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Front cover illustration: 42 Rear cover illustration: 12 1. (Agriculture. Ireland.) THE DUBLIN SOCIETY’S WEEKLY OBSERVATIONS for the Advancement of Agriculture and Manufactures. Glasgow: Printed and Sold by Robert & Andrew Foulis, 1756, with 4 folding engraved plates, light offsetting of text onto plates, pp. [iv], 323, 12mo, contemporary sheep, worn at extremities and some scuffing to sides, lettering piece defective, still a good copy, contemporary blue printed book label inside front cover, the name, within a cartouche, erased, portion snipped from upper outer corner of front free endpaper, leaving however the place name Aberdeen, stamp of the Lawes Agricultural Library (= Rothamsted) inside both covers and on front free end-paper (Gaskell 313; 2 ESTC entries, T134145 and T134146) £1,750
Rare Foulis reprint of the original Dublin edition of 1737-38 (collected issue), not in Perkins. The society was founded by members of the Dublin Philosophical Society, chiefly Thomas Prior, as the ‘Dublin Society for improving Husbandry, Manufactures and other Useful Arts’ in 1731, becoming the Royal Dublin Society (remaining so) in 1820. There are a handful of copies recorded by ESTC in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, Cornell only in the US.
A pencil inscription on the front free end-paper speculatively attributes the volume to Bishop Berkeley: a nice idea, not entirely beyond the realms of possibility, but without basis in fact. It is true however that Thomas Prior was a lifelong friend of the philosopher.
There was a French translation in 1759.
2. Alderson (R.) Lines Written and Printed at the Request of a Friend, by whom the Melancholy Story is related. To which are added, Lines to the Author of an Answer to the above; with a fragment of a poem, called My Native Dale. The whole of which shall be published at some future Period. Newcastle upon Tyne: Printed by R. T. Edgar, 1825, hole at inner margin of title-page repaired, tear to [A]2 repaired, loss of a couple of letters on verso, B2 frayed at foot, pencilled word to p.13 and p.15, pencilled notes to endpaper (see below), browned and/or dust-soiled around the edges, pp. 16, 8vo, 19th- century green half calf with marbled boards, flat spine lettered longitudinally in gilt direct, bookplate of Charles William Bigge to pastedown (Not in Johnson) £750
Second edition. The first edition, published in the same year, is rare, wih only 2 copies in the BL recorded in COPAC: that edition consisted of only 8 pages. Here, at the foot of p. 8, is the mark of the printer, and so we suppose that the first part of the volume is in fact a re-issue.
A number of words added in pencil look as if they might be authorial corrections, but the notes on the endpaper are in a different hand: this comprises a league table of poets referred to in the text, Burns at the top with 14 mentions. The author of “Lines to R. Alderson”, who has scant regard for Alderson’s effort, suggests that Burns’s penchant ‘to seek a solitude in some wild glen ... to wail, unheard’ was proof that Burns was not one ‘who drinks, like other stupid boors, Stiff whisky punch until his mind is blank’, since the drunkard cannot make it out of doors.
3. Anacreon. Odai, kai ta Sapphous, kai Erinnas leipsana. Edinburgh: Apud Hamilton, Balfour, & Neill, 1754, part of prelims bound after second title-page, some foxing
3 and soiling around the edges, pp. [iv], 72, 8, 76, 24mo, contemporary sprinkled calf, rebacked preserving original backstrip, endpapers renewed, good (ESTC T200306) £400
A scarce and attractive near-miniature edition of Anacreon, similar to the Foulis edition of 1751, but with a Latin translation following the Greek text. ESTC locates 5 copies in the UK (NLS, Paxton House, Manchester, Leeds, and Winchester College), plus the Newberry Library and Stanford. Another issue, containing only half the volume (i.e. without the Latin translation), is also recorded in three of those plus 2 other locations (BL and Mills College).
4. (Aristotle.) MORA (Gabriele, Franciscan Friar) Tractatus in universos libros philosophie Arist: seu de naturali auscultatione juxta rectissimam viam subt. Doct. Johannis Duns Scoti a Pre fre Gabriele Mora ... Sardinia: 1652-53, manuscript in ink on paper, in Latin, damp-staining in the upper half with resultant worming in the first half, several leaves strengthened at upper inner corner, the first 3 leaves defective at head, repaired, with minimal loss of text, ff. [iii], 268, 4to, 20th-century vellum over boards, overlapping fore-edges £1,800
A comprehensive natural philosophy by a Franciscan of Sardinia. The text is preceded by Oratio ante studium, and this by a code game, in Spanish, involving mixing up the names of a husband and wife according to a numerical code.
5. (Babbage.) MR. BABBAGE’S CALCULATING MACHINE. Edinburgh: William and Robert Chambers, August 23, 1834, Contined in Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal, No.134, in a complete Vol. III of the Journal, preliminaries a little foxed, the complete vol. pp. [iv], 416, folio, original publisher’s cloth backed boards, printed paper label, minor wear, good £550
A review and exposition of Babbage’s own article concerning the Calculating Machine in the 120th Number of the Edinburgh Review. This was in the wake of the collapse of the Difference Engine project.
6. (Banks and Banking. Scotland. Glasgow.) CLYDESDALE BANKING COMPANY. Contract of Copartnery of the ... Glasgow: James Lumsden and Son, 1838, a trifle browned, and a few minor blemishes, pp. 70, [2, blank], 8vo, original moiré green cloth, lettered in gilt on the upper cover with the arms of Glasgow at the centre, gilt edges, lower cover a little stained, a trifle faded (Goldsmiths 30434) £400
The foundation document of one of 3 Scottish banks that still issue their own banknotes (though the Clydesdale is no longer an independent entity). James Lumsden, the printer, was the driving force behind the foundation: he was later Lord Provost of Glagow. COPAC records but 4 copies, Glasgow, NLS, Senate House, Sheffield: no more in WorldCat.
The first appearance of Peter Pan 7. Barrie (J. M.) The Little White Bird. Hodder and Stoughton, 1902, FIRST EDITION, frontispiece map of Kensington Gardens, pp. viii, 312, 8vo, original navy buckram, backstrip lettered in gilt, a few faint spots to fore-edge, t.e.g., contemporary ownership inscription to flyleaf, very good (Garland 32) £250
4 8. [Benson (Joseph)] The Battle of Flodden-Field. Which was fought between the English under the Earl of Surrey, (In the absence of King Henry VIII.) and the Scots under their valiant King James IV. Who was slain on the Field of Battle, in the year, 1513. An Heroic Ooem, in nine fits or parts. Collected from antient manuscripts.Preston: Printed and Sold by W. Stuart, 1773, bound without the half-title, minor browning, verso of last leaf slightly soiled, pp. ii, 116, 12mo, contemporary tree calf, corners worn, rebacked (ESTC N32357) £850
‘Literary interest in the events of September 1513 started early. The earliest printed poem appears in 1664 [Wing F1365, ‘Floddan Field]. The author, Joseph Benson, a declared philomath, was an adherent of the Stanley family and is very clearly writing from an English perspective. His nineteenth-centry editor [there was an edition in 1805, printed in Lancaster] asserts he had access to an earlier source held within that family but omits any details. Benson’s poems seems odd now since it misses out two elements which rapidly became part of the Flodden story: the chivalrous nature of Scotland’s king, and the duplicitous nature of Lady Elizabeth Heron of Ford’ (Sadler and Serdiville, The Battle of Flodden). In the present edition there are notes by the unnamed editor which, among other things, signalises the role of Sir Edward Stanley. The Stanley family lived at Lathom in Lancashire, and hence we may suppose had some hand in the local editions. Of the 1773 edition ESTC records NLS, Columbia, and Folger, and of the 1774 Preston edition, Harvard only. The London edition of 1774, also Printed and Sold by W. Stuart, is commoner.
Curiously, there is another 19th-century edition, published in ‘Ancient Historical Ballads’, Newcastle, 1807, woodcut by Bewick (Tattersfield TB 2.19). In this edition, ‘The Battle of Floddon’, the text is said to be ‘published from a curious manuscript in the possession of James Askew, of Palins-Burn, Northumberland’, edited, with (quite different) notes, by Robert Lambe, Vicar of Norham upon Tweed, and his dedication is dated Jan. 30, 1773. The text is identical in all editions, but the present is the only one with an author’s name attached - we can’t find Joseph Benson’s name attached to anything else.
Sir Walter Scott had a copy of the 1805 edition, which would have informed ‘Marmion’,
9. Bergmann (Torbern) A Dissertation on Elective Attractions. Translated from the Latin by the Translator of Spallanzani’s Dissertations [i.e. Thomas Beddoes]. Printed for John Murray; and Charles Elliot, Edinburgh, 1785, with 7 folding engraved tables, first and last leaves a little foxed, pp. xiv, [1], 382, [1, Emendanda], 8vo, contemporary tree calf, red lettering piece, joints cracked but firm, spine a bit darkened and pitted, engraved armorial bookplate of St. Andrew Ld. St. John of Blestoe, good (Duveen p. 67 (lacking the plates); Zachs 456, ‘Murray alone, despite imprint’) £600
First edition in English. St. Andrew Ld. St. John of Blestoe, 14th Baron, MP, friend and supporter of Fox.
10. [Bird (Robert)] Law Lyrics. Glasgow: Wilson & McCormick, 1885, FIRST EDITION, THE AUTHOR’S COPY, pp. [i, half-title], viii, [9-] 88, original linen backed boards, boards a little stained and rubbed, spine a little darkened, the author’s name in holograph on the upper cover almost illegible thanks to a splash £550
Places of original periodical publication noted by the author in manuscript at the beginning of each piece, a list of those who ‘expressed commendation’ in pencil on the fly-leaf, and numerous Press cutting tipped or pasted in among the endleaves.
5 [Together with:] another copy, inscribed on the half-title ‘From the author, 14 Jun 1885’, with the blind stamp below of David Bird, an accountant, and presumably a relative; further inscribed on the front free endpaper ‘From the Author to his sweet daughter Dorothy, who likes these old rhymes. Robert Bird (Old Brown Bear), Whinfield Jul 1915. This is one of the few surviving copies of this great Book!!’; original linen backed boards, in similar condition.
[And:] More Law Lyrics, [with the author’s name on the tile-page], William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London, 1898, pp. [i, Press Opinions of Law Lyrics], [xiv], 136, uncut and unopened in the original beige cloth, top edges gilt, printed paper label on spine, glassine wrapper. A slightly grander production than the predecessor.
11. (Black Cygnet Press.) BURNETT (David) Snowfalls. With a wood-engraving by Ian Stephens. Edinburgh, 2010, 78/100 COPIES, printed on Zerkall paper, designed and printed letterpress by John Grice of Evergreen Press, wood-engraved frontispiece, title printed in blue, pp. 49, [ii], 8vo, original quarter parchment paper with ice-blue silk- covered boards, covers with a few very faint marks, spine slightly cocked, very good (Halliwell 91) £30
An unusual collection of snow poems and poems about snow, the printing design making much of the whiteness of the pages.
Borges to his translator 12. (Borges.) STEVENSON (Robert Louis) Edinburgh. Picturesque Notes. With twenty-three photographs by Alvin Langdon Coburn and a Preface by Janet Adam Smith. Rupert Hart-Davis, 1954, FIRST EDITION THUS, some very light spotting, pp. 107, 4to, original cream boards, backstrip lettered in silver, a touch of sunning to border of upper board, edges and endpapers lightly spotted, dustjacket with pasted Langdon Coburn photograph to front panel, price-clipped and foxed overall, good £500
Inscribed on the flyleaf by Jorge Luis Borges to his English translator: ‘Norman Thomas [di Giovanni], with my best wishes, Jorge Luis Borges’. At the head of the same are the signatures of O.K. Schramm, David J. Tittensor, and John MacQueen, academics at Edinburgh University, presenting the book, presumably to Borges, as a ‘Souvenir of Edinburgh’ on March 8th 1963 - this corresponding to the dates of the Argentine writer’s visit to the city in that year, a suitable gift given Borges’s great affection for Stevenson as an author.
Highlanders and Indians 13. Brainerd (David) An Abridgment [sic] of Mr. David Brainerd’s Journal among the Indians. Or, the Rise and Progress of a remarkable Work of Grace among a Number of the Indians. In the Provinces of New-Jersey and Pensylvania [sic] ... To which is prefix’d a dedication to [the Honourable Society in Scotland for propagating Christian Knowledge], by P. Doddridge. Printed for John Oswald; and sold by John Trail, and other Booksellers in Edinburgh, 1748, some thumbing, one headline cut close but without loss, small hole in G1 with the loss of a letter on either side, last line of last page cropped, but sense recoverable, pp. [2], vi, [3]-110, [4], 12mo, original sheep, rebacked, solidly if not beautifully, spine lettered in gilt, extremities worn, early ownership inscriptions front and back (Sabin, 7339; Howes, B717; Felcone, 24; ESTC T105624) £900
6 First English Edition, adapted from Mirabilia Dei inter Indicos, Philadelphia, 1746. Brainerd was a missionary to the American Indians in New York, New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania. Born in Connecticut in 1718, he was tubercular, dying of that disease at the age of twenty-nine, and from his youth was frail and sickly. He was expelled from Yale for criticising a professor and for sympathising with the Whitefield revival organisation known as “New Lights”. He became a missionary, beginning his ministry with the Indians in April, 1743, at Kaunaumeek, New York, and then in Crossweeksung and Cranberry (near Newark), New Jersey. After only four years as a missionary Brainerd died at the home of Jonathan Edwards, to whose daughter he was engaged to be married.
‘His ministry to the Indians was contemporary with Wesley, Whitefield and Edwards as they ministered to the English-speaking people during the period called in English and American history, the “Great Awakening”. Brainerd’s centuries-spanning influence for revival is positive proof God can and will use any vessel, no matter how fragile and frail’ (Barlow, Profiles in Evangelism).
This early evangelical onslaught on the Native Americans, has a parallel in the Appendix, which comprises extracts from letters of Ebenezer Pemberton, Correspondent Member of the Society in New York. At the very end, we are reminded that the Society ‘supports a great Number of Schools at home, in the Highlands and Isles adjacent’ - the conversion among the Gaels of Scotland being equivalent (and the practice ground). This is even clearer in Doddridge’s prefatory letter, addressed ‘To the Honourable Society for propagating Christian Knowledge in the Highlands of Scotland, and in Popish and Infidel Parts of the World.’ See Frederick V. Mills, Sr., The Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge in British North America, 1730-1775, in Church History, Vol. 63, No. 1 (Mar., 1994), pp. 15-30.
14. [Brainerd (David)] An Account of the Life of the late Reverend Mr David Brainerd, Minister of the Gospel, Missionary to the Indians, from the Honourable Society in Scotland, for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, and Pastor of a Church of Christian Indians in New-Jersey. who died at Northampton in New-England, October 9. 1747, in the 30th year of his age. Chiefly taken from his own diary, and other private Writings, written for his own Use; and now published, By Jonathan Edwards, A. M. Then Minister of the Gospel at Northampton, afterwards President of the College of New-Jersey. To which is annexed, 1. Mr Brainerd’s journal while among the Indians. II. Mr Pemberton’s sermon at his ordination. With an Appendix relative to the Indian Affairs. Edinburgh: printed by John Gray and Gavin Alston for William Gray, 1765, separate title for the Journal, but pagination continuous, title-page a little soiled, a little thumbing, minor staining, and faint browning, pp. [xii], 504, 8vo, original sheep, rubbed, cracks to ends of joints, headcaps slightly defective (ESTC T45381) £1,200
First collected edition of the Life and the Journal. The last page of the preliminaries carries an advertisement for ESTC T78845, John Edwards’ A Treatise concerning Religious affections, calling for subscribers, and detailing the formats of the edition (fine/coarse paper, calf or sheep - both ‘neat’). Gray eventually got the edition out in 1772.
15. (Broadside. Elections. Scotland.) LAMENTATION OF THE YOUNG LORD. & KING LDAR (sic). Edinburgh: Alexander Dunbar, [1835], single sheet broadside printed (very badly) on recto only, very thin paper, 400 x 173 mm, evidence of folding, a few spots £250
7 8 Clockwise from top left: Items 1, 4, 16, 10 An execrably badly printed broadside, with several words illegible. A satire on the loss of the election in Edinburgh by Lord Ramsay and John Learmonth. The sub-title continues: ‘Just published, the Last Speech, Confession, and Doleful Lamentation, of the Young Lord alias the Beardless Boy - and King Lear alias Jack the Giant Killer.’ The Young Lord begins by protesting his Noble ancestry, which ‘for twenty five generations have fought and bled for your Freedom and Independence’. This was met by hisses. He enquires: ‘Hive (sic) I not shewn you Oxford logic since I entered your smoky Metropolis (i.e. Auld Reekie)’. At the end of his speech there are ‘Loud cries of “gae hame and suck your mammie.”’ ‘At the 1835 general election as Lord Ramsay he stood as a tory candidate for Edinburgh with “no wish to perpetuate abuses or to preserve blots”’ (ODNB).
He was defeated, but his good humour, determination, and the spirit in which he accepted defeat were remembered, and the election served to introduce him to public life. As Earl of Dalhousie, he later became Governor-General of India, where ‘he proved himself a superb, lucid, and indefatigable administrator who was at once a master of detail but also a strategic thinker’ (ibid).
Alexander Dunbar was a running stationer (see SBTI). NLS only in WorldCat.
Angling shops in Edinburgh 16. Brookes (Richard) The Art of Angling ... In two parts. I. Containing an account of fish, and fish-ponds: a new art of fly-making: the new laws that concern angling: the secret ways of catching fish by ointments, pastes, and other arts: directions how to procure baits, and for making all sorts of fish-tackle, with the surest method of finding sport, &c. II. Of the great whale, and whale fishery; the devouring shark; the amphibious turtle; the luscious turbot and sole; with flying fish, sea-devil, and other extraordinary productions of the sea. Likewise a natural history of the inhabitants of the salt water, and the various methods of rock and sea-fishing. Illustrated with one hundred and thirty-five cuts, exactly describing the different kinds of fish that are found in the fresh or salt waters. The whole forming a sportsman’s magazine; and comprizing all that is curious and valuable in the art of angling. The fourth edition, with great improvements. Printed for T. Lowndes, 1774, engraved frontispiece, and numerous woodcut illustrations in the text, small original paper flaw tear to D7 (no loss), frontispiece offset onto title, minor browning, pp. viii, 304, 12mo, original sheep, rebacked (not recently), corners rather worn, annotated by perhaps more than one generation of anglers (see below), and with an unrecorded broadside ballad (Westwood & Satchell p. 42) £1,800
The title-page is misleading. Essentially this is ‘The Angler’s Dictionary’, alphabetically arranged, including fish (each illustrated), tackle - including a long entry on flies - and such things as Fishes Food, and technical terms: a long entry for whales is naturally towards the end (so the title has all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order). The long entry on Flies (occupying over thirty pages) is copiously annotated in ink by a dedicated early nineteenth-century fly-tier, possibly a Yorkshireman, but with an evident wide circle of acquaintance in the fishing world: given that the dates run up till 1830, there is perhaps more than one generation involved. His notes on the subject also fill two preliminary blank pages, and there are occasional marginalia in his hand elsewhere in the volume giving the dates fish were caught, where, and by whom. A folding MS sheet, copying an article about flies from an 1819 issue of Blackwood’s Magazine, is bound in: this furnishes a pretty good guide to the angling shops in Edinburgh.
9 Also bound in, thanks to which we owe its preservation, is an unrecorded printing of a broadside ballad: The Yorkshire Concert. Printed and Sold by J. Pitts No 14 Great St Andrew Street Seven Dials. It dates from around 1819 and is very fragile. Worldcat records one copy only of this broadside by a different printer, also undated, at the National Library of Scotland, though the song itself, by Charles Dibdin, had appeared in numerous collections.
Regarding lobsters: ‘The best tasted Lobsters are caught of the Isle of Wight; but those being few in Quantity, the London Markets are chiefly supplied from Norway and the Orkney Isles.’
What evidence there may have been to the original owner’s identity was perhaps lost when the book was rebacked and recased: this may have taken place c. 1964, as there is a cost code at the end in that year.
