Current Stock - C (last online update: 11th May 2010)

STC 4496 & 4496.5; Read 302.
Camden was far in advance of other Elizabethan chroniclers both in style and understanding. He was encouraged to undertake this work by Lord Burghley, and access to Burghley's papers gave him insights which, allied to Camden's formidable knowledge of foreign affairs, enabled him to produce a history which in the area of English state policy outshines all other contemporary accounts.
As an associate of Richard Hakluyt, Camden was fully aware "of current progress in geography, and he came, too, into direct contact with men such as Drake and Cavendish. Hence the voyages of discovery in his Annales...are of considerable interest." (E.G.R. Taylor, Late Tudor and Early Stuart Geography, 1934) Most notable of these is Drake's famous voyage round the world in 1577-80, of which Camden gave one of the earliest printed narratives; and in the account of Drake's early life Camden was retelling directly what Drake told him. According to H.R. Wagner, nothing of significance has ever been added to this account.
The first volume covers Elizabeth's reign to 1588, concluding with a graphic account of the defeat of the Spanish Armada. The second volume, finished by Camden in 1617 and completing the history of the reign, had previously been published at Leiden in 1625.

Attractive small-format edition, with preface, preliminary discourse, life, variant readings and index.

Einaudi 817; Goldsmiths' Library 11082; Higgs 5884; Kress 6997.
"A work of great labour and research" (McCulloch), wide-ranging, and especially remarkable for its wealth of practical suggestions. It teems with projects for the construction of harbours, the opening up of new communications by road and canal, the introduction of new industries, the development of wastelands, agriculture, etc. Sixty pages are devoted to the American colonies. Among the work's many admirers were Samuel Richardson and Samuel Johnson.

From the Gladstone library at Fasque, with bookplate, and with John Gladstone's signature, dated at Liverpool 1803, on the first title-page.
i. Sabin 10268; Tinker 607. Campbell's poem, describing the destruction of the settlement of Wyoming in Pennsylvania by a force of Indians, was popular and often reprinted, but is weakened by what Renwick calls "inward timidity.... Campbell understands and depicts the emotions of his characters, but identifies himself with none of them; the reader therefore watches the action - and may well do so with pleasure - but does not enter into it."
ii. Campbell's first and most successful work, here in its most sumptuous format.

Hayward 211 (imperfect); Tinker 605 (erroneously calling for five plates).
Campbell's first book, a sensational success, running to some thirty editions by 1820; but the first edition is understandably scarce.

With the appearance of a large paper copy, though ESTC makes no mention of such.

From the Gladstone library at Fasque, with bookplates.
Mrs. Carter's letters are "among her most satisfactory productions, at once informal and literary." (Oxford DNB)

From the Gladstone library at Fasque, with bookplates.

Wing N.872. Contemporary signature Hyndford on title (i.e. John Carmichael, first earl of Hyndford); large nineteenth century bookplate of the Earl of Rosebery on front pastedown; beneath which is the bookplate of Douglas Grant, author of the standard biography, Margaret the First: a Biography of Margaret Cavendish.
Margaret Cavendish was the first Englishwoman to publish a substantial body of literary and philosophical works in her own lifetime. The Oxford DNB characterises the Sociable Letters as "...readable, mostly fictional letters..., sometimes cast as brief essays and sometimes in the form of small narratives or dialogues. In many cases the letters function as commentary on marriage, infidelity, and divorce, and they frequently offer women warnings against marriage, similar to those to be seen in Margaret's other works." They provide a window onto the world of marriage and daily life for an aristocratic lady of the seventeenth century, and contain a blend of the comic, ironic and serious. They include a detailed criticism of Shakespeare's plays (Letter CXXIII), comments upon food, home remedies, gambling, drinking, debauchery, fashion, music, vanity, the English Civil Wars, religious fanaticism, street entertainers, winter sports - anything upon which she held an opinion, which indeed was just about everything.
No copy seen at auction since 1978, when a copy lacking the final leaf was sold at Sotheby's for £240.

Molini's excellent edition gives the author's text as composed, without divisions, and relegates his own editorial notes to the end. It was published in this small format two years before it came out in octavo.

Translated by the artist's daughter, Mary Smirke. A.J. Duffield, in the preface to his translation of 1881, remarked: "It is very pleasant to know that the Don Quixote has been rendered into English by an English lady who omits no important passage from her text. Mary Smirke edited, as she modestly terms it, a translation that was published with her father's illustrations on steel, many of which are of exquisite sweetness and delicacy."

