Description
Autograph Letter Signed ‘Sidney Swinney’, to Mr.Beckett, Bookseller in The Strand, asking him to send “my three poems, viz., the Rhapsody, Fugitive Pieces, & Ninth Satire of Horace, published by Mr.Dodsley, to Joseph Salvadore”, and referring to another request relative to Mr.Perram. 1 page 7 x 6 inches, with the integral address leaf, tipped on to part of an old album page, in good condition, light stains to right margin. Scarborough, 13 September 1767. Sidney Swinney (1721–1783), Church of England clergyman and author. Swinney served as chaplain during the Seven Years’ War (1756–63), participating in the British army’s campaigns in Germany. He lived in Constantinople for several years, serving as chaplain to the British embassy. During his travels and residence in Constantinople, Swinney gathered an impressive collection of classical coins and other artefacts. In 1769 he published an account of an expedition through Asia Minor to examine the sites of the earliest Christian churches, A Tour through some Parts of the Levant. During his lifetime Swinney acquired a respected reputation as a poet, publishing translations of classical poetry, occasional verse, songs, and epigrams in periodicals and newspapers. In 1767 he published an imitation of Horace’s ninth satire. Many of Swinney’s miscellaneous works were collected and reprinted as Fugitive Pieces (3rd edn, 1768). [DNB]