MAXWELL, Sir Herbert. The Life and Letters of George William Frederick, Fourth Earl of Clarendon. London: Edward Arnold. 1913.
Two volumes, 8vo. Original burgundy cloth, ornamented and lettered in gilt; pp. xi, 366; x, [2], 383, 6 plates (5 in photogravure); cloth only a little marked, light offsetting from endpapers, slightly later faint collector's stamp of Arthur Sims of Christchurch of frontispiece-versos, lending library label inside rear cover of volume I (taken out twice, the last time in 1914), inobtrusive traces of a red label on oppsite fly-leaf; a very good copy of an important work.
First edition, very rare of this thorough work on and with many letters by one of the most eminent Victorian politicians and diplomats, George William Frederick Villier, fourth earl of Clarendon (1800-1870), who was among the most influential foreign policy makers between the 1830s and his sudden death in 1870. Furthermor,e he was a prolific and good letter writer. He served in St. Petersburg in 1820, witnessed Spanish politics and the Carlist Wars, tried to alleviate the Irish Famine and served right up to the Crimean War as a top diplomat. "Gladstone described Clarendon as the pleasantest colleague he had ever had" (ODNB).
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