17. Buchan (John) The Thirty-Nine Steps. Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1915, FIRST EDITION, usual browning to page edges, pp. 253, [2, ads], foolscap 8vo, original blue cloth, backstrip and upper board lettered in a darker shade, the former a touch faded and rubbed at ends, spine cocked, rubbing to corners, endpapers faintly browned with a few spots, good (Blanchard A32) £500
18. Buchanan (George) Rerum scoticarum historia ... ad optimam & castigatissimam Roberti Fribarnii editionem expressa. Cum indice ... Accesserunt auctoris Vita ab ipso scripta, ejusdemque Dialogus de jure regni apud Scotos: necnon tabula Scotiæ topographica. Edinburgh: John Paton, 1727, with an engraved portrait frontispiece, and an engraved folding map by John Adair, slightly browned, pp. [xvi], 634, [54] ;[2], 57,[1], 12mo, contemporary calf, lettered in gilt on spine, minor wear, good (ESTC N13053) £300
Buchanan’s History, the first history of Scotland by a Scot, first appeared in the year of his death, 1582. One of the reasons for writing it, he said in a letter was ‘to purge it [Scottish history] of sum Inglis lyis and Scottis vanite.’ An agreeable copy.
A rare Glasgow edition 19. Bunyan (John) The Pilgrim’s Progress, From this World to that which is to Come. Delivered under the Similitude of a Dream ... The thirty-sixth edition. Glasgow: Printed by John Robertson and sold at his shop, 1767 [1768], 3 parts in one vol., the first part illustrated with 12 primitive full-page woodcuts,pp. [ii, blank], 264; [i, extra general title dated 1768], 166; 151, [1], 12mo, original publisher’s plain calf, raised bands on spine, worn at extremities, short splits at either end of upper joint, snag at head of spine, old (near-contemporary) repair to lower cover by sewing, and traces of stitching around about a quarter of the edge, contemporary ownership inscription on recto of first leaf of Hannah Casson of Darfield Bridge (Yorks), the inscription repeated but ending with the more colloquial ‘Brigge’, good (ESTC T20085) £450
Glasgow was the second provincial city (after Shrewsbury) to issue an edition of Pilgrim’s Progress, in 1717, and second only to Edinburgh (first 1759) in the number of editions published. Before 1773 these Glasgow editions are recorded in only one or two locations in ESTC, in one case three; the present edition NLS and Auckland only. John Robertson published 15 editions between 1755 and 1795.
10 20. Burnet (James) The Sum of Christianity: or Christ in his Sufferings, and in his Glory. Represented In some Sermons preached on I Pet. i 11 Edinburgh: Printed by James M’Euen and Company, 1724, FIRST EDITION, title within border of printer’s ornaments, woodcut head- and tail-pieces, 1 woodcut initial, 3 wormholes in the first leaf, 2 in the second, not affecting text, pp. [iv], 120, 8vo, contemporary sheep, a few score marks, lower edge of lower cover slightly damaged, good (ESTC T177882) £450
The author was ‘Minister of the Gospel at Lasswade’, just to the south of Edinburgh. The work is dedicated to three local grandees, including the owner of the barony of Lasswade, ‘Sir John Clark of Pennycook’. Sir John was an ardent Calvinist, and one can quite see how these dense and learned sermons would have appealed to him. The printer James M’Euen’s business was continued by his apprentice Alexander Kincaid, who was in turn succeeded by his own apprentice William Creech.
NLS only in ESTC; Worldcat adds a copy at Emory University, imperfect.
With MSS signed by Canaries 21. Canaries (James) A Discourse Representing the Sufficient Manifestation of the Will of God to his Church in all its several Periods and Dispensations. Edinburgh: Printed by the Heir of Andrew Anderson, 1684, FIRST EDITION, some soiling in the early portions, old repair in last leaf just affecting a couple of letters on the verso, pp. [xvi], 296, 8vo, later (?late 18th-century) cloth stained to resemble calf, spine lettered in gilt, worn at extremities, short tear at head of spine, early ownership inscription at head of first page (blank except for signature mark ‘A’) of Tho. Morton, and below this another by George Dewar dated 1723, Dewar has also signed the title-page, and with, loosely inserted, an MS receipt and 3 authorisations for payment, all signed by Canaries, sound (ESTC R27828) £900
‘In addition to unpublished attacks on Roman Catholicism, in 1684 the ambitious convert proclaimed his renewed protestantism in A Discourse Representing the Sufficient Manifestation of the Will of God to his Church, a lengthy work dedicated to the chancellor, the earl of Perth. It perhaps helped him to obtain the parish of Selkirk, to which he was licensed in February 1685’ (ODNB). The receipt and the authorisations for payment all relate to the manse in Selkirk. The payments are to servants or workmen (‘for their work at the manse’) whose endorsement in barely legible hands are in marked contrast to Canaries’ own regular, elegant script.
The Heir of Andrew Anderson was his widow, Agnes (see SBTI for her complicated career). Scarce: ESTC records 7 copies in Scotland, 2 in England, and 5 in the US.
22. (Caradoc Press.) JAMES I, king of Scots. The King’s Quair. King James I of Scotland. Grafton & Company, 1914, [ONE OF 350 COPIES], printed in red and black on Kelmscott handmade paper, with decorative border facing opening of poem and a few decorative initials and tail-pieces, pp. 78, foolscap 8vo, original green cloth, single fillet border to both boards, in gilt and blind respectively, lettered in gilt to upper board and backstrip, hint of fading to backstrip and a few light marks overall, edges untrimmed, bookplate to front pastedown, good (Tomkinson 17) £70
The copy of author Philip John Stead, with his ownership inscription (‘Coll. Pemb. Oxon. Dec. MCMXXXVI’) to the flyleaf.
11 23. Carruthers (John) The Heroic Deeds of the Scots. A Poem, in four volumes; from Fergus I. down to the present Time. To which are added, Poems on several occasions ... Volume I [all published]. Dumfries: Printed by Robert Jackson, 1796, FIRST (ONLY) EDITION, a few spots, uncut edges a little dust-stained and frayed, pp. vii, [8-] 84, small 8vo, original blue paper wrappers, upper cover detached, lower nearly so (ESTC T198507; not in Johnson) £1,200
The Carruthers are more or less synonymous with Dumfries, and Annandale, and are closely associated with clan Bruce. We are not sure exactly who our John was, but he was clearly a scion of that house, as well as an ardent patriot. The prefatory Address is to The Inhabitants of Annandale, ‘the principal bulwark of the nation [against invasion].’ The text begins with the mythic origins of the Scots, and closes with the death of The Bruce. The second volume was promised to be shorter, with only nine reigns down to James VI, but no more seems ever to have appeared. The work is dedicated to the Earl of Errol, commemorating the Battle of Luncarty.
Such a booklet is understandably rare. ESTC records just 4 copies: NLS, BL, Cornell, and the Hornel copy, in the Museum and Library at Kirkcudbright. Hornel was one of the ‘Glasgow Boys’, and did very well for himself. His wealth allowed him to collect a library of some 15,000 volumes, mainly local works, and above all Robert Burns - Burns spent the last few years of his life in Dumfries, and died there in the year that this poem was printed.
24. (Churchill.) [drop head title:] CHURCHILL SAID ... 3 Scottish Nationalist leaflets quoting Churchill. Glasgow: c.1945-1950, 8vo, leaflets, printed on rectos only (not found in COPAC or WorldCat) £450
Both Woods and Cohen date these to the period of the First World War, but the war referred to in them (‘make this both a war aim and a peace aim’) is the Second - Arthur Donaldson’s United Scotland Movement was not founded until 1950. Churchill was MP for Dundee from 1908 to 1922, and made a speech in the election campaign of 1911 (quoted here), in which he called for Scottish Home Rule.
United Scotland Movement edition, only printing (?1950), Cohen A49.1. Woods A18/1.
Scottish National Congress edition, only printing (?1945),Cohen A49.2 Woods A18/2.
Scottish National Party edition, only printing (?1945), Cohen A49.3. Not in Woods
25. [Claudero (pseud. for James Wilson)] Ars Catchpolaria, or the art of destroying mankind, intended as a vade-mecum or pocket companion to messengers and other executors of the law ... Subscription money is taken in voraciously by the Author himself, and by all others intrusted with proposals subscribed by him. Edinburgh: Printed for, and sold by the Author, 1775, FIRST EDITION, last leaf defective, with the lacunae supplied in manuscript in situ or on the facing blank for the verso, some foxing, small ink splash on title, pp. vi, 26, binder’s blank leaves bound at end, 8vo, contemporary (but possibly not original) red calf - a tool at the foot of the spine is James Scott’s: Loudon R02.14 - with gilt roll-tooled borders on sides, rounded spine gilt in compartments, worn at extremities, apparently recased sometime in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, ex-Wigan Public Library with their bookplate and blind stamp on title and their accession stamp on verso, small paper label with
12 Clockwise from top left: Items 19, 21, 28, 24 13 shelf mark on upper cover, according to a pencil note on the flyleaf ‘From Sir. Wm Fettes Douglas’s library’, sound (ESTC T124860) £850
James Wilson (1730-?87) further expounded his pseudonym in others of his publications: ‘that noted poet Claudero, son of Nimrod the Mighty Hunter, and late Secretary to the Chevalier Taylor, His Majesty’s Oculist, and Ophthalmiater Pontifical, Imperial and Royal, to all the Crowned Heads and Sovereign Princes in Europe, Noble and Citizen of Rome.’ ESTC lists 18 works by him (some of them broadsides), of which this is the penultimate: the last is Poems, pastoral, moral, religious, and political. By James Wilson, Newcastle, 1778 - the only work with his real name on it, and one of only two not printed in Edinburgh (the other being Poems, London, 1765). All of his works are rare: of the present title ESTC records Advocate’s Library, NLS, and BL only. The law is the object of Wilson’s satire in the first half; the second is taken up with A Poem on the Lamentable Destruction of the Sign- Posts in Edinburgh, Leith and Canongate, 1771, hanging signs having been outlawed; this results in a veritable Grand Tour of the pubs and shops of old Edinburgh.
Sir William Fettes Douglas (1822-1891), painter, antiquary, and curator, ‘acquired an important library which reflected his serious interest in history, particularly that of Scotland. After his death his collection of antiquities and fine art was sold at auction over four consecutive days and his library over five’ (ODNB). There is a neat pencil note on a fly-leaf, possibly in Douglas’s hand, comparing this copy with that in the BM, which, though in its original wrappers, is considerably smaller than this copy, and it has a misprint in the dedication not present here.
It is hard to tell what precisely has happened to this copy, and this binding. The damage to the last leaf suggests that it was not originally in any binding at all, and the fact that it is padded out with blanks (those at the front watermarked 1808, those at the rear unwatermarked) speaks of a remboitage.
With a signed note 26. Cruickshank (Helen B.) Up the Noran Water, and Other Scots Poems. Methuen, 1934, FIRST EDITION, pp. viii, 40, crown 8vo, original blue boards, printed label to upper board, minor wear at head of backstrip, fore-edge roughtrimmed, dustjacket a little darkened to backstrip panel and borders, light waterstaining causing a little colour- bleed to label and endpapers, good £50
With a piece of the author’s headed paper tipped to the Acknowledgements page, conveying her ‘compliments’ and signed with her initials.
Though she had begun contributing poems to newspapers and magazines shortly after the Great War, this was Cruickshank’s first collection - she had earlier been involved in women’s suffrage during her time in London, and a member of the WSPU; she was an important figure in the Scottish Renaissance, in part through her association with Hugh MacDiarmid, and a member founding of the Saltire Society.
27. Cullen (William) Institutions of medicine. Part I [all published]. Physiology. For the use of students, in the University of Edinburgh. The Fourth Edition, Corrected. Edinburgh printed. Boston: Reprinted by John Norman, 1788, rather browned (as to be expected) and some minor soiling, front free end-paper loose, paper flaw in title- page resulting in the loss of ‘Bos’ in Boston, last 2 words on p. 6 failed to print and the deficiency made up in MS,pp. 126, 12mo in 4s, original calf, rubbed, head of spine
14 defective, withal a good copy, ownership inscription at end of Ephraim Guiteau, and at the front of Benjamin Welch (ESTC W25973) £550
First American edition: first published in Edinburgh in 1772. Ephraim Guiteau, 1738-1816, was the first practising physician in Norfolk, Connecticut: his daughter Louisa married Benjamin Welch, also a physician. ESTC lists 11 copies (in 8 institutions), all in the US. The ESTC designation of the volume as a 4to gives a slightly misleading impression.
28. D. (P.) The Lives and Deaths of the Holy Apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Together with the Two Evangelists, St. Mark and St. Luke. As also, some other of our Saviours Disciples: containing an Account of their Travels, Sayings, Miracles, Sufferings, and Martyrdoms. All Collected from the Best Authors, for Publick Use and Benefit. Printed for Dorman Newman, 1685, FIRST EDITION, woodcut frontispiece and 14 woodcut portraits in the text, text printed in black letter, browned, one leaf with tear repaired with the loss of a couple of letters from the running title, other leaves with marginal repairs or tears without loss (apart from the ‘3’ of the final page number), pp. [xvi, including initial blank], 143, [1], small 8vo, original sheep, rebacked, corners worn, various Scottish ownership inscriptions (see below), sound (ESTC R27282, 7 copies, 4 in the UK, 3 in the US; Wing D78) £500
Apparently the only edition of this somewhat crude and rather scarce production. The last 2 pages of the preliminaries list Books published by Newman, both ‘Large and Small Histories’, a good proportion of which seem not to have survived. The address to the Reader is signed P.D., although it is said to express ‘the hearty Desire of the Publisher.’
Early inscription on recto of first leaf: ‘Ja Thomson his Book and no oyrs [?yours] but his.’ ‘Price 14 shillings Scots’ on rear fly-leaf with signature James Knox opposite. Paper label on front fly-leaf with inscription presenting the volume to Campbeltown Free Library by a Mr. Mollison in 1901, and the book-plate of the library inside the front cover. The library was the gift of James Hall of Killean & Tangy (1823-1904), chairman of the British India Steam Navigation Company.
29. De Luc (Jean André) Fourth letter to Dr. James Hutton, F.R.S. Edinburgh, on the Theory of the Earth. Windsor, Aug. 29, 1791. [Printed for Ralph Griffiths], [1791], Offprint from the Monthly Review, last leaf, B4, blank, stained on verso, and this transferring a little to verso of previous leaf, pp. 22, [2, blank], 8vo, uncut, stitched as issued (ESTC N70300) £1,200
De Luc’s four Letters to Dr James Hutton, F.R.S., Edinburgh, animadverting on his “Theory of the Earth”, appeared in the Monthly Review 2 (1790) 206-227; 582-601; 3 (1790) 573- 586; 5 (1791) 564-585. ESTC records offprints of only the third and fourth, solitary copies at Yale (where the De Luc papers are).
30. [Defoe (Daniel)] The life and most surprising adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, mariner: Who lived eight and twenty years in an uninhabited island on the coast of America, lying near the mouth of the great river of Oroonoque: having been cast on shore by shipwreck, wherein all the men were drowned, but himself: as also a relation how he was wonderfully delivered by pirates. The whole three volumes faithfully abridged. The Sixth [abridged] Edition. Edinburgh: Printed by R. Fleming, 1758, with 4 engraved plates (1 as frontispiece), pieces missing from fore-edge of frontispiece
15 (without loss on engraved surface), a few scattered spots, pp. [i], 311, 12mo, modern half calf, ownership inscription on recto of frontispiece ‘John Lennox 1770’, good (ESTC T168459) £1,800
First Edinburgh edition of the abridgment, and a rare book. ESTC records NLS only; WorldCat adds Cambridge. Edinburgh editions had reached their 20th by 1786, after which they became simply a ‘new edition’.
31. Donaldson (James) Husbandry Anatomized, or, an enquiry into the present manner of teiling and manuring the ground in Scotland for most part; and several rules and measures laid down for the better improvement thereof, in so much that one third part more increase may be had, and yet more tha a third part of the expence of the present way of labouring thereof saved. [bound with:] Postscript to Husbandry Anatomiz’d or, an addition to the enquiry in to the present manner of ordering, dressing, and manuring the ground in Scotland for most part; whereby it is further explained and applyed, and several good effects that may follow thereupon hinted at. Edinburgh: Printed by John Reid, 1697-98, FIRST EDITIONS, small copies but not cropped apart from a few page numerals in the Postscript, lightly browned, a few leaves slightly darker, pp. [xvi], 136; 48, 12mo in 4s, late 18th-century catspaw calf, gilt rules on spine and red lettering piece, lacking fly-leaf at the front, and 2 at the end (though the staining from the turn-ins belies this), 1 p. manuscript Index at end, followed by 11 pp. notes at end, identified by an inscription (signed A.C.) as the hand of Sir John Sinclair of Longformachus [sic], small circular stamp of the Rothamsted Experimental Station on either side of the first leaf (Aldis 3662 and 3772; Rothamsted p. 48 (designating this as the first edition; Perkins 497 & 498; ESTC R10333 and R229803) £2,000
On the eve of Darien. Very scarce. ‘In McDonald’s opinion “a high estimation has always been placed upon this work” and it is a good statement of the condition and practices of contemporary farming in Scotland ... The main novelty is that he is one of the first farming authors to consider the cost of production’ (Fussell p. 84). According to ODNB it ‘was unduly neglected. It contained a programme for improved farming in advance of current thought, his most innovative proposal being for the use of potatoes as a field crop. This pamphlet was dedicated to the earl of Marchmont, then lord chancellor, and in an introduction he supplied what little is known of his family background.’ Later Donaldson ‘was editor of the first newspaper in Scotland to have had any long-term continuity ... the Edinburgh Gazette’ (ODNB), in some sort of association with John Reid, and frequently at loggerheads with the the city council, and other Edinburgh printers.
The ascription to Sir John Sinclair places him at Easter Kellie (Pittenweem) from 1764, till his death in 1802 ‘or thereabouts.’ The Index appears to be in an earlier hand. The first 3 pages of Sinclair’s MS concern yields at Kellie, and the rest begin with a positive appraisal of this book, and further notes on farming in Scotland. The text ends with a comma, and a dozen blank leaves follow, so more was intended. The date 1770 appears in the text.
ESTC and Aldiss refer to an edition of 1696, recorded in a single copy in the Signet Library: COPAC does not locate it, but refers to ESTC. If this is not in fact a ghost, it will have been dispersed in the sale of the Signet Library: it is not found in the on-line catalogues of NLS or EUL. ESTC has the Rothamsted (i.e. this) copy among its locations for Husbandry, but not for the Postscript
16 32. [Douglas (Francis)] Rural Love, a Tale. In the Scotish [sic] Dialect. To which is added a Glossary, or alphabetical explanation of the Scotish [sic] Words and Phrases. Aberdeen: Printed by Francis Douglas, and sold by J. Coot in Pater-Noster Row London 1759, FIRST EDITION, a bit of dust-soiling and minor foxing, pp. 27, [5], 8vo, uncut in late 19th- or early 20th-century half red calf, lettered in gilt on spine, unevenly faded, cracking at foot of spine, bookplate of Eric Gerard Stanley (ESTC T72251) £400
First, and only separate, edition (it was included in later collections). Douglas was born near Aberdeen (bap. 1719). ‘He was apprenticed to a baker in Aberdeen and after the completion of his training in the late 1730s he went to London to practise his trade. During this time he wrote Rural Love, a Tale in the Scotish Dialect that he printed in Aberdeen in 1759 ... From 1743 he was back in Aberdeen and became a baker in the Netherkirkgate ... In 1748 Douglas started book selling’ (ODNB), and this shortly became his main occupation, as well as writing. The poem is set in the time of ‘merry Charles’ in rural Aberdeenshire. It recounts the suits of local contenders for the hand of the ‘ae lass bairn’ of a widower. In sketching the background of one of them, we have a snapshot of the battle of Alford, 1645, which Montrose won for the King: Douglas was a Jacobite.
The Glossary includes an entry for ‘To come ben’, which draws the note that ‘In low farm houses of two rooms, the one is called the But, and the other the Ben, tho’ for what reason I know not.’
