8vo. [2], xi, [1], 513pp, [1]. With an engraved title page. Bound by Stephenson of Parliament Street, London, in contemporary gilt-tooled green morocco, A.E.G. Lightly rubbed, spine a trifle discoloured. Early inked ownership inscription to head of title page, scattered foxing.

An attractively bound copy of Sir Walter Scott's (1771-1832) most intellectually ambitious long poem; a meditation on war, patriotism and personal corruption, that concludes with Flodden, the battle on 9th September 1513 in which James IV, king of Scots, was killed and the Scottish army annihilated. Consisting of six cantos, each with an introductory epistle, Marmion was first published in Edinburgh by Archibald Constable in 1808; 2,000 copies were printed. Scott made refinements to the text for the second and third editions (3,000 copies each) published later in the year. Many further editions followed, both individual and collected, and in 1830 Scott provided the poem with a revised introduction.