Loosely inserted is a fine ALS, on ‘The Institution of Municipal Engineers’ headed notepaper from C. W. Scott-Giles to Mr [John] Power saying he is glad to inscribe the latter’s copy of the Wimsey Papers. The letter postscript is quoted here-’While my wife & I had something to do with the Wimsey Papers we were not the chief perpetrators - Dorothy Sayers and Helen Simpson were chiefly concerned. CSG’. Both Mr & Mrs Scott-Giles are thanked in the foreword.
Produced with the help of Wilfred Scott-Giles who contacted Sayers early in 1936 about the coat-of-arms (sable, three mice courant argent, with a domestic cat as crest and two Saracens as supporters) which she had invented for the Wimsey family.
Charles Scott-Giles (1893- 1982) wrote extensively on heraldry and was appointed Fitzalan Pursuivant of Arms Extraordinary in 1957. He worked closely with Sayers on the Wimsey family, especially during the immediate years following the publication of the Wimsey Papers. In 1977 his work ‘The Wimsey Family; a fragmentary history compiled from correspondence with Dorothy L. Sayers’ was published; a second edition appeared in 2007. A scarce item of Wimseyana.