‘From 1759 to 1771, John Coote was a familiar publisher on the London scene. His ambition to succeed in the book trade led him to hazard his money on promising new works that he probably commissioned, and on new periodicals. However, his decision to hide his proprietorships succeeded beyond his expectations: his name had become obscure even before his death’ (ODNB).
33. Drummond (William) A Review of the Governments of Sparta and Athens. Printed by W. Bulmer and Co. and sold by G. Nicol, 1794, FIRST AND ONLY EDITION, a few spots here and there, pp. [viii], 282, [2, offset from title-page on verso of last leaf], 8vo, contemporary mottled calf, narrow double gilt fillets on sides with a tiny roll tooled rope within them, inner roll tooled floral border, spine gilt in compartments, black lettering piece, crack to upper joint but cords holding, minor wear to extremities, Lady Charlotte Murray’s copy with her oval printed book-label inside the front cover and the title-page inscribed ‘C.M. 1794, A Present from the Author’ (ESTC T117942) £900
An elegant copy of a scarce book. Sir William Drummond of Logiealmond (1770?–1828), classical scholar and diplomatist: ‘In the latter part of his career Drummond returned to his scholarly interests. He was an active member of the Dilettanti Society, which was by this time an important patron of classical archaeology. He had already published a Review of the Governments of Sparta and Athens in 1795 [sic], and the Satires of Persius, Translated in 1798, which had been well received ... It was Drummond’s religious speculations, however, that caused a sensation. In 1805 he published his Academical Questions. He wrote to[the earl of] Aberdeen: I have attempted to veil its real meaning; but I am afraid that our bigots will take the alarm … I have avoided all remarks upon our peculiar religion. The constitution of the country has given us a creed … We must expect the hoi polloi to be under the guidance of some superstition or another; and I do not think ours the most mischievous I know’ (ODNB).
17 18 Clockwise from top left: Items 30, 31, 39, 34 There are several candidates for Lady Charlotte Murray. Drummond himself had married a Murray. However this is likely to be Charlotte Murray, Duchess of Atholl, the 8th Baroness Strange (1731–1805). In 1753 she married her first cousin, John Murray at Dunkeld, thus there was no change to her married name. Her first child was also Lady Charlotte Murray, the botanist. Neil Gow (a native of Dunkeld) composed a tune, Lady Charlotte Murray, dedicated to one or both of them.
34. Erasmus (Desiderius) Colloquia familiaria selecta. Juxta editiones probatissimas. In usum scholarum. Perth: R. Morison and Son, and W. Coke, Leith, 1791, pp. 142, 12mo, original tan sheep, gilt roll tooled borders on sides, arms of the city of Edinburgh in gilt at the centre of the covers, flat spine with a gilt lyre in each gilt framed compartment, black lettering piece, cracks to joints, but sound, a little worn at extremities, contemporary signature on fly-leaf of Archibald Fyfe, bookplate of Robert J. Hayhurst (ESTC T137872) £350
A pretty little Erasmus, a typical Morison printing. Scarce: 8 copies in the UK (4 of them in Scotland: neither in Oxford or Cambridge), and just Miami in the US.
William Coke was something of a character, in a period of Edinburgh history rich in characters. He carried on his business in Leith for 55 years, and frequently walked to and from Edinburgh 3 or 4 times a day, even for trifling sales. He was hot-tempered, and an ardent Pittite, so that arguments about politics would become altercations. He features in John Kay’s Series of original Portraits and Caricature Etchings, 1838.
35. (Fairholm (Adam)) Unto the Right Honourable, the Lords of Council and Session, the Petition of the Trustees of the Creditors of Messrs. Adam and Thomas Fairholm, Bankiers in Edinburgh. [Edinburgh: 1769,] several pen trials (the letter B) to first leaf, blank corner of one leaf torn, some light soiling, a few leaves with a touch of fraying to edges, pp. 27, [1], 4to, modern pale blue paper wrappers, good (ESTC T476429) £400
Adam Fairholm was a prominent merchant and banker in Edinburgh, who started in the family firm and rose to be a director of the Bank of Scotland and later the Royal Bank of Scotland. But business was not always easy: in 1761 the Fairholms had petitioned the Court of Session twice for settlement of a debt accrued by the Earl of Rothes; within a few years ‘over-speculation brought financial difficulties for himself and his partners, including the architect and contractor John Adam. The Fairholms were forced to give up their holdings in the Carron company and went into bankruptcy in March 1764. Thinking he was being pursued by bailiffs while fleeing to the continent, Adam Fairholm jumped from his ship and drowned in 1764’ (ODNB).
Five years after that Fairholm’s estate was still being settled, and this further petition to the Council of Session seeks to overturn a previous decision and establish that his executor’s distribution of his estate amongst the various creditors was legal and should satisfy the debts. All of Fairholm’s petitions are rare, with the two earlier petitions recorded in the Bodleian only, and this one in the BL only in ESTC. (An answer to this petition on behalf of Andrew Johnston is BL and Harvard Law only.)
36. Falconer (William) Dissertatio inauguralis, de nephritide vera. Edinburgh: J. Bruce and Co., 1766, inscribed on the half-title ‘For Mr. ?Fleay, from his ob[edien]t h[umble] [servant], the Author’, pp. [viii], 44, 8vo, disbound (ESTC T185442) £400
19 The doctoral dissertation of one who later made an important contribution to Georgian medical quantification by his analysis of the spa waters of Bath. ‘Though greatly esteemed, William Falconer was not a popular man. As the nineteenth-century commentator, R. E. M. Peach, observed: ‘He was too proud and too independent to stoop to the arts of his profession … [and] had a peculiar brusqueness of manner, which has been sometimes referred to as the Falconer temper’ (ODNB).
Lord Berners’ copy 37. Falkner (J. Meade) The Lost Stradivarius. Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1895, FIRST EDITION, pp. [v], 296, 32 [ads, dated 11.95), crown 8vo, original blue cloth, backstrip lettered in gilt with border in blind and slight lean to spine, upper board with lettering and design blind-stamped, some creasing to cloth of upper board (and to pastedown beneath), a couple of corners knocked with a few light marks, some pink spots to tail, ownership inscription of ‘Jos. P. Freeman, Durham’ to initial blank and title-page, good (Book Collector Vol.9, No.3, p.323) £800
The author’s first novel, and a lauded one - a tale of musical obsession, the occult, and depravity amongst the aristocracy.
From the collection of Lord Berners at Faringdon House, to whom at least some of these themes were somewhat germane, but without mark of ownership - the earlier owner is probably Joseph P. Freeman, Dean’s Verger at Durham Cathedral, and with that association quite likely an acquaintance of the author.
The pink spots to the tail edge might be ink or, given the provenance, dove-dye.
38. Formey (Jean-Henri-Samuel) Elementary Principles of the Belles-Lettres. With Reflections on Public Exhibitions. Translated from the French by the late Mr. Sloper Foreman. Glasgow: Printed for Robert Urie, 1767, minor soiling, pp. vi, 224, [2], 12mo, contemporary calf, joints cracked, good (ESTC T126075) £475
First Glasgow edition (first English edition, London, Newberry, 1766, Roscoe A165). Of the translator, we know little: this is the only book which has his name on the title-page. He was a partner with Benjamin Collins and John Newberry in the Public Ledger. Formey’s Concise History of Philosophy, translated by Goldsmith, was another Newberry publication in the same year, followed by a Urie edition.
Scarce: ESTC records 5 copies in the UK (3 in Scotland, 2 in England) and 3 in North America, McMasters, Trinity College, and Winnipeg.
39. Frazer (Mrs.) The Practice of Cookery, Pastry, and Confectionary; in three parts ... An appendix containing receipts for making wines, vingears, ketchups, syrups, cordials, possets, &c. dinner and supper dishes; articles in season; directions for carving, &c. Also new plates, shewing the manner of trussing poultry, and placing dishes on a table. And to which is now added, an index to the whole, arranged alphabetically. The fourth edition, with large Additions and Improvements. Edinburgh: Printed for Peter Hill by J. Ruthven and Sons, 1804, with 2 engraved plates, tiny piece of worming in the fore-margins of the plates, pp. [iv], 304, 12mo, contemporary sheep, gilt ruled compartments on rounded spine, red lettering piece, very good, ownership inscription
20 on fly-leaf of Agnes Barker, Edinburgh, June 1806 (Oxford p. 120, note; Cagle 691, noting NYPL only in NUC, though WorldCat adds a few others) £650
A nice copy of the scarce fourth edition of a work first published in 1791 (also in Dublin) and lasting till a 7th edition in 1820. The first edition announces it as being ‘By Mrs Frazer, Sole Teacher of these Arts in Edinburgh, Several years Colleague, and afterwards Successor to Mrs M’iver deceased.’ If Mrs. Frazer were indeed ‘the Sole Teacher’ in the capital, it is surprising that her Christian name has not come down to us. Wellcome, Leeds and BL only in COPAC, but there is a copy in NLS. The printer’s name appears again at the colophon, within an attractive ribbon banner: conveniently James Ruthven was a grocer as well as a printer.
Euler, Goldbach, Nicolas Fuss, and several Bernoullis 40. Fuss (Paul Heinrich von, editor) Correspondance mathématique et physique de quelques celebres Géomètres du XVIIIème Siècle précédée d’une notice sur les travaux de Léonard Euler, tant imprimés qu’inédits et publiée sous les auspices de l’Académie impériale des sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg. St. Petersburg: [Imperial Academy of Sciences], 1843, FIRST EDITION, 2 vols, with engraved frontispiece portrait of Euler (vol. i) and Daniel Bernoulli (vol. ii), 8 folding plates of geometrical diagrams and 8 facsimile letters (as called for on the title-pages), text in Latin, German and French, intermittent browning and foxing, pp. cxxi, 673, [1]; xxiii, 713, [1], royal 8vo, late 19th- or early 20th-century brown fine-ribbed cloth, vol. i rebacked preserving the original spine, with minor reparations to head of each spine, red speckled edges, stamp of Royal Society of Edinburgh on each title-page, bookplate of James Burgess, C.I.E., LL.D. on front paste-downs and a pencil note by Burgess on front free end-paper of vol. 1 stating that he acquired the book from the library of Professor J. P. Nichol (see below), good £5,000
A highly important collection of letters, all of which are published here for the first time, and a very scarce book. ‘In 1845, P.H. Fuss published a 2-volume work, the Correspondance mathématique et physique ... It contained much of the correspondence between Leonhard Euler, Christian Goldbach, Nicolas Fuss, and several members of the Bernoulli family (Johann (I), Nicolas, and Daniel). More than 150 years later, Fuss’ book continues to be one of our best sources for much of this correspondence. In addition to publishing the correspondence, Fuss included a short biography of Euler, and a list of all of Euler’s known works. Fuss had uncovered several of these himself, and brought the number of Euler’s publications to 756. This list would remain the standard catalog of Euler’s works until Enestrom’s Index was published in 1913’ (eulerarchive[.]maa[.]org).
The letters published here contain a wealth of important results in mathematics and physics, far too many for a brief summary. We mention only three: Goldbach’s Conjecture, Euler’s famous Polyhedral Formula, and Daniel Bernoulli’s invention of the Gamma Function.
The collection was edited by Paul Heinrich von Fuss (1798-1855). Paul’s father Nicolas Fuss (1755-1826) was married to Albertine Euler, the daughter of Euler’s eldest son Johann Albrecht. Nicholas Fuss served as Euler’s assistant in St. Petersburg from 1773 to 1783, and was permanent secretary to the Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg from 1800 until his death in 1826, when he was succeeded in that post by his son Paul.
21 Provenance: John Pringle Nichol (1804-59) was Regius Professor of Astronomy at the University of Glasgow from 1836 until his death. He was a dynamic lecturer and, according to the historian David Murray, he was ‘in some respects one of the most remarkable men who ever held a Chair at the University.’ James Burgess (1832-1916) was a mathematician and archaeologist. He went to India, initially to do educational work, becoming Professor of Mathematics at Calcutta in 1855. In 1894 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, into whose library the present book presumably passed on his death.
41. Garnett (Thomas) A Lecture of the Preservation of Health. Liverpool: Printed by J. M’creery, and sold by Cadell and Davies, 1797, FIRST EDITION, slightly browned around the edges, pp. [vi], v, [2], 6-72, 8vo, disbound, first 6 leaves separated(ESTC T37696) £450
Dedicated to Erasmus Darwin. The author, a member of scientific societies in Edinburgh, Manchester, London, Dublin and Glasgow, had been a pupil of John Brown in Edinburgh. ‘The first part of [this] lecture is the substance of an essay which was read by the author before the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh, intended as a defence of the general principles of the system of Dr. Brown ... It was .. transcribed into the books of the society, and the public have now an opportunity of judging how far Dr. Girtanner, in his first essay published in the Journal de Physique, about two years after, in which he gives the theory as his own, without the least acknowledgement to the much injured and unfortunate author of the Elementa Medicinae, has borrowed from this essay.’ A notorious plagiarism. Scarce.
42. Georgiana Russell (née Gordon), Duchess of Bedford. This Work by Georgiana Duchess of Bedford was completed in (...) n.d., between 1823 and 1853, fine illuminated (but unfinished) title-page on vellum, lettering in gilt, tipped onto an album leaf, 11 leaves with water-colour drawing, &c (see below) tipped in or laid down plus about 50 more leaves with a few later insertions, 4to, beautifully bound in contemporary burgundy morocco, outer borders of twin triple gilt fillets, central panel framed by multiple gilt fillets, with a fine large ‘fanfare’ stamp at the centre, gilt stamped ducal coronet and the initials G.B. at the centre of the upper cover, spine gilt in compartments, wide gilt inner dentelles, light blue watered silk paste-downs and fly leaves, gilt edges, a little rubbed especially to hinges, good £7,500
A splendid album of water-colours collected by Georgiana, including one possibly by Landseer. Though few in number, the items are an excellent reflction of the tastes, and cultural horizons, of one of the most interesting, grand aristocratic ladies of the first half of the 19th century. The binding is not signed, though it is luxurious.
‘After twenty years of marriage, the Duchess met the love of her life, Edwin Landseer (1802- 1873), an artist twenty years her junior. They met in 1823, when the Duke engaged Landseer to paint a portrait of the Duchess. Georgy had been depressed after the recent death of her father. The affair lasted for over thirty years until Georgy’s death. The attraction between the two was immediate, they both had a mutual interest in art. Landseer taught Georgy to etch, and he sketched her frequently, the pictures shockingly intimate. Her last child, Lady Rachel Russell (born when she was 45), was more than likely Landseer’s child ... Thanks to Georgy introducing Landseer to the Scottish highlands, his work changed. The backgrounds to his paintings, which had been a particular weakness of his, became rich and atmospheric. For Georgy, who was facing middle-age, his love for her changed her from a woman whose life was almost over, to the passionate vibrant woman she’d been in her youth. The Duke, who was 15 years older than his wife, had suffered a debilitating stroke before she met Landseer,
22 Clockwise from top left: Items 40, 42, 44, 46 23 and Georgy had nursed him diligently. Despite her lover, Georgy was still attentive to the Duke, and both men worshipped and adored her. However, Landseer at times was jealous of her relationship with the Duke, so he needed a bit more quality time. Although neither man was probably particularly happy about the whole thing, neither did they want to lose this woman that they both loved’ (Elizabeth Kerri Mahon, Scandalous Women).
Contents:
1. Title-page, lettered as above, and decorated with bunches of grapes and flowers, and incorporating a ducal coronet in gilt.
2. Watercolour drawing on paper, 83 x 105 mm, of a Scottish Tower House, 3-storied, roofless, in a landscape with hills in the distance, and water (river or lake) in the foreground. Unsigned, but nicely drawn. This Tower bears some resemblance to the Tower of Gordon Castle, which however is 4 stories.
3. Hartshorne (Rev. Charles Henry) Watercolour drawing on paper, 250 x 205 mm, of the Anglo-Saxon tower of the parish church of Earls Barton, Northamptonshire. The Northamptonshire Record Office possesses a large collection of papers and drawing by Harthorne, including 3 of the same subject.
4. Severn (Joseph) Watercolour drawing on paper, 228 x 180 mm, Italianate, depicting a young woman seated by a wayside shrine, with a young gril beside her resting her head (asleep, apparently) on the older woman’s knee, dated Rome, 1831. Severn stayed on in Rome, after accompanying Keats there: Keats died in Severn’s arms on 23 February 1821.
5. [Deacon (Selina)] A finely executed ‘illuminated’ drawing on vellum, the sheet 238 x 203 mm, the drawing (tapering at top, approx. 125 x 75 mm, at the centre an exquisitely executed miniature depicting a landscape with a plough and cattle in the foreground, bordered on 3 sides by a gilt strips decorated with flowers, and surrounded by leaf sprays of various colours and heightened in gilt, dated 1826. The minuscule inscription at the foot seems to read ‘Selina Deacon’ (we had thought the second word was Beacon, indicating a particular landscape feature, but, a) there is no such Selina Beacon in the British Isles, and b) Selina Deacon is a possible name, though we have not found an interesting person to attach it to. Whoever the artist, he or she was very skilled, possibly professional.
6. Leslie (Charles Robert) Watercolour drawing on paper, on a sheet 215 x 263 mm, the drawing within a pencil ruled from approx. 135 x 170 mm, depicting a scene from ‘As you like it’ (Act 5th, Sc 1), the interview of Touchstone and Audrey with William, signed in the bottom left hand corner, captioned below. A nice example of Leslie’s literary genre pieces. He introduces a dog to the scene, whose regard towards William is most expressive.
7. Pinelli (Bartolomeo) Watercolour drawing on paper, 203 x 256 mm, depicting two young women standing and conversing in a landscape of Classical ruins, one of them holding a baby in swaddling clothes, to the side a young pipe-smoking man seated on a block of masonry, within earshot but apparently inattentive, signed ‘Pinelli fecit 1828 Roma’. The signature is cropped a little and the last 2 digits are uncertain. A skilful drawing, with emphasis on costume.
8. Watercolour drawing on paper, 134 x 230 mm, depicting the Brighton Chain Pier in the semi-distance, dark clouds and a setting sun beyond, viewed from the base of the cliffs, up which steep fenced paths wend their way, a few figures on the path and the beach, unsigned, captioned in turquoise ink on mount.
24 9. [?Landseer (Edwin)] Pen, ink and wash drwing on paper, 108 x 155 mm, depicting two mounted horsemen (?lancers) riding away from the viewer, other more sketchy figures in the background. Landseer was of course an animal artist, but his animals played solo roles, so the potential attribution is speculative.
10. ?Calliday (A.W.) Pencil drawing on paper, 156 x 115 mm, depicting a scene in Verona, a bridge across the river (but not the main stream), with buildings on either bank, and with workmen or boatmen busy on the beach in the foreground, signed indistinctly within the drawing, captioned in turquoise on the mount, the drawing within double gilt rule.
11. Pencil drawing on paper, 80 x 124 mm, view of Nice from along the shore, looking towards the fortifications on the right, the city in the background.
12. Pencil drawing on blue paper, 195 x 242 mm, depicting ‘The Old Oak and Manor, Chenies Bucks’. An accomplished and detailed drawing of a famous tree, known as Queen Elizabeth’s Oak, still going, and ancient even in Elizabeth’s time. Chenies was a property of the Russells, the family of the Dukes of Bedford. This could then conceivably be by Georgiana herself.
A Grant family copy 43. Grant (Jane & Mary Frances) [Letters.] [Dublin:] Privately printed [by W. King], c. 1865, SOLE EDITION, pp. 97, foolscap 8vo, original red cloth, bottom corners knocked, some light soiling and a couple of small waterspots, ownership inscription of Bartle Grant dated 1920 (see below), TLs from John ‘Jock’ Murray laid in, good £225
An excellent association copy, belonging to Major Bartle Grant, the nephew of the authors, brother of Lady Strachey, and the father of painter Duncan Grant - in the latter two respects, then, with immediate family connections to the Bloomsbury Group. He was remembered by Virginia Woolf in her diaries as ‘a perfect gentleman [...] but ineffective utterly’. The Grants were an aristocratic Scottish family, whose lairdship of the Rothiemurchus estate dates back to the Clan Grant of the sixteenth-century.
A caption preceding the text states that the letters were ‘chiefly written by Jane Grant and Mary Frances Grant [...] during a visit to Edinburgh in August, 1822’. The book is scarce - with two holdings on COPAC/Jisc, including the BL where a date of circa 1865 is suggested.
