Welsh and disliked Davis’s rough manners and propensity to side- step regulations. Their disagreements eventually prompted Davis to transfer to a hospital closer to the frontier in Balaklava, where she nursed and fought to ensure that supplies got through. After two visits to Balaklava Nightingale was obliged to acknowledge the efficacy of Davis’s management and methods. Illness forced Davis back to London in 1855, where she composed this autobiography with the help of writer Jane Williams (often known by her bardic name of Ysgafell) and supported by women who were hostile to Nightingale and had launched a libel suit against her. The first volume details her early life and travels; the second is largely concerned with her Crimean War experiences, including much on Nightingale and their work together. The work is notably scarce in commerce, with just one other copy traced at auction, in 2017. This copy has pertinent medical provenance, bearing the book- plates of the Scarborough chemist and medical practitioner Dr Charles Rooke (1808–1872), purveyor of the popular but somewhat suspect “Golden Ointment”. Rooke’s son, Dr William Foster Rooke (1833–1888), was a civil surgeon who was transferred to the Crimea from Renkioi Hospital and attached to the Camp General Hospital. He later served as Mayor of Scarborough between 1870 and 1872. Robinson, Wayward Women , pp. 258–9. £1,500 [125391] An insight into the life of an “eighteenth-century genius” 52 DELANY, Mary. The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delany [together with:] Second Series. London: Richard Bentley, 1861–2 6 volumes, octavo (217 × 140 mm). Late 19th-century crushed blue morocco by Morrell for Thomas W. Best, titles in gilt to spines in compartments, gilt ruled frames to covers, blue endpapers, elaborate gilt turn-ins, top edge gilt. Engraved portrait frontispiece to each volume, 18 other engraved plates, one chromo- lithograph, a facsimile, and a folding genealogical table, vignettes before the frontispieces in the first series, half-titles bound into the second series, title pages printed in red and black, with occasional illustrations in the text. This set is extra-illustrated with a further 143 plates, including a hand-coloured fashion plate, 35 of which are vignette biographies. Spines lightly toned, edges faintly browned, occasional faint offsetting; an excellent set. first editions, this set richly extra-illustrated with vignette biographies from The Biographical Magazine of 1796. Mary Delany (1700–1788) was an artist, letter-writer, and key member of the bluestocking circle. Her extensive correspondence, collected here, is noted for her “sharp, witty, and informed observations of eighteenth-century life and blue-stocking culture” (Moore, p. 99). “These letters contain information about every aspect of the life of the propertied class in England and Ireland from about 1725 to 1788. Cultural figures including Swift, Handel, and Rousseau make an ap- pearance, as do prominent writers such as Frances Burney, Elizabeth Montagu, Frances Boscawen, and Hannah More . . . the letters are a major source for contemporary information about such varied topics as medicine, servants, food, costume, reading, marriage, gardening, and collecting” ( ODNB ). The majority of the letters were written to her sister, Anne Granville, and show “a deep, cherished relationship” (Peacock, p. 3). Despite leaving six volumes worth of material Del- aney destroyed many more of her letters, writing to her sister that she, “thought it prudent to destroy letters that mentioned particular affairs of particular people, or family business” (ibid., p. 13). Delaney had a resurgence of popularity in the early 20th century when Leslie Stephen’s early Dictionary of National Biographies entry for Delany “introduced her to Virginia Woolf ‘s modernist generation,
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51 DAVIS, Elizabeth. The Autobiography of A Balaclava Nurse. Edited by Jane Williams (Ysgafell). London: Hurst and Blackett, 1857 2 volumes, octavo. Original brown pebble-grained cloth, spines lettered in gilt, boards panelled in blind. Engraved portrait frontispiece with tis- sue guard to vol. I. With the 24 page publisher’s catalogue at end. Armo- rial bookplates of Dr Charles Rooke F.G.S. and bookseller’s ticket of Henry Kimpton, “Medical Bookseller and Publisher”, to front pastedowns, identi- cal ownership signature (illegible) to front free endpaper of vol. I and title page of vol. II, the occasional pencil mark to text. Ex-library copy, with very faint traces of old labels to front boards, washed residue of library stamp, “[?]Bradford Library”, to vol. I front pastedown. Cloth expertly refurbished, spines and inner hinges discreetly repaired, small tear to vol. I head of spine, negligible rubbing to both, contents browned, else a very good copy. first edition of the “full and fascinating account” of the trav- eller and working-class nurse Betsi Davis’s colourful life ( ODNB ). Elizabeth “Betsi” Cadwaladyr (1789–1860) spent her childhood near Bala, North Wales, and was employed at a very early age as a maid. Clearly adventurous, she ran away first to her aunt in Chester and then to Liverpool and London, finding work in the domestic service which allowed her to travel widely with her employers. It is around this time that she changed her surname to Davis for convenience of pronunciation. She toured the continent in 1814 and 1815—her autobiography records her sightings of Napoleon, Louis XVIII entering Paris, and Vesuvius—visited the plantations in the West Indies, and sailed to Australia, India, China, the Far East, South America, and many other destinations in her role as ship’s steward on the Denmark Hill . Lack of funds prompted her return to London by 1835 and she resumed work as a housekeeper. In this role, and in her previous employment at sea, she became practised at nursing, eventually obtaining a position as a nurse at Guy’s Hospital. Aged 65, Davis set out for Scutari, volunteering at the main Brit- ish hospital run by Florence Nightingale, but she and the much younger nurse clashed badly on a number of occasions. Davis crit- icised Nightingale’s over-adherence to bureaucracy and alleged maladministration of resources, as well as her privileged back- ground and lifestyle; Nightingale held a prejudiced opinion of the
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