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Great Western Railway card, dated 8 December 1915, authorising J. Parry, Fireman in the Loco Department, to enlist 'under Lord Derby's scheme'.

A copy of Robt Robson, Guide Book for Locomotive Enginemen and Firemen (1914). John Parry was employed as a locomotive fireman before enlisting.

A copy of the second volume of Leonid Morgan's work 'Ystradgynlais Parish. Names & Families 1513-1813' covering the years 1713-1813

An incomplete journal describing part of a tour of Italy, 12 October-9 December [1822] (watermark 1813); the writer is unknown but does not appear to be Thomas Prior.
The journal begins in Fiorenz[u]ola [d'Arda], 12 October, with the writer and his party then moving on to Parma (ff. 1 verso-2), Bologna (f. 2 recto-verso), Florence (ff. 3 verso-5 verso), Terni (ff. 7 verso-8), Rome, 5-17 November (ff. 10-11) and Naples (ff. 13 verso), arriving on 23 November. The volume ends with an account of an ascent of Vesuvius on 9 December (ff. 14-16), including a sketch of the mountain (f. 15).

Journal of the Rev. Thomas Prior, 25 August-29 October 1802, mostly describing an excursion to North Wales with his wife A[licia] M[arie] Prior, 27 August-12 October, during which the couple took lodgings at Caernarfon (ff. 1-19 verso).
The Priors sailed from Dublin to Holyhead on 25 August (f. 1), visited Bangor (ff. 1-3 verso), then stayed at Caernarfon, 2 September-12 October, with a number of brief excursions within Caernarvonshire (ff. 3 verso-19 verso). The couple returned to Dublin on 12 October (f. 19 verso) and the latter portion of the journal concerns the resumption of Prior's daily life, 13-29 October (ff. 20-22). The volume includes an anecdote on the painter Robert Bowyer recounted to Prior by Bowyer's brother-in-law (f. 1) and an eyewitness account of the Rev. Thomas Charles preaching, 1 October (f. 15).

Journal of a tour of North East Wales and the North of England, 24 July-13 August 1800, by the Rev. Thomas Prior, travelling with his friend Ja[me]s Bessonnet.
The volume describes the voyage from Dublin and along the North Wales coast and the disembarkation by boat in the vicinity of Llandudno (ff. 1 verso-6), followed by visits to Abergele (ff. 6 recto-verso), St Asaph (ff. 8-9, 11), Holywell (ff. 13-15), Chester (ff. 17-23), Liverpool (ff. 25 verso-31), Manchester (ff. 33 verso-51), Buxton (ff. 51 verso-59 verso), Leeds (ff. 69-71), York (ff. 71 verso-75 verso) and Harrogate (inside back cover). The leaves of blotting paper are used mostly for notes and for an account of expenditure for [26 July]-31 August (ff. 9 verso-10 verso, 12 recto-verso); this account, together with the reference to Westmoreland and Cumberland on f. 1, demonstrates that the journal is incomplete.

Three letters, May 1861-December 1862, from Elihu Burritt, New Britain, Connecticut, to his friend and fellow peace campaigner Henry Richard [in London]. Burritt describes the effects of the American Civil War on the peace movement in America and on Burritt's own position, and gives details of his arrangements to leave New Britain in late 1862 (ff. 7-9).
In the final letter, 1 December 1862, Burritt thanks Richard for sending £15 to pay for his passage to England. He was due to sail from New York on the 13 December 1862; he returned to Birmingham to live from 1863 to 1869 (f. 9). Also included is a letter, 9 December 1846, from Burritt, Birmingham, to 'Dear Friend Featherstone' (f. 6).

Two letters from the social reformer Robert Owen, New Lanark, 14 November 1819 (f. 35), and [London], 11 [?December] 1819 (f. 36), to the lawyer William Tooke FRS, both seemingly referring to Owen's 'Plan to Improve the Condition of the Lower Classes', as unveiled at a meeting at Freemasons' Hall, London, the previous June, as well as personal matters.
Owen states his intention to 'act in complete unison with the principles I have patiently advocated' (f. 35), has sent copies of his address to the Prime Minister and others (f. 35) and has been busy lobbying members of parliament (f. 36). A debate on the plan in the House of Commons on 16 December came to nothing.

