‘MAY CURLERS ON LIFE’S SLIPP’RY RINK FRAE CRUEL RUBS BE FREE’
[BROUN, Richard, Sir.]
Memorabilia curliana Mabenensia.
Dumfries, John Sinclair, 1830.
8vo, pp. 111, [1 (blank)]; with 2 engraved plates; a little light foxing to title and plates; overall a very good uncut copy in original cloth, printed decorative label to upper cover; spine reinforced with leather, some ink stains to covers and wear to corners; book label of Captain J. MacNair of Edinburgh to upper pastedown.
Uncommon first edition of this charming work on the sport of curling by the eccentric Scottish baronet Sir Richard Broun (1801–1858), with a focus on his native Lochmaben, being one of the earliest books on the sport.
The Memorabilia covers the sport’s history, the manner of playing, various memorable matches contested by the Lochmaben Curling Society, and curling stones and other equipment. The text includes numerous curling songs, and ends with the rules of the sport, various traditional toasts and sayings, a glossary of terms, and a list of the ‘principal curling societies in Scotland’. The frontispiece depicts curlers in action and incorporates views of skaters on the frozen Castle Loch and Duddingston Loch, while the second plate shows various rinks, means of scoring, and paraphernalia including stones and specially designed footwear.
Broun, who became eighth Baronet Broun of Coulston in 1844, was one of the proponents of the London Necropolis, a cemetery of huge proportions near Woking serviced by regular coffin trains, intended to tackle the contemporary crisis of dealing with London’s dead.
