Eighteenth-century verse and drama, and other works

Carmichael, [Rebekah]. Poems. Edinburgh: for the author, 1790--Linnecar, Richard. The Miscellaneous Works. Leeds: Thomas Wright, 1789--[Nicolls, Thomas.] Shenstone...a poem. For the author, 1776--[Irwin, Eyles.] Eastern eclogues; written during a tour through Arabia, Egypt, and other Parts of Asia and Africa... For J. Dodsley, 1780--[Haweis, Thomas.] Ruth. A Sacred Oratorio. The Fourth Edition. For the benefit of the Lock-Hospital, 1776--Gay, John. The Beggar's Opera... For Jacob and Richard Tonson, 1761, engraved music-- Miniature pictures... Newly adapted to the most fashionable and public characters, of both sexes, now living [extracts from The Beggar's Opera] For M. Smith, 1781--More, Hannah. Florie: a tale...For T. Cadell, 1786--Courtenay, John. A Poetical Review of the Literary and Moral Character of the late Samuel Johnson... For Charles Dilly, 1786--Pindar, Peter. Bozzy and Piozzi, or, the British biographers, a town eclogue...fourth edition. G. Kearsley and W. Forster, 1786, engraved plate--Potter, Robert. An inquiry into some passages in Dr. Johnson’s Lives of the poets: particularly his observations on lyric poetry, and the odes of Gray. J. Dodsley, 1783, plate--Taylor, John. A Letter to Samuel Johnson...on the subject of a Future State. For T. Cadell, 1787--Don, a poem. 1742 [Foxon D394, ONLY THREE COPIES LISTED BY ESTC]--Caledonia. A Poem. T. Cadell, 1788; and many other works, including Bills of suspension brought by Sir William Forbes, reports on the proposed canal from the river Forth to the river Clyde (with engraved plan), "State of the Nation" pamphlets (relating to trade and finance), other works of verse and drama with authors including Alexander Pope, Peter Pindar (a number, including serveral addressed to or about Boswell and Dr Johnson), Andrew Erskine, William Hayley, Christian Carstairs, Charles Churchill, R. Ferguson, William Richardson, Colvill, Thomas Warton, Rochester, some anthologies and some derived from Shakespeare; some with autograph presentations to Sir William Forbes (e.g. John Tait's The land of liberty, an allegorical poem, in the manner of Spenser. In two cantos. Dedicated to the People of Great Britain...1775), a number with Edinburgh imprints; also catalogues (including one of works by Wedgwood and Bentley); together with reports from the Scottish Parliament and works on the Constitution as well as miscellaneous subjects such as Freemasonry, and the draining of bogs, some with plates, some with the ownership signatures of Sir William Forbes; chiefly 4to and 8vo

The Forbes Baronetcy was created in 1626 for Sir William Forbes (d. circa 1650) by James VI in the Barontage of Nova Scotia. The majority of the works offered here were acquired by the sixth Baronet, also William (1739-1806), who added Pitsligo to his title in 1781. He was an eminent Scottish banker and benefactor, good friend of James Boswell and Samuel Johnson (see lots 45-46), and finally succeeded in recovering the Pitsligo estates forfeited after the Jacobite rebellion of 1745. His son William, the seventh baronet, beat Sir Walter Scott to the hand of the renowned beauty Williamina Belsches Stuart (1776-1810), and it was with their marriage that the family moved to her family seat, Fettercairn House in Kincardineshire, Aberdeenshire.

One of the sixth baronet’s acquisitions for his library at Pitsligo were numerous highly important miscellanies and tract volumes, many of which were purchased as a set from Edinburgh bookseller Elphinstone Balfour in October 1786. These were subsequently supplemented by further contemporary tracts and other works from the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century. Most of these miscellanies bear a nineteenth century Forbes family bookplate.

Condition is described in the catalogue description, unless otherwise stated
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