File 752 R288 719
Acquired March 2021
A handbill issued by the churchwardens of St. Martin’s in the Fields, London, forbidding businesses to operate on Sundays, “Except works of necessity” and also mandating the hours that households must show lights on the exteriors.
Signed by the churchwardens: Thomas Kynaston and Richard Smith.
File 646 755 T55
Acquired July 2021
“Portrait after Richard Cosway, standing whole-length to left on a terrace, looking to front, wearing evening dress with feathered headdress, holding up her skirts in her left hand and a feather fan in her right, stairs descending beyond at left.”–British Museum online catalogue.
Portraits T753 no.2
Acquired June 2021
49 3091
Acquired April 2021
“Lady Conyngham chases Eldon from the royal precincts; she threatens him with the sceptre and a clenched fist, saying, Je le veut [sic]. She is décolletée, much bejewelled, and displays an elephantine leg and tiny foot. Close behind her stands Knighton, a pen behind his ear, his arm raised; he has just flung a massive gold inkpot decorated with the Royal Arms; ink falls on Eldon’s head. He says: take that, & that, & that, le Roy le veut. ‘Roy’ is scored through. Canning stands behind impassively, hand on hip, holding up a cross, and saying In hoc Signo vinces [Constantine’s miraculous vision: cf. British Museum Satires No. 15385]. The building behind is ornate and Gothic, more elaborate than the actual Cottage. The King’s head (out of scale with the building) is framed in a small casement window; with an equivocal expression he looks towards Eldon, saying, Necessitas non habet leges. Eldon has dropped the Mace and the Purse of the Great Seal; he says: Had I served my God with half the Zeal I have served my King, he would not have suffered me to be turned out for supporting his Cause.”–British Museum online catalogue.
827.04.21.01
Acquired July 2021
74 791 Sp764
Acquired May 2021
In an outdoor setting, Lord North and Edmund Burke look down at Charles Fox who stands knee-deep in a hole in the ground. All are in mourning clothes. Fox expresses fear of remaining in “this terrible Pitt” forever. An angry North, stamping his foot, expresses disillusionment in their coalition, while a quiet Burke decides to disassociate himself from Fox.
784.03.19.01 Impression 3
Acquired July 2021
A commonplace book kept by Thomas Sutton starting on 5 November 1819 in which he records anecdotes, quotations, epigrams, drinking toasts, many directly related to his home Nottingham and indicate the pride he feels in its history and people. He begins with a passage from John Blackner’s “The history of Nottingham” (1815) extolling the virtue of Nottingham men with a passage recounting an episode during the Glorious Revolution of 1688, followed by several passages from a range of sources in praise of Nottingham and its men, prominent political figures — Lord Grafton, Lord Dundas, Thomas Paine — and stories of local personalities. Nottingham ale warrants several pages of discourse. He provides a lengthy account of a canal boat accident, which is illustrated with a line-drawn plan followed by an extract from Christian Ignatiyus Latrobe’s Journal of a visit to South Africa in 1815 and 1816 about the destruction done by wolves at Groenekloof and the attempt of the missionaries and the native people to hunt them down and a confrontation with a tiger. Also included are copies of four letters sent by his uncle Charles Peck relating to his volunteering for an expedition to the Congo with Major Peddie, his trip along the River Gambia to Senegal, and a letter from Sierra Leone announcing his uncle’s death with a discussion of the money due him from the expedition. The remaining bulk of the volume contains excerpts from The Nottingham Review, toasts, poems by Pope, Thomas Paine, Robert Burns, Thomas Moore; comical stories as well as political events including the death of King George III. He provides a detailed, alphabetic list of the towns, boroughs, and remarkable villages in England and Wales. He relates a story about a wager laid by Colly Cibber and Pope; a woman named Jenny Hickling of Nottingham, bedridden for 61 years and other stories that piqued his attention. His interest in Africa continues in 1823 when he copies several pages from Campbell’s Travels in Africa.
LWL Mss vol. 266
Acquired July 2021
A settlement certificate signed, and with seals, by the church wardens, overseers of the poor, and witnesses, for a husband, wife, and their two children in the Parish pf Tamworth in the county of Warwick.
File 66 766 T627+
Acquired May 2021
A collection of original art removed from an album: silhouettes, pressed flowers, a valentine, and drawing. The silhouettes include one of a woman in an academic gown and cap mounted on Art-Union of London ticket for entrance to an event at Theatre Royal, Lyceum on 25 April 1854; two views of the same man(?) identified as “James Evans” (on verso: Professor Rees) one with highlighting in gold. The pressed flowers are a small sheet with leaves or petals of a pink hue. The valentine is small drawing of bright flowers with a motto “Toujours unies par l’amitié” with a gold border. Also included is an amateur watercolor of a “Peasant boy” in a smock, standing on a grassy mound.
LWL Mss Vol. 269
Acquired May 2021