Thomas Charles Lethbridge Fred Tebbutt Correspondence and Unpublished Manuscripts

A unique selection of correspondence between parapsychologist and archaeologist TC Lethbridge and his lifelong friend CF Tebbutt. A scarce survival, including unpublished book typescripts. From the library of John Gadd, whose name plate is to all volumes. Gadd has written an introductory excerpt to the front pastedown of the clamshell box containing the letters. In it he explains how he came to acquire this large selection of letters in March 1981 after visiting Fred Tebbutt in order to get some background detail on T.C Lethbridge and extra-sensory perception. Lethbridge argued rays of energy are transmitted from every object, and that they can be detected using pendulum dowsing. Lethbridge had taught Tebbutt how to dowse and he demonstrated this to a sceptical Gadd. To his note he writes 'I don't know how it is done, and am still only partially convinced to this day, but I saw what happened with my own eyes. One of the most amazing, and disturbing, days in my life!' Tebbutt gifted Gadd T.CL's letters and the letters Mrs Lethbridge gave him so they wouldn't get lost.1. The large clamshell box forms the correspondence between Tebbutt and Lethbridge. However, there are also extracts from the posthumously published 'The Power of the Pendulum', a newspaper eulogy of a fellow archaeologist Professor Sir Grahame Clark (discussed in letter 7) and the eulogy of Fred Tebbutt. There is also correspondence between John Gadd and the Tebbutts regarding their meeting.John Gadd has written a contents list of the letters which date from 22 July 1995 - 25 Nov 1970. There are 23 letters from Lethbridge to Fred Tebbutt in this box total. Several retain their original envelopes. There are also 24 letters signed from Tebbutt to Lethbridge from a similar time period.Subjects discussed include Lethbridge's book 'Witches: Investigating an Ancient Religion', the Pendulum effect on Rowan and Elder and dating items with pendulums. One of the letters includes Lethbridge's drawings of Saxon objects he has dated with pendulums.2. A collection of short stories by Lethbridge. The stories were originally written in 1951 and are the first psychic experiences he wrote down on paper. Here bound together are the original typescripts. Attached to all but one of the stories are commentary slips by James Whittaker of Melrose publishing house, who was a friend and correspondent of Lethbridge. Loosely inserted to the start of this volume is a letter from Whittaker to Lethbridge regarding the publication of these stories. Whittaker was lukewarm towards the stories and said they needed more work. Lethbridge later submitted the typescript to another friend in publishing, Colin Franklin, of Routledge, Kegan Paul. Franklin persuaded Lathbridge to use them as factual instead of imaginary examples of psychic phenomena. He did this and these stories were published in the E.S.P work 'Ghost and Ghoul'. John Gadd indicates which of these short stories are the writings from 'Ghost and Ghoul' at the start of this book, which assists comparison.3. 'Ivory Tower: Reminiscences of Archaeology at Cambridge 1920-1950' an unpublished autobiography manuscript written c1971. Tipped in to the start of this bound typescript is a letter from the under-librarian at the University of Cambridge requesting a xerox copy of his manuscript of 'Ivory Tower' for their archives. They state that a deposit would not be available for public consultation until 1990. A note written to the bottom of the letter states 'said he would file a copy'. Lethbridge was at one-time the Honorary Keeper of Anglo Saxon Antiquities at the Cambridge University of Archaeology and Ethnology at Downing Street, Cambridge. Gadd writes in his introduction to the manuscript that although it is regarded an autobiography 'it becomes obvious that this manuscript is very much about other people'. Tipped in is also a rejection letter from Curtis Brown to Lethbridge regarding the publication of 'The Ivory Tower'.4. An unpublished types.…