Unusually lively Irish-flavoured pamphlet collection from the turn of the 18th century including the notorious sex scandal of Mervyn Touchet (second Earl of Castle Haven), two items attributed to Jonathan Swift and a scarce Dublin printing of An Inquiry into some of the Causes of the Ill Situation of the Affairs of Ireland.
Full sheepskin binding, rubbed and worn but sound. Old pencilled casemark ‘X6’ to front pastedown; opposite, old inscription that begins ‘Pret:..’ torn away with corner of leaf. Second flyleaf has the ownership inscription of ‘A W M Baillie’ with ‘left to Ian C Hannah’ in a later hand (Alexander W M Baillie was a close friend and later correspondent of Gerard Manley Hopkins - Hannah an academic and Conservative politician). Though certainly bound together in the 18th century, most of these imprints have dusting and sometimes soiling to the title pages suggesting their separate used before being collected together - this is most marked with the account of Mervyn Touchet’s trial on the charge of sodomy and abetting rape for which he became the first and only member of Parliament to be executed on a non-political charge.
1 James Peirce, The Western Inquisition... Dissenters in the West of England, 1720, John Clark, pp192, small chunk cut from title page to remove ownership inscription. Variant with the errata printed on pp 192
2. An Essay towards the Life of Lawrence, Earl of Rochester, 1711, John Morphew, [2] pp44 (doubtfully attributed to Jonathan Swift) half title present
3 The History of Mortimer, being a Vindication of the Fall of Mortimer, 1731, J Millan, pp28 (An adaptation, attributed to William Hatchett, of ’King Edward the Third, with the fall of Mortimer’, a play variously attributed to William Mountfort and to John Bancroft.)
4 Miscellaneous Observations upon Authors, Ancient and Modern, 1731, Thomas Wotton, pp127-162 (No 5 of John Jortin’s literary periodical)
5 [Edward Young] Two Epistles to Mr Pope Concerning the Authors of the Age, 1730, Lawyon Gilliver,
6 The Tryal and Condemnation of Mervin, Lord Audley Earl of Castle-Haven... for Abetting a Rape upon his Countess, Committing Sodomy with his Servants... 1699, [8] pp32, soiling to paper; text printed on irregularly sized sheets, most of which are untrimmed.
7 An Inquiry into some of the Causes of the Ill Situation of the Affairs of Ireland, 1731, George Grierson, Dublin, pp40 (not Oxford or Harvard)
8 A Proposal Humbly Offered to the P-------T, for the More Effectual preventing the further Growth of Popery, second edition, Dublin Printed, London Re-Printed for J Roberts in Warwick Lane, 1732, pp32 - despite sometimes being attributed to Swift on the last two poems are by Jonathan Swift, Teerinck-Souten 37A
9 [John Theobald] Miscellaneous Poems and Translations, 1724, J Roberts, [8] pp118, worming to final leaves; half title present. Very scarce: ESTC locates Oxford, Princeton, Uni California, Australia. JISC adds NLS, St Andrews, Strathclyde
