[GRANT, Anne MacVicar]. Letters from the Mountains; being the Real Correspondence of a Lady, between the years 1773 and 1803. London, Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1806.
Three volumes in one, 8vo. Slightly later half calf over marbled boards; spine ruled in gilt, with lettering on morocco labels; speckled edges; pp. viii, 262; iv, 288; iv, 324; rubbing to extremities and hinges of spine, as well as a little to marbled boards; light even discolouration to paper stock, with occasional spotting; bookplate to paste-down; ownership inscriptions to each title; a few instances of mispagination, with pp. 15-35 of vol. II bound in vol. III before p. 37, and 11-14 of vol. III bound within vol. II before p. 37; final leaf cut shorter at lower margin; a good copy of the complete three volume set bound in one.
First edition. After the death of her husband in 1801, Glasgow-born Anne Grant first published a collection of verses she had written over time. The letters presented in this text 'are genuine, but broken and interrupted sketches of a life spent in the most remote obscurity' (p. v). Anne Grant, with the help of antiquary George Chalmers, prepared this, 'a selection from her correspondence under the title Letters from the Mountains; being a real correspondence of a lady between the years 1773 and 1807. … This collection describes how she learned Gaelic in order to understand what she called 'the peculiarities of Highland manners.' Her correspondence comments on the disintegration of the Highland way of life, on literature, and on the excess of the leaders of revolutionary France' (ODNB). - A valuable collection of non-fiction enriching the background of Highland Romanticism.
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