Autograph letter, 4 January 1795, from Mary Morgan, Ely, to her publisher, [John] Stockdale, Piccadilly, concerning the forthcoming publication of her book, A Tour to Milford Haven in the Year 1791 (London: John Stockdale, 1795, ESTC T99699). Morgan expresses her disappointment at the intention to omit two hoped for engravings of the Sandleford estate and 'St Govin's Rocks' [St Govan's Head], while insisting on the inclusion of the letters relating to those places, and suggests limiting the print run to five hundred copies (ff. 33-recto-verso).
The address ('Mr Stockdale / Piccadilly / London') is on the conjugate leaf, f. 34 verso.

Seven letters, 1937-1964, from artist and writer David Jones, Harrow, to the Catholic author and editor Donald Attwater, in which he discusses In Parenthesis and The Anathemata (ff. 23, 24, 28 recto-verso, 29 verso, 32), Welsh history (ff. 24 verso, 27 recto-verso), Welsh place names (ff. 26 verso-27, 29 recto-verso, 30 recto-verso), Cornwall (ff. 29 verso, 30 verso), the Biblical place name Calvary or Golgotha (ff. 30 recto-verso), the attitude of the French authorities to the Breton language (ff. 31 recto-verso), and his inability to learn languages, in particular Welsh (ff. 25, 31 verso).

Manuscript, [?1859], of the poem 'Last lines' by George Thomas (1786-1859) of Llandyssil, Montgomeryshire, probably in the hand of his son John Thomas of Bank, Llandyssil (f. 20 recto-verso), together with a printed copy of the poem, [?1859] (f. 21).
The manuscript contains two minor emendations in a different hand, possibly that of George Thomas himself (f. 20 verso). The poem is printed in full in Frazer Thomas, 'George Thomas of Llandyssil, 1786-1859', in Montgomeryshire Collections, 97 (2009), 101-121 (pp. 120-121).

A manuscript copy, [1610x1650], of a petition by the counties of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire seeking to be removed from the jurisdiction of the Council of Wales and the Marches; it formed part of a petition of grievances presented by a deputation of Members of Parliament to King James I at Whitehall on 7 July 1610, during negotiations concerning the Great Contract (f. 17 recto-verso).
It is probable that the original petition is now in Kew, The National Archives SP 14/56/part 2; a number of other manuscript copies are also known (see Proceedings in Parliament 1610, ed. by Elizabeth Read Foster, 2 vols (New Haven and London, 1966), II: The House of Commons, pp. 253-254). The text of the petition is printed in William Petyt, Jus Parliamentarium (London, 1739), pp. 330-331, and Foster, pp. 261-263. In the different sources the number of MPs attending the audience is variously given as twenty, seventeen and twelve (see Foster, p. 254); the preamble to the present manuscript states that the grievances were presented 'by Sir Francis Bacon and Twelve more of the lower house of Parliament' (f. 17).

A small group of documents, 1636-1637, concerning the regulation of the manufacture and sale of copperas (ferrous sulphate), and silver mining in Cardiganshire.
They comprise: (i) a signed warrant of King Charles I to the Attorney General Sir John Bankes, received 17 July 1636, to conclude a contract between the king and English copperas makers to purchase copperas at an improved rate (f. 13); (ii) a petition to the king from Thomas Bushell, the mining entrepreneur, granted at Lindhurst, [Hampshire], 19 August 1637, asking to be granted the right to purchase copperas at a favourable price (f. 14); (iii) a further warrant from the king to Bankes, received 24 October 1637, mainly granting modifications to regulations relating to copperas to give Elizabeth, Dowager Viscountess Savage, a monopoly, but also requiring the removal of the provision for Bushell 'to have Copperis for our Mine in Wales at the former rate' (f. 15). Bushell intended to use copperas in a new process to extract silver from ore, however this process was to prove ineffective (see J. W. Gough, The Superlative Prodigall: A Life of Thomas Bushell (Bristol, 1932), p. 49). Bushell subsequently successfully petitioned the king to establish a branch of the royal mint at Aberystwyth to coin his silver, with himself as warden.

