The Rise and Fall of a Regency Dandy

Description

Scrope Berdmore Davies was a rake of the circle of Lord Byron in 1820s London. Dandy, wit, gambler and fellow of King’s College, Cambridge, Scrope Davies might have been an entirely forgotten footnote to the age of the dandy, were it not for the discovery in 1976 of a leather trunk in the vaults of Barclay’s Bank. Scrope had hastily deposited the trunk there before going on the run from creditors to the Continent in 1820. This book was assembled from the contents of that trunk, which contained numerous letters and journals ultimately planned to become Scrope’s memoirs – alas never penned. The letters and notebooks included some by Lord Byron and Shelley, leading to The Times, upon the trunk’s discovery, calling it “the literary find of the century.” This hardback first edition is in very good condition.