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@asls.org.uk Sep 7, 2026, 1:58 PM

We republished Susan Ferrier’s 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘨𝘦 in 2020, using the text of the acid-sharp 1819 2nd edition rather than the sentimentalised Victorian 4th edition of 1841. You can read the first chapter online here:
#C18 #C19 #WomenWriters 💙📚
www.yumpu.com/en/document/...

@asls.org.uk Sep 7, 2026, 1:58 PM

“It is a truth universally acknowledged…”

Susan Ferrier’s 2nd novel 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 (1824) starts with a nod & wink to Jane Austen’s 𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘫𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘦 (1813). In 1818, Blackwood’s paid £150 for 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘨𝘦; it is a testament to Ferrier’s popularity that they paid £1000 for 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦
#C18 #C19

Screenshot of the top of page 1 of Susan Ferrier’s THE INHERITANCE

THE INHERITANCE.

CHAPTER I.

“Strange is it, that our bloods
Of colour, weight, and heat, pour’d all together,
Would quite confound distinction, yet stand off
In differences so mighty.”
—All’s Well that Ends Well.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that there is no passion so deeply rooted in human nature as that of pride. Whether of self or family, of deeds done in our own bodies, or deeds done in the bodies of those who lived hundreds of years before us—all find some foundation on which to build their Tower of Babel. Even the dark uncertain future becomes a bright field of promise to the eye of pride, which, like Banquo’s bloody ghost, can smile even upon the dim perspective of posthumuous greatness.

@asls.org.uk Sep 7, 2026, 1:58 PM

Susan Ferrier (1782–1854) was born #OTD, 7 Sept. Her 3 novels – 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘨𝘦, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦, & 𝘋𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘺 – are vivid & humorous accounts of Scottish society. Often compared to her contemporary #JaneAusten, Ferrier’s satires are much more vicious…
A 🎂🧵
#C18 #C19 #WomenWriters
www.nls.uk/collections/...

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 7, 2026, 10:23 AM

19C Prattware pot lid depicting Uncle Toby and the Widow Wadman from Sterne’s Tristram Shandy #c18 #c18th #18thc

Brightly coloured transfer print on a pottery lid (probably for a jar of potted meat) depicting Tristram Shandy’s Uncle Toby examining the eye of the concupiscent Widow Wadman. Toby’s model of the siege of Namur on his bowling green is seen in the background

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 6, 2026, 11:07 AM

Silver coffee and tea set by Paul Storr (London, 1809-10) with Nelson & Nelson, NYC. (Long) #c18 #c18th #18thc

Dealer's description
Round and wide-bodied. Double snake handles with slithering and squiggling heads. Coffeepot and teapot handles are leaf-capped and flanked by phoenix wings. All handles high-looping except sugar handles which are side bracket. Covers hinged with acorn finials. Coffeepot cover raised and teapot cover flush. Coffeepot set in tripod base with patera-mounted loose rings and leaf-capped paw supports mounted to rectilinear tripod base on bracket supports; vasiform oil lamp. Acanthus leaves, paterae, and egg and dart. Gadrooning and ribbing. Engraved armorials.
Coffeepot: H 11 3/4 x W 6 1/2 x D 6 1/2 in. Teapot: H 6 x W 10 x D 7 in. Creamer: H 4 x W 7 3/4 x D 5 1/4 in. Sugar: H 4 1/4 x W 8 x D 6 5/8 in. Heavy total weight: 126 troy ounces.

@asls.org.uk Sep 5, 2026, 1:04 PM

Celebrating Robert Fergusson

Prof @rhonabrown.bsky.social & Dr @wilcocksonamy.bsky.social share their insights into Fergusson’s life, works & legacy – listen free online, & hear extracts of his work read by @billykayscot.bsky.social & James Robertson
#poetry #C18
shows.acast.com/633a8ff33566...

@asls.org.uk Sep 5, 2026, 1:04 PM

“Look round, ye sipplers of the poison’d cup
From foreign plant distill’d!”

@wilcocksonamy.bsky.social looks at food & drink in Robert Fergusson’s poems, & sees him take aim at what tea represents: overseas trade, cosmopolitanism, & exotic tastes
#C18 #poetry
www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2024/11/oyst...

@asls.org.uk Sep 5, 2026, 1:04 PM

(Robert Fergusson’s #poem ☝️ is basically just this gag 👇 in verse form)
#C18
youtu.be/hOSYiT2iG08?...

