DRYBURGH

[George Dyer, poet and English Jacobin, writes to the Earl of Buchan following a visit to his seat, Dryburgh Abbey, Berwickshire.] Substantial Autograph Letter Signed ('G Dyer'), discussing the preparation of his volume of poems and other topics.

Author: 
George Dyer (1755-1841), poet and radical, leading English Jacobin, in circle of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Godwin, Lamb; David Steuart Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan (1742-1829), Scottish antiquarian
Publication details: 
Cambridge. Undated, but written shortly before the publication of his poems in 1801.
£2,000.00

3pp., 4to. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin stub from mount neatly adhering. A long, closely written letter of 116 lines, including eight-line postscript at head of first page. Addressed by Dyer on reverse of second leaf: 'To Lord Buchan | Dryburgh Abbey | Berwickshire | Scotland.' Buchan has annotated the reverse of the second leaf: 'George Dyer | Characteristic | while I reasoned with George Dyer in my Library at Dryburgh Abbey on the Economy of Nature and the Providence of God, I said Heaven itself will one day bear witness to my Words.

[Printed handbill poem by 'B. B.'] On a favourite Dog, interred in the Grounds of Dryburgh Abbey, MDCCCXIV. [With Victorian photograph of a dog.]

Author: 
'B. B.' [Sir Brooke Boothby (1744-1824)?] [Dryburgh Abbey, property of David Steuart Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan]
Publication details: 
Date and publisher not stated. [Scotland, circa 1814?]
£400.00

Poem: On one side of a piece of 12mo paper. Fair, lightly-aged and a little ruckled, with traces of gum from previous mounting on the blank reverse. The 12-line poem is written in heroic couplets, and begins 'POOR, faithful animal, adieu! - | To Nature's kind affection true, | For fourteen years, thy grateful heart, | Devoted, play'd its humble part.' At the end a contemporary hand has ascribed the poem to 'B. B.', and the same hand gives the date as 'September 3d'.

Syndicate content