Catalogue

MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY (Felix)-continued.
A.L.S. (in English). I page, 12mo. N.D., circa 1844.

3544

42 108 An interesting souvenir of the short period of his Directorship of the London Philharmonic Society.

May I ask you to let me know whether Saturday or Sunday a meeting of the Directors of the Philharmonic is to take place? I wish most porticularly to know it." Etc.

3545 MENEVAL (Claude F., Baron de. 1778-1850). French Historian. Secretary to Napoleon I. A.L.S. to Mounier, Secretary of the Cabinet. 2 pp., 4to. St. Cloud, June 16, 1813.

3546

4555

Written during the final Campaign with Germany, and mentioning Napoleon.

(Trans.) :The news of the conclusion of the Armistice has turned all heads, there are many, very sensible people who cannot be dissuaded from the idea that the Emperor is at St. Cloud, incognito, or that he will arrive there at any time. Our life is so uniform that nothing interrupts it, make haste to put a stop to this by returning soon. Empress is exceedingly gracious, I have all praises for her." Etc.

The

A.L.S. to the same. 2 pp., 4to. St. Cloud, April 28th, 1813. Address and wax seal on fly-leaf.

£3 105 Concerning the Empress Marie Louise, the Emperor Napoleon and the King of Rome.

(Trans.) "The Empress desires you to take charge of a letter, but she wishes, above all for you to see her son, so that you will be able to tell the Emperor about him, as an eye-witness,' this will oblige you to make a journey here. The Empress leaves you the choice of hour between mid-day and seven o'clock in the evening. I should have liked to have saved you this trouble, but Her Majesty seems very anxious for you not to leave without having seen her and the King of Rome." Etc.

3547 MERCOEUR (Elisa., 1809-1835). French Writer. Friend of Chateaubriand. A.L.S. to Monseigneur." I page, 4to. Paris, Dec. 20th, 1829.

(Trans.) :—" It is with confidence and for a matter of great impor tance and moment that I take the liberty of addressing myself to your Excellency If your Excellency does not judge me to be unworthy, will he have the goodness, as soon as possible to indicate to me the day and the hour when I could have the honour to be admitted to him.” Etc.

3548 MEREDITH (George, 1828-1909). Novelist and Poet. The ORIGINAL AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT SIGNED of his famous Poem. entitled " Alsace Lorraine." Consisting of some 560 lines on 51 pages, 4to. Written at Box Hill, Dorking. The whole hinged and newly bound by Messrs. Sangorski and Sutcliffe in full crushed levant morocco, red lettered on back and side. (SEE ILLUSTRATION, PLATE No. XXV.) £210

This most valuable and exceedingly fine manuscript, is entirely in the author's characteristic hand, with very many corrections in the text. The Ode is a long and powerful poem on the loss of Alsace Lorraine to France, which took place at the conclusion of the great Franco-Prussian War. The whole manuscript, despite the many corrections, is extraordinarily clean and clear, in fact it has apparently suffered no damage whatever since it left the writer's hands. Meredith has signed it on the title-page George Meredith, Box Hill, Dorking." Two verses from this unusually long poem, read as follows:

III.

'Eastward of Paris morn is high;
And darkness in that eastward side

The heart of France beholds: a thorn
Is in her frame where shines the morn :
A rigid wave usurps her sky,

With eagle crest and eagle eyed

To scan what wormy wrinkles hint

Her forces gathering: she the thrown

From station, lopped of an arm, astounded, lone,
Reading late History as a foul misprint:

Thence,

Forbade the page of the Historic Muse,
Until her demon his last hold forsook,
And smoothly with no Countenance of hate,
Her Conqueror she could scan and measure.
The strange new winter stream of reeling sense,
Cold, comfortless, but braced to disabuse,
Ran through the mind of this most lowly laid,
From the top billow of victorious War:
Down in the flagless troughs at ebb and flow,
A wreck; her past, her future, both in shade.
She read the things that are;

Reality unaccepted read

For sign of the distraught, and took her blow

To brain, herself read through;

Wherefore her predatory glory paid

Napoleon ransom." Etc., etc.

MEREDITH (George)-continued.

3549

The ORIGINAL UNPUBLISHED AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT of "THE ART AND SCIENCE OF COOKERY," EXTENDING TO SOME 50 PAGES, interspersed with pieces of poetry, and containing occasional notes by his first wife, Mrs. M. E. Meredith, the daughter of Thomas Love Peacock.

Bound, together with a complete typed transcript, in full levant morocco, lettered on side and back. Sm. folio. 1849-50. (SEE ILLUSTRATION, PLATE NO. XXIV.)

Circa £195

Both Meredith and his father-in-law, T. Love Peacock, were epicures in feeding, and Meredith has written this manuscript with many a feeling touch and expression, interspersing it with pieces of poetry and making it most delightful reading throughout. It is believed that the manuscript is entirely unpublished.

Meredith commences with a general preface and then proceeds to deal with his subject at length. The typed transcript extends to as many as 82 folio pages, and this has been bound in at the end of the volume.

The following few extracts will help to show the absorbing interest of this lengthy manuscript, a "Livre de Cuisine," from the pen of this famous Poet-Epicure. It was evidently intended to be published by Meredith with a number of cookery recipes appended.

'If Medicine be ranked among those Arts which dignify their Professors Cookery may lay claim to an equal, if not a superior distinction; To prevent Disease, is surely a more advantageous Art to Mankind, than to cure them. Physicians should be good cooks at least in theory.'

"Those in whom the Organ of Taste is obtuse, or who have been brought up in the happy habit of being content with humble fare, whose health is so firm, that it needs no artificial adjustment; who with the appetite of a Cormorant, have the digestion of an Ostrich, and eagerly devour whatever is set before them without asking any questions about what it is or how it has been prepared, may perhaps imagine that the Editor has sometimes been rather overmuch refining the business of the Kitchen.

Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.'

"These rules and orders for the regulation of the business of the Kitchen, have been extremely beneficial to the Editor's own Health and Comfort. He hopes they will be equally so to others, they will help those who enjoy health to preserve it; teack those who have delicate and irritable stomachs how to keep them in good temper, and with a little discretion, enable them to indulge occasionally, not only with impunity, but with advantage, in all those alimentary pleasures which a rational epicure can desire."

The management of Common things so well,
That what was thought the meanest shall excel;
That Cook's to British palates most complete,
Whose sav'ry skill gives zest to common meat;

For what are your soups, your Ragoûts, and your sauce,
Compared to the fare of Old England

And OLD ENGLISH ROAST BEEF?"

"The very indifferent manner in which the operation of frying fish is usually performed, we suppose, produced the following jeu d'esprit, which appears in the Morning Chronicle.