Lot 189

Wordsworth, William - [Fenwick, Isabella]

Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photography

Auction: 11 January 2017 at 11:00 GMT

£2,500

Description

A Guide through the District of the Lakes in the North of England. Fifth Edition, with considerable additions. Kendal: Hudson & Nicholson, 1835. 12mo, presentation copy from the author, inscribed "To Thomas Thorp Esq. as a slight token of esteem and regard from William Wordsworth, Trin. Coll. Cambridge, June 4th 1839", folding engraved map, contemporary calf, spine gilt, single gilt fillet on sides, a trifle rubbed

Footnote

Provenance: Henry Taylor (1800-1886), English dramatist and poet, official, and well-connected man of letters, met William Wordsworth and Robert Southey on a visit to the Lake District in 1823. Jane Taylor had a first cousin Isabella Fenwick (1783–1856), and it was Henry Taylor who introduced her to the Wordsworth family. Isabella Fenwick (1783–1856) was the daughter of Nicholas Fenwick, of Lemmington Hall, Edlingham, near Alnwick in Northumberland, and his wife Dorothy Forster, who was the first cousin of Henry Taylor’s step-mother. Taylor’s tribute to his cousin’s mind and character and his account of her relations with the Wordsworths are
found in his Autobiography of Henry Taylor, (2 vols; London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1885).