English-Marathi Dictionary. A Bombay printing

13. TALEKAR, Shrikrishna Raghunath Shastri. A School Dictionary, English and Marathi

Bombay: Government Central Book Depot. 1870 Third edition, Revised and Enlarged. 8vo. 190x115mm. pp. viii, 488. Full sheep, red morocco label to spine, lettered in gilt. In excellent condition. Internally very good. Front free endpaper has ownership inscription I.S.White. Marathi is the language spoken in the state of Maharashtra of which Bombay/Mumbai is the capital. An attractive book, published for the Educational Department.

[3892]

A Republican Grant of Probate

14. [OLIVER, Lord Protector]. Grant of Probate of the will of John Bennett dated 19th November 1657. n.p. n.p 1657

Grant of Probate of the will of John Bennett of Hawkhurst in the County of Kent to Anne Bennett his relict and executor named in the will. Single sheet, 152x131mm. The grant of probate is signed by the officers of the Court, a Court which, as the first words of the document remind us, was under the authority of “Oliver, Lord Protector of ye Commonwealth of England, Scotland, Ireland ye Dominions Territories thereto belonging”. Everyday Court documents (such as grants of probate) from the Commonwealth are interesting for what they reveal about the fluid and flexible conservatism of the English legal system, little changing save for the name of the person in whom the State was embodied - King or Commoner, it made no difference.

[3973]

The rambling thoughts of an eighteenth-century intellectual hoarder

15. [JENNINGS, Henry Constantine]. Summary and free reflections, in which the great outline only, and principal features, of the following subjects are impartially traced, and candidly examined.

Chelmsford: Clachar, Frost, and Gray. 1783 [but 1788]

Small 8vo. 153x95mm. pp. xvii [i], 115 [1]; Part X, An endeavour to prove that reason is alone sufficient to the firm establishment of religion [1785]: 31 [1]; An Appendix to the Tenth Part: 64; A Physical Enquiry into the Powers and Properties of Spirit..., 1787, vi, 82; A Postscript to the Physical Enquiry..., 1787; 6, [4], 7-34; Part XI and XII: [141] -178; A Free Enquiry into the Enormous Increase of Attornies..., 1785 iv, 68. Modern half calf, marbled paper covered boards, original red roan label on spine, lettered in gilt. Ex-library (Leyton Public Library) with a few old ink stamps and some underlinings in blue pencil. Some slight foxing and browning in places but overall a very good copy of a eccentric and eclectic set of essays by an even more eccentric figure.

Given the confusing pagination, some bibliographical help might be required. The book is in the twelve parts set out in the table of contents. The first 115 pages are parts I-IX. There then follows Part X with a separate title page dated 1785 which has replaced the original part X from the 1783 edition (thus explaining the absence of pp 117-140) and which is given a separate number in ESTC (T110738). The appendix to part X follows although the addition four page A form of daily prayer for the professors of rational theism dated 1788 is not present. Parts XI and XII of the main work are then bound in after two additional works not mentioned in the contents but which, according to ESTC (T110739 and T110740), were possibly intended to be published with the “Summary”. The final work also has a separate ESTC number (T110742). Hope that’s clear. Henry Jennings was what might, charitably, be called a “character”. He is best known now as a collector although, despite a few wise purchases not least a marble dog judged by Horace Walpole to be the one of the best animal statues in classical art, he seems to have been more of a hoarder. He was often in and out of the debtors’ prison, lived in squalor and ate modestly, regarding “a feast [as] the conversion of gold into excrement”, and alone, accompanied only by a bronze bust of a Roman goddess. Unsurprisingly, his mind was well-stocked and full of opinions, as is clear from this wide ranging and somewhat bizarre collection, all parts of which are rare, none showing more than eight copies on ESTC.

ESTC: T110737, T110738, T110739, T110740, T110742

Get your trousers on. You’re nicked

16. BELOFF, Max. Public Order and Popular Disturbances 1660-1714

Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1938

First edition. 8vo. 218x140mm. pp. viii, 168. One folding map. Original publisher’s maroon cloth. Some rubbing to corners and head and foot of spine. Internally very good although two leaves have been neatly cut at the bottom corner but with no loss of text. What was lost, though, was this book when it was stolen from a library by Duncan Jevons who then helpfully signed it (on front endpapers and rear pastedown) and numbered it (8742) before placing it in a pile with the 8741 other books pilfered from public collections. Mr Jevons’ own private order and unpopular disturbance continued long after this theft: when police eventually caught up with him in the early 1990s he had “collected” 40,000 books. Among them were two sets of Encyclopaedia Britannica and the complete works of Thomas Aquinas. Poor Mr Jevons worked at the Bernard Matthews turkey plant in Norfolk and claimed to have few friends save for his cat and his books which he said “became my substitute people and formed a sort of barrier against the outside world”. Of course the thefts cannot be condoned but how many of us, reading about this luckless individual with his books and his cat, feel just a little frisson of recognition and sympathy? And who wouldn’t be driven to such a crime (or worse) after a hard day slaughtering chemically enhanced birds in the badlands of East Anglia? Anyway, at least he had a sense of humour and self-mockery. Lifting this “account of the major breaches of public order which occurred between the Restoration and the death of the last monarch of the House of Stuart” must surely have provoked a modest chuckle.

[3983] £250