarding a proposed exchange of books on George Borrow. Bought from Maggs Brothers for £900, with the aid of a grant for £700 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Jeremy Mitchell writes: This letter was written towards the end of a difficult year for Edward Thomas, one in which he would have completed seven different prose works and was exhausted. At this time, when he had gone to Laugharne in early November for a week’s respite, he was working on a book about George Borrow, re-reading the proofs of The Icknield Way and beginning preliminary readings for a study of Swinburne.

Thomas eventually stayed in Laugharne for over seven weeks, travelling to London for a week, on 17 December 1911, before returning to Steep on Christmas Eve. We know that, during the week in London, as well as signing contracts with Secker on two other books, he handed over the completed George Borrow to Chapman and Hall (a first edition copy is held in the Study Centre).

The ‘Dear Wilson’ in this letter is most likely John Gideon Wilson (1876-1963) who, according to Sir Basil Blackwell, was ‘the most famous English Bookseller of his time’. Wilson was proprietor of the prestigious London firm of J. & E. Bumpus Ltd, 477 Oxford Street. The letter is a fairly typical example of the commercial letters written by Thomas that occasionally come up for sale and as such is a worthy addition to the small but growing collection that the Edward Thomas Fellowship now holds and that are readily accessible in its Study Centre at Petersfield Museum and Art Gallery.

The generous support of FNL in the acquisition of this letter also allowed the Edward Thomas Fellowship to use other funds to acquire a rare copy of Form Volume 1, Number 1, published by Austin Spare in April 1916. Originally intended as a quarterly publication, Number 2 was published in 1917, followed by three other volumes in the early 1920s, before it closed.

This particular edition is very important as it became the first to publish the Edward Eastaway (Thomas) poems Lob and Words . Thomas initially wrote his poetry under the pseudonym Eastaway (a family name) as he did not want his poetry to be pre-judged against his prose and literary criticism – the latter was always true but not always flattering!

Whilst no direct support was provided by the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries towards the acquisition costs of £508, earlier grants ensured the Fellowship had funds available to complete the purchase as soon as the publication was made available by the seller in Canada. Thank you again to the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries, its Trustees and supporters for making all these acquisitions possible during 2024 and adding to the resources available in the Edward Thomas Study Centre at Petersfield Museum and Art Gallery.

Letter from Edward Thomas to ‘Dear Wilson’. Courtesy of the Edward Thomas Fellowship.

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Acquisition Grants and Donations 63

FOR EMERY WALKER TRUST, HAMMERSMITH

The English Bible , five volumes (1902-1905), published by the Doves Press, Hammersmith. Bought from Sophie Schneideman Rare Books for £15,000, with the aid of a grand of £10,000 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries [Unwin Trust Fund].

Since we acquired this edition earlier this year, The English Bible has been featured in our exhibition Printing Partnerships: Emery Walker & the Private Press Movement , where it plays an important role in highlighting a key chapter in not only the history of the private press movement but in Walker’s professional life. It will continue to act as a key artefact in telling the story of this historic house and the people who lived in it.

Taryn Power, Curator, writes: The Emery Walker Trust is very grateful for the generous support of the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries in the acquisition of all five volumes of an original 1902-1905 edition of the Doves Press English Bible . We have long been looking for a Doves Press book to add to our collection. With this grant, we have been able to acquire the Bible which is considered both the crowning glory of the Doves Press’ production and a key chapter in Emery Walker’s professional career.

Emery Walker (1851-1933) was a key member of the Arts and Crafts movement, particularly through his expertise as a typographer. After collaborating with his close friend and neighbour William Morris on the Kelmscott Press, Emery Walker worked with another neighbour, Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson, who had established a bookbinding workshop near The Dove pub in Upper Mall, Hammersmith. Together, they founded the Doves Press in 1900, with Walker overseeing the technical aspects and Cobden-Sanderson choosing the books to produce and their design.

The Doves Press produced 40 books between 1900 and 1916; the English Bible was the most widely acclaimed. Printed in 16pt Doves type, interspersed with red initial letters designed by Edward Johnston and bound in plain vellum, the English Bible embodies the elegant simplicity for which the Doves Press was known. A review of the second volume in the Manchester Guardian , March 1904, stated ‘It is something, surely, that in our own day such a masterpiece of workmanship can be and is produced … As for the printing of these volumes, nothing more can be said than that they rank with the works of the most noted craftsmen … Everything has been done that time, skill, care, knowledge, and true workmanship can do to produce a perfect book.’ Such was the popularity of the editions that all copies of the Doves English Bible were sold before the print run was complete, even though advance payment was required.

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64 Friends of the Nations’ Libraries

Acquisition Grants and Donations 65

FOR ESSEX RECORD OFFICE

During the year FNL awarded five grants, to a total value of £14,731, to Essex Record Office. Several of the items acquired at different times were from the Foyle collection of material from Beeleigh Abbey so these are described together under 1 and 2 rather than in strict order by grant awarded.

1. Survey of the estates in Essex of Robert Rich (1559-1619), 3rd Baron Rich and 1st Earl of Warwick (3rd creation), circa 1580-1610. Bought from Dominic Winter Auctions (31 January, 2024, Lot 16) for £6,960, with the aid of a grant of £5,568 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries [John R. Murray Fund].

Richard Anderson, Archive and Collections Lead, writes: Robert Rich, the great landowner for whom this extraordinary survey was made, was grandson of Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich (1496/7-1567), the first Chancellor of the Court of Augmentations. The Court was established to administer the assets of dissolved religious houses, and by 1547 Rich had personally acquired 26 manors from such dissolved foundations. By the time of this extensive survey newly acquired for the Essex Record Office, the Rich family estates in Essex covered large parts of the county. Robert Rich, who inherited the title and estates in 1580 and 1581, became one of the wealthiest men in England, and was created Earl of Warwick on 6th August 1618 on payment of £10,000.

The survey forms a manuscript volume of 485 leaves, tightly rebound. There are copies of earlier rentals, court rolls, tenures, liberties and extensive details of Rich’s property in Braintree, Broomfield, Great Waltham, Hatfield Broad Oak, the Dengie peninsula and many other parts of Essex. Rich’s lands were particularly concentrated in the Rochford Hundred and Honour of Rayleigh, where from 1550 Rochford Hall was the family’s regional seat. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography estimates that more than 70 manors in the county were held by Robert at the time of his death. The purpose of the survey was therefore in large part to generate a complete list of properties, rights and income – such as from rents and profits of court; but it was also to detail the evidence underpinning family ownership.

The latest documents transcribed are dated 1610, although the survey is headed ‘made at the request of the said Lord Ryche by John Cooke … beginning on April 5 of the 22 year of the reign of Elizabeth’, this being 1580, the year in which Robert’s inheritance of estates began. The survey will make a particularly useful reference tool when seen in comparison with other records of the Rich family, such as an earlier rental of 1577 already held at Essex Record Office. Also at Essex Record Office are surveys from 1600 of the manors of Prittlewell, Braintree and White Notley. Moreover, even for the Prittlewell manors these record only freeholds, copyholds and demesne land, not the many various sources of manorial income that are included in the survey volume. Other surviving related family records are spread widely, from the British Library to Alnwick Castle, but this is by far the most comprehensive administrative record.

The manuscript of the survey is likely to have passed to the Earls (later Dukes) of Manchester through Anne, daughter of Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick, who married Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester, in 1626. Unusually, provenance can be traced simply through the bookplates: firstly of Charles Montagu, 1st Duke of Manchester (1662-1722), complete with Kimbolton Castle shelfmark ticket and armorial bearing; and secondly, the burgundy morocco gilt bookplate of W. A. Foyle (1885-1963). The volume was bought by Christopher Foyle at the Christie’s sale in 2000 and was sold again as part of his library in 2024. Essex Record Office is indebted to the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries for their aid in this purchase, without which the acquisition of the volume would simply not have been possible.

First page of Survey of Essex Lands of Robert Rich. Courtesy of Essex Record Office.

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2. Four lots of medieval and early modern deeds of Essex formerly among collections of Beeleigh Abbey Library, circa 1280-1645. Bought from:

• i. Dominic Winter Auctions (31 January, 2024, Lots 1 and 2) for £3,956, with the aid of a grant of £2,517 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries [John R. Murray Fund].

• ii. By private treaty sale through Dominic Winter (22 April 2024) for £620, funded in full by a grant from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries [John R. Murray Fund].

iii. Chiswick Auctions (15 September 2024, Lot 404) for £3,673, with the aid of a grant of £2,571 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Total for all items £8,249, bought with the aid of grants to a total of £5,708 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries

Richard Anderson writes: During the middle of the 20th century the Foyle family of bookselling fame acquired for their library at Beeleigh Abbey, lying just upstream of Maldon in Essex, an extraordinary range of books and manuscripts. Among the 10,000 items from the Library recently auctioned at two sales there featured a number of early title deeds illustrating property transfer and ownership in Essex back to the 13th century. At the first of the two sales, held in October 2023, Essex Record Office bid on two lots of deeds without success, dampening expectation that a local collection in public ownership might ever be possible from this source.

However, at the second sale in January 2024, the start of such a collection was secured with 15 pre-Reformation deeds and three further deeds of the 1540s, all in excellent condition, as the very first two lots of the sale. With excellent descriptions now provided by Christopher Whittick of Arundel Castle Archives, these deeds are the most important medieval records to be acquired by the Essex Record Office for decades. Two further lots of deeds were also acquired at the sale with the assistance of a range of local funders, as well as the magnificent survey and rental of the lands of Robert Rich (described above).

The earliest deed is a grant of rents in Brentwood from the reign of Edward I, Robert Haldan of Barstable Hundred granting an annual rent of two shillings and sixpence to Ralph de la Kersevere, to be held of Robert Haldan for the

charming ‘rent of a clove at Easter’. A 1363 grant of a meadow in Stisted is the earliest deed to bear a fine seal, sufficiently well-preserved to have its heraldic blazon clearly described for the catalogue. Essex Record Office had already been undertaking a programme of cleaning and remounting its early deeds with seals and was able readily to incorporate the Beeleigh Abbey deeds into this programme during the spring of 2024: each deed was individually foldered and those bearing pendant seals flattened, with seals stabilised and encased.

As of February 2024, Essex Record Office was expecting that this would be the full extent of the collection. However, shortly thereafter a small collection of ‘strays’ was offered, including a 1546 receipt bearing the signature of Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich (1497/8-1567). The Friends of the Nations’ Libraries very generously funded in full their acquisition by private treaty for Essex Record Office. These fit directly into the earlier sequence, which includes the related 1546 deed of conveyance from Richard Rich to George Brooke.

However, the greatest surprise was to find five of the seven deeds which formed one of the October 2023 lots, appearing again for sale with a different auctioneer less than a year later. These important records of the Honywood family of Marks Hall, Coggeshall, gave the Essex Record Office a second chance – this time successful – to acquire items which it had previously been disappointed not to secure. Thomas Honywood (1586-1666) was a Parliamentarian officer and significant figure in Essex history, and the five deeds of 1593 to 1645 have ensured that, even if in sections, an unlikely but valuable historical resource has been formed for the county out of the Beeleigh Abbey library dispersal.

Grant of 1403 from Beeleigh Abbey Collections. Courtesy of Essex Record Office.

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3. Map of lands of Manor of Hempstead Hall in Essex surveyed by Benjamin Hare, 1651. Bought from Bruce Marshall Rare Books for £4,000, with the aid of a grant of £2,800 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Richard Anderson writes: This is a high-quality work of cartography for its period by the London-based mapmaker Benjamin Hare, whose earlier surveys – for example of St Albans in 1634 and of Harley family lands in west Cambridgeshire in 1638 – are regionally important. Although Essex Record Office has fine collections of early 17th-century maps, notably of the two surveyors often called the ‘Walkers of Hanningfield’ (one of whose maps the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries also enabled Essex Record Office to buy in 2022), Hare’s survey of Hempstead was not previously known to us. This is perhaps unsurprising since it appears to have descended entirely through the family ownership of the Munro of Lindertis baronets, being eventually acquired in Boston, USA, prior to its appearance in the vendor’s catalogue, Atlases, Globes and Cartography 2024 , as lot 17.

The map complements admirably the existing resources at Essex Record Office for the parish of Hempstead. Comparison with a 1618 survey probably by Thomas Waterman, illustrates some changes in the intervening 30 years. Essex Record Office also holds all the 29 entries listed for the Manor of Hempstead in the Manorial Documents Register. Hare’s map is consistently artistically presented, with fine colour, and has responded well to vellum parchment relaxation enabling it to be flattened and placed within manilla covers; it was previously loosely rolled, although was likely earlier framed.

The manor has a particularly interesting history at this period, the lordship being purchased in 1647 by Eliab Harvey (1589/90-1661). Eliab’s brother William Harvey, discoverer of the circulation of blood, was later buried in the parish church where he has a striking tomb. The manor, covering the majority of the parish, was only one among Eliab’s Essex acquisitions, which also included Hempstead’s smaller manor of Winklows and Goldinghams alias Crouchmans, both of which remained in the Harvey family into the 19th century. Although a Royalist and fined as well as briefly imprisoned at the end of the Civil War, Eliab Harvey’s trading wealth enabled descendants to become significant figures in Essex, building a substantial estate at Rolls Park in Chigwell.

The full description by Hare on the map’s cartouche reads: ‘The Survey and Lyneat description of the several Lands of the Manor of Hempstead Hall in the Parish of Hempstead in the County of Essex with the true content and quantity of each particular meadow, pasture, arrable field and wood thereto belonging according to perambulation and admeasurement hereof.’ Embellishment with coat of arms, compass rose, and scale with large pair of dividers, complete the unaltered original.

Opposite: Map of Hempstead surveyed by Hare (large images of this map can be found on the inside covers of this publication). Courtesy of Essex Record Office.

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4. Two maps of property of Samuel Day in Stansted Mountfitchet, Birchanger and Ugley, 1783, with abstracts of Quaker sufferings, 1733 and 1738. Bought from Sworders Fine Art Auctions for £936 (27 October, 2024, lot 211), with the aid of a grant of £655 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries

Richard Anderson writes: This was a fascinating lot, as was recognised by the auctioneers: Sworders produced a short article on their website in advance of the sale titled ‘Stansted and the Rumblings of Religious Reform’. The text highlighted the position of Stansted as a centre for the Society of Friends, first recorded as meeting there in 1696, and the Day family’s role among local Quakers. (Regrettably the article misdates one of the maps to 1703, both being clearly from circa 1783.)

The client for the two maps, Samuel Day, was indeed a member of a significant local Quaker family, John Day being among the signatories to the original lease of the Quaker cemetery plot. In 1887 the local historian John Joshua Green viewed the maps made for Samuel, and made colour traced copies of them. These drawings had already come to the Essex Record Office, forming part of a large collection of later material of the Green and Day families, along with memorabilia of the grocery business which later occupied the Stansted site. Unfortunately, these 1887 copies are not in sufficiently good condition to be produced to readers, and it was therefore of particular interest to Essex Record Office to be able to reunite the originals with Green’s copies. The connection is especially close since we know that Samuel Day’s land passed to John Joshua Green’s family (Peter Sanders, On the Beaten Track: A History of Stansted Mountfitchet , p.171 ff. Stansted Mountfitchet Local History Society, 2016).

The two maps are – in a sense – a beautifully bourgeois example of an aristocratic form: the larger has everything you might expect in an estate map, saving perhaps an achievement of arms. The surveyor, Daniel Warner, was a carpenter by trade, which may account for a somewhat professional interest in the buildings. For example, Warner includes in the smaller plan of Miles’s House a letter key to the function of all spaces in the ‘soap office’, although the soap factory itself appears not to have been surveyed. The map also reveals the layout of the gardens with ponds, drawings of three pumps and the orchard trees, and even a fence in front of the house. The colouring in green, red, blue, yellow and grey has faded remarkably little given that the map was formerly both framed and folded.

The abstracts of Quaker sufferings are an additional useful record for researchers, although these form only volumes one and three of the published sequence, but importantly for local searchers Essex sufferings are within the 1738 volume. They have good bindings and complete a splendid acquisition.

Map of House and Grounds of Samuel Day in Stansted. Courtesy of Essex Record Office.

Although covering small areas of property, the maps are of regional importance in that there is only one other surviving set of drawings by the Essex surveyor Daniel Warner known to exist (q.v. Sarah Bendall, Dictionary of land surveyors and local map-makers of Great Britain and Ireland 1530-1850 (London, 1997) ). These are also held by Essex Record Office, among collections of the former Stansted Congregational Church.

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73

FOR THE GARDEN MUSEUM, LAMBETH, (ARCHIVE OF GARDEN DESIGN)

The archive of the Nesfield Family, comprising their garden design business records, and a large quantity of the watercolour works of William Andrews Nesfield (1794-1881). Bought from a private vendor for £157,287 with the aid of a grant of £13,107 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries [John R. Murray Fund].

Rob Hillman, Archivist, writes: The story of a painter-turned-garden designer is one that comes up repeatedly in the records we hold, but rarely as clearly as in the case of the Nesfield archive.

After a stint in the army, where his family’s connections helped him to progress quickly, William Nesfield left to devote himself to painting. He travelled extensively in order to paint from nature, becoming a full member of the Society of Painters in Water Colours (now the Royal Watercolour Society ). Over the next few decades he painted prolifically, earning the admiration of contemporaries including John Ruskin.

