A collection of autograph letters, etc., of 2260 authors, chiefly English, arranged alphabetically by name. The collection encompasses authors of a wide variety of genres, including history, theology, fiction, politics, natural history and science. Many of the letters contain portraits, engravings, etc. The contents of the boxes are as follows:
- I (Eng MS 372), A to Bai;
- II (Eng MS 373), Bec to Bro;
- III (Eng MS 374), Bro to Chas;
- IV (Eng MS 375), Chas to Doy;
- V (Eng MS 376), Doy to Ful;
- VI (Eng MS 377), G. to Haz;
- VII (Eng MS 378), Hea to Hy;
- VIII (Eng MS 379), Ibb to Lay;
- IX (Eng MS 380), Lea to Mas;
- X (Eng MS 381), Mas to O;
- XI (Eng MS 382), P to Q;
- XII (Eng MS 383), R to She;
- XIII (Eng MS 384), Sher to Sy;
- XIV (Eng MS 385), T to V;
- XV (Eng MS 386), W to Y.
Authors represented include Harrison Ainsworth, Matthew Arnold, Joseph Angus, Henry Burgess, Charles Burney, George Byron, Thomas Campbell, Thomas Carlyle, Adam Clarke, Richard Cobden, George Cruickshank, Sir Humphrey Davy, Charles Dickens, Alexander and Joseph Fletcher, Samuel Carter Hall, Joseph Hume, Walter Savage Landor, David Livingstone, Harriet Martineau, James Montgomery, John Rennie, John Roby, William Roscoe, Sir Walter Scott, Mary Shelley, Anthony Trollope, etc.
English MS 380 contains a small series of letters from Frederic Leighton to Mrs E.A. Rylands concerning a commission for her house, Longford Hall, in 1895.
The contents of these fifteen boxes were originally contained within thirty volumes. They were probably transferred to boxes while in the care of Mrs E.A. Rylands.
Calendared in Eng MSS 393-399 (see below).