Second edition. 8vo. Half sheep over contemporary marbled boards, rebacked, black morroco label to spine. Some spotting, toning and marginal dampstaining, ownership inscription erased from title-page, occasional ms. annotations in pencil. viii, 370pp. Edinburgh, 1827.
“Sergeant Donaldson [of the 94th Regiment] … was an intelligent man, and possessed a wider set of interests than was common in the ranks, so that it is always worth while to look up his notes and observations. His description of the horrors of Masséna’s retreat from Portugal in 1811 is a very striking piece of lurid writing … The Eventful Life of a Soldier is well worth reading.” [Oman Wellington’s Army p.30]. Some pencilled notes to the verso of the half-title comment on the author’s boast that he has “painstakingly concealed” his identity and then misidentify Donaldson’s regiment as the 91st. Uncommon.
