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Three notebooks, 1850-1853, containing botanical drawings and notes compiled by the Rev. Charles Francis Powys as a boy. The envelope in which the notebooks were kept is inscribed with a note on its contents by John Cowper Powys.

Samples of dried plants, 1846, 1850, and a piece of lace; a piece of embroidery; a list of clothing requirements for 'Caroline Parsons 6 years old' dated 1850; a list of Christmas gifts, 1851; a printed copy of a drawing, inscribed 'Lenore'; a list of family events which occurred in the year 1866; a copy of a print, with a note by 'A.M.', possibly Charles Francis Powys's maternal grandmother, Amelia Moilliet; a 'Psalm in trouble' written out by hand; a list of artists and their works; and a knitting pattern written out by hand.

Papers of or relating to Major Littleton Albert Powys, brother of the Rev. Charles Francis Powys, comprising personal papers (including juvenilia), and material relating to his death, memorial and estate.

Papers, 1879-1881, relating to the estate of Major Littleton Albert Powys, comprising a list of costs, 1875-1879, relating to the preparation and administration of his will, addressed to the Rev. Charles Francis Powys, as executor of the will, from Newman, Jeans & Co. [solicitors], Clements Inn, London; correspondence, 1879, 1881, addressed to the Rev. Powys from Newman, Jeans & Co. relating to the administration of the estate; and inland revenue legacy receipts and residuary accounts, 1881, also relating to the administration of the estate.

An incomplete prose tale by John Cowper Powys entitled 'The Knight of the Festoon'; set in medieval Wales, the work was written in 1883, when the author was eleven years old.

Thirty letters, 1878-1889 and undated, to the Rev. Charles Francis Powys from his mother Amelia Powys. The letters contain mostly family news, including the birth of Charles and Mary Powys's second daughter Eleanor, who died in 1893 aged 13, and reflections on Charles's brother Major Littleton Albert Powys, following his death in August 1879. There are notes by [Amelia Powys's granddaughter Marian Powys] on ff. 38 verso, 44 verso and 49, and by Charles Francis Powys on ff. 33, 53 verso and 55. Enclosures comprise proposed memorial inscriptions for Amelia Powys and her husband the Rev. Littleton Charles Powys (ff. 52-54) and a card bearing Biblical verses (f. 73).

Letters, 1866-[?1890], to the Rev. Charles Francis Powys from various correspondents, as follows: [?G. H[arr]y Pearson], Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (1), 1866 (regarding a teaching post for John Cowper Powys); E. S. King (1), 1868; [?] King (1), 1872 (with two photographs enclosed); George [?Collett] (1), 1873; [the Rev.] R[obert] Grant (1), 1878; Cox, Sons, Buckley & Co. and William Powys, 1884, regarding memorial stones for Charles Francis Powys's parents (with a note by Charles Francis Powys on f. 19); the poet and philosopher William Barnes (1), 1885 (with a note by Powys biographer Morine Krissdottir on f. 28); [?M.] R. Phelips (3 (one a fragment only)), 1885 (regarding the living of Montacute) (with a note on the envelope by Charles Francis Powys); the congregation of St Peter's Church, Dorchester, on the occasion of Charles Francis Powys's removal from there to St Catherine's Church, Montacute (1), 1885, and the Rev. John Stapleton of St John's Church, Weymouth (1), [?1890].

Personal, financial and estate papers of the Rev. Littleton Charles Powys, father of the Rev. Charles Francis Powys, and estate papers relating to family members of the Rev. Littleton Charles Powys.

Personal papers of the Rev. Charles Francis Powys, including botanical notebooks (juvenilia) and samples of hair taken from Powys family members.

Letters addressed to the Rev. Charles Francis Powys from his mother Amelia Powys, other family members and various other correspondents.

Notebook of John Cowper Powys, [c. 1895]-1901, containing heavily revised drafts of over twenty poems, including an early version of 'To A. C. Swinburne' (ff. 21 verso-22), published in Odes and Other Poems (London, 1896), and of 'Written on Monday Evening March 29' (f. 14 recto-verso; cf. NLW MS 21930E, f. 162), published in Horned Poppies ... (North Walsham, 1986); the opening of a verse play (ff. 25-28); and two prose fragments (ff. 9-13 and 46-47 verso (reverse text)), apparently of Powys's unpublished first novel (see NLW MSS 23672-23676), referred to as 'Work without a name' in Powys's Autobiography (1934), pp. 314-315. Leaves not originally part of the notebook but found loose inside have been filed at the beginning of the volume (ff. 1-8).

Letters to the Rev. Charles Francis Powys from his brother Major Littleton Albert Powys (2), 1854, [1872] (the death of their father the Rev. Littleton Charles Powys); his father-in law and former tutor William Cowper Johnson (3), 1866 (congratulations to Charles Francis Powys on his Cambridge success), [1872]; his prospective wife Mary Cowper Johnson (1), 1871 (Charles Francis Powys's transfer to Shirley and their forthcoming marriage); his maternal aunt Susanna Smith (3), [?1872], [1879] (congratulations on the birth of Charles and Mary Powys's second daughter Eleanor (who died in 1893 aged 13)), [1885] (congratulations on attaining the living of Montacute); his maternal aunt Louisa J. Moilliet (1), 1883 (an offer of the living of Burton-le-Coggles, Lincolnshire, with a note in Charles Francis Powys's hand on the envelope stating that he declined the offer 'at Mother's advice'); and his [?] sister Philippa F[rances] E[milia] Shirley (3), 1891 (regarding Charles Francis Powys's mother Amelia Powys's memorial at Stalbridge) (with a note on the envelope in the hand of [Marian Powys], daughter of Charles Francis Powys), 1892, 1901.

