1. [ANONYMOUS] - Robin Hood’s Garland. Being a Complete History of all the Notable and Merry Exploits performed by Him and his Men on many Occasions. To which is added a Preface giving a more full and particular Account of his Birth, &c. than any hitherto Published. Adorned with Twenty-Seven neat and curious Cuts, adapted to the Subject of each Song. Printed and Sold in London, [1790?] 96pp., 12mo. Woodcut title-vignette and 26 illustrations; a few minor spots at beginning and end. Entirely untrimmed, stab-stitched in old marbled wrappers. $550.00 Possibly a piracy, and certainly a very rare edition of this popular song- book, with “A New Robin Hood’s Song. Sung by Mr. Beard” on the final page. The text derives from early printings such as Wynkyn de Worde’s Geste if Robyn Hode and who knows how many earlier manuscript and oral sources. All of the great characters are present in this “garland” - Little John, Will Stutely and his rescue from the clutches of the Sheriff of Nottingham, King Richard’s putting on “monk’s weeds” in order to meet Robin and his men - the only notable absence is Maid Marian, generally considered a later interpolation in the story. The famous actor and singer John Beard’s “New Robin Hood’s Song” premiered in 1751 and was several times reprinted in early John Marshall editions of Robin Hood’s Garland, suggesting one of Marshall’s editions as the source of this probable piracy. The present edition is Osborne Collection, p. 13, giving the date [1789] and that copy lacking the final leaf; ESTC locates two others, at the British Library and Harvard. 2. [ANONYMOUS] - Eastern Anecdotes of Exemplary Characters, with Sketches of the Chinese History. In One Volume. Inscribed to her Royal Highness the Duchess of York. Designed for Youth. London: Printed by Samson Low, No. 7, Berwick-Street, Soho: and sold by Hurst, Paternoster-Row; Messrs. Carpenter and Co. No. 14, Old Bond-Street; and Peacock, at the Juvenile Library, No. 259, Oxford-Street, 1799. xvi, 176pp., sm. 8vo. With the half-title and a preliminary list of subscribers; a little old staining at the beginning. Modern sprinkled calf. $200.00 First and only edition, with a short history of the Chinese empire followed by biographical anecdotes, the last on the fourteenth-century Byzantine Cantacusenus. Subscribers’ lists may not be the best evidence from which to surmise the gender of an author, but from the fact that over four pages of subscribers reveal only six men, it is hard not to infer that female subscribers were turning out for one of their own. HOGARTH FOR CHILDREN 3. [ANONYMOUS] - Juvenile Philosophy: containing Amusing and Instructive Discourses on Hogarth’s Prints of the Industrious and Idle Apprentices. Designed to Enlarge the Understandings of Youth. London: Printed by Ruffy & Evans, Leadenhall Street, for Vernor and Hood, in the Poultry, 1801. [iv], 188pp., 18mo. Engraved frontispiece by Springsguth after Corbould (this mildly stained), corner off pp. 1-2 just touching a page number, another small corner flaw at pp. 133-134 neatly repaired without loss of paper or text. Original roan-backed marbled boards, unlettered (a paper label likely long since fallen off); extremities worn, but sound. $250.00 First edition, with the first and by far the longest of the discourses telling the story of Mrs. Wilson and her two sons, one of them exemplary, the other without “the least propensity to improve his mind.” One day Mrs. Wilson decides to present her sons with “a treat. of a new kind: - a set of prints, the Industrious and Idle Apprentices, by Hogarth.” All twelve plates are then described in detail, as the idle son becomes more and more contemplative. The happy result is not hard to guess. Osborne Collection, p. 716. “THE ADVANTAGES OF READING” 4. [ANONYMOUS] - Sketches from Nature, intended for the Use of Young Persons. London: Printed for E. Newbery, 1801. iv, [ii], 130pp., 18mo. Engraved frontispiece (imprint at foot shaved); a little spotting. An unusually good survival in the original green vellum-backed marbled boards, with most of the paper spine label “Sketches from Nature Price 1s.” With a child’s ownership inscription “George Darcie Anstruther July 12th 1821,” and on the lower free endpaper “Disdain bad company/ Disdain bad company/ Disdain bad Boys/ Disdain bad company. .” $300.00 First edition of an uncommon late Newbery title, with chapters on insects and botany, and moral virtues. But by far the longest is “On Happiness; or, the Advantages of Reading,” in which two girls discuss the relative merits of prose and poetry, and specifically of Alexander Pope, William Hayley, Dr. Johnson, and others: “Johnson's language abounds with too many abstruse words, it is not so harmonious to the ear.” But the girls nevertheless devote several pages to discussing Johnson’s Rasselas, and conclude that its moral is “the human mind requires continual action.” Roscoe, John Newbery, J337. 