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An excellent contemporary satire on the literary celebrity of Sir Walter Scott ‘ depicting Sir Walter Scott and Thomas Moore, two friends but also literary rivals, sitting on opposite ends of a giant set of scales. The scales are not balanced: Scott is seated on the higher scale, looking gloomy, clutching the nine volumes of his biography of Napoleon, while Moore is on the lower scale, looking pleased, and confidently holding up a single small volume for Scott to look at. The print refers to the fact that Scott's “The life of Napoleon Buonaparte” was due to be published on the same day in 1827 as Thomas Moore’s prose romance “The Epicurean, a Tale”, based on his unfinished poem “Alciphron”; however, Moore managed to get his book published a day earlier. Scott’s biography was subsequently a commercial success but met with a very mixed critical reception, whereas Moore’s first novel was an immediate commercial and critical success, hence “the balance of public favour” falling in Moore’s favour’. BM Satires 15440.

First edition. An account of the author’s ‘pilgrimage’ to the Palace of Holyrood in Edinburgh, where French monarch Charles X had taken refuge (for the second time) following his deposition by the July Revolution in 1830. The object of his pilgrimage was not so much Charles himself, but his young nephew Henri, son of the Duke and Duchess de Berri, named regent of French in exile. A detailed report of this extraordinary young man is given, together with the striking silhouette portrait. The ‘Récit’ of the meeting is followed by various reflections on the author’s return journey through London, and then by a ‘rêve’ in which he dreams of a return to Paris and restoration of the monarchy under a young king Henri.

First edition of this critical jeu d’esprit,First edition of this critical jeu d’esprit, a contribution to the debate over the Elegy inspired by Johnson’s assessment in his Life of Gray (1777) and which was to continue well into the nineteenth century. It includes the complete text of the Elegy on pp. xii-xx. Young was professor of Greek at Glasgow University.

First edition. Scottish antiquarian and Sharpe ‘lived in and for the past’ (Oxford DNB) and this early collection is steeped in Scottish occult lore and witchcraft (in which Sharpe was an acknowledged expert). Inspired by Scott, who became a lifetime friend and correspondent, the author spent a short spell at Oxford, but returned to Edinburgh in 1813, where he lived until his death in 1851. He left one of the most extensive collections of antiquities ever accumulated by a private individual in Scotland. Jackson, p. 310.

First edition, the second of two verse collections by a successful Edinburgh miniature and silhouette painter. Several poems are in Scots dialect and at least two are on artistic subjects: ‘Song, The Enamoured Painter’ and ‘Epistle to a Friend, on the Decay of Taste for the Fine Arts in Scotland, 1812’. This is a subscriber’s copy, one of two copies ordered by Archibald, twelfth Earl of Eglinton (restorer of Eglinton Castle). Painter Henry Raeburn is among the other subscribers. Not in Jackson.

First edition. Paterson was born in 1790, the son of a stone carver. He attended Edinburgh University before becoming Professor of English at Jena. He was ordained in 1837 and was a minister of the Free Church at Kirkud. ‘This Poem is written in direct imitation of the style of W. Scott: and as an imitation it must be allowed to have a very fair proportion of merit’ (The British Critic). Jackson, p. 381.

First edition—Highland poetry inspired by the mountain landscape of Craig Phadrig, which is topped by an ancient Pictish hillfort. Carey muses on the legends of Macbeth (including the Weird Sisters), on the parallel between Macbeth and Napoleon Bonaparte), and Scottish history up to Culloden. Jackson, p. 348; Johnson, Provincial Poetry, 163; Aubin, p. 373.

Memorial for His Grace John Duke of Roxburgh and his Curators, Defenders; against John Hay of Lawfield, William Hay of Charterfield and William Sandihills, all Heretors of Eastbarns, Pursuers. [Edinburgh: August 2, 1757], pp. 15, [1]. Not in ESTC.

Unto the Right Honourable the Lords of Council and Session, the Petition of Alexander Earl of Home. [Edinburgh: 31 January, 1764], pp. 28. Not in ESTC.

