Collecting Signatures

The Victorians were avid collectors, and autographs, letters and signatures proved just as exciting as ferns and shells. Among the Wardlaw Ramsay papers is an envelope containing scraps of paper bearing signatures, cut from letters, envelopes, and forms. The signatures are penned by Wellington, Castlereagh, Charles Canning, the Duke of Clarence, Melbourne, Peel, Shaftesbury, Palmerston, Rosebury, Hillsborough, Lord Derby and Lord Aberdeen. A rather irritated letter from Lord Dalhousie completes the collection.

The signatures date from 1837 to 1849, which suggests that Robert Balfour WR, who inherited the estate in 1837, collected them. His younger brothers moved to Leamington Spa with their mother, and he may have sent some signatures to Balcarres or John for their collections. However, it’s not impossible that he, as a fatherless young man, found association with these relics of the great men of his time consoling.