Beschreibung:

THOMAS MATHISON
THOMAS MATHISON The Goff. An Heroi-Comical Poem. In three cantos. Edinburgh: Peter Hill, 1793. 4° (227 x 180mm). (Slight soiling to title.) Bound with 10 other pamphlets of mainly Scottish interest. Contemporary half calf and marbled boards (upper jonts split, extremities rubbed). FINE, WIDE-MARGINED COPY of the third edition. A poem of more than 300 lines, The Goff recounts a game on Leith links and is THE FIRST PRINTED BOOK ENTIRELY DEVOTED TO GOLF. The 'Notes' at the end identify the two opponents, 'Castalio' and the much younger 'Pygmalion', as the Edinburgh bookseller, Alexander Dunning, and Mathison himself (bapt. 1721, d. 1760). Mention is also made of the 'Caledonian Chiefs', the leading golfers of the day and foremost members of Edinburgh's social elite who formed the earliest known golf club, the Company of Gentlemen Golfers, in 1744. ESTC records 7 holdings of the first edition, two of the second and two of the third. Murdoch considers the third edition, misleadingly described as 'second edition' on the title, as 'the rarest of the three.' It followed the editions of 1743 and 1763, but has a dedication 'To all the lovers of Goff .....' and two short poems added; proper names are also fully spelled out. Murdoch p. 15 and no. 503. Bound with: ROBERTSON, George. General View of the Agriculture of the County of Midlothian . Edinburgh: J. Anderson 1793. (Lacks last leaf.) -- TROTTER, James. General View of the Agriculture of the County of West Lothian . Edinburgh: Adam Neil, 1794. -- URE, David. General View of Agriculture in the County of Dumbarton . London: W. Smith, 1794. -- [STUART, Andrew]. A Letter to the Right Honourable Lord Amherst [ January 3, 1781 ] [London? 1781]. -- HUTTON, James. The Theory of Rain [ Read by the author, Feb. 2 1784 ]. [Edinburgh? 1788?]. Offprint from the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh vol. I, not independently listed in ESTC; and 5 other pamphlets and flyers of Scottish interest.