SECRET HISTORY OF WHITE-HALL, From the Restoration of Charles II. Down tot he Abdication of the late K. James. Writ at the request of a noble Lord, and conveyed to him in letters, by . late secretary-interpreter to the Marquess of Lourvois, who by that means had the perusall of all the private minutes between England and France for many years. The whole consisting of secret memoirs, which have hitherto lain conceal'd, as not being discoverable by any other hand. by Jones D[avid]. Gent - 1697

London: R. Baldwin, 1697. First edition. 8vo, contemporary full calf, the spine with blind tooled compartments between raised bands, one compartment with a paper title label lettered in manuscript, board edges tooled in blind, page edges sprinkled red. [xii], 80, 80, 80, 64, 80, 110 pp. A very pleasing and finely preserved copy, internally, quite fresh and clean, the paper crisp and the text-block sturdy and sound, the contemporary binding solid and with minor age-wear at the extremities. FIRST EDITION OF WHAT LOWNDES CALLED “A SCANDALOUS WORK.”
The author, a captain in the King’s Life Guards, published this series of letters reputed to be between and English peer and a French official between 1676 and 1689, claiming them to be secret diplomatic transactions previously concealed and now divulged. Modern historians are unsure and opinions conflicting in how much accuracy or reliance can be placed on the text. The author wrote a number of other historical works.