Fragments of Scotish History

Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable, at the Cross, 1798. Hardcover. Very Good+. 4to (250 x 200mm). Pagination: frontis., [1], vii, [1], [1-]88pp., 64pp, 16pp, [xxvi], 28-99pp. Signatures: a(4), b(2), a-1(4), A-X(4), Z(2). Engraved frontispiece facsimile of the deed of permission granted to a “Bondman to change his master” and three small woodcut engraved maps of plans representing the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh (1547). Separately titled parts are: I. Desultory reflections upon the state of ancient Scotland, with a curious appendix of characters and other original documents. II. The Diary of Robert Birrel, from 1532 until 1605. III. The expedition into Scotland by the Earl of Hertford in 1544. IV. The expedition into Scotland by the Duke of Somerset in 1547. Printed marginalia. One of 200 copies printed. Dedicated to the Right Honourable Henry Dundas, important Scottish Tory and lawyer fromEdinburgh (1742–1811). Contemporary tree calf and red morocco lettering label: DALZIEL’S FRAGMENTS; (covers with some scuffs and gouges, title lightly browned and some frontispiece offsetting on title page; very nice, sound copy of this scarce first edition).

Sir John Graham Dalyell, antiquarian, naturalist, lawyer, and baron, was descended from the ancient family in Scotland “Dalziel” or also Dalyell of the Binns in Linlithgowshire. Educated at St. Andrews and then University of Edinburgh, Dalyell was a prolific writer and heldprestigious positions throughout his career, including at the Society of Arts for Scotland and the Society of Antiquaries in Scotland. Fragments of Scotish History was Sir John Graham Dalyell’s first published work; a miscellaneous history of Scotland, partly based onhis own research at the Advocates of Scotland Library. Of the four parts, only the first, “Desultory Reflections,” was his original composition. Dalyell included the three other parts to highlight omissions or differences in author’s intent. “Desultory Reflections” touched upon a wide range of subjects, including women’s history in Scotland, manners in the time of war, commerce, navigation, barbarism in England and Scotland, feudal law, royal minorities, slavery, clergy, titles of honor, Officers of State, and Scottish music. The other parts include the 16th century “Diary of Robert Birrel,” valuable for its chronological exactitude, and the accounts of two expeditions into Scotland, which the author asserts to be quite rare.The work was printed by Archibald Constable (1774–1827), printer and publisher in Edinburgh to Queen Victoria, in a limited run of only 200 copies. Foundational work in Scottish antiquarianism, found in the usual institutional collections but largely uncommon. ESTC No. T83689.