Fifty-five holograph letters addressed to Abraham Howell at Welshpool and in London (1) by various members of his family, 1835-1845 and undated. The writers include Edward Howell [recipient's brother], Shrewsbury, Quatt, Collingbourn, Bontdolgadfan, Towyn and Carshalton, 1837-1841 (12) (personal and family news, the writer's activities as an excise officer in the Quatt- Bridgnorth area [co. Salop] and in the Collingbourn area [co. Wilts.], his posting to the Croydon excise district, comments on his health, lodgings, acquaintances, etc., a visit to [their sister] Ellen who was at school in Minsterley [co. Salop] (1837), the writer's plans to have Ellen to live with him at Carshalton, a visit to London and wonder at seeing a 'Diving Bell', a visit to Windsor and a sight of the Queen and Prince Albert (1841)), Eleanor Howell [recipient's sister], Minsterley [co. Salop], 1838-1839 (2 ) (personal, mention of the Llanidloes rioters, hopes that there would be no attack on her parents), Elinor Howell [recipient's mother], Llanbryn- mair and [Y] Drefnewydd, 1835-1841 (5) (personal and family affairs, the sending of [recipient's sister] Elinor to school in [y] dref newidd in 1835, the need to speak to the steward about wainwen, concern about an impending visit by recipient and his wife in 1840 and the inadequate state of the house, worry because [recipient's brother] Samuel was not settling down in his job in Newtown) (one of the letters is endorsed with a note from S[amuel] Howell from Newtown, 1839), Geo[rge] Howell [recipient's brother], Machynlleth and Liverpool, 1839-1841 and undated (11) (personal, copying work undertaken for recipient at Machynlleth, the writer's office employment in Liverpool), Lewis Howell [recipient's brother], Cincinnati [America], 1841 (recipient's marriage, reflections on the married state and on the death of the writer's wife), Samuel Howell [recipient's brother], Newtown, Carshalton, London and Bont[dolgadfan], 1839-1845 (17) (personal, family affairs, a request to recipient to buy specified medical and scientific books for the writer (1839), the writer's employment in druggist stores in Newtown and London, his unfavourable impressions of London and the English, a bad report (1842) on the flannel trade [in Llanbryn-mair], a proposed move to a shop in Brighton in 1844), and W[illiam] and E[linor] Howell [recipient's parents], Llanbrynmair, 1836-1839 and undated (7) (personal and family affairs, news from America of [recipient's brother] Lewis, of the illness of Lewis's wife, and of the death of recipient's uncle Edward Bebb, mention of other emigrants to America, a visit to London by [recipient's cousin] John Robearts [sic] who, in company with Evan [Howell, recipient's brother], had visited the Houses of Parliament and heard [Daniel] O'Conel [sic] making a speech [1836], the purchase of £130 worth of wool by recipient's father, straitened financial circumstances, the [flannel] factory at Llanbrynmair, condemnation of alcoholic drinks (including verses on this theme), the poor harvest prospects in 1839, and a request for information concerning the leasing of Geselddu farm).

Journal describing tours of parts of England, January-August 1831, by Thomas Letts, with illustrations, sketches and maps.
The volume consists of excursions to Birmingham, 26-[30] January 1831, mainly to inspect various factories and canals (ff. 1-36 verso); and to Cambridge to visit his brother John at Sydney [i.e. Sidney Sussex] College, 20-[28] February 1831 (ff. 37-59 verso); brief excursions to Sevenoaks, Kent, 7-8 May 1831 (ff. 60-70), and to Windsor, Berkshire, 2-[4] July 1831 (ff. 70 verso-90 verso); and a tour of Coventry, Warwick, Birmingham, Lichfield, Burton upon Trent and Derby, [17]-22 August 1831 (ff. 91-137 verso). The volume includes eighteen full-page illustrations in pencil, watercolour and wash, mostly original and a few derivative; twenty-one smaller diagrams and sketches in ink and pencil (the majority on ff. 8 verso-34 verso passim), and ten manuscript strip maps in ink and watercolour, all relating to the final tour (ff. 95, 106, 113, 128, 133). Pasted into the volume are a printed map of England and Wales (ff. xii verso-xiii), and printed street maps of Birmingham, 1829 (tipped in on f. xiii verso), and Cambridge (ff. 42 verso-43).