@asls.org.uk Sep 5, 2026, 1:04 PM

GREAT PEDAGOGUE, whose literarian lore,
With SYLLABLE and SYLLABLE conjoin’d,
To transmutate and varyfy, has learn’d
The whole revolving scientific names
That in the alphabetic columns lie…

—Robert Fergusson, “To Dr Samuel Johnson: Food for a New Edition of his Dictionary”
#poem #poetry #C18

To Dr Samuel Johnson: Food for a New Edition of his Dictionary
by Robert Fergusson

Let Wilkes and Churchill rage no more,
Tho’ scarce provision, learning’s good:
What can these hungry’s next implore?
Even Samuel Johnson loves our food.
—RODONDO

GREAT PEDAGOGUE, whose literarian lore,
With SYLLABLE and SYLLABLE conjoin’d,

To transmutate and varyfy, has learn’d
The whole revolving scientific names
That in the alphabetic columns lie,
Far from the knowledge of mortalic shapes,
As we, who never can peroculate
The miracles by thee miraculiz’d,
The Muse silential long, with mouth apert,
Would give vibration to stagnatic tongue,
And loud encomiate thy puissant name,
Eulogiated from the green decline
Of Thames’s banks to Scoticanian shores,
Where LOCH-LOMONDIAN liquids undulize.

To meminate thy name in after times,
The mighty Mayor of each regalian town
Shall consignate thy work to parchment fair
In roll burgharian, and their tables all
Shall fumigate with fumigation strong:
SCOTLAND, from perpendicularian hills,
Shall emigrate her fair MUTTONIAN store,
Which late had there in pedestration walk’d,
And o’er her airy heights perambuliz’d.

Oh, blackest execrations on thy head,
EDINA shameless! tho’ he came within
The bounds of your NOTATION, tho’ you knew
His HONORIFIC name, you noted not,
But basely suffer’d him to chariotize
Far from your tow’rs, with smoke that nubilate,
Nor drank one amicitial swelling cup
To welcome him convivial. BAILIES all!
With rage inflated, Catenations* tear,
Nor ever after be you vinculiz’d,
Since you that sociability denied
To him whose potent Lexiphanian stile

[footnote: Catenations, vide CHAINS—Johnson]

Words can PROLONGATE, and inswell his page
With what in others to a line’s confin’d.

Welcome, thou verbal potentate and prince!
To hills and valleys, where emerging oats
From earth assuage our pauperty to bay,
And bless thy name, thy dictionarian skill,
Which there definitive will still remain,
And oft be speculiz’d by taper blue,
While youth STUDENTIOUS turn thy folio page.

Have you as yet, in per’patetic mood
Regarded with the texture of the eye
The CAVE CAVERNICK, where fraternal bard,
CHURCHILL, depicted pauperated swains
With thraldom and bleak want reducted sore;
Where Nature, colouriz’d, so coarsely fades,
And puts her russet par’phernalia on?
Have you, as yet, the way explorified
To let lignarian chalice, swell’d with oats,
Thy orifice approach? Have you as yet,
With skin fresh rubified by scarlet spheres,
Applied BRIMSTONIC UNCTION to your hide,
To terrify the SALAMANDRIAN fire
That from involuntary digits asks
The strong allaceration?—Or can you swill
The USQUEBALIAN flames of whisky blue
In fermentation strong? Have you apply’d
The kelt aerian to your Anglian thighs,
And with renunciation assigniz’d
Your breeches in LONDONA to be worn?
Can you, in frigour of Highlandian sky,
On heathy summits take nocturnal rest?
It cannot be—You may as well desire
An alderman leave PLUMB-PUDDENIAN store,
And scratch the tegument from pottage-dish,

As bid thy countrymen, and thee conjoin’d,
Forsake stomachic joys. Then hie you home,
And be a malcontent, that naked hinds,
On lentiles fed, can make your kingdom quake,
And tremulate Old England libertiz’d!

@asls.org.uk Sep 5, 2026, 1:04 PM

In this BBC documentary, first broadcast in 2015, writer Andrew O’Hagan tracks down Robert Fergusson’s story in the streets & wynds of Edinburgh’s Old Town
#C18 #poetry
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b0v...

@asls.org.uk Sep 5, 2026, 1:04 PM

Robert Fergusson was described by Robert Burns as “my elder brother in the muse”. In this podcast for @byleaveswelive.bsky.social, Robert Crawford, Ally Heather & Kathleen Jamie explore Fergusson’s life, work, & untimely death
#C18 #poetry
player.captivate.fm/episode/a841...

