Current Stock - O, P (last online update: 20th November 2011)

The first two volumes being among 150 large (and hand-made) paper copies, by Mrs. Oliphant, containing much the publishers' relations with Hogg, Scott, Wilson, Lockhart, etc. The third, by Mrs. Porter on the firm under her father, John Blackwood, of which no deluxe copies were published, includes an account of the "grand tour," the publication of works by George Eliot, Trollope, John Speke and other travel writers, and a significant section on golf, John B.'s passion, which includes accounts of Tom Morris, Blackwood's frequent partner on the links of St. Andrews.

STC 19210. Early armorial bookplate of Exeter College, and nineteenth century armorial bookplate of Alexander Thomson of Banchory, on front pastedown.
The chronica majora of the thirteenth-century historian and monk Matthew Paris, "one of the most valuable and frequently consulted of the all the ancient English chronicles" (Blackstone), was first published in an edition prepared by Archbishop Parker in 1551. The present edition is by William Watts, who corrected numerous errors in his predecessor's work, added variant readings, adversaria, a glossary and an index. Like Parker's, his edition extends from 1067 to 1272, but he adds other works written by or attributed to Paris, together with numerous related documents, and "in the great learning which it embodied, it was one of the most notable productions of its time." (Douglas) This was the authoritative text, used by Dugdale and Selden, and the 1684 reprint was one of the few English chronicles owned by Gibbon (Keynes p.212).

The first edition to bring together the accounts of both expeditions. The extensive memoir of Park is appended by recollections of him by Walter Scott, given in the third person.

Arctic Bibliography 13145; Hill p.225; Sabin 58860; Staton & Tremaine 1205; not in Abbey. Without the rare, separately-issued, Supplement to the Appendix, published in 1824.
Parry's first expedition is one of the most memorable of all the Arctic voyages, and made him the most renowned Arctic explorer of his day. When he reached his "Winter Harbour," named Melville Island after the First Lord of the Admiralty, he had travelled further west than any previous seeker for the North-West Passage. He proved Lancaster Sound to be a strait (not closed by mountains as assumed by Ross), a way to the Magnetic Pole was discovered down Prince Regent Inlet; and it was the first voyage to winter intentionally in the Arctic, thus laying down the foundations for all future British attempts on the North West Passage and the Pole. The voyage "practically settled the question of a connection between the two oceans. Great discoveries were made, and important scientific observations were recorded...." (Markham)

H.D. Forbes copy. Dibdin quotes Harwood's praise of Burman's edition, and adds that the 1743 edition, "although esteemed rather incorrect, contains additional notes, and excerpta from various unconsulted MSS., which has always given it a precedence in price to the edition of 1709."

From the Gladstone library at Fasque, with bookplates.
Heavyweight science, most volumes comprising over 700 pages (the whole consisting of more than 13,000 pages), and with a useful index of 116 pages at the conclusion.

Terry 6. Edited and presented to the Club by George R. Kinloch, whose copy this was: his armorial bookplate is on the front pastedown. His fellow Maitland Club members at the time included Scott, Laing, Maidment, Lockhart and Cockburn.

Terry 42. Printed by Ballantyne at the Bannatyne Club Press for the Bannatyne Club (101 sets), with a further 50 sets for the Maitland Club, some 20 other sets subscribed for, and a limited number for general sale: probably no more than 250 copies were printed in all.
Scott reviewed the earlier parts of Pitcairn's massive work at considerable length in the Quarterly, praising his "enduring and patient toil" in producing "a most extraordinary picture of manners" calculated to be "highly valuable in a philosophical point of view," and containing much that would "greatly interest the jurist and the moralist." With much on witchcraft, piracy, smuggling, cattle theft, riots, murder, treason, incest, etc.

Large armorial corporate bookplate Societatis Mercatorum-Scissorum apud Londinates Insignia laid down on blank facing title; later signature of H.D. Forbes.

ECSB 154: "Edited by William Lauder (d.1771) who strongly maintained the superiority of Arthur Johnston to George Buchanan as a Latin versifier."

Blackmer 1329: "Mrs. Poole accompanied her brother Edward Lane to Egypt in 1842 and remained there seven years. She prepared a series of literary letters from which Lane selected the ones to be sent to London for publication. The historical notices of Cairo were taken from Lane's notes and revised by him. Mrs. Poole 'obtained a considerable knowledge of domestic life in Mohammedan society. The book supplies a true and simple picture of the life of the women of Egypt' - DNB."

With no marks of Hugh Cleghorn's ownership (indeed, with repeated indications of a thorough attempt to conceal previous ownership), but from the same source as the other books here: it was probably the property of H.F.C. Cleghorn, Hugh's grandson, acquired by him in India: on the rear pastedown of volume i is a large orange label, J.R. Hogg,/ Book Seller/ madras./ Books bought sold & ex-/ changed. Prints, Statione-/ ry. Maps & Charts sold. Visit/ ing Cards neatly Engraved/ & printed and Books/ neatly bound. The bindings here are probably by Hogg, and the leather is probably buffalo.

The prayers printed in twenty-four languages, including Western European languages but with many in exotic types: Ethiopic, Arabic, Greek, Armenian (of course), Chaldaic, Hebrew, Chinese, Turkish, Persian, etc.