A.L.S. OF DUKE OF MONTROSE TO THE KING.
(In the collection of Mr. F. Sabin.)
PART OF A.L.S. OF EARL HOWE TO EARL SPENCER AFTER HIS GREAT VICTORY OF JUNE 1, 1794.
In 1876-77-78 Mr. Waller was selling letters of Hood and Rodney at prices varying from 4s. 6d. to 7s. and "Wellingtons" at an average of 5s., but asked 12s. 6d. for a good letter of Villeneuve, who was defeated and taken prisoner at Trafalgar. In the same catalogue I find an A.L.S. of Wellington for 3s. 6d., and "fine specimens" of Turenne Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough (Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in Spain temp. Queen Anne), priced respectively at £2 10s. Five years ago, however, a short letter written by the Iron Duke on the evening after Waterloo realised £105 at Sotheby's, and, as I have already stated, Wellington paid £60 for two similar letters during his lifetime—and committed them to the flames. At this time I see three interesting letters of Marlborough and three of his wife, with one document signed by the latter, were sold in a lot for £10 10s. Very good letters of Marlborough may even now be bought in Germany and Belgium for £3 or £4. In the "eighteen-seventies" very little Nelson MS. seems to have been in the market, but Mr. Frederick Barker offered a long A.L.S. of Lady Nelson (May 2, 1805) for 6s., and "directions for approaching Cadiz, 1 p. folio, wholly in Nelson's handwriting," for £3 5s. He priced two good A.L.S. of 1794 and 1795 at £5 5s. and £4 4s. In 1887 I met with a letter of General Gordon, quoted as "very rare," for £2 2s. In the same catalogue is a fine letter of Prince Rupert for £3 3s. I frankly envy the purchaser for 9s. 6d. of a letter written by Marshal Ney, from Montreuil, Boulogne, in 1804, when the terror of French invasion was at its height.
OFFICIAL MS. ACCOUNT OF EXPENSES INCURRED AT FUNERAL OF QUEEN ANNE.
At the present moment there is little demand for the letters of the less known sailors and soldiers of the latter part of the seventeenth and first half of the eighteenth centuries, like Shovel, Wager, and Rooke, and I have seen a letter of Vernon, whose coat of grogram gave rise to the familiar word which still denotes the dilution of spirits with water, sold for 5s.! There is, however, one naval autograph of this period which now commands high prices. I allude to letters and other MSS. of the ill-fated John Byng, judicially murdered on March 14, 1757, "pour encourager les autres," as Voltaire says in "Candide," or in other words, to save the face of an inefficient and discredited Ministry. I gave £3 in 1907 for an A.L.S. of his which thirty years ago was sold by Mr. Waller for 12s. 6d., but I regard as a veritable autographic treasure the original of his will, which bears his signature in three places, and was executed only forty-eight hours before his tragic death. The sang-froid displayed in its elaboration shows the courage and deliberation of the unlucky admiral when face to face with the "Grim Sergeant."