Sophie Cat 56 - Sophie Dupre

Clive Farahar & Sophie Dupré, XV The Green, Calne, Wilts, SN1 8DQ, Tel: (01249) 821121 48
356. PRINGLE (Mary, b. 4th February 1801, later
Beague, eldest daughter of Maj.-Gen. James Pringle, 1746
or 1747-1810, Bengal Army)
3 entertaining volumes of her Travel Journal on the
Continent, in post-1815 Europe, from Le Havre to Paris,
Switzerland and Italy, returning by Germany, the Rhine,
Brussels and Rotterdam, 56 + 22 + 31 pp. text plus a few
blanks, 8vo., stitched, marbled covers to 1st volume, 31st
July 1819 - 28th August 1820, and 1st August 1821 - 8th
October 1821 [SD50016]£375
Mary travelled with her mother Charlotte (née Halkett, 1773 or
1774-1853), her stepfather Stewart Boone Inglis (m. 1818), and
sister Charlotte (b. 16th August 1806). Besides art and
architecture she takes great interest in manufacturing processes,
such as the silvering of plate glass at Paris, the Gobelins, and the
great water tower shaped like an elephant and castle in the Place
de la Bastille. She visits the Deaf and Dumb school in Paris,
Pestalozzi in Switzerland, the agricultural school near Berne, and
the military school in Milan, describing their methods (Pestalozzi
gives the pupils examples, they deduce the rules for themselves).
She admires the roads built by Napoleon, especially the Simplon,
sees the statue of ‘Jupiter’ in Milan done with the head of
Napoleon, and is even given at dinner there a lock of the
Emperor’s hair. She admires too the grace with which ordinary
French people dance for an evening’s relaxation at the Tivoli
Gardens, gets invited to join a wedding party, and haggles with
shopkeepers for the local price. When the party change horses,
there is no stopping her and her mother clambering up for a fine
view - her description of the successive heights at Milan Cathedral
is particularly evocative.
The party spend a month at Paris, where ‘restaurants’ are still
comparatively new. They then hire a boy and four mules to go in
eight days toGeneva. The famous sudden view of Mont Blanc, at
sunset and cloudless, is “like magic”. They find themselves in the
footsteps of Rousseau, Voltaire and Byron, whose name they see
carved at Chillon. They stay long in Milan (October 1819 -
August 1820), then take a house on Lake Como, visiting all the
nobility’s gardens by boat. The story resumes in August 1821 in
“Baden en Baden”. All roads, it seems, lead to the Frankfurt
Autumn fair. The longest stop on the way home is at Brussels (10
days), where they see the Duke of Wellington in the Park, along
with Lord Castlereagh, ambassador Clancarty, and Lady Jersey.
They find that the King of the Netherlands is expected, along with
George IV, whom they have never seen in England, and who
“astonished us by his immense size”.
With many other vignette descriptions, of clothing, road travel,
seeing Louis XVIII dine in public, and shrewd comments on
actors and singers, fellow travellers and local notables.
With sketches of the Great Tun at Heidelberg, and of the
monument at Breda to Count Engelbrecht of Nassau.
357. PRINGLE (Mary, b. 4th February 1801, later
Beague, eldest daughter of Maj.-Gen. James Pringle, 1746
or 1747-1810, Bengal Army)
Sketch Book of 7 finished and 6 unfinished drawings, the
finished include 2 of “Mr Egerton’s Cottage” with thatched
roof and rustic portico, 2 of a 66-gun man-of-war, and
studies of twigs (all pencil), with, in colour, 2 vignettes of
country scenes, the figures in bright colours, the unfinished
ones show farms, the coast, and looking out to sea, original
marbled limp covers, 12 leaves 10½” x 8”, Teignmouth and
n.p., n.d. and September 1823 - March 1824, old minor blot
on front cover [SD50017]£350
Slipped in are (native Indian) coloured drawings of an Indian
gentleman writing at his table, a Grass Cutter and Smoking a
Hookah, and two Indians bricklaying.
358. PULSZKY (Therese, Wife of the Hungarian
Politician and Author Ferencz Pulsky 1814-1897)
ALS toMiss (Sabilla) Novello at Genoa, “You will have
heard the joyful tidings about Garibaldi’s state of health”,
alongside whom her husband had fought in 1862, with wry
comments on doctor’s bills and “Dr. Partridge’s pleasure
trips to Spezia which have been but too freely remunerated
by the British public!!”, adding “Mr [J. Alfred] Novello”,
1810-1896, “will have seen with pleasure Cobden’s speech
at Rochdale [?November 1864]”, “none but Louis
Napoleon can rejoice if the two great nations stand opposed
to each other”, delivered by hand by her husband, 2 sides
8vo., Turin, 3rd November n.y., c. 1864 [SD13115]£75
359. PUSEY (Dr. Edward Bouverie, 1800-1882, Anglican
High Church Leader)
ALS to ‘My dear Wynter’, about a half-measure which
“comes too late now ... I will not put my hand to any such
measure, it goes on no principle, we have no objection to G.
except that he is inferior to W[illiams]”, (Isaac Williams,
1802-1865, who stood unsuccessfully for the Professorship
of Poetry at Oxford), 1 side 8vo., 116 Marine Parade,
“Oct[ave] of Xtmas, Thursday Ev.” (30th December) 1841,
guard strip on blank verso [SD13118]£40
Dr. Philip Wynter, 1793-1871, was President of St. John’s,
Oxford from 1828 and Vice-Chancellor 1840-1844.
ENNELL (Sir James Rennell Rodd, 1858-1941,
Diplomat and Writer, from 1933 1st Baron)
Fine ALS ‘RR’ to his mother, telling her that he
has “got back safely yesterday after a pretty good tossing in
the small P & O from Brindisi ... Little Wingate”, (General
Sir F. Reginald WINGATE , 1861-1953), “has had a
tremendous success. The news was too much for Lady
Wingate who there and then presented her absent husband
with a daughter ... He is very much pleased. I wished things
looked as bright in the Transvaal. I suppose we cant hope
always to be able to make war with a minimum of anxiety &
the Khalifa died game. There was something very fine in
the end of amanwhoIbelieve had been from our point of
view a master of cruelty. He was sitting with all his emirs
round them in the order of their rank riddled with bullets.
Men with not an idea of surrender ... the game was up and
had gone against him, so he waited on death with a stoicism
which one must admit was magnificent ... One dreads to
get the news of the next few days from Natal and from the
other side too for the matter of that”, 4 sides 8vo., Cairo,
7th December 1899 [SD13173]£150
Abdullah et Taaisha, (1846-1899), was principal khalifa or
vicegerent to the Mahdi, and empowered to act in his name. The
Mahdi named him his successor on his deathbed in 1885 and for
thirteen years Abdullah ruled over what had been the Egyptian
Sudan. He moved his capital to Omdurman and there Kitchener in
1898 almost annihilated his army. Abdullah fled to Kordofan
with the remnant of his host, and finally gave battle to Wingate at
Om Debreikat as described in the letter.
The Boers had invaded Natal on the outbreak of war, 11th
October 1899. By the time of this letter, Ladysmith (to where the
British forces in Natal had fallen back), Mafeking and Kimberley
were all under siege. Signs of hope did not appear till Field
Marshal Lord Roberts was placed in supreme command, with
Kitchener as his chief of staff, in January 1900.