[Incomplete] Guard-book of miscellaneous items, 19th-20th cent.

Comprises ten manuscript, and typescript letters, and one copy letter from Tolkien to Burchfield, relating to Burchfield's attendance at tutorials, his search for housing in Oxford, his application for funding for his research, his search for an academic post, his congratulations on the publication of The Fellowship of the Ring, an extension for his work on 'Ormulum', and Tolkien's edition of Ancrene Wisse: The English Text of the Ancrene Riwle, and one letter from Burchfield to Tolkien relating to the printing of Ancrene Wisse. Also a description of the letters by Elizabeth Burchfield, widow of R.W. Burchfield.

Comprises letters from Augustus De Morgan, mathematician and historian

• (fol. 17) to Admiral William Henry Smyth enclosing notes (not present) on an (unknown) preface written by Smyth, 11 July 1865
• (fols. 18-21) to Arthur Hall, speculating on the origins of the name "Onuphrio", used by Horace Walpole, July-Aug. 1867

Removed from MS. Eng. e. 3588. See the Single Items catalogue, (Manuscripts in Printed Books)

Comprises two letters from Anthony Powell and one from Lady Violet Powell to Timothy Rogers, former Deputy Keeper of Western Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library, including (fol. 23) answers to questions about A Dance To The Music of Time, 15 Feb. 1983

• (fol. 25) letter written from Pembroke College, Oxford, to Col. F.C. Garrett of Hexham, Northumberland, answering a query concerning the Roman sentry system.
• (fol. 26) letter written from 15 Belbroughton Road, Oxford, to Mrs Clifford concerning Roman graffiti found somewhere near Caerleon, Wales, 28 June 1936

For Collingwood papers, see Dep. Collingwood 1-32.

Typed letter with autograph greeting and initials at end. Wittgenstein discusses the pros and cons of venues for a concert in Vienna, in response to a request made to Margaret Deneke by one of her young protégés.

Mainly in English, partly in German.

Price's reply to an inquiry from Caley regarding Hyldyrton [Ilderton, Northumberland], 12 June 1788. The letter includes a transcription, in Latin, of an account of the endowment of the vicarage of Hyldyrton recorded in the cartulary of the priory of Kirkham, Yorkshire (MS Fairfax 7). The letter is accompanied by a copy of the Latin transcription and a translation, written in a different hand.

J. Price (1735-1813) was Bodley's Librarian from 1768 to 1813. John Caley (1763-1834) was keeper of records at Westminster and secretary to the Record Commission. For further details see the Dictionary of National Biography.

Comprises one original and 21 copy letters from Thomas Ashe to Viscount Perceval, 3rd Earl of Egmont, and his agents E. Templeman and C. Crandon, and a copy of a letter to Thomas Ashe from the agent for convicts at Portsmouth. In the original letter to Viscount Perceval, 10 Dec. 1813, Ashe summarises his early career, explaining his descent to gutter press writing, and requests money to enable him to become a respectable writer. The copy letters, 19 Dec. 1813-15 June 1814, are predominently pleas for financial assistance, but also include Ashe's thoughts on the liberty of the press and the effects of political calumny, in which he mentions having written under the name of Albion in Blagdon's Political Register. He also provides reports of his activities, including the production of a written work for Princess Charlotte concerning the principles of the British Constitution, and accounts of his troubles with the Home Department and the Treasury.

Thomas Ashe (1770-1835) was born at Glasnevin, near Dublin, and became a writer following a short career in the army and several years of foreign travel. Throughout the present correspondence, Ashe attempts to prove that he is sincere in his wish to repent and improve himself, and writes of his intention to travel to Botany Bay, a plan he plainly does not wish to pursue and subsequently abandons, but which he is later forced to renew when alternative plans for opening a school and producing a weekly newspaper fail to raise the necessary funds.

Ashe was the author of several novels, memoirs, and political articles, including Memoirs of mammoth, and various other extraordinary and stupendous bones, of incognita, or non-descript animals... (Liverpool, 1806); Travels in America performed in 1806... (London, 1808); The spirit of 'the book'; or, Memoirs of Caroline princess of Hasburgh, a romance..., 1812; Memoirs and confessions of captain Ashe (London, 1815); and The charms of dandyism; or, Living in style, by Olivia Moreland (London, 1819). A full list of works available at the Bodleian and other OULS libraries can be found on OLIS. For further details of Thomas Ashe see the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

The engraving appears to have been removed from Beeverell's publication and coloured at a later date.

Discusses an unusual fire lasting for months on the sea coasts of Caernarvonshire. Anthony Wood has annotated the letter to say that he has not published Lhuyd's "divers letters" to Ray about the fire because there is an account of Mr Lhuyd's in Phil. Transact. nrs 208, 213, "but this l[ette]r having some of Mr Lhuyd's thoughts about it, not there published, I thought it convenient to entertain the reader with it".

Edward Lhuyd [Lhwyd; formerly Lloyd] (1659/60?–1709), was a naturalist and philologist, and Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum 1691-1709. John Ray (1627–1705), was a naturalist and theologian. For further details on both men see the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

There are letters from Ray to Lhuyd in MS. Ashmole 1817a and in MS. Eng. hist. c. 11. Letters from both men can be found in the Aubrey and Lister collections.

Congratulates Gollop on his return to health.

John Tucker (1701-79) was a merchant and MP for Weymouth. He was married to Martha, daughter of George Gollop. The Tucker family had wide business interests in Dorset and beyond, and held the Surveyorship of the Crown's stone quarries in Portland.

The papers of the Tucker family are MSS. Don. b. 16-28, c. 101-34. For the full catalogue see M. Clapinson and T.D. Rogers, Summary Catalogue of Post-Medieval Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Oxford. Acquisitions 1916-1975. (Oxford, 1991), vol. I, nos. 38674-720.

The letter describes the fire at the Palace of Westminster in 1834 and the damage done. Pugin celebrates the loss of the work of Soane and Wyatt and criticises the architect Smirke.

The letter is published in Belcher, Margaret (ed): The Collected Letters of A. W. N. Pugin: Volume I: 1830-1842 (Oxford; Oxford University Press, 2001)

Augustus Welby Pugin (1812-52), architect - see Dictionary of National Biography

• (fol. 71) Photograph of an unidentified man
• (fols. 72-6) Manuscript article responding to the reception of Romanes' Mental Evolution in Man
• (fols. 77-8) Two cuttings from the journal Nature with letters to the editor by Romanes, entitled 'Mr Wallace on Physiological Selection', published in no. 1102, vol. 43 and no. 1105, vol. 43, Dec 1890
• (fols. 79-86) Herbert Robson and Frank J. Cole: Earthworms and Infectious Disease. Apparently a newspaper article cut and pasted into a small booklet.