DONNE, John.

The Poetical Works of... (With the Life of the Author...) [Respectively] Containing His Satires and Epithalamions; ...His Songs, Sonnets, Divine Poems, and Epigrams; ...Containing His Elegies, Funeral Elegies, Letters, &c.

Edinburgh: At the Apollo Press, 1779. Three volumes. 12mo. 165, (1); 168; 192 pp. Uniformly bound in contemporary full speckled calf, spines flat with gilt rules, gilt lettered label to volume II, the corresponding labels to the other spines missing, contemporary armorial bookplate of Charlotte, Baronness de Ferrars, to the pastedown of volume I, the book label of Castle Goring to the pastedowns of the other volumes. Frontispiece portrait plus three engraved title pages. Joints cracked but holding, the front inner hinge to volume I sometime reinforced, some general wear, contents generally very good. Charlotte Townshend, wife of George, 2nd Marquess Townshend, Lord Ferrers of Chartley and later also Earl of Leicester. They married in 1777 and she predeceased him in 1802. Their daughter, Charlotte Barbara, married Lt. Col. Cecil Bishopp of Parham Park whose sister Katherine Annabella was married to Vice-Admiral Sir George Brooke-Pechell. The nearby Castle Goring was designed by the architect John Biagio Rebecca for Sir Bysshe Shelley who intended for his grandson, the famous poet Sir Percy Bysshe Shelley, to reside there. Percy died before he could take up residence and his father Sir Timothy leased the estate to George Brooke-Pechell in 1825. On Timothy's demise ownership of the castle briefly passed to Percy's widow Mary Shelley who sold it to Brooke-Pechell to pay off her debts. Keynes, 86. One of only three 18th century editions of Donne, the others being published 1719 and 1793. Volumes XXIII-V of Bell's edition of the Poets of Great Britain. Item #53420

Price: £275.00