£160
FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. [iii]-176. Half-title discarded. Near contemporary weave-pattern calf, spine divided by raised bands with Greek key roll in gilt between gilt rules, lettered direct in gilt, other compartments tooled in gilt, boards bordered with Greek key rolls in gilt, edges gilt, marbled endpapers. Light spotting and soiling. Somewhat rubbed, a little marked.
The first collected volume of poems from William Peebles (1753-1826), minister at Newton-upon-Ayr, although his introduction tells us that 'many of them appeared in periodical publications more than thirty years ago.' He is best remembered now as one of the targets of Robert Burns' satirical 1789 poem The Kirk of Scotland's Garland, where he appears as 'Poet Willie,' about whom Burns writes, 'O'er Pegasus' side ye ne'er laid a stride, Ye only stood by where he sh-t.'
This uncomplimentary attitude was repaid in 1811, when Peebles published 'Burnomania: the celebrity of Robert Burns considered in a Discourse addressed to all real Christians of every Denomination' in which he anonymously attacked Burns in a sustained polemic, singling out Burns' propensity for 'pouring out all the virulence of malignity and virulence, that is in him, on the ministers of religion.'
Rather scarce, Library Hub recording 4 holdings: Aberdeen, Glasgow, BL and the NLS.