The magic of this collection is that it tells the entire story. William Andrews Nesfield’s paintings, sketches, and studies from his watercolour career sit alongside the plans and business records of his garden design business. His eye, honed whilst seeking the perfect scene to paint in nature, turned naturally to creating the perfect landscape for his clients.

Nesfield’s designs for Castle Howard in Yorkshire are featured extensively in the collection. In 1853 he laid out the gardens with the Atlas Fountain (still surviving) as a centrepiece, originally surrounded by an intricate parterre with a geometrical design made out of low box hedging, coloured gravels, and herbaceous plants.

The archive contains detailed designs for the iconic fountain at Witley Court in Worcestershire, even including Nesfield’s intricate preparatory studies of the fish and seashells that feature prominently. The fountain and gardens were recently the subject of significant restoration, and still attract many visitors each year. Other surviving designs represented in the archive are of the spiral fountain at Alton Towers, and work along the Avenue Gardens at Regent’s Park.

Nesfield was close friends with, and heavily influenced by, his brother-in-law, the architect Anthony Salvin, who helped and encouraged Nesfield in his garden work, which included planning formal gardens to accompany the mansions that Salvin was designing.

As the pace of work increased, he honed the formal Nesfield style that could be adapted for a variety of gardens. As recorded in a letter from Nesfield in the collection, he eventually resigned from the Society of Painters in Water Colours , noting that his ‘time [has] been unavoidably engrossed by another profession’.

His gardening business meanwhile flourished, and Nesfield became one of the dominant forces of the developing profession, with numerous projects spanning the breadth of the country. Two of the couple’s sons, William Eden born in 1835 and Arthur Markham born in 1841, also went on to play a part in the story. William Eden aspired to become an architect like Salvin, and succeeded, allowing him to work with his father’s company on various projects, whilst Arthur Markham joined his father’s business himself. Some projects, such as Regent’s Park, received input from all three men, and this is covered well within the archive.

Study for WItley Court fountains, William Andrews Nesfield. Courtesy of the Garden Museum.

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Acquisition Grants and Donations 75

74

FOR THE GRIFFITH INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

Typescripts by Howard Carter (1874-1939) containing notes for three lectures. Purchased from International Autograph Auctions Europe S.L. (5 December 2024, Lot 1479) for £2,700, funded in full by a grant from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Dr Daniela Rosenow, Griffith Institute Manager, writes: Through the generosity of the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries, the Griffith Institute acquired a group of typescripts containing notes for three lectures (altogether 48 pages) by Howard Carter, who discovered the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun on 4 November 1922.

Howard Carter was trained by his father as an artist and it was in his capacity as a junior draughtsman that he first arrived in Egypt in 1891 at the age of 17, after he had been recommended by the Norfolk MP William Tyssen-Amherst (1835–1909). His draughtsmanship ensured his success in Egypt and by the mid-1890s Carter was recording painted wall scenes in the temple of Hatshepsut at Luxor. In 1906 he was introduced to the 5th Earl of Carnarvon and from 1917 onward they worked together in the Valley of the Kings, culminating 16 years later in the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb.

The discovery is undoubtedly one of the most famous events in the history of archaeology, revealing the only ancient royal burial from the Valley of the Kings to be found substantially intact. The four rooms of the tomb proved to be packed with almost 6,000 objects representing a wealth of funerary ritual items such as the coffins, sarcophagus, amulets, the famous funerary mask and canopic shrine, as well as everyday objects from the king’s daily life including clothes, jewellery, cosmetic equipment, writing equipment, weapons, furniture and even food provisions. The conservation of the objects and their transport to the Egyptian Museum Cairo took Howard Carter and his team a solid ten years and was completed in January 1932.

The discovery of the tomb was the first event of this kind to be transmitted around the world in real time and generated an unprecedented and phenomenal public and media reaction. Carter responded to this interest with two series of very successful lecture tours through Europe and North America. Two of the manuscripts (from 1924 and 1930) acquired by the Griffith Institute contain Carter’s typewritten notes on the discovery, giving a first-hand account of this famous event. The notes include many hand-written annotations, additions and corrections but also a list of the lantern slides that Carter used to illustrate his lectures.

The original lantern slides form part of the Griffith Institute Tutankhamun Archive, which contains the complete excavation records (including maps, object cards, excavations journals and diaries, notes and negatives) produced by Carter and his team. The lecture notes acquired by the GI are a significant addition to the Tutankhamun Archive, contributing to our understanding of the public perception and narratives surrounding the discovery and excavation of the tomb, as they were actively shaped by the excavator himself.

The third set of lecture notes contain a fascinating discussion on colour in ancient Egypt from an artistic and scientific perspective. The lecture dates to 1934 and was given by Carter at the Victoria & Albert Museum London.

The Griffith Institute staff would like to express their gratitude to the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries for once again making it possible to acquire a set of precious and rare documents for the Archive. The manuscripts will be digitised, transcribed and added to the Griffith Institute’s open-access online catalogue in due course.

List of slides Carter used to illustrate his lectures on the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun (see also image on page 13). Courtesy of the Griffith Institute.

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FOR HEREFORDSHIRE ARCHIVE SERVICE

Survey of the Manor of Pembridge Castle, Welsh Newton, 1680-1685, by William Hill. Bought from a private vendor for £6,000, with the aid of a grant of £2,750 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Rhys Griffiths, Senior Archivist, writes: A remarkable archival reunion lies at the heart of this acquisition. The proposed sale of the item was brought to the attention of Herefordshire Archive Service by Professor Richard Hoyle of the University of Reading. Professor Hoyle had long since been aware that a 17th-century survey of the manor of Pembridge Castle, comprising maps and schedules by the cartographer William Hill, had been in circulation until its sale by auction in 1883. As is common with bound collections of antique maps, the once complete volume had clearly suffered from the depredations of collectors.

satisfying that the schedule for the Pembridge Castle demesne, long separated from its map, is included. A good series of court rolls, surrenders and other records of the manor of Welsh Newton, spanning 1575-1850, are already held by the Archive Service, so the addition of the survey brings an added dimension to our understanding of its history.

Since its arrival, the survey has enjoyed the attention of the conservation team. The original 17th-century binding, which had become detached and had the potential to damage the contents, has been boxed separately, and the maps have been mounted, folded in acid-free papers and stored flat in bespoke archival boxes. The survey has been photographed and is available to be consulted in its entirety online at Herefordshirehistory.org.uk.

The original volume contained surveys by William Hill of estates, from a swathe of the Midlands, belonging to The Honourable Thomas Talbot. Sections covering Leicestershire and Warwickshire, known once to have been included, had been separated long ago and one double-page map had found its way, appropriately, to Shropshire Archives. This had been bound in the 19th century and the index removed from the original volume had been pasted onto one of the relatively new boards.

Another map from the same source, illustrating the Pembridge Castle demesne, had been deposited with the Herefordshire Record Office in 1962, having spent many years in the custody of the Hereford City Library. The Herefordshire map and schedule had been rolled but the original pagination matched the numbering in the index to the Shropshire volume. Like this survey, the three paper estate maps in the original volume are remarkably early and well-preserved. They have also retained their vivid colouration, with boundaries picked out in gold and pink, yellow ochre compasses and plausibly depicted redroofed buildings. All the maps are the same size at 550mm x 443mm.

The surveys feature the various farms of The Mill in the parish of Welsh Newton, 1685, St Woolstone, in Welsh Newton, Whitchurch and Ganarew, which is undated, and The Hill in Llancloudy, 1680. Each named field is listed in the accompanying schedule with its acreage and the rent payable. It is particularly

Pembridge Castle estate survey, 1680. Courtesy of Herefordshire Archives

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Acquisition Grants and Donations 79

FOR HULL UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES AT HULL HISTORY CENTRE

1. Letters from Philip Larkin to Professor Raymond Brett, 1954-1984. Bought from Second Story Books, Washington DC, for $11,000 (£8,588), with the aid of a grant of £2,110 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries [Larkin Fund].

Sarah Pymer, Archivist, writes: Hull University Archives is delighted to have received funding from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries for two purchases in 2024. The first, generously funded by FNL and the Arts Council England / V&A Purchase Grant Fund, is a set of letters from the poet and librarian Philip Larkin to his friend and colleague at the University of Hull, Professor Raymond Brett. Larkin was the University Librarian at Hull from 1955 until his death in 1985 and the University Archives holds extensive collections of his papers, including his literary manuscripts, personal correspondence and photographic archive. He was also prominent in many aspects of the University’s business and social life and his activities are well-represented among the University’s institutional records.

to the Registrar about vacancies on clerical-related grades, but perhaps this will pass.’ Larkin’s mother Eva died in 1977, when he wrote to Brett that ‘it’s just the thought of someone’s being wiped out of existence for ever that is so hard to comprehend’. The letters also give an insight into the social life of the University, with a letter from January 1975 relating how Larkin had recently ‘watch[ed] Eddie Dawes [Professor Edwin Dawes, of the Biochemistry Department] fascinate an audience with Chinese rings, the production of an endless series of handkerchiefs from a tiny box, and so on’.

We are pleased to have been able to bring these letters back to Hull, after many years in the USA, and reunite them with our other holdings of Larkin’s correspondence.

Professor Raymond Brett was G. F. Grant Professor of English at the University of Hull from 1952 until 1982, and was a member of the interview panel who appointed Larkin to the post of Librarian. Once Larkin began working at Hull the two men became close colleagues and friends. The collection contains only a small amount of correspondence, and we think this may be because the two men saw each other regularly and thus had little need to write to each other; this makes the letters’ survival as a record of their friendship all the more valuable.

The letters span 1964-1984 and shed light on many of Larkin’s thoughts and opinions, as well as his sense of humour. In 1971 Larkin reported to Brett that ‘The students are trying to work up an agitation against Reckitt’s [a Hull-based manufacturer of household products], but are being deflected by the abominable Mrs Thatcher.’ In August 1972 Larkin wrote to Brett to thank him for a letter which ‘did much to mitigate the horrors of my 50th birthday,’ and continued, ‘Hardy said that a man of 50 was young in the summer and old in the winter, but perhaps they had better summers in those days.’ On 16 June 1975 Larkin wrote to Brett thanking him for a letter about his award of the CBE, noting that ‘Its effect is to make me feel I shall never write another word, except memoranda

Letters written by Philip Larkin to Raymond Brett. Courtesy of Hull University Archives.

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2. A Catalogue of the Subscription Library of Kingston upon Hull , two volumes, 1822. Bought from Forest Books, Grantham, for £695, funded in full by a grant from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Sarah Pymer writes: The second grant which Hull University Archives received in 2024 was for the purchase of A Catalogue of the Subscription Library of Kingston upon Hull (1822). The Subscription Library was founded in 1775 and remained in existence for almost two centuries. Its stock throughout the 19th century included periodicals, popular fiction and non-fiction, standard works and foreign works, and by 1875 it had 36,200 books, more than all the other Hull libraries combined. The number of books it owned eventually peaked at 80,000, before large-scale sales in the early 20th century and losses in the Second World War reduced its stock by half. The Subscription Library closed in 1970.

In 1977 the University of Hull purchased the archive of the Subscription Library, which includes minute books, correspondence, financial records, rules of the library, and catalogues and lists of books. Unfortunately, a small number of items within the collection were incomplete or damaged, including our copy of the 1822 Catalogue . We had only one of its two volumes, which was too fragile to be handled. We were, therefore, pleased to find a complete copy in good condition for sale.

The catalogue illuminates both the range of books held by the Subscription Library and the way in which they were catalogued. Arranged by category, the catalogue begins with Theology and Ecclesiastical History, proceeding through Jurisprudence, Government and Politics, Sciences and the Arts, History, and Belles Lettres . There is a wide range of works in each of these categories giving an insight into what the subscribers of the Library were reading and studying, from the French Revolution and the Corn Laws to voyages to India and China; from the life of Chaucer to Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language ; and from 21 volumes of Shakespeare’s plays to three volumes of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility . The final section of the catalogue, ‘Miscellaneous’, offers fascinating glimpses of books which were long ago sold off, such as a 1783 Guide to Health, Beauty, Riches and Honour , and Hints to the Bearers of Walking-sticks and Umbrellas from 1808.

We are grateful to the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries for enabling us to purchase this catalogue to replace the damaged volume and enrich the collection.

Above: Photographs of the Hull Subscription Library, early 20th century (Ref U DSL/103). Right: Title page of volume 1. Courtesy of Hull University Archives.

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THE KEATS-SHELLEY MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION

John Keats’s signed copy of The Works of that Famous English Poet, Mr Edmond Spenser , printed in London by Henry Hills for Jonathan Edwin in 1679. Purchased from auctioneers Freeman’s Hindman, Philadelphia for $60,325 (£47,693) in June 2024 with the aid of a grant of £10,000 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries [John R. Murray Fund].

Deborah Hodges, Trustee of the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association writes: The Keats-Shelley Memorial Association (KSMA) is a UK-registered charity which was founded in 1903 with the support of King Edward VII, King Vittorio Emanuele III and President Theodore Roosevelt. Its main objective is to aid in the upkeep of the Keats-Shelley House in Rome, and to care for the graves of Keats and Shelley in the Non-Catholic Cemetery. The KSMA acquires collections relating to Keats and Shelley and these are displayed in Keats-Shelley House.

Items from the library of the English poet John Keats are extremely rare and seldom come to the market, so the opportunity to purchase his signed copy of Spenser’s works was one not to be missed. This is the third edition of Spenser’s collected works and has an engraved frontispiece. The title page bears the signature ‘John Keats, Severn’s Gift 1818’ in Keats’s distinctive hand. The dedication says much about Keats’s relationship with his friend Joseph Severn who accompanied the young poet to Rome in the Autumn of 1820 and who was with him when he died of tuberculosis the following February; the last image of Keats is a sketch by Severn now on display at Keats-Shelley House.

Scholars of the Romantics are agreed that after Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser most influenced Keats; his friend Cowden Clarke recalled how ‘Keats consumed Spenser’s Faerie Queene like a young horse ramping through a spring meadow’. Keats’s earliest poem Imitation of Spenser , written in 1814, is an affectionate demonstration of his admiration for the Elizabethan poet. As his health declined, John Keats appeared to have annotated passages throughout this volume and particularly in the Faerie Queene to reflect his love for Fanny Brawne and his last poem In after-time, a sage of mickle lore draws heavily on the lyricism of Spenser.

Apart from its rarity value, this object is of unique provenance and enclosed within it are a number of letters relating to earlier sales – one dating to 1914 from rare book dealer Frank T. Sabin, states ‘the finest edition of the works of Spenser procurable – no doubt selected as the gift more likely than any other to be appreciated by Keats’.

This volume referred to as ‘Keats’s Spenser’ offers further opportunities for scholarly research and Professor Duncan Wu discusses it in the forthcoming issue of the Keats-Shelley Review , which is circulated internationally to universities and academic libraries as well as the Friends and supporters of KSMA. He poses intriguing questions about whether Keats took the book with him to Italy on his final journey and, if so, did Severn rescue it when so many of his friend’s belongings were disposed of following his untimely death? Keats’s Spenser also offers opportunities for learning to a wider public and the many groups from Italian and International schools who visit the museum in the House on the Spanish Steps in Rome.

We are enormously grateful to FNL for assisting us with this important acquisition for the collection of the Keats-Shelley House which for 120 years has been a place of pilgrimage for visitors and Romantic scholars. The original will be on display for limited periods while a digital version will also be available.

The title page bearing the signature of John Keats and the words ‘Severn’s gift’. Courtesy of Keats-Shelley House Rome.

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Acquisition Grants and Donations 85

FOR KING’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

Alan Turing’s unpublished Second World War papers relating to the ‘Delilah’ project. Sold at Bonham’s for £397,680 and stopped from export under the Waverley criteria by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art. Bought for £397,680 with the aid of a grant of £20,000 from Friends of the Nations’ Libraries and a generous donation, secured by FNL, of £250,000 from XTX Markets.

Patricia McGuire, Archivist, writes: Though he only lived to 41, World War II cryptanalyst and mathematician Alan Turing made groundbreaking contributions to the early development of artificial intelligence, computer science and what is now known as epigenetics.

King’s College, where Turing was an undergraduate and then a Fellow, holds the largest known collection of material written by him and a considerable amount of material closely related to him. The Delilah Project papers were the most important and extensive collection of Turing’s autograph material to come to auction and we are delighted to be able to add them to our Turing collection.

Towards the end of the Second World War Turing pivoted from designing better decryption devices, to building a portable voice encoder for short-distance transmission. The United States had developed a transatlantic voice encoding protocol, but the size required for lossless transmission over long distance required a device that filled a room. Turing devised a system that, though it would work only over short distances, such as by telephone or short-wave radio, it was only the size of a typewriter. He moved a few miles up the road from Bletchley Park to a new facility established in 1938 (in anticipation of a possible war with Germany) where government communications engineering was to take place - now His Majesty’s Government Communications Centre at Hanslope Park and still supplying British intelligence with specialised hardware and software. Turing was given space to develop his ideas for a voice encoder and it became known as the Delilah Project.

Opposite: Alan Turing’s handwritten notes on the Bandwidth Theorem (catalogue ref AMT-H-1-2-01r). By kind permission of the Provost and Scholars of King’s College, Cambridge.

