Ritson Isaac (2 results)

On both sides of a 33 x 12.5 cm strip of paper. In fair condition, lightly-aged, with tiny part of mount adhering to one corner, and the merest loss to another. 'Egerton Bry' is written in another small hand in light pencil at the head. The Osborn Collection at Yale possesses what its catalogue entry describes as a 'probably incomplete' section of the manuscript, ' purporting to be the memoirs of a certain John Fitznigel Clavering, whose career and interests bear a strong likeness to those of Brydges himself'. The Yale cataloguer is unaware that 'Clavering's Auto-Biography. Containing Opinions, Characters, &c., of his Contemporaries' was serialised in The Metropolitan magazine (London: James Cochrane and Co.), in 13 installments between March 1832 and November 1833. The passage in the present manuscript features in the issue for July 1832. Brydges' authorship was well-known at the time: the London magazine 'The Original' of 14 July 1832, in its 'Magazines of the Month', reports that 'The Metropolitan' is presenting a 'further supply' of 'the dish of pleasantly-seasoned gossip catered, we believe, by Sir Egerton Brydges, and called "Clavering's Auto-biography"'. The manuscript is a fair copy, with only a couple of minor deletions. The two sides of the leaf do not form a continuous narrative, a passage in the printed text relating to Joseph Haslewood having been excised. Otherwise there are no significant variations between the manuscript and the printed version, apart from 'sniffling' in the manuscript being given as 'snuffling' in the print text. It is an entertaining and informative piece of writing, and is indeed 'splendidly seasoned'. It reads as follows: '[recto] [.] Mrs Chapone was somewhat crooked in person, - and a little so in temper and mind. She was one of the ancient family of Mulso, of Northamptonshire. | Fat old Captain Grose, the antiquary, was as good humoured as he was droll. I remember him in lodgings at his publisher's, Hooper, in Holborn; and I attended the sale of his drawings. He left a son, Genl Grose, and a daughter, who I think married Mr Singleton, Captn. of Landguard Fort in Suffolk and was mother (if I mistake not) of the present Archdeacon Singleton, late private Secretary to the Duke of Northumberland in Ireland, - an agreeable man, full of wit and anecdote, whom I have seen at the Castle. | When in London, many years ago, I used to be in the habit of spending much time at the British Museum. There I saw numerous Literati, with whom I had no personal acquaintance. There I continually sat opposite to Joseph Ritson, a strange little, ugly, half-deformed creature, bitter, goggling, and self-conceited, sniffling over an old, ill-written manuscript, and poring to find out that some word had been inaccurately transcribed for the printed copy, - a consonant omitted, or a vowel filled up in the orthography - and then accusing the editor of a moral crime. He had no quality of mind, but industry, and got credit which he did not deserve. But I ought not to be so severe; - the poor creature was insane. | There sat D'Israeli, daily extracting from the voluminous MS letters of Ja. I & Ch. I. There sat William Gilford, preparing notes for [.] [verso] [.] was then poor, and almost | Once I remember talking about her to Caroline Symmons, wh when a child had been noticed her. Caroline Caroline was an exquisite poetess, and died, I think, at 16. Some of her ballads or songs are appended to one of Wrangham's Seaton-Prize-Poems. Her father Dr Charles Symmons, a learned man, (a native of Pembrokeshire, I believe) has not long been dead. He was a various writer in prose and poetry. I was once or twice in company with him; - a plain, and rather vulgar-looking man. His brother, John Symmons, a book-collector, is probably still living, at a great age. Dr S. wrote the Life of Milton - not a very good one. - He had more learning and industry, than genius. | I knew how to hit the chords of Caroline Symmons's imagination, and I brought out sweet notes from her. | I am rather fond of female authors, provided they are not pedantic. - I was once in company with the Miss Burys - clever women - but whom Lord Orford spoiled, and made affected and conceited. Tall ladies - no beauties! Their father was them - any thing but literary himself! | As to old John Aikin with his great bottle-nose, he was a sensib [.]'.

Carlisle: Scott & Benson / Keswick: James Ivison (illustrator). Carlisle: Scott & Benson / Keswick: James Ivison. A Rare Account of the "Domestic Depredations" of the Keswick Imposter [Hatfield, John (1758?-1803)]. [Ritson, Isaac (1761-1789)]. The Life of John Hatfield Commonly Called the Keswick Imposter. With an Account of His Trial and Execution for Forgery; And Also His Marriage with "Mary of Buttermere." Illustrated with Her Portrait, And a Drawing of the Inn in which She was Born. To which is Added the Celebrated Borrowdale Letter, Showing the Native Dialect of This District. Carlisle: Printed and Published by Scott & Benson / Keswick: James Ivison, 1846. iv, 43 pp. With a tissue-guarded double copperplate frontispiece. 12mo. (7" x 4-1/4"; 10.5 x 17.5 cm.). Publisher's boards with contrasting paper spine, front board elaborately printed. Worn, some soiling to exterior, front board detached, spine partially abraded, frontispiece detached and foxed, first signature loosening, bookplate (of Charles Henry Bateson, with a striking caricature of a man with a bloody knife) to front pastedown. Moderate toning, internally clean. Rare. $450. * First edition. Hatfield was a notorious forger and con man who invented connections to high society to gain access to wealth and influence. After a number of successful swindles in London and Somerset, he abandoned his second wife for Cumberland, where he impersonated an MP and began to search for new victims. He settled on local beauty Mary Robinson, the daughter of a local innkeeper with some means, and bigamously married her in 1802. He was ultimately discovered and, after failing to escape captivity, hanged for forgery in September of 1803. The case drew nationwide attention, and the imposter Hatfield and his beautiful victim Robinson took on the status of local folk legends. The so-called "Borrowdale Letter," a popular satirical piece in Cumberland dialect, was written by Isaac Ritson, a schoolmaster known for his dialect works. A second edition of the Life was published in 1864. Our copy of the first edition was owned by maritime historian, journalist and book collector Charles Henry Bateson [1903-1974]. He was an avid collector of books relating to crime, a trait reflected in the striking design of his bookplate. OCLC locates 2 copies of this edition worldwide (British Library, National Library of Scotland). Library Hub adds a copy at the University of Manchester.