THE DIARY OF THE LATE GEORGE BUBB DODINGTON. with an appendix containing some curious and interesting papers, which are either referred to, or alluded to, in the Diary. A new edition.

8vo, pp. xv, [i], 506; bound without the final advertisement leaf; contemporary tree calf, rebacked preserving most of the original spine. Bookplate of John Cator. First edition. This copy belonged to John Cator, a wealthy Kentish timber merchant and property developer. Cator (1728-1806) is important in the history of outer London for his transformation of the Blackheath and Beckenham area in the later 18th century; but he is also known to Johnsonians for his close friendship with Samuel Johnson and the Thrale family. As Boswell recorded, he was a co-executor with Johnson (and three others) of Henry Thrale's estate in 1781, and it has been reported that Johnson advised Cator on the books he should buy for his library. Whether true or not, Johnson admired Cator for his 'rough, manly independent understanding' (Hill-Powell IV 313), and Cator was on the committee supervising the erection of Johnson's monument in St Paul's in 1791.