Warning that “Enemies of Government and the Admirers of the Corsican Tyrant” may interpret the silent confidence of the English as despair and dismay, and that the nation’s present inactivity “raises in the Mind of your INSOLENT AGGRESSOR the Hope of Success”, the writer, signing himself Timoleon, urges the mobilisation of half a million Britons in the counties and shires and the raising of an army that will bring about the final overthrow of France – “The Reward of your Courage, and the certain Consequence of her Temerity and Madness”.
After quoting the fears of a British re-awakening voiced by General Dumouiez, Timoleon ends with a final call to arms.
“Lose not therefore a Moment in preparing the Means of achieving so much Glory for your COUNTRY, of
gaining so much Honour four YOURSELVES, and your proud POSTERITY!!!”
Sold at £1500 in Godalming was a much larger lot of military interest, principally comprising 24 journals that detail the life and times of Lt.-Col. Rodney Foster (1882-1962), who, after leaving Sandhurst, spent most of his service life in India.
Demobilised in 1919, he returned to work on the Survey of India before retiring to Kent in 1932, only to enlist in the Saltwood LDV on the outbreak of WWII. The diaries include hundreds of watercolours, maps and photographs and caricatures, plus biographical notes and thumbnail sketches of the many people mentioned in his diaries and journals. See illustration, right.
Buyer’s premium: 15 per cent.
“Lose not therefore a Moment in preparing the Means of achieving so much Glory for your Country”
Sold for £180 as part of a Hamptons sale on August 1 was the handbill exhorting Englishmen! to take up arms against Napoleon, right.
