Richard Wells Antiquarian Books - Rare and Antiquarian Books and Manuscripts

(220 x 140). pp, 37-54, 193-201, (1). Mounted and signed cabinet photograph as frontspiece. 2 articles from Murray's Magazine bound together with 4pp of blanks at the beginning and 58pp of blanks at the end. Ownership inscription on front pastedown of Constance H. Graham, dated 1890. Page edges a little dusty. Gilt all edges. Red patterned cloth with gilt title on upper board. Backstrap missing but binding tight and sound. Lady de Ros was born in 1795 and died in 1891, her father being the Duke of Richmond, and in her long life she was acquanted with nineteen Prime Ministers. As a child she often played with the Princess Charlotte. In the 'Personal Recollections', published in Murray's Magazine when she was already a nonogenarian, she records many anecdotes of the Duke of Wellington. In 1814, the family went to live in Brussels, and it was in her mother's house in the Rue de la Blanchisserie that the memorable ball was held on the eve of Waterloo. At the ball supper she sat next to the Duke of Wellington where he gave her an original miniature of himself painted by a Belgian artist. There was some controversy over actually where the ball was held and it was this controversy which led her to publish her 'Recollections'.