Presentation books
A variation of the owner's bookplate are presentation plates and inscriptions found in books such as prizes awarded at school, farewell gifts and in memoriam.
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Prince Albert in Shining armour
Presented by Queen Victoria some years after his death to Viscountess Marianne Alford.
The book is The life of His Royal Highness the Prince consort by Theodore Martin, volume I, 4th edition of 1875. Provenance: Inscription on flyleaf of vol.1: To Lady Marianne Alford from Victoria R. Windsor Castle March 25. 1875, i.e. a gift to Lady Marian Alford (1817-88), widow of Viscount Alford, son of 1st Earl Brownlow. There are five volumes in total. An Internet volume 1 available to read here.
Poems and Letters of Thomas Gray
This is the Eton College leaving book of Adelbert Salusbury Orlando Cockayne Cust (1867-1927), later 5th Baron Brownlow. Inscription,
Hunc Librum
Adelberto S. Cust
ab Etona discedente
Do
Jacobus J. Hornby
ETONAE
dated 5th October 1883
Translates as This book Adelbert leaves from Eton. DO stands for dono dedit given as a gift.
Jacobus J. Hornby is James John Hornby (1826-1909) headmaster of Eton College from 1868 to 1884. He was the first head not have followed the tradition that the Eton headmaster should come from King's College, Cambridge. Lionel Henry Cust, another family member wrote Hornby's entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
The 5th Baron Brownlow. Five years after leaving Eton he made himself a military career in the Somerset Light Infantry. He fought in WWI in France from 1915.
James John Hornby
The presentation book has photos within it relating to Gray. Surprisingly it contained unbound, a photograph of Emmeline 'Nina' Cust (née Welby, 1867–1955). Nina was married to the infamous Harry Cust, and so Adelbert's sister-in-law.
3rd Earl Brownlow (1844-1921)
Found in the first of two volumes on Charles I, published 1854 (S.79.19).
The inscription tells us that Adelbert left Eton aged 16. Election, boys were divided into elections, according to the year in which they took the entrance exam; the elections moved up the school en bloc, and each represented a generation. When Adelbert entered Eton is uncertain, but was in the fifth form in 1859 (Cust family members in Eton school lists from 1791 to 1877). In 1857 boys still went there as young as nine or ten. Latin, Greek and mathematics (only from 1851) were the staple lessons. The poor quality of teaching led to the Clarendon Commission of 1861. A witness stated, boys were, 'almost incredibly ignorant' of English, modern languages, mathematics, natural history and modern history.
The friend, left, is Thomas de Grey (1843-1919), 6th Baron Walsingham from 1879 of Merton Hall, Norfolk, an English politician and amateur entomologist. He was Adelbert's Eton contemporary. A cricketer and lepidopterist, he collected abroad and donated 260,000 butterflies and moths to the Natural History Museum, along with his library of 2,600 books. A famous shot, he once bagged 1,070 grouse, for 1,510 shots on his moors at Blubberhouses, Yorkshire. But he doesn't appear in Belton's Game Book of the period. Yet, by 1912, all his estates and London properties were sold to pay debts and Merton Hall held in trust. He died in Hampstead, London.
Robert Benson (1850-1929) and his wife, Evelyn (1856-1943)
The Benson's bookplate adorns the Catalogue of Italian Pictures at 16, South Street, Park Lane and Buckhurst in Sussex, collected by Robert and Evelyn Benson one of 125 deluxe copies, presentation copy, Chiswick Press, 1914 (S.97.10)
One of Benson's paintings by Domenico Ghirlandaio.
Robertus Benson has signed this copy to Comiti or Count Brownlow and dated it 8th January 1915.
φιλοκαλούνπ translates as Compliments in Greek, φιλοκαλούν - They kiss
In ancient Greece, kissing was not considered strictly romantic or intimate; rather, kissing was a often a greeting between acquaintances and could be used as a sign of respect.
Benson, left, was an English merchant banker and art collector. He owned 114 early Italian paintings as well as pictures by Gainsborough and Burne-Jones. Like the 3rd Earl Brownlow, he was a a trustee of the National Gallery from 1912.
He rented Buckhurst. The most famous part of the Estate is 100 Acre Wood immortalised by A.A. Milne in Winnie the Pooh. Milne lived in Hartfield, one of the villages on the Buckhurst Estate. Evelyn was the daughter of the owner of Westonbirt Arboretum, Gloucestershire.
