Justin Croft Antiquarian Books - Rare and Antiquarian Books and Manuscripts

First edition of a humorous and scatological skit on Sir Gilbert Elliot, Lord Minto’s Proposals for carrying on certain public works in the city of Edinburgh which had appeared in the same year: the pioneering work of Enlightenment urban improvement which persuaded the town council to begin its celebrated building projects. Dalrymple’s rather ungenerous pamphlet is concerned principally with sewers and the public “necessary-house” and it has recently been argued that while satirical in tone it was actually meant seriously. Dalrymple demonstrated a longstanding and enlightened interest in public health and hygiene as part of the regeneration of human societies (Patrick Cadell sub. Dalrymple, Oxford DNB).