[VIGOR, Jane]
Letters from a Lady, who Resided in Some Years in Russia, to Her Friend in England. With Historical Notes.
London, Printed for J. Dodsley, 1775
12mo, contemporary full leather, morocco title-piece, marbled edges, viii – 207 pp., 1 folding plate; nice copy, fully rebacked with the original boards intact
First edition of the letters Jane Vigor (1699–1783) wrote when she was the wife of two successive British ambassadors to the court of the Empress Anna of Russia. The letters offer a unique eyewitness account of life at the court in St Petersburg and amongst the expatriate community in the 1730s. Contemporary reviewers praised the anecdotes of courtly occasions, including marriages, coronations and funerals, as well as stories of aristocratic intrigue and romance. After her second husband’s death she returned to England accompanied by William Vigor, a Quaker minister who became her third husband. A year after Vigor’s death, “Eleven Additional Letters” were published in 1784 and provided a biography of Vigor.
