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First edition. A scarce provincial tribute to Wellington, the subscribers list consisting almost entirely of Northumberland names, in Sunderland, Monkwearmouth and Bishopwearmouth. Worldcat: Stanford and Indiana only in US. Jackson, p. 390; Johnson 846.

First edition of Fosbroke’s poem, praised for being ‘the fruit of a great deal of curious research’ (Critical Review) into English monasticism. In his preface, Fosbrooke (he later changed it to ‘Fosbroke’) stresses that his aim is not ‘to reconcile all the different orders’, but rather to highlight ‘that there must be points in which they all agree … By describing these and adding such ceremonial particulars, as he could most conveniently procure, the Author hopes he has been able to convey a general idea of the nature of a Monastic Life’ (Preface).

A nice piece of provincial typography, the work is dedicated to Edward Jenner (who subscribed for three copies); there are eight other Jenners in the subscribers’ list. Jackson, p. 207; Johnson 337.

A Derby imprint, collecting some of the most popular poems and satires by Woty, versifier, solicitor’s clerk and Grub-street writer, including The Auctioneers; a Town Eclogue and The Female Advocate. JohnsonNot in Jackson or Johnson.

The third edition of vol. 1 (which had first appeared at Bristol in 1797) and the first edition of vol. 2, of this important collection gathering Southey’s early poetry, including ‘The Triumph of Woman’, ‘To Mary Wollstonecraft’, ‘Poems on the Slave Trade’, ‘The Genius of Africa’, ‘Botany Bay Eclogues’ and ‘A Ballad. Shewing how an old woman rode double, and who rode before her’, this latter based on a William of Malmesbury tale, and accompanied by a striking full-page woodcut (signed ‘M & W fecit’). Not in Jackson.

First edition, by an officer of the East India Company, Newcastle printed, with a view of the Cape of Good Hope wood engraved by Thomas Bewick. The subscribers are predominantly from the maritime towns of the North East. Tattersfield, Bewick, TB 2.154; not in Jackson.

Sole edition of verse by a Liverpool poet, the son of actor Charles Lee Lewes. The poems are on contemporary patriotic themes (Nelson and Napoleon are frequent subjects) and some are in Irish and Scottish mode. Among the latter, the long poem Wallace (with notes) occupies the final 50 pages, and is the subject of the unsigned wood engraved frontispiece. Johnson 533; not in Jackson.

First edition. The subscribers include Samuel Johnson.

First edition. Edward Nairne (c.1742–1799), lawyer and customs official, was supervisor of customs at Sandwich, where he was born. From his light verse he was known as the ‘Sandwich Bard’. He died at Sandwich on 5 July 1799, and is not to be confused with his namesake (1726–1806) also with Sandwich origins, who was an instrument maker and natural philosopher. Poems includes ‘The Jews Partners and the stolen Pork’, ‘The Gipsies and the stolen Hog’, ‘The bartering Jew and the Lace Merchant’ and ‘Travelling; and an Account of a newly instituted Society of Antiquaries’. Jackson, p. 168; Johnson, p. 647. ESTC locates 8 copies only (BL, King’s Inns Dublin, Bodley, Leeds, NYPL, Lilly, Illinois, Otago).

First edition, privately printed: the long topographical work for which Mundy is best known.

Mundy was ‘a shy, recluse man, of rather a morbid temper; a great sportsman and an active magistrate... His poetical talent lay in the description of natural scenery...’ (Egerton Brydges, Autobiography). His most famous and most popular work, Needwood Forest, was first printed in 1776. Apparently written during a residence in the forest, it was inspired by the Enclosure Acts of the late eighteenth century, which allowed for Needwood’s successive disafforestation (though Mundy had himself been a petitioner for the Act of 1763). Though copies of the poem were apparently distributed only on request, Needwood Forest’s fame spread widely—there is a copy with extensive annotations by Horace Walpole at the Houghton Library—and brought him into the Lichfield circle of Erasmus Darwin, Anna Seward and Sir Brooke Boothby (all of whom were to exchange poems with him). The poem was soon reprinted in Lichfield, without Mundy’s consent. For his copy, inherited by his son, and bound with numerous autograph poems, see next item.

An otherwise unrecorded broadside from Horncastle (Lincs), where according to ESTC James Weir seems to have been the town’s earliest printer, producing a handful of surviving broadsides in the 1790s. His imprint mention his son c. 1809-18. The Elegy notes the death of Thompson’s wife and children in a shipwreck at Lisbon caused by the earthquake (1755).

First edition of this codification of the laws governing the Cornish tin industry. The Convocation of Tinners exercised ancient rights of jurisdiction over much of Cornwall; customary rights exercised long before the codification of English law and which had been confirmed by royal charters since the time of Edward I. Stannary law was sanctioned by the crown in recognition of the special responsibilities of the Cornish tinners in providing a valuable raw material. It has been claimed that the right to hold Convocations has never been formally repealed by the English crown, a legal anomaly exploited by the Cornish nationalist movement. A previous codification had been printed in 1725. Goldsmiths’ 8776; Higgs 433; Kress 5279.

First edition (four more followed). An attractive Liverpool production, with an elegant wood engraved title vignette with harp and trumpet (echoed by the tools used for the spine, suggestive of a publisher’s binding). The Analytical Review was most enthusiastic: ‘The tones of this harp are indeed most sweet, and the chords of it are struck by a hand, well-skilled to soften or to swell the sound, to vary and accommodate the measure, as the subject of the song requires’.

Smyth was professor of Modern History at Cambridge. Jackson, p. 217; Johnson, 847.

