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39. BETJEMAN, John. “Dumbleton” and “not so far from Evesham”. manuscript copies in Penelope Betjeman’s hand. September 1978.


£1,750


in an autograph letter (also included) signed to Bevis hillier, dated 16 September 1978, Penelope Betjeman relates how John Betjeman had dictated these two fragments of poems to her. “i spent an hour with JB at no.29 this afternoon and he dictated enclosed. he didn’t forward it before as promised because he has had secretary trouble again”.


The “enclosed” is a single sheet taken from a feint lined ring binder and has two fragments of poems:


“Dumbleton” Dumbleton, Dumbleton the ruin by the lake, Where Boggins & Sir Bolton fought a duel for thy sake; Dumbleton, Dumbleton, the Gothic arch that leads Thro’ the silver vestibule to where Sir Bolton feeds. The groaning of the golden plate, The Sickly social shame; oh heirs of Dumbleton! The monsell in thy name!” [And] “not so far from Evesham city on a sunny hillside green Stands an ancient country mansion nothing modern to be seen”


The first poem is recorded in a footnote in John Betjeman Letters Vol. 1 (p.161) “John Eyres-monsell’s house was Dumbleton in Worcestershire, about which JB wrote two poems. one he recalled from memory in 1976 [two years before being written down here] was a parody of ‘A nuptual Eve’ by Sydney Thompson Dobell”. it does not however seem to have been published in any collection of Betjeman’s poetry. Peterson in his notes on the Poems n138 does not record any manuscript version of this poem.


The second fragment is the opening of Betjeman’s poem “Dumbleton hall” which was published for the first time in John Betjeman Uncollected Poems in 1982, 4 years after Betjeman dictated these opening lines to Penelope. Under her copy of the verse Penelope Betjeman has noted “Paddy [Leigh Fermor] & JB recalled it recently under the influence of drink one day, but JB cannot remember anymore now. Joan Leigh Fermor (Eyre-monsell) will have it”.


40 41


40. [BETJEMAN, John Foreword]. WRATISLAW, Theodore. oscar Wilde: A memoir. Foreword by John Betjeman. introduction and notes by Karl Beckson. The Eighteen nineties Society 1979.


£398


8vo., original cloth decorated and lettered in gilt, with scarce glassine wrapper. A fine copy.


First edition of this account of Wratislaw’s visit to Wilde’s home at Goring-on-Thames. one of only fifty copies of the delux edition signed by John Betjeman and the editor G. Krishnamurti.


41. BEWICK, THOMAS. A General history of Quadrupeds. newcastle-upon-Tyne: Edward Walker for T. Bewick and S. Hodgson: Sold by them and all booksellers. 1807.


£895


4to, half red straight-grain morocco over marbled boards, spine lettered directly in gilt and with centrally gilt tooled compartments, marbled endpapers, marbled edges, green silk marker; pp. x, 525, [1 (advertisement)]; richly illustrated with numerous woodcuts to text; slight rubbing and bumping to board edges, spine faded, occasional slight foxing and light marking to centre of leaves 146-147 from marker, nonetheless a very good copy, much cleaner than most; provenance: John christopher


mansel (armorial bookplate on upper pastedown, owner’s pen signature on title-page).


imperial Paper edition, one of 250 copies. John christopher mansel (1771- 1839) gained the rank of major in the service of the 3rd Dragoon Guards and served as aide-de-camp to his father major-General John mansel. maj.-General mansel married mary Anne, the sister and heiress of George Biggin, the lord of the manor of cosgrove. mansel and his wife predeceased Biggin, on whose death in 1803 the manorial estate, centred on the house known as cosgrove Priory, passed to their son George. The mansels already owned another estate in cosgrove, including the mansion known as cosgrove hall, where the family made their home and with George’s death both this estate and the former Furtho estate at cosgrove hall passed to their son John christopher and were merged into one. it then passed to another John christopher mansel, the eldest son of Admiral Robert mansel, General mansel’s second son.


Roscoe 5A.


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