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Unfortunately Turing’s electric circuit-board skills were not as advanced as his mathematical understanding. Enter Donald Bayley, a recently graduated University of Birmingham electrical engineer. Together they built a working model of Turing’s design which successfully scrambled a recording of Churchill’s voice and then played it back, ‘noisy’ but comprehensible. The war ended soon after and only the one prototype was made.

King’s College is delighted to have been chosen to be the custodian of these documents for the nation. We are enormously grateful for FNL’s own grant and for securing the wonderfully generous donation from XTX Markets. We are also grateful to the National Heritage Memorial Fund and other private donors for their support.

During the development work Turing and Bayley kept a logbook of their experimental results. Bayley also kept notes at lectures Turing gave to interested Hanslope Park engineers about the mathematics behind the project, along with loose pages of diagrams, calculations, explanations, and other electronic and mathematical theorems and problems. The papers were kept in the Bayley family from his death in 2020 until the auction sale in November 2023. They will be added to the existing Turing collection, scanned and added to our Turing Digital Archive.

Top: ‘Measurement of ‘A2-pulse’ for Multivibrators’ readings recorded in the logbook used by Turing when building the Delilah voice encoding machine (AMT/H/1/1/2).

Right: Bayley’s notes of Turing’s lectures explaining the mathematics behind the Delilah machine (AMT/H/1/3/16-17).

By kind permission of the Provost and Scholars of King’s College, Cambridge.

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89

FOR KRESEN KERNOW (ARCHIVES AND CORNISH STUDIES SERVICE)

Manorial court book, Manor of Ventongimps in Perranzabuloe, 16721716. Bought from Lay’s Auctioneers Lanner Redruth (7 March, 2024, Lot 151) for £629, funded in full by a grant from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries [John R. Murray Fund].

Kate Rose, Archivist, writes: Kresen Kernow was made aware of this manorial court book being sold at auction in April 2024. As we hold just a small amount of material relating to the ancient manor of Ventongimps, and of this nothing as early as the court book on offer, this acquisition was significant to our collections.

This record is a fantastic, rich source for researchers of property, family, environmental and social history especially in the years after the turbulent civil war.

As the price of manorial documents seems to be ever-increasing, and the survival of court records is extremely important for proving existence of a manor and illuminating its history, Kresen Kernow is extremely grateful to FNL for the grant which enabled us to make this purchase and secure the court book’s long-term preservation and availability.

Ventongimps was an inland manor where life before the boom of mining revolved around the changing landscape of farming; its moorland today is a nature reserve and a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), being the home for two rare species of plant, the Cornish Eyebright and Dorset Heath and the scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly. This same moorland would have been used by the tenants listed within the court book.

The manor originally belonged to the ancient family of the same name during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. It is said to have been in moieties, held by two separate families and then by 1651, it was held again in its entirety by John Cleather, whose grandson Samuel sold to Hugh Tonkin esq in 1691; both Cleather and Tonkin being lords of the manor at the date of our court book.

Written in both Latin and English, the court book records the manor’s free tenants, including Lord Arundell and Hugh Boscawen, two of largest landowners in Cornwall at the time. The book also details the conventionary tenants, homage, court business, the appointment of court officials, tenant deaths, deodands, land transfers and insights into daily life on the manor. Whilst cataloguing the court book, we have found interesting entries which detail tenants being made ‘evil examples of’ for not adhering to the customs of the manor, including not milling the corn or keeping hedges tidy; the Ventongimps corn mill can be traced back to 1380 and many of the hedges still survive today.

The front cover of the court book (Ref: AD3285-1). Courtesy of Kresen Kernow.

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Acquisition Grants and Donations 91

FOR LIVERPOOL RECORD OFFICE, LIVERPOOL CENTRAL LIBRARY Autograph letter signed by Sir Joshua Reynolds to William Roscoe (1753-1831), on his influence on younger artists, 19 November 1784. Bought from Sotheby’s (11 July, Lot 105) for £2,400 and donated by the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Vicki Caren, Team Leader Archives writes: Reynolds is here writing to the Liverpudlian collector, art historian, abolitionist and banker William Roscoe (1753–1831) about a mutual acquaintance, ‘Mr Pack’, a young artist, who can be identified as Faithful Christopher Pack (1760-1840). Pack had taken up painting as a career in 1781 and is known to have copied portraits by Reynolds, and in 1784 was resident in Roscoe’s native Liverpool.

Roscoe was a keen promoter of cultural development during Liverpool’s commercial growth. He was a founding member of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool (1812), the Liverpool Royal Institution and the Athenaeum Library (1797).

This letter relates to the organisation of the first of the two exhibitions that Roscoe organised for The Society for Promoting Painting and Design in Liverpool in 1784 and 1787. Reynolds sent Landscape, view of the Thames from Richmond to the 1784 show and no doubt helped secure the loan of his heroic portrait of Colonel Tarleton, very much a Liverpool celebrity. Thanks probably to the President’s prodding, his fellow academicians – Gainsborough, Fuseli, Wheatly and Wright of Derby – also sent outstanding work. Pack, something of a peripatetic portrait-painter then in Liverpool, showed ten works. According to Ellis Waterhouse, Pack had spent at least a year in the studio of Reynolds. He never again exhibited in Liverpool. The 1784 and 1787 exhibitions reflect Roscoe’s amazing powers of persuasion and Reynolds’ willingness to support the cultural aspirations of a fast-growing regional town.

The papers remained in the family until 1931 when a principal accession was received from two family members. Later accessions were made in 1951 from a family bequest, and other papers have been deposited by various family members and added to the main series.

Within our collection there is a letter from Reynolds, dated 2 October 1784, thanking Roscoe for a present of his poetical works and remarking he is glad to hear of the success of Roscoe’s exhibition, and will always contribute to it to the best of his power. When a letter from Reynolds dated 19 November 1784 came up for auction we felt that it would it be an important acquisition and addition to the Roscoe collection.

As we are a local authority archive, purchasing such a letter was simply not an option. I applied to FNL for a grant and they very kindly agreed to organise and fully fund the bid. This was the first time I had made such a grant application, and I was surprised to discover it was successful.

Liverpool Record Office is incredibly grateful to the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries for their support and guidance during the whole bid process, as well as making the acquisition and donating the letter to our archive.

Roscoe took great care to preserve his voluminous correspondence which is now in the City Library. It is an essential resource for understanding life in Liverpool around 1800. Liverpool Record Office holds an extensive collection of letters received by Roscoe, drafts of his replies and his papers including literary manuscripts (920 ROS).

Letter to Roscoe signed by Reynolds. Courtesy of Liverpool Central Library and Archives.

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Acquisition Grants and Donations 93

FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER – THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY AND MANCHESTER MUSEUM

Seventeen volumes comprising the author’s copy of A History of the Birds of Europe by Henry Eeles Dresser, 19th century. Stopped from export by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest and bought for £127,000, with the aid of a grant of £10,000 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries [of which £6,395 was from the B. H. Breslauer Foundation Fund].

Professor Christopher Pressler, University Librarian and Director of The John Rylands Library, writes: Henry Eeles Dresser (1838-1915) was one of the most significant and influential ornithologists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries – a producer of beautiful books which combined new scientific information with masterpieces of bird illustration, and a leading figure in scientific society. A History of the Birds of Europe is widely regarded as his most important work – ‘a monument of the industry and accuracy of the author’, according to his obituary in the British Ornithologist Union’s Ibis .

Opposite: Dresser’s plate for the Bee Eater. Above: Dresser’s own Bee Eater specimens in the collections of Manchester Museum. Courtesy of the University of Manchester.

Detail of Johnson’s letter to Sophia Thrale. Courtesy of the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum.

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This set of volumes is Dresser’s unique author’s copy and includes the original, hand-coloured plates that were used as colour masters for the lithographs that were eventually published and sold by subscription. They also contain inserted drawings and manuscript annotations pertaining to colouring, composition and background, and additional plates that were never released. Dresser was not an artist himself, rather a commissioner, and his attention to detail, relationships with artists and innovative approaches to printmaking play out in the margins. The artists featured – including John Gerrard Keulemans, Joseph Wolf, Archibald Thorburn and Edward Neale – are a who’s who of notable scientific illustrators of the time.

This remarkable author’s copy of A History of the Birds of Europe raises awareness of the impact and legacies of Dresser’s work; provides unique insight into the creative and scientific processes behind the publication itself; and offers a rich resource for the history of ornithology, the visual representation of birdlife, and publishing in 19th-century Britain. The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest declared the volumes a national treasure for their outstanding significance to the study of book publishing and printing technique, as well as ornithological representation, illustration and annotation. The multifaceted nature of the volumes’ significance helped to secure support from Art Fund and the ACE/V&A Purchase Grant Fund – alongside the vital contribution from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries – to save them for the country.

The significance of the volumes becomes all the greater in combination with the collections already cared for by Manchester Museum and The John Rylands Library, both cultural institutions of The University of Manchester. The John Rylands Library Special Collections hold an outstanding collection of natural history and ornithology printed works, a highlight of which is a complete and uniformly-bound set of the publications of John Gould – arguably the greatest illustrator of birds in the 19th century. The Library also possesses one of the subscription copies of A History of the Birds of Europe and a unique album of letters and photographs compiled by Dresser which lays out the international social and scientific networks of which he was part.

Manchester Museum is the leading repository of Dresser’s collection of ornithological specimens – one of the finest in Britain. These holdings comprise around 7,600 bird-skins and 3,000 eggs acquired between 1899–1913. Crucially, these collections offer a unique primary source for much of the artwork of A History of the Birds of Europe . Illustrations were based on study skins (as opposed to live birds) – in all, 10,367 were studied, almost half (4,385) taken from Dresser’s own collection now held at Manchester. The Museum also holds various of Dresser’s papers, including a letter book dating from 1871-73, containing correspondence dealing with the administration of A History of the Birds of Europe .

Uniting Henry Dresser’s personal copy of A History of the Birds of Europe with the complementary collections and expertise of the John Rylands Library and Manchester Museum creates huge public engagement potential and consolidates The University of Manchester as the pre-eminent place for scholarly research into Dresser, his methods and networks, whilst permanently safeguarding the future of this outstanding work for the nation.

Above: Hand-coloured plate of a Robin, from volume 9. Far left: Dresser’s plate for the Greater Spotted Woodpecker. Left: White-backed Woodpecker and Great Spotted Woodpecker sub-species japonicus study skins from the Henry Dresser collection. Courtesy of the University of Manchester.

Friends of the Nations’ Libraries

Acquisition Grants and Donations 97

96

FOR THE NATIONAL GALLERY LIBRARY

Édouard Manet (1832-1883), Catalogue des tableaux de M. Édouard Manet exposés Avenue de l’Alma en 1867 . Paris: Imprimerie L. Poupart-Davyl, 1867. Bought from Librairie-Galerie Emmanuel Fradois for €6,000 (£5,000), with the aid of a grant of £4,500 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Alan Crookham, Chief Librarian and Archivist, writes: The artist Édouard Manet (1832-1883) was born in Paris, where he was taught by Couture (1850-6) and studied historic painting in the Louvre. His exhibits at the Salon (from 1861) and the Salon des Refusés (1863) achieved much critical attention and he became a leading figure in the Paris avant-garde. Manet was the elder statesman of the Impressionists, although he never participated in their exhibitions but continued to compete in the Salons. His unconventional subject matter drawn from modern life and his concern for the artist’s freedom in handling paint made him an important precursor of Impressionism.

When he did not receive an invitation to participate in the Exposition Universelle of 1867, Manet organised his own solo exhibition which was largely ignored at the time. However, he did publish an exhibition catalogue that included a short preface setting out his artistic manifesto, possibly co-authored with the art critic Zacharie Astruc (it has also been rumoured that the writer Émile Zola collaborated on the essay).

The purchase of the Manet catalogue gives the National Gallery a material link between two of the paintings in its collection. This rare catalogue documents the display of Manet’s Music in the Tuileries Gardens (1862 – now in the National Gallery’s Collection, reference NG3260), but it also represents a moment in time when the German artist Adolph Menzel (1815-1905) visited the exhibition and decided to embark on his own version of the painting, Afternoon in the Tuileries Gardens (1867), which was acquired by the Gallery in 2006 (reference NG6604).

As well as the central importance of Manet to modern art, these definite links to two of the Gallery’s paintings give the catalogue a personal quality and resonance that the Gallery may seek to exploit in future displays.

Founded by Parliament in 1824, the National Gallery is one of the finest art galleries in the world, housing the nation’s collection of historic European paintings; it is also a pre-eminent centre for the research of paintings in the Western European tradition from the 13th to the early 20th century. Established in 2013, the National Gallery Research Centre, of which the Library and Archive form a part, supports the Gallery’s research strategy and ensures that our resources are made available to as wide an audience as possible. The Manet catalogue is in the process of being catalogued and will be made available online at library.nationalgallery.org.uk.

Although the text of the catalogue is available online, surviving physical copies are very rare. There are two copies in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, one at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles and another at the Clark Art Institute, Massachusetts. We were unable to locate any copies in a UK public library.

Adolph Menzel, Afternoon in the Tuileries Gardens , 1867 (NG6604). Images © The National Gallery.

Édouard Manet, Music in the Tuileries Gardens , 1862 (NG3260).

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FOR THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

1. Signal book for the Bell Rock Lighthouse, c. 1811 (Lot 64, £6,930); Letter of Robert Louis Stevenson to Sidney Colvin, 1874, with a small Stevenson family archive (Lot 76, £4,460), and a Scottish songbook made by Elizabeth Carmichael, c.1803 (Lot 260, £630). Bought from Lyon & Turnbull, Edinburgh, 7 February 2024, with the aid of a grant of £3,846 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

The lot also includes an accompanying missive from J. Cathcart White sending the letter to Allan Stevenson on Robert Louis Stevenson’s death, and a photograph of Stevenson and family on the porch at their home, Vailima, in Samoa, of May 1892. Several other letters sent by family members and well-wishers, including Sidney Colvin, in the months and years following Robert Louis Stevenson’s death, enhance this small collection.

Chris Cassells, Head of Archives and Manuscript Collections, writes: In February 2024, the Library was successful in acquiring three lots at auction from Lyon & Turnbull, Edinburgh, with the generous support of the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

The first was a signal book relating to the Bell Rock lighthouse. The volume was part of the Stevenson Collection being sold at the auction, consisting of items connected with the work and interests of the Stevenson civil engineering firm which had passed down through that family.

This beautifully illustrated volume is believed to have been the copy for the Regent tender, one of the ships which served the Bell Rock lighthouse during its early years of operation, enabling communication between shipping, the lighthouse and Arbroath Signal Tower.

The main tranche of drawings and written business records of the Stevenson firm, including many relating to the construction of the Bell Rock lighthouse, are with the Library, having been acquired directly from the family through gift and purchase some years ago.

The second item includes an unpublished letter of Robert Louis Stevenson to Sidney Colvin in 1874. Unpublished Stevenson letters rarely come to market, this letter, on his monogrammed notepaper, is to ‘My dear Colvin’. Stevenson writes that he is well, ‘I am better; but I am not strong yet’. He discusses the weather and a near-capsize that morning in Oban, then writes, ‘I like the life amazingly and feel like if I could live thus for three months, I might have a chance of pulling through: however they are after me at home’.

Opposite: Top left: Elizabeth Carmichael’s Scottish songbook. Top right: The Signal book for the Bell Rock lighthouse. Bottom: Selection from the Stevenson family archive. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland.

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Acquisition Grants and Donations 101

2. Six letters of David Hume (1711-1776) to William Mure of Caldwell (1718-1776), and one contemporary copy, 1763-1776. Bought from Bonhams (20 November 2024, Lot 9) for £102,000, with the aid of a grant of £13,260 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Ralph McLean, Manuscripts Curator for the Long 18th century, writes: The six letters, in Hume’s hand, illustrate his bond with Mure, whom Hume considered to be one of his closest friends. The content covers major 18th-century events such as the important court case known as the ‘Douglas Cause’, concerning the inheritance of the Douglas estate following the death of the 3rd Marquess in 1761, and which involved many prominent Scottish Enlightenment figures. The case drew the attention of people such as Hume, Adam Smith, Samuel Johnson and James Boswell, and divided British society over the competing claims. Hume also provides details of his role as Lord Hertford’s personal secretary at the Paris embassy, as well as Hume’s own reception in France where he was celebrated among the French philosophes .

There are extensive observations throughout the letters of Hume’s attitudes and approach to education and learning, with particular reference to Mure’s children who were undergoing their own schooling. Hume was also one of the first citizens of Edinburgh to take advantage of the city’s new town. There are frequent allusions in the letters to the construction and maintenance of his new home at a key period in the physical development of Edinburgh.

Although the final letter is a contemporary copy of Hume’s letter to John Home (1722-1808), and not in his hand, it is the only known source for the text. It was written shortly after Mure’s death in 1776, and shortly before Hume’s own death, and provides important details on Hume’s preparations in advance of his demise.

These letters of Hume were originally part of the Mure of Caldwell Family Papers but were retained by the family when the collection was purchased by the Library in 1948. The acquisition of this material has reunited them with the wider archive. Similarly, the Library’s extensive collection of Hume papers, held on deposit from the Royal Society of Edinburgh, contains Mure’s responses to Hume’s letters and therefore helps to complete the chain of correspondence between the two.

The National Library of Scotland holds the most significant collection of Hume manuscripts to be found anywhere in the world and is the premier destination for those studying his life and works. The acquisition of these manuscripts enhances both our Hume and our Mure of Caldwell collections. We are extremely grateful to the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries for their generous contribution to the acquisition of these letters.