Gaskell 45. This is a copy of the smaller paper variant issue. With the terminal leaf of advertisements, interestingly listing works imported by Foulis from France containing the Scarcest and most elegant Editions of the Greek and Roman Authors, printed by the Aldi, Juntae, The Stephens, Turnebus, Vascosan, The Morells, &c.

Atabey 253 & 256; Blackmer 365 (second edition) & 366. Bound by Robert Seton of Edinburgh for the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses, with their attractive crest to the head compartment of each spine.
A splendid work. Clarke, the great English mineralogist and antiquary, started travelling in 1799 when employed as companion to his pupil John Marten Cripps on an extensive tour, beginning in northern Europe: they were accompanied in the early stages by Robert Malthus, and by William Otter, who wrote memoirs of both Clarke and Malthus. Over the ensuing three years Clarke and Cripps travelled almost incessantly, collecting, observing and recording antiquities, minerals, statistics, drawings and manuscripts, plants, animals, insects, geography, climates, people and customs: "everything I could observe and preserve," Clarke wrote, "I have done." The Travels were an instant success, and won Clarke widespread acclaim and admiration. Dibdin wrote that "Few travellers have attained so large and so general a reputation. His style is easy and perspicuous: his facts are striking, interesting, and instructive: his matter, while it is highly to the best interests of science, displays the keen and penetrating observation, the hardy enterprise, and the invincible perseverance of the author"; while Byron congratulated and complained: "I must resume my seven-leagued boots again.... You have awakened all the gipsy in me. I long to be restless again and wandering: see what mischief you do." Otter's Life was printed for subscribers such as Malthus, Belzoni, Richard Payne Knight (who bought Clarke's collection of coins), the Rev. Robert Walpole (who completed the posthumous editing of the Travels), Wilberforce, Wrangham, et al. The text includes letters from Clarke to Malthus, Byron and Burckhardt.

Ferguson 574a; Goldsmiths' Library 20869; Kress B6292.
Colquhoun's estimate of the population and wealth of the entire British Empire, with an analysis of the income and expenditure of Britain and her dependencies. He recommends emigration to combat population growth at home, particularly favouring South Africa and North America.

Ferguson 237 "Contains a full discussion of the system of the hulks and of transportation to New South Wales and the operation of such punishments as deterrents to evil-doers."
Colquhoun's fine attempt to give a comprehensive survey of the state of crime in the city.

BAL 10123; Sabin 35169. The London edition is the true first, published in advance of the three-volume American edition.

Covenanting work, with extensive notes, revealing all the fundamentalist religious fervour of the previous two centuries.

The biography and correspondence of one of Britain's most important publishers of the early nineteenth century. Constable's many notable correspondents included Scott, John Murray, Chalmers, Dugald Stewart, Godwin, Niebuhr, Jeffrey, Brougham, Horner, C.K. Sharpe, Hogg, Edgeworth, Mackintosh, and James Mill.

Russell 74.

Bareham & Gatrell A6; Tinker 785. Contemporary signature of E. Beaufort on the title-page; later in the library of the eminent bibliographer and book collector Simon Nowell-Smith, with his booklabel.
The last poem of Crabbe's early period, and the first poem on the subject.

Bareham & Gatrell A31.

A prominent publisher, Creech was on familiar terms with most of the eminent literary and intellectual figures of his day such as Burns, Blair, Beattie, Dr. George Campbell, Dr. Cullen, and Henry Mackenzie, all of whose works he published. One of his most informative essays is the comparative view of manners and customs in Scotland between 1763 and 1793. The work was first published in 1791 taking the "view" up to 1783 only; this edition was also expanded by the addition of hitherto unpublished essays and a "Life."

From the Gladstone library at Fasque, with bookplate.

