Anecdotes of music, historical and biographical; in a series of letters from a gentleman to his daughter ... In three volumes

London: printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster Row, 1814. First edition, 12mo, pp. vii, [1], 446, [2] ads; [4], 510, [2] ads; [4], 456; original blue paper-covered boards, blue paper shelfback, printed paper labels on spines; overall soiling, a few chips out along the joints, some cracking at the top of the spine on volume I; in all, a good, sound copy. The text consists of a series of 76 letters ostensibly written to his daughter. "The Author of the following Sheets is strongly impressed with the idea, that Music is not only a harmless amusement; but, if properly directed, capable of being eminently beneficial to his fair Countrywomen. (truncated) In many instances, it may be the means of preventing that vacuity of mind, which is too frequently the parent of libertinism; of precluding the intrusion of idle and dangerous imaginations; and, more particularly among the Daughters of ease and opulence, by occupying a considerable portion of time, may prove an antidote to the poison insidiously administered by the innumerable licentious Novels, which are hourly sapping the foundations of every moral and religious principle" (Preface). (Inventory #: 66529)