A petition, [June] 1844, from the landowners, tithe payers and parishioners of the parish of Byshopston [Bishopston], Glamorgan, to [Edward Copleston], Bishop of Llandaff, asking him to intervene in their dispute with the Tithe Commissioners concerning a compulsory award of tithe rent charge in the parish, thought by the petitioners to be excessively high. The petition is signed by eleven parishioners.
The Bishop of Llandaff was the patron of the living of Bishopston and also held the ecclesiastical manor of Bishopston.

A manuscript letter, [1785], from A[nna] M[aria] Bennet[t], [at Tooting, Surrey], to her former lover Admiral Sir Thomas Pye, Suffolk Street, [London], castigating him over his affair with another woman (ff. 1-2).
A transcript of the letter, [?late 20 cent], is also included (f. 3). Bennett describes herself as 'on the wrong side of forty' (f. 1), suggesting a birth date earlier than that given in biographical sources (see for instance The Encyclopedia of Romantic Literature, ed. by Frederick Burwick, Nancy Moore Goslee and Diane Long Hoeveler (Chichester, 2012), p. 120: 'sometime between 1750 and 1760').

Holograph working draft, [?1944], by Vernon Watkins of 'Memories', an English translation of Friederich Hölderlin's poem 'Andeken' (see for instance Friederich Hölderlin, Poems and Fragments, trans. by Michael Hamburger, 4th bilingual edn (London, 2004), pp. 576, 578).
The translation was first published in Life and Letters To-day, 44 (January 1945), 24-25, and was collected in Vernon Watkins, Selected Verse Translations (London, 1977), pp. 65-67. Ten of the poem's fifty-nine lines contain emendations by the author; the revised form corresponds exactly with the published version.

A letter, 19 April 1824 (watermark 1823), from [the Rev.] B[enjamin] Evans, Stockton[-on-Tees], to the Rev. Timothy Davis, Evesham, Worcestershire, son of the Rev. David Davis, Castell Hywel, concerning Evans's subscription to the forthcoming book by David Davis, Telyn Dewi (London, 1824).

An autograph letter, 29 May 1813, from the Rev. Thomas Charles, Bala, to Joseph T[regelles] Price, Neath Abbey, concerning Charles's work preparing a new edition of the Welsh Bible for publication by the British and Foreign Bible Society (i.e. Y Bibl Cyssegr-lan, Sef yr Hen Destament a'r Newydd (London, 1814, Libri Walliae 401)) and his frustration at the relative paucity of Sunday Schools in South Wales, in particular Glamorgan, Monmouthshire and Breconshire.
The letter was printed in full in D. E. Jenkins, The Life of the Rev. Thomas Charles, B.A., of Bala, 3 vols (Denbigh, 1908), III, pp. 476-478.

A document, dated 8 October 1645, bearing the signature of the poet and philosopher Edward Lord Herbert of Cherbury, acknowledging receipt of his 'weeklie allowance' of £10 from Thomas ffauconberge [Fauconberg or Fauconbridge], Esq., Receiver General of the Public Revenue.
The receipt also contains the signatures of two witnesses, including Matth[ew] Clay. Although Herbert had been granted a weekly pension of £20 by Parliament the previous February the present receipt is for only half that amount, possibly on account of a warrant of 6 June cited in the receipt.

A letter, 28 January 1968, from the poet R. S. Thomas, Aberdaron Vicarage, to Miss H. Thomas, Bangor, in which he discusses his work and opinions and the recurring figure of 'Iago Prytherch', evidently in response to specific questions from Miss Thomas.