Literary works, also some on scientific and other subjects, 18th century

a volume of early 18th century literature including Pope, Alexander. Of the Characters of Women. lacking title page and imprint--Harvey, John. The Life of Robert Bruce King of Scots. A Poem. Edinburgh: for John Catanach, 1729--Steele, Richard. The Lying Lover: or the Ladies Friendship. Bernard Lintott, 1704, first edition, and six others, 4to; 3 volumes, mostly literature and criticism, including Keate, George. The Alps. R. and J. Dodsley, 1763, first edition, half-title--[Percy, Thomas.] The Hermit of Warkworth. A Northumberland Ballad. T. Davies, 1771, first edition, half-title--Goldsmith, Oliver. The Traveller, or a Prospect of Society. J. Newberry, 1765 [1764], first edition, half title, advertisement leaf--Inglis, Mr Richmond. Anna and Edgar: or Love and Ambition. A Tale. Edinburgh: A. Muray and J. Cochran, 1781--Van Reenen, Jacob, and Riou, Edward. A Journal of a Journey from the Cape of Good Hope, undertaken in 1790 and 1791 ... in search of the wreck of ... the Grosvenor. for G. Nicol, 1792, folding engraved map--Particulars of the Lands and Fishings, lying in the United Parishes of Slains and Forvie, Belonging to the Earl of Errol. n.p., n.d., NOT IN ESTC--[Felton, Samuel.] Imperfect Hints towards a New Edition of Shakespeare [Parts 1 and 2]. At the Logographic Press, 1787-78--Barbauld, Anna Laetitia Aikin. Poems. for Joseph Johnson, 1773--Goldsmith, Oliver. Retaliation: A Poem. for G. Kearsley, 1774, "new edition", and 22 others, 4to; a volume including "Thermopilae". The Speech of a Scots Weaver: dedicated to Richard Glover. W. Nicholl, 1774--Thomson, Edward. Edward and Eleonora. A Tragedy. sold by A. Milar, 1739, first edition--[Bent, William.] The London Catalogue of Books ... That have been printed in Great Britain, since the year 1700. n.p., 1773, and three others, 8vo; three volumes of plays including [Cumberland, Richard.] The Brothers: A Comedy. W. Griffin, 1770 and 17 others, 8vo; six volumes of late-18th century tracts including a volume with 14 works mostly on the French Revolution, a volume of 5 works on the controversial election of John Leslie to the chair of mathematics at Edinburgh University, a volume of Scottish works including MacNeill, Hector. The Links o'Forth ... A Plaint. Edinburgh: Constable etc., 1799, and two others, a volume with More, Hannah. Remarks on the Speech of M. Dupont ... on ... Religion and Public Education. T. Cadell, 1793, second edition, and one other, a volume of scientific tracts including Directions for preparing aerated medicinal waters : by means of the improved glass machines made at Leith Glass-Works. Edinburgh: William Creech, 1787, engraved frontispiece-- Thiville, J.G.J.B. Count. An Essay on the Means Hitherto Employed for Lighting Streets and the Interior of Houses. Richardson etc., 1800, folding engraved plate, and three others, a volume of military works including Tyndale, William. Instructions for young dragoon officers. T. Egerton, 1796, 10 folding plates, ONLY THREE COPIES ON ESTC, and two others, all six volumes 8vo; the 14 tract volumes in various contemporary bindings, some with lettering pieces and numbered in gilt (1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 34, 45), general wear and dust-staining; [with:] [Brown, Robert.] Remarks on the Earl of Selkirk's Observations on the present state of the Highlands of Scotland: with a view of the causes and probable consequences of emigration. Edinburgh: Alex. Smellie for John Anderson and Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1806, 8vo, presentation copy inscribed by the author to Sir William Forbes, contemporary speckled calf--Sterne, Lawrence. A Sentimental Journey. T. Becket and P.A. De Hondt, 1768, 12mo, 2 vols, "new edition"; and 10 other volumes (including incomplete sets)

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 main body of the cataloguing unless otherwise stated
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