Etymologie

Two volumes. pp. xxxiv, (6), 498 + Frontis engraving, dated 1798, of Mercury, seated; (6), 590, (2). Offsetting from frontis, as usual. Foxed. 8vo. 235 mm. The original paper boards binding has perished and should be sometimereplaced. John Horne (1736-1812), later known as John Horne Tooke began his celebrity when he became an enthusiastic partisan of Wilkes in 1768. They made a good pair. Horne loved battles of wits and legal maneuvering, and he sympathized with every cause for liberty, including the French Revolution, and the independence of the American Colonies. Wilkes and Horne later came to bitter disagreement and fought a war of 'Letters'. The redoubtable Junius entered the controversy on Wilkes's side. Horne retorted vigorously, and proved the most successful critic of that famous agitator. A friend of Horne's, William Tooke, lived in the charming town of Purley, and it was he who persuaded John Horne, by then a famous political agitator, to add the name of Tooke to his (as a mutual honor after Horne had successfully fought an Enclosure Act which would have adversely affected Tooke's Purley property). After John Horne Tooke wrote 'The Diversions of Purley' it was apparent that he wanted to be heir to at least half of his Tooke's fortune; but thiswas not to be. This edition of discursive and eccentric linguistic essays,edited and printed by Richard Taylor (1781-1858), is considered the best version of 'The Diversions of Purley'. W151 R