8vo. Original publisher’s boards (some wear to joints, hinges tender); full morocco pull-off case. Provenance: Mrs. Richard Watson (presentation inscription from the author on the half-title, Calgarth Park bookplate).

 

FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED BY WORDSWORTH on the half-title: “Mrs. Watson / from Wm Wordsworth.”

 

Richard Watson (1737–1816) was an Anglican bishop and academic, who served as the Bishop of Llandaff from 1782 to 1816. He married Dorothy Wilson, daughter of Edward Wilson in 1773, and was the author of some notable political pamphlets. In 1788, he purchased the Calgarth estate in Troutbeck Bridge, Windermere, Westmorland, where he was visited by various authors including Coleridge, De Quincey and Wordsworth. Wordsworth wrote his Letter to the Bishop of Llandaff (1793) responding to Watson’s defense of the French monarchy. A FINE ASSOCIATION.