Autograph Letters

The material comprises:

• (a) numbers 1-36: letters to the architect and artist Edward Blore (d 1879), from Joseph Harding, publisher of his Monumental Remains (numbers 1-12, 19 March 1823-11 March 1824), with a prospectus (number 13); the topographer George Baker (numbers 14-21, 25 July 1819-18 August 1823); Thomas Frognall Dibdin (number 22, 4 December [no year]); George John, 2nd Earl Spencer (numbers 23-24, 4 and 7 September 1822); and various other correspondents (numbers 25-36, 1822-24);
• (b) numbers 37-42: correspondence of Thomas Frognall Dibdin, comprising five letters from him to various correspondents (numbers 37-41, c 1823-42) and one letter to him from Thomas Dampier, Bishop of Ely (number 42, 2 November, no year [? 1811]);
• (c) numbers 43-45: three letters from George John, 2nd Earl Spencer, one to Joseph Planta of the British Museum (number 43, 22 December 1824) and two to (Sir) Frederic Madden of the British Museum (numbers 44-45, 12 June and 11 July 1829).

The collection is available for consultation by any accredited reader.

Purchased by the John Rylands Library from the bookseller Hofmann and Freeman of Shoreham: Catalogue 26 (March 1969), number 39.

Description compiled by Jo Humpleby, project archivist.

Catalogued in the Hand-List of the Collection of English Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library, 1952-1970 (English MS 1305).

Papers of and relating to Edward Blore held elsewhere include:

• British Library, Manuscript Collections: architectural and topographical drawings (ref.: GB 058 Add MSS 42000-47); working drawings of Thicket Priory, Yorkshire, 1844-6 (ref.: GB 0058 Add MS 47610); letters to Philip Bliss, 1825-56 (ref.: GB 0058 Add MSS 34569-80 passim); 18 letters from Thomas Rickman, 1813-22 (ref.: GB 0058 Add MS 52587); 12 letters to Lord Spencer, 1822-34;
• Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives: account books, 1818-50 (ref.: GB 012 Add 3922-56);
• Durham County Record Office: correspondence with James Raine, 1818-24 (ref.: GB 032 D/X 1015);
• Lambeth Palace Library: plans and watercolours of Lambeth Palace, 1829-33 (ref.: GB 109 MSS 2949, 3104-05);
• National Library of Scotland, Manuscript Collections: correspondence with Sir Walter Scott, 1818-29 (ref.: GB 233 MSS 3029, 3889-3911);
• Royal Institute of British Architects Archives and Drawings Collection: account books for Worsley Hall, Lancashire (ref.: GB 104 BIE);
• Victoria & Albert Museum, Department of Designs, Prints and Drawings: architectural drawings.

The papers of Thomas Frognall Dibdin are widely dispersed: see the National Register of Archives at http://www.nra.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/searches/pidocs.asp?P=P7996.

The papers of George John, 2nd Earl Spencer, are also widely dispersed: see the National Register of Archives at http://www.nra.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/searches/pidocs.asp?P=P26824.

The JRUL also holds a collection of 174 letters from George John, 2nd Earl Spencer to Thomas Frognall Dibdin, 1802-32 (ref.: GB 133 Eng MS 71), as well as a small collection of Althorp-Spencer Bibliographical Letters and Papers (ref.: GB 133 Eng MS 915).

For other Sir Frederic Madden material at the JRUL, see the Madden Collection (ref.: GB 133 Eng MSS 18, 20, 28 and 33). Madden papers held elsewhere include:

• British Library, Manuscript Collections: historical and professional correspondence, diaries, notes and papers, c. 1822-70 (ref.: GB 058 Eg MSS 2257, 2337, 2837-48, 3778; GB 0058 Add MSS 20758, 33278-85, 38791, 43500-02, 46183, 50204, 51020a, 57341-42, 58080, 62001-78, 63652, 70850, 71174, 71512);
• Oxford University, Bodleian Library, Special Collections and Western Manuscripts: journals (c. 43 vols) and miscellaneous papers, 1819-72 (ref.: GB 161 MSS Eng hist c 140-82; misc c 96, d 99-100, f 35); historical and literary notes and papers, c. 1830-69 (ref.: GB 0161 MSS Add D 86-88; Don e 2-3; Eng misc c 76, 128, e 256; Eng poet c 8; Top Hants e 1-7).