Sandler 1183. Fascinating and uncommon compilation.
Extensive and impressive List of Subscribers, Wellington took ten copies, his elder brother Wellesley five, Sir Stamford Raffles took a copy, as did Viscount Combermere and Admiral Exmouth. One who does not feature on the List is Baron Bloomfield whose armorial bookplate is on the front pastedown.
Bloomfield, “… entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, in 1779 and became Second Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery, at the age of thirteen, on 24 May 1781. Early in his military career he served in Newfoundland and at Gibraltar. He was one of the first officers appointed to the Horse Artillery. He also served on a gun-brig during the early part of the French Revolutionary War, and commanded some guns at Vinegar Hill during the Irish uprising of 1798… About 1806, when Bloomfield was serving as Brevet Major and Captain of a troop of Horse Artillery with the 10th Hussars at Brighton… his social and musical attainments attracted the Prince of Wales, who in 1812 made him a Gentleman Attendant and afterwards, from 1812 to 1817, his Chief Equerry and Clerk Marshal… From 1817 to 1822, as Private Secretary to the Prince Regent, he was the recognized confidant of the Prince with considerable (some ministers thought unconstitutional) influence and power. He fell from favour in 1822 and resigned his appointments… though his demands for a UK peerage were refused, he was generously compensated with a civil GCB (April 1822), a promise of an Irish peerage, a pension, two sinecures, and a diplomatic post. From 1822 to 1832 Bloomfield was Minister-Plenipotentiary to Stockholm” [ODNB] He died in 1846.