Showing 29 results

Transcript

Athenæum {1} May 9. 1817.

My Dear Sir.

I have to apologize for a very long and unintentional delay in replying to your two last letters, but as it has been occasioned by three events of a different nature, though of equal importance, (my appointment as Librarian to this Institution;—my marriage; {2}—and the death of a very dear and much esteemed friend,) I confidently hope to receive your pardon.—At my success in obtaining this situation, you, I am sure will feel great satisfaction, and it is with mingled sensations of pleasure and gratitude that I inform you, I am principally indebted to you for my good fortune.—As you left me at liberty to make what use I pleased of your very flattering testimonial, I sent it with others from Mr Sparrow, and Mr Gurney, to the President of the Athenæum, {3} and about a fortnight since received a letter from him of which the following is an extract.—“I have the pleasure to inform you that you were this day, at a very numerous meeting of the Committee, elected the Librarian to the Athenæum. The number of Candidates was 96, and the number of letters and testimonials, which I had to lay before the Committee, amounted to not less than 237. You are indebted for this preference on the part of the committee, to the good sense of your communications to me, supported by the uncommonly powerful recommendation of Mr D. Turner.” {4}—The letter concludes by requesting me to assume my office as soon as convenient, and I was yesterday formally inducted.—Having thus succeeded in my most sanguine wishes, and placed in a situation, where the brightness of future prospects, offers ample remuneration for the gloom of the past, I cannot refrain from expressing my most sincere and heartfelt gratitude for the generous and unexampled friendship I have invariably experienced from you; a gratitude which my employment here will hourly increase, and where every occurrence will remind me, I am indebted to you for the happiness I enjoy.—If I can in any way, become serviceable to you in Liverpool, I hope you will not hesitate to inform me, and, if amid the numerous and more respectable claimants on your correspondence, you should ever think of me, nothing (except the pleasure of seeing you at the Athenæum) would give me great joy, than being occasionally honoured with a letter from you.—

As I am unwilling to trouble Mr Sparrow with a letter, and knowing your frequent intercourse with him, may I beg the favour of you to convey to that gentleman, my most grateful thanks for his very friendly letter to me, and for every other kindness I have received from him.

I remain Dear Sir | Yours most respectfully
Geo Burrell

[Direction:] Dawson Turner Esq— | Yarmouth

—————

Postmarked at Liverpool on 9 May.

{1} The reference is to the Athenaeum Club in Liverpool, not the club of the same name in London, which was founded later.

{2} Burrell married Anne Wing somewhere in Suffolk on 26 April.

{3} Either John Rutter, President from 1816 to 1817, or Jonathan Brooks, the Archdeacon of Liverpool, President from 1817 to 1822.

{4} The succeeding dash is below the inverted commas in the MS, but was probably intended to follow them.

(Undated. ‘Mar 3 or 4?’ has been added at the head in pencil.)

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.

—————

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.

Henham Hall.—Thanks him for advising him of Mr Sparrow’s death.

—————

Transcript

Henham Hall
March 9th
1822

Dear Sir

I am much obliged to You for communicating the particulars of our poor Friends death. It was said at Yoxford on Tuesday {1} that Mr Sparrow was taken very ill that Morning, and I was fully prepared for the Event which followed. He was one the the few Men at a very advanced age, who kept up his Spirits to the last, and who retained his Intellect to be an agreeable Companion and always interesting in his Conversation.

Y[ou]r faithful and Obt H[umb]l[e] Ser {2}
Stradbroke

[Superscription:] Dawston Turner Esq | Yarmouth [At the head:] Wangford March ninth | 1822. [At the foot:] Stradbroke

—————

A folded sheet, with a smaller piece of paper containing the direction pasted to it. On the back of the latter is written in a different hand, ‘Countess Stradbroke’. The missing letters of words abbreviated by superior letters have been supplied in square brackets.

{1} 5 March. Robert Sparrow died on the 8th.

{2} The last two words are indistinct.