Note 456 — The Alcove. (continued 2)

The reader may not object to be made acquainted with a few distinguished productions, printed for private distribution. The reader is indebted to Mr. Bulmer, at whose elegant press these works were printed, for the information which follows:—Museum Worsleyanum; by Sir Richard Worsley; 1798, 1802, Atlas Folio, 2 vols. The first volume of this work, of which 200 copies were printed, was finished in May, 1798, and circulated, with the plates only of vol. ii., amongst the chosen friends of Sir Richard Worsley, the author; who was, at that time, the diplomatic Resident at Venice from our Court. The second volume, with the letter-press complete, of which only 100 copies were printed, was finished in 1802. The entire expense attending this rare and sumptuous publication (of which a copy is in the library of the Royal Institution) amounted to the enormous sum of 27,000l. and from the irregularity of delivering the second volume of plates, in the first instance, without the letter-press, many of the copies are incomplete.——The Father's Revenge; by the Earl of Carlisle, K.G. &c., 1800, 4to. A limited impression of this very beautiful volume, decorated with engravings from the pencil of Westall, was circulated by the noble author among his friends. I saw a copy of it, bound in green morocco, with the original letter of the donor, in the library of Earl Spencer at Althorp.——Mount St. Gothard: By the late Duchess of Devonshire, folio. Only fifty copies of this brilliant volume were printed; to a few of which, it is said, Lady Diana Beauclerc lent the aid of her ornamental pencil, in some beautiful drawings of the wild and romantic scenery in the neighbourhood of Mount St. Gothard.——Dissertation on Etruscan Vases; by Mr. Christie. Imperial 4to. With elegant Engravings. Only 100 copies of this truly classical volume were printed. From the death of one or two of the parties, who became originally possessed of it, as a present from the author, it has fallen to the lot of Mr. Christie to become, professionally, the vender of a work which he himself never meant to be sold. A copy was very lately disposed of, in this manner, for 14l.——Bentleii Epistolæ; Edited by [the Rev.] Dr. Charles Burney: 1807, 4to. This is one of the most beautiful productions of the Shakspeare press; nor are the intrinsic merits of the volume inferior to its external splendour. The scarcer copies of it are those in medium quarto; of which only 50 were printed: of the imperial quarto, there were 150 executed.—I add two more similar examples, which were not printed at the Shakspeare press:—Lord Baltimore's Gaudia Poetica; Lat. Angl. et Gall. with plates. (No date). Large quarto. Only ten copies of this rare volume were printed, and those distributed among the author's friends: a copy of it was sold for 6l. 10s. at the sale of Mr. Reed's books: see Bibl. Reed, no. 6682. It was inserted for sale in the catalogue of Mr. Burnham, bookseller at Northampton, A.D. 1796—with a note of its rarity subjoined.——Views in Orkney and on the North-Eastern Coast of Scotland. Taken in 1805. Etched 1807. Folio. By the Marchioness of Stafford.—The letter-press consists of twenty-seven pages: the first of which bears this unassuming designation; "Some Account of the Orkney Islands, extracted from Dr. Barry's History, and Wallace's and Brand's Descriptions of Orkney." To this chapter or division is prefixed a vignette of Stroma; and the chapter ends at p. 5. Then follow four views of the Orkney Islands.—The next chapter is entitled "The Cathedral of Kirkwall," which at the beginning exhibits a vignette of the Cathedral of St. Magnus, and at the close, at p. 9, a vignette of a Tomb in the Cathedral. To these succeed two plates, presenting Views of the Inside of the Cathedral, and an Arch in the Cathedral.—The third chapter commences at p. 11, with "The Earl of Orkney's Palace," to which a vignette of a Street in Kirkwall is prefixed. It ends at p. 12, and is followed by a plate exhibiting a view of the Door-way of the Earl's Palace; by another of the Hall of the Earl's Palace; and by a third containing two Views, namely, the Inside of the Hall, and, upon a larger scale, the Chimney in the Hall.—"The Bay of the Frith" is the subject of the fourth chapter; which exhibits at the beginning a vignette of the Hills of Hoy. It closes at p. 14, with a vignette of The Dwarfy Stone. Then follow six plates, containing a view of the Bay of Frith, a View from Hoy, two views of the Eastern and Western Circles of the Stones of Stennis, and two views of Stromness.—The next chapter is entitled "Duncansbay or Dungsby-head," which bears in front a vignette of Wick, and at the end, in p. 16, a vignette of the Castle of Freswick. Three plates follow: the first presenting a view of Duncansbay-Head: the second, Views of the Stacks of Hemprigs and the Hills of Schrabiner or Schuraben; the third, a View of The Ord.—"The Castle of Helmsdale" is the title of the succeeding chapter, to which is prefixed a vignette of Helmsdale Castle. It ends at p. 19, with a vignette of the Bridge of Brora. Then follow two plates, presenting Views of Helmsdale Castle, and the Coast of Sutherland.—The subject of the next chapter is "Dunrobin Castle," (the ancient seat of her Ladyship's ancestors, and now a residence of her Ladyship,) which presents, at the beginning, a vignette of Dunrobin Castle, and after the close of the chapter, at p. 23, four plates; the first of which is a View of Dunrobin Castle and the surrounding scenery; the second, a smaller View of the Castle: the third, a View of Druid Stones, with another of Battle Stones in Strathflete: and the fourth, Dornoch, with the Thane's Cross.—The last chapter is entitled "The Chapel of Rosslyn," to which is prefixed a vignette of Rosslyn Chapel. It is followed by four plates; the first exhibiting a View of a Column in Rosslyn Chapel; the second, a Door-way in the Chapel; the third, the Tomb of Sir William St. Clair; and the fourth, Hawthornden, the residence of the elegant and plaintive Drummond; with whose beautiful Sonnet, to this his romantic habitation, the volume closes: