Lot 48
Alexander, Sir James Edward (1803-1885)
Manuscript journals of military service in Canada, the Crimea, & New Zealand, 1850s-70s
Auction: The Library of General Sir James Alexander | Wed 25 February from 10am | Lots 31 to 62
Description
3 volumes, 4to (various dimensions), contemporary parchment bindings (scuffed with some soiling), Alexander's ownership inscription on front free endpapers, contents comprising ‘private memoranda,’ i.e. a mixture of journal entries, notes on people encountered by Alexander, summaries of books read, miscellaneous anecdotes and observations on travels, illustrated throughout with small pen sketches, including portraits of people mentioned (including tattooed Maori men), buildings, battle plans of the Crimea, diagrams and humorous doodles.
Volume 1, c. 240 ff. (23.2 x 18.7cm), 1851-8, part of which possibly used for Alexander's work Passages in the Life of a Soldier (1857), begins in Montreal in October 1851 (Alexander was stationed as aide-de-camp to Sir William Rowan, commander of the British troops in Canada), subjects including: attending a lecture by American showman P.T. Barnum, travels by boat and rail in Canada and America, visits to New York city, Chateaugay Lake in New York state, Lake Superior and observations on its ship canal, general observations on life in Canada and America, a visit to the US military academy at West Point and Robert E. Lee (then a colonel and superintendent of the academy), the Gavazzi Riots in Quebec and Montreal in June 1853, the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854 and Alexander’s journey back to England and then on to the Crimea in 1855, the siege and fall of Sevastopol, Highland games in the Crimea in March 1856, return to England in June 1856, travels in England, Scotland and Ireland, a description of the ragged school in Stirling, discussions of recent publications such as MacDougall’s Theory of War, David Livingstone's Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, Thomas Hughes's Tom Brown’s Schooldays; the volume also includes several loose leaves, newspaper clippings, pressed leaves, and a cabinet card albumen print portrait taken by Window & Grove of London of an unidentified woman;
Volume 2, c. 200 ff. (23 x 18.5cm),1859-64, possibly used for Alexander's published works on New Zealand, i.e. Incidents of the Maori War: New Zealand in 1860-61 (1863) and Bush Fighting (1873), begins in Ireland where Alexander was commanding the 2nd battalion of the 14th regiment of foot based at Queenstown (Cobh), subjects covered include: a visit to Scotland in 1859, notes on the defence of buildings, posting to New Zealand, where he commanded the regiment in Auckland during the Taranaki Wars against the Maori of North Island between 1860 and 1862, life in New Zealand and personalities encountered there, observations on the Maori people, his return to Britain in 1862, moving to the family estate at Westerton House, Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire, discussion of recent publications such as Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White, notes on Sandhurst Military Academy, the volume also including several loose leaves and newspaper clippings;
Volume 3, 200 ff. (25.7 x 20.5cm), 1864–72, comprises occasional journal entries, lists of interesting points in contemporary publications, including medical texts, travel and exploration books, and military texts, together with descriptions of travels in England and Scotland (Loch Maree, Orkney and Shetland) (3)
Provenance
THE LIBRARY OF GENERAL SIR JAMES EDWARD ALEXANDER (1803-1885)