Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Honourable Henry Home of Kames: one of the senators of the College of justice, and one of the lords commissioners of justiciary in Scotland: containing sketches of the progress of literature and general improvement in Scotland during the greater part of the eighteenth century; [bound wi

Edinburgh: Printed for William Creech,, 1807 [& 1809, supplement]. First edition of Lord Woodhouselee's account of the life and times of the Scottish enlightenment philosopher Henry Home Kames, containing a large number of letters to and from Kames, including several from David Hume; bound with the 1809 supplement volume, and scarce thus. Woodhouselee came to know Kames in 1767, and often accompanied the him when he went on circuit as a judge. At Kames's suggestion he wrote a supplement to Kames's own Dictionary of Decisions, which appeared in 1778. His biography of Kames remains one of the principal sources for the life of the philosopher. "Besides a luminous account of its proper subject, and of all his writings, it contains a vast fund of literary anecdote, and many notices of eminent persons, of whom there was hardly any other commemoration" (Chambers, p. 364). Two volumes, quarto (262 x 209 mm). Contemporary half calf, spines lettered in gilt, smooth spines formed in compartments with black bands, gilt ornaments in compartments, marbled sides and edges. Portrait frontispiece in vol. I, 2 engraved leaves of specimens of Kames's handwriting in vol. II. Bound without half-titles in main volumes, with both half-titles in supplement, without blank 2I4 in vol. II. With the contemporary bookplates to front pastedowns of Viscount Doneraile of County Cork in Ireland. Minor splits and wear at extremities, front joint of vol. II a little split and tender but holding, slight spotting to supplement else contents clean and fresh, a very good copy. Robert Chambers, Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished Scotsmen, volume 4, part 2, 1837.