@asls.org.uk Sep 5, 2026, 1:04 PM

Daft gowk, in macaroni dress,
Are ye come here to shaw your face,
Bowden wi’ pride o’ simmer gloss,
To cast a dash at Reikie’s cross…

—“On Seeing a Butterfly in the Street”, by Robert Fergusson (1750–1774) – born #OTD, 5 Sept. In his short life he reinvigorated #poetry in Scots. A 🎂🧵
#C18

On Seeing a Butterfly in the Street
Robert Fergusson

Daft gowk, in macaroni dress,
Are ye come here to shaw your face,
Bowden wi’ pride o’ simmer gloss,
To cast a dash at Reikie’s cross;
And glowr at mony a twa-legg’d creature,
Flees, braw by art, tho’ worms by nature?

Like country laird in city cleeding,
Ye’re come to town to lear’ good breeding;
To bring ilk darling toast and fashion
In vogue amang the flee creation,
That they, like buskit belles and beaux,
May crook their mou’ fu’ sour at those
Whase weird is still to creep, alas!
Unnotic’d ʼmang the humble grass;
While you, wi’ wings new buskit trim,
Can far frae yird and reptiles skim;
Newfangle grown wi’ new-got form,
You soar aboon your mither worm.

Kind Nature lent but for a day
Her wings to mak ye sprush and gay;
In her habuliments a while
Ye may your former sell beguile,
And ding awa’ the vexing thought
O’ hourly dwinin’ into nought,
By beengin’ to your foppish brithers,
Black corbies dress’d in peacock’s feathers;
Like thee they dander here and there,
Whan Simmer’s blinks are warm and fair,
And lo’e to snuff the healthy balm,
Whan E’enin’ spreads her wing sae calm;
But whan she girns and glow’rs sae dour
Frae Borean houff in angry show’r,
Like thee they scour frae street or field,
And hap them in a lyther bield;
For they were never made to dree
The adverse gloom o’ Fortune’s e’e,
Nor ever pried life’s pinin’ woes,
Nor pu’d the prickles wi’ the rose.

Poor Butterfly! thy case I mourn,
To green kail-yard and fruits return:
How could you troke the mavis’ note
For “penny pies all-pipin’ hot?”
Can lintie’s music be compar’d
Wi’ gruntles frae the City Guard?
Or can our flow’rs, at ten hour’s bell,
The gowan or the spink excel?

Now shou’d our sclates wi’ hailstanes ring,
What cabbage-fauld wad screen your wing;
Say, fluttering fairy! wert thy hap
To light beneath braw Nanny’s cap,
Wad she, proud butterfly of May!
In pity let you skaithless gae?
The furies glancing frae her een
Wad rug your wings o’ siller sheen,
That, wae for thee! far, far outvy
Her Paris artist’s finest dye;
Then a’ your bonny spraings wad fall,
And you a worm be left to crawl.

To sic mishanter rins the laird
Wha quits his ha’-house and kail-yard,
Grows politician, scours to court,
Whare he’s the laughing-stock and sport
O’ Ministers, wha jeer and jibe,
And heeze his hopes wi’ thought o’ bribe,
Till in the end they flae him bare,
Leave him to poortith, and to care.
Their fleetchin’ words owre late he sees,
He trudges hame, repines, and dies.

Sic be their fa’ wha dirk their ben
In blackest business nae their ain;
And may they scad their lips fu’ leal,
That dip their spoons in ither’s kail.

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 5, 2026, 11:26 AM

'A Genuine and True Journal of the Most Miraculous Escape of the Young Chevalier ...' by John Burton, one of the publications that capitalised on the continuing threat of Prince Charles Edward & a #Jacobite restoration, at Taylors Auctions Rooms, Montrose (est.£150-200) #c18 #c18th #18thc

@drgsespinosa.bsky.social Sep 5, 2026, 9:56 AM

Publicación reciente: “En busca de los dibujos perdidos: José Nicolás de #Azara y la edición madrileña de 1790 de los manuscritos de historia natural mexicana del Doctor Hernández”, en ‘Cuadernos de Estudios del Siglo #XVIII’ 36 (2026) reunido.uniovi.es/index.php/CE... #C18

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 3, 2026, 10:22 AM

Famille rose 'bats and peaches' bowl (China, 1723-35), being sold for the benefit of the Art Institute of Chicago at Christie's, NY (est. US$400,000-600,000) #c18 #c18th #18thc