The Western Mail: Being a Selection of Letters Made from the Bag Taken from the Western Mail, When it was Robbed by George________, in 17__. Now First Published

London: Printed by David, Wilks, and Taylor for J. Mawman, 1801, 1801. First edition. Garside, Raven and Schöwerling 1801: 57; JISC (Copac) records four copies in the British Isles; OCLC records three copies in North America. The binding is professionally executed by Canterbury Bookbinders; the text is in fine condition.. 12mo, modern blue-green buckram, gilt lettering, untrimmed. A scarce and clever epistolary novel by Annabella Plumptre (1761-1838), the younger sister of novelist, translator and traveler Anne Plumptre (1760-1818). The Plumptre sisters were raised in an eurdite family and began their parallel careers as writers early in life. The Western Mail tells the story of George____________ who robbed the mail to pay his debts and relieve his family of their destitute circumstances. He was eventually caught, found guilty and paid the ultimate price at Hounslow Heath. Some years later his family again found themselves in difficult circumstances and looked to the bag of letters their father had stolen, and which they had preserved as a memorial to him, as a possible source of income from their publication. Thirty-three of those purported letters are published here, addressed to and from different correspondents, told in different voices, from many walks of life. The subjects include the death of a woman philosopher, quackery, caricatures, pleas for money, poetry, extravagant husbands, characters in low and high life, love and marriage, etc.