David Hume to William Mure of Caldwell on the latest events of the Douglas Cause. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland.

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3. Literary and personal papers, 1973-2023, of poet, playwright, and novelist Jackie Kay (b.1961). Bought from Jackie Kay via The Wylie Agency for £350,000, with the aid of a grant of £20,000 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries [Larkin Fund].

Colin McIlroy, Curator of Modern Literary Manuscripts, writes: The Library’s most significant modern literary acquisition of the last year was that of former Makar (Scottish poet laureate), Jackie Kay. One of the most acclaimed and noteworthy figures in contemporary Scottish and UK culture, Kay’s writing explores and interrogates intersecting characteristics of race, sexuality and nationality. Her archive ranges from her school years, to personal notebooks which record daily life, relationships with friends, social events, theatre rehearsals, literary festivals, public events, readings, teaching, travel, her thoughts on art and history, all intermixed with working drafts of published and unpublished writings. Together they offer a detailed and intimate map of Jackie’s life and writings, her personal journey and the development of her distinctive vision and powerful voice.

The collection will be of significant research value to academics, biographers, cultural historians, along with students, readers and fans of Kay’s work. As a former Makar, prize-winning author, and major literary figure, her work is widely known and will be in demand for exhibition, publication, and outreach activities.

The valuation report highlighted ‘the extraordinary richness of the contents. From her early years Jackie appears to have pen or pencil, paper or notebooks close at hand and to have filled them with her observations, reflections, drafts of verse and prose, sketches and artwork, research notes and queries, details of appointments and meetings’.

This collection is an important addition to the Library’s collections and has enormous potential to reach new and diverse audiences beyond the Library’s existing reader community. We foresee that the addition of this archive will enhance the Library’s ability to further diversify our modern Scottish literary collections.

The collection also includes personal letters, manuscripts of poems, novels, short stories, plays, diaries, press articles, early essays and schoolbooks, university writing, family papers, photographs, audio cassettes, prizes, awards and honours. Such an abundant insight into both her life and writing (which are often inseparable), and the detailed and rich record of her remarkable personal journey identify this as an archive of major significance.

The collection contains the developing ideas and drafts of her best-known and critically acclaimed works. These include The Adoption Papers (1991), Bessie Smith (1997), Trumpet (1998), Why Don’t You Stop Talking (2002), Red Dust Road: An Autobiographical Journey (2011), Fiere (2011), and Bantam (2017), among others.

The correspondence includes letters and cards from Diana Athill, Pat Kavanagh, Liz Lochhead, Audre Lorde, Peggy Seeger, Ali Smith, Jeanette Winterson, and others. There are letters to and from her birth mother, her son, letters from her close friend Julia Darling, from her publisher Bloodaxe, fan mail, and more.

Additional material in the archive adds personal context to the literary and biographic materials, with prizes, awards, and honours, and a rich range of photographs of her family, friends, and fellow writers. As such, this significant acquisition offers abundant documentary evidence of how Jackie Kay thinks, writes, creates, and records her life.

A selection of material from the Jackie Kay archive (see also image of Jackie Kay on page 19). Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland.

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4. Complete working manuscript of Sir Walter Scott’s dramatic sketch ‘Halidon Hill’ (1822). Bought from Maggs Bros Ltd for £25,000, with the aid of a grant of £5,000 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Ralph McLean, Manuscripts Curator for the Long 18th century, writes: The dramatic sketch in the hand of Sir Walter Scott recounts a battle at Homildon Hill in 1402 between Scottish and English forces where the army of the 4th Earl of Douglas was defeated by the army of the 1st Earl of Northumberland and his son, Henry ‘Hotspur’ Percy. Scott changed the name to Halidon, in part to avoid direct comparisons with Shakespeare who had written about the battle in Henry IV, Part 1. Scott was partly inspired to write it following tales he heard as young boy from Margaret Swinton: her ancestor, Sir John Swinton, features prominently in the work and a member of the Swinton family acquired the manuscript later in the 19th century.

Scott’s son-in-law, John Gibson Lockhart, recounted that Scott completed the piece over two rainy mornings at Abbotsford. It was originally to have been published in Joanna Baillie’s Collection of Poems (1823) but as it grew in size Scott thought it ought to be a stand-alone work. Robert Cadell secured the rights to publish it for £1,000 and his correspondence on the ‘Halidon Hill’ manuscript with both fellow publisher Archibald Constable and Scott himself form part of the National Library of Scotland’s archival collections.

The manuscript comprises 36 leaves, written in the usual format of Scott’s literary compositions: the majority of the script appears on the recto, with additions and alterations to the text on the verso. A letter of Scott on the work to the editor and publisher James Ballantyne is also included. The manuscript, which was one of the last remaining complete manuscripts of Scott’s literary works to remain in private hands, has a significant number of annotations in Scott’s hand. Not all these changes were noted in the original 1822 publication, nor the 1886 edition of Scott’s Poetical Works , which was the last time an editor had access to the manuscript.

The Library holds the largest collection of Scott manuscripts to be found anywhere in the world and is the premier destination for those studying his life and works. The manuscript complements our existing collections, in particular our extensive holdings of Scott’s literary manuscripts including Waverley , The Heart of Mid-Lothian , Marmion , and our most recent acquisition, Rob Roy , formerly part of the Blavatnik Honresfield Librarywhich the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries played an integral role in securing for the nation. The National Library of Scotland is the natural home for this manuscript. The Library is extremely grateful to the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries for their generous contribution to the acquisition of ‘Halidon Hill’.

Opposite: Sir Walter Scott’s manuscript of ‘Halidon Hill’. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland.

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FOR THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WALES (AMGUEDDFA CYMRU)

The Thomas Sims Collection of approximately 325 photographs, comprising daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, calotype negatives, salt paper prints, albumen prints and photogalvanographs, in various formats. Bought from Stewart and Skeels for £68,500, with the aid of a grant of £10,000 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Dr Bronwen Colquhoun, Senior Curator of Photography, writes: We are delighted to have acquired this important collection of early photography by Thomas Sims for the national collection. Thomas Sims was a Welsh-born photographer and a notable contributor from the first decade of the medium. His early experimentations took place in Swansea in the early 1850s, after which he moved to London to set up a photographic studio.

The collection reflects Sims’ fascination with early photographic processes and techniques, and the experimental nature of his relationship with the medium. It also highlights the close relationship between photography and science in terms of how the natural world offered an abundance of subject matter for photographic experimentation.

This was published alongside The Exhibition of Recent Specimens of Photography , held in London from 22 December 1852 to 29 January 1853. It was the first exhibition in the world dedicated solely to photography and led to the founding of the Photographic Society of London (now the Royal Photographic Society).

Sims then moved to London where he worked with his brother, Edward. Edward Sims moved to Tunbridge Wells where he established a portrait studio and in 1866 Thomas Sims also set up a studio in the same town. He died in Tunbridge Wells.

The collection is rich in photographic processes and techniques and, given its age, the works are in very good condition. Photographic processes include waxed paper negatives, salt paper prints, cased photographs (including daguerreotypes and ambrotypes) albumen prints and photogalvanographs.

The collection will enable us to build a more detailed picture of the early history of photography in Wales and the key pioneers who championed the medium, many of whom were based in the Swansea Valley. Moreover, it will enable us to open up new dialogues between objects and artworks across the national collections and to facilitate interdisciplinary display, collecting and research opportunities in the future. We are extremely grateful to the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries for their support with this important new acquisition.

Sims was born in 1826 in Neath. The son of a bootmaker, he was a well-educated child who showed an interest in science. In 1845, aged 19, he attended his first meeting of the British Association of the Advancement of Science in Swansea. There he met photographer Robert Hunt and heard a paper given by Antoine Claudet (photographer and pioneer of the daguerreotype process), relating to the daguerreotype process. Around this time, he also met the naturalist, Alfred Russell Wallace (1823-1913) who played a key role in the photographic endeavours of Thomas Sims and provided him with his first whole plate daguerreotype camera. Wallace is best known for his revolutionary idea of evolution by natural selection which he developed entirely independently of Charles Darwin.

Sims’s first foray into professional photography seems to have been a daguerreotype studio in Weston-Super-Mare in the summer of 1850, followed soon after by a studio in the grounds of the Natural History Museum, Swansea, from 1850–53. Here he introduced collodion positives on glass (ambrotypes), about which he had contributed an article to the Society of Arts catalogue in 1852.

‘Strawberries and Currants’ and ‘Girl at Beach’ from the Sims collection (see also image on page 12). © Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales.

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FOR THE NATIONAL TRUST, MONTACUTE HOUSE, SOMERSET

John Evelyn, Sylva, or a Discourse of Forest Trees … to which is annexed Pomona: or, an Appendix concerning Fruit-Trees in relation to Cider; third edition, 1679. Bought from Lawrence Auctioneers (21 March, Lot 243) for £438, funded in full by a grant from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Katherine Kerr, Cultural Heritage Curator writes: The National Trust is extremely grateful to the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries for their assistance in acquiring a 1679 edition of John Evelyn’s Sylva , or a Discourse of Forest Trees , that once belonged to Edward Phelips (1725-1797). Phelips, of Montacute House in Somerset, was an enthusiast of arboriculture. In 1770, surveying his estate from the upstairs window of the Great Chamber, he composed and etched a Latin verse into the glass in which he declared, ‘happy … is the man … who has learned how to graft trees so that each may thrive in its soil ...’.

with the Phelips family crest of a burning brazier applied on a leather onlay. What distinguishes this volume is the existence of a vanishing painting of Montacute House on the gilt fore-edge.

The painting borrows heavily from a drawing of the west front of the building by John Preston Neale which was published in Views of the seats of noblemen and gentlemen, in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland in 1828. Unlike the Neale drawing, it shows the house in an idealised landscape with the adjoining, pre1850s servants’ quarters on the south side reduced to an incongruous-looking hut. Such images often consisted of imaginary picturesque scenes, but it is very rare and very interesting to find one depicting a particular place. This acquisition is helping us to understand and explain social and material angles of the Montacute story that we have not previously explored.

The book will be on display at the house during the 2025 visiting season.

Edward Phelips was not the book’s first owner. In addition to his recognisable signature on the title page, an earlier hand has written, ‘John Tregonwell / Ex dono / Ed. Onley anno: 1701.’ John Tregonwell (c1675-1730) was of a prominent family in neighbouring Dorset. In 1699 he married Anne Onley, the daughter of Dr Nicholas Onley, Prebendary of Westminster (d1724). Their son was born in 1701; perhaps the book was a gift to mark the occasion. The Edward Onley of the inscription may have been Anne’s brother. It seems likely that the book stayed in the Tregonwell family until it was acquired by Edward Phelips after he acceded to his estates in 1750. Phelips would almost certainly have known the Tregonwells.

Encouraged by Evelyn, the outdoor-loving Phelips would have undertaken the grafting of fruit trees himself, it being considered fit and godly work for a gentleman. It is tempting to believe that the estate map he commissioned in 1774, characterised by small plantations and scores of rows of neatly-planted orchard trees, was produced to celebrate the completion of the work he was enjoying in 1770 as instructed by the Sylva .

Having served, we assume, as a working handbook for Edward Phelips, the volume was later honoured with a new and expensive binding. The library at Montacute was dispersed before 1931, but over the years a few books have returned, many sharing a similar binding to this one – boards of reverse calf

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FOR NORTHUMBERLAND ARCHIVES

Ten volumes of records of the Company of Merchants and Taylors [Tailors] of Morpeth, Northumberland, 1608-1920. Bought from Millers Auctioneers, Newcastle upon Tyne, for £1,803 with the aid of a grant of £1,303 from the Friends of The Nations’ Libraries.

Sue Wood, Head of Archives, writes: In November 2024 Northumberland Archives was able to purchase an important set of Morpeth guild records thanks to a grant from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries. The Company of Merchants and Taylors was one of the town’s seven craft guilds, of which the records of four had previously been deposited with Northumberland Archives. Records of the remaining three companies were thought anecdotally to be retained in the private hands of guild families but precise locations were unknown. Until the acquisition of this collection Northumberland Archives did not hold any records of the Merchants and Taylors Company.

the guilds by trying to reduce the number of members and counteracting their influence by installing their own supporters as Bailiffs and Stewards of the manor. Financial inducements were also offered to gain support. Such was the level of this activity in the early 18th century that the Borough has been described as ‘the most corrupt, mercenary place in the whole North’. (J.M. Fewster, ‘The Earls of Carlisle and Morpeth: A Turbulent Pocket Borough’, Northern History , 51:2 (2014), p. 247). Evidence of some of these tensions can be found within the collection purchased.

The volumes are a very rich source for research and are a very welcome addition to the holdings of Northumberland Archives. They are an excellent source for family history and are an indispensable source for the development and governance of this important Northumberland town. The records have been catalogued and are available to view in our searchroom at Woodhorn (ref: NRO 989/E).

Members might enter the guilds by invitation, patrimony (generally the admittance of eldest sons of guild members) or servitude (serving and completing an apprenticeship to an existing guild member). Minute books amongst the collection record the admittance or enrolment of new members. In the case of servitude, the books record the enrolment of boys as apprentices and later their admission as guild members having successfully completed an apprenticeship. The minutes also show evidence of the support-network provided for member’s families – paying for funerals, providing for widows, and supporting members in distress. An initial analysis of this content has revealed the predominance of a relatively small number of families in the guild and consequently in the governance of the town.

Prior to the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835, the Morpeth guilds formed the unelected corporation or council of the town. Each elected an Alderman, who along with two Bailiffs presided over the Corporation. Guild members also had the right to vote in Parliamentary elections. There was a history of tension between the guilds and the Earls of Carlisle (the Howard family of Naworth Castle in Cumberland), who were Lords of the Manor of Morpeth and major landowners with much political influence. At various times, the Earls tried to erode the rights and privileges of

Minute book entries from October 1817 and March 1821. Courtesy of Northumberland Archives.

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Acquisition Grants and Donations 113

FOR NOTTINGHAM UNIVERSITY

1. Letters from D. H. Lawrence to Harwood Brewster, 1927-1929. Bought from Voewood Rare Books for £7,650, with the aid of a grant of £3,442 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Hayley Cotterill, Associate Director and Keeper of Manuscripts and Special Collections, writes: Support from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries enabled us to purchase these five letters in May 2024, to add to our designated D. H. Lawrence collection. The letters are dated between May 1927 and September 1929, when Lawrence and his wife Frieda were living on the continent. They had left England after the end of the First World War, and never returned to the country permanently to live. Instead they had embarked upon a series of travels, taking in Australia, America and Mexico. In 1925 the couple had returned to Europe, taking lodgings over the next few years in Italy, Austria and Germany.

Lawrence wrote the letters to Harwood Brewster, the teenage daughter of his American friends Earl and Achsah Brewster. Like the Lawrences, the Brewsters too were exiles: they had left America on their marriage in 1910 and spent the next decades living and travelling in France, Italy, Greece, Ceylon [Sri Lanka] and India. Notwithstanding his own lack of a permanent place to call home, Lawrence was concerned about the effect of the Brewster family’s peripatetic lifestyle on the teenage Harwood.

‘I am wondering what is happening to you. You’ve been a full month in that hotel: at least your parents have. Heavens, what waifs and strays! I suppose you’ll land in another ‘beautiful, pretentious villa’. It’s become a habit.’ [University of Nottingham Manuscripts and Special Collections, La C 120/1].

Lawrence became a surrogate uncle to Harwood, sending her ribbons for her hair and ‘ten bob’ for Christmas. Indeed, in one letter he signs himself ‘DHL, Your uncle in all but name’.

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2. Artworks by Knud Merrild, bought from Peter Harrington Rare Books for £32,400, with the aid of a grant of £4,500 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Hayley Cotterill writes: In October 2024 Manuscripts and Special Collections at the University of Nottingham was able to acquire, with the help of the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries, this important collection of 27 works by Danish artist Knud Merrild (1894-1954) to add to our designated D. H. Lawrence collection.

Knud Merrild and his fellow Danish painter Kai Gøtzsche (1886-1963) first met D. H. Lawrence during his first period living in the USA. In the winter of 1922-3 they were close neighbours, living in a cabin at the Del Monte Ranch in Questa, New Mexico. They lived a shared life together, getting to know one another so well that it is probably true to say that no other friends lived so intimately and harmoniously alongside Lawrence at any other point of his life. This intimacy is reflected in Merrild’s sympathetic memoir of Lawrence, entitled A Poet and Two Painters (1938). Merrild and Gøtzsche were at this time relatively inexperienced and penurious artists; in order to support themselves in the USA they had turned their hand to producing posters for the movie industry. Lawrence wished to help them out financially, and being impressed with their skills in design he asked them to produce dustjackets and illustrations for his books on behalf of his American publisher, Thomas Seltzer. Although only two of their designs were finally used (one by Merrild of a dustjacket for The Captain’s Doll [1923]), Merrild also produced designs for the dustjacket and individual sections of Lawrence’s poetry volume Birds, Beasts and Flowers (1923) and for the dustjacket of his novel Kangaroo (1923). Lawrence worked closely with Merrild on the designs and made sure that he was paid for the unused illustrations too.