Four notebooks and a series of disbound notebooks and loose leaves, [c. 1900]-[c. 1902], containing parts of a projected first novel by John Cowper Powys comprising substantial drafts of a romance set on the Sussex Downs; together with numerous, shorter fragments of narrative, mainly passages of prolix theological and philosophical discussion, and Rabelaisian fantasy, involving characters based on the author's friends. Also included are heavily worked drafts of unpublished poems (NLW MS 23672E, ff. 57-60 and ff. 135-137 verso, 138 verso, 139 verso-140, inverted text; NLW MS 23673E, ff. 146 recto-verso, 147 verso, 154 recto-verso, 155 verso, 156 verso-60 verso, 161 verso-162, inverted text; NLW MS 23676E, ii, ff. 250 verso-251, 253 verso-255, 259 verso, 260 verso, 261-262 verso, 263 verso, 264 verso-265 verso, 266 verso, 267 verso-268 verso, 269 verso, 270 verso, inverted text); and notes on Shakespeare's The Tempest, Macbeth, Richard III and The Taming of the Shrew (NLW MS 23673E, ff. 148-153 verso, inverted text), possibly for use in Powys's lecturing work.

Letters to Mary Cowper Powys from the following correspondents: 'Uncle Cowper Hamilton's father' (1), 1869; her father the Rev. William Cowper Johnson (3), [1872], 1879, 1888; her mother Marianne Cowper Johnson (2), 1879 and undated; her husband the Rev. Charles Francis Powys (1), [1879]; her mother-in-law Amelia Powys (1), [1879]; her daughter-in-law Dorothy Mary Powys, wife of Albert Reginald (Bertie) Powys (1), 1905; and [?Norman], her old nurse at Yaxham (1), undated; together with a sheet of paper with a note on the letters [in Mary's daughter Marian Powys's hand]. There are notes by [Marian Powys] on ff. 4 verso, 7 verso and 22, and a note by Mary Cowper Powys on f. 14. The letters contain mostly family news, including the last illness and death of the Rev. Powys's brother Major Littleton Albert Powys. For the 'Mr Lake' referred to in the Rev. Powys's letter see 'Papers relating to Littleton Albert Powys'.

Miscellaneous personal papers of Mary Cowper Powys comprising printed pieces of card bearing the inscriptions 'Mrs Thomas Hardy At Home' and 'Max Gate, Dorchester' and dated in pencil 30th August 1905 [in Mary's hand]; a birthday card, on the dorse of which is inscribed '1st Feby. 1883 C.F.P.'s [i.e. Charles Francis Powys's] birthday' [in Mary's hand]; a printed leaf of 'Daily Texts' dated January 1874, with pencil note [in Mary's hand]; an envelope bearing a note on contents [in Mary's hand]; a verse and note addressed to Charles Francis Powys in Mary's hand; a pencil drawing, dated August 1895, by Mary of her son John Cowper Powys's house; an envelope bearing the inscription 'Isobel Powys May 1906' containing a photograph of Dorothy Powys, wife of Mary's son Albert Reginald (Bertie) Powys, dated 1906, and a lock of [?Dorothy Powys's] hair; and a wedding announcement of Littleton Charles and Alice Mabel Powys, son and daughter-in-law of Mary Cowper Powys, 1904.

Typescript copies of twenty-one letters, 1893-1910, from John Cowper Powys to his mother Mary Cowper Powys. References include John Cowper Powys's betrothal and subsequent marriage to Margaret Alice Lyon in 1896, his lecturing tours in the United States and elsewhere, and his own and his brother Llewelyn's health. Enclosures comprise two letters, 1893, to Mary Cowper Powys from her daugher Gertrude Powys, and a poem, 1902, by John Cowper Powys entitled 'June 1902', marked 'For the Wilsonian' (f. 20). Together with one other (undated) letter written in Latin from John Cowper Powys to his mother, apparently while the former was a pupil at Sherborne School. Notes relating to the two letters of 1893 are typed at the top of each, presumably by the copier.

Six typescript lectures by John Cowper Powys on Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Lamb, Sir Walter Scott and William Makepeace Thackeray, with some revision, mainly in the author's hand, and an additional passage by the author at the end of the final lecture. The scripts may have been taken down by a stenographer from Powys's delivery when he was lecturing in the United States. The lectures were published in Singular Figures: Six Lectures by John Cowper Powys, ed. by Paul Roberts (Colchester, 1989).

Letters to Mary Cowper Powys from members of her family, including her parents, children and grandchildren.

Letters, 1889-1914 and undated, to Mary Cowper Powys from her children (other than John Cowper Powys) and grandchildren as follows: son Albert Reginald (Bertie) (8 letters + 1 poem), [1891]-1908 and undated (one letter also signed by Bertie's wife Dorothy Mary Powys) (with notes on envelopes in Mary Cowper Powys's hand); son William Ernest (Willie) Powys (22 letters + 1 fragment + 1 poem), [1899]-1914 and undated (with notes on envelopes in Mary Cowper Powys's hand); daughter Gertrude Powys (3), 1889 and undated; son Llewelyn Powys (1), [?1906]; grandson Theodore ('Charles ('Dicky')') Powys (son of Theodore Francis Powys) (2), 1913 and undated; and grandson Littleton Alfred Powys (son of John Cowper Powys) (1), [1909]. Many of the letters are illustrated with ink and/or pencil drawings by the correspondent.

Two incomplete draft novels by John Cowper Powys, the first (ff. 1-13, originally numbered 86-98, headed 'Chapter 2') being a fragment apparently excluded from a draft of Rodmoor (1916), the second (ff. 14-128, originally numbered 2-115) being a draft of chapters 1-4 of a novel set in East Sussex in 1920.