Unto the Right Honourable the Lords of Council and Sessions, the Petition of Captain Shaw Grosett, and Miss Lilias Grosett... [Edinburgh: February 3, 1768], pp. 16. Not in ESTC.

Unto the Right Honourable the Lords of Council and Session, the Petition of Alexander Hamilton of Blantyre-farm, and Miss Lilias Grosett. [Edinburgh: February 17, 1768], pp. 8. Not in ESTC.

Information for Alexander Drummond Esq; late his Majesty’s Consul at Aleppo in Syrai, now residing in Canongate, in the Competition of the Creditors of Mrs. Marion Drummond. [Edinburgh: January 22, 1768], pp. 8. ESTC: Bodley only.

Unto the Right Honourable the Lords of Council and Session, the Petition of Janet Rattray, Widow of John Scott, late Tacksman of Rashyhill, and of Andrew, James, Joseph, George, and Hary Scotts, their children. [Edinburgh: February 18, 1768], pp. 13, [1]. Not in ESTC.

Unto the Right Honourable the Lords of Council and Session, the Petition of Alexander Roberts in Nether-Wardroppertown, and Katharine Straton his Spouse, eldest Daughter of the deceased Robert Straton of Wardroppertown. [February 20, 1768], pp. 12. Not in ESTC.

Seven eighteenth-century pleadings in Edinburgh courts relating to inheritance, most involving female inheritances. All are very rare.

A very rare spurious edition of these erotic and bawdy poems by Burns and his circle, first published in 1799 (of which edition only 2 copies are known to survive). The title-page is headed ‘Not for maids, ministers or striplings’. The Roy collection of Robert Burns contains several similar reprints to ours (including our issue) each with differing title-pages giving ‘1827’.

‘Shepherds I have got the clap,
Stroking of my Anna;
My time’s filled up, oh sad mishap,
With taking salts and senna.
I for her King’s Place forsook,
Where girls I had past telling;
But now my pipe’s turned to a crook,
My b—, how they’re hanging...’ Roy collection of Robert Burns, p. 141 b.

First separate edition of the extract from the Mémoires de la Société royale et central d’agriculture. A report on the newly-invented English system of cambered road building pioneered by John Loudon McAdam. It includes a short description of new road-building and paving in London (Saint James, Regent Street and Guildhall). Rare: Worldcat lists the Michigan copy only outside France. No UK copies located by Jisc/Library Hub (formerly COPAC). Not in Kress or Goldmsiths’.

First published the previous year. Edinburgh poet, Thomson’s Whist admirably reflects the eighteeneh-century appetite for the game, first described in detail by Hoyle in 1742.

First edition of the only collection by David Sillar, youthful friend of Robert Burns, published by John Wilson, who had previously published Burns’s collection at Kilmarnock in 1786. It includes the poem ’To the author’ (pp.[9]-11), signed ‘R. B’., [Robert Burns]. Jackson, p. 151.

Richardson, secretary to Lord Cathcart and tutor to his sons, had been a close associate of the Foulis brother and edited numerous texts for their press. They printed the first edition of this poetical collection in 1774. Jackson, p. 47; Gaskell, 598.

Richardson had been a close associate of the Foulis brothers, editing numerous texts for their press, and they printed the first edition of this poetical collection in 1774. The Indians, a tale of the troubled marriage between a Canadian Huron warrior, Onaiyo and his English wife, Maraino, is an important exposition of Scottish Enlightenment thought on the subject of interracial politics and the concept of the noble savage. Richardson revised it several times and later rewrote it as a drama: The Indians, a Tragedy (1790).

ESTC notes that pp. 1-155 are a reissue of the London edition of 1775. Gaskell, 588; Jackson, p. 88; Sabin, 71088.

First edition of a rare collection, a superb copy, almost certainly a presentation copy to one of Mavor’s pupils, Francis Almeric Spencer, youngest son of George Spencer, fourth Duke of Marlborough.

Scots-born Mavor’s successful career was largely due to the patronage of the Marlborough familly. He was born at New Deer, Aberdeenshire in 1758 and received his early education is Scotland, before setting out to make his fortune in England at the age of seventeen. He began publishing poetry quite soon and made important contacts at Oxford which, in turn, brought him to Woodstock where he became rector, mayor and master of his own school, Woodstock Academy, founded in 1782. He taught the children of the Duke of Marlborough for many years.