The D. H. Lawrence collection is an assembly of material by and about the author, held in the county of his birth and at the University of which he was an alumnus. It consists of over 400 boxes, and comprises original works by Lawrence, correspondence of Lawrence, his family and his circle, and the research papers of scholars and collectors. Manuscripts and Special Collections also holds the D. H. Lawrence special collection, a group of printed works by and about Lawrence, including first editions. They are the most important collections of material about Lawrence to be held in the UK. We are grateful for the continued support of the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries in helping us to grow and strengthen our holdings of D. H. Lawrence material.

The 27 works include ten illustrations for Birds, Beasts and Flowers , six drafts for Kangaroo and a series of sketches of Lawrence. The majority of the illustrations are previously unknown to Lawrence scholars. The purchase allows us to reunite the designs with one other Merrild drawing already in the D. H. Lawrence collection: an unpublished dustjacket design for Kangaroo , created at the same time as those in this current acquisition and apparently separated from them at some point in their history.

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FOR PERTH ART GALLERY (CULTURE PERTH AND KINROSS)

Architectural and portrait photograph album relating to the Balgowan Estate near Perth, circa 1855–1865. Bought from Stewart and Skeels for £11,000, with the aid of a grant of £6,000 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Paul Adair, Collections Officer, writes: We are very grateful for the support of the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries in acquiring this remarkable album of over 200 salted paper and albumen prints, centred on Balgowan House in Perthshire.

As well as being a family and country-house album it is also a showcase for work by early Scottish photographers and award-winning members of the Amateur Photographic Association. These photographers were leading figures in the quest to have photographs accepted as art during the later 1850s and 1860s at a time when the medium became increasingly commercialised.

The album was likely compiled by a member of the Thomson family of Balgowan and includes well-composed and natural family groups, several showing members of the Thomson family and their friends.

Though firmly based in Perthshire, the photographs are from Scotland, Ireland, England, France, Canada, New Zealand and India, and the album suggests relationships between the various aristocratic and learned families and individuals who are identified as the photographers or sitters.

The purchase includes one loose print, a rare view by John William Dudgeon showing the Birnam Inn c.1854, before its subsequent extensive rebuilding by Sir William Stewart of Murthly to cater for the anticipated growth in visitors attracted by the opening of the railway to Birnam in 1856.

One of the highlights of the extensive photographic collections of the Perth Art Gallery are the Magnus Jackson glass plate negatives made by the wet collodion process. There are relatively few actual prints however and the inclusion of contemporary albumen prints by Jackson in the album is a bonus.

Culture Perth and Kinross have just opened a permanent exhibition of photography drawn from its collections, and the inclusion of this album will help tell the story of the early adoption of photography by the estate owners of Perthshire and their interest in and correspondence with the early figures in the development of photography such as David Brewster of St Andrews and Henry Fox Talbot in Wiltshire.

The acquisition of this important album would have been impossible without the FNL’s early support, and the additional support then received from the National Fund for Acquisitions, managed by National Museums Scotland.

Among little-known photographs are those by the Reverend Robert Witherby, a sub-warden at Trinity College, Glenalmond in Perthshire, who contributed eleven large albumen prints, likely from paper negatives, including views of the College, its environs and Methven Castle.

Also, a revelation are the salted-paper prints by Patrick Dudgeon (1817–1895) a merchant in China, mineralogist, and member of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Dudgeon, who exhibited extensively from 1852 including at the London Society of Arts, was a member of the Photographic Society of Scotland and his work is represented in the Royal Scottish Academy Collections, acquired as part of David Octavius Hill’s proactive initiative to establish a Photographic Library in the RSA.

Left: ‘Shade’ by Major F. Greeley; Right: Picea in Keillor Pinetum, Perthshire, by Magnus Jackson. Courtesy of Culture Perth and Kinross.

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Acquisition Grants and Donations 119

PERTH & KINROSS ARCHIVE (CULTURE PERTH AND KINROSS)

A set of five manuscript exercise books on mathematics, astronomy and natural philosophy, written and illustrated by Francis Cunynghame (b.1771) while studying at Perth Academy, 1786-1787. Bought from Edmund Brumfitt Rare Books for £10,000, with the aid of a grant of £5,000 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries [John R. Murray Fund].

Ishbel MacKinnon, Senior Officer for Archives and Local & Family History, writes: Perth Academy was founded by Perth Burgh Council in 1760. It was the first of several academies established in Scotland in the late 18th and early 19th century (Inverness 1792, Ayr 1794, Edinburgh 1824) with a liberal curriculum intended to prepare pupils for careers in farming, engineering, commerce and the growing opportunities available in the armed services and British colonies. Its two-year course of study in Literature and the Sciences was a significant change from the classical curriculum followed by Perth Grammar School and Scottish universities of the time and offered a more affordable option for many families aspiring to educate their sons beyond parish school level.

The quality of the illustrations is of particular note as Perth Academy gained a reputation for excellence in drawing tuition and student draughtsmanship which has only recently begun to be explored and is clearly evidenced here. The bindings are also significant as they represent a fine example of the work of the local book binding trade which developed during the late 18th and 19th centuries with the establishment of several high-quality printers and stationers in the burgh.

Given Perth Academy’s pioneer role in the Scottish academy movement, the manuscripts make a valuable contribution to the history of education in Scotland. Fewer than 20 Perth Academy manuscripts are thought to survive in public collections in Scotland (eleven in the National Library of Scotland, five in Perth & Kinross Archive, four in Perth Museum), so this collection is an important addition to the publicly available resource.

Exercise showing the circumference of a round table whose diameter is three feet and nine inches. Courtesy of Culture Perth and Kinross.

The manuscripts are a rare and beautifully executed example of a complete set of the scientific course of study taught during the Academy’s first thirty years. Two volumes cover Mathematics, two Astronomy and a fifth Natural Philosophy. Each subject is explained using numbered ‘problems’, ‘rules’ and ‘exercises’, richly illustrated with diagrams, drawings and calculations. Many of the exercises are based on practical situations likely to be encountered in the pupils’ future working lives. For example, the Natural Philosophy volume contains calculations showing the power required to pull a loaded cart uphill at different gradients, the effort required for a horsedrawn plough to till the ground effectively, and various other agricultural and industrial scenarios. Mathematics Volume 2 covers the relatively new science of land surveying and the practical nature of the course is again evident through the careful execution of several detailed watercolour plans of Perth’s two large public parks, the North and South Inches. The volumes on Astronomy illustrate its use to measure time and distance, and contain descriptions and diagrams of the solar system, as understood in the late 18th century.

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FOR THE ROYAL BERKSHIRE ARCHIVES

Receipt [recipe] and commonplace book for Mrs [Eleanor] Hunter of Beech Hill House, Berkshire, 1730-1767, bought from Forum Auctions (30 May 2024, Lot 75) for £10,710, with the aid of a grant of £5,000 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Mr Mark Stevens, County Archivist, writes: This quarto volume is bound in green leather with tooled decoration. The label on its cover reads ‘Curious old receipt book of my Great Grand Mother Mrs Hunter of Beech Hill Reading 1740 MEA’.

MEA is probably Maria Eleanor Anderdon (1819-1904). Her great-grandmother was Mary Hunter (née Sloane, 1749-1822) of Beech Hill. It seems likely that the book descended to Mary’s daughter, also Mary, wife of William Manning, Governor of the Bank of England. One of their daughters married into the Anderdon family and so the book came to Maria.

However, Mary Sloane was born too late to be the book’s original owner or compiler. A more likely candidate for custody is Maria’s great-great grandmother, Eleanor Hunter (1715-1786). She was the daughter of David Bosanquet, a French Huguenot who settled in London after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. In 1736, Eleanor married Henry Lannoy Hunter (1709-1768), son of a Levant trader and child of another Huguenot refugee.

The recipe book is written in a single hand and its contents are concurrent with Eleanor’s homemaking at Beech Hill. What prevents a definite attribution, however, is the book’s commencement, in 1740, with items ‘brought to Haly near Windsor Forest’. That place is almost certainly Hayley Green Farm in Warfield, Berkshire. Within the first pages are an inventory of plates and linen at Hayley, notes of fruit trees planted and fish bought for the pond, accounts of building work and subsequent decoration. Perhaps these are Eleanor’s memoranda. But the notes on Hayley continue well beyond 1740, after which the Hunters were resident in Beech Hill.

We are researching Hayley in hope of solving the puzzle. However, whoever compiled the book has produced a tremendous insight into Georgian domestic management. Aside from their lists of necessary purchases, they have

Details from the receipt and commonplace book (ref. D/EZ224/1). Courtesy of Royal Berkshire Archives.

bequeathed around 80 recipes, with many located precisely to Warfield and its surrounding parishes. These include food, drink, medicines, veterinary treatments, dyes and paints. Several are given an author and date when they were received; the earliest is a guide to preserve orange juice, which is credited to Colonel Cope in 1730.

For the budding 18th-century paper conservator, there is a concoction to make old handwriting more legible; for the cook, there are preserves, pies and puddings; a walnut ketchup and a strawberry brandy. There is also a candidate for the earliest known instance of jaune mange, which was a very English take on blancmange. This is dated 20 years before the earliest printed recipe and assigned to Mrs Pitt of Binfield – possibly Elizabeth Pitt, mistress of the manor house.

It seems likely that the recipe book left Berkshire long before the Hunters did. Maria Anderdon was born and lived in Kent. The Hunters, though, remained in Beech Hill until 1949, when the country house was gifted to the British Red Cross and the family archive transferred to the Royal Berkshire Archives. The latter consists of over 400 bundles and volumes – and Mrs Hunter’s book has been reunited with them.

122 Friends of the Nations’ Libraries

Acquisition Grants and Donations 123

FOR THE RIBA LIBRARY, LONDON

1. Twenty-two letters addressed to Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt (1820-77). Bought from Forum Auctions, 26 October 2024 (Lot 192) for £551, with the aid of a grant of £363 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Charles Hind, Chief Curator, writes: The letters came from the stock of a dealer but a cover-note dated 2 February 1918 indicates that they had been gathered by Wyatt’s nephew Thomas Henry Wyatt Jr and were ‘for Humphrey’. The sheet is inscribed ‘Autograph letters of Artists Sculptors & others addressed to Sir Digby Wyatt largely referring to his work at Crystal Palace.’ If this was the case in 1918, much of the Crystal Palace material has since been removed.

Wyatt was a scion of the architectural dynasty that flourished between the early 18th century and the 1940s. Although his elder brother Thomas Henry Wyatt (1807-80) was also an architect and a very successful one as well as being President of the RIBA 1870-73, Digby Wyatt (his first name Matthew seems never to have been used) was by far the more distinguished. His practice as an architect was less important than his roles as an art historian and administrator, in particular his secretaryship of the Executive Committee of the Great Exhibition in 1851. He was Secretary of the RIBA 1855-59, and the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge University. He was awarded the RIBA’s Royal Gold Medal in 1866, proposed by his close friend and collaborator Owen Jones, with whom he designed the Cast Courts at the Crystal Palace when it moved to Sydenham.

The remaining letters, dating between 1850 and 1871, are from friends of Wyatt’s, and illustrate the warmth and affection of his friendship circles (his venison dinners were clearly very popular), which no printed source illustrates so well. The two from Owen Jones are of particular interest as so few of his letters survive. Other correspondents include the architect George Edmund Street, the artists Edward William Cooke and Charles Landseer, the sculptor John Henry Foley, the civil engineer and musicologist Sir George Grove, the mathematician, chemist and astronomer Sir John Herschel and the art historian Elizabeth Eastlake, wife of the artist and first director of the National Gallery, Sir Charles Eastlake. Another correspondent was Sir Henry Cole, first director of the South Kensington Museum (later the V&A) with whom Wyatt had gone to France in 1849 to report on an exhibition of industrial design and which led to them working together on the Great Exhibition. The letters are available to consult in the V&A Study Room at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The most important letter (4 February 1856) is an exhortation to Wyatt that he should stand for the secretaryship of the RIBA, signed by 18 leading architects of the day, including several future presidents of the Institute: Charles Robert Cockerell, Sir George Gilbert Scott, Thomas Leverton Donaldson, Ewan Christian, William Tite and Francis Cranmer Penrose, as well as Sir Charles Barry, Owen Jones, Benjamin Ferrey, Sidney Smirke and James Bunstone Bunning. Wyatt added a charming note describing how surprised he was to be approached and how much it meant to him that the exhortation was ‘subscribed by men I hold in such respect and esteem’. He was duly elected.

Letter from Sir Henry Cole to Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt, 28th July 1865. Courtesy of RIBA Collections.

124 Friends of the Nations’ Libraries

Acquisition Grants and Donations 125

2. Five letters written by Charles Francis Annesley Voysey (1857-1941). Bought from Voewood Rare Books for £1,500, with the aid a grant of £1,000 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Charles Hind writes: This group of letters written by C.F.A. Voysey FRIBA were addressed to three different correspondents; the group was probably assembled by a bookseller before being acquired by the vendor. One, from 1895, is addressed to Alfred Sutro (1863-1933), the popular Edwardian playwright, regarding the building of his house (‘Hill Close’, Studland, Dorset); two to E.H. Lailey, District Surveyor of Watford Rural District Council, concern Voysey’s own house, ‘The Orchard’ at Chorley Wood (both 1900); and two letters to Dorothy Short, an art bookbinder, concern binding repairs to a catalogue of his drawings for badges and bookplates, both 1925.

The RIBA holds what survives of C.F.A. Voysey’s archive, principally acquired by gift from the architect’s son C.C. Voysey in 1943, and through the Acceptance in Lieu Scheme from the estate of the latter’s professional partner John Brandon Jones in 2013. Few letters from Voysey to clients, builders and surveyors survive.

Three of these letters are of some significance, especially the one to Alfred Sutro setting out his charges and the two to the Watford R.D.C. about ‘The Orchard’. The latter two relate to drainage, about which Voysey had esoteric views. He resented and held forth repeatedly about the increasing regulation of building standards in local authority bye-laws and these two letters clearly indicate that he felt that the Council was indulging in unwarranted interference. The professional ones throw fascinating light on some of the practical aspects of Voysey’s building process about which there is only very limited surviving documentation, and they complement a group recently presented to the RIBA regarding H.G. Wells’s house at Sandgate, Kent. The two letters about the book restoration show a congenial side of Voysey not always apparent in his professional correspondence. The RIBA has a design for a writing table for Alfred Sutro as well as two photographs of his house at Studland that had formerly belonged to Voysey, as well as two designs for his own house, ‘The Orchard’.

The RIBA is deeply grateful to FNL for their support of the purchase these two groups of letters.

Letter from C.F.A. Voysey to the District Surveyor of Watford Rural District Council, 2nd March 1900. Courtesy of RIBA Collections.

126 Friends of the Nations’ Libraries

Acquisition Grants and Donations 127

FOR THE ROYAL BOROUGH OF KENSINGTON AND CHELSEA ARCHIVES

Lease by James Weller Ladbroke to John Drew, 3 May 1833. Bought from a private owner for £430, funded in full by a grant from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Antonio Zarrelli, Archives Manager, writes: RBKC Archives are very grateful to the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries for their generous support towards the acquisition of an 1833 lease of land owned by James Weller Ladbroke that helps to tell the story of the creation of Notting Hill as a district.

Ladbroke gave his name to many of the famous street names of Notting Hill including Ladbroke Grove and Ladbroke Square. Until the 1820s, the 176-acre Ladbroke Estate was farmland, providing a rental income for its owner. In 1819 it was inherited by James Weller Ladbroke, who began to develop it for housing, in response to growing demand from the rapidly increasing population of London.

The lease is between James Weller Ladbroke and John Drew, a builder from Pimlico. John Drew was one of the smaller leaseholders of what is now the Notting Hill Conservation area. Hence, we are unlikely to find another. It has details significant to the development of this area with an architect’s plan that includes the proposed road-names: Uxbridge Road (now Holland Park Avenue), Weller Road (now Ladbroke Road) and Ladbroke Place (now Ladbroke Grove). The term of the lease was 92 years from 24th June 1832 to 24th June 1924. This was quite controversial at the time as Ladbroke was breaking one of the stipulations of his inheritance that the land could only be let on 20-year leases, and Weller had to get a private act of parliament to allow him to offer extended leases. This story helps to explain the role Parliament played in the development of our area.

RBKC Archives and Westminster Archives were funded with £77,000 by the National Lottery Heritage Fund for the project ‘Moving Away Your Dust’. Among many activities we created a documentary film, school resources and will organize a public exhibition to examine the development of the Ladbroke Estate led to the establishment of a ‘tale of two cities’ in Notting Hill: Weller’s development created the luxurious homes of Ladbroke Grove and Stanley Crescent, but the building materials for these homes, the bricks that built them, came from the infamous brick-fields belonging to Stephen Bird in an area known as the Potteries or Notting Dale. As rubbish accumulated in this area it became a place where only the poor would live. The gaping hole created by the mining of brick-earth to develop the Ladbroke Estate which filled with filthy water and became known as the Ocean, and it is perhaps no surprise that this lease was granted at the time of the first cholera outbreak in London. In the years that followed, this pollution led to the Potteries having the highest death rate in the UK. Bird’s brickfields were a short distance from where John Drew built 11-19 Ladbroke Grove.

The lease is available for study at RBKC Archives at Kensington Central Library. Courtesy of RBKC Archives.

