GLEIG, G.R. The Life of Arthur, Duke of Wellington.

The Peoples edition. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, 1864. First edition thus. Octavo. pp. [5]vi-vii [1] blank. [1] 2-496, [1 Plate - (Portrait of Wellington)]. With a half-title. Contemporary full pink calf, the covers framed by double gilt fillets enclosing a frame of flowerheads in gilt. Spine divided into six panels by five gilt raised bands, panels with gilt floral designs, black calf label. Marbled endpapers, the front pastedown with the armorial bookplate of William Garnett Esq of Bleasdale and Quernmore Park, Co. Lancaster, on the front pastedown. Ink manuscript school prize presentation inscription to W. Garnett, 1st. Prize Gymnastics, at Wellesley House, July 1864. All edges marbled. Front and rear endpapers spotted, as very occasionally are the head margins.
Provenance: Garnett copy. William James Garnett (1818-1873) was a British Conservative Party politician from Bleasdale in Lancashire. He sat in the House of Commons from 1857 to 1864. His father, William Garnett, a cotton merchant of Lark Hill, Salford, had acquired a lease of the manor or forest of Bleasdale from the Crown and converted wild lands into meadow and pasture. He had built Bleasdale Tower and served as High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1843. William James bought Quernmore Park c.1842 and inherited the Bleasdale estate on the death of his father in 1863. He was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant of Lancashire in 1852, and was elected at the 1857 general election as a Member of Parliament (MP) for the borough of Lancaster. He was re-elected in 1859, and held the seat until his resignation on 6 April 1864 by becoming Steward of the Manor of Northstead. He is buried in Brompton Cemetery towards the north-east.

[Cat 157]