Showing 5 results

Archival description
O./13.15/No. 122 · Part · 19 May 1818
Part of Manuscripts in Wren Class O

Transcript

Thetford 19. May. 1818.

Dear Sir.

I am extremely sorry that owing to neglect or forgetfulness in my Brother you have not earlier received the enclosed book, as when I saw Mr Palgrave here in March I promised to send it in a few days, but as I went back to Liverpool almost immediately, (and from whence I am just arrived,) I commissioned him to procure and send you a perfect copy.—My journies to Norfolk have originated in a very painful and melancholy cause;—for some time previous to our marriage, my wife had been very closely engaged in attending a sister afflicted with a consumption, and who died about 15 months back. She is now herself about to become a victim to the same disorder, and although she may possibly continue some months, her recovery cannot be hoped for. As soon as her illness was known at Liverpool, several of the first Physicians in the town, who are connected with the Athenaeum gratuitously attended her, and as they all were of opinion her native air could alone be serviceable to her, I brought her into Suffolk in February, and since that time her constitution has been gradually yielding to this lingering and fatal disease.—If in the severity of this visitation I can desire any comfort it is from the attention shewn to me by the Committee, who on this, as well as every other occasion have behaved to me with the greatest kindness.

I hope Mrs Turner and family are well, with my best respects to them and to yourself

I remain Dear Sir
Yours most faithfully
Geo Burrell.

Can you conveniently spare me an etching of “Wm Miller Esq.” one of which you had the kindness to send me last summer. I want it for a gentleman at Liverpool who is a collector of portraits from private plates; you may probably have heard of him as an Amateur Artist—Geo. C. Bainbridge Esq.—.

I leave Thetford for Liverpool the 28th inst.

I am afraid you have no duplicate autographs, I have began† to illustrate the Decameron with them, but proceed very slowly.

[Direction:] Dawson Turner Esqr | Yarmouth.

—————

No marks of posting.

† Sic.

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.

—————

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.

O./13.13/No. 59 · Part · 9 May 1817
Part of Manuscripts in Wren Class O

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.

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

—————

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.

O./13.13/No. 78 · Part · 9 June 1817
Part of Manuscripts in Wren Class O

Transcript

Athenæum June 9th 1817.

My Dear Sir.

I am unwilling to lose any time in answering your obliging letter of the 2nd Inst., and in assuring you that I shall have great pleasure in executing your Commissions to the best of my ability;―the first relative to Mr Roscoe’s Catalogues I shall have no difficulty, as the three are in this Library with the prices and purchasers† names to each, if you will have the goodness to send me yours I will make them as complete as possible.―There is only one engraved portrait of Mr Roscoe, and that by no means a good one, there is also a small bust which is much worse, the best likeness is a terracotta Medallion, about nine inches in diameter, and shewing the head and neck in profile, it was executed by a person of the name of Gibson in this town, and owing to a similar cause is nearly as rare as the Miller halfpenny, one is offered me for a guinea, and if you wish me to purchase it I will thank you to inform me. I shall be very happy to contribute all in my power to your stock of Autographs, and will lose no opportunity of doing so. I have not been so fortunate as to see Mr Martin since I was favoured with your letter, but will mention it to him as soon as I see him.―I am very much obliged by your kind offer of Etchings and shall be very grateful for any you have to spare, which will serve either to illustrate my few works on Topography, or the Walls of my Parlour; should the excellent portraits by Mr Phillips be engraved I should be very happy to receive them. I have frequently regretted that the hasty manner in which I left Yarmouth, prevented my accepting the offer you so repeatedly made of giving me etchings, this regret however is now removed by your recent renewal of that offer.―I have had several interviews with Mr Roscoe, and every one has increased my respect for that estimable man, and I hardly know which to admire most in him, {1} the fortitude with which he bears the {2} deprivation of one of the finest collections in the possession of any individual, or that rigid sense of honour which influenced him in making so great a sacrifice. Mrs Burrell desires me to express her thanks united with mine for your kind congratulations and good wishes, and with best respects to Mrs Turner and family

I remain Dear Sir
Yours most respectfully
George Burrell

―――――

{1} Comma supplied. The preceding word is at the end of a line.

{2} Most of this word was torn away with the seal.