A splendid collection of Cruikshank illustrations, compiled by one Joseph Gibbs: among the preliminary essays in volume i is a laid-in leaf in Cruikshank's hand To Master Joseph Gibbs with the regards of [flourish] Geo Cruikshank Augt. 22nd 1853.
The separately-issued and larger (c.280x375mm.) caricatures etc. are as follows:
i. The Mulberry-Tree, Mar.1, 1808, Laurie and Whittle (Cohn 1770, a songhead, with seven stanzas of verse beneath. Gibbs caption reads "G.Ck. done the three figures his Father done the rest.")
ii. Bonaparte. Written by Mr. Lawler, introduced by Mr. Elliston and sung by him...at the Surrey Theatre, March 25th 1811. (Cohn 939, a songhead, with 40 lines of verse.)
iii. A Day of Fashion. Sung with the Greatest Applause by Mr C. Taylor at Vauxhall Gardens, etc.... 24th August 1813. James Whittle and Richard Holmes Laurie.... (Cohn 1045, a songhead, with the interior of the auction room at Christie's depicted.)
iv. Irish Hospitality. Sung with great Applause by Mr. Incledon in...."The Minstrel." Published, the 25th October, 1815, by J. Whittle and R.H. Laurie.... (Cohn 1245, a songhead, depicting four men drinking in a sitting-room, the right-hand figure being a portrait of Whittle, by G.Ck. after Isaac Cruikshank.)
v. London Dandies or Monstrosities of 1816. (Cohn 1747, second or third state; slight silverfish damage to edges.)
vi. A Scene at the London Museum, Piccadilly, or a Peep at the Spils of Ambition, taken at the Battle of Waterloo. (Cohn 1959, second state, published by McLean, 1835. A fine caricature of the crowds swarming over Napoleon's captured carriage.)
vii. A Curious Junto of Slandering Elves, or List'ners Seldom hear Good of Themselves. F.H.L. del., G. Cruikshank sculp. (Cohn 1032, calling for Humphrey's imprint dated Jan. 1817; this has no imprint, but Gibbs has captioned "Pubd. Sept. 12 1816.")
viii. Very Unpleasant Weather; or, the old Saying verified; "Raining Cats, Dogs and Pitchforks." (Cohn 2074, here without Humphrey's imprint dated April 1820 but with Gibbs caption dating it 1817. This fine caricature is after "A.E.")
ix. Dandies of 1817 & Monstrosities of 1816. (Cohn 1749 second state.)
x. Game of Chess. (Cohn 1147, according to whom it was published March 6th, 1814; here it is captioned "1818" and may be the second state as issued by McLean in 1835. Designed by "an Amateur," i.e. Captain Marryat.)
xi. Humming Birds - or, a Dandy Trio. (Cohn 1216 or variant. J.S. Esq. del., G. Cruik. etchd.)
xii. The Piccadilly Nuisance. Dedicated to the Worthy Acting Magistrates of the District. (Cohn 1841 or variant.)
xiii. The Comforts of a Cabriolet! or, the Advantages of Driving Hoodwink'd. (Cohn 1003. After M. E[gerton].)
xiv. A Visit to Cockney Farm. Viewing the Grounds &c.... (Cohn 2085. Designed by Marryat, it is a caricature of his parents at their country farm. Minor silverfish damage to extreme margins.)
xv. [Monstrosities of 1819.] (Cohn 1750 or variant; silverfish damage to edges.)
xvi. The Blue Devils - !! (Cohn 934, a brilliant caricature of depression.)
xvii. Jealousy. (Cohn 1251, after "Crowquill." Minor silverfish damage to margins.)
xviii. Indigestion. (Cohn 1233, also after "Crowquill.")
xix. Mixing a Recipe for Corns. (Cohn 1740, after Marryat.)
xx-xxxv. A further 16 large caricatures, several coloured and one a duplicate: details on request, but they are, respectively, Cohn 1186, 1913, 1839, 1229, 1828, 1752, 1206, 953, 899, 930, 1755, 1952, one not known to Cohn, namely the songhead to Russian Nuptials; or, the Lock'd Jaw and Frost-Bitten Nose (Laurie & Whittle, 1808), 1206 bis, 899 and 930.
There are also 15 smaller separately-issued caricatures, including two lottery tickets and "Billy Dip the Dyer" (not in Cohn), which according to Gibbs was "Done about the Year 1810"; a "Pen & Ink Sketch of a Rare Chap Book about 1810, A Treat for the Funny or Dr Kilgrief's New Budget of Wit" (cf. Cohn 805), a photographic portrait of Cruikshank in his 70th year, a fine large coloured etching The "Bloomers" in Hyde Park, three large temperance cards from 1850-54 etc. The remaining 350 or so etchings are from published books, notably Hop o' my Thumb & the Seven League Boots (complete series of six), Jack & the Beanstalk, Peter Schlemihl, Tales of Irish Life, The Vicar of Wakefield, a substantial series from Fisher's edition of the Waverley Novels, two from The Ton (1817), and a selection from Life in Paris, The Humourist, Ireland's Life of Napoleon, Don Quixote, Life of a Midshipman, Life in London, Remarkable Characters, Guy Fawkes, Whom to Marry, The Book with the Iron Clasps, Windsor Castle, The Great Exhibition, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and so on; many in colour.