CHEVY CHASE, a poem. Founded on the ancient ballad. London: printed for T. Cadell and W. Davies, Strand, by J. M'Creery, Black-House-Court. 1813. [with:] HAYLEY, William. THE TRIUMPHS OF TEMPER; a poem. In six cantos. The second edition. London: printed for J. Dodsley, in Pall-Mall. 1781. [with:] MOUNT PLEASANT: a descriptive poem. To which is added, an Ode. [ROSCOE, Robert.] Poetry

Three works in one volume, [ii], 108; [iii]-xii, 166; 49; apparently wanting half title to second work; title page to Mount Pleasant quite darkened, the rest of the volume in good condition; bound in early 19th century half calf over cloth boards, rather worn but sound. Three interesting poems which link together in authorship and ownership. Hayley's Triumphs of Temper is inscribed at the head of the title page: 'Pleasance Smith Given me by Sir Abraham Hume'. This can only be Pleasance Reeve (1773-1877), who married James Edward Smith in 1796, and who survived her husband by almost half a century. Sir James (1759-1828: knighted in 1814) was the founder of the Linnaean Society of London, and was the man who bought Linnaeus's own collections for 1000 gns in 1783, bringing them to London against competition from Catherine the Great of Russia and others. Pleasance was herself a remarkable woman, a great lover of literature, a famous correspondent and a celebrated beauty, who lived to the age of 103. Alice Pleasance Liddell, the original Alice, was her great-niece. This book was given to Lady Smith by Sir Abraham Hume (1749-1838), art collector, who was also very long-lived in theory he might have given her the book at any time between publication and his death almost sixty years later. The third book in this volume is the first publication of William Roscoe (1753-1831), historian, writer and patron of the arts, published when he was just 24 although his preface claims that it was written 'some years ago, at a very early period of life, without the least intention of publication'. Mount Pleasant is the area of Liverpool when Roscoe was brought up, and where his father owned a tavern and market garden. Roscoe showed the poem to William Enfield, who soon afterwards became rector of Warrington Academy, which is why it was published there. The verse celebrates the view from Mount Pleasant, including the evidence of industry and commerce, but deplores the accumulation of wealth without a purpose to make life better and more civilised. The first poem, taken last because it ties the other two together, is the first publication of Robert Roscoe (1789-1850), William's fourth son, who was at Peterhouse, Cambridge, when he published this poem. It is inscribed at the head of the title page: 'JE Smith ex dono amiciss. auctoris Roberti Roscoe'. Unlikely though it may seem that the eminent botanist Sir James Smith, in his mid-fifties when this book was published, would describe a Cambridge student as his dearest friend, he must be the recipient, as the Smiths were childless, and so this cannot be his son. Furthermore, there was no J.E. Smith at Cambridge at the time of publication.