The Lady of the Lake

First Edition, engraved portrait frontispiece, slight offsetting, tear without loss to 207/208pp., old bookplate preserved, later leather backed marbled boards, spine gilt, 4to, Edinburgh, for John Ballantyne and co., 1810

Set in the Trossachs region of Scotland, it is composed of six cantos, each of which concerns the action of a single day. The poem has three main plots: the contest among three men, Roderick Dhu, James Fitz-James, and Malcolm Graeme, to win the love of Ellen Douglas; the feud and reconciliation of King James V of Scotland and James Douglas; and a war between the Lowland Scots (led by James V) and the and clans (led by Roderick Dhu of Clan Alpine). The poem was tremendously influential in the nineteenth century, and inspired the Highland Revival.

Provenance: Sir Thomas Gage, Hengrove Hall, Suffolk