This volume is a beauty with a beautiful leather spine adorned with gold gilt lettering and ornamentation that looks almost as good as it did in 1823. Their is some light wear as shown in the pictures, but the only other damage is the acid burnt title page that got that way from sitting next to the fold out map of ancient Syracuse. The map, printed with a letter press, must be on pretty acidic paper.
Interesting that Rollins calls his history that of the "Grecians and the Persians", rather than that of 'Persia and Greece'.
But what is more interesting is the ownership history of this old book. Starting with marbled first page, we see the bookplate of the "Archdeacon of Richmond". This was probably John Owen the 'Chaplin General' of the British Armed Forces, formerly Chaplin for the East India Company. There's much more to learn about Mr. Owen, but in the interests of brevity...
His successor as Archdeacon was Henry Law, and since Owen died in 1824, a year after this book was published, it may have been him. He rates an entry in the English Dictionary of Biography himself.
Our next owner signed his name. On the next page you will see written "T.E. Headlam, Gilmonby Hall". This man was The Right Honourable Thomas Emerson Headlam, the squire of Gilmonby Hall, near the ancient village of Bowes, which began life as a Roman army encampment and still clung to life, much due to the efforts of Thomas Headlam, who founded an agricultural fair and famous horse show and market. Here's what the Echo, a local paper, had to say about him:
"Mr Headlam was born at Wycliffe, on the banks of the Tees, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. "He graduated as a sixth wrangler in 1836, " said The Northern Echo in his obituary, a wrangler being one who gains the highest marks. He became a barrister, and was elected Liberal MP for Newcastle in 1847, a seat he held until 1874 when he was defeated "through the factious policy of the Newcastle Radicals who preferred to let in an avowed Tory to a moderate Liberal", according to the Echo.
In Parliament, Mr Headlam rose to be Judge Advocate"-General, which allowed him a seat on the Privy Council.
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