[Byron Circle] Haygarth, William.

Greece, A Poem, In Three Parts; With Notes, Classical Illustrations, And Sketches Of The Scenery.

First Edition. London, Printed by W,Bulmer and Co., 1814. Quarto (24 cm wide x 30 cm high). 304 pages with all 9 original sepia-aquatint-plates by Charles Turner after Haygarth. Disbound due to broken binding. Halftitle and bookblock available with all 9 plates included. Needs rebinding. Bookblock firm, halftitle detached. All nine plates with faded dampstain but still in beautiful and strong impression. The wide-margined Text in excellent, clean condition besides the faded dampstain. Last page of the Volume with some browning. Very minor wormhole-damage to the last 14 pages. One illustration cleanly detached. Extremely Rare Book !

The stunning 9 original sepia-aquatint-plates by Charles Turner included are:

1. View of the Summit of Mount Pindus (Dampstain showing to margin of front and rear of plate)
2. View of Thermopylae (Excellent condition with the Dampstain showing mildly to front but mainly to rear of plate)
3. View of Parnassus and Delphi (Excellent condition with the Dampstain showing mildly to front but mainly to rear of plate)
4. View of the Pnyx and Acropolis (Excellent condition with the Dampstain showing mildly in front margin but mainly to rear of plate)
5. View of the Temple of Theseus (Excellent condition with the Dampstain showing clearly to front but mainly to rear of plate)
6. View of the Acropolis, Parthenon, and Columns of Adrian (Dampstains showing clearly to front but mainly to rear of plate)
7. View of the Ancient Gate of Mycenae (Excellent condition with the Dampstain showing clearly to front but mainly to rear of plate)
8. View of the Ruins of a Temple near Andruzzena (Excellent condition with the Dampstain to front but mainly to rear of plate)
9. View of Sparta (Excellent condition with the Dampstain showing mildly to front but mainly to rear of plate)


William Haygarth (1784–1825) was an English poet, writer and artist.
He was the elder son of John Haygarth, and was educated at Rugby School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1801. He graduated B.A. in 1804 and M.A. in 1808. He travelled in Greece from August 1810 to January 1811, supported by a fellowship from Trinity College, starting in the north-west, and journeying to Athens. While there he joined Lord Byron’s circle.
Haygarth bought property at Holly Hill, Sussex in 1818, and married Frances Parry the following year. By 1824 he was seen to be suffering from consumption, and was treated as an invalid. He died on 25 September 1825; a memorial tablet to him was placed in Epsom church.

Greece, a Poem, the work for which Haygarth is known, was mostly written in Athens. He worked on it at Lambridge House, his parental home near Bath, Somerset, in 1813; and it was published in 1814. One of its themes is the valuing of artistic achievement over power. Haygarth’s strong philhellene reaction to Corinth has been characterised as making it a “Tintern Abbey” for the Ottoman Empire. The main theme, the regeneration of Greece, was already a literary commonplace, to be followed shortly in Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, which eclipsed its rivals; the reason being, it has been argued, because he knew better the rhetoric to give the British audience, not because he knew more about Greece.

Haygarth also wrote articles for the Quarterly Review and the British Critic. For the Quarterly, he reviewed the ancient Roman history of William John Bankes, and the ancient Greek counterpart of William Mitford. He found fault with Mitford’s history, as far as the writing went; Mitford and his anti-democratic views went down well with the Quarterly’s Tory readership. Against the odds, given his moderate liberal politics, Haygarth was in with a chance of becoming its editor for much of 1823, as the publisher John Murray and outgoing editor William Gifford frustrated each other’s plans for the succession. Murray wanted to break up the monolithic Toryism of the Quarterly, while Gifford insisted on a Canningite (liberal conservative), one of John Taylor Coleridge and William Nassau Senior. After an impasse, Murray agreed to Coleridge, who was in post only briefly, leaving Haygarth, already ailing, with a sense of grievance, to break off the relationship.

A substantial collection of Haygarth’s paintings went to the Gennadius Library, purchased at auction in 1886. His library was sold by R. H. Evans at auction in London on 8 November 1827 (and nine following days). A copy of the catalogue is at Cambridge University Library. (Wikipedia)

• Keywords: 19th Century – Rare · 19th Century Illustration · 19th Century Literature · Byron · Byron Circle · Classical Literature – Rare · English Literature – Rare · English Literature of the 19th century · Greece · Illustrated Books · Illustrated Books Rare · Poetry · Poetry – Rare · Travel Greece – Rare
• Inventory Number: 31707AB

EUR 1.280,--