consisting of historical and romantic ballads, collected in the southern counties of Scotland; with a few of modern date, founded upon local tradition.
in two [three] volumes.
by Walter Scott
Kelso [and Edinburgh], printed by James Ballantyne, 1802-03.
3 volumes. 8vo. frontispiece engraving to volume one.
occasional foxing marks and light off-set from the frontispiece, but generally in good clean and fresh condition.
near contemporary tree calf boards with later good quality spines. a few small abrasion marks to the boards. heraldic book-plates to front paste-downs and front free end-papers. occasional pencil marginalia and lining to volume one.
the true First Edition of Scott's first significant literary work.
Volumes one and two printed in Kelso in 1802. volume three printed in Edinburgh in 1803. Volume three stated as 'second edition', but as explained in pencil notes to the foot of the title-page, it is in fact the first edition, as it was first published along with the second editon of the first two volumes.
neat ink note to the top of volume one half-title states that 800 copies of volumes one and two were published, including fifty on large paper.
An interesting association set - the paste-down book-plates are from the library of Sir Henry Hay-Makdougall Baronet of Makerstoun, a large estate to the west of Kelso
Sir Henry was born ca.1750 and died in 1825, and as a contemporary of Scott and a leading landowner in the Borders, it is quite possible that the two were acquainted.
Sir Henry Hay-Makdougall was also the father-in-law of Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, one time governor of New South Wales, soldier, and pioneering astronomer, who built two of his four observatories in the grounds of Makerstoun after he inherited the estate.
