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Set of Ten volumes. "New Edition" published 1865, 1866, 1867. Hard cover 12 mo, (5 x 7 1/2 inches) in three quarters tan calf and , with five raised bands to the spine, gilt with applied leather labels in red and black. Condition: Very Good Minus with occasional loss to applied title labels, light scuffing to the cloth, and signs of shelf wear to corners, some mild toning to a few volumes. Joints firm. Two nineteenth-century engraved armorial bookplates to prelims, including J.H.W. Lockhart Ross, who we have not been able to trace, but is likely a relative of John Gibson Lockhart,(1794-1854) another important Blackwood's Magazine contributor in this period, husband to Sir Walter Scott's eldest dauhgter, and whose portrait is the frontispiece to Volume 4. Marbled edges to text block remain pleasingly bright.**The material has been abstracted from Edinburgh's Blackwoods Magazine, where Prof. Wilson was a frequent contributor of essays, fiction, literary criticism and poetry between the years 1822 and 1835. The first four volumes contain the essays forming the "Nocte Ambrosianæ." As described in the Preface, this is the first authorized "New Edition" of "Nocte Ambrosianæ, overseen by the author's son-in-law , (preceded by an imperfect version published by an American, Dr. Shelton Mackenzie.) Each of these four has a tissue-guarded frontispiece portrait. * Collation: Vol 1, "Nochte"(1) (xxxviii), frontispiece portrait of Professor Wilson, after Christopher North, 384pp. (1). Vol. 2, "Nochte" continued. (1),(xiv), frontispiece portrait of James Hogg, the "Ettrick Shepherd," after Sir John Watson Gordon, 428pp. (1). Vol. 3,"Nochte" continued. (1), portrait of Thomas De Quincey after J.W. Gordon. 1864, (1) 382 (1) pp. Vol.4, ""Nochte "(1), portrait of John Gibson Lockhart, after R. Scott Lauder, 368 pp. including index to first four volumes (1). The next several volumes give us an anthology of "Essays Critical and Imaginative." Vol. 5 (vi), 408pp.(1). Vol. 6 "Essays" continued, 397, (1) pp. Vol. 7 "Essays" on Robert Burns, Coleridge, McCauley, Shakespeare and others (1) 431 pp. (1). Vol. 8: "Essays," concerning Homer and Greek Drama. (1), 459, (1)pp. Vol. 9, "Recreations of Christopher North," portrait of Christopher North, after Thomas Duncan, A.R.A. (1), 440,(1)pp. Vol. 10 "Recreations" continued, (1) iv, 433 (1)pp. Vol. 11, "Tales" including three short novels, "Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life," "Trials of Margaret Lindsay," and "The Foresters." (1) 557,(1)pp. Vol. 12, "Poems." A New Edition, including "The Isle of Palms," "The City of the Plague," "The Convict" and "Miscellaneous Poems." 1865. (1) (viii) 558 (1) pp.**Professor John Wilson, (1785-1854) once a gentleman of leisure, Wilson's family had a reversal of fortune, due to a spendthrift uncle, and thereafter found himself necessitated to study at Glasgow and Oxford, thereafter qualifying as an advocate, and finally the first Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh University. The young bon vivant's country ways never left him, however, hence his hunting-and fishing alter-ego, "Christopher North." Watson III, 1308.
Ref: SCOT 8758
$310.00