128 Friends of the Nations’ Libraries

Acquisition Grants and Donations 129

FOR SALISBURY CATHEDRAL LIBRARY

Bible, illuminated by the Sarum Master, in Latin, Salisbury mid-13th century. Bought, following a successful fundraising campaign, by the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries from a private owner via Sotheby’s for £90,000 and donated to Salisbury Cathedral Library. As is reported below, FNL also raised funds for a lecture and engagement activities as well as the preparation of a new catalogue of the Cathedral’s medieval manuscripts.

Anne Dutton, Cathedral Librarian, writes: Salisbury Cathedral is enormously grateful to the FNL and the many donors for the magnificent gift of the Sarum Master Bible, a manuscript of exceptional artistic value with great significance to Salisbury.

The Sarum Master Bible is a manuscript Bible in Latin, written on parchment and illustrated, probably in Salisbury, in the 1240s or 1250s. It is an early English example of a small, portable Bible. This Bible is one of a small (17cm high), number of known manuscripts (at least five, and possibly as many as seven) that were illustrated by one of the greatest English artists of the time, who today is known to scholars as the Sarum Master, or Sarum Illuminator (Sarum is an early name for Salisbury.) No details are known about the artist’s life, but there is strong circumstantial evidence that he was working in or around Salisbury. Sadly, we don’t know for whom the Bible was made.

Each book of the Bible begins with a beautifully decorated initial. Some initials are ornamental; others are historiated (that is, they contain human figures), illustrating scenes and people from the Bible, and other subjects. The initials are highly detailed, with a rich colour palette, including a distinctive green. The characters depicted have expressive faces. In keeping with the size of the volume, however, the initials are less than 2.5cm high, and it is difficult to see the high level of detail without using a magnifying glass.

In some of the manuscripts illustrated by the Sarum Master, including this Bible, it is clear that the artist worked with several assistants, which indicates that he was in charge of a sizeable workshop. The existence of such a workshop suggests that Salisbury was a centre of book production. In the mid-13th century, demand for books would likely have come from the thriving Cathedral Schools, as well as from scholars who had moved to the city following riots in Oxford.

The Sarum Master was working at a time when there was much artistic activity in Salisbury. The Cathedral was under construction and was in the process of being decorated with wall-painting, ceiling-painting, sculpture, and stained glass. It is likely that the different artists working in the city drew inspiration from and influenced each other. Certainly, the influence of the Sarum Master has been identified in the illustrations of other manuscripts.

The Sarum Master Bible is a witness to the outstanding artistic endeavour in Salisbury at the time of the Cathedral’s construction and in a key period of the city’s history. Thanks to the generosity of the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries and many donors, it has returned to the UK, and has come home to Salisbury.

We are also enormously grateful to FNL and the donors for providing additional funding that will cover digitisation, a major lecture on the Sarum Master and the Bible, and workshops for the public. Most importantly, it will also cover the cost of the preparation of a new scholarly catalogue of the Cathedral’s medieval manuscript books, including the Sarum Master Bible. Our existing catalogue of the manuscripts dates from 1880 and provides only extremely brief descriptions, which are inadequate for the purposes of modern scholarship. These descriptions contain very little codicological information, or information about provenance. In many cases, the catalogue does not provide a full listing of a manuscript’s contents and some texts have been mis-identified – a new catalogue has been long overdue.

We are extremely fortunate that Professor Rodney Thomson has agreed to undertake the cataloguing. An extremely experienced manuscript cataloguer, Professor Thompson has produced descriptive catalogues for many Cathedral libraries and Oxbridge colleges and has published widely in the fields of medieval history and manuscript studies. Professor Thomson’s catalogue will lead to a much greater understanding of the important collection of medieval manuscripts at Salisbury Cathedral, and enable further research both on the books themselves, and on the intellectual and cultural history of Salisbury.

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132 Friends of the Nations’ Libraries

Acquisition Grants and Donations 133

FOR SENATE HOUSE LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

Ambigué Magique , French conjurer’s blow-book (1775), with 168 handcoloured engravings. Bought from Antiquariaat Forum for €15,000 (£12,657), with the aid of a grant of £7,500 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Lucy Evans, Head of Collections, writes: With the generous support of the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries and Mr Mark Storey (a FNL Trustee), Senate House Library was able to acquire Ambigué Magique , a rare example of a conjuror’s blow-book.

The book is an extraordinary addition to the Harry Price Library of Magical Literature, an area of particular research strength and public interest within the Senate House Library, consisting of over 13,000 books, pamphlets and periodical titles. An example of a stalwart feature in conjurers’ repertoires across the centuries, this striking blow-book complements and enhances the Library’s collections related to conjuring through the ages, which range from legerdemain (sleight of hand) to scientific recreations and large-scale illusions.

A blow-book, also known as a flip-book or magic colouring book in modern versions, is used in a magic trick that has been performed for hundreds of years, the books existing as one of the oldest forms of manufactured magic props. The trick involves a performer appearing to show an entirely blank book, but gradually images appear, first in black and white, then in colour, and eventually disappear. The term blow-book derives from the practice of asking the audience to blow on the pages to produce the magic. It is a combination of the conjuror’s skill and the ingenuity of the book, which includes tabs on the edge of the pages to guide the conjuror’s hand.

These prop books were a mainstay of the printing industry, particularly through the 19th-century, becoming a novelty for children; examples from the late 1800s often come up for sale, but earlier versions are rare. Descriptions of blow-books appear in Reginald Scott’s The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), in a section exposing illusionary magic, and in early instructional books on conjuring, such as Hocus Pocus Junior: The Anatomie of Legerdemain (1634). The first editions of both books are held in the Harry Price Library.

This blow-book, Ambigué Magique , was printed in France and dates from around 1775. It is entirely comprised of images, except for the rare inclusion of a page of instructions at the beginning. It has seven series of hand-coloured engravings depicting playing cards, mothers superiors, flowers, soldiers, abbots, priests, and harlequins, with 24 pages left blank. The multiple images and series allowed for many different combinations and ways of performing the trick. The Ambigué Magique has original paper wrappers whilst the edges of the pages have notches cut at various positions to find specific page-openings by touch.

It is an artefact of performance and conjuring history as well as printing and publishing history, providing insight into how acts of legerdemain were achieved in comparison to their description in early conjuring texts and contemporary publications on magic. The Senate House Library is most grateful for the generosity of the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries to enable our acquisition of a chronological rarity and complementary addition to the Library’s existing collections related to magic.

Top: Illustration of la Mere Goutte (Mother Gout) offering a glass of wine. Left: Illustration of l’Abbé Quille (Abbott Skittle) examining advertising bills for newly published books.

Senate House Library, University of London.

134 Friends of the Nations’ Libraries

Acquisition Grants and Donations 135

FOR ST ANDREWS UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS

Manuscript copy of John Mair’s ‘Historia Maioris Britanniae’, with additional medieval Scottish historical and chronicle material, c.1510, c.1536. Bought from Christie’s (11 June, ‘Manuscript Masterpieces from The Schøyen Collection’, Lot 62) for £277,200, with the aid of a grant of £20,000 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries [B. H. Breslauer Foundation Fund].

Sean Rippington, Head of Archives and Rare Books, writes: Thanks to the generous support of the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries, one of the most important histories of Scotland, which sheds new light on William Wallace and the Stone of Destiny, has found its permanent home with the University of St Andrews Libraries and Museums.

The manuscript is being made available to the public for the first time in its 500-year history and has been given a new name – the St Andrews Chronicles (ms39180).

It was acquired at auction by the University with support from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries and Dr William Zachs, after being sold by the Norwegian collector Martin Schøyen, who bought it in 1990. The auction was a stressful experience – the bidding very nearly got away from us, and FNL’s contribution was key to securing the lot. We were also very grateful for the cool head and experience of Dr Sandra Hindman, who was in the saleroom bidding on our behalf as we watched the livestream.

The manuscript is largely a handwritten copy of John Mair’s History of Greater Britain – one of the most influential and innovative histories of Scotland and England of the 16th century. It also contains an earlier hand-copied pamphlet, chronicling Scotland’s earlier history, including new information about William Wallace, the nation’s time under Guardianship, and even the Stone of Destiny.

It is a Scottish manuscript about the history of and origins of Scotland, and it has been through a succession of Scottish owners since the 16th century, so there’s a real resonance in having it back in a Scottish library. John Mair taught at our University in the 1520s. The manuscript was also owned during the later 16th century by John Lindsay of Balcarres, a notable Fife noble and secretary of state.

The first-named owner describes himself as a ‘chaplain of Edinburgh’; however, some of the others potentially correlate to students who were studying at St Andrews in the early 16th century – indicating an even greater connection with the university than previously thought.

There is already considerable interest and press coverage around the potential for new discoveries from the manuscript. Professor Dauvit Broun from the University of Glasgow has noted that the contents of the pamphlet include a chronicle for the years 1286 to 1327 which has some new information (for example, seven – not six – guardians were elected to rule Scotland after Alexander III’s tragic death in 1286, as well as Wallace co-leading the attack on the sheriff of Lanark, rather than leading on his own; it also gives us the exact date – 3 May 1297 – on which this happened). It also includes a copy of what is likely to be the earliest version of the legend of the Stone of Destiny.

The St Andrews Chronicles is now available online, can be consulted in-person in our reading room, and will be on display at the Wardlaw Museum in 2025. We are grateful to the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries for their financial support and enthusiasm for the acquisition, and look forward to sharing news of future discoveries, projects, and events relating to the manuscript as researchers study it.

Top: Elizabeth Henderson, Rare Books Librarian, and Sean Rippington, Head of Archives and Rare Books, with the St Andrews Chronicles . Bottom: The St Andrews Chronicles f.223v.

Courtesy of the University of St Andrews Libraries and Museums.

136 Friends of the Nations’ Libraries

Acquisition Grants and Donations 137

FOR THE TED LEWIS CENTRE, BARTON-UPON-HUMBER

Handwritten draft article, by author and ‘Father of British Noir’, Edward Alfred (Ted) Lewis. It is the only known document which authoritatively describes the sources and inspiration for Get Carter . Bought for £2,000 with the aid of a grant of £1,500 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries [Larkin Fund].

Monty Martin, Trustee and CEO, writes: The word please is often criticised as missing from a pointed request, by its recipient. Critics also noticed the word’s absence in a scene from Get Carter , which is still acknowledged by critics as one of the top ten British films of all time. Starring as the eponymous Jack Carter, Michael Caine is shown standing at the Long Bar in Newcastle’s 1950s City Centre. He flicks his fingers, imperiously demanding his beer be served ‘in a thin glass’, a phrase becoming iconic, and oft quoted by fans. However, Lewis’s original dialogue in Jack’s Return Home , the novel upon which Get Carter was based, had Caine only asking, ‘in a thin glass please’. The actor, brought up in London’s Elephant and Castle, knew that the word please was not in gangsters’ vocabulary. This small but important inconsistency has long fascinated followers of Lewis’s trope. Students of Lewis’s genre, and the many who followed in his literary footsteps, ponder if Lewis really did have an in-depth knowledge of the gangster vibe or whether he made it up? How did the young graphic artist from a small Lincolnshire market town come to get gangster characterisation and activities so right?

Although Get Carter was filmed in the North East of England, the novel was set in Scunthorpe and Ted’s hometown of Barton-upon-Humber. The Ted Lewis Centre is a museum in Barton which celebrates the art, life and times of the novelist, artist and musician; it was recently awarded Museum Accreditation by the Arts Council.

Ted Lewis could not type, so the manuscript was unmistakably the genuine article, no pun intended. We would now know, from the writer himself, if he used personal experience or inventiveness. He wrote: The inspiration was from two closely allied source (sic) the novels of Raymond Chandler and the American gangster films of the late forties and fifties. … I had to pretend to be the central character… . The idea of the book came to me from absolutely nowhere … finished book inside three weeks. My wife and I sat down and worked out the remainder of the book .

A facsimile of the draft now forms part of a standing exhibition, the original photographed by Hull History Centre and stored carefully according to stringent collection conditions, a wonderful ending for a museum’s aspiration that once seemed unreachable.

The manuscript and Get Carter by Ted Lewis. Courtesy of the Ted Lewis Centre.

In 2024 it came to light that a crucial article by Ted Lewis in his own handwriting, explaining exactly how he came to write Jack’s Return Home , was being offered for sale at £3,500. Other sources of funding having failed, the Charity’s Trustees turned to the Friends and, to their delight received an offer of £1,500, sufficient to enable purchase for a reduced price of £2,000.

138 Friends of the Nations’ Libraries

Acquisition Grants and Donations 139

FOR THOMAS PLUME’S LIBRARY, MALDON, ESSEX

Thomas Vaughan (1621-1666), Magia Adamica: or The antiquitie of magic, and the descent thereof from Adam downwards, proved, bound with The man-mouse taken in a trap, and tortur’d to death for gnawing the margins of Eugenius Philalethes , 1650. Bought for £4,510 from Robert van den Graven, Netherlands, with the aid of a grant of £2,250 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Dr Helen Kemp, Plume Librarian, writes: This book was bought in November 2024 to replace the copy missing from Thomas Plume’s original collection. The Trustees and staff of Thomas Plume’s Library are very grateful to FNL and the Friends of Thomas Plume’s Library for jointly funding this purchase.

The bookseller described Magia Adamica and the accompanying text The Man-Mouse as follows:

‘Thomas Vaughan’s Magia Adamica is a mystical and enigmatic treatise on alchemy, magic, and the nature of the soul. The book draws on the Hermetic tradition and other sources such as the Kabbalah, Neoplatonism, and Christian mysticism. The title ‘Magia Adamica’ refers to the belief that Adam possessed divine knowledge, which was passed down through a secret tradition. Written in a dense and symbolic language, the book remains a subject of debate and interpretation among scholars of esotericism.’

More and Vaughan’s differences came to a head in 1650 when Vaughan published Magia Adamica More criticized the book for its obscure and enigmatic language, and he accused Vaughan of promoting dangerous and unorthodox ideas. In response, Vaughan wrote a scathing attack in which he accused More of being an enemy of true spirituality and a supporter of the ‘Antichristian forces that sought to suppress esoteric knowledge.’

As many of you will know, Thomas Plume’s Library originated as a lending library. Unfortunately, several hundred books went missing during the early 20th century when security was not very tight. The extent of the problem was discovered in the 1980s when one of our books came up for auction in New York and was spotted by a founding member of our Friends. This led to the Librarian Mrs Shacklock comparing the 1848 and 1959 catalogues, and preparing a list of missing books. Many of the books on our missing list are out of the financial reach of the Friends of Thomas Plume’s Library, and it was wonderful news for us when FNL offered to support this purchase.

The curious title of the second work refers to Henry More, who is depicted as a ‘man-mouse’ – a small and insignificant creature – being caught in a trap and tortured to death for his offences. The offence in question was supposedly that More had annotated and commented on the margins of a book written by Vaughan as a scurrilous attack. More and Vaughan had philosophical disagreements. More was a Cambridge Platonist and a prominent figure in the intellectual circles of 17th-century England. He was known for his defence of Christian Platonism and his criticism of materialism, scepticism, and atheism. Vaughan, on the other hand, was an alchemist and mystic who was interested in Hermetic philosophy, the Kabbalah, and other esoteric traditions.

The title page of Magia Adamica . Courtesy of Thomas Plume’s Library.

140 Friends of the Nations’ Libraries

Acquisition Grants and Donations 141

FOR UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON

Five bundles of correspondence from the Victor Gollancz Ltd Archive relating to the publication of some of George Orwell’s early works. Bought from Jonkers Rare Books and Peter Harrington Books for £154,000, with the aid of a £20,000 grant from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Anything that relates to the development and publication of Orwell’s writing is of great importance. These bundles of correspondence with Gollancz and his firm have the potential to shed light on his early works and the development of his career as a writer and provide valuable insights that will add to the understanding and study of Orwell’s work.

Sarah Aitchison, Director of Libraries, Culture, Collections and Open Science, writes: The George Orwell Collection, housed in UCL Special Collections, is the foremost collection of Orwell archive and rare book material in the world and is on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. It contains unique materials such as Orwell’s literary, political and domestic diaries, correspondence and early proofs, as well as first editions, early periodicals featuring his writing and rare translations. The collection is made accessible in dedicated reading rooms and through a digital interface and is built into ongoing teaching and outreach programmes.

The grant contributed to the purchase of correspondence with Victor Gollancz Ltd relating to the publication of A Clergyman’s Daughter (1935), Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936), The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) and Inside the Whale (1936). Comprising some 150 items, including 13 autograph letters from the author, the correspondence casts light on how Orwell produced his books, how he reacted to the publisher’s criticisms and provides insight into how his characters may have been inspired by people he knew.

Orwell kept very few personal papers and even fewer manuscripts. Researchers are left to piece together his writing process through letters to friends and family and the occasional note in a diary. UCL’s Orwell Collection previously contained very little relating to his early published works. Aside from remarks in letters, there was nothing at all relating to A Clergyman’s Daughter , Keep the Aspidistra Flying , or Inside the Whale . There is more for The Road to Wigan Pier , namely the diary notes for the trip that inspired it and a corrected second proof, but the Gollancz material offers a much more rounded view of the publication process.

George Orwell and a selection of items from the archive. Courtesy of University College London.

142 Friends of the Nations’ Libraries

Acquisition Grants and Donations 143

FOR THE WARBURG INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

Three cookery books from the library of Elizabeth David, 17th and 18th century. Bought from Forum Auctions (28 November, 2024, Lots 22, 27 and 39) for £11,138, with the aid of a grant of £3,341 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries [Unwin Trust Fund].