Published by F. LEWIS (Publishers) Ltd., Leigh-On-Sea, Essex, 1936
His signature from a book on his works (S.97.2). He painted the Belton portraits of the 3rd Earl & Countess Adelaide Brownlow and 5th Baron & Maud Brownlow.
He experimented with painting on gold leaf.
The French Revolutionary Wars
S.107.14 is the Proceedings of the General United Society for Supplying British Troops upon the Continent with Extra Cloathing [sic].
The 1st Baron Brownlow was a subscriber. The money and winter clothing were for the War of the Second Coalition (1798 to 1802). His son, Peregrine reports that Brownlow Cust was fearful of French invasion and neglected the Belton estate. Sheep roamed as far as the present day Dutch Garden. The French did invade at the 1797 Battle of Fishguard.
William Devaynes (1730-1809) was an Africa trader, London banker, Government contractor, director of the East India Company, the Africa Company, the Globe Insurance Company, and the French Hospital, five times Chairman of the East India Company and an MP. In 1806 he married a woman 60 years younger than himself. He made a settlement upon her which was every year that he lived to have some increase, thereby making it her interest to keep him alive as long as she could. She succeeded for almost four years. Despite his slavery connections he made provision for a mixed race daughter in his will.
The Duke of York of the eponymous nursery rhyme, was George III's second son and Commander in Chief of the British Army.
The 1826 Elizabeth Cust is Lady Elizabeth (1782-1858), unmarried daughter of Brownlow Cust, 1st Baron Brownlow and younger sister to the 1st Earl Brownlow. R. Cust, the Hon. and Rev. Richard Cust (1785-1864), the later Elizabeth Cust's brother.
Elizabeth Cust (1724-1769)
She was the eldest daughter of Sir Richard Cust 2nd Bt of Pinchbeck (1680-1734) and Anne Brownlow (1694-1779). The family lived at Leasingham north of Sleaford. Quite where is uncertain. Leasingham Manor dates from 1759. Leasingham Hall might have had a C17 core. The Hall replaced an earlier medieval building which was to the south-west of the site (Stephen Levrant Heritage Architecture Ltd. 2020)
Her mother inherited the Belton estate on the death of Viscount Tyrconnel. She died unmarried like her younger sister Lucy.
Her friend, Mrs Woodcock may relate to her paternal grandmother Ursula Woodcock (1659-1684) or a contemporaneous Woodcock family of Rippingdale.
Attributed to Enoch Seeman the younger
Henry Francis Cockayne-Cust (1819-1884) in S.104.32.
Son of Rev. Hon. Henry Cockayne Cust, the younger brother of the 1st Earl Brownlow. Henry married Lady Anna Maria Elizabeth Needham. He had 4 daughters before having the infamous Harry Cust. He became a Lieutenant, by purchase (~£70,000 2021), later Captain, by purchase. In 1874 he entered Parliament as a Tory for Grantham. He lived at Cockayne Hatley, but spent 20 years at Ellesmere House, Ellesmere looking after the Earls Brownlows' land.
There are two hands here. Firstly, R. Clinton presenting this book, the Political Life of Gerorge Canning to Henry. Secondly, the hand of Adelburt Salusbury Cockayne Cust, later 5th Baron Brownlow, and the youngest son of Henry. Adelburt has written in Eton 1838.
Henry, above, was in the Middle Division of the Fifth Form at Eton in 1835. He would have had another two or so years at Eton, leaving around 1838. Also at Eton in 1835, was Lord Robert Clinton, in the Lower Division of the Fifth Form.
was a British Liberal Party politician representing North Nottinghamshire. The sixth son of the 4th Duke of Newcastle, Lord Robert entered Christ Church College, Oxford, in 1839. His family home was Clumber Park. Newspaper reports have him consorting with Mr & Mrs Leopold Cust, father of Sir Charles Cust.
In the 1861 census he was unmarried, living as a lodger at 109 Piccadilly, London. He continued to vote as an MP but is reported as attending on a stretcher, too weak to stand (Berkshire Chronicle 23 July 1864). He stood down from being an MP. By 1864, he was confined to a Bath chair (North London Record 25 June 1864). He died after a 6 year illness at Earlswood, Reigate. This was at the time, the location of The Royal Earlswood Hospital, formerly The Asylum for Idiots. A prestigious institution, it housed members of the Royal Family.
He was buried in the Milton Mausoleum, Nottinghamshire.
