Papers of [Robert McWard (c.1625-1681), minister in Glasgow and Rotterdam]

Composite volume containing 3 items. Octavo format, with tooled leather boards, originally from the General Assembly Library.

Item 1: 'A solemn [and] necessary warning especially to those in the holy office of the ministry, wherein is holdin forth the necessity of ministers discovering to their people, the deplorable condition all men are in by nature and the absolute necessity of salvation by A Redeemer. The supposed author, Mr Robert McWard.' 88 numbered pages, in a neat, clear secretary hand.

Item 2: 'Ane inquirie into that not so much debated case viz whither it be the dutie of the Lords people in Britain and Ireland, to hear such as have submitted to the praelaticall government...'. 164 numbered pages, in the same secretary hand as item 1, followed by a 5 page chapter contents in a later italic hand.

Item 3: An extended love poem, begining:

'My Mistress is a Paragon the fairest fair alive

Atrides and Fracides for far less fair did strive

Her colour fresh as Damask Rose her Breath as Violet

Her Body White as Ivorie as Smooth as Polisht jet'

The poem continues a further 35 lines, broadly in iambic heptameter and with consistent rhyming couplets. Classical and hunting imagery are used throughout.

The front and end papers, and some of the sections between items, are decorated with drawings of ships, buildings, and maps. One map is of the British Isles, and another is of an unidentified place - potentially part of a game, as sections are assigned letters in an incomprehensible system. The ships are decorated in a pointillist style, and are crewed by small figures holding swords and wearing assorted hats.

The name and initials of John Rolland, and the date 1749, are written repeatedly across the front fly leaf and the end boards. The back fly leaf bears 'George Paton in Linlithgow', which may refer to the book seller active during the 1740s. Small sums and equations also adorn the end pages, and several pages have been removed in the past.