Hamilton, William & Smith, Adam [preface] — Poems On Several Occasions

Printed by Robert And Andrew Foulis, Glasgow 1749 2nd impression. Half calf over marbled boards, VG. vi+148pp, booksellers ticket of Thomas Miller of Dundee to the pastedown, a previous owner has added 'Hamilton of Bangour' in ink to the title, a nice clean near fine copy. Paper fault at page 128 not affecting the text. This copy has the preface over 2 pages with the last line of pp3 reads 'It is owing to the delicay of' in some copies the preface is contained upon a single page. The work was first issued in 1748 with an errata slip & page 133 mis-numbered. The errors have been corrected in this impression. A 'second edition' of the book ( infact a third impression ) contains a portrait frontis, this 2nd impression & the first edition of 1748 do not. See Chalmers in Archaeologia Scotica Vol III for a descriptive list of the printings. He states - 'Poems on Several Occasions' Glasgow printed by Rob and Andrew Foulis 1749 Small 8vo. pp 148 besides 3 leaves prefixed. This is an exact reprint of the preceding [1748 1st edition ] and contains the same number of pages. Though certainly a reprint it is not called a second edition. A subsequent reprint by the same printers is called The second edition. To my copy of this in 1749 there is prefixed an anonymous head of the Author engraved from the portrait by Gavin Hamilton at Rome'. Poems of the Scottish Jacobite poet William Hamilton [ 1704 - 1754 ] which were published in Scotland is his absence by friends whilst he was in exile in France following the Battle of Culloden. The preface, by Adam Smith, is Smith's first published work.