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Royal Recollections on a Tour to Cheltenham, Gloucester, Worcester, and Places Adjacent, in the Year 1788

Contributions

Anonymous (David Williams)
author
James Ridgway
publisher

Related resources

has translation
Souvenirs d'un roi, pendant un voyage à Cheltenham, Glocestre, Worcestre & leurs environs, dans l'année 1788: Ouvrage traduit de l'Anglais, d'après l'onzième édition. Par M.B… translation has paratext

Summary (extracted citations)

"This d–d philosophy, with its rights of nature, humanity, and reason, is the mortal and irreconcilable enemy of power, and princes have a common interest in suppressing it… If a reformation take place in France, it will be on a plan of greater liberty than England; we must then follow, instead of giving the example… and I shall be reduced to be only 'first among my equals'". (pp.67-69)

Notes

A satire on George III and the monarchy in the form of a fictitious memoir, which went through eleven editions in its first year alone, and eighteen in total. In his 'Ad' for the 15th edition, Ridgway claimed, "the Publisher can say with satisfaction, it has had the greatest sale of any Pamphlet in his knowledge this century". In it, Williams also commented on the political situation across the Channel, perceiving the potential of events in France for affecting England's own political order.

A pirated version from 1796 is incorrectly attributed the anonymous author as 'Peter Pindar' (John Wolcot).

Williams had to switch from his usual publisher John Almon to James Ridgway, as Almon was in France from 1786-92, fleeing charges of libelling Pitt.

For more on this text and its translations, see James Dybikowski, On Burning ground (Voltaire Foundation, 1993), pp.313-14.