From the Library of Robert Riddell of Glenriddell
FENN, John, Sir.
Original Letters written during the Reigns of Henry VI. Edward IV. and Richard III. by various Persons of Rank or Consequence; containing many curious Anecdotes, relative to that turbulent and bloody, but hitherto dark, Period of our History … Authenticated by Engravings of Autographs, Fac Similes, Paper-Marks, and Seals … The second Edition, with Additions and Corrections … London, G. G. J. and J. Robinson, 1787.
Two vols in one, 4to, pp. lxxxvii, [1], 301, [1]; [iv], 363, with an additional title-page in each volume (in gothic type, with an engraved vignette), a folding genealogical table and a hand-coloured plate of the badges of the House of Lancaster in vol. I, and 16 plates of facsimiles, watermarks, and seals (one printed in sepia) at the end of vol. II; a very good copy in contemporary tree calf, joints cracked and worn, cords holding; gilt armorial stamp to covers and head of spine of Robert Riddell (1755–1794) (BAB stamp 1), with his annotations to two pages in the preface, and scattered marks elsewhere, note to head of title ‘Purchased at the sale of Mr Riddell of Glenriddell’s Books at Edinr in March 1795 – 40/’, armorial bookplate of Alexander Elphinston of Glack (1738–1795).
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Original Letters written during the Reigns of Henry VI. Edward IV. and Richard III. by various Persons of Rank or Consequence; containing many curious Anecdotes, relative to that turbulent and bloody, but hitherto dark, Period of our History … Authenticated by Engravings of Autographs, Fac Similes, Paper-Marks, and Seals … The second Edition, with Additions and Corrections …
Second edition, published in the same year as the first, revised and corrected by George Steevens, of this selection from the ‘Paston Letters’, a notable source for the history of England during the Wars of the Roses which had been acquired by Fenn in 1774. Fenn published a second selection in 1789, and a fifth volume appeared posthumously in 1823.
Provenance:
This copy comes from the library of the Scottish antiquary Robert Riddell (1755–1794), Laird of Friar’s Carse, best known as a good friend of Robert Burns, whose farm Ellisland was less than a mile away. Burns had a key the grounds of Friar’s Carse, wrote poems there, and helped Riddell found a circulating library; and Riddell was the recipient of the Glenriddell Manuscripts (which feature the same gilt stamp as here), comprising more than 50 poems and 27 letters, written for Riddell between 1791 and 1793, as well as an interleaved an annotation copy of the Scots Musical Museum. Shortly before Riddell’s sudden death in April 1794, his friendship with Burns had come to dramatic close after an incident at Friar’s Carse in which an inebriated Burns seems to have disgraced himself with his hostess Elizabeth, and was ejected unceremoniously – an affair that for some time jeopardised his close friendship with Robert’s sister-in-law Maria Riddell.
In the present volume Riddell has noted Scottish interest in several places, and in the Preface he laments: ‘When a British Museum has been with so great munificence endowed, by a British Parliam[en]t How great is the shame that its Curators should suffer such a Collection as this, to fall into private hands, when brought to a sale – RR’. His library (including the present volume) was sold after his death in 1795 by Robert Ross.