The letter from Murray, dated January 1952, is to Angus Davidson, who had suggested that the firm re-publish the book for a wider audience - a proposition that Murray declines.
44. Gray (Alasdair) Lanark. A Life in Four Books. Edinburgh: Canongate, 1981, FIRST EDITION, each book with illustrated title by the author, pp. [vi], 560, [1], 8vo, original black cloth, backstrip lettered in gilt, faint spotting to edges, original receipt loosely inserted, dustjacket design by the author, very good £450
Inscribed by the author to the recipients’ bookplate on the flyleaf: ‘To Mark and Fionna, from Alasdair Gray, 13 June 1982, with respect...’
45. (Greek Language.) TATE (James) and James Moor. Tracts on the Cases, Prepositions, and Syntax of the Greek Language. Richmond [Yorkshire]: 1830, title-page inscribed ‘From the author’ (i.e. James Tate), two corrections to the text in the same hand, pp. [iv], xvi, 18, [2], 8vo, disbound £350
25 A presentation copy of a scarce pamphlet reprinting three papers on Greek prepositions and their use with the oblique cases of nouns, together with a prefatory letter, mostly by James Tate (1771-1843). The first paper, ‘Origin of the Cases’, is reprinted from the British Critic (April 1826) while the second is the text of a talk given by James Moor (1712-1779) at Glasgow in 1764 (Moor was professor of Greek there, and the talk was printed two years later by the Foulis Press), and the third is Tate’s response to Moor, reprinted from the Classical Journal of June 1811.
Tate was master of the grammar school in Richmond, Yorkshire, from 1796 to 1833 (until he was appointed canon of St Paul’s), during which time it became one of the country’s best sources for a classical education. The Richmond students who went on to dominate Cambridge (thirteen received fellowships at Trinity) were called ‘Tate’s invincibles’.
COPAC and Worldcat between them locate 6 copies, at the V&A, BL, Durham, York, NLS, and Yale.
46. Gregory (David) Exercitatio geometrica de dimensione figurarum sive specimen methodi generalis dimetiendi quasuis figuras.Edinburgh: James Kniblo, Joshua van Solingen & John Colmar, 1684, FIRST EDITION, with a folding engraved plate, minor browning, title-page re-inforced at the inner margin and with a small repair there, D2 with a repair to a short tear in the inner margin, and D4 with another to the fore- margin, entering the text but without loss, brackets surrounding page numerals at head of page twice trimmed, perforated stamp on title of the Franklin Institute, and their stam on one page, pp. [iv], 50, [1, errata], 4to, modern calf backed boards, calf lettering piece on upper cover lettered in gilt (ESTC R27394) £7,500
A rare tract, which contains the first publication, albeit unauthorised, of Newton’s methods of infinite series. This prompted Newton to begin to write up his own work.
‘Most Tory Newtonians in early eighteenth century England were Scottish instead of English. The cause can be traced back to Scottish Episcopalians, in particular David Gregory and Archibald Pitcairne, who were among the most influential and charismatic Scottish Newtonians. Scottish Episcopalians embraced Newton’s natural philosophy primarily as a justification to use reason to combat the religious enthusiasm of Scottish Presbyterians. Scottish Episcopalians were more tolerant of new ideas and fearful of the fanaticism, sectarianism, and anti-intellectualism exhibited by Presbyterians. As a whole, Tories/High Churchmen in England supported passive obedience, were less tolerant, and were wary of using reason in matters of faith. As a consequence, Scotland provided a much more fertile ground for Newtonianism than England. In 1691, the year after Presbyterianism was established as the official state religion in Scotland, Gregory resigned the mathematical chair at the University of Edinburgh and assumed the Savilian Professorship of Astronomy at Oxford. ... Primarily under the influence of Gregory and Pitcairne’s Scottish disciples and colleagues at Oxford, Newtonian concepts were transmitted to High-Church Anglicans. A number of Tories embraced Newton’s mathematical natural philosophy, not to combat Presbyterianism and not because they were unaware that such uses of reason could undermine traditional sources of religious authority such as Scripture, but because they were convinced it offered a more structured view of how the universe operated and provided a justification of an ordered society based on hierarchy, so important to High- Church Anglicans’ (J Friesen, Archibald Pitcairne, David Gregory and the Scottish origins of English Tory Newtonianism, 1688-1715, Hist. Sci. 41 2(132) (2003), 163-191).
ESTC records only 3 copies in America, Yale, Library Company, and LoC.
26 This is one of only 4 books to bear this imprint, all 1684, (van Solingen and Colmar were Dutch imports), the others being Latin and English editions of Sibbald’s Scotia ilustrata, and a Gaelic edition of the Psalms.
47. Hay (David Ramsay) The Laws of Harmonious Colouring, adapted to interior decorations, manufactures, and other useful purposes. Third edition. Edinburgh: William and Robert Chambers; and Orr & Smith, London, 1836, with 5 plates formed of pasted-on coloured paper triangles, and 5 diagrams within the text, 4 of which are hand-coloured, pp. vii, [1], 72, 8vo, original green cloth, printed paper label on upper cover, slight damp marks to edges of boards, the upper cover a trifle faded, ink stamp inside front cover of the Ben Damph Forest library, family seat of the Earls of Lovelace, good £800
‘On seeking Scott’s advice regarding his early wish to become an artist, [Hay] was taken into the author’s study where they conversed at length. Scott recommended that unless he felt such a ‘glow of ambition that [he] would rather run a hundred chances of obscurity and penury than miss one of being a Wilkie … he should resolutely set himself to introducing something of a more elegant style of house-painting’ (Lockhart, 7.201–2). Hay was ‘modest and wise enough to accept the advice with thankfulness, and to act upon it. After a few years he had qualified himself to take charge of all this delicate limning and blazoning at Abbotsford’ (ibid.) ... From the outset, Hay took an interest in the theoretical side of his work and in 1828 published a slim volume, the Laws of Harmonious Colouring. The work ran to six editions in nineteen years, each edition increasing in scope, and was essentially rewritten after the fourth edition. In a notice of 1843 in the Edinburgh Review, the eminent scientist David Brewster acclaimed Hay’s work for bringing ‘scientific truth’ to the otherwise murky speculations abounding on the fine arts ... Most of Hay’s works were illustrated from his own designs. Although most of his ideas are completely discredited today and dismissed as pseudo-science, Hay’s influence in his own time was extensive’ (ODNB).
The labels states that copies were available plain and coloured.
48. Heriot (Alexander) A Book containing Tables for finding out the Exchange of Money and Annualrents [sic], for Days, Months and Years. With a further Description of the arious Uses of the saids [sic] Tables. Edinburgh: Printed by the Heirs and Successors of Andrew Anderson, 1697, title-page a bit soiled, small piece missing from lower margin, damp-staining in signature B, pp. [xx], 40, small 4to, disbound, a little contemporary annotation, including ‘Finis’ at the end (ESTC R177953; Aldis 3670) £750
One of the earliest books on the subject published in Scotland. The NLS notes to the ICAS collection, cites Robert Colinson’s Idea ratioparai, 1683, as the first, and that ‘its publication in 1683 marked the decline of Dutch influence on bookkeeping books written in English. For the next century, most of the best books on bookkeeping in English were published in Scotland or were written by Scottish authors.’ Heriot is described on the title-page as one who is a ‘Teacher of Book-Keeping, who Lives now presently within a little Closs on the East side next to the foot of Bells-Wynd.’ 3 copies only in ESTC, NLS,Glasgow, and Aberdeen.
Signed by Composer and Translator 49. (Highland song.) THE LONE SHIELING, or Boatsong of Highlander Exiles. Transcribed from Blackwood of September 1829 by Walter G.F. Dewar, with a Musical Setting,
27 28 Clockwise from top left: Items 47, 51, 54, 52 composed by Alan Burr, and Renderings in Greek Verse by Harold A. Perry and in Latin by Lord Francis Hervey, and a Critical Inquiry by the last named into the Authorship of the Poem. John Murray, 1925, FIRST EDITION, frontispiece portrait of Norman Macleod, one further monochrome plate, musical setting at rear, pp. viii, 27, crown 8vo, original quarter cream cloth with red boards, printed label to upper board, lightly soiled with a small waterspot to upper board, edges untrimmed and lightly spotted, later ownership inscription to front pastedown, good £40
Inscribed by the composer on the flyleaf to ‘Arthur H. Brooks Esq, New Year 1928, from Alan Burr, In gratitude for the immense pleasure I have had from D. 1585’, and also signed by Francis Hervey, who contributes the greater part of the text in this volume. The recipient was perhaps Arthur Howell Brooks, a recording engineer for Columbia.
Various authors of this boat song have been proposed - including Lord Eglinton, J.G. Lockhart, John Galt, and others, whom Hervey’s inquiry dismisses; its link to Johnson and Boswell is delineated, but the possibility of their authorship discounted with some certainty. Hervey’s conclusion ascribes it rather to Sir Walter Scott. The classical translations are both by old Etonians, Hervey subsequently going up to Balliol College, Oxford.
‘A magnificent aspect’ 50. Homer. Opera Omnia: ex recensione et cum notis Samuelis Clarkii, S.T.P. Accessit varietas lectionum MS. Lips. et edd. veterum, cura Jo. Augusti Ernesti: qui et suas notas adspersit. [5 vols.] Glasgow: Excudebat Andreas Duncan, 1814, LARGE PAPER COPY (25.5cm tall), two folding engraved maps (offset onto facing pages), a touch of light spotting, pp. [iv], xviii, 639. [1]; [iv], ii, 670, [2]; [iv], iii, [i], 603, [1]; [iv], 558, [2]; [iv], ix, [iii], 406, [2], 180, 8vo, contemporary Italian black sheep, spines divided by a triple gilt fillet between blind rolls, second compartment gilt-lettered direct, the rest with central blind tools, the name ‘Caissotti’ blocked in gilt to front boards, rubbed and scratched, gold and green mottled endpapers, edges untrimmed, good (Dibdin II 59- 60) £600
A ‘beautiful and faithful’ reprint of Ernesti’s edition (1759-64), which had expanded and completed the work of Samuel Clarke; it further adds Wolf’s ‘Prolegomena to Homer’, encompassing all the best work in Homeric studies to date. Dibdin speaks of Ernesti’s achievement: ‘From the authority of Harwood and Harles, and from the general estimation in which this work is held by learned men, we may justly rank it with the very best editions of Homer... of the two reprints, that of 1814... is a most beautiful as well as accurately printed work: and the copies on LARGE PAPER have a magnificent aspect.’
The Natural History of Religion 51. Hume (David) Four Dissertations. I. The natural history of religion. II. Of the passions. III. Of tragedy. IV. Of the standard of taste. Printed [by William Bowyer] for A. Miller, 1757, FIRST EDITION, the inking a little uneven in the early pages, minor browning, thumbing, a few spots, with the half-title and the Dedication, the usual cancels (C12, D1, K5-8 - stubs showing), typographical error on p. 9, but that on p. 131 corrected, pp. [iv], vii, [3], 240, 12mo, contemporary calf, lacking lettering piece, slightly rubbed and worn, spine a little defective at either end, cracking to lower joint (but sound), contemporary signature of James MacIvor on fly-leaf (a further inscription sliced off the head) and half-title, later pencil marking in the margins (Jessop, pages 33-35; Chuo I, 45; Rothschild 1176; Todd, p. 200) £2,200
29 The publication of this volume is a tangled tale. ‘Hume first suggested the volume to Andrew Millar in 1755, proposing essays on the natural history of religion, the passions, tragedy, and geometry and natural philosophy. The second of these derived from book 2 of the Treatise, and completed its abridgement; the fourth may have been a reworking of book 1, part 2. But it was dropped on the advice of Lord Stanhope, a mathematician; and Hume had proposed to replace it with two essays on suicide and on the immortality of the soul. Though ‘Five dissertations’ were printed in proof, Warburton’s interference and Hume’s “abundant prudence” led to their withdrawal, and Hume substituted another, on the standard of taste, to make up the final four dissertations. The most substantial of these was the “Natural history of religion”.
When it was first drafted is uncertain; it may have been contemporary with the still- unpublished Dialogues. It offered an experimental history of religious belief and practice, with a comparative analysis of the respective characteristics of polytheism and monotheism. Hume found that polytheism had not only preceded monotheism, but was much less dangerous, being less liable to join a philosophical enthusiasm to a religious superstition. This error he attributed specifically to the Stoics; but all theists were implicated. The only remedy, he concluded, was to set one species of superstition against another, “while we ourselves … happily make our escape into the calm, though obscure, regions of philosophy”’ (ODNB).
This is not all. ‘After publication Hume withdrew the dedication to John Home ... but cancelled the withdrawal four days later: in the interval 800 copies were sold without it’ (Jessop)
Blue brick Broad Street Chapel 52. (Illuminated Testimonial.) MORTON (Edward, Illuminating Artist) To Mr and Mrs James Byers on their leaving Birmingham for Annan. June 1892. [Birmingham:] 1892, illuminated manuscript on vellum, 7 leaves, folio (342 x 270 mm), the leaves mounted on linen stubs, written on rectos only, text area 264 x 195 mm, central text surrounded by elaborate borders, each different, heightened with gold, decorated initials on 5 pages, coats of arms, &c, one page with a fine inset vignette of the Broad Street Presbyterian Church in Birmingham contemporary dark blue hard-grained morocco, sides elaborately panelled in gilt, upper cover with title as above lettered in gilt at the centre, spine gilt with a wavy roll tool, gilt inner dentelles, ticket of Edward Morton inside front cover, watered silk doublures and endleaves, preserved in its original hinged oak box, lined with burnt orange velvet, the fore-edge also hinged to allow extraction, with lock, but lacking key £3,500
A fine example of a High Victorian luxury illuminated testimonial. Edward Morton was active from about 1880 till the early years of the 20th century, specialising in this sort of testimonial. Broad Street chapel was opened in a new building, designed by J. R. Botham of Birmingham, completed in 1849. In 1851 there were sittings for 700 and an average congregation of 380. The Sunday evening congregation in 1892 was 150. By 1923 attendances had so declined that there were said to be congregations of no more than 12 in the chapel. In 1924 it began to be used by the Christian Scientists who subsequently bought the building. Broad Street chapel is a Classical building in the Greek Revival tradition, carried out in blue brick with stone dressings, faithfully recorded in the vignette. The entrance front had a central doorway (now altered into a window) leading into a domed vestibule flanked by staircases. Above is a Classical steeple surmounted by a cupola. The chapel itself is rectangular with a large gallery.
30 Those who subscribed to the making of this testimonial speak of having known the Byers over a very long period, and of the couple’s devotion to the cause of Presbyterianism in the Midlands. Most of the subscribers have Scots names. The ‘very long period’ is conceivably since the inauguration of the building. We haven’t pinned down this couple, but there are records of Byers in Annan, connected with Presbyterianism, such as James Byers, a Presbyterian minister, born in Annan in 1816, but removed to Canada at an early age, graduating from Pictou College, and attending Princeton, thereafter ministering in Nova Scotia.
53. Jamieson (Robert) Popular Ballads and Songs, from Tradition, Manuscripts, and Scarce Editions; with Translations of Similar Pieces from the Ancient Danish Languiage, and a few Originals by the Author. Vol. I [-II]. Edinburgh: Printed [by J. Ballantyne & Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co., Cadell and Davies, and John Murray, 1806, FIRST EDITION, 2 vols., with half-titles, pp. [vi], ii, xix, 352; [iv], iii, 409, 8vo, contemporary polished calf, double gilt fillets on sides enclosing a roll tooled border in blind, spines gilt in compartments, lettered in gilt direct, spines very slightly faded, extremities rubbed, some surface scratches, small defect to headcap of vol. ii, contemporary printed bookplate of David Moore of Thame in both vols., and that of Eric Gerard Stanley, and that of Norman and Janey Buch in vol. ii, good £400
‘Sir Walter Scott, who held a high opinion of Jamieson, emphasized in his 1830 essay on popular poetry prefaced to later editions of his Border Minstrelsy Jamieson’s discovery of the undoubted kinship between Scandinavian and Scottish ballads, ‘a circumstance which no antiquary had before so much as suspected’. Jamieson owed this discovery to the Icelandic antiquary G. J. Thorkelin’s gift to him of Kaempe viser (ed. Peder Syv, Copenhagen, 1695), a volume of Danish heroic ballads. His long letter to Scott on the subject, which forms an essay on comparative literature unparalleled at the time in this field, is included in the second volume of his Popular Ballads and Songs. Like Scott’s Border Minstrelsy (1802– 3), many of Jamieson’s Ballads derive from manuscript transcripts made by Mrs Brown, widow of the minister of Falkland, Fife. They are annotated with scholarship and taste; and in the original section Jamieson’s own lyrics ‘The Quern Lilt’ and ‘My Wife’s a Winsome Wee Thing’ secure for him a place among minor Scottish singers’ (ODNB). Not mentioned on the title-page is the interesting 19-page Glossay at the end of vol. ii.
David Moore of Thame seems to have been an antiquary: we find mention of him excavating mammoth bones, and having a collection of fossils. The Buchan’s were a Glasgow political family (Labour, initially YCL), heavily involved in the arts, and book collectors (on Janey’s death some 9,000 were given to Scottish universities, including The Janey Buchan Political Song Collection at the University of Glasgow).
54. Johnston (Arthur, editor) Delitiæ poetarum Scotorum hujus ævi illustrium: [Pars I - altera]. Amsterdam: Joan Blaeu, 1637, FIRST EDITION, 2 parts in 1 vol., woodcut printer’s device on the title-pages to both parts, pp. 699; 578, [2], 12mo, original vellum, the spine re-lettered (with bad Latinity) the original lettering having faded, overlapping fore-edges, slightly soiled, headbands present but separated fron textblock, armorial Abercairny bookplate inside front cover, that of Robert J. Hayhurst opposite, good (Bibliographia Aberdonensis I, p. 280; see McOmish and Reid, eds: Neo-Latin and Literary Culture in Early Modern Scotland, Brill, 2016) £1,100
31 ‘Seven tenths of this remarkable national anthology consists of selections from the works of men of the N.E. of Scotland ... The collection is generally estimable and drew high praise from Dr. Samuel Johnson [it ‘would have done honour to any nation’, he said] and other competent critics’ (Bib. Aberdonensis).
‘The change [in Sir John Scot of Scotstarvit’s political career] no doubt partly reflected Scot’s increasing absorption in the advancement of two major schemes of patriotic publication. The Amsterdam publisher Blaeu was producing a series of volumes devoted to the modern Latin verse of particular countries, and Scot recruited the Aberdeen poet Arthur Johnston to edit a Scottish contribution. Work began in the 1620s, and culminated in the two-volume Delitiae poetarum Scotorum (1637), which included some of Scot’s own verse. Scot’s commitment to the work was demonstrated by the fact that he visited Amsterdam to help see the work through the press, as well as paying the entire cost of printing ... [Scot’s] main claim to fame, however, is the literary and scholarly publications which he sponsored, outstanding given the general poverty of such patronage in Scotland in the period. The statement that learned men “came to him from all quarters; so that his house [Scotstarvit Tower] was a kind of college” (Nisbet, vol. 2, appx, 282) is exaggerated, but Scot, with his contacts with a range of Dutch and other continental scholars and his close relationship with his brother-in-law and other Scottish poets, formed a sorely needed focus for cultural activity in the country’ (ODNB).
Abercairny, near Crieff in Perthshire, is not so very far from Scotstarvit.
55. Josephus. The Genuine Works of ... translated by William Whiston ... In Six Volumes. Edinburgh: Printed for Mundell, Doig, and Stevenson, 1809, 6 vols., with a folding engraved map in vol. i, a little browning and occasional spotting, 1 gathering in vol. i a little proud, pp. [ii], 79, [1, blank], 292; [ii], 376; [ii], 357, [3, blank]; [ii], 302;[ii], [viii], 9-391; [ii], 370, 8vo, contemporary sprinkled calf, red lettering piece on spines, and small circular numbering piece, edges sprinkled blue, upper joint of vol. i showing signs of the book having been opened (but perfectly sound), otherwise apart from a few minor blemishes an almost pristine set, 20th-century armorial bookplate in each vol. of Lt-Col George McL. Sceales £650
A scarce edition of Whiston’s translation (which had first appeared in 1737): the only other copy we have been able to locate is in the NLS. A very handsome set.
