Sm. 4to., First [and Sole?] Edition, F2 torn at fore-margin with some loss of text, some light age-staining; disbound, sewed as issued, uncut, a fresh, crisp copy. With the publisher's advertisement leaf at end. The work is dedicated by Henry Smith to Pollard himself. James Ley (1618-1665), third Earl of Marlborough and naval captain, was grandson of his namesake, the first Earl and notable barrister. By 1643 he had become a Royalist commander and two years later established a colony at Santa Cruz in the West Indies. He then commanded the East Indies squadron that received Bombay from the Portuguese in 1661, and was nominated Governor of Jamaica in 1664. Ley's 'pious letter' is dated 24 April 1665. It concludes with the phrase 'So prays old James, near the coast of Holland' [at sea during the Second Anglo-Dutch War]. A marginal note in a neat contemporary hand states (correctly) 'the ship he was in, Old James, was his own name'. He died soon after [13 June 1665] aboard the same vessel. The Battle of Lowestoft, fought on 13 June 1665 between the English fleet under James Duke of York and the United Provinces [Dutch] fleet under Jacob van Wassenaer, remains the worst naval defeat in Dutch history. The author was killed in the 68-gun 'Old James' stationed in the Centre Division of the Duke of York's Red Squadron. Smith's compilation is nothing if not wide ranging. The other 'learned and honourable persons' include (of the UK) Arundel, Bacon, Bancroft, Charles I, Compton, Coventry, Donne, Egerton, Hatton, Howard, Leicester, Mason, Peito, Pembroke, Raleigh, Selden, Thomas Smith, Somerset, Stafford, Usher, Walsingham, Wolsey, Wotton; (and others) Aristotle, Caracciolus, Charles V, Chrysostom, Gondamar, Grotius, de Haro, Heinsius, Ignatius, Irenaeus, Junius, Justin Martyr, Mazarin, Origen, Plato, Polycarp, Richlieu, Salmasius, Seneca, Socrates, Solomon, Tertullian. Significantly, the publisher's advertisement leaf announces 'An excellent Preservative against Plague…2s. 6d. Per Paper, sealed', together with 'Medela Pestilentiae…an exact Method for curing that Epidemical Distemper' and 'Reflections on the Weekly Bills of Mortality for the Cities of London and Westminster'. EXTREMELY SCARCE.
