< Back

[Bruce, John Collingwood].
Lapidarium Septentrionale: or, a Description of the Monuments of Roman Rule in the North of England [Presentation Copy from the library of the Earl of Lonsdale].
Publisher: Bernard Quaritch, London;
Date of Publication: 1875
Stock Code: 14952
First edition. Folio, pp., xvi, 492, plus 14 plates, of which 2 double-page and 4 in colour, plus large folding map to rear pocket. Collated and complete. Publisher’s brown half morocco over textured cloth-covered bevelled boards; gilt vignette to upper board; top edge gilt; emerald-green end-papers. Inscribed in ink to verso of front free end-paper ‘August 1875 // from the Society of Antiquaries // Newcastle Upon Tyne // to // The Earl of Lonsdale’; Hugh Cecil Lonsdale’s (1857-1944) armorial bookplate to front paste-down. Joints and corners rubbed; cloth to upper board faded, with spots of fading to lower board; light soiling to both boards; lower hinge cracked. Foxing to title-page and verso of folding map. A very good copy. Scarce and important study of the Roman antiquities of Hadrian’s Wall and the North of England, including Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland and Westmorland, by the noted Northumbrian antiquary Rev. John Collingwood Bruce (1805-1892). Bruce was Secretary and Vice President of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and the author of the Handbook of the Roman Wall; his numbering system for the structures of the Roman Wall is still in use today. The Earls of Lonsdale are an eminent Cumbrian family seated at Lowther Castle, Penrith. This lavishly produced volume was presented to Henry Lowther, 3rd Earl (1818-1876), before it passed to his grandson, the 5th earl, whose bookplate graces this volume. Hugh Cecil Lonsdale, 5th Earl was an accomplished sportsman, explorer and philanthropist. He was the first president of the Automobile Association, the first president of the National Sporting Club, and vice-president of the RSPCA. Lonsdale’s proficiency in boxing, and his bequest of the Lonsdale Belts to the boxing championship saw his name given to the Lonsdale brand of boxing garments. Lonsdale travelled to Alaska in 1888 in search of First Nations artefacts. His collection now resides in the British museum. Ever the adventurer, he made an extraordinary wager with J. P. Morgan over whether a man could make a pedestrian circumnavigation of the globe incognito. £400.00