[WILLIAM ETTRICK, editor]
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[WILLIAM ETTRICK, editor]

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[WILLIAM ETTRICK, editor]
The Blunders of Loyalty and Other Miscellaneous Poems: being a selection of certain ancient poems ... modernized by Ferdinando Fungus

London: J. Murray, 1790. 4to. (11 x 8½in; 277 x 215mm) (some browning of page edges and light spotting, old sewing marks at inner margins), UNCUT in blue half calf for Goldman (extremities lightly rubbed). Provenance: J.W. Goldman (binding and bookplate; presumably lot 48 in his sale, 24 November 1966, sold to Baxter for £9, described as bound in "new half calf" and as both "uncut and unopened").

FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. "The Cyketeers. A gymnastic poeme ... by my esteemed friende Edmunde Byrk" appears on pp. 27-28, and is clearly intended as a pastiche of the genre. Though attributed to Williams of Wadham College by Padwick, the anthology is attributed to William Ettrick (1756-1847) in on-line ESTC on the grounds of a ms attribution on the title-page to the BL copy ("W. Ettrick Univ: Coll:"). The editor's preface claims that the poems have been modernised from "very old" manuscripts, but then facetiously concludes, "I think it highly likely that the MS. has been written some time about the latter end of the eighteenth century".

OF UNDOUBTED RARITY. One copy in the MCC Library. Only 3 copies located in ESTC (BL. Bodleian, and Henry E. Huntingdon Library, San Marino, California). Loosely inserted into this copy are two typed signed letters from Leslie Gutteridge to Desmond Eagar, dated Epworth Books, 23-25 City Rd., London EC1, 19 December 1962 and 2 January 1963 respectively, both stating that a copy of The Blunders of Loyalty had proved "the only real shock" of a recent sale, selling for £200 when he had marked it at £65. The later 2-page letter also mentions the rumour that "Goldman is selling the whole of his prints and books to Baer en bloc for £20,000. £6000 for the prints and £14,000 for the books." Padwick 6398.
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