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London: John Bell, 1774. Full vellum, 6 1/2 inches tall. A charming 18th century vellum binding with blue calf label, bands and border on the boards. Fine floral gilt tooling on the bands and in the panels, gilt fillets decorate the blue calf straps on the boards. An old hand has written "Edwards (of Halifax) binding" on the reverse of the front free endpaper but I can not verify that, though it is certainly in their distinctive style. There is a neat previous owner's name, "M: Dann" on the first blank. A fine, unsophisticated copy.

London: William S. Orr, 1853. Full vellum, 10 1/2 inches tall. A densely gilt tooled binding with gilt bands, extra gilt panels and twin labels. Some foxing, but mostly clean. Faint blue lines frame the gilt block on the boards. All edges gilt. Profusely illustrated throughout.

London: Chapman & Hall, c.1860. 3 volume set, 8 1/2 inches tall. A bright and clean full vellum with twin red labels, a gilt Oxford crest embossed on the upper boards and red edges. The trimming of the title labels is a bit irregular and one of the blanks of the first volume has a corner torn off. A lovely bright vellum binding, with perfect patina, of this great history.

Bruxelles: Dumont, 1835. 3 volumes, bound in 2 complete, 6 inches tall. A pretty little set in full vellum with twin labels and sparkling gilt tooling to the spine. Blue speckled edges. A previous owner's neat ink inscription on the half titles reading: G.H. Gladstone (?) Rome April 1839. Engraved plates. A lovely little set by one of the great woman writers and political theorists of her time, in the original French.

Venice: Tommaso Bettinelli, 1803. 3 volumes bound in 2, complete, 6 1/2 inches tall. A charming Italian 'rustic' full velum from the very beginning of the 19th century with gilt framed painted labels and blue speckled edges. Hugh Blair was a Scottish author and rhetorician, considered one of the first great theorists of written discourse. This is an Italian edition teaching his work.