Lot 65
Train, Joseph (1779-1852)
Sammelband of holograph and printed poems
Auction: 16 June 2026 from 10:00 BST
Description
8vo (22 x 13.5cm) volume of c. 200 leaves, paginated in ink, containing printed extracts from his two published verse collections 'Poetical Reveries' (1806) and 'Strains of the Mountain Muse' (1814), as well as a complete copy of his final published work 'The Wild Scot of Galloway: a Poem' (Kirkcudbright, [1848]); the other leaves contain: a manuscript list of contents of over 30 poems; manuscript versions, in Train's hand, of the text of poems previously published in the 'Dumfries Monthly Magazine' and ' Dumfries Courier,' along with accompanying notes; three of the manuscript poems are annotated as 'never published;' annotations and alterations to the printed leaves suggest some radical revisions to the previously published poems including new titles and abridgements; contemporary half calf, upper and lower boards detached, spine worn, 20th-century armorial bookplate of James Gordon Shenton F.G.A. on front pastedown
Footnote
Collection of poems assembled by Joseph Train in the late 1840s, or shortly before his death in 1852, possibly for a future, unrealised, publication of a new edition of his collected poems. Train (1779-1852), antiquary, originally from Ayrshire, spent most of his working life as an exciseman in the Dumfries and Galloway area. After the publication of his first collection of poems, ‘Poetical Reveries’ in 1806, he increasingly devoted his spare time to antiquarian pursuits, collecting local ballads and tales, and become a trusted collaborator and friend of Sir Walter Scott, providing material for Scott's novels and antiquities for Scott's private collection. A second volume of verse, ‘Strains of the Mountain Muse’, followed in 1814, along with contributions to local newspapers and periodicals. In 1829 he was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. After his retirement he wrote histories of the Isle of Man and the Buchanite sect, and kept up a correspondence with a wide circle of scholarly acquaintances. The Wild Scot of Galloway: a Poem' (1848) is rare, with only the NLS on Library Hub Discover.