£450
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs | 644
Auction: 23 June 2021 at 11:00 BST
Edinburgh: MacLachlan & Stewart, 1878. 8vo, original green cloth gilt, stamped 'St Kilda 20 Jul 1934' and signed by several St Kilda natives, containing a loosely inserted letter, stamped St Kilda
Note: This work is signed by a number of St Kilda locals. The loosely inserted letter on Dumfries House notepaper reads: "This is going by St. Kilda "Mail-boat" some day next month, and I hope that it will eventually reach you..." Letters on the St Kilda mail boat were enclosed in a waterproof container, attached to a homemade buoy and put out to sea, in the hope that they would reach land. Remarkably, most buoys were found on the Scottish coast (although occasionally Norway) and the letters, such as this, were successfully delivered. Sands, the author of the work, is credited with inventing and trialling the St Kilda mail-boat.