Item #5569 A Midnight Visit to Holyrood. Marie Sinclair, Duchesse de Pomár Countess of Caithness, Spiritualists.
A Midnight Visit to Holyrood
A Midnight Visit to Holyrood
A Midnight Visit to Holyrood
A Midnight Visit to Holyrood
A Midnight Visit to Holyrood

A Midnight Visit to Holyrood

London: C. L. H. Wallace, Philanthropic Reform Publisher, 1887. Second edition. 21x17cm, [5], 103, [1]pp. Frontis, single plate of Mary Stuart, few vignette illustrations in text, single page advertisement at rear. Signed and inscribed by Sinclair on the verso of the ffep and dated in 1592. Publisher's green cloth ruled, lettered, and illustrated in gilt. Light edge wear to boards, few scuffs to spine, some marginal foxing throughout else nearly fine.

Marie Sinclair, Countess of Caithness (1830-1895) was already a fairly well known occultist and paranormal investigator when she scheduled a visit to the Palace of Holyrood in Edinburgh, site of the infamous and brutal murder of David Rizzio as witnessed by Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots.  Sinclair had claimed to have begun communications with the long dead queen, always at midnight, in the years leading up to her visit.  This meeting, which is described in the book in vivid and poetic detail, was prearranged between the Queen and the Countess, Sinclair describing the invitation from Stuart:

"I will meet you at this hour, midnight, in the chapel of Holyrood.  I will stand once more beside the altar before which I once knelt, decked in all the bravery of a bride, so light of heart, so full of love for the young bridegroom."


Originally printed in a very small number for private circulation by the author ca. 1879, this second, expanded edition was published on the 300th anniversary of the execution of Mary Stuart.  This edition contains a short rumination on the Queen's Impresas or motto, called "In My End is My Beginning."  It also contains a longer essay with accompanying poem, "The Star Circle and Coming of the Kingdom of God," both of which are not found in the original publication.  Reportedly, Queen Victoria read the work and found it "very interesting and amusing."  

The inscription on this copy is quite fun, reading:

"To dear Mrs Childs - (dear Lady Jane Gordon) - from her most admiring and loving new old friend Marie de Marie 13 Sept 1592"

Perhaps Marie Sinclair has inscribed this copy to a fellow spiritualist who embodied the spirit of Jane (Jean) Gordon, Countess of Bothwell, who was heavily involved in the saga of Marie, Queen of Scots.  

Both editions of this fascinating and important spiritualist work are scarce, and rarely turn up signed.  
. Item #5569

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