'Antiquities and Topography of Nithsdale' by Robert Riddell
Reference code
RID
Title
'Antiquities and Topography of Nithsdale' by Robert Riddell
Date
1787-c.1792
Level of description
Fonds
Extent and format
ff. vii + 151.
Folio.
Leather binding, blue, gilt-tooled (with the arms of Riddell of Glenriddell; see also fol. iv verso), edges gilt. Armorial bookplate of Riddell, with motto 'Inimica tyrannis', fol. i.
Folio.
Leather binding, blue, gilt-tooled (with the arms of Riddell of Glenriddell; see also fol. iv verso), edges gilt. Armorial bookplate of Riddell, with motto 'Inimica tyrannis', fol. i.
Scope and content
'Antiquities and Topography of Nithsdale' (fol. v). Collections made by Robert Riddell of Friars Carse, Dumfriesshire, FSA (see his preface, fol. vi verso).
A finely executed collection beginning with 'A Tour in Nithsdale 1787' (fol. 1). Many watercolours or wash drawings of antiquities, including finds, and (fols. 143v-4) a signed autograph poem of Robert Burns, 21 June 1792, beginning 'Thou whom chance may hither lead' (see M. Smith, Index of English Literary Manuscripts, III, Part 1 (1986), 189, where several autograph copies are listed, not including the present one; the Glenriddell MS, National Library of Scotland, MSS 86-7, contains copies and autographs of poems by Burns selected for Robert Riddell, ibid., 96).
The manuscript is mentioned in Riddell's obituary in the Gentleman's Magazine (1794, pt. 1), 481. For Nithsdale see also F. Grose, The Antiquities of Scotland, I (1789), 146-68.
A finely executed collection beginning with 'A Tour in Nithsdale 1787' (fol. 1). Many watercolours or wash drawings of antiquities, including finds, and (fols. 143v-4) a signed autograph poem of Robert Burns, 21 June 1792, beginning 'Thou whom chance may hither lead' (see M. Smith, Index of English Literary Manuscripts, III, Part 1 (1986), 189, where several autograph copies are listed, not including the present one; the Glenriddell MS, National Library of Scotland, MSS 86-7, contains copies and autographs of poems by Burns selected for Robert Riddell, ibid., 96).
The manuscript is mentioned in Riddell's obituary in the Gentleman's Magazine (1794, pt. 1), 481. For Nithsdale see also F. Grose, The Antiquities of Scotland, I (1789), 146-68.
Creator
Riddell, Robert (d 1794), antiquary and composer
Previous reference number(s)
SAL/MS/117
Archival history
Presented by the compiler through Richard Gough, Director of the Society of Antiquaries (letter, 7 Nov. 1793, fol. vii). Minute Book XXV, p. 2. Archaeologia, 11 (1794), 449. Letter of J A Herbert of the British Museum, 1914, authenticating the Burns autograph, fol. iii.