Rare lot to go under hammer

A rare manuscript signed by William Wordsworth will go under the hammer in Shropshire this week.

The manuscript, a quotation from Rabbie Burns, is in an album which also has a signature of George Washington as well as many signed letters and pieces by leading figures in Victorian Britain.

Its value is estimated at between £2,000 and £3,000. It will go under the hammer at Mullock’s Auctioneers at Ludlow Racecourse on Thursday.

Richard Westwood-Brookes, Mullock’s historical documents expert, said it was very rare to find Wordsworth manuscripts these days.

He said: “Manuscripts in Wordsworth’s hand are now becoming virtually unobtainable. . . Just why he sought to write out this quotation, which comes from Burns’s Second Epistle to J Lapraik, is a mystery but it provides a fascinating link between the two leading poets of the British Isles in the early 19th century.”