Poems is Mavor’s only substantial collection (and it includes several works previously published separately). Dedicated to Caroline, Duchess of Marlborough in June 1793, it contains several occasional poems reflecting life at Bleinheim (including one recording a royal visit and another on the launching of a pleasure boat upon the lake) and several addressed to members of the Marlborough family, including the current Duke, George Spencer, fourth Duke of Marlborough (1739-1817), the Duchess of Marlborough and Lady Anne and Lady Elizabeth. This copy contains the bookplate of the youngest son and was presumably given to him by the author.

Besides this work, Mavor published several guides (including one each to Cheltenham and Blenheim) and educational works covering history, language and natural history. He also developed a successful system of stenography. Aubin, p. 327; Jackson p. 185. ESTC: BL, Bodley (2), NLS, San Diego State University Library, Harvard and University of Otago.

First edition thus, the issue with ‘Edinburgh’ in the imprint measuring 47 mm (rather than 32 mm) and the notice of entry in Stationers Hall on the title verso in three lines with type ornaments above and below (rather than two lines and without the ornaments).

Hamilton (1704–1754), Jacobite patriot and poet, and a friend of Hume and Adam Smith, is best known for ‘The Braes of Yarrow’ (‘Busk ye, busk ye, my bonny bonny bride’) and his ‘Ode to the Battle of Gladsmuir’. He fought at Culloden, before escaping to France in 1746; he died at Lyons. ‘While he was in exile Hamilton’s Poems on Several Occasions was published anonymously under the editorship of Adam Smith [his first publication] by the Foulis Press, Glasgow, in 1748 and 1749. A second edition was published under the author’s name in 1758, and the best text was published at Edinburgh in 1760, with a preface and engraving (taken from Gavin Hamilton’s portrait) by Sir Robert Strange’ (Oxford DNB).

Sole edition of Scots poet Grahame’s first published book. It contains ‘On Burns the Scottish Poet’, the ironically-titled ‘An unanswerable argument for the slave trade’; and a Latin translation of part of Burns’s ‘To a Mouse’.

‘He was educated at Glasgow grammar school and at Glasgow University. Against his own inclination to study for the church, he was then apprenticed to his cousin, Laurence Hill, a writer to the signet, in Edinburgh. Despite his dislike of the work and uncertain health, he completed his apprenticeship, and on 11 December 1788 was admitted a member of the Society of Writers to the Signet. On the death of his father in 1791 he contemplated a change of profession, and he eventually became an advocate in 1795’ (Oxford DNB). He later won the approval of Walter Scott but was the target of one of Byron's barbed comments in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809) Jackson p. 193; not in Johnson.

Sole edition, privately printed, of this collection of a group of letters between the famous beauty and literary patron and the Gordon family accountant. Despite Jane Gordon’s early success in society at Edinburgh and London (she was an important early patron of Burns), her estrangement from her husband 1805 brought financial distress. Forced to live in hotel rooms in London she was in constant dispute with her husband over money. These rather pitiful letters, berating her husband for his excesses and pleading for money, were published here for the first time, prefixed by an attractive photographic reproduction of the portrait of the Duchess by Reynolds. OCLC: no US copies.

Scarce first edition of this work on the medieval Scottish church, inscribed by the author: ‘James T. Gibson Craig esqe with the author’s compliments.’ Nineteenth-century author and historian, Joseph Robertson (1810-66) wrote widely on the history of Scotland; this pamphlet preceded by some years his seminal work on medieval ecclesiastical history, Concilia Scotiae (1866), a two-volume edition of the pre-Reformation Scottish church’s canon law and constitutions.

A collection of nineteenth century Scottish ecclesiastical pamphlets, principally by Robert Lee, the reforming Church of Scotland minister. Lee’s contribution was primarily in the reform of worship rather than theological debate, believing that worship should comprise three elements: word, prayer and praise. His controversial stance on a variety of topics led him to frequent clashes with conservative clergy and in 1859 he was unsuccessfully charged with unlawful innovations in worship.