Works Antiquarian and Modern from Blackwell's Rare Books

Enough of this debauchery! Here is a tale of a very different type of lady: Eureka. Eureka. The Virtuous Woman Found. Her loss bewailed... No, it was not her virtue that was lost. Sadly, the virtuous Mary, Countess Dowager of Warwick, passed on in 1678, and this tribute was written to her memory by Anthony Walker, her chaplain. Walker helped lead her from a life of irreligion to exhibiting “the most illustrious pattern of sincere piety, and solid goodness this age hath produced.” Mary's four-year-old son had taken ill, and she pledged to lead a life of piety if his health was restored. If Mary, despite her piety, is not that well remembered, her brother, Robert Boyle, is well known as the man often referred to as “the father of chemistry,” and discoverer of Boyle's Law (inverse relationship between pressure and volume of a gas). Item 159. £2,000 (US $3,113).

Here is a collection of material published for riders on the Midland Railroad in 1848, to help pass the time: No. 1 of Literary Selections for Railway Travellers. This is an unrecorded selection of stories and poetry featuring one by William Cox entitled Steam. This is a futuristic story where Cox imagines a world where steam powered “carts and carriages came rattling down the highways horseless and driverless,” while tall buildings are built with steam-powered robots and trains roll through tunnels under rivers. Not bad prognostications for 1848. The pamphlet was priced at one penny, meaning a return of several million percent for those wise enough to buy it at the time. Item 45. £500 (US $778).

Blackwell's Rare Books may be reached at +44 (0) 1865 333555 or rarebooks@blackwell.co.uk. Their website is www.blackwell.co.uk/rarebooks.