Giles Mandelbrote, Warburg Librarian and Director of Collections, writes: The cookery writer Elizabeth David (1913-1992) bequeathed 380 books, the bulk of her antiquarian cookery collection, to the Warburg Institute in 1992, although some books were retained by her executors. Some ten years earlier, she had written a long letter to the Warburg Institute’s Director, J.B. Trapp, describing her collection and outlining her ideas for this bequest:

‘My collection is a fairly modest one in that it is a true working collection, personal, erratic, and has necessarily been dictated largely by my own studies, and limited by my financial resources… housed, so to speak, upstairs, downstairs, in passages, and indeed in my bedroom, where most of my writing is done these days. … I have a very few good early Italian books in the original, … a 1643 Venice edition of Scappi (1st was 1570. The famous plates in the 1643 were exceptionally good, and in my copy complete and in good condition, including the folding plate which is often missing). … My eighteenth century English books include … a good Charlotte Mason, The Lady’s Assistant, 1786.’

With generous assistance from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries, the Warburg Institute has been able to acquire three further antiquarian cookery books from Elizabeth David’s library which were not included in the original bequest. Two of these are mentioned in the letter quoted above and all three contain loosely inserted notes in her hand.

First published in 1570, in Venice, Bartolomeo Scappi’s Dell’Arte del Cucinare contains the earliest published illustrations of renaissance kitchens and cooking tools. The 27 original engraved plates were reworked and re-used for the 1643 edition, published in Venice by Giovanni Battista Combi. In effect, this provides a visual inventory of the material world of the renaissance kitchen. Bartolomeo Scappi (c.1500-1577) worked in Venice and then in Rome, in the service of several cardinals. His book details elaborate menus with multiple courses,

A renaissance kitchen, from B. Scappi, Dell’Arte del Cucinare . Courtesy of the Warburg Institute, University of London.

such as the banquet prepared in April 1536 for the Emperor Charles V, as well as the preparations for the funeral of Pope Paul III Farnese and the conclave of 1549. From 1566 until 1571, Scappi worked as one of the personal cooks of Pope Pius V and was rewarded with the post of supervisor of ceremony and a papal knighthood. Cited in Elizabeth David’s influential Italian Food (1954), this copy contains her notes on Scappi’s references to a range of subjects, including Neapolitan pizza, pies full of live birds, force-feeding of geese and parmesan cheese.

The Warburg’s other two purchases both serve to document aspects of the social history of food in 18thcentury England. In about 1720, the pastry-master Edward Kidder (1665/6-1739) published his Receipts of Pastry and Cookery , illustrated with detailed engravings showing pastry-moulds for different types of pie. This publication also advertises the afternoon cookery lessons he offers ‘in Queen Street near St. Thomas Apostles’ from Monday to Wednesday and ‘next to Furnival’s Inn in Holborn’ from Thursday to Saturday, whereas ‘Ladies may be taught at their own Houses.’ By contrast, Charlotte Mason’s The Ladies’ Assistant for Regulating and Supplying the Table, being a Complete System of Cookery (new edition, enlarged, 1786) is aimed specifically at a female readership. The work of ‘A Professed Housekeeper, who had upwards of Thirty Years Experience in Families of the first Fashion’, it provides many recipes, but also emphasises the importance of ‘a Well-Regulated Table’ and the careful planning of menus.

These volumes will soon be available online through the Warburg Digital Library: https://wdl.warburg.sas.ac.uk/ collection/THES1302.

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FOR WILTSHIRE & SWINDON HISTORY CENTRE

Five boxes of documents relating to the Eyre-Matcham family of Newhouse, Whiteparish and Downton, Wiltshire, 16th to 19th centuries. Bought from Forum Auctions (28 March 2024, lots 124 and 128) for £1,690 with the aid of a grant of £1,149 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

An amount of cleaning work has had to be done to some of the items in Lot 128 as they had suffered some damp damage. Lot 124, while in good condition, was very mixed and required some time by archivists and a volunteer to identify, list and package its contents.

Both lots have been subsumed into Wiltshire & Swindon Archives collection 1369, the existing archive of the Eyre and Matcham families, as accession 1369 Add 2.

Ally McConnell, Principal Archivist, writes: After a successful purchase at auction in 2023, again funded by the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries, it became clear that there were some remnants of this family archive still for sale. The two lots included in this auction consisted of one box of ephemeral material belonging to or relating to the Eyre and Matcham families (Lot 124) and four boxes of Newhouse estate account books, household account books, a Whiteparish poor rate book, and bank books for members of the Matcham family (Lot 128).

Lot 124 contained a variety of interesting ephemeral items as well as personal items and family letters. Significantly, this lot included an itemised bill for work done for Robert Shafto (c1732-1797), the politician and subject of the nursery rhyme ‘Bobby Shafto’s Gone to Sea’. In a contested election in 1784 Shafto was elected MP for Downton, in an area dominated by the Bouverie family, Earls of Radnor. Between April and July 1784 Shafto was the only MP, with the second seat declared void and later filled by William Seymour Conway. The items purchased here include travelling expenses to London and Downton and charges for interviews in a legal case relating to land in Downton, which could indicate a necessity by Shafto to prove his claim to land so that he could represent the constituency.

Also of interest within this auction were documents relating to the sale in 1933 of papers belonging to Horatio Nelson, who was related to the family by marriage; various sale catalogues for property and land, including allotments, in the Downton, Hamptworth and Redlynch areas, 17th to 19th centuries; and the estate account books which along with smaller items within Lot 124 contain a large amount of detail on the Eyre and Matcham families, their properties and their Wiltshire neighbours. There are also some personal and legal items relating to the family including roughly drawn pedigrees (Eyre-Matcham and Nelson families), banknotes, hearth tax documents for Downton, and poor rate sheets for Whiteparish.

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FOR THE WORDSWORTH TRUST

Collection of manuscripts relating to Peter Crosthwaite’s Museum, Keswick. Bought from Antiquates Fine and Rare Books for £6,000, funded in full by a grant from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

This collection was given by FNL to the Wordsworth Trust in celebration of Jeff Cowton’s distinguished service to the Trust over four decades.

Jeff Cowton, Principal Curator and Head of Learning, writes: This archive contains a rich collection of historical documents, including manuscript letters, receipts, and a piece of printed ephemera, shedding light on the commerce of and cultural scene in the Lake District during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The materials primarily revolve around the sale, production and distribution of artistic works, particularly those depicting the landscapes of Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire. The archive includes two Autograph Letters Signed (A.L.S.) dated between 1809 and 1810, by Joseph Farington, an English landscape painter and diarist, discussing the production and sale of his 1789 work Views of the Lakes of Cumberland and Westmorland .

In addition, the archive features several letters from Stafford draughtsman Benjamin Rogers, who corresponded about the production and transportation of his own views of the Lake District, described as the ‘Yellow’ and ‘Brown’ sets, from 1802 to 1810. Rogers’s letters are complemented by a further A.L.S. from his relative Henrietta. The archive also contains two A.L.S. dated between 1809 and 1813, from Peter Holand, a Liverpool-based artist, discussing the sale and production of sets of his Selected Views of the Lakes . Holand mentions an offer to produce a ‘third edition’ of his work, noting that he still has the original plates.

Other notable materials include two A.L.S. dated between 1795 and 1797 from William Todhunter of Kendal, concerning the purchase of maps. The letters are accompanied by a detailed account showing the transactions of both Todhunter and Crosthwaite, another key figure in the archive. Crosthwaite was involved in the purchase of almanacs and maps, including White’s Ephemeris and A Curious Popish Prayer Book .

The archive also includes a series of 23 receipts from William Pennington, a printer, bookseller, and papermaker who served as Mayor of Kendal. These receipts primarily document the sale of Thomas West’s A Guide to the Lakes (1780) and other editions of travel guides to the Lake District. One A.L.S. from Pennington to Crosthwaite orders two items, including a set of unbound maps of the Lakes. The presence of this correspondence further suggests a strong commercial relationship between Pennington and Crosthwaite.

Further correspondence includes two A.L.S. relating to the transfer of items to Keswick Museum, particularly from Thomas Lister and John Gough, the blind philosopher featured in Wordsworth’s Excursion . A small handbill printed by Pennington also advertises W. Fell’s Commercial School in Appleby , offering a range of academic subjects, further illustrating the cultural and educational networks in the region.

The Wordsworth Trust, founded in 1891, preserves Dove Cottage and the Wordsworth family’s legacy. It holds significant collections on Lake District tourism, including maps, prints, and guides. The acquisition of Crosthwaite’s correspondence enhances the Trust’s understanding of early tourism, particularly the commercial operations of the Crosthwaite Museum. The collection complements an earlier acquisition, Crosthwaite’s 1789–1799 account book, detailing his sales of maps, books and prints. These new documents will fill gaps in the Wordsworth Trust’s records, offering insight into transactions with figures such as Pennington, Farington, and Holland.

Manuscript letter from John Gough, presumed to be addressed to Peter Crosthwaite, 19 June 1788. Courtesy of the Wordsworth Trust.

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FOR YORK MINSTER LIBRARY

Manuscript of 1697-99 by Thomas Gale (1635/6-1702), shortly after he was appointed Dean of York. Bought from Christian White Rare Booksellers (December 2024) for £5,000, with the aid of a grant of £4,500 from the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries.

Jennie England, Research Co-ordinator, writes: Thomas Gale (1635/6-1702) became Dean of York in September 1675. He seems to have soon regretted his move up north: he wrote to Samuel Pepys (his close friend, and cousin of his wife) that he was living an unscholarly and ‘bookeless sort of life.’[1] Gale was a noted scholar and antiquary. Born in the North Riding of Yorkshire, he held a teaching position at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was made Regius Professor of Greek in 1672. Soon after this he resigned his position to become High Master of St Paul’s School, London – a role he held until 1697. Gale was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1677 and remained an active member throughout his life. Gale’s numerous publications reflect the depth and breadth of his knowledge: in addition to multiple editions of classical works, he translated and revised John Leland’s Itinerary , and his Scriptores quindecim (1691) contains the first publication of Nennius’s 8th-century Historia Brittonum .

Whatever his initial feelings about his life in York, under Gale’s leadership, the scholarly merits and administration of the Chapter of York were much improved. This scholarly rigour is captured vividly in the acquired manuscript. Gale prepared this volume by meticulously copying records held in York Minster and comparing them with ‘Cotton Vitellius A. II’ (a 14th-century register containing statues of the cathedral; royal and papal documents; and charters), now in the British Library but still with the Cotton family at the time. The manuscript appears to have been made at least in part to help Gale obtain new privileges for the Dean’s office: references to the historical precedents for certain privileges are found across the manuscript, and Gale’s success in securing the status of Deans of York as residentiary canons is recorded towards the end of the volume, including a letter in recognition of this sent to him by King William III (r.1689-1702).

1 Private Correspondence , 1.170, cited in Nicholas Doggett, ‘Gale, Thomas’, Oxford Dictionary of National Bibliography , 2004.

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Trustees’ Report

The Trustees present the annual report and the financial statements of Friends of the Nations’ Libraries (the ‘Charity’ or ‘FNL’) for the year ended 31 December 2024.

Reference and administrative details of the Charity, its Trustees and advisers are set out on pages 2/3.

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 organisations to acquire documents, archives and rare 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.

The John R. Murray Fund and the Unwin Fund are separately identified funds, but there are no restrictions on expenditure from either fund, both the income and capital of which can be spent at the discretion of the Trustees.

Since its establishment in 1931, FNL has helped over 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 to 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.

The Trustees 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 2024

The Trustees’ main objective for 2024 was 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 2024 not being materially less than that received in 2023.

ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE

Grants pledged in 2024

Details of the 60 grants made or committed by FNL in 2024 are given on pages 22 to 149. Their aggregate value was £675,150 of which £194,803 was charged to the Operating Fund, £61,553 to the John R Murray Fund, £33,341 to the Unwin Fund, £29,895 to the B H Breslauer Foundation Fund, £13,610 to the Philip Larkin Fund, and £1,510 to support costs. Additionally, grants of £340,438, financed by restricted donations, were given for two restricted purposes. These were £250,000 for Alan Turing’s ’Delilah’ project papers, acquired by King’s College, Cambridge, and £90,438 for the Sarum Bible, donated by FNL to Salisbury Cathedral Library.

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 apply for grants whether or not they are Institutional Library Members of FNL, membership is certainly encouraged for all those organisations that have received and apply for financial support from the Charity.

The Trustees warmly welcome the new members who joined FNL in 2024; sadly, a number were also lost through death, resignation or lapsed membership.

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Donations and legacies

In 2024 the FNL received two generous restricted gifts. XTX Markets Technologies Limited gave FNL the munificent sum of £250,000 as a restricted gift to be spent on Alan Turing’s unpublished Second World War papers relating to the ‘Delilah’ project, which developed a portable encryption system for use in military operations. These papers were acquired by King’s College, Cambridge. And a group of benefactors contributed an aggregate £90,438 to acquire the Bible in Latin, illuminated by the Sarum Master, in Salisbury during the mid13th century; the Bible was donated in December to Salisbury Cathedral Library (see pages 128-132). A further amount was raised in 2025 for Salisbury and will be used to fund a new scholarly catalogue of the Cathedral’s medieval manuscripts and a range of engagement activities focusing on the Sarum Master Bible. This further amount will be accounted for in the 2025 accounts.

Other benefactors generously contributed £137,025 in the year, including an immensely generous donation of £100,000 from Peter Baldwin and Lisbet Rausing.

Several FNL members have generously remembered the charity in their Wills and 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.

Events and other benefits for members

In 2024 we were delighted to offer a full programme of FNL visits for members. We are most grateful to colleagues at the Royal Academy Library, University of Edinburgh Special Collections, Royal Berkshire Archives, Petersfield Museum/the Edward Thomas Study Centre, Chetham’s Library, Emery Walker Trust and the private library Mark Storey (a Trustee of FNL) for hosting these visits and giving so generously of their time and expert knowledge.

The 2024 AGM was held on 19 June at the Society of Antiquaries. The FNL Annual Lecture ‘Clarissa Eden – the agony of her archive’ was given by Hugo Vickers.

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 Blue Sky (@TheFNL.bsky.social) and Twitter (@FNL313).

We continue to be most grateful to the libraries, archives and museums 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 2024, the total income of this fund amounted to £369,815 (2023: £279,753).

Subscription income at £46,516 was virtually unchanged from the previous year (2023: £46,631). Other donations, as discussed above, amounted to £137,025 (2023: £56,946). Investment income rose from £230,894 in 2023 to £241,305 in 2024.

Forty-one grants were paid or committed by FNL from the Operating Fund in 2024. The aggregate value of grants awarded from this fund amounted to £194,803 (2023: £181,820).

As shown in note 5, expenditure on the costs of running the Charity borne by this fund fell to £65,584 (2023: £103,053). The decrease is chiefly explained by the fact that 2023 bore the considerable time costs of preparing the Blavatnik Honresfield Library commemorative book and editing the articles as well as the actual costs of printing and posting the book to members and potential benefactors. After taking into account all income and expenditure, the net surplus of income over expenditure in the Operating Fund amounted to £108,007 (2023: deficit of £5,120). This sum was transferred to the General Endowment Fund.

The Philip Larkin Fund

In 2024, the Philip Larkin Fund received investment income of £13,628 (2023: £13,492) and paid three grants amounting to £13,610 (2023: one grant amounting to £20,000). After unrealised gains on the investments contained in this fund of £12,974 (2023: unrealised gains of £8,423), the balance of this fund at the yearend was £335,696 (2023: £323,479).

The B. H. Breslauer Foundation Fund

Since 2012 the B. H. Breslauer Foundation has generously made an outstanding series of donations to FNL to be added to its B. H. Breslauer Foundation Fund (see page 18). The final donation was received in 2021. Three grants, totalling £29,894 were awarded by FNL from its B. H. Breslauer Foundation Fund in 2024 (2023: £27,470). These grants exhausted the extraordinary benefaction of the B. H. Breslauer Foundation Fund, and the balance of this fund at the year-end was £nil (2023: £29,894).

The John R. Murray Fund

The income of this fund is separately identified, but both income and capital can be spent at the discretion of the FNL Trustees. In 2024, the John R. Murray Fund received investment income of £41,643 (2023: £41,227) and paid ten grants amounting to £61,554 (2023: five grants amounting to £31,800). After unrealised gains on the investments contained in this fund of £39,590 (2023: unrealised gains of £25,718) the balance of this fund at the year-end was £1,458,804 (2023: £1,441,492).

The Unwin Fund

In 2023 the FNL received a munificent donation of £250,000 from the Unwin Charitable Trust. In 2024 two grants were made from this fund of £33,341 (2023: one grant of £2,782) and the balance of this fund at the year-end was £213,877 (2023: £247,218).

The Endowment Funds

The General Endowment Fund, which is expendable, comprises the accumulated unrestricted reserves of the Charity. In 2024, £108,007 was transferred from the Unrestricted Operating fund, £334 transferred to the Restricted Funds and investment management fees of £9,314 were charged to the Endowment fund. In addition, the financial statements record unrealised gains on the investment portfolio of £155,808 (2023: unrealised gains of £101,312). The General Endowment Fund amounted to £2,663,490 at the year-end (2023: £2,409,323).

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The Permanent Endowment funds comprise the Golden Jubilee Appeal Fund and the King’s Fund (formerly 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 2024 no gifts were received by either fund (2023: £nil). At the year-end, the King’s Fund stood at £1,540,283 (2023: £1,540,283), and total Permanent Endowment Funds stood at £1,639,001 (2023: £1,639,001).

