2 volumes, folio (460 x 290 mm). Title printed within double rule border, woodcut headpieces, initials and devices. (A few tiny wormholes in upper margin of vol. II.) Contemporary panelled calf (joints just starting). Provenance: Thomas Hamilton, 6th Earl of Haddington (armorial bookplate on verso of title-page, annotations, see below).

FIRST EDITION, LARGE-PAPER COPY, of Burnet's History, which Samuel Johnson called "very entertaining. The style, indeed, is mere chit-chat. I do not believe that Burnet intentionally lied; but he was so much prejudiced, that he took no pains to find out the truth. He was like a man who resolves to regulate his time by a certain watch; but will not inquire whether the watch is right or not." With a manuscript note on the verso of the title-page of vol. II in the hand of Burnet's son: "The original manuscript of both Volumes of this History will be deposited in the Cotton library by J. Burnet." The Earl of Haddington is listed on in vol. II as a subscriber to a large-paper copy, and the present copy includes a marginal bracket on p. 460 in vol. II noting a passage that discusses the "Earls of Hadington," presumably in Thomas Hamilton, 6th Earl of Haddington's hand. Lowndes p.320. A FINE ASSOCIATION.