archives.trin.cam.ac.uk

Letter from T. W. Coke to Dawson Turner

O./13.14/No. 89 · Part · 21 Oct. 1817

Part of Manuscripts in Wren Class O

Letter from William Roscoe to Dawson Turner

O./13.13/No. 64 · Part · 18(?) May 1817

Part of Manuscripts in Wren Class O

Transcript

Liverpool, 18th May 1817.

My Dear Sir,

You will have thought me quite inexcusable in not sooner acknowledging your obliging Letter by Mr Martin, & thanking you for the beautiful Etchings by Mrs Turner, which I assure you form a very important feature in my little collection, & from their taste, spirit, & variety, are highly admired by my friends. I may indeed most truly say that my present assemblage of books &c, is more precious to me than ever; as it almost intirely† consists of those memorials of regard & affection which serve to console me under every vexation.—You will however believe me, when I assure you that the interval that has passed since I heard from you, has been one of the most anxious & trying periods of my life. The depressed state of the times has added inconceivably to our difficulties, particularly in preventing our selling any part of our real Estates; so that a more unfortunate combination of circumstances could scarcely have occurred.—Thro’ all this we have however fought our way; & been enabled to make good our engagem[en]ts. This has been in a great degree effected by the aid of our Collieries, which are daily becoming more productive, & wou’d I believe, alone be found ultimately sufficient for the payment of all our debts. The publicity of these circumstances has restored us to a considerable degree of public confidence, & had a favourable effect on our business, which we still carry on with satisfaction & advantage. I shou’d not have ventured to have troubled you at such a length on this subject, but from your kind enquiries, & the very friendly interest which, from the first, you have taken in these concerns; which I can truly say appear to me, & I believe to others, in a much more favourable light than they did at this time last year, altho it is impossible to divest oneself of anxiety till the object is finally obtained—

I have seen Mr Burrell who has been elected Librarian of our Athenæum, which office he appears to me to be calculated to fill in a very superior manner, & I am glad to find he seems highly pleased with his new situation—We have now a much more important undertaking on hand, under the name of the Liverpool Institution, of which I hope shortly to send you a new Report which is now preparing.—You will also be glad to hear that a Botanic Garden by subscription is likely to be soon established at Glasgow, on a handsome scale. {1} I grieve at the interruptions I have had in binding Mr Coke’s MSS. which are now however once more in good train. Adieu my Dear Sir—Remember me most kindly & respectfully to Mrs Turner, & believe me ever, Your obliged & affectionate friend

W: Roscoe.

[Direction:] Dawson Turner Esq[ui]r[e] | Yarmouth

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Postmarked at Liverpool on 17 May 1817. The date of the postmark, if correct, indicates that the writer misdated the letter. Letters omitted from words abbreviated by superscript letters have been supplied in square brackets.

{1} A few words in this sentence and the next were torn away with the seal, and have been supplied by Turner.

† Sic.

Letter from T. W. Coke to Dawson Turner

O./13.14/No. 51 · Part · 29 Aug. 1817

Part of Manuscripts in Wren Class O

Letter from T. W. Coke to Dawson Turner

O./13.10/No. 2 · Part · 6 Jan. 1812

Part of Manuscripts in Wren Class O

Letter from T. W. Coke to Dawson Turner

O./13.10/No. 1a · Part · 1 Jan. 1812

Part of Manuscripts in Wren Class O

Letter from T. W. Coke to Dawson Turner

O./13.11/No. 182 · Part · 28 Oct. 1815

Part of Manuscripts in Wren Class O

Letter from George Burrell to Dawson Turner

O./13.14/No. 157 · Part · 28 Dec. 1817

Part of Manuscripts in Wren Class O

Transcript

Liverpool 28th Decem[be]r 1817.

Dear Sir.

I feel great regret at not having forwarded to you Mr Roscoe’s catalogues, which have been finished a long time, but detained in expectation that a vessel would sail from hence to Yarmouth, by which I could have sent them. I am going to send a parcel to my father (viâ London) in the course of a fortnight and shall enclose them with the medallion of Mr Roscoe, and a Catalogue of our Library; I shall request my father to forward the parcel to you by coach as soon as he receives it, and by these means you will get it much earlier than if it were sent by sea, as the parcel you sent me in the summer was two months in reaching me. I have made the Catalogues as complete as possible, and shall be most happy to do any thing else in my power for you. The Catalogue of the Athenæum Library is now 15 years old, and I hope soon to have another, you will not therefore consider the one I shall send you as a “correct report;” there having been 4000 volumes added since it was printed. In your catalogue of Mr Roscoe’s books, you will see a great many articles with the letter A prefixed, I have done this in consequence of the following circumstance. At the auction, a purse was formed by a number of gentlemen, for the purpose of purchasing some books, and presenting them to Mr Roscoe. A selection was made of those marked A in the catalogue; 220 volumes in number, and purchased for about £300, a sum infinitely below their value; but as the circumstances under which they were bought, were pretty well known there was but little competition. When their intention was made known to Mr Roscoe, he gratefully but firmly declined receiving them, unless he was allowed to pay for them the money they had cost. This, of course, was not agreed to; and Mr R. then stated it as his wish that the books should be presented to the Athenæum; {1} this was finally agreed upon;—a very handsome case has been made to contain them, and the different works published by Mr R. and given by him to this Institution and the whole termed the “Roscoe collection.”

