Stanhope to undertake the biography, when he found that he could not himself face it, and thereafter Mr. Colquhoun and then Mr. John Ball, F.R.S. I obtained from the box, by leave from Mr. Bond, then Keeper of MSS., in the beginning of 1876, the transcripts made for Mr. Dawson Turner by his two daughters, which have remained under my care in the Botanical Department.
The story of the originals after I parted with them is a distressing one. Some seven or eight years ago Lord Brabourne claimed the letters as his property. Mr. Maunde Thompson remonstrated, and told him that they were to remain in the museum till the death of Lady Knatchbull, and then they were to become the property of the trustees. Lord Brabourne would not accept this view, but claimed them as his own, and carried off the box and its contents. They were afterwards offered to the museum for sale, but the price offered by the Keeper of the MSS. was not satisfactory, and the whole collection was broken up into lots, 207, and sold by auction at Sotheby's on 14th April 1886. The Journal of Cook's voyage was lot 176, and was described in the catalogue as "Banks's (Sir Joseph) Journal of a Voyage to the Sandwich Islands and New Zealand, from March 1769[1] to July 1771, in the autograph of Banks." It was purchased by an autograph dealer, John Waller, for £7:2:6. Mr. Britten has gone to Waller's to inquire after the Journal. Waller did not specially remember that purchase, and he does not believe he has got the manuscript. So where it is now no one knows.[2] As you will see, the earlier portion of the Journal was missing in the lot sold. Waller bought in all 57 lots. The letters were broken up and sold as autographs; those that he purchased and did not know, like those of Brass, Nelson, Alex. Anderson, etc., and were of no money value, he would probably at once destroy, so he told Mr. Britten. So now all is gone—for whether the letters are preserved by autograph collectors, or were at once thrown into the wastepaper basket, they are equally lost to science. The 207 lots realised in all £182:19s.!
The result is that the Journal and letters transcribed for Dawson Turner, and now here, are the only ones available. I am thankful they have been saved out of the catastrophe.
Your transcriber is diligently at work.—I am, faithfully yours,
Wm. Carruthers.
