The Crusades; a lecture

delivered by Viscount Cranborne, at the Kilndown Rural Library and Reading Room, January 1956 [bound with] The Lives and Times of Marlborough and Wellington

London: John Mitchell, publisher to Her Majesty, and the Emperor of the French, 1856.

Demy 8vo (9 x 5,5 ins); pp 29 + 57. Bound in half dark green calf over marbled boards with spine lettered in gilt, slightly rubbed at extremities, pages edges speckled pink. A few spots of foxing to endpapers; old ownership signature. A clean and tight copy. Uncommon. JISC shows one copy only at Lambeth Palace. In 1855 Alexander Beresford Hope, supported by the Rev H Harrison, proposed the creation of a library and Reading Room at Kilndown. Occasional lectures would be given, books could be borrowed and classes were offered to those wishing to improve their education. Beresford Hope delivered the inaugural lecture, on the subject of astronomy and other sciences, to an audience of about 350 people. He went on to deliver many other lectures. The institution attracted prominent speakers. In January 1856, James Gascoygne-Cecil, Viscount Cranborne, delivered a lecture on 'The Crusades'. He was the older brother of both Lord Robert Cecil MP, the future Prime Minister Lord Salisbury, and Lady Mildred Beresford Hope, the wife of Alexander.