56. Kelman (Jim [James]) Short Tales from the Night Shift. With illustrations by Maggie Wallace. Glasgow: Print Studio Press, 1978, FIRST EDITION, ONE OF 500 COPIES, 2 full- page line drawings, pp. [17], 4to, original stapled wrappers with Wallace drawing to front, some light creasing and a hint of soiling with a few small pressure marks, very good £125
Early work by the Glaswegian Kelman, his second collection of short stories.
57. (Kennels Press.) BURNS (Robert) Tam o’Shanter. Milngavie, 1959, 26/50 COPIES signed by the printer below his woodcut device at rear, his ms. correction to date within colophon also, pp. 20, 24mo, original beige linen with marbled boards, touch of rubbing, near fine £60
32 Clockwise from top left: Items 55, 56, 61, 60 33 58. Kerr (William, complier) Un Recueil tiré des Autheurs François, tant en Prose qu’en Vers, pour l’utilité de la Jeunesse qui desire de s’avancer dans la Langue Françoise. Edinburgh: Baskett & Co., 1727, FIRST (?ONLY) EDITION, title printed in red and black, occasional browning, minor damp-staining, small pieces torn from margins of a few leaves, last leaf trimmed at fore-edge without loss, various inscriptions on title-page, erased or bleached, pp. [ii]], iv, [2], ix-xvi (Subscribers), 396, [2], 12mo in 4s, late 18th- century half calf, dark green morocco lettering piece on spine, slightly rubbed (ESTC T128244) £500
An anthology of French prose and verse, including dramatic verse, for those wishing to improve their French. The volume is dedicated to ‘Mademoiselle de Douglas’, presumably the Lady Jean Douglas in the list of subscribers, her mother, the Marchioness, also a subscriber. Kerrs were related by marriage; Lady Jean, or Jane’s maternal grandfather was Robert Kerr, first marquess of Lothian.
STC records 8 copies in 7 locations in the UK, 4 in North America.
Edition not in ESTC 59. (Letter Writer.) THE COMPLETE LETTER-WRITER. Containing Familiar Letters on The most common Occasions in Life. Also A variety of elegant Letters for the Direction and Embellishment of Style, on Buisiness, Duty, Amusement, Love, Courtship, Marriage, Friendship, and other subjects. To which is prefixed A plain and compendious English Grammar. With Directions for writing Letters, and the proper Forms of Address. At the End are given, Forms of Message-Cards, and a copious English Spelling-Dictionary. Edinburgh: Printed in the Year 1776, slight browning, and a few spots or thumb- marks, 2 leaves a little proud, pp. 300, 12mo, original calf, blind ruled borders on sides, good, contemporary signature on title of William Turnbull, modern bookplate of David Stocks (wood-engraving of stocks) £600
A pleasant copy of a very rare printing of this classic Letter-Writer - not in ESTC or Alston, with WorldCat and COPAC locating just 1 copy (NLS). David Paterson printed an edition in Edinburgh in the same year to be ‘sold by the Booksellers’, but this is not it without a name (the pagination differs). The title first appeared in London in 1755, and numerous editions followed, mostly London, but a few provincial (this is the fourth or fifth Edinburgh edition, but by no means the last one before 1800: it must have been useful in combatting Scoticisms), and at least 1 American. In the corrected reprint Alston has ruefully noted under the first edition ‘There were numerous works with this title - library catalogues are confusing.’
Author’s own copy 60. Lindsay (Maurice) At the Wood’s Edge. Edinburgh: Serif Books, 1950, FIRST EDITION, a few faint spots, with corrections throughout in the author’s hand, pp. 52, foolscap 8vo, original light green boards lettered in mid-green, a little faded to backstrip and edges, touch of waterstaining at foot of backstrip, light edge-spotting with the bookplate of the author to front pastedown and his signature to facing flyleaf, dustjacket lightly nicked and chipped, good £90
The poet’s own copy. Lindsay’s editing of his own work begins in the Preface and includes the standardising of some of the dialect as well as numerous other revisions in word-choice, some of which alter the sense.
34 61. (Locke.) SIMM (Alexander) Miscellaneous Tracts; or, Select Passages, Historical, Chronological, Moral, &c. Extracted from Eminent Authors, ancient and modern. Containing An Abstract of Mr Locke’s Conduct of the Understanding. For the Benefit of Younger Scholars. Edinburgh: Printed by William Gray, and sold at his Printing- house at Magdalen’s Chapel, in the Cowgate; and by the Booksellers in Town and Country, 1753, FIRST EDITION, printed on poor quality paper, tear in b2 with a chip missing but no loss of text, a little dusty or soiled in places, pen trials, pp. xii, 291, 8vo in 4s, contemporary sheep, rubbed and slightly worn, but sound (Yolton 311; ESTC records 3 copies only (British Library, National Library of Scotland, Bodleian) £1,800
First edition of this rare miscellany ‘historical, chronological, moral’ compiled ‘for the benefit of younger scholars’ by Alexander Simm, a retired schoolmaster of the Scottish town of Bathgate,West Lothian. In the preface Simm offers his thoughts on the occupation of young minds: ‘I thought I could not employ some of my leisure hours better, than in compiling some select passages both of the actions and sayings of the great, good, and wise men of antiquity, as well as of the moderns; which might (instead of useless Trish Trash) afford them an agreeable and prof- itable entertainment when otherwise unemployed.’ Simm is particularly keen that children be kept away from ‘vicious and dissolute Servants.’
Among titles ofthe sectional heading are found “of Pythagoras ... remarks from the Copernican system of the world ... of Confucius the philosopher of China ... the English way of pronouncing Latin ... humanity of the Greeks superior to that of the Romans ... of the delusions of witchcraft ... new islands raised by vulcanoes ... rules for a Christian life”. Of particular interest is the inclusion in this work of an “abstract of Mr Locke’s Conduct of the Understanding”, “containing the substance of the most material things writ by Mr Locke on the subject ...compendized by Alexander Simm.” Occupying twenty-one pages, this represents an early abridgement of John Locke’s Of the conduct of the understanding (1706) and a significant instance of the popularisation of Locke’s philosophy in Scotland.
The Section on the Union of 1707 is strongly in favour of it; so much so that Simm seems dazzled by the advantages that accrue to Scotland from it.
62. Lucian of Samosata. Dialogorum selectorum libri duo Graecolatini. Accesserunt Theognidis Megarensis sententiae Elegiacae, itidem graecolatinae. Ingolstadt: Adam Sartorius, 1598, final blank discarded, errata leaf present, top margin of last few leaves worn (with loss to running title), title-page dustsoiled and a bit frayed at fore-margin, small paperflaw in leaf y4 affecting a few characters, occasional marginal annotations in Latin and Greek in an early hand, gathering v bound out of order (1, 5-6, 2-3, 7-8, 4), pp. [iii], 404 (recte 406), [5], 8vo, contemporary dark sheep, paper label to spine, rubbed and scratched, some wear to joints, the leather since treated to conserve it, various inscriptions in English, Latin, and Greek to front endpapers and title-page (see below), sound (VD16 L 2946; not in Adams) £750
A scarce edition of selected dialogues by Lucian of Samosata, printed by Adam Sartorius, who succeeded his father David as printer to the Jesuit university in Ingolstadt. David had first printed the selection in 1593; Adam took over a few years later and produced this edition followed by two more in 1605 and 1608. Despite Sartorius’s close ties to the university in Ingolstadt, this copy made its way fairly early on to Britain; an early inscription on the title-page reads ‘Ja: Carnegy, dono Mrs Fodall[?]’, and the book can next definitively be placed at Duns Castle, in the ownership of Andrew Baxter (1686-1750), then in the hands of his son Alexander, and after that with Thomas Mein of Lessudden (or St Boswell’s),
35 about 20 miles from Duns Castle. Each of these has left an ownership inscription of some form (Alexander Baxter in the Greek alphabet) on the endpapers or a blank, among a few pen trials and one additional struck-through inscription.
Andrew Baxter came to Duns Castle in 1719, in the employ of the Hays of Drumelzier, and remained there for a number of years serving the family in various capacities. While there he corresponded with Henry Home about Newton, and later established himself as a metaphysician and ‘one of Britain’s leading exponents of Newtonian metaphysics’ (ODNB). The annotations in the text are probably in an earlier hand than his.
63. MacColl (Dugald Sutherland) Poems. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1940, FIRST EDITION, frontispiece portrait, some light foxing, largely to prelims, pp. x, 139, crown 8vo, original black cloth, backstrip lettered in gilt, edges untrimmed and partly uncut, top edge a little dusty, edges lightly spotted, dustjacket a little nicked and lightly toned with a few tiny spots, very good £80
The collection includes a section of Oxford poems. The author attended Lincoln College and won the Newdigate Prize in 1882, but became most eminent in the art world.
64. Macculloch (John) A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, Including The Isle of Man; Comprising An Account of Their Geological Structure; With Remarks on Their Agriculture, Scenery, And Antiquities. In three volumes. Vol. I [-III]. Printed for Archibald Constable [and others], 1819, FIRST EDITION, 2 vols. 8vo (text), and 1 vol. 4to (atlas), half titles, 10 engraved maps and plans, of which 2 folding and 9 hand- coloured geologically, 33 engraved plates of which 2 folding and hand-coloured, 7 more hand coloured, a bit of foxing at the end of vol. ii (emanating from the advertisement leaf), very faint offsetting of the plates, minor browning in vol. iii, pp. xv, 587; vii, 589, [2, ads], [ii], 91, plus plates, uncut, but opened, in the original boards, the text vols. drab backed blue boards, atlas vol. all drab, printed paper labels, spines of text vols. a bit discoloured, slight wear to corners, spine of atlas vol. defective at head, label damaged, additional label on upper cover of atlas, worn at extremities, very good (Challinor 93; Ward & Carozzi 1443) £2,500
Complete (atlas vol. sometimes wanting) and in the original boards. There are a few notes in pencil, indicating a close reading, but once read, the set seems to have enjoyed a very quiet life.
‘Macculoch’s most important book. The numerous islands described, large and small [and including Man], many of which had not previously been examined by geologists, contain rocks ranging in age from Precambrian to Tertiarty, including many igneous rocks. His descriptions of the igneous rocks and the sketches and maps in the accompanying atlas promoted a true understanding of the nature and origin of igneous rock at a time when the mistaken views of Werner on their origin had not been eradicated’ (DSB).
‘If any apology is deemed necessary for here including the Isle of Man, it must be recollected that it once formed a political part of the Western islands’ (Preface).
65. McIlvaine (William ) Dissertatio medica inauguralis de anorexia. Edinburgh: Balfour, Auld, and Smellie, 1771, pp. 36, 8vo, modern boards, good (ESTC T6478) £750
36 Designated ‘Pensylvaniensis’ on the title-page, McIlvaine was born in Philadelphia in 1750 to Scottish immigrant parents. He was a surgeon in Col. Read’s Regiment in 1776. Died 1806.
66. McIntosh (Charles) Flora and Pomona: or, the British Fruit and Flower Garden; containing descriptions of the most valuable and interesting Flowers and Fruits, cultivated in the gardens of Great Britain, with figures drawn and coloured from nature. Accompanied by a concise analysis of their botanical and pomonological character, their nature and mode of culture, including a definition of the technical terms used in the science of botany, with familiar instructions for the drawing and colouring of the fruits and flowers.Thomas Kelly, 1829 [-32], FIRST EDITION, 2 parts in 1 vol., with 71 finely hand-coloured engraved plates, 1 double-page (35 of flowers, 36 of fruits), some of the plates reversed from original parts binding (stab holes at fore- margins), minor spotting in the text, 1 plate, and the adjacent leaves, with a short tear in the lower margin (no loss), 5 plates just trimmed, with minor loss to image in 2, to imprint in the others, 2 plates very slightly browned, unnumbered pages, 8vo, mid- to late-19th-century half calf, spine richly gilt, black lettering piece, minor rubbing, good (Nissen 1256; Royal Horticultural Society The Fruit Yearbook, 1958 pp. 72-73; Stafleu (2nd) 5179) £3,500
A good clean copy of this scarce and beautiful work. Charles McIntosh, 1794-1864, a native of Perthshire, was an ‘outstanding authority on horticulture, having been head gardener to several noblemen,’ including Prince Leopold of Belgium. There are thirty-six plates of fruits and thirty-five of flowers, all beautifully rendered and coloured, ‘the last of their kind in pomonological literature in this country’ (The Fruit Yearbook, 1958). The dates of the plates span 1829 to 1832, the ratio in each part being almost identical.
67. Mackenzie (Compton) Fairy Gold. Cassell, 1926, FIRST EDITION, the half-title faintly spotted and a few faint spots elsewhere, pp. [viii], 470, crown 8vo, original black cloth, backstrip lettered in gilt and faded, some wear, corners pushed, light overall soiling with a couple of marks, some white paint spots to lower board, edges faintly spotted, endpapers a little dusty, fair (Thomas & Thomas A20) £90
With a long inscription to the flyleaf by the author, at the time of publication, presenting this copy to journalist A.J. Russell, of the Evening Standard - in which parts of the book had been serialised. The inscription expresses the author’s gratitude for this publication, and refers to Russell’s first having heard it at Kettner’s Restaurant the previous October. A nice association.
68. Maclaurin (Colin) A Treatise of Fluxions. In two books. Volume I [-II]. Edinburgh: Printed by T.W. and T. Ruddimans, 1742, FIRST EDITION, 2 vols. in 1, with the half-title to vol. I (not called for for vol. II), and with 51 folding engraved plates, pp. [vi], vi, 412; [ii, title to vol. II], 413-763, [1], 4to, old calf, gilt roll tooled borders on sides, skillfully rebacked, spine gilt, red lettering piece, red edges, very good £4,500
‘In 1742 Maclaurin published his 2 volume Treatise of Fluxions, the first systematic exposition of Newton’s methods written as a reply to Berkeley’s attack on the calculus for its lack of rigorous foundations. Maclaurin wrote in the introduction “[Berkeley] represented the method of fluxions as founded on false reasoning, and full of mysteries. His objections seemed to have been occasioned by the concise manner in which the elements of this
37 38 Clockwise from top left: Items 64, 66, 71, 68 method have been usually described, and their having been so much misunderstood by a person of his abilities appeared to me to be sufficient proof that a fuller account of the grounds of this was required.”
‘The Treatise of Fluxions is a [beautifully printed] major work of 763 pages, much praised by those who read it but usually described as having little influence. However, [Grabiner] argues convincingly that Maclaurin’s influence on the Continentals has been underrated. Grabiner gives five areas of influence of Maclaurin’s treatise: his treatment of the fundamental theorem of the calculus; his work on maxima and minima; the attraction of ellipsoids; elliptic integrals; and the Euler-Maclaurin summation formula.
‘Maclaurin appealed to the geometrical methods of the ancient Greeks and to Archimedes’ method of exhaustion in attempting to put Newton’s calculus on a rigorous footing. It is in the Treatise of fluxions that Maclaurin uses the special case of Taylor’s series now named after him and for which he is undoubtedly best remembered today. The Maclaurin series was not an idea discovered independently of the more general result of Taylor for Maclaurin acknowledges Taylor’s contribution. Another important result given by Maclaurin, which has not been named after him or any other mathematician, is the important integral test for the convergence of an infinite series. The Treatise of fluxions is not simply a work designed to put the calculus on a rigorous basis, for Maclaurin gave many applications of calculus in the work. For example he investigates the mutual attraction of two ellipsoids of revolution as an application of the methods he gives’ (MacTutor, on-line).
See J.V. Grabiner, Was Newton’s calculus a dead end? The continental influence of Maclaurin’s treatise of fluxions, Amer. Math. Monthly 104 (5) (1997), 393-410.
69. Maclean (Fitzroy) Eastern Approaches. Jonathan Cape, 1949, FIRST EDITION, frontispiece photograph of author with 11 further plates and 3 colour-printed maps, spotting to prelims, pp. 543, 8vo, original red cloth, backstrip lettered in gilt, top edge red, a few tiny spots to other edges and endpapers, blank Book Society bookplate (Rex Whistler design) to flyleaf, dustjacket a little chipped at corners with a couple of light stains to rear panel, very good £400
The author’s account of his heroic wartime adventures, including the mission for which he was personally selected by Churchill as his personal representative - dropped into German- occupied Yugoslavia to establish contact with the guerrilla leader Tito.
The Times obituary describes him as a ‘travel writer of great fluency’ as well as a ‘talented photographer’ - those illustrating the text here are, perhaps, then largely his own. He is regarded by many as one of the likeliest models for Fleming’s secret agent James Bond, and elsewhere compared to one of Buchan’s heroes.
70. Macleod (Joseph Gordon) The Ecliptic. Faber and Faber, 1930, FIRST EDITION, pp. 77, small 4to, original plain card with integral blue dustwrapper, a little darkened with minor rubbing, contemporary ownership inscription of Donald A. Buena de Mesquita to half-title, good £325
In much nicer state than commonly met with.
Along with Auden’s ‘Poems’ and Philip Perceval Graves’ ‘The Pursuit’, Macleod’s debut was announced by the publisher as ‘the best work of coming men’. It was recommended to
39 Eliot at Faber by Ezra Pound, who maintained a correspondence with the emergent author and referred to the work in ‘Canto CXIV’; Basil Bunting was among its other admirers. It is a work of considerable ambition and difficulty, based around the Signs of the Zodiac. The author had attended Balliol College, where he was a friend and contemporary of Graham Greene; his later work published under the name Adam Drinan located him in the Scottish Renaissance, whilst he also worked as a BBC announcer and theatre producer.
71. MacVicar (Angus) Peril on the Lost Planet. Burke, 1960, FIRST EDITION, pp. 144, crown 8vo, original blue boards, backstrip lettered in dark blue, some faint spotting to edges, ownership inscription to front pastedown, contemporary gift inscription to verso of flyleaf, dustjacket price-clipped with minor rubbing, very good £200
Inscribed by the author at the head of the flyleaf, without dedication: ‘All good wishes, Angus MacVicar’.
A Scottish author, whose ‘Lost Planet’ series was a popular one for the publisher; MacVicar’s background in the Presbyterian Church is obliquely detectable in his space fiction - his father was a minister, and he was also known as a presenter of the BBC’s Songs of Praise.
72. MacVicar (Angus) Space Agent from the Lost Planet. Burke, 1961, FIRST EDITION, pp. 158, crown 8vo, original green boards, backstrip lettered in black, upper board bowing slightly, some faint spotting to edges, ownership inscription to front pastedown, dustjacket with minor rubbing, very good £200
Inscribed by the author at the head of the flyleaf, without dedication: ‘All good wishes, Angus MacVicar’.
The sixth and last of the ‘Lost Planet’ series also inaugurated the ‘Space Agent’ series with the same publisher, which ran to three novels.
Inscribed to Gertrude Hermes 73. Mitchison (Naomi) and Denis MacIntosh. Men and Herring. A Documentary. Edinburgh: Serif Books, 1949, FIRST EDITION, 2 full-page illustrations and a full-page diagram, pp. 122, [3, illustrations], foolscap 8vo, original light blue cloth, backstrip lettered in silver and a little faded, one corner slightly pushed, endpaper maps, good £60
Inscribed by Naomi Mitchison on the flyleaf: ‘Gert with love from the authors, Christmas 1949’. Mitchison’s collaborator in this work was a fisherman of Kintyre, where she and her husband had bought Carradale House ten years earlier; the book is written in diary-form, each of the six chapters recording a single day.
Mitchison and Hermes were close friends, and the artist was a regular visitor to Carradale - where her host gave her the title ‘that wild girl Gert Hermes’; the two collaborated on ‘The Alban Goes Out’, Mitchison’s narrative poem about the Scottish fishing community, for which Hermes provided the illustrations, and her later ‘Ring Net Fishers’ was drawn whilst at Carradale.
