WOODSTOCK; OR, THE CAVALIER. A TALE OF THE YEAR SIXTEEN-HUNDRED AND FIFTY-ONE.
Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co., 1826. First Edition. Octavos, v-xvi, [2], 3-315 pp (Vol. 1); [2], 3-332 (Vol. 2); [2], 3-370 (Vol. 3). Good+; bound in contemporary black leather with marbled endpapers, gilt titling to spines, extensive tooling and gilt decorations to spine, covers and fore edges of boards, slight surface marks and fading to covers but else clean; minor crack to front hinge of Vol. 3 but bindings else tight; marbled text block fore edges and top edges age toned but clean; pages clean; half-titles present; in ink on final page of Vol. 3, appended to the final sentence, "in Spelsbury Church near Enstone, Oxfordshire, in which Parish the Ditchley Estate is situated." Shelved above WWII.
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NOTES
Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works are considered classics, and he had a major impact on European and American literature. His knowledge of history and literary facility equipped him to establish the historical novel genre as an exemplar of European Romanticism. (via Wikipedia)
According to the website of Spelsbury: All Saints, "The church was largely rebuilt in the 18th century by the Earls of Litchfield (Lee family) of Ditchley Park a few miles to the east in Spelsbury parish. The bell tower was restored in 1706 by the 1st Earl (1663-1716), but the large ringing chamber on the first floor is much more modern (1885). The chancel was rebuilt in 1740 by the 2nd Earl (1691-1742), and in 1774 the nave, aisles, and transepts were substantially remodelled by the 4th and last Earl (1706-76). Later changes were effected under the Viscounts Dillon, who had married into the Lee family and succeeded them as resident benefactors at Ditchley in 1776."
The characters in several of Jane Austen's novels read and refer to the works of Scott and discuss their merits. Of Scott, Austen wrote to her niece in 1814, "Walter Scott has no business to write novels, especially good ones. It is not fair. He has fame and profit enough as a poet, and should not be taking the bread out of the mouths of other people. I do not like him, and do not mean to like "Waverley" if I can help it, but fear I must."
In the fall of 1815, Scott himself read Austen's newest novel Emma and wrote his favorable impressions of it anonymously in the October "Quarterly Review." That was enough to catch the notice of Mathew Carey of Philadelphia, who attempted to make Emma and its author known in America. He was unsuccessful in his first effort, but by 1833 had published all six of Austen's existing novels with his partner Isaac Lea.