57 



of the woik, and my taking legal steps to annul the agreement 

 between Richardson and myself, which steps were only not rom- 

 pleted, that Mr. Bolckow intervened, a fact which, as well as Mr. 

 Richardson's bankruptcy (repeated, moreover), has some little 

 bearing on any ' ofifer ' made by the latter to ' complete the work 

 at his own cost' It was in allusion to this ' inability ' that Mr. 

 Carl Bolckow, on the only occasion on which I had any personal 

 communication with him, said to me in the presence and hearing 

 of the late Dr. Gardner, of Skelton — we three having travelled 

 together from York to Picton, and been talking a good deal 

 about the completion of the book — ' Well, if it can't be done at 

 Barrow, at all events it shall be done at Middlesbrough.' As 

 touching Mr. Bolckow's assent to the arrangement, I give copy 

 of it from letter dated 8th June, 1877, now open before me : — 

 ' I am favoured with your letter, and am prepared to carry out 

 the arrangement which Mr. Trevor and I agreed upon when I 

 had the pleasure of seeing him here. I do not think there is 

 any hurry in sending me the last ten MSS. parts,' which were 

 sent, however, a few days after. The letter here acknowledged 

 was my letter accompanying Mr. Trevor's draft of agreement, 

 slightly modified by me as requederl, if I saw necessary." In a 

 subsequent letter Mr. Atkinson says, '' I senc you copy of the 

 opening sentences of Mr. Bolckow's letter of 8th .June, 1877. 

 The closing ones run thus: — 'He' (Mr. Richardson), ' says he 

 is equally anxious to complete the book as soon as possible, as he 

 has over £1,000 sunk in it.' In R 's private letters to myself, all 

 of which I have, the sum ' sunk ' varies amusingly between 

 £1,.^00 and £8,000. In the ' Yorkshire Bibliographer ' it is 

 £3,500." AYriting the following day (March 9th), Mr. Atkinson 

 said, " I tried very hard, and for a considerable period of time, 

 first and last, to obtain the remaining MSS. from Mr. Bolckow, 

 but even for the purpose of correction, emendation, addition, and 

 so forth, he was not to be moved. He had recourse to the 

 method of declining to acknowledge Mr. W. C. Trevor's letters 

 even, and I personally have never had a single response from 

 him. As far as I can remember, our last distinct effort was to 

 propose a meeting between myself and Mr. Bolckow, each to 

 bring his legal adviser, if Mr. Bolckow so elected, and so and 

 then consider the whole matter, with my legal agreement with 

 Richardson, and the written terms of agreement with his uncle, 

 and the written assent of the latter to them before us. And the 

 immediate occasion of this proposition was that Mr. Bolckow's 

 avowed locus standi in his demur to give up the MSS. was that 

 he was not assured as to R'chardson's claim to the copyright not 

 being a valid one. This Avas the ground he took, and, as you will 



