A view from Richmond of the Twickenham bank of the Thames, showing (left to right) Pope’s villa, Lady Ferrers’ summer house, Cross Deep, and Dr. Batty’s house (later Poulett Lodge).
Drawings H448 no.1
Acquired February 2022
Eight manuscript volumes: Essays on various subjects written at Univesity while at Glasgow, 1805-1806; copies of letters from Portugal 1812; Journal in Spain 1813; Journal in Lombardy, Austria, Prussia 1815; Sketchbook 1815; Journal in the north of Italy and France 1816; Journal to Spain1818; Diary 1830-1843. Also with two copies of Holland’s publication, General view of the agriculture of Cheshire (1808) and two issues of his Recollections of past life (1868).
LWL MSS 41
Acquired September 2021
A presumably incomplete set of ten transformation playing cards, drawn by Thomas Dyer, with caricatured figures of his family as stated in a 1852 note by William Hylton Dyer Longstaffe mounted to the side of the 3 of hearts. Each figure is drawn to incorporate the shape of a heart, diamond, or spade and then tipped onto brown card. Some of the cards were copied or adapted from the Nixon-Fuller set which was published circa 1811; one, for example, shows two men seated across a table with a candle jug and pipe resting upon it, which according to Longstaffe’s note features a self-portrait by Thomas Dyer (smoking) and a portrait of his father William Charles Dyer (either snoozing or contemplating). Other cards represent a range of subjects: a courtroom drama, guardsmen, two seated women (one of whom is reading to the other), a man with a goatee beard, a clergyman holding a baby and a couple standing on either side of him, and a scene with two people playing cards. Other Longstaffe’s notes provide the provenance and custodial history of the cards; “I beg your acceptance of the enclosed. The drawings on the cards are by the late Thomas Dyer caricaturing his family. Charles Dyer to me, 27 Dec. 1852.” Another note reads: “‘I beg your acceptance of the enclosed cards, which I only found this morning. They belong to the former ones I sent. Thomas Dyer gave them to his Aunt Elizabeth, from thence they descended to my aunt Emma.’ Charles H. Dyer to me, 5 Mr. 1853.”
The set also includes a full-length portrait of a Georgian gentleman, drawn on an oval piece of paper that has been mounted to a rectangular card mount with gold paper.
Drawings D996 no.1
Acquired October 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
An album of watercolors assembled by the gentleman farmer and amateur artist John Tomes showing views of his manor house Weston Sands House and the surrounding countryside. Tomes recorded his estate from many angles and in all seasons as well as picturesque spots in the neighbouring countryside, including several views of the River Avon which bordered his estate. Also included are a series of watercolors taken on a trip to the Isle of Wight. There is also a view of Windsor Castle (?) across the Thames and many watercolors of medieval ruins, abbeys, and castles. Tomes also copied a number of Turner prints from the ‘Liber Studiorum’ (published 1807-1819) and his ‘Picturesque views on the Southern Coast’ (published 1814-1826).
Folio 75 T656 818
Acquired April 2021
Unsigned; attributed to Rowlandson.
Inscribed on verso: Names of the Ships taken by Lord Howe on 1st of June 1794, and brought into Portsmouth Harbour; Sans Pareille 84 Guns, L’America 74, Limpetue 84, Northumberland 84, Achille 76, La Vengeur 74.
Drawings R79 no. 17 Box 2
Acquired August 2020
Four sketches depicting scenes from accounts published in periodicals of the early 1820s, including The Mirror of Literature, Amusement and Instruction, volume I, 1822-23. The drawing ‘Janvier About to Kill the Indian Who had Relieved His Hunger’ illustrates the tale of Charles Janvier, which was was first published in John Long’s Voyages and Travels of an Indian Interpreter and Trader, 1791. The Mirror published an abridged version in November 1822. Janvier and two other servants had been sent by their master, Mr. Fulton, to catch supplies of meat and fish. Saved from hunger by a passing native Canadian who gives them food, Janvier kills and eats the stranger, a fate he later inflicts on one of his fellow servants. Volume I of The Mirror also recounts the story of the ‘Rescue of the Emperor Basilius Maredo’, the final sketch in this volume. The Emperor, snagged by a stag whilst hunting, is saved by the sword of a servant who is subsequently sentenced to death for drawing his sword in the presence of the Emperor. The tale of the first sketch, ‘Sultan Mahamoud punishing a Ravisher’, is told in Knapp and Baldwin’s Newgate Calendar, 1824. The final sketch, ‘A Miser Distracted’, appears to be a depiction of Aesop’s fable ‘The Miser and his Gold’, in which a miser concentrates all his wealth into one lump of gold which he buries before it is stolen from him.
75 A2 823
Acquired July 2020
A scene from Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’ showing Count Ugolino della Gherardesca, Count of Donoratico (c. 1220-1289), an Italian nobleman, politician and naval commander and his sons and grandchildren imprisoned in a dungeon. After Reynolds.
Drawings R79 no. 18 Box D205
Acquired August 2020
A scene in a tavern with a pair of inebriated men sitting on a bench in front of fireplace, smoking pipes and drinking from tankards, a dog at their feet. Another man from the next booth leans over the wall to engage them in conversation which they seem not to enjoy. In the next booth (right) a group of four men play cards while a fifth looks on.
Drawings R79 no.16 Box 2
Acquired August 2020
A watercolor sketch of two rotund monks in front of a entrance to monastery in a lane within gate and wall surround. One attends closely to a young lady with two baskets on her arms; the other reads, lounging on a bench with his one foot raised.
Drawings R79 no. 15 Box D145
Acquired July 2020