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Travel back in time by holding an old book in your hands - imagine whom may have held in in their hands in the past, imagine all the events it may have witnessed, all the conversations it may have been part of, all the secret letters that may have been hidden within its pages at some point!

And then you open it up and a whole new world opens up!

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Monday 23 February 2015

The Works of Peter Pindar - Real name: John Wolcot

The Works of Peter Pindar - Published 1822
(Ex Library)


A superb piece of English Literature - available in our online shop



John Wolcot  1739 - 1819



He took his M.D. from Aberdeen in 1767 and was ordained in England in 1769. He was physician to the governor of Jamaica (1767-69) and rector of Vere, Jamaica (1770); after 1773 he practiced medicine in Cornwall before moving to London in 1778 to pursue a career as art critic and satirist. Wolcot wrote for Monthly Review (1793-1796) and as "Peter Pindar" became the most prolific and successful burlesque poet of the later eighteenth century. His particular targets were the Royal Academy and the royal family.


He was a master of verse caricature, shown especially in his scurrilous lampoons of George III:
The Louisad, an Heroi-Comic Poem (1785-95)
(click on any of the images for a full size view)











Ode upon ode; or, A Peep at St.James's; or, New Year's Day; or, What you Will (1787)


Other targets included James Boswell and the painter Benjamin West: 
(Lyric Odes to the Royal Academicians (1782-85)









The Royal Visit to Exeter (1795; a tour de force of Devon dialect humour)







Further information and a list of John Walcot's publications can be found here.

Available online, offers are welcome.




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