Beschrijving
London, J. Dodsley, 1796, 5th edition, 285+280pp. Full leather binding, back hinge suffering but still attached, wear and tear to spine, gilt title on spine, gilt tooled edges of binding,. Impressive armorial bookplate of the famous Right Hon.ble Lord Keith K.B. Vice Adm.l F.R.S. engraved by Mordecai. Admiral George Keith Elphinstone, 1st Viscount Keith, GCB, FRS (7 January 1746 – 10 March 1823) was a Royal Navy officer and politician who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. When war broke out again in 1793, he was appointed to the 74-gun HMS Robust, in which he took part in the occupation of Toulon by Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood. He particularly distinguished himself by beating a body of the French ashore at the head of a naval brigade of British and Spaniards. He was entrusted with the duty of embarking the fugitives when the town was evacuated. In 1794 he was promoted rear-admiral, and in 1795 he was sent to occupy the Dutch Cape Colony thereby establishing the Cape of Good Hope Station. He had a large share in the capture of the Cape in 1795, and in August 1796 captured a whole Dutch squadron in Saldanha Bay. In the interval he had gone on to India, where his health suffered, and the capture at Saldanha was effected on his way home. When the Nore Mutiny broke out in 1797 he was appointed to the command, and was soon able to restore order. He was equally successful at Plymouth, where the squadron was also in a state of effervescence. Elphinstone possibly bought the book to read about his own exploits.
