HAMPER, William. ~ Observations on certain ancient Pillars of memorial, called Hoar-Stones. To which is added A Conjecture on the Croyland Inscription. Birmingham: Printed and sold by William Hodgetts... Sold also by Beilby and Knotts... and Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Co., London, 1820.
4to (215 × 165 mm), pp. [6], ii, 27, [1]. One wood engraved vignette illustration and one tailpiece. Uncut in publisher’s printed board. Slightly rubbed and soiled. Author’s inscription to Sir Thomas Phillipps (18 May 1820) to half-title, the latter’s shelf mark to front pastedown, together with the later bookplate of A. N. L. Munby. An excellent copy.
First edition, inscribed to Sir Thomas Phillipps, and later A. N. L. Munby’s copy, of Hamper’s survey of ancient boundary markers or memorial stones in Britain (the name derived from Old English hār stān, meaning ‘grey stone’) or ‘venerable/old stone’. These stones frequently marked land boundaries, parishes, or commemorate events, often appearing as standing stones, megaliths, or remnants of Neolithic tombs. Antiquary Thomas Hamper (1776-1831) had contributed many articles to the Gentleman’s Magazin. ‘Elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries on 5 April 1821, Hamper was competent in Anglo-Saxon and medieval Latin, and was an accurate facsimilist. Several county historians, including William Bray, Edmund Cartwright, John Nichols, and George Ormerod, acknowledged help from him, and he collaborated with Thomas Sharp in the publication of Kenilworth Illustrated (1821). From 1812 Hamper was a close friend and correspondent of John Britton, whom he aided in compiling The Beauties of England and Wales and The Dictionary of the Architecture and Archaeology of the Middle Ages. He helped to sort and arrange several major collections of family and antiquarian papers in the midlands, including that left by the Staffordshire historian Stebbing Shaw’ (Oxford DNB).