An Oxford based theologian who in 1763, became Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University. Described by an academic enemy as Half a casuist, half lawyer, half Courtier, half Cit [a town dweller], Half Tory, half Whig (may I add, half a Wit?)
The recipient was was the son of Sir Richard Cust, 2nd Bt. and Anne Brownlow. An English clergyman Canon of Christ Church, Oxford in 1765. He also served as Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons (younger brother of Speaker Cust), Dean of Rochester and Dean of Lincoln.
Happy Birthday, the Noble 1st Earl Brownlow
Born on the 19th August 1779, Carew's Survey of Cornwall from his third wife Emma Sophia Countess Brownlow (née Edgcumbe, Cust). Following her husband's death in 1853, she was known as the Dowager Countess Brownlow. Famed for her autobiographical book, Slight Reminiscences of a Septuagenarian from 1802 to 1815 published in 1867. A timeline of Emma's life to the onset of serving Queen Adelaide and after is available here.
The gift Library XLVIII.A.1, is a 1769 edition. Originally published in 1602, the book gives a Tudor view of the county. It has a handsome leather cover and gauffered page edges. Gauffering involves impressing a pattern into the edges of a book, after they had been gilded, with warm finishing tools or rolls. It was not a common form of decoration and by the mid-1600s had mostly died out. The 19th century saw its resurgence.
He was the son of Henry Cockayne Cust, the spare heir to the 1st Earl Brownlow. Henry's descendants would step back in to maintain the family line with the 5th Baron Brownlow in 1921. Apart from being an Anglican evangelist and linguist. Robert was part of the Orientalism movement and active within the British and Foreign Bible Society. He was a prolific writer and presented his books to the 3rd Earl Brownlow.
He returned from long service in India after the death of his second wife in 1867 in Prayagraj, formerly Allahabad (above). He was one of the few Victorian intellectuals to oppose the racist theories popular at the time. The series of dedications come from his multivolume Linguistic and Oriental Essays.
Robert Needham Cust. His 1885 villa replaced with an ugly apartment block seen left sometime after 1955.
His sister, Eleanor Katherine Cockayne Cust, married Walter Scott Seton-Karr who was also a judge in colonial India. As secretary to the Government of India in 1868 he sent gun boats to punish the turbulent Arab chiefs in the Persian Gulf.
Belton has a painting of Henry's young family. Robert and Eleanor are at the far right.
L.17.ext.16
Lionel was the grandson of Henry Cockayne Cust brother of the 1st Earl Brownlow. Lionel's mother was Lady Elizabeth Caroline Bligh (1830-1914), important to researchers for her Records of the Cust family of Pinchbeck, Stamford and Belton in Lincolnshire. Many of the letters she quotes are missing or destroyed. Lionel's father, Reginald Cust was Chief Commissioner of the West India Incumbered Estates Commission. Yet another financial consequence of enslavement.
was a British art historian, courtier and museum director. He was director of the National Portrait Gallery from 1895 to 1909. Upon the accession of King Edward VII in 1901, Cust was appointed a Gentleman Usher and Surveyor of Pictures in Ordinary to His Majesty, and later George V.
Roxburghe Club
The Roxburghe Club was founded in 1812 and is the oldest society of bibliophiles in the world. Its membership is limited to 40, chosen from among those with distinguished libraries or collections, or with a scholarly interest in books.
The 3rd Earl Brownlow was a member from 1903 to 1921.
Alice Pulteney, Lady Brownlow (1604-1676) was the daughter of Sir John Pulteney of Misterton, Leicestershire. She married in 1621, 'Old' Sir John Brownlow, 1st and last Baronet of Belton (1594-1679) son of Richard Brownlow and Katharine Page. She died in 1676 without issue. She is charmingly commemorated holding hands with her husband in William Stanton's monument in Belton church.
The deceased is her brother John Pulteney born 1610, in Misterton, Leicestershire, England. He inherited the family estates in 1617 whose annual income was £233,000 (2024 CPI). He died without issue on 15 May 1637. In his will he left £20 (£4,000 CPI) to Alice and £10 to Dr Hodges. Details of his alabaster tomb are here.
John Hodges (died 1663) was appointed rector of St Leonard's church around 1601 and cannon of Lichfield Cathedral in 1628. he graduated from Balliol College, Oxford University in 1601.
This is a handwritten sermon from John Hodges dedicated to Alice Pulteney circa 1637 (Library XXX.J.3)
