Lot 108
Scottish travel and history
Collection of works, mainly 18th century
The Library of James Stirling, Mathematician
Auction: 23 October 2025 from 13:00 GMT
Description
Pennant, Thomas. A Tour in Scotland MDCCLXIX. Warrington: printed by W. Eyres, 1774; [with] A Tour in Scotland and a Voyage to the Hebrides MDCCLXXII. Chester: printed by John Monk, 1774. Third edition; [and] A Tour in Scotland MDCCLXXII Part ii. London: printed for Benjamin White, 1776; together 3 volumes, 4to, uniformly bound in contemporary calf gilt, labels chipped and lacking, joints a little split, bookplates of Charles Lutwidge Holm Rook and Archibald Stirling;
Grose, Francis. The Antiquities of Scotland. London: S. Hooper, 1789-91. 2 volumes, small folio, contemporary half calf over marbled boards, rubbed, bookplates of Archibald Stirling;
Pinkerton, John. The History of Scotland from the Accession of the House of Stuart to that of Mary... London: C. Dilly, 1797. 2 volumes, 4to, contemporary calf, later James Stirling bookplates and ownership signatures;
Macpherson, John. Critical Dissertations on the Origin, Antiquities, Language, Government, Manners and Religion of the Ancient Caledonians… London: T. Becket and P.A. De Hondt, 1768. First edition, 4to, contemporary calf;
Hume, David. The History of Great Britain. Edinburgh: Hamilton, Balfour, and Neill, 1754. First edition, 2 volumes, 4to, contemporary calf;
Blair, Hugh. A Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian, the Son of Fingal. London: T. Beckett, 1763. First edition, 4to, contemporary calf;
Sibbald, Robert. Scotia Illustrata sive Prodromus Historiae Naturalis. Edinburgh: Jacobi Kniblo, 1684. Folio, 22 plates on 20 leaves, 19th-century half calf, title-page soiled with lower corner lacking, some damp-staining, hole to final plate (12)
Footnote
Hume initially wrote a history of England under the Stuart monarchs James I and Charles I. He followed this with a second history that continued to the Revolution of 1688. With the relative success of these two volumes, Hume researched the history of earlier eras and produced a total of six volumes. As a result, the fifth volume was the first to appear in print, in 1754, while the first two volumes were published last, in 1762.