74. Muir (Willa) Imagined Corners. Martin Secker, [1931,] FIRST EDITION, pp. 361, crown 8vo, original dark tan cloth (seen in various colours, with no clear priority), the boards
40 and backstrip lettered in red, the backstrip darkened, a few tiny ink-spots to lower board, top edge brown, a few spots to fore-edge, good £70
The author’s first novel, set in a small Scottish town in the second decade of the twentieth- century.
75. (Napier.) ERSKINE (David Stewart, Earl of Buchan) and Walter Minto. An Account of the Life, Writings, and Inventions of John Napier, of Merchiston; Illustrated with Copperplates. Perth: Printed by R. Morison, junr. For R. Morison and Son, Booksellers; and sold by G. G. J. and J. Robinson, Pater-Noster-Row, London; and W. Creech, Edinburgh, 1787, FIRST EDITION (see below), Robinson and Creech issue, stipple engraved portrait frontispiece, and 5 engraved plates, occasional minor browning, frontispiece and final plate a little creased,pp. vii, [8-] 56, 55-134, 3, 4to in 2s, contemporary tree calf, single gilt fillets on sides, spine gilt in compartments, joints repaired with a little loss or blurring to the tooling, and a new label, 2 patches to upper cover re-instated, darkening and craquelure to the edges (consolidated), good (Tomash & Williams E16; ESTC T85227) £1,250
The first biography of Napier (a protoype of Buchan’s proposed Biographia Scotia). The confusion regarding the two editions of this work, and their collation, has, it seems, now been resolved. In Tomash & Williams it is stated ‘Some catalogs list the first edition as 1778, but this error presumably arose from the simple transposition of the last two digits’. However, as the date on the title-pages are in Roman numerals, this explanation is not sufficient. The truth is deduced in The Life and Works of John Napier, by Brian Rice, Enrique González-Velasco, Alexander Corrigan, Springer, 2017, pp. 976-77, following Luther P. Eisenhart’s investigations published in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society Vol. 94, No. 3, Jun. 20, 1950, pp. 282-294. If the transposition argument is not convincing, there are other factors. Minto was only appointed professor of mathematics at Edinburgh in 1779: he was not granted his honorary LLD by Aberdeen until 1787 - LLD appears on both title-pages. Therefore we take it to be safe to assume that the John Murray/ Creech issue is misdated, that the Robinson/Creech issue is identical but for the imprint, and that the Errata (of extreme rarity) were produced separately, in the United States, some time later. The pagination given in ESTC is incorrect: it is correct as above, and in Tomash & Williams. The ESTC pagination for the ‘1778’ edition is also wrong, omitting the preliminaries.
‘This biography of John Napier describes his major inventions. Napier, who is best known for the invention of logarithms, created other aids to calculation (Napier’s bones, his chessboard abacus, the multiplicationis promptuarium). He also made advances in mathematics,particularly in spherical trigonometry. All of these accomplishments are described in this volume. Erskine wrote the biographical material, and Minto was responsible for the technical portions. This is one of the very few places where a complete description, in English, of the chessboard abacus (also known as local arithmetic) appears’ (Tomash & Williams)
Provenance: contemporary bookplate (Dunnichen Library) of George Dempster (signature at head of title), and later bookplates of John Farquhar Fulton (biographer of Boyle and others), Haskell Norman (Janus Foundation), and Erwin Tomash.
The original owner of this copy was an interesting person. ‘Dempster is remembered best as an agricultural improver, but he spent half his adult life as a popular, very active, and
41 conscientious independent whig MP, and gained great public renown through his efforts to promote Scottish trade and industry. His attractive and outgoing personality was marked by candour, enthusiasm for the causes he espoused, and a willingness to help others. He placed personal merit above rank and wealth, and commanded much affection, partly from his charming personality and partly from the altruism and integrity he displayed in public life. His reputation survived the use of bribery during elections—which was, however, a normal part of public life in the eighteenth century’ (ODNB). He kept up a regular correspondence with the likes of Adam Fergusson, Edmund Burke, and James Boswell. Like Minto, he unwaveringly supported the American colonists and opposed government attempts to oppress them.
76. (Newtoniana.) Unknown Author, The. Memoirs of a Goldfinch. A poem; with Notes and Illustrations, relating to natural history and natural philosophy: together with remarks on a publication [by William Frend] entitled “Evenings Amusements, or, The heavens displayed.” Printed [at the Caledonian Mercury Press [Edinburgh] by D. Buchanan & Co.] for Carpenter, Bond Street; and Archibald Constable and Company, Edinburgh, 1819, FIRST (ONLY) EDITION, pp. vi, 46, square 12mo, original red roan backed boards, double gilt rules on spine forming compartments, a trifle rubbed, inscribed at the head to the title ‘Miss Anne Graham from the unknown Author’, one typo corrected, perhaps by the recipient £600
Frend’s Evening Amusements, published annually, 1804-22, was inter alia a vehicle for his Unitarian beliefs. After his expulsion from Jesus College, Cambridge, ‘Frend lived at first in chambers in the Inner Temple, and he became prominent among the intellectual leaders of the reformist London Corresponding Society and a close associate of leading radicals of the day such as John Thelwall, William Godwin, Thomas Holcroft, and George Dyer.’ The editor remarks: ‘Mr. Frend, in his volumes for 1812 and 1813, made known to the world that he had discovered the fallacy of the long received doctrine of the mutual attraction or gravitation of the clestial bodies ... Perhaps [the] Notes may be found, under a mask of jocularity, to carry a more serious meaning.’ Half the volume is taken up with this demolition of Frend. The editor also has an axe to grind on the subject of notes interrupting poetry: here the Notes follow the text, and the advice is to read them before reading the poem.
Scarce: BL, O, C only in COPAC, none further in WorldCat.
from Hendersyde Park 77. Palomino de Castro y Velasco (Antonio) El Museo Pictórico y Escuela Óptica. Teórica de la pintura, en que se describe su origen, esencia, especies y qualidades ... y se prueban con demonstraciones ... Tomo primero [- tercero, entitled El Paranaso Español ...] Madrid: Sancha, 1795-97, 3 vols. bound in 2 (though vol. iii has a separate title-page (dated 1796) its pagination is continuous with vol. ii, 2 engraved allegorical additional titles to vols. i & ii (dated 1715 and 1725, thus from the first edition), and 17 folding plates of classical architectural orders, perspective, and artistic anatomy, including 2 reversed full-length Vesalian figures, a little damp-staining to plates at end of vol. i, some occasional spotting, browning, or offsetting, pp. xvi, 396; [ii], viii, 343, [1]; [345]-755, [1], folio, contemporary Spanish tree calf, spines gilt, contrasting lettering pieces, green edges (faded mostly), corners a bit worn, slight damp-stains to top of upper boards of vol. i, contemporary engraved armorial bookplate of John Waldie, of Hendersyde Park, Kelso, in both vols., very good (Palau 210735) £1,750
42 Clockwise from top left: Items 75, 77, 81, 80 43 The second (preferred) edition of the ‘Spanish Vasari’. First published in 1715-1754 and here edited and enlarged by Sancha, this is the most important 18th-century Spanish book in its field, collecting lives of the Spanish painters, and theoretical treatises; the former of importance, the latter less read today. This is a very good copy of a work which notoriously suffers from condition problems.
John Waldie, of Hendersyde Park, Kelso (1781-1862), was known as a ‘wandering dilettante’, or possibly ‘less of a virtuoso, and more of a “character”’. He was the son of George Waldie, who in the early 1800s began extensive rebuilding and landscaping at Hendersyde. Whether he acquired these volumes, or his son, is not in evidence. The library at Hendersyde was consulted by Sir Walter Scott.
78. (Pandora Press.) SCOTT (Thea) and Rigby Graham. Fingal’s Cave. Toni Savage, 1961, ONE OF 150 NUMBERED COPIES, this out of series, 11 illustrations (3 full-page) printed from lino and rubber cuts and lineblocks in various striking colours, occasional very faint spotting, pp. [50], 4to, original navy cloth, spine lettered in gilt, faintly rubbed, very good £250
79. Paterson (Robert) Observations on corpora lutea. Part I [-II]. (From the Edin. Med. and Surg. Journal, No. 142.) [colophon:] Edinburgh: Printed by John Stark, January and October,] [1840,] a pair of offprints, each with a hand-coloured plate, pp. 19, 17, 8vo, stitched in the original plain paper wrappers, one blue, the other yellow, minor dust- soiling and fraying £275
Rare offprints, and a notable contribution to the subject.
Medicine for America, Cullen leading 80. [Pearson (George)] [Lecture notes by an unknown scribe]. London and elsewhere: 1802-55, manuscript in ink on paper, a little foxing in places, and edges tinged brown, pp. [vi], 460, [4], [8, Index], 4to, [bound with, pasted inside front cover:] single sheet broadside, drop head tile: Marine Humane Society. Directions for the recovery of the apparently Dead from Drowning. No printer, Halifax [Nova Scotia], April 4, 1809 contemporary ?deerskin, double blind fillets on sides with a delicate inner roll tooled border, upper hinge cracked, held by 1 cord, a bit rubbed and worn, headcaps a little defective £7,500
A fine volume of medical Lecture Notes, providing a panorama of the medicine of the early 19th century, both at home, and in America. The compiler of these Notes evidently returned to them again and again, as later marginal notes attest. The Royal College of Surgeons has a set of Lecture Notes for Clarke, but neither Clarke nor Pearson are listed in the Wellcome on-line manuscripts catalogue.
The volume is in two parts. The first is notes of the Lectures of George Pearson in London in 1801 and 1802, with some associated material. At the end, there are Notes on the midwifery lectures of Dr. Clark, i.e. presumably John Clarke (bap. 1760, d. 1815) - who had been a pupil of John Hunter. In between is the commonplace book element, kept up in North America, and seemingly Halifax, Nova Scotia, in particular. The compiler was apparently an American, if not originally, at least in practice, and this volume was in use for half a century; that is, an entire career.
44 The whole is preceded by a 2-page table, ruled in red, ‘The Classes, Orders & Genera of diseases, according to Cullen’. Then begins ‘Plan for Ascertaining & Investigating disseases [sic] By G. Pearson.’ This procedes to p. 50. Starting on p. 53 is ‘Slow nervouse Fever, or Typhus Mitior (of Cullen).’ On p. 65 ‘[Small pox, or - crossed out] Exanthematic Fevers,’ begins a lengthy section on small pox and vaccination, including a quotation from Jenner: this was the main bone of contention between Pearson and Jenner. The section is rounded off with various other diseases, especially cholera, extending to p. 325. Pp. 314 to the end are on cholera, and includes extracts from newspapers and journal chronicling the progress of various outbreak in Canada and the United States, and theories thereon propounded. In the midst is ‘Establishment of the Humane Society (London), the wording of which, in places is followed in the broadside.
Notes on the Lectures of John Clarke which follow are ones delivered at his home, No, 1 New Burlington Street (he also lectured at St. Bartholomew’s), and are dated 1802 & 1803. At the end are ‘Forms of Medicines, from Hamilton’s Midwifery.’
A number of pages have been torn out, notably between the Pearson portion and the midwifery section, and within the page count, some pages are blank.
The broadside, which is foxed, laid down on the inside front cover, split at fold with the loss of a letter or two, seems to be unrecorded.
The binding is curious, and may be American. The skin (?deer, ?moose) is not of a type we are familiar with in British bindings of the period.
George Baillie’s copy 81. Poiret (Pierre) The Divine Oeconomy: or, An Universal System of the Works and Purposes of God towards Men, demonstrated. Written originally in French by Peter Poiret. In six volumes. Printed for R. Bonwicke, M. Wotton, S. Manship and R. Parker, 1713, 6 vols. bound in 4, each vol. with its own title-page, including 1 for vol. i following the General Preface, bound in the last vol. after vol. vi, slight browning, pp. [xli], [x], 449, [2]; [iv], viii, 214, [2]; [xii], 291, [1]; [ii], [xxxiv], 307, [1]; [x], 346, [1]; [viii], 255, [2]; [iv], 195, [24], 8vo, contemporary panelled calf, rubbed, 1 headcap defective, sound, armorial bookplate, engraved by A. Johnston, in each vol. of The Hon. George Baillie [of Jerviswood], one of the Lords of the Treasury, dated 1724, sound (ESTC T103662, 3 copies only in the US, Yale, the Clark, and Haverford College) £1,500
An influential Quietist text, in its scarce English translation (first edition in French, Amsterdam, 1687). Vol. vi also includes: The Principles of Real and Internal Religion Asserted and Vindicated ... [and an Alphabetical Index to the whole Work]. George Baillie’s complicated political career was much facilitated by the administrative abilities of his wife Grisell, who was bracketed with Flora Macdonald in Henry Grey Graham’s pantheon of Scottish heroines.
82. Raine (Craig) A Free Translation. Edinburgh: Salamander Press, 1981, FIRST EDITION, ONE OF 200 COPIES, pp. 29, crown 8vo, original blue cloth, backstrip lettered in silver, newspaper photograph of author laid in, dustjacket a little sunned to backstrip panel and borders, very good £40
Signed by the author to the title-page.
45 83. Rankin (Ian) Wolfman. A John Rebus Novel. Century, 1992, FIRST EDITION, pp. [viii], 197, 8vo, original purple boards, backstrip lettered in silver, dustjacket with backstrip panel partially faded, near fine £350
Signed by the author to the title-page, adding his noughts and crosses doodle.
84. (Religion. Controversies.) [RAY (John Mead)] A Comprehensive View of the various Controversies among Pagans, Mahometans, Jews, and Christians. Philosophical and Theological. In which is shewn, I. Wherein the various parties agree. II. Wherein they differ. III. The differences adjusted, and the absurd opinions and parties refuted. Being a Compendious Polemical System. By the author of The Design of Creation. Edinburgh: Printed in the Year 1785, FIRST EDITION, title-page with offsets from binding turn-ins, minor damp-stain in upper margin right at the end, a slight tendency to browning, pp. 311, [1], 8vo, disbound from a larger volume (ESTC T93526) £750
Ray (1753-1837) was Pastor of the Congregationalist church in Sudbury for 63 years. His best known work, Christian Liberty, was published in 1789. The present edition is in ESTC, but anonymously. The 1790 John Murray edition refers to this as the first edition. Apart from the referral here, repeated in Avis á tout le monde touchant la liberté, ?Edinburgh, ?1792 (ESTC N33425), the Design of Creation seem to have sunk without trace. This is more about the divisions within Christianity, ‘Pagans, Mahometans, Jews’ being dealt with in pp. 15-76. The various schisms of the Christian church, including topical ones (notably in Scotland), take up most of the remaining chapters, though there are a few on general topics, including slavery. Ray was an influential member of the Suffolk County Association, which, according to an obituary notice in The Congregational Magazine, ‘has the distinction of being the first religious body of dissenters that declared their abhorrence of slavery.’
4 copies only in ESTC: BL, NLS, EUL, St. Andrews. Cf ESTC N52298.
Interesting annotations 85. Rennie (James) Alphabet of Scientific Angling, for the Use of Beginners.William Orr, 1833, FIRST EDITION, woodcut portrait of ‘Christopher North in his Sporting Jacket’ (with rods, &c) on title, numerous illustrations in the text, pp. xviii, 138, small 8vo, original tan cloth, printed paper label on upper cover, rebacked, label slightly defective without loss to text, ownership inscription at head of title of Smith Child of Newfield Hall, Staffordshire, and with annotations by him (Westwood & Satchell p. 176) £500
‘The majority of Rennie’s publications appeared in the 1830s. Ranging over much of natural history, from plants and insects to birds and monkeys, he also took on angling, gardening, and even physics and natural theology (although his titles promised only an ‘alphabet’ for many of these)’ (ODNB). Rennie’s classes at King’s College were not a success and he thereafter lived off his popular writings.
Sir Smith Child, 1st Baronet (5 March 1808 – 27 March 1896) was a Conservative Party politician, and, on the evidence of this volume, well-nigh ‘angling-mad’ (a term used in the book). In a minuscule but legible hand, Sir Smith has covered the entire inside front cover, both sides of the fly-leaf and the half-title, with over a page of notes at the end, and some marginal annotation - concerning flies for trout. The inside front cover has ‘A sketch of an angling tour in Scotland’ (Sir Smith had two estates in Staffordshire, and one in Islay - where you can still go fishing to this day). The tour begins on Tweed, moves westward towards Inverary, traverses the central Highlands, with alternative endings in the Trossachs, or
46 Sutherland. The next 3 pages are taken up with ‘A list of fishing stations &c in Wales’, this, like the proposed Scottish sojourn, displaying a wealth of experience. The rest of the notes (bar the marginal notes) are quotations from various angling sources, including Stoddart’s Angling in Scotland, 1835. The marginal notes are minute critiques on flies, when best to use them, &c.
Child refers to Christopher North (i.e Professor Wilson) and his ‘spirited and highly poetical articles on fishing in Blackwood’s Magazine.’
Scotland’s first road atlas 86. (Road Maps. Scotland.) TAYLOR (George) and Andrew Skinner. Taylor and Skinner’s Survey and Maps of the Roads of North Britain or Scotland. Published by the Authors ... & Sold by D. Wilson and G. Nicol [and 3 others in London] & by all the Booksellers in Scotland, 1776, FIRST EDITION, engraved title within elaborate border, an elaborate canopy at the top supported by caryatids, arms of the Duke of Argyll, the dedicatee, at the foot, 2 pp. letterpress Index, general map engraved by Pyle, and 61 engraved strip maps on 31 folding sheets, the sheets folded in 4 so as to form an 8vo volume, 1 sheet (Pl. 23) loose, 1 map just trimmed at top but without loss to text, contemporary reversed calf, possibly lacking a spine label, short cracks in joints, a bit rubbed, good, inscription of Aberdeen University Library at head of title (ESTC N63223) £1,500
An unsophisticated copy of Scotland’s first road atlas. Over time, as the sheets have been repeatedly unfolded and refolded, they have become a little irregular, ending at different distances at the fore-edge, some a little soiled or dust-soiled (at the edge), but still a nice copy.
‘Although John Ogilby had published a strip road atlas for England and Wales a century earlier, George Taylor and Andrew Skinner’s volume was essentially Scotland’s first road atlas. It consists of 61 plates showing roads across Scotland at the one-inch to the mile scale, covering some 3,000 miles in total, with each page divided into three vertical strips of a particular road. The volume was designed to be folded into a portable accessory for the growing number of travellers and visitors in Scotland’ (NLS).
Tourism, if we may call it that, began in earnest with the visits of Pennant (1769 and 1774), Banks (1772, ‘discovery’ of Staffa) and Dr. Johnson (1773). The roads they travelled are those surveyed here (no roads on the Western or Northern Isles). Taylor and Skinner remark that the Military Roads are ‘kept in the best Repair’, and that ‘much has been done of late Years to the other Roads by the Attention of the Nobility and Gentry.’
‘Taylor and Skinner were originally surveyors in Aberdeen, and whilst the latter was resident in Edinburgh during the 1770s, they went on to work in Ireland in the later 1770s, before heading west to America by the 1780s. Although they were assisted financially by the Commissioners for the Forfeited Estates, and by subscriptions (some no doubt from the landed gentry whose names and properties were shown along many of the roads) in 1778 they reported that nearly half the 3,000 published copies of their Survey were unsold, and they therefore had debts still to repay.
‘Today, the strip maps can be of unique value for showing the detail of routeways including the new military roads in the Highlands (with their relative absence of other detailed maps) and, through their criss-cross network of Great Roads and Cross Roads, covering much of Lowland Scotland to supplement contemporary county mapping.
47 48 Clockwise from top left: Items 85, 86, 89, 88 ‘Further reading: Fairclough, R H, ‘“Sketches of the Roads in Scotland, 1785” The Manuscript Road Book of George Taylor’, Imago Mundi 27 (1975) 65-72’ (ibid).
The Survey is usually found in poor condition, as befits its purpose. Both Wardington copies had problems: one lacked the general map and the maps were soiled and frayed, while the other was in a modern binding, with most leaves repaired and loss to some of them. A copy such as ours, in its original folding format, is an unusual survival and highly evocative of that era of travel.
