Richly provenanced collection of Robert Clutterbuck’s annotated source-texts for his monumental History and Antiquities of the County of Hertford - with earlier annotation by a previous owner, Andrew Ducarel, Keeper of Lambeth Palace Library.
Handsome quarto (21.5x26.5) which has been recased in late 19th century half crushed brown morocco over pebbled green boards; all edges red. Marbled endpapers with Clutterbuck’s bookplate laid down on the front pastedown. Clutterbuck’s ownership inscription appears on the second flyleaf: ‘Robert Clutterbuck Walford Herts - the original sewing is visible in the gutter. Ducarel (1713-1785) was an influential scholar and antiquary who served at Lambeth for 30 years. His correspondence is the subject of a new work published this year by Quaritch. The volume comprises excerpts from four works:
1 Thomas Cox, Magna Britannia, 1738: map (2nd state with compass rose) and gazeteer of Hertfordshire preceding pp965-1041. The leaves are window mounted with decorative red ruling. Occasional pencil annotation, notably to the list of villages at the end.
2 Hertfordshire [excerpted county history c1780], pp196-204, red-ruled and interleaved with 4 blank leaves that have been used by Clutterbuck to make 8 pages of copious notes, querying references, cross-referencing to other texts, adding testimony. Several of these notes are counter-annotated with ticks, suggesting their incorporation in his published work. Clutterbuck responds strongly to Walker’s account of witchcraft in Herts, offering ‘a full confutation of Witchcraft more particularly of the depositions against Jane Wenham...’ There is also one annotation that precedes Clutterbuck’s ownership that reads ‘# an ancient and compleat copy of Domesday Book for this County is now (1776) in the Library of Dr Ducarel’ (p196) which is in Ducarel’s own hand. Ducarel has added further marginal lines and minor annotations/ corrections through the text.
3 ‘The Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire’, Henry Chauncey, reviewed in The Librarian, 1st August 1808, pp49-64, red-ruled and interleaved: lightly annotated in pencil by Clutterbuck
4 D Walker, General View on the Agriculture of the County of Hertford, pp86, not annotated
Robert Clutterbuck (1772-1831) was born in Watford, an Oxford educated lawyer who made his home at Walford from 1801. His Hertfordshire History was published over 3 volumes in 1815, 1821 and 1827. In the additions and annotations to these four printed extracts we can peer over the shoulder of the historian at his desk.
