Spine of “Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa”, with false raised bands.

When I was in New York at the end of March, I received an unexpected email from a stranger—an Illinois-based book collector, Jeff Armstrong. Jeff was, he told me, “getting on a bit” and currently in the process of selling off and passing on his collection of books, amassed over a quarter of a century. Among Jeff’s collection was an original 1782 edition of the second volume of Macintosh’s Travels. Having seen this blog, and knowing of my interest in Macintosh, Jeff was kind enough to gift me the book, which arrived, neatly wrapped, in my pigeon hole this morning.

The book had, Jeff explained, been “obtained at a sale by a local music professor… [who] loved the hunt for antiques as much as I did”. Jeff had tried, without success, for about twenty years to find a corresponding copy of the first volume of Travels—a task which I shall now happily assume.

Title page of “Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa”.

I am extraordinarily grateful to Jeff for his generosity.