Ruthven Todd’s copy (briefly) 87. Roberts (Michael) Poems. Jonathan Cape, 1936, FIRST EDITION, faint spot to prelims and final text-page,pp. 64, crown 8vo, original cream cloth patterned with green, red and brown, the backstrip lettered in dark green and darkened, cloth a little darkened around head, quote from Dante in pencil to flyleaf and two ownership inscriptions (see below), clippings of a few Roberts poems laid in, dustjacket a little darkened to backstrip panel and borders with a small mark at foot of front panel and a short closed tear at head of upper joint-fold, very good £50
The author’s second collection of verse, and the copy of Scottish poet Ruthven Todd - though given that a second ownership inscription is dated to the year following publication, not one that he held on to for very long.
Presentation copy, with MS poems 88. Ross (A[gnes]) Poems on several Occasions. Second edition. Glasgow: Printed by A. Duncan and R. Chapman, 1791, a little thumbed, scattered minor spots, pp. 64, 8vo, contemporary (presumably Glasgow) tree calf, delicate roll tooled border on sides, roll tooled compartment divisions on rounded spine, a little rubbed, and worn at extremities, bound with added leaves at either end (see below) with an elaborate presentation inscription ‘To the Ladies of Daldowie ... their much obliged Servant, Agnes Ross’, and several manuscript poems, engraved armorial bookplate of Brown of Waterhaughs (ESTC T178588; not in Johnson) £1,750
This is a rare book, with but a single copy of the first edition recorded in ESTC (BL), and 2 of this (Mitchell Library and NLS). None of these copies are recorded as having any ‘extras’: the BL copy has a contemporary inscription identifying Miss Ross as a Milliner. This is an unusual book for Duncan and Chapman (both ex-apprentices chez Foulis), so it was perhaps privately printed.
The Ladies of Daldowie, a grand house to the west of Glasgow, were the daughters of George Bogle, a Tobacco Lord: the name of one of them, Ann, is in manuscript on the rear fly-leaf. The printed poems are indeed all ‘occasional’ - To a Lady on the Death of an Infant, &c. In this copy many of the subject of the poems, or those they are addressed to, are supplied in pencil. The names of two other of the sisters appear in ‘To a Family on Christmas Day’ - Ethelinda, and Amelia. The penultimate poem is on the advantages of sea-bathing (especially for Ladies). ‘Cassander and Emma, a modern Tale’ is the lament of the latter Boston (Mass) born, who married a Scottish soldier, who however was mortally wounded in battle once hostilities broke out between the colonists and the Crown, and died upon their arrival in Scotland. There is also a version of Psalm XXIII, and a paraphrase of a passage from Isaiah.
49 There seem to be one or two private jokes, in the printed text, and continued in the MS additions. The poems are in English - no ‘dialect’ here, although occasionally a rhyme, especially in the MS, betray a Scottish accent, and we have ‘hersell’ for ‘herself’. Both printed and manuscript poems depict a happy social life at Daldowie, interrupted of course by early deaths, and the like. Agnes Ross is on very familiar terms with the Ladies of Daldowie, but one gets the sense that she is not quite their social equal, though probably closer than a milliner would be. The manuscript additions comprise 11 pages at the front, the first being the verso of a leaf pasted onto the front free end-paper (with the possibilty that there is a leaf excised after it), and 12 pages at the end, following a blank leaf, and plus the recto of the rear fly-leaf. The MS seems to be all in one hand, evidently the author’s, but it does become a little wayward at the end.
Waterhaughs is a neighbouring seat to Daldowie, but we are not sure of the line of descent.
Scottish Confession 89. [Salvard, or Salvart (Jean-François, editor)] An Harmony of the Confessions of the Faith of the Christian and Reformed Churches, which purelie professe the holy doctrine of the Gospell in all the chiefe kingdomes, nations, and prouinces of Europe: the catologue and order whereof the pages following will declare. There are added in the ende verie shorte notes: in which both the obscure thinges are made plaine, & those thinges which maie in shew seeme to be contrarie each to other, are plainelie and verie modestlie reconciled, and if anie points doe as yet hang in doubt, they are sincerelie pointed at. All which things, in the name of the Churches of Fraunce and Belgia, are submitted to the free and discrete iudgement of all other Churches. Newlie translated out of Latine into English. Also in the end is added the confession of the Church of Scotland. Alowed by publique authoritie. [With notes by Simon Goulart.] [Cambridge:] Imprinted by Thomas Thomas printer to the Vniuersitie of Cambridge, 1586, woodcut initials and headpieces, a little damp-stained in places, cut fairly close but without any loss, outer leaves slightly soiled, the first (title-page) laid down, pp. [xxxvi], 111, 202-593 [i.e. 609], [40]; 24, [4], 8vo, nineteenth-century calf, sometime rebacked in tan morocco, signature on title of Samuel Prince, note on fly-leaf opposite “Duplicate”, S.P., good (ESTC S107818, NLS and Glasgow only in Scotland) £2,500
A translation of: Harmonia confessionum fidei orthodoxarum & reformatarum ecclesiarum, edited by Salvart and published in 1581. The Scottish Confession at the end, having a separate register, is sometimes wanting, although called for on the title-page. The Scots Confession was drawn up by six Johns, John Winram, John Spottiswoode, John Willock, John Douglas, John Row, with John Knox as the superintendent: the last usually gets the credit for the work.
‘from (?)e Original in Colleg. Scot. Paris’ 90. (Scotland. Auld Alliance (or League). Mary, Queen of Scots.) COPIE OF A LETTER OF THE NOBILITIE OF THE LOYAL PARTY TO THE KING OF FRANCE. 18th-century, before 1789, manuscript in a clear legible clerkly hand in ink on paper, watermarked the Garter (but the arms not identified), a quarto bifolium (splitting at the fold), 3 pages of text £750 plus VAT in the EU
This copy is endorsed in another hand, which appears to be earlier but must be later, ‘from (?)e Original in Colleg. Scot. Paris, Memoirs Scotland tom 3. fol. 252’, which said original (and all 3 tomes) was destroyed during the French Revolution (though some dispute this -
50 without evidence). The original letter is dated from Dumberton (i.e. Dumbarton), 6th July, 1568 not long after the defeat at Langside, which prevented Mary’s reaching Dumbarton after her escape from Lochleven Castle. The ‘loyal’ nobilitie, after outlining the situation, its gravity and urgency, beg the French king for assistance, invoking the ‘auld League.’ The plea was doomed to failure, the Auld Alliance having been formally ended by the Treaty of Edinburgh in 1560. The lead signatory is John Hamilton (1510/11–1571), Roman Catholic archbishop of St Andrews, whose refuge Dumbarton was - but within 2 years of this letter, he was captured there, tried, and executed. Not only is the original destroyed, we have been unable to find any record of this letter having been published, or mentioned.
91. (Scotland. Privy Council.) A Proclamation, against those Rebels that have not accepted the Act of Indempnity [sic]. Edinburgh, the ninth day of May, one thousand six hundred and sixty eight. [colophon:] Edinburgh: Printed by Evan Tyler, 1668, 2 sheets, folio (each approx. 40 cm x 331 cm), printed on one side, woodcut royal arms at head of first page, main text in black letter, a little worming (without serious loss), lower edges slightly frayed, sometime folded to docket size, 1 panel on the verso of the second sheet dust-soiled, and endorsed (ESTC R183355) £1,200
The Act of Indemnity was passed in 1667 in the wake of the Pentland Rising, 15-28 November, 1666. The Rising originated in Dalry in Kirkcudbrightshire when a number of soldiers stationed to exact fines were held captive after beating an elderly man who had defaulted, and the following day more soldiers were imprisoned for taking part in a scuffle with the locals. Two days later a crowd of around 200 rebels marched to Dumfries, and then, gathering reinforcements on the way, headed towards Edinburgh. Bad weather, insufficient provisions and a poor choice of route brought about a serious depletion in their numbers, and on reaching the outskirts of the city they were easily routed during the brief Battle of Rullion Green in the Pentland Hills. The defeated rebels were treated cruelly. The Rising is the subject of an essay by Robert Louis Stevenson, his first published work. This Proclamation provides the names and places of habitation, parish by parish, of about 220 rebels who refused to accept the terms of the Act. A few occupations are given, including a book-binder from Lanark. Only the NLS copy in Wing and the ESTC.
Statan [sic] Island 92. Scott (Andrew) Poems, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect.Edinburgh: Printed for the Author, by T. Oliver, Netherbow. And sold by William Creech, 1805, FIRST EDITION, with woodcut vignette on title, ‘Contents’ a woodcut cartouche, and with 16 woodcut head- and tail-pieces, all these in the Bewick style, small piece torn from head of B5 (not affecting text), a trifle browned,pp. 215, Errata slip pasted onto blank verso of last leaf, small 8vo, nineteenth-century black morocco, single gilt fillet on sides, rebacked, longitudinal red morocco lettering piece on spine, top edges gilt, signature on front free endpaper of one Alfred J. Scott, Born 1/8/1901, seemingly written in advanced old age, small book label of J.O. Edwards inside front cover, Errata corrected in pencil at a fairly early date, good £800
A very rare ‘Poems, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect’, by Andrew Scott, of Bowden (by Melrose). He was the son (he tells us in the Preface) of a day-labourer ‘remarkable for nothing but the facetiousness of his disposition and an untutored poetic genius.’ The father died when he was twelve. ‘By the blessings of Providence, and the piety, industry and frugality of his mother, she was enabled to bring up her children in a decent manner.’ In the winter months Scott attended school, and the summers were spent herding. This edition
51 was published by subscription: heading the list are the Duke and Duchess of Roxburgh, but these and the Earl of Buchan are the only aristocratic subscribers, most of whom were Borderers (apparently the entire population of Bowden), and some of whom were quite humble - labourers, gardeners, joiners, weavers, and servants among them. There are not many Esquires, but among them ‘Walter Scott, Esq. advocate, Asha Stiel, 2 copies.’ Ashestiel was the property near Selkirk that Scott leased between 1804 and 1811, before he embarked on Abbotsford. The Poems were popular, and other editions appeared in Edinburgh, Kelso and Jedburgh.
Andrew Scott acknowledges Burns: “Robert Burns, whose matchless talen’/Nane can outshine.” Not only are many of the poems in Burnsian stanzas, some of the themes and tropes reflect those of Burns. Thus we have ‘The Twa Frogs’, in which a pair of the amphibians contemplate the consequences of a French invasion. Scott had participated in the American War of Independence, as a volunteer in the 80th Foot (Royal Edinburgh Volunteers). Two of the poems, one a song rather, composed in America appear here: The Major and the Soger’s Wife, begins: ‘Twas when Columbian war was hot’, and Betsy Rose - begins ‘Adieu sweet orchards in fair Statan [sic] Island’,
93. [Scott (Sir Walter)] St. Ronan’s Well. By the Author of “Waverley, Quentin Durward,” &c. In Three Volumes. Vol. I [-III]. Edinburgh: Printed [by James Ballantyne] for Archibald Constable ... 1824, FIRST EDITION, half-titles and in vol. iii 2 leaves of terminal ads. present, lacks last blank in vol.ii, occasional foxing, small abrasion to title in vol. i with the loss of 3 letters (to the epigraph from Wordsworth), signature I on vol. iii with a mild damp-stain at the lower inner corner, 8vo, contemporary half calf, spines gilt, red lettering piece, very minor wear, good, ownership inscription on half-title of vol. i of Miss Armstrong of Lancaster (T/B 171Aa; Van Antwerp 17: Worthington 16) £200
‘Sir Leslie Stephen tells a story of a dozen modern connoisseurs of the Waverley Novels who agreed that each should write down separately the name of his favourite. It appeared that each had, without concert, named St. Ronan’s Well’ (Van Antwerp).
The isolated damp-stain in vol. iii is presumably the result of some accident before binding
94. Scott (William Bell) Memoir of David Scott, R.S.A. Containing his journal in Italy, notes on art and other papers: with seven illustrations. Edinburgh: Adam & Charles Black, 1850, FIRST EDITION, engraved title with a vignette, and 6 other illustrations, 4 full-page, pp. vi, 443, 8vo, original maroon cloth, gilt rules at top and bottom of upper cover and extending to spine, spine gilt lettered, a trifle rubbed, very good (Pine-Coffin 832(10)) £180
Includes Scott’s Journal of his residence in Rome and visits to Milan, Venice, Florence and Naples, 1832-34.
Scottinski polonais 95. Scott (William Henry) [Volume of manuscript historical essays]. Paris: c. 1850, 4to manuscript notebook, started at both ends, approx 100 pages more or less equally divided between the 2 halves, original half green vellum, worn at extremities, Parisian stationer’s advertisement inside front cover, upper cover indistinctly inscribed William Henry Scott, inscription WH Scott on flyleaves at either end £600
52 Clockwise from top left: Items 91, 92, 97 53 The ‘title-page’, besides the signature, has ‘Livre de Scottinski polonais au service de l’Angleterre. Louis de Gros scripsit’, ‘dixit Boymans’ added. Scott therefore was a ‘Scot Abroad’, perhaps a first or second generation settler in Poland, and a soldier: whether he was William Henry or not is unclear. The first essay is a ‘Suite de l’histoire de l’Egypte sous les Successeurs d’Alexandre, followed by L’Histoire de Sirie. Beginning at the other end we have L’Histoire de l’Espagne, L’Histoire des Portugais, Des Danois, de Russie. The Danes are covered in 2 epochs, the Russians in 3, in both cases with events up till the 1790s.
96. [Simson (John)] A Summary View of Professor Simson’s Errors; Prov’d against him in the Double Process Before the General Assembly; with Some Thoughts upon the Whole: In a Letter to a friend. To which is added, An Answer to the said Letter. Edinburgh: 1729, a bit browned, minor staining to title, pp. 16, 8vo, modern marbled wrappers, sound (ESTC T192745, 3 copies only, 2 in NLS, 1 in Glasgow) £300
‘Enlightened in outlook and familiar with reformed theology on the continent, Simson introduced into the Glasgow divinity school the work of Marck, along with that of the contemporary Genevan theologian Benedict Pictet. He expounded the Westminster confession, noting its differences from other reformed systems and its superiority to them. His students were allowed considerable latitude of argument in making presentations, refuting Christian writers from various denominations, and having group discussions on difficult scriptural passages ... Simson’s efforts to make such a God conform to late seventeenth-century Scottish Presbyterian orthodoxy led to confrontation with devout zealots shortly after his arrival in Glasgow. The ensuing debates produced a wealth of polemic writing and became entangled with political rivalries ...
Simson’s cases formed a watershed in the development of the Church of Scotland in the eighteenth century. Their significance lies less in the fate of Simson than in the effect they had on the church. The secession of 1733 was partly brought about by the dismay at what the extreme group considered Simson’s lenient punishment. Freed from the restrictions imposed by the ultra-orthodox, the church embraced Enlightenment ideals while upholding Calvinist Christianity’ (ODNB).
Scotland, Socialism, & the Spanish Civil War 97. Smillie (Robert Ramsay & Alexander Frame & Robert, et al.) THE SMILLIE ARCHIVE: Scotland, Socialism, & the Spanish Civil War. 1897-1961, 3 folders containing some 170 items, two-thirds of which correspondence, but also including original photographs, printed ephemera, manuscript poetry, the passport of Robert Ramsay Smillie, etc., various sizes and formats, good condition overall £50,000
Robert Ramsay Smillie (b. 1917, d. 1937), known generally as Bob, was the grandson of the Miners’ leader Robert Smillie, who was among the founders of the Scottish Labour Party and a major figure in socialist politics of the early twentieth-century. George Orwell mentions in The Road to Wigan Pier that ‘old ladies looked under their beds every night lest Robert Smillie should be concealed there’. Orwell could not know then that a year or so later he would find himself a comrade in arms with the younger Smillie at the front in Spain, fighting as part of the ILP contingent with the Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista (P.O.U.M.) against Franco’s troops. One of the jewels in this, the family’s own archive, is an original photograph of Bob and Orwell at the Front - along with the rest of the brigade, which includes Orwell’s wife, as well as other key figures such as Georges Kopp and Paddy Donovan.
54 Their mutual admiration is plain to see from their written accounts: Smillie, in letters to his family included in this archive, recognised the bravery of his friend Blair - who despite his nascent celebrity was nothing less than fully engaged; Orwell, for his part, regarded Bob Smillie as ‘the best of the bunch’ - an assessment he could only relate as a posthumous tribute, in ‘Homage to Catalonia’, following Smillie’s tragic death in a Valencian jail. The circumstances of his passing were questioned by Orwell and many after, with the official line - that problems arising from acute appendicitis had precipitated his sorry end - regarded as a cover-up of maltreatment at the hands of the authorities: ‘People so tough as that,’ Orwell considered, ‘do not usually die of appendicitis if they are properly looked after’.
This archive offers perhaps the last word on the matter - all the key voices are represented here, largely in the form of letters to Bob’s father, Alexander Frame Smillie, whose grief- ridden search for the truth during Bob’s imprisonment and after his death led him into conflict with members of the party and authorities on all sides. The letters offer tributes and details from those closest to Bob and to the circumstances of his death. We have here letters from Fenner Brockway, his wife, John McNair, James Maxton, Campbell Stephen, Fred Jowett, all offering their support and sympathy, along with the British Consulate and Spanish Ambassador, various of Bob’s comrades at the Front - including Georges Kopp and Paddy Donovan - as well as the doctor who treated him last.
This archive contains extensive correspondence between Bob and his parents as he travelled to and within Spain, offering full and frank report of the group’s activities and his part therein: in them we find a voice and personality as engaging as the posthumous tributes imply. Both the seeds of promise and its tragic foreshortening are here: the former in the shape of praise from his peers, his own accounts of his progression within the party, and other poignant documents such as his BSc certificate from Glasgow University - he had been within the ILP, among other things, an explosives expert - or his passport; in relation to his demise, the presence of his travel documents as he left the Front - one of the reasons given for his detainment - and his own description to his parents of the dubious machinations of the Communist Party within Spain, show that he was alert to the precariousness of his circumstances. More generally, his frankness and wit - attributes that made the role of propagandist a natural one - also evince the ability to talk himself into trouble that some saw as decisive in putting him into the hands of his eventual fate.
Eighty years after the onset of the guerra civil in Spain, the name of Bob Smillie still resonates: his short life was one whose achievements can be measured by the strength and extent of the tributes to him - but he was more than simply a martyr for the cause, as this archive amply demonstrates in its representation of Bob as a boy, as a man, and as a Smillie.
A full listing of the contents of the archive, which also includes letters from Alexander Frame Smillie whilst imprisoned as a conscientious objector in Wormwood Scrubs and his later refusal of an MBE, as well as original documents from the political career of Robert Smillie, can be accessed at: blackwells[.]co[.]uk/rarebooks/catalogues/SmillieArchive.pdf
98. [Smith (Eaglesfield)] Sir John Butt: A Farce. In two Acts. Edinburgh: 1798, FIRST EDITION, outer leaves variously remargined or mounted, other paper repairs, pp.[iv], 56, 8vo, uncut in modern hard-grained red morocco backed boards (ESTC T126381) £800
Eaglesfiels Smith remains a somewhat obscure figure, but his authorship, or origination, of ‘The Sorrows of Yamba’, usually considered Hannah More’s work, remains an interesting
55 subject of dispute and conjecture. The present work is an unashamed farce, as the names of the cast of characters suitably indicate: Sir John is joined by Sir Ludismore Frisky, Sir Sodom Shittlecock, &c. Act I, Scene I ‘Discloses a small Ale-house in London, crowded with Lamplighters, Butchers, Bakers, Chimney-Sweepers, and Women, &c &c. sitting late at night’. The various tradesmen are in disputation as to whose is the most miserable calling. ESTC records just the BL, NLS, Huntington and Chicago copies.
The editor’s copy 99. [Smith (Lewis, editor and publisher)] The Aberdeen Magazine. Vol. II. January- December, MDCCCXXXII. Aberdeen: Lewis Smith, 1832, with lithographic frontispiece, and 1 lithographed plate, annotated by the editor and with letters tipped in (see below), minor foxing, pp. iv, 662, 8vo, contemporary half calf, a bit rubbed and soiled, cracks in joints, sound £600
This is, apparently, the editor’s copy of the second and final annual run of the Aberdeen Magazine, a mixture of whimsy, politics, literary reviews, &c. Apparently, since although no-one else probably would have been in a position to annotate it as it is, the editor is himself identified, as if by somebody else. The contributions are all anonymous. In the index at the beginning the contributors are almost all identified, as they are again at the end of each article, sometimes with a brief commentary, usually piquant. Four letters by contributors and critics are tipped in. One of the most frequent contributors is John Hill Burton, another William Edmonstoune Ayton. One of the latter’s contributions is a review of Tennyson’s Poems, 1830. Altogether a fascinating picture of the intellectual (rather than Academic: several contributors were advocates) milieu of Aberdeen at the height of the Reform movement.
