Letters on the Improvement of the Mind. Addressed to a Lady. [With Illustrations by Richard Westall]. FIRST WESTALL EDITION IN ELEGANT PERIOD BINDING

Sm. 8vo., First Edition thus, with an engraved frontispiece and 4 charming engraved plates by Rolls after Westall, some mild foxing (principally to plate margins); most attractively bound in mid-nineteenth century full polished blue calf, sides with broad and elaborate gilt frame border enclosing another in blind, back with five raised bands ruled in gilt, second compartment lettered in gilt, all other compartments richly tooled in gilt, gilt dentelles and doublures, marbled endpapers, marbled edges, a delightful copy in well-preserved period binding. Well printed by Whittingham at the Chiswick Press. With the nineteenth century trade ticket of Guy of Chelmsford on front paste-down.Hester Chapone (1727-1801), author and blue-stocking, was a close friend of Richardson and Gilbert White. An active intellectual, she was a regular participant in London's literary salons alongside Vesey, Montagu, Ord and More. First published in 1774, her 'Letters on the Mind' (as they came to be known) were held in high esteem. They were followed by 'A Letter to a New-Married Lady' in 1777.See CBEL II, 843.