LIBRARY NOTES
Henry S. F. Cooper
Boswell Redux
Saturday, April 27, 1996 at 10:00 AM
Four Oaks Farm; $50 per person
Remember James Boswell, who graced the Library's first benefit last May? He will be back with us, in spirit at least, on Saturday, April 27, 1996 when Library members are invited to lunch at Four Oaks Farm near Princeton, the home of Viscountess Eccles.
This is the third of the Library's tours, which have already visited the Rosenbach Museum and Library and the Library Company of Philadelphia in October, 1994, and the Lewis Walpole Library in Farmington, Connecticut, last November.
Viscountess Eccles and her first husband, the late Donald Hyde (the lawyer who brought about the sale of the Boswell papers by Colonel Ralph Isham to Yale), amassed the foremost collection of Boswell manuscripts and other material outside New Haven. Their collection of books and manuscripts of Samuel Johnson is second to none.
In addition to the manuscripts, the collection includes the ebony cabinet from Malahide Castle, in which many of the Boswell Papers had been stored for over a century, and also paintings by Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Hogarth.
Also on display, in all likelihood, will be memorabilia of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, which was largely orchestrated by Viscount Eccles. Lady Eccles writes, "David and I hope the bus, bearing members of the New York Society Library, will come to Four Oaks Farm on the 27th. The tulips should be blooming then, the doors of the ebony cabinet open, and treasures to see in the library."
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