Sole edition of a rare Somerset imprint, the confessions of a sinner (‘By passion govern’d, and by lust enslav’d’), reformed after hearing the sermon of a certain ‘Rev. Mr. D’. Written in the manner of Milton’s Sampson Agonistes it details the author’s life of corruption in London, including a sustained attack on the theatres as: ‘... Domes of vice, with vot’ries ever thronged / Where mimic sorrow whines her unfelt woes, / And empty plaudits shake the laughing scenes...’ The verses ‘To the Author’ are signed ‘M.T.’ The title bears the quotation from Young: ‘Starting I woke, and found myself undone.’ Jackson, p. 35; ESTC: BL, Cambridge, Oxford (Regent’s Park College) and Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society; no US copies.

First edition of an attractive Suffolk imprint, with subscribers including Burke, Pitt, Fuseli, Paley and Young. The Trifles open with an ‘Epistle to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke on his Reflections on the Revolution of France...’ and also include an ‘Epilogue for Mrs. Bellamy’ [the actress] and two turf-related fragments: ‘On a Decision at Newmarket’ and ‘On the Death of Johnny, a Racer’. The Gentleman’s Magazine reviewer was benevolent, noting that the personal poems were written ‘from the heart’. Jackson, p. 216; not in Johnson.

Of the two works here, the most interesting is Goodwin’s very scarce King’s Lynn-printed collection with the long ruin-poem ‘Rising Castle’ on this ancient Norfolk landmark. It is the author’s only published book. It was widely reviewed, but not always favourably. One reviewer took issue with Goodwin’s use of local names: ‘In one of the poems, the name of a village called Snettisham is introduced. We hope never to hear this unpleasing sound again in verse. If our author will look into the funereal odes of Dr. Watts... he will see the ridiculous effect produced by the use of ill-sounding proper names. Would not Romeo and Juliet excite laughter, if the heroine should address each other as Timothy and Tabitha?’ (cited by Aubin, p. 69). Aubin, p. 358; Jackson, p. 230; Johnson 387. ESTC: BL, Cambridge, Bodley, Norwich, Princeton, Lilly, UC Davis, Illinois and Yale.

Very rare first edition of Polwhele’s first separate publication. He was seventeen when he wrote this celtic-gothic piece, and the Monthly Review, playing off the ‘Truro School’ concealment of Polwhele’s authorship, commented that the schoolmaster should have kept it in manuscript; the school replied that it had no knowledge of the poem. According to Oxford DNB, ‘this premature appearance in print impaired Polwhele’s reputation.’ Certainly the poem is rare enough that one could imagine an attempt made to suppress it, and a copy at Cardiff, noted in COPAC, is heavily marked up with manuscript deletions and amendments. Jackson, p. 53. ESTC locate 4 copies only (BL, Bodley, 2 copies, Somerset Archaeological Society); WorldCat adds one at Brown. In some copies, the imprint is without a date.

First edition, with a long list of subscribers. A provincial collection, sometimes attributed to Joseph Hankes. Pieces include ‘To Mr. Pine, history painter, written on reading a libel against him’ and ‘Elegy. Written in a bookseller’s lumber room’:

Behold these volumes, tumbled in the dust,—
Here massive folios all inglorious lie;
Here bulky quartos, every bandage burst;
With squat octavos, and the smaller fry.

Yet these their authors fondly hop’d would live
’Till Time himself should break his scythe in twain;
That prince posterity applause would give—
Alas! they hop’d but all their hopes were vain... Jackson, p. 95. Scarce: 12 copies in ESTC (Cornell, Harvard, Huntington, Newberry, Clark, and Illinois in America).

First edition of this collection, Ducks and Pease having first been published in 1776 (Huntington only in ESTC).

Lund was apparently a barber from Pontefract, where a contemporary declared his satires ‘would not disgrace the pen of a Churchill’ (quoted in Oxford DNB). In his Preface, the poet apologises for the ‘incorrectness’ and ‘strokes of obscenity’ which characterised his earlier publications. ‘Some People may be apt to say, I might better Emply my Time. If I neglected by Business for the Sake of scribling [sic], they might with Justice blame me; but I do assure them they are the Productions of my leisure Hours only... I please myself that, every unbias’d and candid Reader... will excuse my Errors, and be pleased with the Dish of Ducks and Pease I offer them, when I assure them, if I cou’d have cook’d and seasoned them better, to suit their Palates, I most certainly wou’d have done it.’ Not in Jackson.

First edition, reprinting some the verse from Kendall’s earlier, privately printed collection, but with much new material, including ‘Imitations of Catullus’, the Latin printed on facing pages, and the long sequence ‘Fairy Fantasies’.

‘That Fairy personification, with distinct scenery and appropriated action, would introduce new combinations of music, was originally an idea of Mr. Jackson, perfectly coincided with the Author’s opinion. His idea was not erroneous. The Fairy Fantasies are splendid efforts of genius as musical compositions: Their claim to merit in the poetical view, the reader must determine. To this class some new Songs were added after the completion of Mr. Jackson’s music: He composed them agreeably to the first sketches, and although they have been since amended, in a few instances, the corrections could not be adapted to music’ (Advertisement). Jackson, p. 185; Johnson, 504

Fourth edition, ‘cleared’ of some ‘imperfections, which disgraced it in former editions’, particularly the first (1788, see previous item), which had been sent to the printer before the poem was finished. This is the only edition of Hurdis’s poem to be printed by the poet himself in his native village of Bishopstone, where he had installed a press at his mother’s house to print his lectures (he was professor of poetry at Oxford from 1793). Jackson, p. 223; Johnson, 474.