Messrs. Sotheby's sale of July 27th was notable for the
Byron, R. L. Stevenson and Kipling items. Byron's letter to his friend, Charles Gordon, describing the Eton and Harrow match of 1805, was, very appropriately, bought by some Old Harrovian, through Messrs. Maggs, for Byron's old school ; at £350 this interesting autograph was not dear. The MS. of Stevenson's family history, Records of a Family of Engineers, with three chapters that were not published, fetched no less than. £1,600 ; and the first edition of his first publication, the little pamphlet of 1886 on The Pentland Rising, brought £78. Mr. Kipling's earliest published writings excited a much fiercer competition. A copy of his extremely rare Schoolboy Lyrics, printed at Lahore in 1881, went up to £450 ' • and a perfect copy in the original wrappers of Echoes by Two Writers, printed at Lahore three years later, fetched £355. Two brief MSS. by Mr. Kipling were sold for about £150 apiece. The touch of his pen is golden, indeed.
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