100. Spark (Muriel) Robinson, a Novel. Macmillan, 1958, FIRST EDITION, full-page map of Robinson Island, pp. [vi], 186, crown 8vo, original green cloth, gilt-lettered backstrip with a touch of fading at tips, dustjacket by Victor Reinganum a little chipped and nicked, very good £180
The author’s second novel.
101. Spencer (Claire) Gallows’ Orchard. A Novel. Jonathan Cape, 1930, FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, a couple of leaves with crease to top corner, pp. 288, crown 8vo, original green cloth, backstrip lettered in gilt, very slight lean to spine, clipped newspaper review laid in at front, dustjacket by Lapthorn, a small amount of rubbing and chipping but the illustration hardly affected, very good £100
The Scottish-born author’s first novel. A ‘romantic tragedy’ set in a Scottish village, whose folk are antagonised by the ‘crystal fearlessness’ of the novel’s heroine, Effie Gallows. The dustjacket by Mabel Lapthorn, like the same artist’s work on Celia Ines Loos’ novel ‘Matka Boska’ (for Cape, also 1930), is striking in its use of the glower.
Spencer was the wife of John Ganson Evans and thereby the daughter-in-law of Mabel Dodge Luhan; Una Jeffers, wife of the poet Robinson Jeffers, called her ‘the strangest woman I’ve ever met & one of the most interesting’. Mabel Dickinson Lapthorn was an Australian emigrée, born in Melbourne, who gained a reputation in London for her film posters, and for her book cover-designs in England and Amsterdam - where she was particularly associated with the work of Sigrid Undset for publisher J.M. Meulenhoff.
56 102. Spottiswoode (John, of that ilk, recipient) Pair of Autograph Letters Signed by Johan vander Burk in Holland, in French, to Spottiswoode in Edinburgh c/o the Bookseller John Valongs. The Hague, 1 January 1701/2, and Dordrecht, 15 September 1705, both letters 2 pp., small 4to, with an integral leaf with the address panel on the verso, folded in from the corners and then at the middle to form petite missives (page size 200 x 60 mm, folded approx. 55 x 115 mm) £750 (plus VAT in the EU)
The address panels read: ‘Mr John Spotswood avocat to be left at John Valongs a Bookseller near the Cros at Edinburgh Schotlandt.’ Spottiswood (1667–1728) ‘played by his example a major part in the successful re-establishment of legal education in the Scottish universities’ (ODNB). He had prosecuted part of his legal studies in Leiden, which is presumably where he met Johan vander Burk. As well as friendship, the two seem to have had some mutual commercial interests, as well as dealings with the ‘Laird de Wariston.’ War overshadows both letters. The first letter has a page and a half on the current politico-economic circumstances, before turning to news from the Republic of Letters - pretty sparse, given the war.
‘John Valongs’ is presumably John Vallance (or Vallens: see SBTI). The variations of the spellings of Spotiswoode and Vallance illustrate the fluidity of spelling at the time.
103. (Stamperia Valdonega.) MACDIARMID (Hugh) Direadh I, II and III. Frenich: Kulgin Duval & Colin H. Hamilton, 1974, 84/200 COPIES signed by the author, printed on Magnani paper at the Stamperia Valdonega, pp. [vi], 52, 4to, original quarter red morocco with vertical gilt roll, backstrip lettered in gilt top edge trimmed, slipcase, fine £115
‘The storm and bitter glory of red war’ 104. Sterling (Robert W.) The Poems of... Born 19th November, 1893; Scholar of Pembroke College, Oxford; Lieutenant, Royal Scots Fusiliers; Killed in Action, S. George’s Day, 1915. Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, 1915, FIRST EDITION, tissue- guarded photo frontispiece, pp. xvi, 68, [1], foolscap 8vo, original dark blue cloth, lettered in gilt to backstrip and upper board, t.e.g., others roughtrimmed, faint partial browning to free endpapers, page-marker, printed blue dustjacket with backstrip panel a little toned and some very faint spotting to front panel, near fine £300
A superb copy of this posthumous volume, whose form and content testifies to the description of Sterling by John Buchan, in his history of the young man’s regiment, as ‘a young officer of notable promise’. It includes his Newdigate Prize-winning poem ‘The Burial of Sophocles’ and a number of paeans to Oxford. That the war itself is only textually present in a single, sketchy poem (‘Line written in the Trenches’) at the close is itself indicative of a talent cut short.
Born in Glasgow, and two years at Pembroke College before enlisting, Sterling was killed by a grenade whilst fighting in the trenches at Ypres.
Coventry Patmore’s copy 105. Stevenson (Robert Louis) Father Damien. An Open Letter to the Reverend Doctor Hyde of Honolulu. Chatto & Windus, 1890, FIRST TRADE EDITION, the odd faint foxspot, pp. 30, foolscap 8vo, original grey wrappers printed in black to front, minor chipping at backstrip ends, edges untrimmed, good £350
57 58 Clockwise from top left: Items 101, 111, 115, 114 This copy belonging to the poet Coventry Patmore, with his ownership inscription to the half-title. Patmore was part of Stevenson’s circle and is thought to have been an influence on Stevenson’s own verse; a quotation from Patmore’s ‘The Angel in the House’ is used in Stevenson’s ‘The Dynamiter’.
106. Stewart (Dugald) Esquisses de Philosophie Morale ... traduir de l’Anglais sur la Ive édition per Th. Jouffroy. Paris: A. Johanneau, 1826, rather foxed, damp-staining in upper inner margin, pp. [iv], clv (Préface du traducteur), 236, 8vo, original red straight- grained roan backed boards, gilt tooling to spine, slightly rubbed, stamp of College de Neufchatel on title £200
First edition in French of the Outlines of Moral Philosophy. Jouffroy’s notable Préface occupies a good third of the volume.
Inscribed by the author, to Richard Aldington[?] 107. Taylor (Rachel Annand) Dunbar. [The Poets on the Poets - No. 4.] Faber and Faber, 1931, FIRST EDITION, pp. 87, foolscap 8vo, original pale blue boards with illustration stamped in red to front, backstrip lettered in red, a little dustiness to boards with rubbing to backstrip ends and minor bump to bottom corners, top edge red with others untrimmed, dustjacket frayed with large chips at foot of backstrip and top corner of front panel, good £40
Inscribed to the flyleaf in the author’s cursive hand: ‘To Richard, With love from the Banabhard. Rachel Annand Taylor’. The likely recipient here is Richard Aldington, whose nickname for Taylor (Gaelic: female poet) this was - as various references to her in his letters attest. In one such letter, to H.D. in October 1951, Aldington refers to Taylor as a ‘great Renaissance scholar’ - the capacity in which she is represented here.
108. Thomson (Thomas) [Sammelband of four presentation offprints on chemistry and mineralogy]. London and Edinburgh: 1814-31, 4 works in 1 vol., the first a little browned, especially the title-page, the second, being larger, a little dust-stained in the fore- and lower margins of the title, which is a bit foxed, a little dust-staining elsewhere, short tears in the fore-margin of the 3rd piece, pp. 8; [ii], 37; [ii], 13; [ii], 38, 4to, early 20th-century brown cloth, spine lettered in gilt, ‘Pamphlets - Thomson’, gilt stamp of Glasgow College Library at foot of spine, bookplate of Glasgow University Library inside front cover, stamped ‘Withdrawn’, good £1,200
Four rare offprints, three of them inscribed by the author, as follows:
1. ‘Analysis of a new species of copper ore,’ from the Philosophical Transactions. London: W. Bulmer, 1814, ownership inscription of Thomas Allan (see below). 1 copy of this offprint is recorded in COPAC (Bristol), none in WorldCat.
2. ‘On Asbestus, Chlorite, and Talc,’ from the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Edinburgh: Neill, 1831 inscribed ‘Mr. R. Philips from the Author’. Glagow only in COPAC and WorldCat (presumably this copy).
3. ‘On the composition of Blende,’ from the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Edinburgh: Neill, 1831, inscription and location as previous item.
59 4. ‘Description and analysis of some minerals,’ from the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Edinburgh: Neill, 1831, inscription and location as previous 2 items.
Thomas Thomson (1773-1852) was ‘Dalton’s bulldog’ (ODNB), author of a highly successful text book, A System of Chemistry (first edition 1802), and latterly ‘the patriarch of Glasgow science’ (op. cit). We have not been able to identify the recipient of the presentation copies, but Thomas Allan (1777–1833), the original owner of the first item, was a Scottish mineralogist, after whom allanite is named. Like Thomson, he contributed to the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
109. (Tragara Press.) CORNFORD (Frances) Fifteen Poems from the French. Apollinaire, Aragon, Baudelaire, du Bellay, Heredia, Labé, Mallarmé, Rimbaud, Ronsard, Supervielle, Valéry, Verlaine. Edinburgh: 1976, FIRST EDITION, 120/125 COPIES, printed in parallel text on Glastonbury Antique laid paper, title-page printed in black and red, one page with small nick at head, pp. 39, 8vo, original marbled wrappers, printed label to front, near fine (Halliwell 45) £40
Previously unpublished translations from her papers. Cornford had previously translated Aragon’s ‘Ce que dit Elsa’ for the Cornhill Magazine in 1945, and was around that time proposing a volume of translations of his work for Jonathan Cape in which the translation of ‘Paris’ found here would also have appeared - but it never materialised.
110. (Tragara Press.) THOMAS (Edward) Reading Out of Doors. Edinburgh: 1978, 86/100 COPIES (from an edition of 110 copies) printed on Basingwerk Parchment paper, pp. [9], foolscap 8vo, original green wrappers printed in black to front, fine (Halliwell 53) £40
Published to mark the centenary of the author’s birth, an essay that originally appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in 1903.
Inscribed to a Leonard Cohen connection 111. Trocchi (Alexander) Cain’s Book. John Calder, 1963, FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, a few printing smudges to the title-page, pp. 252, crown 8vo, original red boards, backstrip lettered in silver, crease to knocked top corner of upper board, dustjacket a little nicked and chipped and darkened slightly in a couple of places, very good £2,500
With a lengthy inscription by the author to the flyleaf: ‘For Nancy Bacal – Can I ask you to be careful not to treat this book as “literature”? Whatever else it is, it’s not that. Of course, there is a good deal of “fiction” in it, but… For example, my publisher’s first question when he had read it: “It’s great! But are you working on another novel now?” It was as though he hadn’t read it at all. Alex. London, March 1963’.
The recipient was a Canadian who had come to London to study classical theatre at RADA, where she became involved in various counter-cultural activities - including founding the Black Power movement in London alongside her then partner Michael de Freitas (Michael X/Michael Abdul Malik). She had been introduced to Trocchi by Leonard Cohen - a mutual friend that she had known since childhood, and whose song ‘Seems So Long Ago, Nancy’ was written for her; at the time of her introduction to Trocchi she was working as an interviewer for CBC (in which capacity she also interviewed the first incarnation of Pink Floyd, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones) and making a film about drug use.
60 ‘Cain’s Book’ was first published in New York in 1960, and received positive notices but no widespread attention; upon its UK publication, however, it caused a scandal and was prosecuted for obscenity having been seized in Sheffield as a threat to the morals of the young. Trocchi, well-versed in Situationist practice having been integrally involved with the nascent movement whilst in Paris, saw the furore as an opportunity to promote the book and at the Edinburgh Festival 1964 staged a public burning (with added explosives) that was part protest against and part endorsement of the judgement of the book as incendiary material.
Cohen’s role in the story goes beyond the merely incidental: between the US and the UK publications of the work, Trocchi had been charged with the capital offence of supplying drugs to a minor in New York - it was Cohen who assisted him in crossing into Canada, from where he made his way back to London, receiving for his trouble an inadvertent overdose from his charge’s largesse.
Charles Home McCall’s copy 112. (Vale Press.) JAMES I (King of Scotland) Kingis Quair. Edited by Robert Steele. 1903, [ONE OF 260 COPIES] (from an edition of 270 copies) printed in black and red in the King’s Fount on Arnold handmade paper, large wood-engraved initial letter designed by Charles Ricketts, a few faint foxspots, pp. 55, crown 8vo, original quarter linen and blue boards, printed label to upper board, wear to corners and leading edge of lower board with some slight colour loss (water damage?), top edge lightly dustsoiled with others untrimmed, bookplate to front pastedown (see below) with a few spots to endpapers, good (Watry B42) £150
The bookplate to the front pastedown belongs to Charles Home McCall of the Ballantyne Press, where the book was printed - an excellent association copy.
Inscribed for Thomas Jones of Gregynog 113. (Vale Press.) JAMES I (King of Scots) Kingis Quair. Edited by Robert Steele. 1903, [ONE OF 260 COPIES] (from an edition of 270 copies) printed in black and red in the King’s Fount on Arnold handmade paper, large wood-engraved initial letter designed by Charles Ricketts, a few faint spots, pp. 55, crown 8vo, original quarter fawn linen with blue boards, printed label to upper board, a tiny amount of wear to each corner with top corners gently knocked, small pen-mark at foot of upper board, edges untrimmed and uncut as well as slightly dusty, faint partial browning to endpapers, good £175
Inscribed by the Editor, ‘For T. Jones, C.H., LL.D., with grateful regards, Robert Steele’ - the recipient is Thomas Jones, Chairman of the Gregynog Press among other distinctions. The letters after his name indicate that the inscription must post-date his receiving an honorary LL.D from Glasgow University in 1922.
114. [Varlo (Charles)] The Modern Farmers Guide. In two volumes. A new System of Husbandry, from long experience in several Kingdoms; never before made public. With tables shewing the expence and profit of each Crop; how to stock Farms to the best advantage; how the Crops are to follow each other, by way of rotation; and how to maintain the poor well, and lower the poor-cess likewise, Some Hints, humbly offered to the Legislature, on inclosing commons and open town-fields. With Several Plans of new-invented Machines; some valueable Receipts for the Cure of Cattle, &c. &c. To which is prefixed a short Abstract of the author’s Life and Travels. By a Real
61 Farmer. Glasgow: Printed for the Author, by Robert and Andrew Foulis, 1768, FIRST EDITION, 2 vols., with 4 folding woodcuts (bound as per Gaskell, and the Directions to Book-Binders) and 3 folding tables, uniformly slightly browned, slightly heavier in places in vol. ii, a few spots here and there, pp. [iv], [iv, Subscribers], lxxvi, 308; [iv], 398, 8vo in 4s, contemporary sprinkled calf, spines gilt in compartments, contrasting lettering pieces, a bit rubbed at extremities and spines dulled, knock to upper edge of lower board to vol. ii, engraved armorial bookplate of George Thomas Leaton (before 1827, when Blenkinsop was added to his name), Rothamsted stamp inside front covers (Gaskell 480 (‘Paper: Poor quality’); Perkins 1215 (author not identified, printer given as J. Reid, Edinburgh); ESTC T56257) £2,500
A scarce and important work, to which Fussell devotes 4 pages. ‘Almost all the “rustick authors” of the eighteenth century proclaimed loudly that their writings were the results of their own practical experience on the land. Their statements were emphatic, but they did not as a rule support them with the story of their lives. No rule is without its exception, and one of them, not content with signing himself “A Real Farmer” [now identified as Varlo], prefaced his book ... with an autobiography ... as romantic as the contemporary picaresque novel’ (Fussell).
ESTC locates 6 copies in the UK (3 of them in the BL), including Southampton, but not Rothamsted (indeed, it is not in the printed catalogue), and 3 in the US. Gaskell adds the Mitchell Library. A variant is recorded with 14 pp. of Subscribers: this, then, presumably an early issue.
The dedication copy of the typescript 115. Wallace (Frederick William) [Original typescript:] Captain Salvation. [1925,] the author’s corrections throughout, some sheets with pasted inserts, pp. [iii], 351, folio, original green cloth binder with corners of claret morocco, the title and author in manuscript to upper board with small drawing of anchor, a little rust around metal clasp and some spots to lower joint, textblock edges a little browned, good £2,000
The dedication page with the author’s inscription: ‘“Captain Salvation”. Final copy (amended for publication) presented to my friend and associate Russell Palmer, from F.W. Wallace, December 11/1925’ - a typed dedication to Palmer is on the same page.
Wallace was born in Glasgow to a sailor father, William Wallace, whose love of the sea was inherited by his son - the family emigrated to Canada around 1902, and Frederick Wallace forged a career as a fishing journalist, and then a novelist with a focus on the maritime life he knew through his father, with the Canadian Atlantic as its setting. ‘Captain Salvation’ is his third novel, preceded also by two collections of short stories and a shipping history - these, as well as a forthcoming further collection of stories, are listed as his ‘Previous Books’ on the headed label pasted to the inside cover. The present work is perhaps the best-known, and somewhat typical with the career of its hero, Anson Campbell, bearing some parallel to that of the author’s father - it was republished on its eightieth anniversary by Grosset & Dunlap.
116. (World War One. Anthology.) BATTALION BALLADS. From “The Outpost” magazine of the 17th (S) Battalion H.L.I. Glasgow: David J. Clark, 1916, FIRST EDITION, photographic plate preceding text, title-page border printed in red, small tear to inner margin of same at head where stuck to following leaf, pp. 126, foolscap 8vo,
62 original green cloth with paper tartan strip wrapping around, lettered in gilt to upper board and backstrip, top edge dusty, others roughtrimmed, contemporary ownership inscription to flyleaf, dustjacket with small spot of internal tape repair at foot of front panel, minor nicking and chipping elsewhere with some light handling, very good £45
A single regiment anthology, of, the Preface admits, ‘varying merit’.
Scarce, with four holdings listed on COPAC (BL, NLS, IWM, St Andrews).
With a Salonikan snake 117. (World War One. Salonika Campaign.) McDONALD (John) A small archive relating to his education, military service, and career. 1904-1947, a long autograph letter to his sister (15pp., dated 16th March 1917) and a couple of wartime postcards to the same, photographs in military uniform and his wartime ‘Certificate of Employment’, various documents relating to his education, then his career as a schoolmaster, his 1947 obituary in The Ayrshire Times, a stuffed snakeskin from Salonika, a little tape repair to its tail, various sizes and formats, in contemporary suitcase, good condition overall £1,000
John McDonald was born in Lochfoot, Dumfries in 1890; he attended Dumfries Academy and then Glasgow University, where he graduated as M.A. The present archive includes a record of his education at various stages, from schooldays through to university, and a folder of certificates and testimonials related to his teacher training, up to and after the War, which provided an interruption to his steady progress.
He served with the Army Service Corps during the Great War, fighting in the Salonika campaign and attaining the rank of Sergeant. The long letter to his sister here is written from Struma Valley, Macedonia on pages from his Army notebook, and recounts ‘uncensored’ the events of the last five months, including his unforgettable ‘first glimpse of war’: ‘the enemy guns were pouring out shells, and the noise rolled like thunder among the hills [...] There was a short truce to bury the dead and gather in the wounded’; flashes of energetic bombardment and fire, and rumours of ‘a big push’; horse-riding on dangerous terrain, his exposure to shell-fire, including ‘one moment’ where he was ‘prepared to leave this world [...] but I did not get as much as a souvenir’ of the shell-shrapnel; the local landscape and weather (‘now we are having beautiful sunny days – like a Scotch summer’); a civilian casualty; the threat of malaria, fever and dysentery – injury possible but illness inevitable, the ‘skeletons of men and animals killed in the last Balkan war [...] still lying bleaching in the sun’ making it ‘no wonder that this country is full of disease’.
Overall, the experience is considered a formative one: ‘My life here has been better guided for me than I could have planned it myself, and out of the past I get confidence for the future, but should the final sacrifice be required, I shall not shrink from it’. Following the war he was appointed Headmaster at Kirkmichael School, before taking on the same role at Tarbolton – his obituary records his interests as gardening and bee-keeping, both of which he employed in the educational setting dear to him.
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