The balance sheet

The balance sheet on page 167 shows net assets at 31 December 2024 of £6,310,868 (2023: £6,090,407), comprising the investment portfolio at its market value of £5,341,563 (2023: £5,143,989) and net current assets (mostly cash, less commitments to make grants) of £969,305 (2023: £946,418).

The investment portfolio at the year-end and the movements between 31 December 2023 and 2024 are summarised in note 7 on page 171.

Statement of cash flows

The statement on page 168 shows that proceeds from the sale of investments in 2024 amounted to £10,797 (2023: £12,107) and that £nil (2023: £nil) was spent on the purchase of new investments. Details of the cash flows are given in note 7 on page 171.

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 increased by £309,918 (2023: decrease of £37,133)..

Auditors

At the Annual General Meeting held on 19 June 2024, Mr Matthew Elkins, of Knox Cropper LLP, London, was re-appointed as Auditor.

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 Charity’s investment portfolio consists of a single holding in the Cazenove Sustainable 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.

Save for the restricted funds and the Permanent Endowment funds, which are identified in the balance sheet on page 167, 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 King’s Fund in 2017, which has now reached £1.5 million, and of the John R. Murray Fund in 2021 together with the most welcome addition of the Unwin Trust Fund in 2023 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.

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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.

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 3.

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.

Ethics Committee

The Ethics Committee met twice in 2024, under the chairmanship of Stephen Clarke, to consider proposed donations to FNL of £25,000 and above.

Administration

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

Trustees’ responsibilities

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 the inside front cover. All served throughout the year 2024 except as indicated in the following paragraph.

At the Annual General Meeting held on 19 June 2024 Mr Geordie Greig, Chairman, and Mr Charles Sebag-Montefiore, Honorary Treasurer, were both reelected. Mr Stephen Clarke, Mrs Sybil Kretzmer and Mr Richard Linenthal retired as Trustees having served three years. Artemis Cooper, Dr Lisbet Rausing and Professor Kathryn Sutherland 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 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.

The Charity’s main objective for 2025 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 2025 not being materially less than that received in 2024.

Approved and signed on behalf of the Trustees on 23 April 2025 by:

GEORDIE GREIG CHARLES SEBAG-MONTEFIORE Chairman Honorary Treasurer

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Financial Statements

INDEPENDENT AUDITORS’ REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF FRIENDS OF THE NATIONS’ LIBRARIES

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Friends of Nations’ Libraries (the ‘Charity’) for the year ended 31st December 2024 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 2024 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

25 April 2025

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 NATIONS’ LIBRARIES

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES for the year ended 31 December 2024

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 2024 2023 £ £ £ £ £ 183,781 340,438 – 524,219 353,577 186,034 55,271 – 241,305 230,894
	369,815 395,709 – 765,524 584,471
	196,224 478,926 – 675,150 261,661 65,584 3,387 9,314 78,285 115,387
	261,808 482,313 9,314 753,435 377,048
	108,007 (86,604) (9,314) 12,089 207,423 – 52,564 155,808 208,372 135,451
	108,007 (34,040) 146,494 220,461 342,874 (108,007) 334 107,673 – –
	– (33,706) 254,167 220,461 342,874 – 2,042,083 4,048,324 6,090,407 5,747,533
	– 2,008,377 4,302,491 6,310,868 6,090,407

FRIENDS OF THE NATIONS’ LIBRARIES

BALANCE SHEET as at 31 December 2024

			2024	2023
		Note	£	£
Fixed assets
Investments		7	5,341,563	5,143,989
Current assets
Debtors		8	261,355	106,933
Cash at bank			1,074,465	890,508
Total current assets			1,335,820	997,441
Liabilites
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year		9	366,515	51,023
Net current assets			969,305	946,418
Total net assets			6,310,868	6,090,407
Representng
The funds of the charity		10
Unrestricted income fund:
Operatng fund		11	–	–
Restricted income funds:
Philip Larkin Fund		12	335,696	323,479
Unwin Fund		13	213,877	247,218
B. H. Breslauer Fund		14	–	29,894
John R Murray Fund		15	1,458,804	1,441,492
Other restricted fund			–	–
			2,008,377	2,042,083
Endowment funds:
Expendable		16	2,663,490	2,409,323
Permanent		17	1,639,001	1,639,001
			4,302,491	4,048,324
Total funds		18	6,310,868	6,090,407
Approved by the Executve Commitee on 23 April		2025 and signed	on its behalf by
GEORDIE GREIG	CHARLES SEBAG-MONTEFIORE
Chairman	Honorar Treasurer

Approved by the Executive Committee on 23 April 2025 and signed on its behalf by GEORDIE GREIG CHARLES SEBAG-MONTEFIORE Chairman Honorary Treasurer

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FRIENDS OF THE NATIONS’ LIBRARIES

STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS for the year ended 31 December 2024

			2024	2023
			£	£
Cash fow from operatng actvites
net income/(expenditure) for the year – see page 166			220,461	342,874
Adjustments for:
(gains)/losses on investments			(208,372)	(135,451)
income from investments			(241,305)	(230,894)
increase/(decrease) in commitments to make grants			309,918	(37,133)
(increase)/decrease in income tax recoverable			(4,422)	(754)
changes in other debtors and creditors			(144,426)	(99,680)
net cash provided by / (used in) operatng actvites			(68,146)	(161,038)
Cash fows from investng actvites
income from investments			241,305	230,894
proceeds from sale of investments			10,799	12,107
purchase of investments			–	–
deposited with investment manager pending investment			–	–
net cash provided by / (used in) investng actvites			252,104	243,001
Change in cash and cash equivalents in the year			183,958	81,963
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year			809,507	808,544
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year			1,074,465	890,507
Movement in Net Funds
	Cash at bank		Cash held by	Total
			Investment
			Managers
	£		£	£
As at 1 January 2024	885,710		4,797	890,507
Movement	185,609		(1,651)	183,958
As at 31 December 2024	1,071,319		3,146	1,074,465

FRIENDS OF THE NATIONS’ LIBRARIES

NOTES ON THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 31 December 2024

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 (FRS 102) 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.

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Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total Total fund funds funds 2024 2023 £ £ £ £ £ 2. Income from donatons and legacies Grants receivable for the Charity’s general purposes – – – – 250,000 for Alan Turing’s papers (the Delilah Project) – 250,000 – 250,000 – for the Sarum Bible – 90,438 – 90,438 – – 340,438 – 340,438 250,000 Membership subscriptons annual membership 38,484 – – 38,484 40,053 life membership 2,400 – – 2,400 1,200 income tax recovered on subscriptons 5,632 – – 5,632 5,378 46,516 – – 46,516 46,631 Other donatons and legacies 137,025 – – 137,025 55,554 Other income 240 – – 240 1,392 183,781 340,438 - 524,219 353,577 3. Income from investments distributons from investments 163,777 55,227 – 219,004 216,970 interest on bank balances and deposits 22,257 44 – 22,301 13,924 186,034 55,271 – 241,305 230,894 4. Grants to insttutons for the purchase of books, manuscripts, archives and bookbindings from unrestricted funds for the purchase of books and manuscripts 194,803 – – 194,803 180,389 from the Philip Larkin Fund for the purchase of modern literary archives and manuscripts – 13,610 – 13,610 20,000 from the John R Murray Fund for the purchase of manuscripts and archives – 61,554 – 61,554 29,500 from the B. H. Breslauer Fund for the purchase of printed books and bookbindings – 29,894 – 29,894 27,470 from the Unwin Fund for the purchase of printed books and manuscripts – 33,341 – 33,341 2,782 from restricted grants for Alan Turing’s papers (Delilah Project) – 250,000 – 250,000 – for the Sarum Bible – 90,438 – 90,438 – total of direct costs 194,803 478,837 – 673,640 260,141 support costs (see note 6) 1,421 89 – 1,510 1,520 196,224 478,926 – 675,150 261,661 Details of the grants made are set out on pages 22 to 149.	Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total Total fund funds funds 2024 2023 £ £ £ £ £ 2. Income from donatons and legacies Grants receivable for the Charity’s general purposes – – – – 250,000 for Alan Turing’s papers (the Delilah Project) – 250,000 – 250,000 – for the Sarum Bible – 90,438 – 90,438 – – 340,438 – 340,438 250,000 Membership subscriptons annual membership 38,484 – – 38,484 40,053 life membership 2,400 – – 2,400 1,200 income tax recovered on subscriptons 5,632 – – 5,632 5,378 46,516 – – 46,516 46,631 Other donatons and legacies 137,025 – – 137,025 55,554 Other income 240 – – 240 1,392 183,781 340,438 - 524,219 353,577 3. Income from investments distributons from investments 163,777 55,227 – 219,004 216,970 interest on bank balances and deposits 22,257 44 – 22,301 13,924 186,034 55,271 – 241,305 230,894 4. Grants to insttutons for the purchase of books, manuscripts, archives and bookbindings from unrestricted funds for the purchase of books and manuscripts 194,803 – – 194,803 180,389 from the Philip Larkin Fund for the purchase of modern literary archives and manuscripts – 13,610 – 13,610 20,000 from the John R Murray Fund for the purchase of manuscripts and archives – 61,554 – 61,554 29,500 from the B. H. Breslauer Fund for the purchase of printed books and bookbindings – 29,894 – 29,894 27,470 from the Unwin Fund for the purchase of printed books and manuscripts – 33,341 – 33,341 2,782 from restricted grants for Alan Turing’s papers (Delilah Project) – 250,000 – 250,000 – for the Sarum Bible – 90,438 – 90,438 – total of direct costs 194,803 478,837 – 673,640 260,141 support costs (see note 6) 1,421 89 – 1,510 1,520 196,224 478,926 – 675,150 261,661 Details of the grants made are set out on pages 22 to 149.	Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total Total fund funds funds 2024 2023 £ £ £ £ £ 2. Income from donatons and legacies Grants receivable for the Charity’s general purposes – – – – 250,000 for Alan Turing’s papers (the Delilah Project) – 250,000 – 250,000 – for the Sarum Bible – 90,438 – 90,438 – – 340,438 – 340,438 250,000 Membership subscriptons annual membership 38,484 – – 38,484 40,053 life membership 2,400 – – 2,400 1,200 income tax recovered on subscriptons 5,632 – – 5,632 5,378 46,516 – – 46,516 46,631 Other donatons and legacies 137,025 – – 137,025 55,554 Other income 240 – – 240 1,392 183,781 340,438 - 524,219 353,577 3. Income from investments distributons from investments 163,777 55,227 – 219,004 216,970 interest on bank balances and deposits 22,257 44 – 22,301 13,924 186,034 55,271 – 241,305 230,894 4. Grants to insttutons for the purchase of books, manuscripts, archives and bookbindings from unrestricted funds for the purchase of books and manuscripts 194,803 – – 194,803 180,389 from the Philip Larkin Fund for the purchase of modern literary archives and manuscripts – 13,610 – 13,610 20,000 from the John R Murray Fund for the purchase of manuscripts and archives – 61,554 – 61,554 29,500 from the B. H. Breslauer Fund for the purchase of printed books and bookbindings – 29,894 – 29,894 27,470 from the Unwin Fund for the purchase of printed books and manuscripts – 33,341 – 33,341 2,782 from restricted grants for Alan Turing’s papers (Delilah Project) – 250,000 – 250,000 – for the Sarum Bible – 90,438 – 90,438 – total of direct costs 194,803 478,837 – 673,640 260,141 support costs (see note 6) 1,421 89 – 1,510 1,520 196,224 478,926 – 675,150 261,661 Details of the grants made are set out on pages 22 to 149.
		673,640 260,141 1,510 1,520
	196,224 478,926 –	675,150 261,661
	ages 22 to 149.

Unrestricted Restricted Endowment fund funds funds £ £ £ 5. Expenditure on raising funds consultants’ fees and expenses 41,884 – – investment manager’s charges – 3,387 9,314 Blavatnik Honresfeld book – – – other direct costs 6,111 – – total of direct costs 47,995 3,387 9,314 support costs (see note 6) 17,589 – – 65,584 3,387 9,314 6. Support costs governance costs: annual report annual general meetng audit fee other Support costs were allocated in 2024 as set out in note 1(c), as follows: grants to insttutons (note 4) 1,510 - - raising funds (note 5) 17,589 - - 19,099 - -	Unrestricted Restricted Endowment fund funds funds £ £ £ 5. Expenditure on raising funds consultants’ fees and expenses 41,884 – – investment manager’s charges – 3,387 9,314 Blavatnik Honresfeld book – – – other direct costs 6,111 – – total of direct costs 47,995 3,387 9,314 support costs (see note 6) 17,589 – – 65,584 3,387 9,314 6. Support costs governance costs: annual report annual general meetng audit fee other Support costs were allocated in 2024 as set out in note 1(c), as follows: grants to insttutons (note 4) 1,510 - - raising funds (note 5) 17,589 - - 19,099 - -	Total Total 2024 2023 £ £ 41,884 52,856 12,701 12,109 – 23,782 6,111 10,355
	47,995 3,387 9,314 17,589 – –	60,696 99,102 17,589 16,286
	65,584 3,387 9,314	78,285 115,388
	as set out in note 1(c), as follows: 1,510 - - 17,589 - -	14,406 13,360 1,673 1,406 3,020 3,040 – –
		19,099 17,806
		1,510 1,520 17,589 16,286
	19,099 - -	19,099 17,806

7. Investments

The Charity’s investment portfolio consists of a single holding in the Cazenove Responsible Multi-Asset Fund, 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 portfolio as at 31 December 2024 is 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 Prospectve value annual income £ £ £ 5,476,627 5,341,563 218,777 – – – 5,476,627 5,341,563 218,777	Yield £ 4.10% 0.00% 4.10% 2024 2023 £ £ 5,143,989 5,020,645 – – (10,798) (12,108) 75 59 208,297 135,393 – –
		197,574 123,344
		5,341,563 5,143,989

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8. Debtors income tax recoverable other debtors 9. Creditors: amounts payable within one year commitments to make grants other creditors and accrued charges	2024 2023 £ £ 11,355 6,933 250,000 100,000
	261,355 106,933
	2024 2023 £ £ 355,700 45,782 10,815 5,242
	366,515 51,024

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 John R. Murray Fund, the B. H. Breslauer Fund and the Unwin 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 B. H. Breslauer Fund to the purchase of printed books and bookbindings. The John R. Murray Fund and the Unwin Fund are identified separately, but there are no restrictions on expenditure from these funds which can be put towards the purchase of manuscripts, archives and printed books. Grants and donations received for the 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.

Operatng fund at beginning of year income in year expenditure in year transfer (to)/from general endowment fund at end of year	2024 2023 £ £ – – 369,815 279,753 (261,808) (284,873) (108,007) 5,120 – –

11. Operating fund

12. Philip Larkin Fund at beginning of year income in year investment management charges expenditure in year investment gains/(losses) transfer from general endowment fund at end of year 13. Unwin Fund at beginning of year income in year expenditure in year 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 management charges investment gains/(losses) 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	2024 2023 £ £ 323,479 322,319 13,628 13,492 (775) – (13,610) (20,755) 12,974 8,423 – –
	335,696 323,479
	247,218 – – 250,000 (33,341) (2,782)
	213,877 247,218
	29,894 57,364 – – (29,894) (27,470) – –
	– 29,894
	1,441,492 1,406,347 41,643 41,227 (61,554) (31,800) (2,367) – 39,590 25,718
	1,458,804 1,441,492
	2,409,323 2,322,500 (9,314) (9,053) 155,808 101,312 107,673 (5,436) – –
	2,663,490 2,409,323

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17. Permanent endowment funds

at beginning of year received in year at end of year Analysis of net assets between funds Unrestricted fund Restricted funds: Philip Larkin Fund John R Murray Fund B. H. Breslauer Foundaton Fund Unwin Fund Endowment funds:	Kings Golden Total Total Fund Jubilee 2024 2023 Appeal Fund £ £ £ £ 1,540,283 98,718 1,639,001 1,639,001 – – – –
	1,540,283 98,718 1,639,001 1,639,001
	Net current Total Total Investments assets 2024 2023 £ £ £ £ – – – – 332,655 3,041 335,696 323,479 1,014,996 443,808 1,458,804 1,441,492 – – – 29,894 – 213,877 213,877 247,218 1,347,651 660,726 2,008,377 2,042,083 3,993,912 308,579 4,302,491 4,048,324
	5,341,563 969,305 6,310,868 6,090,407

18. Analysis of net assets between funds

19. Comparative Statement of Financial Activities for 2023

The table below is given in compliance with the new SORP requirements in order to provide the split between the operating and endowment funds for the previous year, 2023.

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 2023 2023 2023 2023 £ £ £ £ 103,577 250,000 – 353,577 176,176 54,718 – 230,894 279,753 304,718 – 584,471 181,820 79,841 – 261,661 103,053 3,281 9,053 115,387
	284,873 83,122 9,053 377,048
	(5,120) 221,596 (9,053) 207,423 – 34,141 101,310 135,451
	(5,120) 255,737 92,257 342,874 5,120 316 (5,436) –
	– 256,053 86,821 342,874 – 1,786,030 3,961,503 5,747,533
	– 2,042,083 4,048,324 6,090,407

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 (2023: £nil).

176 Friends of the Nations’ Libraries

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