I am now about to mention a subject, which I cannot think of but with great pain, when I consider the many and great obligations you have already conferred on me. I allude to the Bill coming due in March for twenty pounds, and which I very much fear I shall be unable to provide for. When I came here, I had only fifty pounds, and the expences I naturally incurred at commencing housekeeping, and the prospect of an increase of family, which I may look for about that time, with the expences attended upon it;—have and will make such demands upon my income as to render it a matter of great inconvenience, if not impossibility.—It is on this account, my Dear Sir, I make the request and believe me I feel much shame in doing it that you will withhold the Bill, till my means will better enable me to take it up, than they will when it becomes due. I have great reason to suppose that my income in the next year will be larger than the present, as I hope to increase it by the arrangement of several libraries, and by receiving some other appointment which I could hold together with this;—as all the Proprietors of the Athenæum to whom I am at present known, treat me with the greatest respect, and many of them have made voluntary offers to serve me, whenever an opportunity may occur. I will not mention any time for the bill to be withheld, but leave that entirely to you, considering myself of course accountable for any interest which may occur upon it. As I feel very considerable anxiety and uneasiness on this subject, I shall feel very much obliged by your writing me respecting it as early as convenient.—You have, doubtless, seen the Bibliographical Decameron, {1} a fine copy of it has been given to me by the Bookseller to this Institution. It is a very splendid, and I think not a dear work; in a letter to Mr Roscoe, Mr Dibdin says it has cost him 5000 guineas. I think it might have been more generalized, as your Library will afford specimens of “bibliopegistic” excellence, not surpassed by any London binder, and Jones our bookbinder, who has been, and is engaged in binding many of Mr Coke’s valuable manuscripts, beats Lewis hollow. I have seen a copy of the Decameron bound by Lewis, which so far from being superior to, is absolutely worse than many common specimens of country binding. I most heartily wish Mrs Turner and yourself may enjoy much pleasure in your journey to the Classic land, you will I have no doubt, pick up many rare articles. I will take the earliest opportunity of speaking to Mr Roscoe about his portrait, and will also remind Mr Martin of the autographs, both which I will endeavour to procure and send you with the Catalogues. I beg that you will present my best respects to Mrs Turner and your family, and to Mr Sparrow, whose kind attention to me I ever most gratefully remember, and believe me Dear Sir

Yours most respectfull and sincerely
Geo Burrell.

If you should ever want any engravings to be cut in wood, I can recommend a very able artist to you in my assistant librarian, I think Mr Roscoe has sent you one of his specimens in Lord Nelson’s monument, and by the parcel, I will send you some more of his doing.—

[Direction:] Dawson Turner Esq. | Yarmouth.

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Postmarked at Liverpool, 29 Dec. 1817, and marked with the postage charge ‘1/1’. Letters omitted from words abbreviated by superscript letters have been supplied in square brackets.

{1} Semi-colon supplied. The preceding word is at the end of a line.

{2} The Bibliographical Decameron, or Ten Days’ Pleasant Discourse upon Illuminated Manuscripts and Subjects connected with Early Engraving, Typography, and Bibliography, by T. F. Dibdin (3 vols, 1817), published for the author by W. Bulmer and Co.

Letter from T. W. Coke to Dawson Turner

O./13.12/No. 147 · Part · 12 Nov. 1816

Part of Manuscripts in Wren Class O

Letter from T. W. Coke to Dawson Turner

O./13.12/No. 138 · Part · 30 Oct. 1816

Part of Manuscripts in Wren Class O

Letter from T. W. Coke to Dawson Turner

O./13.15/No. 131 · Part · 1 June 1818

Part of Manuscripts in Wren Class O

Letter from T. W. Coke to Dawson Turner

O./13.20/No. 120 · Part · 13 Dec. 1820

Part of Manuscripts in Wren Class O