5. [ANONYMOUS] - The Youth’s Monitor; Containing the following Moral and Instructive Tales: The Herdsman. The Contented Hermit. Ferdinand and Henry. The Sisters. London: Printed by J. Cundee, Ivy-Lane, for T. Hurst, Paternoster-Row, 1801. [ii], 141, [1]pp., 18mo. Engraved frontispiece, with a final page of publisher’s advertisements; first few leaves slightly toned. Original red roan-backed marbled boards, spine gilt; corners worn, still attractive. $350.00 First and only edition. “The Herdsman” takes up most of the book, with the happy ending at page 117 involving a magnificent gift to four children of personalized story- and drawing-books, and four little desks to work on. OCLC records copies at Florida, Lilly, and UCLA; COPAC adds no more. UNRECORDED REISSUE 6. [ANONYMOUS] - The Twin Brothers; or, Virtue and Vice Contrasted. A Tale for Youth. London: Printed for Tegg and Castleman. B. Crosby and Co. [et al.], [circa 1805]. [iv], 125, [3]pp., 18mo. Engraved frontispiece with imprint “Pub. Dec. 1, 1801 by T. Hurst”, with a leaf of Hurst’s advertisements at end, and an initial leaf of series title (see below). Original green roan- backed marbled boards, printed paper label on spine “Twin Brothers. Minor’s Magazine. Vol. VII. Price 1s. 6d.”; spine ends worn. Front pastedown inscribed “Eliza Giffard Nerquis Flintshire 1807.” $250.00 An apparently unrecorded reissue of this anonymous novel, originally published by T. Hurst in 1802. The original engraved frontispiece is here preserved, but the printed title has a new woodcut vignette and is conjugate with a series title “The Minor’s Magazine, and Epitome of Knowledge. Volume VII.” The well-told story features brothers Bob and Jack; the latter runs off to sea and falls among evil companions. When the good brother lets Jack know he has a legacy, Jack replies “tip me the rhino, and steer off on what tack you like.” Jack spends his way through and resumes a life of crime, is caught, transported, and dies on board the prison ship. Bob marries and lives happily ever after. The Osborne collection has another Hurst publication, The Beautiful Page, or, Child of Romance, also reissued in the Minor’s Magazine series, but I can find no record of a complete set. The Giffard family built Nerquis Hall in the 1630s and it survives in private ownership. 7. [ANONYMOUS] - Joseph, Governor of Egypt. Translated from the French. In Five Parts. Doncaster: Printed and Sold by J. Sparrow, Opposite the Cross. And Sold by Messrs. F. & C. Rivington. Mozley, Gainsbro’; and all other Booksellers, 1807. [ii], 130pp., 18mo. Woodcut frontispiece; several spots and stains, especially at the beginning, and a few pencil squiggles. Original roan-backed marbled boards, spine gilt-ruled but unlettered; rubbed. $75.00 Apparently the second edition, surely set from the text of the 1798 edition (the only other edition recorded), which was also printed in Doncaster and whose title declared the work “for the Use of Schools.” The Lilly Library has the only known copy of this 1798 edition (by a different printer); of this 1807 one OCLC records three copies, at British Library, Doncaster Central, and Leicester. COPAC adds no more. 8. [ANONYMOUS] - The Happy Shepherd: or, Rural Retirement; A Moral Tale. To which is added the History of a Coxcomical Fellow. Also the Disappointed Lovers; a Tale. Embellished with Elegant Cuts. Gainsborough: Printed by H. Mozley. Price Sixpence, 1809. 71, [1]pp., 18mo. Woodcut frontispiece and two illustrations; faint old stain at the blank lower corner of the frontispiece, but a nice fresh copy in old, possibly original boards which now are without what was likely some decorative paper covering; backstrip worn. $200.00 First and only edition, salutary and cautionary tales. Tommy the coxcomb is lazy at school, squanders his fortune, becomes a highwayman and is caught, sentenced, and transported, “destined for the coast of Africa, where (if he lives to arrive) he will be sold for a slave amongst the negroes.” Hugo, Bewick Collector, 3799, attributing the handsome woodcuts to John Bewick, not confirmed by Tattersfield in his definitive catalogue, John Bewick. LACKING A TEXT LEAF 9. [ANONYMOUS] - Negro Labour; or, the Progress of Sugar; from the First Planting the Canes in the West Indies, to its Manufacture into Loaves in this Country. London: Published by Joseph Crisp. Holborn; And Sold by R. Dutton. J. Harris. J. Arliss. , 1809. [ii], 14 [of 16]pp., 16mo. Hand-colored engraved frontispiece and seven plates, the plates complete but lacking both the printed wrappers and the last leaf of text; some wear and creasing throughout. Essentially disbound in the remains of a volume containing two other defective children’s chapbooks. $500.00 Only edition of this rare and sometimes harrowingly- detailed chapbook, with references to the condition of the enslaved workers “before the horrid Slave Trade was abolished,” and with all the hand-colored plates including the frontispiece captioned: “Holing,” “Planting,” “Crop Time,” “Grinding the Canes,” “Potting,” “Clarification,” “Granulation,” and “Making the Loaves.” Moon, John Harris, 569.